62D CONGRESS

3d Session

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

DOCUMENT

No. 1366

SLAVERY IN PERU
MESSAGE FROM THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
TRANSMITTING

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
WITH ACCOMPANYING PAPERS, CONCERNING THE ALLEGED EXISTENCE
OF SLAVERY IN PERU

F E B R U A R Y 7, 1913
Read, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and ordered to be printed

WASHINGTON
1913

326.985
Un3s

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying
papers, in response to the resolution adopted by the House of Representatives on August 1, 1912, calling upon the Secretary of State,
" if not incompatible with the public interest," for " all information
in the possession of his department concerning the alleged existence
of slavery in Peru, and especially all information tending to show
the truth or falsity of the following statement made in an editorial
in the London Times of July fifteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve:
'The bluebook shows that in an immense territory which Peru professes to govern the worst evils of the plantation slavery which our
forefathers labored to suppress are at this moment equaled or surpassed. They are so horrible that they might seem incredible were
their existence supported by less trustworthy evidence.'"
W M . H. TAFT.
T H E W H I T E HOUSE,

Washington,

D. C, February

7,1913.
3

234520

LETTER OF SUBMITTAL.
To the

PRESIDENT :

The undersigned, Secretary of State, to whom was addressed the
following resolution of the House of Representatives:
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
I N THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

August 1, 1912.
Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed, if not incompatible with
the public interest, to transmit to the House of Representatives all information
in the possession of his department concerning the alleged existence of slavery
in Peru, and especially all information tending to show the truth or falsity of
the following statement made in an editorial in the London Times of July
fifteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve: " The bluebook shows that in an immense territory which Peru professes to govern the worst evils of the plantation
slavery which our forefathers labored to suppress are at this moment equaled
or surpassed. They are so horrible that they might seem incredible were their
existence supported by less trustworthy evidence"—

has the honor to submit correspondence on file in the Department of
State containing information sought by the resolution, with a view
to its communication to the House of Representatives if in the judgment of the President it be not deemed incompatible with the public
interest so to do.
The circumstances under which the Governments of Great Britain
and the United States, responding to the public áentiment which
had been aroused in both countries by reports of the cruel treatment
of the indigenes in the rubber-gathering districts of the tributaries of
the upper Amazon, had taken concurrent steps to ascertain the actual conditions in that region are set forth in the initial paper of the
subjoined correspondence, being an instruction given on the 6th of
April, 1912, to Mr. Stuart J. Fuller, who had been a short time before
assigned to the reopened consulate at Iquitos, in Peru, in order that
an impartial agent of the United States might cooperate in obtaining
first-hand information regarding the asserted brutal extermination
of the native inhabitants of the important outlying district of the
Putumayo, over which Peru claims jurisdiction and in which Peru
exercises administrative control under a modus vivendi entered into
with Colombia, whose claims to the sovereignty of a large extent of
the territory conflict with those of Peru, and, in part, with rival
claims advanced by Ecuador.
I n taking this step the Government of the United States was mindful of the sensibilities of the Government of Peru, and, in the light
of the measures then being considered by that Government to put an
end to the barbarous practices reported to exist, it was believed that
an impartial ascertainment of conditions in the Peruvian part of the
5

LETTER OF SUBMITTAL.

Putumayo district could not fail to strengthen the hand of the Government of Peru in dealing with a problem of such magnitude and
gravity. The entire friendliness of this Government and its sincere
desire to aid Peru in acquiring knowledge of the facts and in applying the needful remedy for the existing evils have been consistently
impressed upon and, it is believed, are well understood by that Government.
I n pursuance of that instruction Mr. Fuller visited the Putumayo
region during August and September of the past summer, in company with Mr. George Babington Michell, the British consul at
Iquitos. Mr. Fuller's report, dated October 28, 1912, gives a full
narrative of the extended journey as undertaken and sets forth his
views of the labor conditions in the rubber-gathering region, with
suggestions as to the treatment of the evils which have existed and
to a great extent are believed still to exist therein. Mr. Fuller's
report was received in December last.
The circumstances under which the journey was made, the inaccessibility of the native country, and the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy information at first hand from the Indians themselves handicapped Mr. Fuller and his British colleagues in their onerous task.
That the natives of the region have been inhumanly treated by the
mercenaries of the rubber-gathering concerns and been reduced to a
state of peonage indistinguishable from slavery is undenied and unquestionable ; that the horrible conditions laid bare by the testimony
of observers in the past still exist in all their enormity in the districts visited by the inquirers is not fully substantiated by the scanty
evidence they were able to collect, but enough is known to show that
whatever amelioration of labor conditions has been effected falls
short of the demands of common humanity, and that the efforts of the
Peruvian Government to work a remedial change and clear itself
before the bar of the world's opinion have been for the most part
painfully inadequate and unhappily misdirected to a degree making
the results unresponsive to the unquestionable desire of the administration at Lima that its control of the vast and almost trackless
regions of the Putumayo, embracing some 12,000 square miles of
territory, shall be just and humane. The more energetic action of
the present administration in Peru in sending a prefect of recognized
ability and integrity to Iquitos and in pushing the prosecution of
Messrs. Arana and Vega is considered significant as indicating the
attitude that will be henceforth assumed by the Peruvian Government.
Supplementing the report and cognate dispatches of Mr. Fuller,
the undersigned submits other papers found in the Department of
State bearing on the subject of the resolution, including the British
Blue Book, entitled " Correspondence respecting the treatment of
British colonial subjects and native Indians employed in the collection of rubber in the Putumayo district," which was laid before the
Parliament in July last. A knowledge of the contents of this publication appears to be needful, inasmuch as the inquiry of the House
of Representatives is based on a journalistic recital of its import.
Among the interesting papers herewith subjoined are two reports
made in November and December, 1907, by Charles C. Eberhardt,
then the American consul at Iquitos. The first of these, dated November 30, 1907, is a carefully prepared paper on the condition and

LETTEK OF SUBMITTAL.

characteristics of the native Indians of Peru. As an ethnological
study its scientific value led to its publication by the Smithsonian
Institution, in volume 52 of the Miscellaneous Collections. Incidental to that investigation, and in view of the assertions in American journals that American companies were exploiting the rubber
production in the upper Putumayo district under concession from the
Government of Colombia, Mr. Eberhardt submitted, under date of
December 3, 1907, a report on the general conditions in the Putumayo Eiver district of Peru. This report, while exhibiting the condition of virtual slavery to which the native tribes were subjected,
showed that the cruelties so disclosed were not the work of American
citizens, nor affected American interests, and, it would seem, did not
call for representations to any of the three Governments concerned
in the disputed territory. Indeed, the prospect that the controversy
as to the sovereignty in that quarter was about to enter on an acute
stage might have made it a delicate matter for a neutral government to impute territorial responsibility to any one of them.
The" undersigned has not deemed it advisable to expand this report, pendente lite, by including any correspondence in regard to the
conflicting territorial claims in the upper Putumayo district or to
do more than make passing reference to this circumstance as bearing
on the difficulty of practical and effective administration in that
quarter.
Eespectfully submitted.
P . C.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington,

February 4>, 1913.

KNOX.

SLAVERY IN PERU.
P A E T I.
INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. FULLER AND HIS REPORTS.
[No. 1.

Confidential.]
APRIL 6,

STUART J . FULLER,

1912.

Esq.,

American Consul, in Charge of the American

Consulate,
I quitos, Peru.
(Care of the American consul, Para, Brazil.)
SIR : I n arriving at the decision to reopen the American Consulate
at Iquitos, Peru, the department has had primarily in view the
advisability of securing information as to the labor conditions along
the affluents of the upper Amazon, and particularly the Putumayo
Kiver. Eeports transmitted to the department by Mr. Eberhardt,
formerly American consul at Iquitos, during 1907 and 1908 indicated that those directing the gathering of rubber in the territory
claimed by Peru to be within her jurisdiction were responsible for
practices of exploitation of the native Indians which threatened
the complete extinction of the primitive races. Subsequent to the
receipt of the reports of Mr. Eberhardt by the department the
British Government, which was in possession of information concerning the horrible condition existing in the forests of the Putumayo
within the concession of a British corporation, directed His Britannic
Majesty's consul general at Eio de Janeiro, Sir Eoger Casement, to
make personal examinations of the situation. Previous to this time
this Government had been in consultation with the British embassy
at Washington, with a view to cooperation in representations to the
Government of Peru in order that the Peruvian Government might
undertake a thorough investigation of the subject and obtain such
first-hand information regarding the brutal extermination of the
native inhabitants of one of the important outlying Provinces of
Peru as would impel it to take the remedial measures that the circumstances appeared imperatively to demand. Owing to the imminence during the early months of 1910 of an outbreak of hostilities between Equador and Peru because of conflicting claims of
these countries regarding the territory of which the Putumayo region
was a part, the Government of the United States at that time deemed
it wise to postpone communication with the Government of Peru
on the matter until the outstanding dispute, which it was then hoped
was approaching settlement, had been terminated. I t was felt that,
9

SLAVEKY I N PEKU.

the international situation having become tranquilized and the
question regarding the title over the upper Amazon region decided,
such representations as the Government of the United States might
determine to make in the matter would more certainly produce the
results which it was desired to bring about.
During the early part of 1911 the department was informed,
through the British embassy at Washington, that as a result of
the efforts of the British minister at Lima, acting under instructions
from his Government, the Peruvian Government had appointed a
commission to proceed to the Putumayo region and report on conditions there found to exist. The department, to which the cause of
the defenseless natives of the Putumayo had so strongly appealed
for humanitarian reasons, had received information from time to
time of the views of the British Government in the matter and in
regard to the steps which the British minister at Lima had been
instructed to take. During the months of April and May of the
past year the British ambassador at Washington transmitted, for
the confidential information of the department, copies of three reports of His Britannic Majesty's consul general at Rio de Janeiro,
which presented-the horrible details collected by personal observation of the methods employed in the collection of rubber by the
employees of the rubber company in the Putumayo district. These
reports relate the appalling brutalities and atrocities from which
the native rubber gatherers of the forest of the Putumayo were
suffering. Copies of these pamphlets and other reports of more
recent dates are attached for your information and for the files of
the consulate.
On the 17th of July last the American minister at Lima was instructed to express to the Peruvian foreign office, at a favorable
opportunity, the pleasure that was felt by this Government upon
learning of the steps initiated by Peru, inspired by the high ideals
of serving humanity, to put an effective end to the excesses in the
Peruvian rubber forests of the Amazon Valley by dispatching a
judicial investigating commission to the Putumayo. The minister
was also directed to express the hope that adequate and vigorous
measures would follow to put an end to the reported barbarous system in vogue, which threatened to accomplish the complete extinction
of a defenseless people. I t was at this time pointed out that Peril
would undoubtedly understand the friendly spirit prompting a mention of this matter by the Government of the United States and
would realize that there was no disposition or intention present to
offend by referring to a matter concerning the internal affairs of
Peru.
I t has subsequently developed from information before the British
Government, that the action taken by the Peruvian Government in
organizing this commission has almost entirely failed of its object.
The corrupt influence of those responsible for the conditions in the
Putumayo has been seemingly so powerful as to defeat the laudable
ends of the Central Government. As a result a few of the underlings
have been arrested while no serious effort has been made to apprehend or punish the leaders. I t is alleged that the local administrative and judicial authorities residing at Iquitos have offorded such
improper protection to those guilty of the atrocities systematically
practiced upon the natives as to make it impossible to bring the

SLAVERY IN

PERU.

criminals to justice without a thorough carrying out of drastic administrative local reforms. Unless the Central Government of Peru
takes a vigorous and earnest stand it is to be apprehended that the
a consequence. of the measures already taken by that Government,
practices which, it is understood, have been temporarily suspended as
may be resumed in all their former intensity until the native tribes
will have become completely exterminated.
The department has been in recent close communication with the
British foreign office, following several personal conferences with
Sir Eoger Casement at the department. I t appeared that the British
Government was seriously contemplating the publication of the evidence on the Putumayo in its possession in the belief that such
publicity might provide an effective remedy to the shocking situation.
However, at the suggestion of this Government, the publication of
the reports was withheld pending further representations to the
Government of Peru on the subject. The department therefore informed the American minister at Lima of the apparently wellfounded rumor that no really serious efforts are being made to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities in the Putumayo, and to instruct the legation to cooperate with the British legation in taking
the matter up again unofficially and informally with the Peruvian
minister for foreign affairs. I n these representations the American
minister was directed to advise the Government of Peru that it was
understood that the official reports on the situation in the Putumayo
probably could not be withheld much longer from publication, the
details of which inevitably would be exploited in all parts of the
world by the press. The American minister was directed to say that
unless drastic and effective action demanded by the circumstances was
taken by Peru previous to the publication of this evidence, which
appeared imminent, such an exposure of the situation as almost
surely must follow might induce public opinion of the world to
believe that Peru had shown herself unable effectively to exercise
sovereign rights over a region to which Peru lays claim and the ultimate rights to which Peru desires to submit for determination to
arbitration.
The British and American representatives at Lima had a conference during the early days of February with the Peruvian President
and minister of foreign affairs. The Peruvian Government stated
that it was endeavoring by all means within its power to bring to
justice those charged with the crimes in the Putumayo, and welcomed
suggestions as to a system of reforms which would guarantee adequate protection to the Indians within its jurisdiction. The difficulties of the problem presented to the central administration were
emphasized—the unsatisfactory communication between Lima and
Iquitos; the difficulty of finding men worthy of being intrusted
with administrative functions in that outlying region; the barrier
presented by the topographical character of the wild region of the
upper Amazon, and the almost absolute impossibility of counteracting the influence of those identified with the continuation of the
present iniquitous system.
Under the circumstances at present existing and after careful
consideration of the reports which were received from the American
legation at Lima and the information transmitted by the British
representative, kindly furnished through the British embassy here.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the department has informed Ambassador Bryce that it deferred to
the judgment of the British Government in fixing the time for the
publication of the Casement reports. The embassy at the same time
was informed that the department could not but believe that the
Peruvian Government should properly regard any publicity given to
the matter as in accord with the purposes so frequently enunciated
by the Peruvian Government of doing everything within its power
to put an end to the inhuman treatment of the Indian populations.
Further, it was felt by the department that the publication was
strongly recommended in view of the efforts that are being made to
procure funds by public subscription making it possible to establish
in the Putumayo region missions for work among the Indians. The
British Government now states that it will proceed with the immediate publication of the reports in its possession regarding the situation on the Putumayo.
You will make yourself thoroughly conversant with the local situation upon arriving at your post and keep the department fully and
promptly informed regarding this subject, in which the department
is taking the keenest interest.
You will, upon consultation and cooperation with the British
consul at Iquitos, make arrangements to visit, at intervals which may
in your judgment appear advisable, the rubber stations along the
Putumayo region in order that the department may have before it
your views based upon personal observation. For this purpose a
special allowance of not to exceed $500 is hereby granted you.
I am, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON,

Acting Secretary of State.
[No. 3.

Confidential ]

Consul Fuller to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, May 31,191%.
S I R : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the department's confidential instruction No. 1 of April 6, 1912 (without file
number), and inclósures, relative to the situation in the rubber districts along the Putumayo Eiver, which was delivered to me by the
consul in Para. The instruction has been carefully studied, and every
effort will be made to keep the department promptly and fully advised of developments.
Immediately on arriving I called on the British consul, Mr. G. B.
Michell, who told me that he had already been informed by his Government of my transfer to this post. He stated that he had already
collected some data on the subject and had had several conferences
with the prefect, Señor Francisco Alayza Paz-Soldan, regarding the
situation.
Mr. Michell left the day after my arrival for an 18-day trip up
one of the other rivers, but we arranged for further conferences on
his return. I n the meantime, he has courteously placed some of his
information at my disposal.
We shall try to make some arrangement to go up the Putumayo
on a launch other than those belonging to the parties responsible for

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the atrocities, and it is altogether probable that we may be able to
go up together in the latter part of July or August. I n the meantime, I shall collect what information I can here and will report to
the department by the next mail.
I n this connection, it is interesting to note that the present prefect
leaves Monday, June 3, for what is stated to be a 3-months' trip to
Europe; but that there seems to be some doubt locally as to his return.
As the department is aware, this gentleman has been regarded as
favoring measures that would put a stop to the practices that have
occasioned so much serious criticism.
I regret my inability to furnish more information at present. I t
is very hard to get anything done here, and I have been obliged to
live on the steamer that brought me until I finally managed to put
up temporarily in one large room, without any furniture at all, in
an unfinished building. There is absolutely no accommodation for
travelers in Iquitos, and the cost of everything is so exorbitant that
no one maintains an establishment of a size that would enable them
to put up a guest even for a few days. Thus, most of my time since
arriving has been taken up in making provision so that I should at
least have a place to sleep.
Owing to his imminent departure, the prefect is so busy that it is
very difficult to secure interviews with him, and the moment did not
seem opportune to inquire what is being done along the Putumayo.
Besides I had the question of temporary recognition to settle first,
and, as stated in another dispatch, this is not yet satisfactorily concluded.
For the convenience of the department, the present dispatch is
forwarded in duplicate. A copy is also being sent to the American
minister in Lima.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.
rParaphrase of telegram.]

The Secretary of State to Consul

Fuller.
J U L Y 29,1912.

The department acknowledges the receipt of Mr. Fuller's dispatch
No. 3 of May 31,1912, and instructs him to use care to pay for everything and to accept no favors should he find that he can go on no
launch other than the company's.

[No. 13.

Confidential.]

Consul Fuller to the Secretary

of State.

AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, July 1, 1912.
S I R : Supplementing my dispatch No. 3 of the 31st ultimo, I have
the honor to report that the Putumayo question proves on examination to be considerably more complicated than would on first sight
appear. There are a number of factors that must be taken into
account in addition to the conditions in the Putumayo region itself.

SLAVERY IN PERU.

Real lasting reform can only be accomplished with the aid and
support of the inhabitants of the Department of Loreto, and to
what extent public opinion here would back up active and actual
reform is problematical. Both the influence of those controlling the
Putumayo and the general labor situation in this part of Peru enter
into the question.
I n the first place, those in control of the Putumayo concession are
among the wealthiest and most influential men in this part of Peru,
and in fact in the whole country. Their influence in Lima is great,
and locally they could bring pressure to bear on many people who
might otherwise strongly support a movement to protect the Indians
and improve their condition. An indication of the state of local
public opinion in regard to these men is to be found in the Iquitos
attitude toward Pablo Zumeta, the moving spirit in the PeruvianAmazon Co., who is still under indictment and for whose arrest a
warrant was at one time issued. He is in enjoyment of most of the
local honors, vice alcalde (vice mayor of the municipality), vice
president and acting head of the chamber of commerce (an influential organization), president of the benevolent society, etc., to all
of which he was elected subsequent to his exposure. He is well
respected in the town and stands high, the charges under the shadow
of which he rests being entirely disregarded.
I n the second place, for a full comprehension of the existing situation it is necessary to examine into the general labor situation
throughout this part of Peru. An important factor in this phase of
the situation is found in the ancient, deep-rooted, and almost universal attitude of the Peruvians, who, while they may not approve of
cruel and inhuman treatment, generally regard the Indians as placed
here by Providence for the use and benefit of the white man and as
having no rights that the white man need respect.
This attitude of the people has found concrete expression in the
universal system of peonage, an old institution, well established,
recognized by law, and which has come to be the basis on which the
rubber business (the "sole industry of trans-Andean *Peru) almost
entirely rests. The -system of advancing supplies, necessities and
luxuries, to peons and rubber gatherers is universal in this part of
Peru and has led to the establishment of what is virtually a slave
trade. The traders encourage the " patrons " operating rubber sections to continually enlarge their sphere of operations, so that they
will have more rubber to sell and can buy more imported goods.
Labor being comparatively scarce and expensive throughout the district, it is to the patron's interest to get those working for him
hopelessly into his debt, which means that he can retain their services
as peons until they pay this off. I t is difficult to maintain that this
system of servitude is not recognized, since it is universal and, while
never discouraged by the authorities, is certainly in many cases
upheld. An ex prefect of the department in a book published in
1908 (Loreto, by Hildebrando Fuentes) says:
From this comes the celebrated " transfer of accounts" which enslaves so
many of these poor people, and even their wives and children. We have even
seen cases where, the father or husband being unable to pay an account, his
heirs, children, or wife have paid. Sometimes an intending bridegroom must
pay in advance for his bride. * * * The Indians as a rule are honorable
and never repudiate their debts.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I t simply means that the native who is unable to pay for the advance he has been encouraged to take is seized by the patron who
designedly advanced him more than he could pay for, and is compelled to work off the debt. As he must be lodged and fed in the
meanwhile, the cost of this is added to his old debt, and, by further
advances, care is taken to keep the debt at a point where it can
never be overtaken. As these claims are transferable, the person of
the debtor being also transferred to the new creditor, the Indians and
their familities are really bought and sold, passing from hand to
hand under a system that bears a striking resemblance to actual
slavery. The only difference between the Putumayo and the other
rivers in this respect seems to be that in the former less attention was
paid to the formality of the debts. The general reckless extravagance and improvidence, combined in some cases with ignorance
on the part of the Indians, so great that they can not count above 10,
makes it comparatively easy for a patron to acquire this hold, and
many peons are so far in debt that they could not possibly bring in
an amount of rubber that would meet their liabilities contracted for
luxuries that have been squandered, as well as necessities that they
have consumed, but all of which have been charged for at astonishingly inflated prices.
The Indians are stated to have many good qualities and few bad
ones, the most marked of the latter being a fondness for strong
drink and a stolid apathy. They have not, as a rule, a great deal of
initiative. Some tribes are claimed to be cannibals, and of these a
part probably are. Others are likely so called because of the antipathy they have toward the whites, as a result of ill treatment and
the mutual reprisals that have resulted. Some instances are known
where the labor of so-called cannibal tribes has been successfully
secured by decent treatment, at what are stated to be reasonable
rates of compensation. The abduction of their women, by no means
uncommon, is particularly resented by the Indians.
There is a lurking fear in the minds of many business men here
that too real and serious investigation of the conditions in the Putumayo district may lead to an exposure of the peonage system in general here and bring about an outcry abroad that may break it up,
totally disrupting the labor situation and existing credit system, with
heavy resultant losses, to say nothing of an increase in labor costs that
they fear will constitute a death blow to the rubber industry of Peru
for many a year to come. The cost of labor in this consular district
is now so high that, in view of the necessarily expensive freights to
Europe, it is hard for Peruvian rubber to compete except in times
of high market price abroad. There is a decided local demand for
readjustment of the import duties on foodstuffs (all of which must
be brought from abroad) and of the export duties on rubber, to the
end that Peruvian rubber may be enabled to compete with that from
other sources. Any movement tending in the least to increase labor
costs would thus meet with little or no local support. Not only does
this system of peonage touch closely the business of the people; it
also comes into their family life, and, though this is not so important
a factor as the servitude of the rubber workers, still it must be
taken into consideration as affecting in no small degree the local
attitude toward the Putumayo question. Great numbers of young

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

Indians are held in what amounts to household slavery in Iquitos
and all the other towns under the style of " pupilos," or wards under
age. A master applies to a magistrate stating that he wishes to take
such a young Indian, male or female, under his protection, and he is
given a legal right to the services of the child without wages and
apparently without consulting either the " w a r d " or his relatives.
This right can be enforced by law, and the persons enticing such a
ward to leave his " patrons " can be prosecuted for damages and the
runaway brought back by the police.
This domestic service, and to some extent the other peonage/is
largely supplied from the Ucayali River. Here there is a regular
trade in children and young women, the transfer of the debt on which
the servitude is ostensibly based being largely a mere matter of form.
The crews of launches operating in this river all expect to make something by trading in girls and children. The practice has repeatedly
been complained of by the clergy, but without result.
I t should be said that domestic servants in peonage or pupilage,
as a rule, have little of which to complain so far as treatment goes.
They get no wages, but are lodged, fed, and clothed, often like members of the family, always better than they would have been in the
forest. They are not usually overworked, they join in the household amusements, and are often given presents, though never money.
Peonage in the form of pupilage does not seem to be confined to
young Indians. The case of a young Barbadian negro, a British
subject, lately came to the attention of the British consul. A boy
of about 15, named George Worrell, applied to him for help to recover wages from his master, for whom he had worked for six years
without having received any remuneration. The consul sent him to
the subprefect with a request that his claim be investigated, and that
official (who is now acting prefect of the department) replied that
'* after making investigation into the case, it appears that Worrell
is a ward under age, and as it is a matter of a contentious nature,
I have arranged for him to lay his demand formally before a justice
of the peace, whose duty it is to solve affairs of this class." The boy
has heard nothing further of the matter. H e is now employed in
a shipbuilding yard.
On the publication of the Casement reports, the more farsighted
will likely realize that to settle the Putumayo question by punishing
those responsible for past outrages and providing protection for
the Indians from cruelties and inhumanities in the future would tend
to divert the attention of the world at large from the institution of
peonage in the southern river systems. On the other hand, I am
inclined to fear that the majority will oppose any change in present
methods and, though resenting interference, will rely on the storm
blowing over.
As for the officials charged with the administration of the department, the prefect, Señor Alayza y Paz Soldán, left June 3 for a
three months' vacation, and doubt is expressed locally as to • his
return. He was regarded as favoring reform in the Putumayo
and punishment of those responsible for the atrocities, though, it
must be admitted, he never accomplished much in this direction.
The acting prefect is Señor Estanislao Castañeda, whose real office
is that of subprefect.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The acting subprefect, who has charge of police matters, is an
employee of the Peruvian-Amazon Co. His name is Casanova, and
he is a storekeeper for them.
The judge of the criminal court, Dr. Valcarcel, has returned after
having been reinstated. He is the man who issued the warrant of
arrest against Pablo Zumaeta, and is a friend of Dr. Paredes.
I have not yet taken the Putumayo question up with the acting
prefect, thinking it best to employ the time for a while in picking
up what information I could outside and familiarizing myself with
local conditions while allowing him ample time to get his administration fully organized and familiarize himself with the details of
his office. As long as there was no probability of securing any information additional to that already furnished Mr. Michell by the
titular prefect, I thought nothing would be gained by approaching the acting man, especially after the delay and hesitancy to act
in regard to my recognition without instructions from Lima, and
it seemed that I would likely get more extensive and reliable information by waiting a bit than by asking him what was being done,
directly on my recognition.
I have now, however, requested him to give me a list of the officials in all the principal rivers charged with administrative and
judicial functions. This, when received, will give an idea of the
theoretical organization of the government in the Putumayo district, and I shall endeavor to secure and forward to the department
information regarding the personality and affiliations of the officials
there.
The next step that I propose to take is to ask the acting prefect,
in a manner and at a time as opportune as may be, (1) what has
been and is being done in regard to the Putumayo cases; (2) what
is now being done in that district for the further protection of the
Indians, stating that, as public subscriptions are being asked for to
be used in missionary work in the district in question, information
as to these points is desired in the United States.
I have not yet approached the Peruvian-Amazon Co. for information, though I may eventually do so should the right opportunity
present. I understand that they claim to have made a change in
their administrative system and collecting methods, such that there
is no longer any incentive to their white foremen to maltreat the
Indians, and that they also claim to have made extensive changes
for the better in their personnel. An Argentine, said to be a new
employee,, occupying a responsible position in the Putumayo, is expected in Iquitos before long, and I hope to get some information,
directly or indirectly, as may seem advisable, through him.
As the department is doubtless aware, the general administration
of justice in this consular district is far from satisfactory. I n fact,
it has been frequently complained of in the local press. There seems,
however, to be small prospect of an improvement in the present
thinly populated condition of the Department of Loreto, with its
immense distances and difficult and slow communications. I inclose
a translation of an article from the Loreto Comercial, a local newspaper, on the subject. I n this connection, a few examples may
assist in throwing light on the general situation as it affects the labor
77234—PI. Doc. 1366, 62-3

SLAVEKY I N PEKU.

conditions, which the department instructed me to investigate, and
the possibility of their improvement.^
A report reached Iquitos on January 27, 1912, of an event that
occurred about the middle of December, 1911, on the river Yaguas, an
affluent which falls into the Putumayo Eiver, on the right bank, a
little above the frontier between Peru and Brazil, and an account
of it appeared in the local press on the 17th of February. The
founder of the religious work on the Yaguas, an Augustinian missionary, gives the following details, which are believed to be correct:
Some two years ago, the Eev. Padre Laurentino Alvarez, of the
apostolic prefecture of San Leon de Amazonas, established a mission,' since called Jerico, on the upper waters of the Yaguas under
circumstances of the greatest difficulty and privation. After six
months' work he had collected 15 families of Indians, who had been
hitherto neglected and living in scattered groups in the hilly bush
country, and they had built huts and planted fields in a part before
entirely uninhabited. Padre Alvarez was then withdrawn by the
superior and the work handed over to Rev. Padre Antonio Carrasco,
with a lay helper, Don J. C. Ruiz. These, with great expense of
trouble and money, had brought the mission to a very satisfactory
position, numbering 36 families of natives, civilized, and working
steadily, when, last December, a white cauchero (rubber collector)
named Guzman, who had been working for some years in the valley
where the mission was located, appeared and claimed as his property
one of the families, stating that the family in question had been
indebted to one Fonseca, who had left the district many years before,
leaving his claim to Guzman. The missionary naturally refused to
listen to this pretension of the cauchero.
Guzman thereupon sent 10 of his men to lie in wait for the family,
who fell upon them in a lonely place, bound them, and carried them
off by force. The women and children were placed in a canoe and
sent off down the river with the avowed intention of taking them to
the Brazilian Eiver Purus, where they could be "sold55 to great
advantage. They have, however, not since been heard of, and all
inquiries in regard to them proved fruitless.
The men of the family were kept bound until the next day, and
then sent with their captors down the River Yaguas with the same
announced destination. During the night of their first halt one of
the captives managed to get his hands loose and set his companions
free. The guards, thinking their prisoners safely tied up, were
asleep; and the Indians fell on them with their own weapons and
killed or wounded them all. They then fled to the interior and have
not so far been traced. Two of the wounded men made their way to
the Comisario at the mouth of the Yaguas, who sent them to Iquitos.
Guzman was arrested, sent to Iquitos, and placed in jail. The mission station was entirely destroyed, whether by Guzman5s men or by
the natives themselves, in the fear of being held responsible for the
death of the guards, does not appear, the whole community having
fled. Padre Carrasco was so overcome at the destruction of his work
that he fell ill and died at Pevas on February 8.
Padre Alvarez stated that he could get no satisfactory reply to
his inquiries at the subprefecture as to what judicial steps were to be
taken in the matter, though he was shown a large pile of documents
representing evidence in the case. The apostolic prefect felt sure that

SLAVERY IN. PEEU..

nothing was likely to be done, and that when all had " blown over "
the accused persons would be released. This proved to be the case,
and they were liberated June 13 by order of the superior court.
I t should be stated that the Yaguas is outside the territory of the
Peruvian-Amazon Co. I t was claimed, under the new law of Terrenos de Montana, by Dr. Velasco, of Iquitos, but subsequently practically abandoned.
I t will be easily understood that Indians in peonage in the interior
have little chance of getting free. A man named J u a n Fikau was
arrested in 1911 on a charge of trading in slaves in the Sepahua
district, having been caught red-handed with a boatload of children
he was bringing in to dispose of. Because the local authorities had
neglected to send to Iquitos the necessary evidence, no punishment
followed in this case, and the accused was liberated, although there
appeared to be no question of his guilt.
Coming to the Putumayo itself, considerable rubber has already
been brought down this year. The following table shows the amounts
brought down each month during the past three years, and was compiled from the books of the Mole, at which all this rubber must be
landed:
Month.

1910

January
March
April
May
July
August
October
November

•.

Total

1911

1912

Metric tons. Metric tons. Metric tons.
75.33
45.42
36.66
33.78
42.31
24.85
80.84
61.38
51.06
86.30
50.67
44.28
1.07
68.72
70.81
379.39

225.53

The table given below shows the amounts in metric tons from the
Putumayo since 1900:
1900
1901
1902__
1903
1904
1905

15. 86
54.18
123. 21
: 201. 66
343. 50
470. 59

1906
1907
1908_
1909
1910
1911

644. 90
627. 66
489. 02
398. 72
379. 39
225. 53

The prefect himself, Señor Alayza y Paz-Soldán, when asked by
Consul Michel! late in May, just before his departure, what had been
done and was being clone toward the punishment of these responsible
for the atrocities in the Putumayo, stated that the delay in the trial
of those now in prison was due to the appeals of the accused to the
supreme court at Lima, that it took a long time for the documents in
the appeals to reach Lima, and that the supreme court had been enjoying a vacation from January to March. He also stated that the
Iquitos courts were greatly overworked on account of the small number of officials. H e said that he had been repeatedly urged by Lima
to push the matter, and had personally requested the officers of the
court here to lose no time in bringing the criminals to justice, but
that, as the courts are independent of the executive, he can do no
more than this.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Asked why Zumaeta, one of the principal persons implicated, was
not only at liberty but enjoyed all the principal local honors (as previously referred t o ) , the prefect stated that the warrant of arrest issued by Dr. Paredes against Zumaeta was subject to the approval of
the judge of the first instance (Dr. Valcarvel); that the latter had submitted it to the full Iquitos court, who had decided that the " preventive a r r e s t " of Zumaeta was not justified under the circumstances,
as a consequence of which he had been left at liberty.
Macedo is variously stated to be in Lima and in Manaos. A t any
rate, nothing has been done in his case so far as I have yet been able
to ascertain.
Messrs. Fonseca and Montt are said still to be on the Brazilian side
of the Javary, and the prefect referred at length, in his talk with
Consul Michell, to the difficulty of capturing them and the other
criminals who have escaped to Brazilian or Colombian territory.
I n fact, I am inclined to believe that they have given up the idea of
trying to get these fugitives.
The men in jail here, mostly underlings in the business of the Peruvian-Amazon Co., are appealing and fighting every step, though
it would seem that they would be better off personally to stop these
technical delays and have the matter over with. El Oriente on June
22 published a telegram from Lima to the effect that the supreme
court had denied the appeal of one of these men now in jail, who
claimed that he was exempt from prosecution under the statutes of
limitation for criminal prosecutions.
This same daily, which belongs to Dr. Paredes, published a telegram in May to the effect that that gentleman had had a long conference with the minister of foreign affairs and immediately afterwards with the President of the Republic regarding the Putumayo
question. I t is altogether possible that this was connected with the
question of publishing Dr. Paredes's report on the atrocities.
A local foreign business man of importance recently received confidential information to the effect that a commission of inquiry, with
plenary powers, had been or would be sent from Lima to clear up
the whole question. This would look like % fifth wheel to the coach
so far as the atrocities of the past are concerned, but if ably and
honestly administered they might do some good in outlining plans to
provide government and control in the future.
One thing is certain, that nothing of any importance will be done
without energetic and continued pressure from Lima, and the expenditure of more money by the Peruvian Government for administration and judicial purposes in the Department of Loreto, which furnishes so large a part of the revenues of the Eepublic and for which
hitherto so little has been done.
As to facilities for visiting the Putumayo, the Peruvian-Amazon
Co. sends up a launch five or six times a year to take up supplies and
bring back rubber. I have no doubt that passage could be arranged
on the next launch they send up, and anyone who went up in this
way would be allowed to see exactly what the company wished him
to see and no more. I t would be better, too, not to be under obligations to them, and one would be in going on their boat even though
he paid passage. The usual rate of passage is £1 ($4.8665) per day,
and the trip would last from 8 to 10 weeks, thus costing something
like $275 to $350.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The only alternative is to go up on one of the small Government
launches that make the trip three or four times a year with garrison
supplies. This would also take me away from Iquitos for from
7 to 10 weeks. There would be no passage money, but I should
have to contribute to the officers' mess, which would come to about
the same thing or possibly a little more. This would only admit of
visiting Chorrera, and possibly one or two other river points, but I
might be able to get some information from the trip.
Chartering a launch is out of the question, as this would cost £20
to £30 a day, or a total of $5,500 to $10,000. Traveling away from the
rivers is possible only by permission of, and with assistance from,
the company, and its cost is so high as to place it beyond my allowance.
As stated in my previous dispatch on this subject, I shall probably
arrange to go up, in company with the British consul, on a Government launch, in late July or August.
I n accordance with the instructions of the department, I have cooperated throughout with the British consul, exchanging information, etc. He is an experienced and capable gentleman, who was at
one time stationed in the rubber districts of the Kongo.
A duplicate of the present dispatch will follow by the mail following this one, and a copy is being sent to the minister at Lima.
Trusting that the action taken so far may meet with the approval
of the department,
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.
[From Loivto í'iunmercial.

Translation.]

THE JUDICIAL YEAR.

The principal drawbacks to the judicial system in Loreto are:
1. The enormous distances to cover.
2. The lack of good officers and auxiliaries of justice.
3. The lack of titular judges sufficiently remunerated to be able
to dedicate themselves to the full of their mission.
4. The absence of justices of the peace with independent incomes
and fitted to dispense justice in its first stage, and to aid the judges
of right in the performance of judicial forftialities outside of the
capital.
5. The grave abuses presented by the " proof by testimony " when
to be a witness is a lucrative profession, and legislation has not foreseen (it could not have done so) the vicious practice established here
in this particular.
These factors make justice tardy, inefficacious, expensive, and even
a veritable danger. W h a t is wanted is legislation to rectify the procedure.
These abuses are felt the more in a department where all commercial transactions are based on credit and good faith, and where there
are no lack of criminal actions, the natural consequence of there being no means of repressing them without:
1. The means of legal medical constatations.
2. Technical experts to verify them outside the city.
3. Justices of the peace to adjudicate summarily.

SLAVERY IK PERU.

4. The possibility of taking judicial action after bringing the
guilty party to Iquitos without other antecedent than the warrant
of the political authorities of the places in the interior, seeing that
the spot in which the body was buried is unknown, e. g., in case of
murder, nor is there anyone to perform the necessary legal medical
constatation, and these elements being absent, there is no corpus
delicti; also that witnesses are not obtained, if indeed there were
any, and in the meanwhile the party presumed to be guilty suffers
undue detention under the name of "juzgamiento" for a much
longer time than would correspond to the crime itself, as executive
condemnation, if he were guilty.
I n civil matters, the abuses which exist are no less, without wTellpaid judges, in the absence of bonded officers of justice, not obtainable for lack of a fixed compensation at a rate which would place
them above temptation and excess in the recovery of their fees; and
in view of the extent to which the right is exercised of refusing
(challenging) notaries and clerks of the court, so that cases can
hardly proceed at all. On the other hand, the articles which are
put forward in each petition, presented with no other object than to
delay the procedure and the failure to suppress the crimes of falsehood committed in proof by testimony, destroy all guaranty to life,
property, and capital.
P a r t 2 of article 660 of the code gives the right to the litigant to
produce proofs as to the facts presented by his adversary. These
proofs are often confounded with means of proof. The facts adduced
are the objects of proof, the depositions of witnesses are the means
of the proof. Therefore, to present witnesses without mentioning the
facts to which their depositions refer is to use the means of proof
without manifesting the object of the proof, leading in the end to
procedure without a rational end. I t suffices for a litigant, in his
defense, to make a vague statement and wait until the last moment to
offer the depositions of two or more witnesses in order to tie the
hands of the judges, forced to yield to the knavish testimony of two
or more witnesses whom there is no possibility of contradicting. This
does not occur when a clear and precise exposition of the facts must
be made, because place is then given to the debate as to the truth or
falsity of the facts themselves.
Another drawback js the presentation of sealed interrogatories,
thus suppressing the right to contradict by proof. This is an inquisitorial secret and should be prohibited. The litigant can not break
down false proofs prepared in secret and the judge can not distinguish the true from the false. The practice gives a value to declarations that should receive no consideration whatever.
Justice of the minor order is laughable, so much so that it may be
said not to exist. The courts of justices of the peace do not sit, and
the cases which should be handled by them have no means of being
ventilated. The only way to remedy this is to pay a justice of the
peace in each jurisdiction, for it is very difficult to find a fit personnel
willing to accept this charge, because of the life of activity demanded
by this region where time is gold and much money is necessary to
meet the exigencies of life.
Suggestions.—That
courts of the first instance be established i n :
(1) Alto Amazonas, and (2) Ucayli (law projected in the Senate in
1908), with two Escribanos de Crimen at £25 each.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

" That judges of first instance carry out the procedure properly.
That escribanos and other officials fulfill strictly their obligations
and regulate their fees by the tariff in force, subject to fine, suspension, or prosecution, according to gravity of the offense.
That judges of first instance keep legal hours, i. e., 12 to 5.
That notaries public comply strictly with article 491 inciso 30 of
the Code of Commerce, with regard to protests, failure in this particular to nullify protests.
[No. 19.

Confidential.!

LABOR CONDITIONS I N T H E P U T U M A Y O REGION.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

I quitos, Peru, July 15, 1912.
The SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.

S I R : Supplementing my dispatches No. 3 of May 31, 1912, and No.
13 of July 1, 1912, I have the honor to transmit herewith a duplicate
of the latter, with duplicate of its inclosure. Since writing my last
dispatch, no launches have gone up to the Putumayo, but I have
been able to gather locally further information that may interest the
department.
As an understanding of the organization of government in the
Department of Loreto is important in looking into the present status
of the Putumayo question, it may be well to give a brief outline of it
here. At the head of the department is the prefect, which office is for
the present, occupied—in the absence of the titular official—by an
acting man, really the subprefect of the Province of Bajo Amazonas.
This gentleman was spoken of in my No. 13.
The total area of the Department of Loreto is estimated at 288,500
square miles. This is more than the combined areas of Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, or, to go further west,
more than the combined areas of Iowa, Nebraska, North and South
Dakota. The department is divided into three provinces, at the head
of each of which is a subprefect.
The Putumayo region is in the Province of Bajo Amazonas (the
same one as Iquitos), and the acting subprefect at the present time is
Señor Daniel Casanova, an employee of the Peruvian Amazon Co.,
the concern responsible for the atrocities.
The provinces are divided into districts, each having a governor.
I n each of the larger towns and villages the Government is represented by an official called a lieutenant governor. These last are
very minor officials and are under the governors. There are three
justices of the peace (juez de paz) in each provincial capital and one
in each district. They are unpaid officials.
I n addition to these functionaries, there are officers called comisarios, appointed for certain river districts, which constitute authorities independent of the subprefects and immediately under the
prefect of the department.
Also, in many places in which, on account of the sparse population,
it has not been practical to appoint lieutenant governors, the prefec-

SLAVEEY I N P E E U .

ture has stationed small detachments of troops under the command
of army officers, with the title of "jefes de guarnición." These are
partly under military authority, but under the prefecture in affairs
of a civil character in which they may be required to intervene.
There being no towns worthy of the name in the Putumayo region,
the sole representatives of the civil power are a justice of the peace
for the whole river and a comisario. The Putumayo River itself is
about 1,000 miles long. There are two other important rivers, tributaries of the Putumayo, in the district—the Igaraparana and the
Caraparana—which rise near the Caqueta and parallel each other
southward for some 300 or 400 miles through continuous forest to
junctions with the Putumayo. The mouth of the Igaraparana is some
400 miles from the point where the Putumayo joins the Amazon
and that of the Caraparana, about 200 miles further still from the
same junction. The area of the entire Putumayo basin (the better
part of which is controlled by the Peruvian Amazon Syndicate) is
estimated as high as 35,000 to 40,000 square miles, or more than the
combined areas of all the New England States but Maine.
The strong arm of the law and the sole protection to the defenseless Indians in the whole of this vast region seems at present to be
found in one justice of the peace, an employee of the company which
has fathered such reprehensible practices in the past, and one comisario, who draws, in the face of strong temptation, the munificent
salary of some $1,500 a year (United States currency), about the same
as a clerk gets in Iquitos, together with a handful of soldiers shut
up all the time in La Chorrera and possibly E l Encanto. There may
be more troops, but I have been unable so far to get exact information. I believe, however, that there are not enough in any case to be
a factor in the situation.
The justice of the peace for the whole Putumayo basin is a man
named Manuel Torrico, an employee of the Peruvian Amazon Co.
Dr. Paredes denounced the appointment of this man as a scandal,
and a clear proof, that the local authorities had no real intention to
bring about an improvement in the state of things on the Putumayo.
When Sir Roger Casement was on the river in 1910, Torrico was a
subagent of the company, a subordinate at Occidente to Fidel Velarde, one of the leaders in the atrocities (and one of the first to
" escape " ) . H e has since been promoted to be a chief of section for
the Peruvian Amazon Co. Sir Eoger Casement said of Torrico,
" From him no more than from his predecessor could any public service be expected."
The comisario is a man named Juan Garcia Buenano. He is fairily
well spoken of as a man, but stated by many to be in a position where
he can do little or nothing to better things, even though he might
wish to. I expect to see and talk with him when I go up to this
district, and will report further on my return.
As to the administrative staff in general in the Department of
Loreto, allegations of venality on the part of Government officials
of all grades are frequent, open, and common here in Iquitos, and it
certainly would seem as though there must be some fire to cause so
much smoke. River comisarios are a special target. Their salaries
are small, but they are said to return from their posts rich after a
year or two in a jungle where they are supposed not to engage in
trade.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Protests against illegal trading by Government transports and
river comisarios in the rivers closed to trade on account of the troubles
with Ecuador have been made, and I have heard it openly stated that
the late prefect was interested in this illicit trade to a heavy extent.
As to the prosecution of the cases brought against those accused of
crimes committed in connection with the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s enterprise in the Putumayo, despite all the reasons held forth for the
failure so far to show results, it really must be admitted that they
have been conducted in a most desultory manner. Since my last
dispatch nothing has developed, and, in fact, up to date no judgments
4>f any importance have been handed down. I t will be recalled that
the prefect (Señor Alayza y Paz-Soldan) assigned this to delays involved in appeals to the supreme court at Lima and to the fact that
the local courts were provided with too few officials for their work.
There is something in the first excuse, but it would certainly seem
that if the Government of Peru really wished to push these cases the
first thing they would have done would be to provide the necessary
machinery without delay.
The return of Dr. Valcarcel, referred to in my No. 13, added nothing to the facilities of the local courts, as he merely replaced the man
who had been acting temporarily (i. e., during ValcarcePs suspension)
a local lawyer. I t was not until the 7th instant that any additions to
^
the bench were made. On that date Dr. Morelli, a justice who had
been on leave, returned, and two new judges, Drs. Jose Dolores Contreras and Lorenzo Guarcia, arrived from Lima.
Pablo Zumaeta, in whose case nothing further has been done, continues to stand high in the esteem of the local public. He took a
prominent part in the official ceremonies of July 12 connected with
the mass celebrated for those who died in the Battle of the Caqueta
last year in the troubles with Colombia. He and his friends blackballed, at the Iquitos Club, the judge, Dr. Valcarcel, who had issued
the warrant against Zumaeta, and that in a club where a majority is
necessary to shut out a proposed member. Zumaeta may not be
guilty of all that is laid at his door; he may have been accused and
the warrant issued against him unjustly, but if as innocent as he
claims to be, it is strange that he does not go into court and vindicate
himself once for all.
El Oriente published, on July 1, dispatches from Lima regarding
the appointment of two more commissions to investigate and devise
plans for the future for government in the Putumayo region " and
other regions similar to it." These are inclosed, together with translations. The news did not appear in any of the other daily papers
and it aroused no special comment.
Julio Ego-Aguirre, appointed on the principal commission, is the
senator from this department, and the deputy, Julio Abel Raygada,
appointed likewise, is believed to be the Raygada^who is a deputy
from Loreto. Ego-Aguirre is stated to be an able lawyer. He at
one time took lessons in English from Hardenberg (the man whose
articles in London Truth first directed attention to the Putumayo
atrocities) and is known to have spoken well of him in the past.
As to the personnel of the auxiliary commission, I have already
referred (in my No. 13) to the acting prefect, who is ex officio its
head. An idea of his attitude toward the question may be gained
from what he said to me unguardedly in a conversation regarding

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the Putumayo, viz, that he had lived in Loreto 25 years and did not
believe that more than six or seven serious crimes had been committed in the whole Putumayo region in all that time; that the Indians
were wild, irredeemable cannibals, who could only be handled by
force; and that the whole Putumayo agitation smelled to him
strongly of Colombian intrigue. As to the president of the superior
court I have heard widely varying opinions expressed. I t is altogether possible that if given the chance he may do genuine service.
The third member, Dr. Maradiegue, is a local lawyer, rather old and
infirm, and more likely to prove a figurehead than one to whom you
could look for service in this matter.
The auxiliary commission itself looks very much like the interposition of red tape, with the object of delay and obstructing any action
of a vigorous or prompt nature. I n fact, the whole commission plan
to one on the ground looks suspiciously like a device to produce the
appearance of doing something when really leaving things as they
are. What these commissions could do in the matter of punishing the
crimes of the past is hard to see. As for the future, it would be
strange if the local knowledge of the senator and deputy from this
Department, added to the data given in the voluminous report already made by Dr. Paredes, were not sufficient for the drawing up
of a plan to protect the Indians and furnish organized government
to the district in question.
As to what the administrative branch of the local government has
done and is doing in regard to Putumayo matters, this is either nothing at all or else they have proceeded without giving out any information either publicly or to the British consul. Short of going up
the river, which the lack of facilities will make impossible for some
time, the only way to find out was to inquire of the prefecture.
This I did, calling personally on the acting prefect and presenting
the memorandum of which a copy is inclosed, with translation of the
same. I thought it more likely to secure a satisfactory answer if
presented in writing, and assigned in the conversation as my reason
for so doing my unfamiliarity with the Spanish language. The
acting prefect stated that he would look into the matter and let me
hear from him. I do not expect a reply for some time, as I believe
that he will undoubtedly communicate with Lima before replying.
The questions in the letter were carefully drawn to avoid offering
any ground for offense, and I stated verbally that I had heard that
the Government was taking measures, as stated in the decree appointing the commission, but had no information as to what they
were.
As to what the company is doing, I have nothing further to report
by this mail, but the more one looks into the question the more it
appears that the point is not so much what changes they have made
and what their present treatment of the Indians is (though this is
important), but what guaranty the Government is furnishing of
protection to the Indians. We have already seen what the business
developed in the past, and, regardless of what reforms the private
corporation may have undergone, one has good reason to fear that
without firm and adequate government in the territory the temptation—ever present to men of the only kind that apparently can be
got to go out into these unhealthy jungles—may bring about a repetition of the atrocities. Everything may be all right now—this can

SLAVERY I N PERU.

only be determined by thorough inspection—but the present condition would not constitute a guaranty for the future.
News of the publication of the Casement reports has reached here
since my last dispatch, and I inclose a clipping from E l Oriente of
July 10 regarding this and a note stated to have been presented to
the Government of Peru by the United States, together with translations. No notice of this was taken by the other newspapers, and,
so far as I have yet been able to ascertain, it attracted very little
attention or interest in Iquitos. The only press comment was in E l
Oriente next day, in which was published a long answer to an open
letter regarding the Putumayo that had appeared in the London
Daily News. This is inclosed, with a translation. The only statement in this article at all in the nature of a refutation of the shortcomings laid at the door of Peru is found in the last paragraph on
page 1 of the translation, and of this it may be observed that the
u
great energy" with which the prosecution of the criminals was
carried on consisted in allowing most of the principal ones to escape,
throwing a few of the underlings in jail, and then allowing the cases
to drag on interminably and without the provision of adequate court
facilities for their prosecution.
I do not believe that local support for measures of reform can be
secured to any appreciable extent, unless the fear is aroused that the
failure to provide decent and adequate government in the region
under discussion may lead to loss of the territory. If this feature
were to be made a point by Ecuador and Colombia in pressing their
claims it might help.
Granting all the reasons for the failure to accomplish anything
so far, they do not redound to the credit of Peru nor constitute any
13roof of determined effort to better conditions. No real effort has
yet been made to make the administration of justice and the protection of the Indians in the region a reality or a possibility. The
fame old form of organization is maintained, although it has been
proved a complete failure and totally inadequate. I t is still necessary to travel 1,200 miles from the Putumayo to Iquitos to get a
hearing in a court of first instance, and there are only five or six
chances a year to make the trip.
I t can not be claimed that the district is unproductive of revenue
and can not afford a better organization, for a glance at the tables
showing the amounts of rubber produced there, and a thought of the
heavy Peruvian export duty, will show what a heavy return has come
to the Peruvian treasury from this source for years past and is still
coming in.
Another factor in the situation worthy of consideration is the
feeling, that doubtless is more or less present with the Lima authorities, that they face the possibility of serious political troubles if they
try to force unpopular measures, inimical to the rubber business,
the sole trade of the Department of Loreto, already poorly treated
and having little in common with the rest of Peru.
There is another matter connected with the conduct of court procedure here, involving the considerable influence of the court officials,
known as " escribanos," that will have interest in connection with the
pending Putumayo" cases, but I have not yet secured all the information necessary to place this fully before the department, and will
have to postpone its discussion until my next dispatch.

SLAVES Y I N PERU.

The Peruvian Amazon Co.'s launch Liberal, I hear, is to go up the
Putumayo about the 5th or 6th of August. Nothing further has
been heard regarding the next trip of a Government launch to this
region. I t is probable that the British consul and myself will go up
in the next boat that the Government sends. We hope to secure the
services of an interpreter who speaks several of the dialects spoken
by the Indians in the Putumayo Basin, and shall endeavor to work
out a plan for a bit of land traveling in the region, if it can be arranged at a cost within our allowances. I shall telegraph the department and the minister of my departure. We shall probably be away
from Iquitos for from six to eight weeks. A duplicate of the present
dispatch will follow by the next mail, and a copy is being sent to the
minister at Lima.
I have, etc.,
STUART J . FULLER,
American Consul.
[Translation.]
AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE,

Iquitos, Peru, July 10, 1912.
The

ACTING PREFECT OF THE DEPARTMENT,

City.
I n view of the fact that public subscriptions are
being asked for abroad, to be used in establishing religious missions
in the Putumayo region and relieving the condition of the Indians
there, I have the honor to inquire:
1. What measures have been and are being taken to bring to punishment those guilty of the atrocities in the Putumayo region ?
2. What measures to protect the Indians from further ill treatment
have been in force since the disclosure of these atrocities?
3. Whether it is proposed to put into effect any further measures
to protect the Indians during the six months or more that must
elapse before the plan of administrative and judicial reform to be
drawn up by the new commission can be submitted and acted upon ?
Your excellency will doubtless understand that, in making these
inquiries, there is no disposition to offend by referring to a matter
concerning the internal affairs of Peru, but will appreciate that mention of the matter is prompted by the desire for information as to
existing and past conditions on the part of those charitable members
of the Church of Rome abroad who are seeking to aid these unfortunate Indians with the same high ideal of serving humanity
that has actuated your Government in the steps they have inaugurated to put an end to the excesses in the Peruvian rubber forests.
I take this opportunity to repeat the assurances of my high consideration and personal esteem,
MR. PREFECT:

STUART J. FULLER,

American

Consul.

[Translation.]
REGARDING THE PUTUMAYO.

With the title of " Under the English flag, or the horrors of the
rubber trade," the English periodical called the Daily News published, on April 20, a letter sig$e<J by one MacCammod, in which

SLAVERY IN

PBBU.

is given an account of some hair-raising crimes which this MacCammod asserts were actually committed in the Putumayo region.
We publish below a moderate article taken from E l Diario, of
Lima (edition of May 5 this year), in which the ridiculous statements relative to the Putumayo published in England are refuted:
The English periodical called the Daily News publishes in its
edition of April 20 a letter signed by one MacCammod, from which
it is gathered that some ingenious and easily frightened souls there
still believe that the crimes of the Putumayo continue and that the
Government of Peru is doing nothing to repress them or to change
the condition of the unfortunate Indians of that region.
We should not have taken the trouble to refute this article, published in the form of an open letter in that deceitful English paper,
were there not falsehoods so extravagant, so damaging to the prestige
of the Peruvian Government, and even so irritating and mortifying
to our patriotism.
The cruelties, and refinements of cruelty, which are recounted,
committed a long time ago, have been actively and severely repressed.
The present Government prosecuted with great energy the accusations which were laid, and in the early part of last year sent to the
region of the Putumayo a judicial commission, which was able to
answer amply to their hopes for the welfare of those under their rule,
to justice interested in the reestablishment of the disturbed social
order, and to the sentiments of humanity, wounded by persons without known nationality and whose existence and criminal proceedings
with the savages had always been hidden from the public authorities.
In view of this it is evident that if procedure was not initiated in
the same form it was due to this want of information and to the
persistence of those interested or of evil authorities who conveniently
failed to do their duty or who hesitated to expose the truth in all its
nakedness—a national evil, unfortunately, which has often brought
us such lamentable consequences in its wake.
The outcome of the judicial commission sent out by the present
Government of Señor Leguia is well known to the English consul,
Sir Cassement, on whose testimony we may call, and even better
known through those institutions of his country which take an interest in troublesome questions such as this. The proof is found in the
very report drawn up by this functionary and related, too, in all
detail in the proces verbal presented by the Peruvian judge, the same
who has just received from the Anti-Slavery Association of London
the honorable distinction of having been enrolled in its ranks, as a
reward, no doubt, for his labor on behalf of the Indians, an honor
which undoubtedly redounds directly to the credit of our Government, desirous (and happily successful therein) that justice should
remove the obstacles from its path and that the situation of this
race (which is our own, for it is that of the original Peruvians)
should change for the better, as, in fact, it is now doing, just as
appears to Sir Cassement and to all those who pass judgment on the
facts, without display of exaggerated compassion, impartially, and
without appeal to prejudice.
We can not deny, since the crimes have been proved, the abnormal
position in which this remote territory of Peru formerly stood; but
is only right and proper to declare also that the judicial commission acted on the very scene so promptly in fulfilling the law and

SLAVERY I N PERU.

obeying the orders of the Government on its administrative and
political side that affairs underwent a violent change, and that to
such an extent that there remains not a single one of the former
employees of the Arana firm who were accused as criminals and
against whom orders of arrest were transmitted to almost all the
authorities of the Republic. What is more consoling still, the moral
effect produced by this judicial activity among the seven tumbas of
the Putumayo has had a wide influence in the present and will have
more in the future/ since these savages comprehend perfectly the
beneficial mission which held and, even in that distant limit of the
áovereignty, was destined to be sole salvation, reform, support, and
authority.
I t is agreed by the English commissioner, as well as by the Peruvian judge who drew up the famous proces verbal, that, in fact, even
the manager at La Chorrera has been replaced, there being found
to-day at the head a distinguished gentleman, a man of enterprise,
active, and, above all, humane toward all those engaged in his service
in the exportation óf caucho. And what we say of the management
of Igaraparana we can extend equally to that of E l Encanto and all
the chiefs at the head of sections, for we ma^ declare with all exactitude that one of the first steps of the judicial commission was just
this—to secure renovation of the entire personnel of the business
known as the Peruvian-Amazon Co. (Ltd.), which, if it were to remain obstinately set in its old methods of exploiting the Indian,
would at least give rise to doubt in the mind of the Government's
commissioner with regard to the way in which the business might be
conducted in the future.
The author of this letter may rest assured that these orgies of
crime and of bestial instincts no longer exist in the Putumayo, that
the place is no longer " t h e devil's paradise," that the rubber produced to-day is not soaked with blood, and that the indigenous tribes
of this region are not held in cruel and horrifying captivity. To-day,
to the glory of civilization, all has changed. Justice has attained her
expected triumph; and, through the correction of those evils which
even indirectly survived the agitation of yesterday, with the expectation that the executive power may be seconded by its auxiliaries in
this region, we are sure that order will continue to reign, the good
will prevail, and the unification of our nationality which interest us
so deeply will be every da^ firmer and more secure.
Our Government goes still further. Not content with the great
advance made in that which has to do with justice and with bettering
the condition of the Indian, they are working actively to make the
reform more radical and permanent. Appreciating that their noble
service would still be incomplete, they are now considering something
more practical in the situation so created, which will constitute the
complete reign of law, order, and the common weal. They have been
greatly prepossessed, as is public and well known, in giving real and
effective form to a plan of organization, political, administrative, and
judicial, to be submitted to the coming Congress, a plan redeeming
and patriotic, which shall bear in its marvelous construction the germ
of regeneration for this race, yesterday oppressed and to-day free
and relatively happy.
The article which we are refuting gives us opportunity also to
define responsibility, since with great frequency the widely heralded

SLAVERY I N PERU.

crimes committed in the past are brought to the tapis of the present,
and to-day more than ever is it necessary to take steps for the avoidance of such confusion in the future.
The indictment of the crimes of the Putumayo was made at the
beginning of the year 1905 by Don Benjamin Soldana Koca, in the
Iquitos weekly La Sanción. If nothing was done then, it is not our
business to dwell on i t ; but it is fair to state that the only Government which resolutely faced the dark and awful problem was that
of Señor Leguia, whose only recommendation to the commission
which it appointed was the strict accomplishment of duty, the
triumph of the truth, whereas the unscrupulous officials of other
times—not very remote at that—threw darkness over all the felonious
deeds up to that time wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
For the rest we reject with indignation the paragraph which ends
by imploring pity for our Indians and urging the English Government to exclude the rubber which comes from the Putumayo so long
as radical measures are not obtained in return from some Government of a civilized people which shall take a genuine interest in those
territories.
Happily it is a simple private individual who has dared to hurl
such an insult at the sovereignty and the honor of Peru. Happily
it is an isolated opinion which has been lost in the void, and roused
our disdain.
The fact that a Government exercises its offices in a territory so
widespread and oyer a nationality so diffuse, ill seconded for the
most part by its immediate underlings, authorizes no one to hurl
epithets so calumnious, which constitute a menace to the integrity
of the country.
To be unaware of what is happening in a stupendous and almost
inaccessible forest is natural, and common in great States where there
is a paucity of means of communication and of all those elements
which make immediate contact possible with those they govern for
the purposes of repression.
But when the evil is known, when the fog of mystery is dissolved,
efforts are redoubled, order is reestablished, and remedial action is
imposed. And it is that which has happened in the present case:
Justice has been victorious,# and the victory has been gained solely
through the persevering action of the Government of Peru, which is
a " government of a civilized people," and which has taken and does
take a genuine interest in the whole of its territory, however distant
it may be from the center where its administration is seated and
exercises its functions.
To conclude, we bewail the fact more than does Mr. Damond
(Mac Cammod?) that the rubber of the Putumayo, without those
impurities which so greatly alarm impressionable altruists, is carried,
ftp to the present time in English vessels, due to the monopoly that
the Booth Co. enjoys in Loreto. Nevertheless we have the hope that
this order of things will also soon change, and a new navigation
enterprise, which we would were Peruvian, will come to profit by
tho§e rich freights which have yielded so many millions to AngloSaxon capitalists, with the certaint}^ that the burden they bear to the
markets of Europe will not be the ominous cargoes of which our
traducer speaks, but those snatched from the jungle by force of
boldness, labor, and integrity.

SLAVERY I N PEBTJ.
[El Oriente, Iquitos, July 9 ; 1912.
ENGLAND

Translation.]

SENSATIONAL REPORT DEALING WITH THE PUTUMAYO.

The English Government has published in London the report
of Consul Sir Casement relative to the exploitation of rubber workers
in the River Putumayo, and asserts in this report that the directorate
in London of the Peruvian Amazon Co. completely ignored the
crimes that were committed against the Indians in that region. This
report has caused a profound world sensation.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—A NOTIFICATION TO PERU.

Secretary of State Knox, horrified by the report presented by Sir
Casement to the English Government relative to the Putumayo,
has given notice to Peru to put a stop to the commission of crimes
in this river and concludes his notification by saying " that in case
of failure to take notice, it will be Peru that will suffer the consequences."
[Translation.]

Augusto B. Leguia, President of the Eepublic, considering that the
commission created on the 22d of April last to establish reforms in
the Putumayo needs some data and information which can be
supplied by those who, by reason of residence in Iquitos, are more
familiar with the needs of the eastern regions of the Eepublic,
decrees:
1. Let an auxiliary commission be created, with seat in Iquitos,
composed of the prefect of the Department of Loreto, the president
of the superior court, and of Dr. Julian Maradiegue.
2. Let Dr. Éomulo Paredes be charged with the mission of examining the region of the Putumayo and its affluents and of studying
and formulating to meet the necessities a plan of political, administrative, and judicial reforms.
3. Dr. Paredes shall present his work, in the shortest time possible,
io the aforesaid auxiliary commission, and the said commission will
make a report on the above-mentioned work.
4. Both the work of Dr. Paredes and the report based upon it
shall be transmitted to the principal commission, created by the decree
of April 22.
5. Let the date by which the said principal commission shall present a definite plan of reforms to be established in the region of the
Putumayo and other similar regions be postponed until the 1st of
January, 1913.
Given in the Government House on the 30th day of the month of
May, 1912.
A. B. LEGUIA.
G. LEGUIA Y MARTINEZ.
{Translation.]

Augusto B. Leguia, President of the Eepublic, in view of the confidential report made to this office by the prefecture of Loreto, and
referring to the crimes which were committed in the region of

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

the Putumayo prior to the year 1907, as well as to the means to
be adopted to prevent their repetition, and in consideration of the
necessity of establishing in the aforesaid frontier region and those
similar to it an organization which, while securing in them the
sovereignty and interests of Peru, will also protect the rights of
the inhabitants, especially the aborigines, without prejudice to the
competent authorities who are cooperating with all efficacy in the
action undertaken by the judicial power to discover and punish
those guilty, decrees:
1. Let a commission be created, composed of Dr. J . Calvador
Cavero, fiscal of the high supreme court and denunciator of the crimes
of the Putumayo; Dr. Javier Prado y Ugarteche, ex-president of the
council of ministers and ex-minister of foreign affairs; Dr. Felipe de
Osma, president of the major exchequer and ex-minister of foreign
affairs; Dr. Julio E. Ego-Aguirre, senator; and Julio Abel Eaygada,
deputy.
2. This commission shall have for its object the formulation of a
general plan of reform, not only administrative, but also political and
judicial, for execution in the region of the Putumayo and other
similar regions that may bring about the administration of the laws
in a rapid and efficacious manner.
3. The plan of reform referred to shall be presented by the 28th
of July of this year, in order to be submitted in time for the study
and approval of the National Congress in their next legislative
session.
4. The minister of foreign affairs shall furnish the commission the
data and information that may be necessary to expedite the plan
referred to and shall summon the persons whom he considers it proper
to hear.
Given in the Government House at Lima the 22d day of the month
of April, 1912.
A. B. LEGUIA.
G. LEGUIA Y MARTINEZ.
[No. 20.

Confidential.]

LABOR CONDITIONS I N T H E P U T U M A Y O REGION.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

I quitos, Peru, July 16\ 1912.
The

SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.
S I R : I have the honor to report that this afternoon I was waited
on by the secretary of the prefecture, who presented me with a
photograph Avhich is inclosed, and an unsigned memorandum, a copy
of which, with translation, is inclosed as well.
This indicates to me that the prefect, having heard from Lima,
and been told to give me all the information that he can, has seized
on the opportunity offered by the arrival of a launch from the Putumayo bringing some prisoners (who, by a happy coincidence, are
Colombians).
The case particularly mentioned in the memorandum may be taken
to indicate activity on the part of the Peruvian military posts up
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

SLAVERY I N PERU.

near the border, well beyond the scene of the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s
atrocities disclosed hitherto; in other words, the discovery of fresh
atrocities in a new field of action.
The secretary stated that information against this gang was lodged
with Lieut. Col. Castro by an Indian woman; that he sent out Capt.
Alvarez and three soldiers disguised as caucheros (rubber hunters)
to find and arrest them; that in revenge the woman was starved to
death by Ordonez and his accomplices. The Yubineto or Jueveneto,
near which this crime occurred, is an affluent of the Putumayo,
joining the latter just beyond the extreme limit of the Peruvian
Amazon Co.'s sphere of action. The actual scene of the crime is
stated to be two days' journey from the Eiver Yubineto.
Finding the secretary disposed to talk on the subject, I learned
from him that while the headquarters of the comisario of the Putumayo are at La Chorrera, he is supposed to travel continuously
throughout his district. He confirmed my understanding that there
are only two officials representing the civil government in the whole
region; but, according to his statement, the garrisons are more numerous than I had believed. He stated that in the whole Putumayo
Basin there are 10 garrisons which were primarily stationed in the
district to guard the frontier, but which have recently been instructed
also to hunt out and prevent crimes against the Indians. The locations of these garrisons he stated to be as follows, adding that they
were not in any way regarded as military secrets:
In the Peruvian-Amazon Co.'s sphere: Chorrera, Encanto, Union,
and Puerto Militario Peruano.
On Brazilian boundary: Tarapaca.
On Colombian border: Pto. Delicias and Pto. de les Monos.
Interior but not in Peruvian-Amazon Territory: Molino and mouth
Rio Jueveneto (2).
The department can locate these points if desired on the map
which accompanied Sir Roger Casement's confidential report. The
secretary could give me no definite idea of the number of troops represented by the garrisons listed, but stated that they are all under the
command of Lieut. Col. Castro, one of the best officers on the Peruvian army and who was educated at St. Cyr in France. This gentleman has been well spoken of in'Iquitos as an intelligent and active
officer, as has also Capt. Alvarez, who made the capture.
I n considering the case mentioned in the memorandum, one should
not lose sight of the fact that it is entirely separate and apart
from the Peruvian-Amazon Co. and the district which has hitherto
been under discussion and was dealt with in the Casement reports,
and constitutes evidence of maltreatment of the Indians more widespread than has hitherto been admitted. If desired, it would be comparatively easy to make these border Colombians the scapegoat for
the Peruvian-Amazon criminals, and in their cases the local government would not be so much troubled by expensive appeals to the
supreme court at Lima.
The great emphasis laid on the fact thai the persons arrested were
Colombians leads me to believe it possible that Sir Roger Casement's
remarks regarding the better government given the region by Colombia may be known in Lima, particularly as the secretary plainly endeavored in the conversation to make me believe that the Colombians
had never treated the Indians well and were really responsible for

SLAVERY. I N PERU.

the outrages that had attracted so much attention. There may be,
too, some idea that the United States contemplates interfering in the
Colombian-Peruvian-Ecuadorian boundary question.
This information reached me only a few hours before the mail
closed. The secretary stated that he was also to call on the British
consul to present a copy of the memorandum and a photograph. As
Consul Michell is very busy getting ready to send away his family,,
who leave on the steamer sailing the first thing to-morrow morning,,
and is to send his Government this same information, I have taken
the liberty, in view of the department's instructions as to cooperation, to help him out by giving him a copy of the present dispatch
to forward instead of one of his own.
A duplicate of the present dispatch will follow by the next mail,
and a copy is being sent to the minister at Lima.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,

American Consul. -.
[Translation.]

After the fiscal (prosecuting attorney) of the Supreme Court of
Justice of Peru, Dr. Salvador Cavero, denounced the crimes committed in the Putumayo region, the Peruvian Government sent out
a judge of the first instance and numerous detachments of troops with
the object of pursuing and capturing the criminals and preventing
the commission of further crimes.
The result obtained is eminently satisfactory when one takes into
account that the theater of the crimes is an impenetrable forest of
many thousands of square leagues. Notwithstanding, success has been
attained in capturing a good pari of the assassins and it has been
brought,about that in the region of the Peruvian Putumayo order
reigns and the law is supreme.
Unfortunately, however, on the Peruvian Putumayo live many
hundreds of Colombians, some of whom have escaped from prison
and others of whom have been deported by the Colombian Government, and these in the majority of cases have been the authors of
c] react ful crimes, committed with impunity, crimes which unfortunately have been laid at the door of the Peruvian Amazon Co., because they constitute the sole industrial enterprise at work in such
distant and solitary places.
To show how the Government of Peru prosecutes crime, we cite
the example of the Peruvian garrison of the Kio Yubineto, which,,
having received information that the Colombians, An.tonino Ordonez,
Sebastian Gonzales, Cornelio Josa, Carlos M. Lopez, Miguel Cucalón,,
Pedro Guevara, and Dionisio Pasaje, were evildoers and assassins
pnd abductors of natives whom othey sold in Brazil as they would
mere bagatelles, organized a posse to capture these persons. After
two days of hardship, this expedition came across a rancho in the
midst of the forest where these seven individuals lived, and found
tbem at that moment cons animating one of their sinister crimes.
They Avere watching the agonies of an Indian woman condemned to
die of starvation.
From the photograph herewith, taken by this very expedition, may
be seen how great the cruelty was. The seven individuals have been

SLAVERY I N PERU.

captured and sent to Iquitos to jail, at the disposition of the judge
of criminal court. The band of evildoers was composed of eight,
but one of them, Jesus Lopez, fled and could not be captured.

[No 23.]
LABOR CONDITIONS I N T H E PUTUMAYO REGION.
AMERICAN

CONSULATE,

I quitos) Peni, July 27, 1912.
T h e SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.

S I R : I have the honor to transmit herewith, as of possible interest
to the department, the press comment relative to the Putumayo question that has appeared from the 17th instant to date, as per appended
list. A copy of the present dispatch, with copies of the inclosures, is
being forwarded to the minister at Lima.
I have, etc,
STUART J . FULLER,

American

Consul.

I Translation.]
I El Oriente (Lima telegrams), July 26, 1912]
THE PUTUMAYO QUESTION

WHAT THE TIMES SAYS.

The cable communicates the information that in London the Antislavery Society has declared that it will request the Government of
Brazil to stop the exportation of rubber which has been extracted in
the Putumayo region.
The English daily, the Times, suggests the idea that the litigation
over the Putumayo region between Peru and Colombia should be
again submitted to the arbitration of The Hague and in the meanwhile the region should be watched over by an English and Brazilian
commission.
THE CRIMES OF THE PUTUMAYO.

The consul for Colombia in Santiago de Chile has published an
article attacking Peru on the question of the crimes of the Putumayo.
This article has caused a very bad impression in Chile. Various
Chilean writers have refuted it energetically.

[Translation.]
THE PUTUMAYO.

I t would be very advantageous if the prefect were to send to Lima
an official telegram explaining carefully that the crimes which have
lately occupied the local press were committed by a party of ma-

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

rauders unconnected with any business (enterprise) and who solely
follow the business of abducting Indians to sell them later at good
prices in the neighboring nation.
We say that this would be a good thing to do, because some illintentioned person or a telegram improperly interpreted might convey a false idea or strengthen the false information transmitted to
the papers of Lima regarding the things supposed to have taken
place in these rivers.
I t is time to throw light on the affair, destroying little by little the
gloomy tale that has slowly been forged by dreamers and idealists.
By the way, Mr. Abel Alarco, in a strong article, has completely
pulverized the thousand and one legends which have been circulated
regarding what has happened in the Putumayo at the time when the
whites entered on the conquest of this zone, at hat time inhabited by
wild and savage tribes.

[Translation.]
ÍE1 Oriente (Lima telegrams t, July 20, 1912.1
T H E CRIMES OF T H E P U T U M A Y O .

The excitement produced by the revelations made in the-English
and North American periodicals and the publication of the report
of Señor Casement regarding the crimes committed in Peru in the
region of the Putumayo continues, Indignation is indescribable and
is kept alive by the constant publications which fill the daily editions
of the English and American papers.

[Translation.]
ENGLAND

M I S S I O N A R I E S FOR T H E P U T U M A Y O .

In London there has been organized a collection among the nobility with the object of sending missionaries to Peru to the Putumayo region.
LNo. 25

Confidential.]

Consul Fuller to the Secretary

State.

AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Inquitos, July 31, 191%.
S I R : I have the honor to transmit herewith duplicates of my dispatches No. 19 of the 15th instant and 20 of the 16th relative to the
Putumayo question.
Although I am unable to point out at present anything specific,
still my impression is now that the Government is no more anxious
to have us make a trip to the Putumayo or to see personally the
conditions existing there than the company is, so that we should
probably gain no more information from a trip on one of the Gov-

SLAVERY I N PEBTJ.

ernment launches than from that of the company. Finding that
the future dispatch of Government launches to the Putumayo is
very indefinite, and learning that the company expected to make
two dispatches of their launch Liberal, at intervals that will enable
us to do some traveling in the interior, away from the rivers, if we
-can figure out our allowances to cover the expense, my British colleague and myself decided to go up to Chorrera on the Liberal about
August 5, travel to what interior points we can, and return from
El Encanto. Accordingly we made arrangements with the company
for this on July 20, and I sent the department the telegram confirmed by my unnumbered dispatch of July 25. The trip will keep
me away* from Iquitos from August 5 or a day or two after until
about September 25 or later. I t should also be borne in mind that
one always runs the risk of stranding in this river, Avhere there is
practically no traffic at all, and it is possible to be tied up in this
ivay for four or five weeks. I shall telegraph the department a day
or two before leaving and also on my return and will also inform the
minister by wireless.
I n making our arrangements with the company, we insisted on
paying our passage and stated that we also wished to pay for anything that we might find it necessary to buy up the river, although
they offered us free passage and all we might need.
The local situation remains much the same as it was two weeks ago,
so far as the Iquitos public in general is concerned. The tone of the
-articles that have been appearing in the public press has produced,
however, a feeling of irritation and resentment at what they privately
characterize as meddling on the part of the United States and England among the Government officials here, but to both Consul Mitchell
and myself they have continued studiously courteous. The officials
are undoubtedly becoming nervous in regard to the situation.
I inclose herewith the original and a translation of an article on
the Putumayo question which appeared in the special national holiday issue of El Oriente and which it was thought might interest the
department. Being hampered by neither facts nor information, the
writer of this article was able to produce something that would
attract attention and create a good impression in the mind of the
public. He cites no facts in any connection and would find difficulty
in producing any proof of the assertions he so confidently makes. I t
represents^ however, the feeling of resentment at the publication of
the Casement reports. The views expressed that the situation does
not call for further action to protect the natives has been advanced
in conversation by the present acting prefect.
My British colleague and I called on that official and applied for
some document in the nature of a passport, to be addressed to the
local authorities, and this he said he would be glad to give us. He
also suggested sending a military aide to accompany us, and though
we were by no means enthusiastic over this proposition I fear that
we may not be able to avoid it.
He also took occasion to repeat the remarks detailed in my dispatch
NTo. 19 of July 15, minimizing the Putumayo question altogether, and
added that efforts to secure the extradition from Argentina of Norm a n a (one of the accused criminals) were being made and bade fair
t o be successful. He complained that Sir Eoger Casement had taken
away all the worst criminals, and also that he had taken awa}^ with

SLAVERY I N PERU.

him two native boys, whom he later returned to Iquitos and left here
without homes or support.
When I have been asked, and a reply seemed necessary or politic,
I have stated that I have neither desire nor instructions to interfere
in any way whatsoever with the administration of justice or the
internal affairs of Peru, but that in the course of duty it falls to me
as a consul to keep my Government informed as to labor as well as
other commercial conditions in the district in which I may be stationed, no matter what part of the world, and that I shall report on
these in the Putumayo as well as in the other rivers of the district;
and that as public subscriptions are being collected abroad by persons
with the same high ideal of serving humanity that has actuated the
Peruvian Government in the steps it has inaugurated to put an end
to excesses in the Putumayo region, for the announced purpose of
sending missionaries to that region, information is desired as to the
condition that American citizens coming on this mission may meet
with and the conditions under which the money will be expended.
My British colleague has based his action in the matter on four
grounds:
1. The responsibility of an English company, still in existence
though in process of liquidation, for the atrocities in the past and
their share in the responsibility for conditions in the present.
2. The presence in the region of British subjects.
3. The collection in Great Britain of subscriptions with the object
of sending missionaries to the region.
4. The general idea of serving humanity by reporting to his Government the true conditions, to be published if they see fit.
A copy of the present dispatch is being forwarded to the Minister
at Lima and a duplicate will follow to the department by the next
mail.
I have, etc.
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.
[Translation.!
ENGLISH PHILANTHROPY AND THE CRIMES OF THE PUTUMAYO.

For the past month we have published almost daily telegraphic
reports sent by our correspondent in Lima, giving accounts of the
great sensation which the hair-raising reports, with grewsome details, that the English and Yankee dailies have been giving of the
crimes committed some years ago in Peru in the Putumayo region
have produced throughout the world, and particularly in England
and the United States of America.
It would be obviously a waste of time to relate the history of
those lamentable occurrences, which is known to all, or to censure
those accused of having committed them and who are to-day some
fugitives and others in the power of Peruvian justice, the sole institution called on to punish or absolve those who may be to blame,
but we can do nothing less than to comment on the singular and exaggerated interest which is manifested b}^ the nations mentioned
in continuing to mix themselves up in our internal affairs, which
have no basis of interest for anyone but ourselves.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Is exemplary and incomparable love for humanity the only motive that induces England and the United States to pretend to aid
us to administer justice in crimes the punishment of which belongs
exclusively to the competence of our judicial powers? We doubt
it, because they do not show much solicitude for the lives of their
fellow beings, these people who are horrified almost to fainting at
seeing die in the bull ring a horse whose intestines the horn a Miura
has torn, but who watch placidly and at times even with pleasure
the agony of a human being who falls in the arena of a circus, killed
by a masterful blow in boxing. They are not humanitarians to
whose customs little is lacking to assimilate them to those of the
ancient Romans, when they turn down their thumbs calling for the
coup de grace for the modern gladiator vanquished in the sporting
but brutal and savage pugilistic tourney.
They can not be sincere philanthropists, these authors of the terrible massacres of the F a r West, nor those countrymen of Cromwell who backed up Lord Kitchener when he ordered at Khartum
the shooting of 30,000 men in vengeance for the assassination of Gen.
Gordon.
" He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone," said
Christ to the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem who attempted to
stone the erring Magdalen, a parable quite applicable to the question
with which Ave are occupied.
Do we deserve to be considered as emulators of Torquemada and
Peter of Aries for crimes which, although they have been committed
in national territory, have been verified almost entirely by foreign
individuals? The fact that knowledge of these transgressions did
not happen to reach our authorities, and other reasons equally
weighty, prevented their being punished in due time, but to-day
this is being accomplished. Our justice, which is as strict and severe as that of any other nation, no matter how civilized, can bey
sent a commission which fulfilled its duties to the general satisfaction, and at the present time the natives of the Putumayo are probably better protected than those of the English colonies or the descendants of Japhet of whom, in spite of being so humanitarian, the
Yankees seem to us to exhibit the estimation which naturally inspires rational beings.
Our authorities at present stationed in this distant and unhealthy
region of eastern Peru not only are preventing the commission of
further transgressions against the Indians but continue to make
minutely careful searches for and to capture the few inhuman monsters who have sought refuge in that most intricate and unexplored
region; and the proof of this is that the authors of the violations
and robberies lately committed in the part of the Putumayo where
by reason of difficulties of communication it has not hitherto been
possible to exercise the vigilance of the Government, now find themselves common criminals in the power of justice, and we are glad to
say that these criminals belong to the same nationality as the majority of the authors of all the crimes previously committed in the
Putumayo—they are Colombians.
We do not seek to enter into considerations of another kind because we are afraid of going too far, but the attitude of the United
States on this question makes us think, though unwillingly, of the
Monroe doctrine, and that of England suggests to us the idea that

SLAVERY I N PEEU.

it is probably originated through some important offering, beneficial to English interests and formulated by the wild ambitions of
some diplomacy hostile to ours.
God grant that we are mistaken, but history is such a bad counsellor, it repeats itself so much, that we are justified in mistrusting,
and not only are justified but must mistrust whether the solicitude
that these two powerful nations have in making us appear to the
world like a nation of savages, where it is necessary to penetrate to
punish and civilize, may not conceal a menace to our national
sovereignty.
C. G.
J U L Y 28,

1912.
[No 26.

Confidential. 1

Consul Fuller to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, August 5,1912.
S I R : I have the honor to confirm my telegram of the 2d instant,
as follows:
AUGUST 2.

It is very probable allowance insufficient cover Putumayo trip. Impossible
to fix amount of expenses. Will expenses be allowed? Telegraph as soon as
possible.
and to acknowledge the receipt' of the department's reply of the 3d
instant, as follows:
Actual and necessary expenses allowed. Should be kept as low as possible.
In explanation I have to submit that to see anything at all of the
local conditions It is going to be necessary to do some traveling in
the interior, owing to the fact that the dispatch of the company's
launch is to be only to single ports and to each of these on separate
vo}^ages from Iquitos. I n order to travel in the interior without
accepting favors from the company it is necessary for one to go
provided with tent equipment, a cook, and an interpreter, to take
with one absolutely all the food for the whole trip (as none whatever
is to be had in the forest), and to hire Indian bearers to carry this
outfit through the forest trails. I have arranged with my British
colleague to travel in company, and we shall divide equally the
expense of outfit of tents, cost of provisions, and wages. These last,
so far as the bearers are concerned, must be paid in merchandise, as
there is no money in the whole district and the Indians do not know
what money is and would have no use for it. Accordingly, we shall
take a stock of cheap clothes, sugar, salt, knives, and handkerchiefs
with which to pay them.
Every effort will be made to keep the expense as low as possible,
and within the original limit of $500, if possible.
I n the meantime it is respectfully suggested that if the department
desires me to make trips up the Ucayali and Javary Rivers after my
return froln the Putumayo, a telegram to that effect be sent me about
October 1, or after the receipt of my advice of return to Iquitos.
If no land traveling* is required the expense of each of these trigs
would probably not exceed $100, i. e., $100 per river, contingent^

SLAVERY I N PERU.

however, on getting through safely without stranding on a sand
bank, which would cost $5 a day extra.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.
(.No. 28.

Confidential.!

LABOR CONDITIONS I N T H E PUTUMAYO RIVER.
A M E R I C A N CONSULATE,

Iquitos, Peru,, August 5, 1912.
The

SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.
S I R : I have the honor to report that since my last dispatch relative
to the Putumayo. question I have received nothing from the acting
prefect with reference to existing conditions in reply to the letter I
addressed to him and a copy of which wTas sent to the department.
He has been ill for the past week with fever, which may account for
it; b u t I am inclined to believe that he is either waiting to hear from
Lima before answering or else waiting until such time as something
shall have been done so that he will have something to say.
The local press reports the President's message as stating the
intention to station a judge of first instance at Chorrerra.
A recent issue of El Oriente states that one O'Donnell, accused of
crimes in the Putumayo, has been arrested in extradition proceedings
in Barbados.
I t is also stated in the press that a force of gendarmes is to be
raised for the purpose of keeping order and protecting the natives in
the Putumayo region, the force to total 100 men, under the command
of Capitán Carlos G. Soderstrom. These accounts go on to say that
50 of these men will be under the direct command of a special comisario of the Putumayo, for which office Señor Benito Lores has been
named. This Señor Lores (confidentially) does not bear the best of
reputations, but has held so-called political jobs for some years in the
Department of Loreto. I t is quite possible that he may go up in the
launch' Liberal with the British consul and myself.
I t is not going to be an easy task for the Peruvian Government to
get men to serve in this gendarmerie. The climate of the region is
deadly, and the pay will probably be small. There is at present a
great scandal regarding the payment of the troops in the Yurua
^River, whose wages are stated to be 6, 8, and 10 months in arrears,
and the crew of the last government launch which came down from
the Putumayo walked the street for days, discharged, without money,
until a public protest was made, whereupon they were paid a part of
what was due to them. A great deal will depend on the character
.•and probity of their commander.
A short time ago I was privately informed By a Peruvian military
officer, who held a command in the Putumayo region up to May, 1912,
when he was transferred to Iquitos, that reprehensible practices were
still being carried on there when he left. He also said thatTie did not
believe that the local civil authorities were trying to do anything at
all in the matter further than to throw dust in the eyes of the central
Government at Lima.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

He stated that when he brought the situation to the attention of
his military superiors he was told that it was no affair of the military
arm of the Government. He showed me a report that he then made
to the prefect, in which he stated that he had evidence of improper
treatment of the Indians, and recommended strengthening the civil
government in the region, and particularly the general introduction
of missionaries of the state church.
This report bore an indorsement signed by the Prefect Alayaza in
April, 1912, referring it to the officer commanding the troops, calling
his attention to the recommendations, and intimating that it would
be better to place in command an officer who would attend to his
military duties and leave civil matters alone. A similar reprimand
from.the commander returned the report to its writer. The significant feature of this is that matters were brought to the attention of
the local authorities, whether in a proper channel or not, without
their doing anything.
This officer stated that oppression of the Indians was still going on
in February, 1912.
The only information he could produce which did not, deal with
occurrences of many years ago was the document referred to above.
The documents in this last consisted of a notice sent by this officer
to one Antonio Martinez, warning him to set free 30 Indians whom
he was detaining against their will, and a reply admitting the fact,
but stating that they would be set free. They were both dated in
February, 1912.
The sailing of the Liberal is now set for Wednesday, the 7th instant. We have secured as interpreter a Barbadian who claims to
know the Huitoto and other Indian languages. To just what points
in the forest we can go it is impossible to state until we get up there,
but we shall land at La Chorrerra, do what interior trips we can from
there, and then cross to E l Encanto to catch the Liberal on the voyage from there, which will bring her to Iquitos the last of September.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,

American Consul.
NOTE.—A copy of this dispatch is being sent to the minister at
Lima.
[Translation.]
AUGUST 1,

1912.

In reply to the offer contained in your letter of July 26, 1912, to
furnish me certain documentary evidence in regard to the conditions
existing at present in the Putumayo region with regard to the treatment of the natives, with a view to better action of a civilizing,
humanitarian, and legal nature, on condition that I state to you in
writing the reason why I am endeavoring to secure information in
that regard, I have to say:
1. I have no desire nor intention to interfere in any way in the
internal affairs of Peru. My function is merely to report facts to my
Government.
2. In the course of my duty as a consul it falls to me here, as it
would at any post in any part of the world, to keep my Government
informed as to labor conditions in the consular district, and this I

SLAVERY I N PERU.

expect to do with regard to the labor conditions at present existing
in the Putumayo.
?>. Public subscriptions are being collected abroad by persons with
the same high ideal of serving humanity that has actuated the Peruvian Government in the steps it has inaugurated to put an end to
excesses in the Putumayo, for the announced purpose of sending
missionaries to that region, and for that reason information is desired
as to the conditions American citizens coming for this purpose will
meet with and the conditions under which the funds would be
expended.
If you can give me any information that would assist me in the
task before me, as outlined above, I can assure you that the courtesy
will be highly appreciated; and if, as you state, the conditions of
affairs still leave much to be desired, there is no question but that the
publication of the truth would accomplish much toward bettering
the situation.
[No. 29.

Confidential.J

LABOR CONDITIONS I N T H E P U T U M A Y O REGION.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, Peru, August 6>, 1912.
The

SECRETARY" OF STATE,

Washington.
S I R : I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a letter just
received from the acting prefect of Loreto in reply to the letter I
addressed to him on the 10th of July, together with a translation,
a copy of my reply, and a translation of it.
As I asked for no information that would not form a necessary
part of that at the command of the prefecture if they are at all
responsible for the government of the region,in question, it is hard
to see why they should state that it is beyond their sphere of action
and go to authorities as far removed from the Putumayo (in point
of fact) as Europe is to apply for information. If anything has
been done, it seems most extraordinary that the departmental authorities should not know of it. I t is hard to conceive of any reason
for their wishing to conceal any reforms already accomplished.
If it is really considerations of time and distance that prompt the
Lima Government in the course they outline, it is hard to see why
they should wait until especially asked for the information by the
minister. They know that it would be at least October before any
advices could reach him from me, and there is nothing to prevent
their saying to the minister, " Your consul at Iquitos has asked for
certain information on behalf of inquirers from the United States,
but on account of time and distance from Iquitos we prefer to give
the information to you for transmission to your Government."
In fine, the letter is really an admission that the responsible government of the Department of Loreto can not point out anything that
has been done to better conditions, and a warning that any attempt
to get at facts on the ground will not meet with their assistance or
cooperation, as well as an effort to hold off any inquiry until the

SLAVERY I N PERU.

matter blows over, or until they have at least had time to start something in the Putumayo. I t is a good example of the shifting equivocation that meets one throughout in the attitude of the local
authorities.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,,
American Consul.
[Translation ]
IQUITOS,
The CONSUL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA :

August

5, 1912.

I was glad to receive your note of the 10th of last month, in which
you asked me for some information relative to the Putumayo region.
As the greater part of the information requested by you relates to
measures and acts that are not within the province of this prefecture,
1 asked my Government to furnish me information in regard to what
you wished to know. My Government charges me to inform you that
they will have the greatest pleasure in submitting to the Government
of the United States the information desired with regard to the
Putumayo region, but that they consider it more convenient, on
account of considerations as to time and distance, to furnish this
direct to the American Legation in Lima, which already has knowledge of the affair, whenever the legation asks for it, etc.
E.

CASTAÑEDA.

[Translation.]
AUGUST 6,

1912.

The ACTING PREFECT OF THE DEPARTMENT :

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of date
the 5th instant (No. 101), stating that the information asked for in
my letter of the 10th of the preceding month relates to measures and
acts that are not within the scope of your office, and that the legation at Lima should ask the authorities in the capital for such
information.
I take this opportunity of renewing the expression of my high
consideration and personal esteem.
STUART J.

FULLER,

American
[No 33

Consul.

Confidential.]

Consul Fuller to the Secretary

State.

AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, October 28, 1912.
SIR : I have the honor to report, as already stated in my telegrams,
that I left Iquitos on August 7, 1912, by launch, for the Putumayo
region, and reached here again in return late on October 6. Total
absence of facilities prevented my communicating with the department in the meantime.

SLAVEEY IJST PERU.

There is evidence that the company has mended its ways to some
extent, at leasj for the present, but it is plain that, up to date, the
Government has done nothing at all on the ground.
As previously reported to the department, my British colleague
and I desired to go up to the Putumayo quietly, and in such a way as
to be independent of the company if possible. After we had waited
over two months for the dispatch of a Government launch to the
region (as stated in my No. 25 of July 31) we finally gave that idea
up and decided to take the company's launch. We took care, however, to say nothing about it until the very last minute, and then we
made it plainly understood that we would accept no favors whatever, and would insist on paying for everything that we got.
To be as independent as possible, we provided ourselves with tents
and rations, and took with us our own cook, a colored Barbadian.
We also took, as interperter, John Brown, a native of Montserrat, a
British subject, thoroughly familiar with the Huitoto language, who
had spent some years in the Putumayo region at the time when the
atrocities were at their height. He is the man whom Sir Roger
Casement brought down from the West Indies to act as his interpreter, and he gave testimony before the prefect at Iquitos in the
matter, as stated in the Casement report.
The acting prefect failed to provide us with the letter to the local
authorities, which we had asked for, and which he had promised us;
but on the evening before departure I received from him a letter, a
copy of which, Avith translation, is inclosed (inclosures Nos. 1 and 2),
to the effect that Carlos Rey de Castro, the Peruvian Consul General at Mana os, would join the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s launch
Liberal at the mouth of the Putumayo, and that he was going up
" on a journey of investigation, with the object of ascertaining the
fulfillment of the measures taken there, and to see how the instructions issued to the authorities of that zone were being carried out."
;
~ Although Señor Rey de Castro is a high official of the Peruvian
Government, I do not consider the selection of a man of his reputation, for the duty of accompanying us, by any means a compliment
to myself or to the United States Government. His reputation is
well known and a matter of common talk in Iquitos. I t JS epitomized in Sir Roger Casement's report of November 24, 1911, on
page 3, where he states that Señor Rey de Castro, on the occasion of
his previous investigation of affairs in the Putumayo, was bought
by Señor Arana for the Peruvian Amazon Co.., the proof of which
was seen by Sir Roger Casement in the company's books at Manaos.
I am inclined to believe that the prefect's reticence as to the exact
nature of his mission was largely due to the fear that we might
withdraw from the trip altogether were we advised of the real facts
before our departure. Indeed, I did think seriously of so doing,
but decided to continue in view of the arrangements already made
at considerable expense and the doubt as to facilities for going up
at a future date.
The launch Liberal, with the British consul and myself on board,
was met in the River Amazon, not far from the mouth of the Putumayo, by the English mail steamer Napo, bound for Iquitos, and
^p.fíor Arana, of the Peruvian Amazon Co., with his party, joined us.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

This party consisted of Julio C. Arana, the liquidator of the Peru;vian Amazon Co., his secretary and brother-in-law, Marcial Zumaeta,
a photographer, an agronomist, a bookkeeper, a Huitota named
Julia (the mistress of the criminal O'Donnell), and Señor Key de
Castro and his servant. All of these proceeded to La Chorrera with
us in the Liberal.
On August 16, the night before we arrived at La Chorrera, Señor
Eey de Castro showed my British colleague and myself copies of
extracts from two telegrams and a copy of a letter from the acting
prefect of the Department of Loreto^ which, he stated, constituted his:
instructions. Copies of these, with translations, are inclosed (inc i s u r e s Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6). H e said that he would take entire
charge of the trip and make all the arrangements. This was the
first mention that he made of the nature of his mission.
I thanked Señor Eey de Castro for his courtesy, but declined his
assistance, stating that, from the advices I had received from the
acting prefect at Iquitos, I understood his mission to be an investigation as to the conduct of their business by the local authorities,
and hence not the same as mine, which was to report on commercial
and labor conditions, those under which money being publicly
collected for missionary purposes might be spent, and the conditions
to be met with by any American citizens who might elect to go there
as missionaries. I also stated that it was beyond my province to
sign formal acts with him regarding the internal affairs of Peru
without explicit instructions from my Government. I added that
I expected and desired to travel quietly and independently, to see
the people in their home life; that I had complete equipment for so
doing, and that neither assistance nor escort were necessary.
When asked if I did not form one member of a joint commission
with the British consul to investigate crimes committed in the
Putumayo, I stated that I did not; that I might and might not
travel in the interior with Mr. Michell; that I was not; informed
whether he had instructions to investigate possible crimina] acts on
the part of the British company operating there.
When asked if I would give him a copy of my report, I stated that
I could not do so, but that the Peruvian legation at Washington
might, if they wished, apply to the Government for it.
The letter of the acting prefect which he showed us is an interesting
commentary on the lack of good faith that has characterized the
local authorities in their dealings throughout. The department will
recall that I wrote and asked the acting prefect for certain information regarding the Putumayo, as reported in my dispatch No. 29 of
August 6, and in previous dispatches. I n his reply, which accompanied the dispatch just cited, he stated that the information desired
was beyond the province of his office; but his letter to Señor Eey de
Castro, although it bears a date anterior to the one he addressed to
me, conveys exactly the information asked for by me.
On our arrival at La Chorrera, Mr. Michell and I politely, but
firmly, declined to stay in the company's house. This position was
fully understood by the company manager and taken without offense.
For what meals we had on board the launch after arrival and at the
company house., when unavoidable on account of the delay in unloading our food supplies, we paid and hold receipts.

SLAVEBY IN

PERU.

An itinerary of the trip is;
Itinerary.
Aug.

7.
9.
13.
IT.
23.
24^
24.
27.
28.
. 28.
30.
31.
Sept. 1.
4.
4.

Left Iquitos.
Arrived Taba tinga.
Arrived Tarapaca.
Arrived La Chorrera.
Left La Chorrera.
Left Naimenes.
Arrived Occidente.
Left Occidente.
Left Emeraes.
Arrived Ultimo Retiro.
Left Ultimo Retiro.
Left Müiiisnes.
Arrived E n t r e Rios.
Left E n t r e Rios.
Arrived Atenas.

Sept.

Oct.

7.
8.
8.
10.
10.
18.
19.
20.
21.
21.
27.
30.
4.
6.

Left Atenas,
Left Puerto Peruano.
Arrived Occidente.
Left Occidente.
Arrived La Chorrera.
Left La Chorrera.
Left Sikivias.
Left La Sombra.
Left Eraes.
Arrived El Encanto.
Left El Encanto.
Arrived Tarapaca.
Arrived Taba tinga.
Arrived Iqnito^.

A glance at the itinerary will show that, in addition to several
others, I visited all the posts referred to in the Casement reports as
having been the scene of outrages except Matanzas and Abisinia.
The former has been abandoned, and to visit the latter would have
meant spending two months more in the region at an expense to
the Government that I did not consider would be justified by results.
The British consul also visited Oriente and Sur, in the La Chorrera
section of the company's property, and Argelia, in the E l Encanto
section. At the first named there were at the time no Indians to be
seen. Indians from the second were our carriers to La Sombra.
Both are small posts near to La Chorrera. I could not see that the
additional expense would be justified by any possible results, as I
could get all information from Mr. Michell and the Indians themselves. It also seemed to me a tactful policy to omit a few of the
places so as not to appear too completely identified with the British
Government measures, and I chose these, as the least important, to
be omitted. As to Argelia, I felt that my time could be spent to
better advantage in El Encanto.
Throughout the trip we were so carefully watched and hedged
about that if there was anything to hide wTe could not possibly have
seen it. I n fact, as stated in my dispatch No. 13, of July 1, anyone
traveling through here is of necessity entirely dependent on the company. None but their men know the roads, there is no food but
what they have, there are no facilities for water transportation but
what they own, carriers can only be obtained through them, and air
the time one is traveling on their private property.
The Peruvian consul general and his suite were far from being of
any assistance to us. At the very start, on his request, the departure
was postponed five days, as he said he wished to see that certain
prisoners were really sent back on the Liberal. When we suggested
going on ahead by land it was not possible to secure the necessary
carriers. On the trip he succeeded in delaying us in one way and
another, apparently on purpose, to such an extent that the river trip,
where, for lack of facilities, we had no choice but to go all together,
was extended from the proposed three days to a week. He insisted
on stopping at unimportant places, where he apparently did nothing
but take meaningless photographs of Indians.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

He continually attempted to take the direction of the whole thing
into his hands and ordered the company's men about to suit his convenience, apparently with the intention of conveying the impression
that this was an inspection tour under his sole direction.
We particularly did not wish to be identified with this party that
insisted on accompanying us, and, though always courteous, we took
care to emphasize our independence by living separately, except on
the launch, where it was not possible, but where we paid for what
we had. We also paid our own carriers separately in every instance.
I am sure that it was not Mr. Tizon's intention to delay or interfere with us on the trip, as his personal man in charge of the launch
arrangements, chafed at and complained of the delays, had not provided sufficient food for so much time in transit, and told me that
Mr. Tizon had told him to press on as quickly as possible, that we
might have the opportunity of seeing as much as possible in the time
at our disposal. I t was quite clear that the direction of affairs was
taken out of Mr. Tizon's hands by Messrs. Arana and Rey de Castro.
Difficulties as to securing carriers at La Chorrera, where Mr. Tizon
had immediate charge, did not arise until after Messrs. Arana and
Rey de Castro had stepped in and were not suggested before.
I t was quite evident throughout the trip that not only ourselves,
but even our interpreter were the subjects of a close espionage. I t
was not possible to go anywhere among the natives without being
followed by employees of the company. Whenever wre tried to talk
privately to the Indians an employee of the company familiar with
the Huitoto language always approached, with the result that the
Indians invariably ceased to be communicative.
At Emeraes, on August 27, Mr. Michell, and I, accompanied by
our interpreter, had engaged in conversation in the Indian house
with a number of Indians of more than average intelligence. They
were talking quite freely, when suddenly the spokesman, a chief,
turned off the conversation, saying, with indifference: " Yes; we are
quite .contented. We are well paid and the white men are very good
to us." The change was so striking that we looked around and saw
there the cook of the Arana party, who must have left his work to
listen to our conversation. He immediately pushed forward and
volubly assumed the office of interpreter, plainly putting his own
words into the mouths of the Indians. We dropped the subject and
the cook left, but no sooner did we again start a conversation with
other natives than a station hand ran over to the house where the
Arana party were and brought the cook back, again to interfere in a
similar manner. Immediately afterwards Julio Arana appeared and
we were unable to continue. This cook told our servants that he was
acting under instructions to hear and repeat everything that we said
to Messrs. Arana and Rey de Castro. This same sort of thing Avas
repeated in the other posts, and the fear among the Indians of speaking frankly or of making any complaints was marked. In a letter
which he addressed to me on my return to Iquitos^ Señor Rey de
Castro states that he considered this sort of surveillance a part of
his duty.
We only managed to get in three days without this constant surveillance by altering our arrangements at Ultimo Retiro suddenly in
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

the middle of the night, arranging independently with the section
chief, an Englishman, who had incautiously said that there would be
no trouble to get carriers, before the- Peruvian Amazon party or
Señor Rey de Castro had had the opportunity of warning him against
extending any facilities to us. Even then two so-called guides, for
whom we had not asked, were sent along to keep an eye on us.
Except on the trip from Ultimo Retiro to Entre Rios, it was not
possible for us to see the Indians in their native homes, for, when
we were coming they were all called into the section center by the
signal drums, given a dance, provided with food, and evidently
enjoyed themselves hugely. Interesting as this was, it conveyed no
idea of the real situation nor of the relations between the Indians
and the company. All it went to show was that such lavish treatment on the part of the company is distinctly unusual, though pleasing to the Indians. Though these displays were stated to be for our
benefit, we were carefully prevented on all such occasions from having any independent conversation with the Indians.
I have discussed thus in detail the treatment that we received for
two reasons. I t throws an interesting light on the protestations
of the company and of the local government that they have nothing
to hide and no fear of unprejudiced publicity; and it also goes to
show one phase of the problem that confronts Peru in attempting
to do something toward the government of the region. A Government officer, to become conversant with the local situation in the
Putumayo, must be prepared to stay in the district a year or more,
well and independently provisioned and equipped, and having back
of him ample authority from the Peruvian Government. Such a
man would have to be absolutely honest and well paid (to remove
the possibility of temptation). He must also be prepared and unafraid to risk his life in many ways while he is there. Men of this
kind are hard to find.
Throughout the trip, both my British colleague and myself were
careful to avoid even the appearance of interfering in the internal
affairs of Peru. My position was as stated to the Peruvian consul
general, and detailed above, and Mr. Michell based his action on the
following grounds:
1. The responsibility of an English company, still in existence,
though in process of liquidation, for the atrocities of the past and
their share in the responsibility for conditions in the present.
2. The presence in the region of British subjects.
3. The collection in Great Britain of subscriptions with the object
of sending missionaries to the region.
4. The general idea of serving humanity by reporting to his Government the true conditions, to be published if they see fit.
As to the Indians themselves, whatever they may have been in past
generations, I am satisfied that they are not now, and were not at
the time when the atrocities took place, wild, untamable, cannibal
savages, but mild, docile, inoffensive, and childlike, just as they are
reported to have been by Robuchon,the explorer, by Consul Eberhardt, and by Sir Roger Casement. I t is practically impossible to
estimate the total number to be found in the Putumayo region. A
personal visit to every Indian house would be necessary to this end.

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

These natives can not count over 20, and many not over 10. They
have no idea of time or of dates other than that some can count
moons and a few recognize the equinoctial changes. They have noidea of their own ages.
As to conducting business, they simply know that if they bring in
rubber they get guns, hammocks, and other things from the white
man. They could not possibly calculate quantities or debts, nor
would they realize what peonage means.
I doubt whether they know the difference between proper treatment at the hands of the whites and maltreatment, for the simple
reason that the first idea of the white man they had was bad usage..
In case of any trouble they would not be likely to appeal to the authorities. They would not understand how, and they have no conception of government. The only way to protect them is to watch
over them and their interests.
The natural supply of food for these Indians comes from their
chácaras or farms, and consists of cassava and yucca and some maize,,
sugar cane, and plantains. There is very little game in the forest,,
but they get an occasional monkey or bird. The soil is so poor, despite the luxuriousness of the forest, that they are obliged to move
these chácaras every two or three years to get crops. They clear a
new place in the forest, let the fallen timber dry, burn it over, and
then plant between the stumps. I t is plain to see that if prevented
in any way from working their farms, the Indians must of necessity
starve. They state, and so do the employees of the company, t h a t
in former times they were so pushed by the company for rubber that
their chácaras were neglected and thej^ often found themselves at
the point of starvation.
All of the Indians that we saw looked well fed and vigorous. The
photographs which accompany the present dispatch, and which were
taken by the writer, will give an idea of what they are like. Our
interpreter, who was in the district at the time the atrocities were
being practiced, says that there is no great difference between their
appearance then and now. They are a small people and not over
strong physically. We saw a considerable number in the various;
posts who bore the scars of old floggings.
The Indians all knew who Arana was. They called him " Captain
of the Peruvians " and evidently stood in great awe of him. He is
much more to them than the whole Peruvian Government.
Mr. Tizon, the manager at La Chorrera, states that on the books of
his sections there are at the present time about 2,600 working Indians.
He admits that it was all forced labor in the beginning, but believer
that it is now retained by the growth among the Indians of the desire for European articles, guns, hammocks, etc. He states that all
goods are furnished on the advance system. While he deprecated1,
peonage, he said he did not see any way out of the system of advances at the present time. He says that if more Indians were needed'
in addition to those already working rubber, he has the hope t h a t
the desire for goods would bring them to work, but he was inclined
to touch rather lightly on this phase of the question.
The following table, showing the number of working Indians in
each of the La Chorrera sections that I visited, is compiled from the

SLAVERY I N PERU.

statements made to me by the section chiefs, white employees of the
company, in charge in each instance, the figures in the column marked
" 1907 " being taken from Consul Eberhardt's report:
1912
Occidente
Ultimo Retiro
Atenas
"Oriente
^Sur

;

560
209
300
260
315
275

1907
700
650
650
700
500
300

The section chief at Ultimo Retiro told me that when the enterprise was at its height, there were 2,000 Indians on the books at that
post, and, when asked what had become of them, he frankly admitted
that they had been killed, starved, worked to death, and run away.
^ Señor Loayza, the manager at El Encanto, the other grand division into which the company's zone is divided, states that they have
about 1,000 working Indians on their books, in nine subsections,
as compared to 1,200 five years ago. The decrease he lays to smallpox. They are all paid on the advance system, with the exception
of the tribe in one subsection, and are also given a present every
year for their services as carriers, bringing in rubber to the section,
houses. He says that they have no trouble in getting Indians to
work, and that increasing desires and new wants keep them at it.
I n both parts of the concession books are kept in each section in
\vhich the goods advanced to an Indian are entered against his name
and an entry is also made of the amounts of rubber brought in to
cover. All th£ section chiefs insisted that if an Indian to whom goods
had been advanced did not bring in rubber against his debt, nothing
at all was done about it under the present regime.
The working Indians in the La Chorrera sections average from
SO to 60 kilograms of rubber per annum and those in the sections
under El Encanto about 120 kilograms, according to the statements
of the company's representatives.
As to the Peruvian Government, it is plain that they apparently
leave the whole zone to the company to do as they please, the occurrences of the past notwithstanding. T saw nothing whatever to
support their repeated protestations as to the measures they were
taking to improve conditions.
I n fact, the total absence of any attempt at government up to the
present time-was freely admitted to both the British consul and my. self by Señor Rey de Castro. There wTas no other position he could
take, when once he was on the ground.
Señor Rey de Castro stated that Peru was not in a position to take
any action in the Putumayo region prior to 1910, on account of her
niodus vivendi with Colombia, by virtue of which Peru was to have
jurisdiction of the Napo, Colombia of the Caquetá, and the Putumayo
wals to be a region alias where neither party was to attempt jurisdiction. If any such arrangement was entered into by Peru in 1908,
when this agreement was stated to me by Señor Rey de Castro to have
been entered into, it is a sad commentary on the position of both of
these nations toward the exploitation of their Indians by ruthless
and unprincipled rubber gatherers, for the horrors of the Putumayo

SLAVERY I N PERU.

were then, and had been for some time, a matter of common knowledge, and the character of the white inhabitants of the region was
no secret to either Colombia or Peru.
Señor Eey de Castro also stated that no action had been taken by
Peru against the criminals at an earlier date, because it could be
proved that the crimes were committed almost exclusively by early
Colombian settlers, and to admit this would support the claim of
effective occupation set up by Colombia. This, however, does not
excuse the supineness of the Peruvian Government after the establishment in the district of the Arana House, a Peruvian enterprise^
which by 1906 controlled the region entirely.
Up to the time we arrived in the Putumayo, the sole representative
of the Government for the entire region was the comisario, Señor
Buenaño, at La Chorrera, and a justice of the peace, Señor Torrico,
the latter an employee of the company and with jurisdiction limited
to civil suits and those of the most minor importance. This is what
ihe prefect informed me and what I found to be a fact.
The prefect also informed me that the comisario was actively engaged in traveling throughout the region, continuously inspecting the
country under his charge. At every post I visited I inquired how
often Comisario Buenaño had visited there in the course of his year
in office. At some of the posts he was not even known by name. One
section chief was surprised to leam of his existence. All were surprised at the idea that a Government official might visit their posts.
It developed, as a result of these inquiries, that Señor Buenaño dio!
some traveling, but only to sections about which little or.no question
had been raised. H e visited Oriente, Sur, Sabana, and Santa CataJiña. He also visited El Encanto four times, where he traveled to
two or three of the subsections. At Sur he spent nine months, living
with the section chief, an old school friend of his.
The strength of the Government's hand and the extent of their
control is indicated by the fact that Consul General Señor Rey de
Castro found it necessary, in order to secure information in regard
to his mission, to rely entirely on the company.
The fact is that this vast territory was handed over by the Peruvian
Government to a private business enterprise, at first Peruvian ano!
later British, while the Government made no effort to exercise sovs
ereign rights or establish law and order therein. The sole officials—,
i wo in number—were Government officials in name only, being em-,
ploy ees of the company. I t is only now, after repeated exposure of
the maltreatment of the natives, extending over a period of some
eight or nine years, that the Government has even made a pretense
of doing anything.
The pressure brought to bear in Lima has evidently borne some
fruit, in that just before my British colleague and I left Iquitos, and
apparently only after we had announced our intention of making the
trip, the organization of a force of constabulary for the region was
hastily undertaken. As men could not be secured in the day or two
available, 25 of the soldiers stationed at Iquitos were drafted for the
j-ervice. These men were selected on the day that we left and sent
up on the launch Liberal with us. They were ill equipped and the
facilities necessary for their efficiency were totally lacking. They
have had no training in their new duties snd even the manner of utilizing them is still in doubt. Reenforcements, consist ins: of three bovs

.54

SLAVERY I N PERU.

of from 16 to 18 years of age, reached Chorrera by the second voyage
of the Liberal. Twenty-five more men have been sent up with a milit a r y expedition by the launch Adolfo in the last few days, but there
.seems to be some question whether they are to be used as troops or as
.gendarmes.
Though a lieutenant in the Peruvian army accompanied the gendarmes that went up with us, they were under the direction of Señor
Benito Lores, referred to in my previous dispatches, who had just
been appointed comisario of the Putumayo to succeed Señor Buenaño.
This gentleman is shrewd, intelligent, energetic, and keen. He stated
to me that he had gone up for three or four months only, and did
not expect to stay. He returned with us on the Liberal, but has gone
back to the Putumayo with the military expedition that has gone
u p to reenforce the garrisons on the Colombian frontier.
The confidence that the Peruvian Government has in this, their
new comisario, is shown by the fact that Señor Eey de Castro would
not leave La Chorrera until he had seen several accused persons sent
away on the Liberal, stating that, though Señor Lores promised to
see that they went without fail, he considered it his duty to see that
Lores sent them off.
Señor Lores outlined to me good plans, to divide his men into posts
of 8 or 10 at each of the principal stations, change them frequently
from post to post to prevent their " getting too well acquainted " at
any one post, learn the roads well himself and make surprise visits
frequently at the different stations of the compan}^. He also stated
his intention of applying for a small launch, without which he will
foe in reality altogether dependent on the company. His plans require more money and energy than the Government seems disposed
t o employ, and there seems to be considerable question in his mind
as to how far the Government will go in backing him up. As his
principal interests, which are considerable, are all in Iquitos, it is
not probable that he will long continue to be a factor in the situation.
The company feels that the establishment of constabulary forces
through the district will interfere with their business, scaring the
Indians, whom it will take a long time to teach that these gendarmes
a r e their friends. This is doubtless true,
Another argument advanced by Señor Rey de Castro to account
for the failure of the Peruvian Government to establish ally form
o f administration in the region, was that the whole district (it is
about the size of the State of Maryland) is private property, on
which, according to law, Government forces may not enter except
a t the request of the owners. This would not account for the presence
-of Peruvian troops and it is absurd to deny the police power of the
state under the existing circumstances. A slightly different view is
taken here at the prefecture. The secretary states that as the company's title to the property is not complete the forces of the Government may enter at will, and adds that it is proposed to make this a
condition of the final confirmation of the proposed grant.
Throughout the region, up to the present time, the administration
of any justice that has been administered has been in the hands of
the company's section chiefs. Several of these admitted frankly
that they put in the stocks both Indian and white employees for
minor offences and to maintain order, and, indeed, it is hard to see
what other course was open to them under the circumstances. Señor

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

Loayza, at El Encanto, says that he has encouraged the Indians to
come to him with their disputes and troubles, for the reason that the
sole method of treating these known to the native is so cruel and
drastic. The only penalty they know is death and they have been
known to impose this for the theft of no more than a few bananas.
In the statements made by the Peruvian Government officials regarding the region there is a great tendency to confuse the military
forces there with civil administration. Although Señor Rey cíe
Castro insisted that the troops were instructed to assist in the administration of government in the region, the officer in command on the
ground and the officer in command in Iquitos assured me that the
military had nothing to do with civil matters, their sole business
being to gTiard the frontier. I n addition to this the department will
recall the case of the military officer referred to in my dispatch No. 28
of August 5, 1912, who was rebuked for even offering to give information relative to civil matters, and whose superior was requested by
the prefect, in a letter that I saw, to instruct the officer to attend to
military matters only and leave civil affairs entirely alone.
Señor Rey de Castro stated to me that when the present commandant of the Putumayo region came there to take over command
he found the troops working rubber for the company, and was
obliged on this account to alter the arrangement of the posts—an
important comment on their value in protecting the Indians. At the
present time they are a]l posted well away from the company's workings, in small detachments of 15 to 25 men each, at points on the
borders. I do not believe that there are more than 125 in the whole
region. I found that the statements on this point made to me by the
secretary of the prefecture and given in my dispatch No. 20 of July
16, 1912, are incorrect, so far as the posting of men in the company's
sphere is concerned.
I t is proposed to erect a wireless telegraph station at El Encanto
and the material for it has just left Iquitos with the military expedía few days ago. This is cited in
# tion sent up on the launch Adolfo
* the prefect's letter to Señor Rey ele Castro as one of the measures
taken to provide better government in the region. In reality it is
plainly a military measure and nothing more. I t is hard to see why,
if otherwise, it is located three days' journey from La Chorrera, the
place where it is proposed to establish the center of civil government.
The telephone communication between the two points referred to
does not exist. Attempts were made to build a telephone line, but it
was found to be impracticable.
A great deal was said in the region about slave trading raids along
the borders made by Colombian freebooters and there is little doubt
that such take place. I could not see, however, that much had been
doné by the Government to protect the Indians against these. I n
fact, the military officer referred to in my dispatch No. 28 of August
5, 1912, Avas rebuked for the action that he took in a matter of this
kind in compelling one of these men to release certain Indians he
was detaining against their will.I t is true that the military post on the River Yubineto arrested
and sent to Iquitos certain Colombians accused of similar practices,
as described in my dispatch No. 20 of July 16, 1912, but these prisoners were released in Iquitos for lack of evidence. We met one of
them, a man named Josa, when we got to El Encanto. This man

SLAVERY I N PERU.

appealed to my British colleague and myself for assistance, stating
that the troops had robbed him and lived on his property for some
months and then had sent him to Iquitos on a trumped-up charge
when he threatened to make trouble over it. We referred him to
Señor Eey de Castro as the special envoy sent by the Peruvian Government to inquire into the conduct of affairs in the region, stating
that we could not interfere in the internal affairs of Peru and could
not act for Colombia without authority. Señor Rey ele Castro induced Señor Arana to pay him £300 compensation, in the guise of
purchase of a property to which the man admitted he had no title
and on which he said he was a mere squatter. This, Señor Rey de
Castro said, he arranged to have done "because it would not be n
good thing to have the man talking adversely to Peru." Whatever
the rights and wrongs of this case may have been it is evident that
no action of importance came out of it. The department will also
recall the other similar cases referred to in my previous dispatches
in which nothing was done by the Peruvian Government to punish
the guilty.
As to the prosecutions for the crimes of the past it will be recalled
that, although their existence had been a matter of common knowledge for years, nothing was done until Sir Roger Casement brought
them officially to the notice of the prefect in November, 1910, representing them as having been committed by the agents of a British
company operating in the zone. I t was shortly after this that the
Paredes judicial commission went up, resulting in the indictment
of over 200 persons. Of these, some 75 of the more insignificent
were captured and are still in jail at Iquitos. Most of the principal
ones were allowed to escape. I n all the time since the authorities
have been in possession of the facts presented by their own commissioner no punishments have been imposed and the cases have been
allowed merely to drag along. I t was stated to-me by the prefect
and the acting prefect that this was largely due to the fact that the
indictments of Dr. Paredes were faulty; but, apparently, no effort
had been made to perfect them or to strengthen the Government's *
case and, in the meantime, the difficulty of securing reliable witnesses
is increasing. I n fact, it is quite possible that the indictments were
purposely drawn in such a way as to make prosecutions difficult, if all
that is said of them by the acting prefect be true. I n view of this
it is hard to see why the Government should have again chosen this
gentleman to assist in the task of drawing up a plan of government
for the Putumayo.
I can not see now, after visiting the region, any more than I could
when writing my dispatch No. 19 of July 15, what can be accomplished by the roving commission of Dr. Paredes or by a commission
sitting in Iquitos (none of whom I believe have ever visited the
region in question) toward assisting in a plan of administration.
Dr. Paredes has not gone up and it is stated by his friends that he
does not intend to go. So far as I have been able to ascertain the
commission has not yet had a sitting.
One of the criminals under indictment, Armando (Singer) King,
is openly stated to be in the River Tapiche. Señor Juan Vega,
another implicated person, now a business man in Iquitos, left Iquitos very quietly and hurriedly by the mail steamer while I was away,
going to Switzerland. I t was stated that he left on account of pri-

SLAVERY I F PERU.

vate adAdces from Lima and that he went to Switzerland to avoid
extradition.
While we were in the Putuinayo, to show the activity of the Government in these cases, Sen or Rey de Castro showed us letters from
the archives of the Comisario Buenaño, written by the prefect in
Iquitos, in November and December, 1911, urging him to action in
making arrests, but as the poor man had no facilities at his command the prefect could hardly have hoped to accomplish much by
mere letter writing. Buenafio did attempt to capture one man y
alone, with his own hands, but the man escaped. One of the prefect's letters^ in the latter part of December, stated that the comisario might call on the troops for aid. The troops, however, were
far beyond his ready reach, were limited in number, and located in
posts where they could be of little real assistance even had they been
so disposed. I n this same letter the prefect stated that he knew
that the heads of the Peruvian Amazon Co. felt themselves under
moral obligations to assist the escape of their accused employees,
yet he left the comisario there entirely dependent, even for his daily
food, on that same company.
The fact is that no change was made in the district until the
gendarmes were hurriedly sent up with us and a new comisario
appointed. The proposals now put forward by the Government are
the very minimum for the insurance of order and protection to the
Indians. They depend for the least degree of success on the active,
costly, and sustained efforts of the Government themselves, now suffering serious financial embarrassment, and on the loyal and self-,
denying cooperation of a bankrupt trading company exposed to the
temptation of working out the last pound of rubber while the price
will still enable them to sell at a profit.
The plea of distance and difficulties of communication advanced
by the Peruvians is an admission, in reality, that the region lies
without their natural sphere of administration, an acknowledgment
that Colombia would promptly meet by undertaking to administer
this territory, to which she has never relinquished her claim.
As to public opinion, it stands just where it did when I first got
here, as outlined in my previous dispatches. Considerable resentment has been aroused by the agitation that has taken place abroad,
but it is fear for the political sovereignty of Peru in the region that
has been aroused rather than solicitude for the welfare of the
Indians.
As for the company, I believe that, having followed the policy of
forcing everything out of the native labor that they could, they are
now resting on their oars until the Indian population can recuperate
and the rubber sources replenish themselves; but, believing (as a
result of the way in which the Government has handled the pending prosecution) that they would be immune from interference,,
they would not hesitate a moment to repeat the past were it necessary to make a big showing preparatory to unloading the property.
In fact, it is hardly good policy for those in control to force the
property while the company is in liquidation, but, rather, it is advisable to conserve the resources until after the settlement of the
receivership.
It was about 1898 that the Colombians began working in the region to any considerable extent. Since 1906, as the department will

SLAVERY I N PERU.

recall, it has been controlled by the Arana house and their successors,
the Peruvian Amazon Co. The company operating there now is
still the British company, but in liquidation, with three bodies of
creditors, the Peruvian, Brazilian, and European. The Peruvian
creditors demanded the appointment of Julio C. Arana as liquidator,
in lieu of which they threatened to close everything up, and the
Brazilian and European creditors could do nothing but agree.
Señor Arana states that the European claims have now been largely
settled and that there is only a small European interest now in the
liquidation. He says that he has from three to five years to complete it.
The property, for administration purposes, is divided into two
parts, the La Chorrera section and the E l Encanto section. The
management of each of these is independent of the other, the heads
reporting to the main office in Iquitos. The La Chorrera section is
the larger and more important and was the scene of the atrocities
described in the Casement reports. The E l Encanto section includes
the territory which was first worked by the early Colombian rubber
gatherers.
The administrative staff for the La Chorrera part of the property
consists of a chief manager at La Chorrera and 85 white employees,
located in 10 posts and La Chorrera itself. The section is divided
into subsections, at the head of each of which is a section chief. The
present chief manager, Señor Juan A- Tizón, states that he feels he
has removed all incentive to the abuse of the Indians by abolishing
payment to white emploj^ees on a commission basis, depending on the
amount of rubber produced in their respective sections. H e states
that he stopped this practice on taking charge in January, 1911, and
that no commissions have been paid since. He says that the section
chiefs have no knowledge of the accounts for their sections and do
not know whether they are showing a profit or not; that five of them
receive £25 per month and five £30, all being fully found. H e states
that only one of the old chiefs of section, Señor Seminario, is left,
all the others having been discharged.
The El Encanto portion of the concession is stated by the section
manager, Señor Miguel A. Loayza, to have a staff of 55 white employees. H e says that he also abolished payment by commissions in
January, 1911, though he claims that no bad results had come of it
under his previous administration of the section. He has been chief
manager at El Encanto for six years. He says that all his subchiefs
date back to 1908; that he had gradually discharged the previous
chiefs, as he could, in 1906 and 1907 on account of their ill treatment
of the Indian population. There are nine subsections in this part
of the property.
Señor Tizón, at La Chorrera, I believe to be sincere and honest
and trying to do the best he can. His ideas are good, and if allowed
to work them out he should in time accomplish much for the good
of the Indians. I am inclined to believe, however, that his authority
at present is limited and that he will only be allowed a free hand with
his reforms so long as they suit the business purposes of those in
control of the company. If the company were recapitalized and the
necessity for paying dividends on a heavy stock issue were to arise
he would likely go.

SLAVERY I1ST PERU.

He has a difficult task and realizes it. The situation in the La
Chorrera section is such that the chief manager at La Chorrera might
easily and without blame to himself be unaware of maltreatment of
the Indians at the outposts.
He offered to show me his books, but I stated that I did not care
to see them, being neither a Peruvian nor a British official, but that
if my Peruvian and British colleagues examined them I should be
glad to be present. This examination took place. The books apparently showed no commissions; but it would be easy, if the company were paying them, to credit salary only at La Chorrera and
commissions on the main books at Iquitos, thus deceiving both Mr.
Tizon and anyone who might base his opinion on the La Chorrera
books alone. It- is a little hard to believe how some of the section
chiefs are induced to undertake the work for the same salary that is
paid an ordinary clerk at Iquitos, unless it is with the hope of opportunities for substantial gain in the future.
While the two chief managers are men above the average, those in
charge of the subsections (with a few exceptions) are very ordinary
and, I believe, entirely capable of repeating the atrocities of the past
if instructed to or offered inducements, such as commissions on rubber
produced. I n other words, the machinery is all there; and there is
danger that the temptation to make a big showing preparatory to
seeking new capital might bring about a return to old conditions.
The sole value of the property lies in the labor. The product is
inferior and, I believe, worked out to a considerable extent, and the
only possible way to make a showing is to push the Indians.
Not much can be said for the mortality of the white employees.
Now, as when Sir Roger Casement was there, all the whites live with
native women without the formality of marriage, and change these
consorts at will.
The atrocities of the past were everywhere admitted throughout
the region, and there can be no question of the substantial truth of
the Casement reports. Only one attempt at palliation was made to
me during the whole trip. In La Chorrera one clay Señor Arana
wras telling me of the cruelty that had been shown by the Indians
to the whites, and called up and showed me a Peruvian employee
whose hand and arm had been wounded by a rifle ball which he said
had been fired by Indians in an old encounter some five or six years
previously. The man told a story of a party of Peruvians fallen
upon by Indians, who killed a number of them and wounded him.
When asked, however, how the encounter came to take place, he said
that they were out after Indians who would not work. After this,
Señor Arana did not seem inclined to discuss the matter further.
As previously stated, payment for the labor of the Indians is all
on the advance system, with the exception of a single tribe in the El
Encanto section. The company states that the manner of utilizing
and directing the work of the Indians is as follows: The neighborhood of an Indian house is divided into three parts, two near the
house and a third fairly well removed, which are assigned to the
tribe inhabiting the house. These three parcels of land are worked in
rotation, three months being devoted to each. After sojourning in
the two nearer sections for three months each, living in tambos or
temporary shelters that they build for the purpose, the tribe is

SLAVERY I N PERU.

allowed to return to their house and work chácaras or plantations
for three months, and then proceeds to the far section again to work
rubber. It was stated that no effort is made to keep the natives at
work in the division allotted to a special time, but only to hinder them
from working in those lying fallow. Each one of these working periods is referred to as a " fabrico." In part of the property the year is
divided into three instead of four periods, but the system is essentially the same. In some sections the time allowed to the natives to
work their plantations is divided into periods of one month each at
the end of their* rubber-working peiods. I t will thus be seen that
the time and place of his labor are determined for him by the company and he is not altogether free in any case.
It is not trade and can not properly be so called. The Indians,
who can not count over 10 or 20 and can give no intelligent idea of
quantity, are hardly capable of understanding trading on a system
of advances. Say what you will, it is nothing more nor less than
forced labor, whether it is secured and kept by the rifle or by a
system of peonage based on advances of merchandise.
From their action while we were in the zone, it was apparent that
the company either had something to hide or feared that we might
confuse the Indians' statements of the past with the present. I can
see no other plausible reason for their having us, and particularly
our interpreter, watched so carefully.
I believe that the Indians only work rubber in the fear of what
might be done to them, based on the experiences of the not far distant
' past. I am inclined to believe that " commissions " are still undertaken to get the Indians to work, though it was stated that no pressure is brought to bear on them. At present threats and reminders
of the past would still be sufficiently effective to bring them in, but
Comisario Lores indicated to me that he did not have full confidence in the measures adopted by the expeditions sent out, and
intended as soon as his force was trained and organized to send a
gendarme out with each such " comisión."
Another thing that is hard to believe is that valuable merchandise is handed out to these Indians, whose thieving propensities are
very evident, without any security, and that nothing whatever is
done if they fail to bring in rubber to cover.
There were cepos in plain view at Oriente, Sur, El Encanto, and
Argelia, and they were stated to be used. We heard of some flogging,
too, but it was said by our informants to.be limited to punishments
of the Indians attached to the stations and not extended to those engaged in working rubber. Fears based on the past may account for
the payment by Indians against advances to some extent, as may also
the desire for more of the articles of barter, but I am inclined to believe that these are necessarily reenforced by some additional pressure, though I do not think that the company at present is engaging
in the destructive methods of the past or doing worse than administering an occasional flogging.
The road between Ultimo Retiro, Muinanes, and Entre Rios was
the only place where we had an opportunity to discuss with the
Indians their relations with the company. The captains of the native
tribes, who were considerably above the rank and file in intelligence,
were not afraid to talk in our tent, where there was no company
employee about, after we had made it plain to them that we were

SLAVERY I N PERU.

not engaged in collecting rubber or doing other forest work and
were merely traveling through to see how the Huitotos lived. They
stated that a white man. who had since run away, had treated the
Indians very cruelly for a long time, but that the present man in the
company's house was very kind. They said that they now had ample
time to work their plantations, though previously they had often been
very short of food because they were forced to carry cargo and make
roads in the time that they should have devoted to cultivation. They
were emphatic and unanimous in saying that they wished the whites
would go away altogether and leave them entirely alone, but that
they had come to realize that this would probably never come about.
They said that they felt they were now satisfactorily paid for their
rubber and well treated. They had no conception whatever of the
Peruvian Government, but regarded Arana as the chief of all the
Peruvians.
These Indians were from the Ultimo Retiro section, which is managed by a young Englishman, formerly a storekeeper for the company in La Chorrera. It is the section which has been reduced from
2,000 working Indians to 200. I t is the last section in which to expect maltreatment of the natives, for the simple reason that there are
hardly any of them left to maltreat. I believe that here the company
could see no other way to proceed except by kindness, in the hope of
attracting back to their former haunts some of those who had run
away. It was for this reason, I believe, that Mr. P a r r was not prevented from giving us facilities (as was the case in some of the other
sections when we wished to proceed overland through Indian villages
by ourselves), the Arana and Rey de Castro party believing that it
would be impossible for us to find here anything very derogatory to
the company.
The amounts of rubber brought down by the company continue to
increase. They brought to Iquitos 77.5 tons in August and 46.972
in October, making a total for the current year to date of 293.93 tons,
as compared to 154.72 for the corresponding period in 1911 and to
225.53 tons for the whole year 1911. They will have one more cargo
to bring down, which will make the total for the year 1912 at least
350 tons.
There is no doubt that the company is in a very bad way financially,
and, as something will have to be done before long unless the price of
rubber goes up, the temptation to abuse is imminent and strong.
Considering the inaccessibility of the region (with consequent high
cost of transportation for supplies and product), the unproductive
nature of the soil (making food extremely scarce), and the very inferior quality of the rubber produced, it is hard to see how the enterprise can be made to pay without hard treatment of the Indians,
forced labor to say the least.
As to the past, the truth is that the district was the ash barrel of
both Peru and Colombia, and the concessionaires, though cognizant
of this, were so1 anxious to make money that they took into their
employ without investigation any of the ashes who professed a willingness to work. The deplorable result is already known to the
department. I t was due to the criminal negligence of the Peruvian
and British concerns, who in turn controlled the district, and the total
absence of Government supervision. The British directors who entrusted the conduct of their business here entirely to Peruvian hands

SLAVERY I N PERU.

can not rely on that as relieving them from responsibility in the
matter.
Nevertheless, in the absence of government machinery in the zone,.
I question whether the withdrawal of the company would better the
situation of the Indians, for the territory would then be thrown open
to freebooting expeditions like those of the Yaguas and Yubineto,
discussed in my dispatches Nos. 13 and 20 of July 1 and July 16.
respectively, and in these slave raids the Colombians would be as
much to be feared as the Peruvians.
From what I have heard in Iquitos and from various things said
to me on the trip in the Putumayo I am inclined to believe that an
attempt is contemplated to refloat the enterprise with capital from
the United States. Anyone considering the investment of money in
the proposition should proceed with great care, on account of the
unusual circumstances of the case.
As to the proposed establishment of missions in the district, the
company representatives and Señor Arana state that they would not
mind missions of Peruvians, but they are noncommittal as to what
their attitude would be toward missions of foreign nationality. I t
is easier to understand this when one bears in mind the fact that
the authorities of the State church in Iquitos do not favor the establishment of missions in the Putumayo, fearing that they will not bé
allowed a free hand. I n other words, the company is willing, if
they must have missionaries, to have those whom they can keep
under their thumb.
Although little or no interest is generally taken in religion in
Iquitos, the local press of late have been making a great outcry
against the admission to the Putumayo of missionaries of any nationality other than Peruvian, and columns have been published on the
subject. Throughout, however, the fact has been overlooked that in
all trans-Andean Peru there are only two or three missionaries of
Peruvian nationality. The apostalic prefect here, who is not a
Peruvian, stated to the British consul that it has been found impossible to get Peruvians to come over the mountains for the work; that
they- only come when forced to, and then leave as soon as they can
get away.
I do not believe that foreigners coming here as missionaries .would
get a particularly pleasant welcome. They certainly would get no
support. The support furnished locally to their own State church is
best illustrated by a glance at the iron shanty that has done duty
for many years as a church edifice, the only one in Iquitos, a photograph of which is included in the collection inclosed.
The establishment of such a mission would involve heavy expense.
The launches they would have to provide for the carriage of the
necessary food supplies would cost them at least $6,000 to $9,000 a
year, as it is not probable that they could arrange with the company
to transport their goods. I n addition to this they would have tó
take into account the extraordinary cost of all the necessaries of life"
in Iquitos.
On our return to the Brazilian border in the Putumayo we were
handed by the Brazilian customs authorities a communication from
the consul general for Colombia in Manaos. As this does not affect
the subject matter of the present report it will be made the subject
of a separate dispatch.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

A few days ago Consul General Key de Castro also sent identical
notes to my British colleague and myself. Copies of this, a lengthy
document but one which does not affect this report, will be sent with
translations to the department, together with a dispatch discussing it.
A duplicate of the present dispatch will follow by a later mail,,
and a copy of it will be sent to the minister at Lima.
I regret that both the company and the Government adopted the
course of preventing us from seeing the actual conditions wherever
possible, but trust that the course I pursued in the matter may meet
with the department's approval.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.
LNo. 100.
PREFECTURE or

Translation.]
THE DEPARTMENT OF LORETO,

Iquitos, August #, 1912.
The CONSUL GENERAL FOR PERU IN MANAOS,

On special mission to the River

Putumayo,
Mouth of the Putumayo.
The chief clerk of the ministry of foreign relations, in a telegram
of July 31 ultimo, tells me that, as you have been appointed a commissioner to accompany Messrs. George Babington Michell, His Britannic Majesty's consul in Iquitos, and James S. Fuller, consul of
the United States of North America in that port, who are going to
the Eiver Putumayo to ascertain the condition of the aborigines of
that region, I should give you information Avith regard to the measures taken by our Government to prevent the perpetration of crime
and the measures taken to capture delinquents.
On account of the indictment formulated by the fiscal of the
supreme court, Dr. D. Jose S. Cavero, the Government arranged that
one of the judges of first instance should go from Iquitos to the Putumayo for the purpose of drawing up a " sumario " in regard to the
crimes committed in that region. Dr. Romulo Paredes, who at the
time was charged with one of the benches of first instance, was the
one designated to carry out this difficult mission, and went to the
region referred to, accompanied by clerks of the court, interpreters,,
and the troops necessary to surround him with guarantees. This expedition was completed by the presence of Medical Dr. Fernandez
Eomero, who was to make the technical examination of such bodies
as the judge should order. After some months of incessant labor and
examination by the commission of nearly all the more important of
the sections into which the business of the Peruvian Amazon is divided, the judicial commission of investigation brought in 215 indictments against various persons.
The repeated orders, both of the President of the Republic and of
the department of foreign relations, which demanded of this office
the immediate capture of the accused, were fulfilled as best they could
be, and some (captures) of importance were made, but it was impossible to catch some of the accused, as they had fled abroad, and others
because they had died in the lapse of time between the commission
of the crimes and the date when the region was examined by t h e
judicial commission.

SLAVER Y I N PERU.

Despite the fact that all those who figure in the indictment as
authors or accomplices have been sought for by the authorities, who
have taken those whom they could find, it has not been possible to
catch those that have taken refuge in Brazilian territory.
After this our Government, with indefatigable zeal, has made
various arrangements for the establishment in the zone referred to of
the rule of law and justice, and has named a special commission to
l^ropose for the consideration of the Government a sincere plan for
the establishment of the proper judicial procedure adapted particularly to the said zone.
Furthermore, an auxiliary commission has been nominated, to have
its seat in Iquitos, composed of the writer, the fiscal of the court, and
Dr. J. V. Maradiegue, for the purpose of assisting in the formation of
opinions in the capital of the Republic, and, among other things,
Dr. Eomulo Paredes has been ordered to go to the Putumayo and
examine the region and there personally collect iresh data and impressions, so that the question can be taken up with absolute knowledge of the circumstances.
What is more, the Government has created a corps of gendarmerie
especially for the Putumayo, completely independent of our garrisons, to second in everything the action of the political (military)
and judicial powers. The first lot of gendarmes is proceeding to the
-district by the same steamer that takes this letter.
Furthermore, Señor Benito Lores has been appointed special
comisario of the Putumayo, to reside in La Chorrera and travel
through the entire zone under his jurisdiction, inquiring into the
crimes that may be committed and capturing those who still live there
ras fugitives from justice. Señor Lores has special powers and instructions from the department of foreign relations, with the object
of establishing a wise and honest police administration, which will
furnish every possible guaranty to those who live in this distant zone,
especially to the aborigines, whom our Government watches over with
all the concern that is awakened by their primitive customs.
With the creation of the office of special commissary and the corps
•of gendarmes it is certain that in a very short time those who have
not yet been captured will be caught, and the percentage of crime will
be reduced to a minimum or will entirely disappear, as is natural
for it to do.
In a short time the Government will create a court of the first
instance in the Putumayo in order to prosecute with all promptness
the cases which are brought there, in this way making justice more
prompt and efficacious than by the procedure through the interchange
of judicial requisitions and other delays due to the great distances.
There is also to be installed a wireless station in El Encanto, in
-order to maintain a constant and rapid communication with this
port, and in that way with the capital of the Republic. The tower
is already boxed and ready to be sent to the Putumayo.
As you see, our Government is doing and has done all that is
jbumanly possible to control the action of justice in a zone so distant,
and is most actively occupied in removing the bad impression that
the declarations of Sir Casement have made in their own mind, those
declarations which were such disastrous revelations for our country.

SLAVERY IN PERU.

The very dispatch of a functionary of your rank shows the interest
of our Government in the normalization of this very vast section of
our territory.
You, with your great talent and well-known discretion, will understand how to insure that the consuls learn the truth of affairs.
The comisario will show you his archives, and in these you will
find in all detail the orders sent him by this office and what has been
done toward the accomplishment of the judge's mandates.
E.

CASTAÑEDA.

[Translation.]
EXTRACT FROM TELEGRAM N O . 2 .
A U G U S T 10,

1912.

We have informed English and American Governments that you
are going to the Putumayo on an official mission of investigation.
You are to present to us detailed and exact reports of all that you
investigate and observe in company with the consuls. The common
object is to discover true facts, and the Peruvian Government has for
its duty the repression of crimes if they perchance exist. See that
the consuls sign with you records (formal acts) substantiating the
data collected and investigations made in each zone.
ALTHAUS.
[Translation.]
EXTRACT FROM TELEGRAM N O . 2 .
AUGUST 10,

1912.

By agreement with the minister, I send you the following instructions: First. Your mission consists in insuring that the English and
American consuls who are going to the Putumayo in the steamer
Liberal obtain exact data, free from all prejudice, regarding the
situation in that zone. Second. The investigations, as we have shown
the chancelleries of England and the United States, will not repeat
those already made by Casement. Third. A new comisario, with a
force, is going to the Putumayo. H e is charged to repress crimes
if they should exist and send the guilty to Iquitos. Fourth. Action
must be taken without temporizing with delinquents, according to
the reiterated orders of the Government.
ALTHAUS.
[Translation,]
PREFECTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LORETO,

Iquitos, August 5, 1912.
The

CONSUL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA :

I take pleasure in informing you that Señor Carlos Bey de Castro,
consul general for Peru in Manaos (Brazil), has been commissioned
by my Government to proceed to the Putumayo zone on a journey of
investigation, with the object of ascertaining the fulfillment of the
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

SLAVERY I N PERU.

measures taken there and to see how the instructions issued to the
authorities of that zone are being carried out.
Señor Carlos Rey de Castro will embark in the steamer Liberal
when she passes the mouth of the Putumayo River.
E. CASTAÑEDA.

To Señor JAMES S. FULLER,
Consul de EE. UU. de America en I quitos.
[Confidential.]
LABOR CONDITIONS I N THE PUTUMAYO REGION.
O N BOARD STEAMSHIP MANCO,

Iquitos-Peru, November 20, 1912.
The SECRETARY OE STATE, "Washington.
S I R : I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy and a translation of the letter, with its annexes, addressed to my British colleague
and myself by Consul General Rey de Castro at Iquitos, after our
return from the Putumayo, and which was referred to in my dispatch
No. 33, of October 28, 1912. I also inclose a copy and a translation
of my letter No. 129, of October 19, addressed to Señor Rey de Castro
in acknowledgment of his communication.
The first-named letter and its annexes contain several inaccuracies
and a number of statements which in themselves are not altogether
clear and might even mislead the department if not fully explained.
In the first place, Señor Rey de Castro is mistaken in stating that
he informed us of the object of his journey immediately after boarding the Liberal. As stated in my dispatch No. 33 (referred to above),
he said nothing to indicate that his mission was other than what the
acting prefect had informed us until the night before we arrived in
La Chorrera, or six days after he boarded the Liberal. This was his
first intimation to the effect that he desired or intended tb accompany us.
A copy of the letter of the acting prefect to Consul General Rey de
Castro (referred to in the second paragraph of the latter's note to
us) accompanied my dispatch No. 33 and was discussed therein, as
was also my refusal to sign formal acts with our Peruvian colleague
dealing with conditions of law and order in the various sections to
be visited. The statement I made to Señor Rey de Castro as to the
nature of my mission in the region was given in full in the dispatch
No. 33 (referred to above), which, it will be noted, does not exactly
agree with the way in which that gentleman puts it in his letter.
As to collaborating with my Peruvian colleague, as suggested by
him, without going through the formality .of signing acts, I made it
plain to him that I could not undertake this course of action—an
interference with the internal affairs of Peru—any more than I could
the other without definite instructions from my Government, but that
there was nothing to prevent the Peruvian Legation at Washington
from asking for a copy of my report if they should see fit to do so.
Furthermore (though I did not state this to Señor Rey de Castro),
I considered that his method of investigation, i. e., by calling in
Indians to dances and relying on the company's employees for all
food, accommodation, information, and even for interpretation from
the Indian language, was better adapted to cover up any shortcomings than to make possible any throwing of " light on the facts."

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I did not make any " examination " of the company's books at La
Chorrera nor at E l Encanto, as Señor Eey de Castro's letter would
seem to indicate, nor, so far as I know, was any real examination
made. I was present at La Chorrera, but not at E l Encanto, when the
manager showed to Messrs. Rey de Castro and Michell certain entries
which he considered substantiation of his statements with regard to
the method of remuneration of the white staff. I do not consider
that the books of a branch agency which does not pay the men in
question are any corroboration of the claims made and in connection
with which these entries were exhibited. The first I saw of any
dispatches addressed to the managers at La Chorrera and El Encanto
was after my return to Iquitos, from the copies which accompanied
the letter under discussion.
I t is true that Consul Michell and I drew up our own itinerary in
the first place, but Señor Rey de Castro neglected to state that, once
decided on, we were not permitted the liberty of changing it in the
slightest particular; and he also omitted to say that at Atenas he and
Señor Arana, for reasons of their own, saw to it that we were forced
to abandon our original plan, drawn up " on our own initiative with
entire liberty."
The department will recall that it was only by a stratagem executed
in the middle of the night that we were enabled to travel without our
undesirable escort from Ultimo Retiro to Entre Rios or to see anything of the real life of the Indians. The section chief who was
responsible for furnishing us the facilities for this is now on board
the vessel on which I am writing this dispatch and tells me that he
was severely censured for it. I n the effort to arrange for traveling
overland through the Indian villages from Atenas to La Chorrera,
in accordance with the understanding we had at the outset of our
trip with Mr. Tizon (who had assured us it was entirely feasible),
I went ahead of the main party to the first-named place. There I
made all arrangements with the section chief, who told me the road
was good and the trip would give us an excellent view of native life,
for carriers and facilities to go on with. After the others arrived,
however, and interviewed him, this gentleman found, though he had
not had an opportunity to look into the matter, that the road was
impassible, and that we could not get carriers for the three days'
journey because the Indians had to work their u chácaras," or plantations. This, however, did not prevent their being called in to dance
two days for Señor Rey de Castro and spend a third in carrying the
baggage to Puerto Peruano.
As to the picket of gendarmes, jwe particularly did not want anything of the kind, and said so, seeing no necessity for it and fearing
they might intimidate the Indians. Although they were a nuisance
and scared away the section chief and all the Indians from the first
place where we stopped, the Peruvian consul general insisted in
retaining the, stating that they were necessary to support his
dignity.
The photographer to whom Señor Rey de Castro refers was a
Portuguese in the employ of Señor Arana. Señor Arana told me
this himself, and added that the pictures were for the use of the
company (presumably for illustrating a new prospectus).
As the department is a w a r ^ far from proving " the correctness of
the particulars transmitted by the prefect of the Department of

SLAVEBY I N PEKU.

Loreto with regard to the persistent and active labor of the political,
military, and judicial authorities of Peru," the one thing that could
not be concealed from us anywhere on the trip was the very absence
of any governmental action worth mentioning.
Mr. Michell informs me that he never ventured to express any
opinion of the present condition of the Kongo natives. H e has not
been in the Kongo for some five years or so.
As to the point made by Señor Rey de Castro relative to the possession of arms by the natives, he forgets that they were thus armed
at the time of the atrocities and omits to state that the guns to which
he refers are antiquated muzzle-loading shotguns, from which the
employes, armed with modern rifles and automatic pistols and revolvers, have little more to fear than from the old native blowpipes,
arrows, and spears, and that the company has absolute control of the
supply of powder, by exercising which they could at any time they
wished render practically useless all these trade muskets.
I do not consider that the evidence we saw justifies the formally
stated conclusions in Señor Rey de Castro's letter. As to the amount
of rubber produced per man, I do not know what can be the source of
his figure of 800 to 1,000 kilos per annum. Estimates of 250 kilos per
man per annum in southern rivers are regarded in Iquitos as high.
I n the upper Madre de Dios and Inambari regions, where conditions
do not differ greatly and where abuses of the Indian labor are freely
stated to exist, the average is about 85 kilos a year. The figures
given me by the company managers were 50 to 60 kilos for La
Chorrera sections and 120 for El Encanto. The tables given in the
annexes to the Peruvian consul general's letter, it will be observed,
do not by any means check.
The money value of goods delivered to the Indian, which Señor
Rey de Castro derives from the tables furnished him by the company,
is no measure of the Indian's remuneration for his work. A t the
present time in the La Chorrera sections an Indian must bring in
20 kilos for a machete or an ax, 40 kilos for the cheapest grade of
small canvas hammock, and from 60 to 70 kilos for a muzzle-loading
trade gun. I n other words, the average laborer can get for himself
by working the average amount of rubber for a whole year in the
La Chorrera sections a hammock and an ax or a gun without any
ammunition. The following table, from figures given me by one of
the chiefs of section, will give further details. The money values
are retail sale prices in Iquitos, expressed in both Peruvian soles and
the equivalent in United States currency.

Articles.

Small canvas hammock.
Cheap woven hammock
Good figured hammockTrade musket (1 barrel)
Trade musket (2 barrel)
Machete
Ax
Trousers
Strap for belt
Working shirt.
Blanket

Kilos
(rubber).

50
65-70
40
60-70
20
20

Dollars
Soles
(United
(Peruvian
States
currency). currency).
5.00
7.00
18.00
13.50
18.00
2.50
2.50
2.50
.50
1.00
2.00

2.44
3.41
8.77
6.57
8.77
1.22
1.22
1.22
.24
.487
.97

SLAVERY IK PERU.

Particular attention is called, in the letter under discussion, to the
point referred to in my No. 33, and which is stated on page 4, lines
21 ff. of the translation inclosed, admitting that Señor Rey de Castro,
after being introduced on the scene by a subterfuge and after having
forced his company on us, considered the espionage practiced by himself and associates to be a part of his official duty.
I have gone thus into detail with regard to the letter addressed to
us by the Peruvian consul general for the reason that it constitutes
his effort, as a representative of the Peruvian Government, to put
words of exoneration into the mouths of my British colleague and
myself—an exoneration^ I do not consider justified by the evidence
and the letter will doubtless be published with this end in view. I
did not enter into any controversy with Señor Rey de Castro on the
subject for the principal reason that I have not yet received any
intimation from the Peruvian. Government to the effect that they
wished him to be associated with me in the mission intrusted to me
by the department, and I did not think it advisable to address him in
any way that might be construed as recognition of any authorized
participation by him in my investigations.
There are a few points in the correspondence annexed to Señor Eey
de Castro's letter which throw some interesting side lights on the
situation. I n considering this correspondence it should be borne in
mind that there is room for very little doubt that the queries of the
Peruvian consul general were drawn up in close collaboration with
Señor Arana and his managers.
The very positive statement to the effect that the sole remuneration
of the white staff is by means of the salaries shown us on the pay roll
is without foundation in fact. I inclose an advertisement which has
been appearing daily in E l Heraldo, of Iquitos, for some months, to
the effect that the head office in Iquitos offers a bonus to employees
who distinguish themselves in the vigilance they exercise over the
work and in the " comisions " (i. e., patrols of native settlements)
intrusted to them. The English section chief of Ultimo Eetiro, who
has just left the company's service, but was in charge there when we
visited the post, and'who is traveling on this ship, tells me that this
has long been the practice. He himself received a bonus amounting
to some 10 per cent of his salary. I t will readily be seen that this
bonus arrangement puts it in the hands of the Zumaeta management
at Iquitos to create the very stimulus which led to excesses in the past
without its appearing in the books at La Chorrera or El Encanto.
And this brings me to another point. Conversation with this recent
employee of the company confirms the suspicion expressed in my
No. 33 to the effect that Señor Tizon's authority is merely nominal, the
real power and management resting in the hands of Pablo Zumaeta in
Iquitos, against whom, as the department is aware, a criminal case
is still pending.
The schools referred to as proposed would be of great benefit to the
illegitimate half-caste children of the employees at La Chorrera and
E l Encanto, where it is proposed to locate them; but they have little
or no bearing on the question of the native^ in the forest.
The gentleman referred to as charged with the purchase of mules
left the^ company's employ and went by the Liberal to Iquitos, from
where he has gone to New York on business of his own.

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

The letter of Dr. Paredes is a well-merited testimony to the work
attempted by Señor Tizón, but that is as far as it goes. Moreover,
it is based on observations of some 18 months ago, when fear was
first implanted in the hearts of those in charge in the Putumayo
region.
I have learned from the military authorities since closing my
dispatch No. 33 of October 14 that the 25 men who left Iquitos the
last of October for the Putumayo on board the launch Adolfo were
not gendarmes, but soldiers to reenforce the frontier garrisons. The
gunboat America was also to leave Iquitos soon after I did, the delay
being due to the fact that there was no cash available in the department treasury to pay for coal, and credit was exhausted. I t is evident that the Peruvians fear that trouble is brewing on the Colombian border.
I have also learned that while we were in Ultimo Retiro there
were employees working there who were under indictment for the
old crimes. I t seems strange that Consul General Rey de Castro^
whose mission was directly connected with matters of this kind and
who had shown me a list furnished him of those indicted and still
at liberty, took neither notice of nor action in these cases.
I am also informed by the recent section chief at Ultimo Retiro,
who was in charge when we were there, that human bones are much
in evidence along the old trails and by-roads in that section. I t will
be recalled that here the working population was reduced from 2,000
to 200 in a few years.
As to public opinion in Iquitos, a large subscription dinner was
iven to J. C. Arana just before I left by the inner circle of the chamer of commerce. At this Consul General Rey de Castro and others
made speeches lauding him and the company. Only one discordant
note was heard. One of the speakers made the point that " throwing bouquets " was all very well, but that Peru and the whole civilized
world were waiting to hear from Arana some word or proof to exonerate him from the charges under which he rests.
Local merchants in Iquitos state that the agitation abroad has
greatly affected Iquitos credit in Europe in all lines, and under the
present business conditions constitutes a serious question for them.
For the convenience of the department, the present dispatch and
its inclosures are forwarded in duplicate. A copy is also being sent
to the minister at Lima.
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul,

[Translation of letter (with annexes) addressed to Consul Fuller by Consul General Rey
de Castro Oct. 14, 1912.]
IQUITOS, October H, 1912,
Messrs. GEORGE B. MICHELL, His Britannic Majesty^s Consul at
Iquitos, and JAMES S. FULLER, Consul of the United States of
North America, in the same town.
GENTLEMEN: On the day following my transshipment to the
steamer Liberal, on the 11th of August last, at the mouth of the Putumayo, I fulfilled the pleasant duty of making you acquainted, as
you will remember, with the object of my journey to the zone watered

SLAVERY I N PERU.

by the said river and its affluents, the Igaraparana and the Caraparana, and proposed to you at the same time that, in accordance with
instructions from the Lima chancery, we should sign statements in
the places that we shoiild visit, in order to place on record the information and the impressions that we might gather there.
You will also recollect that I put into your hands a copy of the
dispatch, dated the 2d of the said month of August, in which the
acting prefect of this department, Don E. Castañeda, transmitted to
me exact and precise particulars which demonstrate conclusively
that the Government of Peru calls into action all the lawful means
compatible with its attributions to bring to order the situation in
the extensive zone referred to, and in which the Peruvian Amazon
Co. (Ltd.), an enterprise registered in London, but which does not
yet enjoy definitive titles of possession to the lands which it there
exploits, carries on the greater part of its rubber business.
You will not have forgotten, either, that you both excused yourselves from accomplishing the formality of subscribing statements,
on the ground that your commission was simply of a consular nature,
unconnected with considerations of another kind, with the exception
of that relating to the possibility of the establishment in those rivers
of missions of Catholic priests for the purpose of teaching religion
to the Indians. Mr. Michell was good enough to add that his visit
to the Putumayo was in fulfillment of general instructions from his
Government, which reached his consulate in March of the present
year.
I do not doubt that you also bear in mind that in consequence of
your declining to subscribe I expressed to you the satisfaction I
should experience if, profiting by your visit to these rivers and in
the exercise of your proved aptitude as sagacious and enlightened
consular officers, you would do me the honor of transmitting to me
any particulars, reference, or impression which you might consider
conducive to the realization of the ends pursued by the Peruvian
Government in sending me to the above-mentioned zone. I then said
to you that the chancery at Lima and the whole of Peru would regard with legitimate satisfaction that the representatives of two
countries so cultured and advanced as England and the United States
of the north should take the opportunity of affording us their collaboration in the righteous proposition of demonstrating to the world
that if in reality excesses have been committed in the Putumayo the
former system has been changed in a substantial manner and the
whole of the public powers of Peru are being employed in the work
of regeneration. Your word, which must be supposed to be exempt
from prejudice, sincere and independent, was called to influence
universal opinion, which, believing that that which belongs to an
epoch now passed away is still the actual condition, is alarmed at the
narratives put into circulation to-day by means of the press in the
principal cities of the globe.
Lastly, you can not have forgotten that each time we arrived in oneof the different sections worked by the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.)
I repeated to you my request that you would be so good as to honor
me with your precious assistance to get light upon the facts and to
adopt the means required by the circumstances, and I took care to
explain to you with some insistence that in my capacity of special

SLAVEEY I N PEKU.

commissioner of the Government I had at my disposal the elements
necessary to correct abuses and to remedy deficiencies.
Before Mr. Michell set out on his journey to the sections Argelia,
Union, and Florida, in the Encanto, as Mr. Fuller was not accompanying him in his visits to those posts, I again begged him to grant
me the favor of his intelligent and sagacious collaboration.
I can not entertain the least doubt that you have given your attention to my justifiable solicitude; first, because I am dealing with
two officials who, by reason of their office and their humanitarian
sentiments, can not be supposed to be indifferent to the lot of a considerable number of men, nor to the prestige of the nation in which
they discharge their functions, and, secondly, because on various
occasions they accompanied me in inquiring into the acts and practices relative to the system established by the Peruvian Amazon Co.
(Ltd.) (examination of books, reading dispatches addressed to the
managers at La Chorrera, E l Encanto, etc.) and they did me the
favor of expressing their opinion on the measures which I considered
it proper to suggest in order to make definitive the effectiveness of
the laws and to guarantee, in a permanent manner, the life, the
rights, and the interests of all the inhabitants of the Putumayo.
The itinerary of the different journeys which were performed
was that which you drew up, on your own initiative, with entire
liberty, and considering only the distances and facilities for the
marches as well as the means of river transportation which had to
be reckoned with.
Señor Benito Lores, the special commissary of the region made, in
concert with myself, the necessary arrangements for your most complete safety, as is proved by the fact that a picket of gendarmes accompanied us all the time.
So as to respect your liberty of action, we secured to you the enjoyment of the greatest independence in your investigations, without forgetting, however, that our most elementary duty as representatives of Peru in a territory under the national domination
obliged us to note with careful attention what might be the particulars, the information, and the impressions you were "gathering.
For the purpose of fixing up in a graphic form the general proof
of your action in the rivers visited, I took with me a photographic
artist, and I preserve reproductions of views, groups, and incidents
of the tour, which it will be a pleasure to me to send to you shortly,
knowing that they will be useful to you to accentuate the clearness of
your reports.
During the time that you were in the zone to which I refer, you
have been able to prove the correctness of the particulars transmitted
by the prefect of the department of Loreto with regard to the persistent and active labor of the political, military, and judicial authorities of Peru to bring to order the situation of the Putumayo,
both as concerns the full exercise of our sovereignty and as concerns
the rule of our laws and administrative practices.
You have had occasion to observe the zeal and diligence displayed
by the chief of staff of the fifth region, Lieut. Col. Don Antonio
Castro, whom you met in La Chorrera. You have been witnesses of
the energy and rapidity with which the special commissary, Señor
Benito Lores, who accompanied you in your journey there and back,
proceeds, bringing on the latter occasion, under his own direct

SLAVERY I N PERU.

supervision, five individuals against whom, an order for preventive
apprehension had been issued. You have had knowledge of the
intervention which is the part of ordinary justice in the ventilation
of matters within its competence, since I placed in the hands of Mr.
Fuller, for him to read, the provisional deed executed before the
justice of the peace resident at E l Encanto, Señor Oscar Coloma
Eeborg, by Messrs. Josa and Arana and, finally, you have seen that
in every part Peruvian gendarmes served you as guardians, you
having on two occasions, at Ultimo Eetiro and E l Encanto amiably
requested the aid of the said gendarmes for the better protection of
your persons and your baggage.
I understand that a journey such as you have accomplished, without delaying more than a short time in each place, would not permit
you to form a definite conception of some things, but I think, too,
that the general impressions which you have received and the information acquired from books and documents of the company (such
as the examination of the current accounts of the chiefs of sections
aiid the perusal of the letter written by the Judge Dr. Eomulo Paredes to Señor J u a n A. Tizón, manager at La Chorrera) are sufficient
to convey an approximate idea of the reality, and all the more as
I am treating, as I said before, with officials of long experience, who
have served in regions which have many points of contact or similarity with that of the Putumayo.
I remember in this connection that in conversation with Mr. Michell
he repeated to me several times that the position of the Peruvian
Indian in the Putumayo is much superior to the present position of
the workmen of the Kongo, not to that which weighed upon them
under the old system.
Further, there were presented to your intelligent and perspicacious
observation facts and scenes, of which 1 preserve photographic testimony, which carry with themselves the resolution of many doubtful
points; for example, that referring to the life and alimentation of the
Indians. You have looked upon very considerable groups of the
latter, even on multitudes amounting to more than 1,200, as in Occidente, and you must have been convinced that all that has been spread
about with respect to their emaciation and bad nourishment is to-day
a fable of the worst kind. Men of your enlightenment and clearsightedness can not be presumed to accept, even as a remote hypothesis, that the aborigines of the Putumayo may be divided into two
grand classes—one the starving and the lean, the anemic and extenuated ; the other the vigorous and healthy. When one has seen the
number of Indians—men, women, and children—that you and I have
seen there is no right whatever to imagine that these radical and
absurd differences exist.
Apart from the cordial and friendly manner in which the Indian
addresses his superiors, the chiefs, and employees of sections, there is
a particular-which will not have escaped your observation and which
can not be more significant; almost all the adult Indians are armed
with carbines and shotguns, which they use for hunting wild animals
and birds for food. What does this prove ? That a reign of terror
does not exist there at the present time, for it can not be conceived
that arms would be given to a man who is dominated by threats and
punishments to make him strong and stir him up to vengeance; added
to which vengeance would be all the more easy as to-day the staff of

SLAVERY IN

PERU.

white or civilized employees is very much reduced, in some sections
not amounting to more than two or three individuals.
The picture presented to us by the Indians in the different aspects
of their life, whether engaged in the industrial occupations or enjoying themselves in feasts and dances, the questions addressed to them
on their position and their relations to their chiefs, and the state of
the houses and fields which belong to them, as well as the examination
of the books of the offices at Chorrera and Encanto and the communications which I have received from Señores J u a n A. Tizon and
Miguel S. Loayza, in charge of these factories, I consider justify me
in forming the following conclusions:
1. The procedure employed to-day by the Peruvian Amazon Co.
(Ltd.) complies with the twofold obligation to care for the lives and
health of the natives who lend it their services and to stimulate their
better expansion and development.
2. The Indians do not perform crushing labor nor labor which
wastes their energies, seeing that the proportion of rubber extracted
by each one of them annually does not amount to 150 kilos, the greater
number of them extracting only 80 to 100 kilos, a very exiguous
amount when it is remembered that any cauchero will extract 800 to
1,000 kilos in the same period of time.
3. The remuneration which the Indians receive for their work is
much superior, according to what Mr. Michell declared, to that which
is given to the working people of the Kongo, and exceeds by more
than 20 centavos per kilo that which, according to the famous American writer, Mr. H . C. Pearson, the rubber makers of India, Java,
etc., earn.
4. The labor demanded by the porterage of the rubber is lessened
by various circumstances:
(a) The limitation of the weight of a load to 30 kilos.
(b) The limitation of a day's work to four hours.
(c) The good condition of the roads^ above all for the Indian, who
is accustomed to travel by almost inaccessible trails.
(d) The transport of the rubber for the more considerable distances by means of launches in the service of the company, the
Huitota, Callao, Veloz, etc.
5. The Government of Peru takes care, perhaps going beyond the
measure that the economic conditions of the country permit, to take
to the Putumayo all the elements capable of contributing to the maintenance of the national sovereignty and the force of the laws, practices, and uses that regulate the public and private life of the Peruvian commonwealth.
I n addressing you the present communication it was not only my
desire to recall facts and circumstances which I conceive to be acceptable to you in your twofold character as consuls of two countries
friendly to Peru and as men of noble sentiments, but it was also my
intention to carry out my offer to hand to you the documents and
particulars which I have the honor to annex hereto, viz:
Copy of the dispatch of the acting prefect of this Department to
which I refer at the beginning of this communication.
Ditto of the notes which I exchanged with Señores Juan A. Tizon
and Miguel S. Loayza, managers at Chorrera and Encanto, respectively, on the organization and plans for reform in the zones which
are under their care.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Statistical tables showing the number of Indians at work in the
Putumayo and its affluents, the tribes to which they belong, the quantity of rubber they extract, and the remuneration they receive.
Copy of the letter addressed by the judge, Dr. Eomulo Paredes, to
Señor Tizón, dated July 4, 1911, in which assurance is made by that
severe magistrate that the system has changed in a radical manner,
with visible good effect for the natives.
I am convinced that you must receive favorably the information
and documents above mentioned, and I will not conclude without repeating to you my request that you will be so good as to grant me the
valuable assistance of your ideas and your observations so far as you
think would contribute to the satisfaction of the aspirations of Peru
in the desire to completely normalize the position of the territory
which we have just traveled over, and in which it has been such an
honor to me to enjoy your interesting and enlightened company.
I avail myself of this opportunity to repeat to you the assurance
of my especial appreciation and respect.
C. R E Y DE CASTRO.
[No. 2.

Translation.]
CHORRERA,

August 18, 191%.
Señor J U A N A. TIZÓN,
Manager the Peruvian Amazon Go.¡ Chorrera:
F o r the better carrying out of the commission which the supreme
government has been so good as to confide to me, and of which you
have been informed by my dispatch No. 1, of this date, I hope you
will kindly furnish me with the following particulars:
First. What amounts does the Peruvian Amazon Co. expend in
remuneration to the natives it has in its service;
Second. What form of payment has it adopted to remunerate the
services of its staff of employees, whether it pays them salaries only
or whether, besides this, it assigns them so much per cent on the
quantities of rubber which their respective sections produce;
Third. What measures has the company taken to assist in the
proposals of the national justice to capture the individuals accused
of having committed crimes in the Rivers Putumayo, Igaraparana,
and Caraparana; and
Fourth. How many of the individuals who used to work in the
said rivers have been captured in the zone exploited by the company,
in accordance with the warrants of arrest issued by the judge of
first instance in Iquitos.
God guard you.
C. R E Y DE CASTRO.

A dispatch in the same terms was addressed to Señor Miguel S,
Loayza, manager at E l Encanto.
[Translation.]
CHORRERA,

August ££, 191%,
Señor C. R E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
S I R : Replying to your dispatch No. 2 of the 18th instant, I pass
on to give you the data in regard to labor in this business which you
have seen fit to ask me for.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

First. To more clearly reply to this first question, I send you herewith a table of the remuneration of the Indians for the crude rubber that they deliver, from which, as you will see, has been deducted
the cost occasioned by the feeding of the staff of employees in the
sections. This table, which includes only the merchandise that is
given to the aborigines in payment for rubber and the gifts and food
given them when they come in to the section house bringing in the
product, makes the value of what is given for a kilo of crude rubber
reach, for the last zafra, 63.5 centavos.
Second. The form of pay adopted since January 1, 1911, when
the writer took charge of the management of this house, is that of
salaries only, and no employee since then has made a commission on
the amount of caoutchouc produced, nor has had an interest in the
profits of the section, as you took occasion to confirm, in company
with your colleagues, the British and American consuls, by the examination that you made of the books and of the accounts of each one of
the actual administrators of the sections.
Third. The company has lent what aid lay in their power to facilitate the action of justice, but, unfortunately, the difficulties inherent in a region so vast, and which offers to criminals so many
opportunities to elude the action of the law, and the absence of
public forces have prevented the capture of a few who remained
here. For this very reason two of those implicated, who had been
seized, Miranda and Mozanbite, fled from the hands of the authorities. The special comisario recently appointed has proceeded to
capture one Lopez, and some others, whose number I can not exactly
state; they were sent away from this place and taken on the arrival
of the steamer at Iquitos.
With what precedes, 1 understand that your questions are answered,
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. (Ltd.), I N LIQUIDATION.
J U A N A. TIZON,

Manager.

NOTE.— (In handwriting of Señor Rey de Castro.-) " T h i s statement is inexact, for, while there were no gendarmes, there was a
military force with orders to assist in the capture of criminals."
NOTE.—The table which accompanied the copy of the foregoing
letter was so full of obvious errors and had so little bearing on the
situation under discussion that no translation is included. The original is given in full in the Spanish text. See discussion in the accompanying dispatch.
[Translation.]
ENCANTO, September 27, 1912.
Señor C. R E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
S I R : I reply to the favor of your dispatch dated the 22d instant,
No. 2, and pass to the expression of the particulars which you were
so good as to request:
First. The amounts with which the company remunerate the Indians which it has in its service are variable, depending upon their
wants of specified articles of different values; the working of rubber

SLAVERY IN PERU.

being divided into three annual periods (zafras), the laborer asks
for different varieties in each one, so that in one zafra he will receive goods to the value of 40 soles, and in another they will not
amount to 20, which causes the cost per kilo of rubber to vary greatly.
I inclose a table corresponding to the deliveries closed in May of the
present year, which shows, per kilo, an average of soles 0.42, all the
sections of the Caraparana being grouped together. The goods are
considered at the cost in this place, without undergoing the least
addition for the journeys of the launch in which they are forwarded,
the other expenses of the section being also omitted, in which are included the wages of the employees, which, with small differences,
make an amount equal to that paid in merchandise, and sometimes
more, on account of sickness among the native staff, which necessitates
the presence of one or two employees more than the normal number
in each section to attend to the sick. The weight of rubber given is
that received in E l Encanto, which diminishes by 8 or 10 per cent
by the time it reaches the places of sale.
Second. Since January, 1911, in accordance with plans previously
conceived, the commission on crude rubber gathered, which the administrators of Indians used to receive has been abolished, monthly
wages being established as the sole form of payment, as may be
proved by an examination of our books, which are at your disposal.
Third. Of the many persons against whom warrants of arrest were
issued, only four who were proved to be implicated in deeds done in
the Igaraparana, were found working in this zone on the coming of
the judicial commission; of these Rafael Guerero and Santiago
Portcoarrero have been taken by the authorities and sent to Iquitos,
the two others having fled.
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. I N LIQUIDATION.
M. S. LOAYZA.

[Translation.]

Merchandise delivered to the sections in payment for product received, fabrico
of May-September, 1912.
Fabrico.
Section.
Began.

Sombra
Esmeralda..
Liberia
India
Esperanza...
Campuya...
Florida
Nonuyas
Yabuyanos..
Argelia..

Ended.

Apr. 8
...do ...
May 1
May 3
May 6
May 9
May 4
...do ...
...do...
Apr. 8

Aug. 12
Aug. 11
Aug. 27
Sept. 9
Sept. 12
Sept. 26
...do ...
...do...
...do...
Sept. 13

Value, mer- Product
chandise. cd ceived.

Soles.
5,026.86
4,311.04
1,635.47
4,359.89
1,210.49
756.25
1,240.84
1,127.00

2,176.24

Kilos.
10,590
8,064
2,619
9,650
2,327
717
2,278
2,006
4,876
3,441

i The section Yabuyanos has not yet been paid, for this section received the merchandise that the Indians
call for after the delivery of the caucho, which, as will be seen, was only yesterday» Also, there has not
been taken into account the present given to the Indians and their families at the conclusion of each fabrico,
in the following sections: Liberia, Campuya, Florida, Nonuyas and Yabuyanos.

ENCANTO, September 27, 1912.

SLAVEEY I N PEBTJ.
' [No. 4.

Translation.]

CHORRERA, August 19, 1912.
Señor J U A N A. TIZON,
Manager the Peruvian Amazon Co., Chorrera:
Be so good as to tell me if the company you represent here has any
plan of reforms tending to ameliorate the conditions of the Indians
who afford it their services, and if it has adopted any measures to
secure the most rapid communication between its principal centers.
God guard you.
C. KEY DE CASTRO.

A dispatch in the same terms was addressed to Señor Miguel S*
Loayza, manager at E l Encanto.

[Translation.]
CHORRERA, August
22,1912.
Señor C. R E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
S I R : I have received your dispatch No. 4, of the 19th instant, in
which you request me to tell you if the company which I represent
has any plan of reforms tending to ameliorate the condition of the
natives and if it has adopted any measures to secure the most rapid
communication between the centers of labor.
The company that I represent has the firmest intention of
ameliorating the condition of the natives with a view to civilizing
them, availing itself for this purpose of the organization which has
already been provided for them in the working of rubber. To arrive
at this result time is necessary; for, as you understand, this is not the
work of a day or of a year, given the state of backwardness in which
these tribes still are, who a very few years ago were cannibals.
The plan which the enterprise proposes to follow is that of encouraging before all else among the Indians the sowing of chácaras
and the construction of good houses, so as to root them to the soil,
making them owners and enriching them in the sense in which they
understand riches.
I n this way the Indian can live well on his own plantation and
will have no need to seek his food in the bush. The first necessity
being thus satisfied, and with roots in the soil, which will take from
him all idea of leaving it, new needs will be awakened in him, a result which occurs this very day, which only civilized man can satisfy
and which the enterprise profits by to establish a trade with the
natives, exchanging with him the articles that he needs and asks for
for the rubber which he has at hand and which does not cost him a
great effort to produce. This situation is profitable to the company
in tending notably to reduce their expenses, as they will not have to
maintain more than the number of employees strictly necessary to
preserve the organization of the sections and to look after and encourage the plantations of the house. You who, together with the
English and American consuls, are going to visit some of the sections.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

will have the opportunity to judge of the efforts which have been
made in a short time to gain as soon as possible the ends which the
company pursues with regard to the natives.
The planting of rubber-yielding trees that is being carried out in
all the sections will contribute to make in the future the work of the
Indian in the extraction of rubber more easy still. The opening of
good surfaced roads, some of which are already finished, and the
establishment of transportation by mules, which will soon be an
accomplished fact, will set him free from all the labor of porterage,
which, with so much reason, distresses him.
Further, it has been agreed between Señor Arana and the writer
to create a school in the principal agency. The work of raising the
building will soon be begun and Señor Arana will send from Iquitos
the master or mistress to take charge. This essay, the results of
which I am sure will be very good, will be followed by the establishment of other schools in the more populated centers of the region.
When all these reforms are accomplished the condition of the Indian will have much improved and the road will be open to civilization. I t will not be out of place to draw your attention to the fact
that the company has gone through a tremendous financial crisis,
which has held back the initiation of some of the reforms which demanded heavy disbursements, but in spite of the crisis it has followed
out the plan which has been outlined and which I have broadly indicated to you.
God guard you.
x

T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. (LTD.) , IN LIQUIDATION.

J U A N A. TIZON, Manager.

[Translation.]
ENCANTO, September 27, 1912.
Señor C. R E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
SIR : I n reply to your dispatch No. 4 of the 22d instant, I beg to
inform you that from October, 1906, the time at which the undersigned came to this river as representative of J. C. Arana & Bros.,
a beginning was made of the task of ameliorating as far as possible
the conditions of life of the natives who give their services to the
company.
Unfortunately, the deplorable conditions of the persons who up
to that time were in charge of the administration of the Indians
paralyzed for some time the action of the company, which only
since the complete elimination of that staff has been enabled to see
the realization"'of its fundamental obligation—that of placing the
native population on a footing of friendly relations with the white
employees by causing to disappear the abuses and immoralities introduced into this region in a former time,
The amelioration of the Indian under various aspects is a task
that the company has been carrying out for several years, so thaito-day appreciable results are evident.

SLAVERY IE" PERU.

Not a single Indian is to be found at the present time in this zone,
of whatever age or sex, who does not possess two, three, or more
garments, according to his conditions. More than 60 per cent of the
rubber extractors possess muskets, which contribute efficaciously to
improve the alimentation of their families.
The employees who administer the sections into which the staff
of workmen is divided have, as one of their first obligations, to take
care that each tribe possesses extensive plantations of yucca, maize,
various edible roots, and a great variety of fruit trees, by dedicating
to these tasks all the time that may be necessary, even when this
results in a diminution of the production of rubber. I t is due to this
that in the sections of. the Caraparana the Indians have a surplus
of provisions that they utilize in small transactions with the employees, which we encourage in order to stimulate the activity of the
Indians in this branch of so much importance, for a wholesome and
abundant alimentation, principally composed of the articles to which
the native is accustomed, is the basis of all improvement that it may
be desired to initiate, including economic improvement, for here, due
to these facilities, established for years, the rubber-working Indian
can go far from his house, taking with him provisions for many
days, and thus work in the virgin forests with good results and little
labor, allowing the trees that he had tapped the previous zafra to
rest and recover.
At the same time that the chácaras for feeding the Indians were
being enlarged and the white administrative staff was being changed,
the old trails—muddy, narrow, and full of inconveniences,, in which
the Indians suffered so much in the porterage of merchandise and
rubber—were converted into spacious surfaced (the writer probably
refers to the laying down of logs in swampy places and on steep banks
in the manner known as " corduroying") roads, which notably
shorten the distances and serve to furnish communication between all
the sections with this house, with the military headquarters at La
Union, and with La Chorrera, immensely relieving the Indian, who
apart from the advantages which he gains by using a good road, receives a separate remuneration for opening it and keeping it clear.
Since December, 1906, more than 200 kilometers of road have been
opened, the width of which, according to the conditions of the ground,
varies from 2«| to 5 meters, and of the goodness of which you can
judge from the part that you have covered in your last journey, in
which also you will have been able to appreciate the state of evolution in which the native population of this zone is at present, through
your visit to the houses and fields of tillage.
With a view to the future of the rubber industry, two years ago
plantations of rubber began to be made, there being at present writing more than 50,000 trees of over 1 year and 12,000 of lesser age
distributed in the sections and here. By the time that these young
trees may be tapped a remunerative form of labor, easy for the company and for the native rubber worker, will thus have been established.
Effort has been made to avoid, so far as possible, the carriage on
the backs of men of merchandise and rubber by locating the section
headquarters on the banks of the Caraparana and the Putumayo,
or at a very short distance from these rivers. To provide this service in the sections which it has not been possible to bring near to

SLAVEKY I N PEKU.

the rivers, two years ago a contract was entered into with Señor
Julio Quiñones for the purchase of a large drove of mules. The
conflict provoked by Colombia at that time brought about the breach
of this agreement, but we have now renewed it with Señor Joaquin
M. Puyo, who is taking passage in this steamer to carry out the operation, which will be repeated until a sufficient number of beasts of
burden is collected to satisfy the needs of this house and of La
Chorrera.
The replacement of animals unfit for work can be done in this
place itself, where, though on a modest scale, the breeding of horses
is being encouraged and is already beginning to give appreciable
results.
I n order to make as healthy as possible the living quarters of the
natives, we have begun to change the system of building, replacing
the old houses—which were dark, without ventilation, and in which
they lived almost crowded in the dust—by buildings raised on piles,
at a regular height above the soil, and divided into rooms for each
family. Two tribes, the Emuas and the Nonuyas, have already been
thus installed for the last year.
As all the Indians have hammocks and blankets they do not feel
the effects of cold, which obliged them to live in closed houses,
wrapped in clouds of smoke. Little by little we shall go on introducing this change in all the sections.
With a few tribes the gift of cattle has been initiated. Some
have accepted, to pay for them and to breed them in common, so as
to distribute the work of inclosing and pasturing, which would be
very heavy if done singly by one person. We entertain the hope of
seeing in a short time the development of the breeding of cattle,
which will redound to the permanent benefit of the inhabitants of
the zone.
I n April of last year the undersigned addressed a private letter
to Señor J u a n A. Tizon, manager at La Chorrera, to see whether an
agreement could be reached for the establishment of mixed schools
in that place and here. Señor Tizón, finding this initiative of mine
advisable, replied that he would bring it to the knowledge of the prefecture of the department, being confident that it would obtain immediate support; but preoccupations of greater importance, no doubt,
led to little interest being taken at that time in this idea, which to
my mind is worthy of attention, since to the work of education
would be united that of patriotism, and at the same time the establishment of schools would constitute one title more on which to found
the indisputable rights of our country to this territory.
The undersigned is the first to recognize that what has been done
up to the present in the matter of reforms is very little, and that
there still remains a great deal of ground to cover in this connection,
but taking into consideration the special conditions under which
action was to'be taken, it has not been possible to bring about suddenly results of great importance, which will only be the fruit of a
slow evolution now hardly begun,
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON CO.. (LTD.) I N LIQUIDATION,
M. S. LOAYZA.
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

SLAVEEY I N PERU.
[No. 5. Translation.]

CHORRERA, August
20,1912.
Señor J U A N A. TIZON,
Manager Peruvian Amazon Go., Chorrera.
SIR : Some organs of the European press, and in particular of the
English, have taken to publishing lately alarming articles on the
situation of the natives in the zone watered by the River Putumayo
and its affluents, and they affirm that crimes continue to be committed
of which the natives are victims.
The circumstance that a company is concerned such as the Peruvian
Amazon Co., which operates in part with English capital, can not act
as an obstacle to the Government of Peru in continuing its undertaking to put into practice the considerable series of measures that it
has thought opportune to adopt in order to make effective, together
with its rights of sovereignty, the guaranties and the support that all
legitimate interests deserve, and more especially those of natives of
regions in which the influence of our already advanced political, administrative, and judicial culture has not yet made itself felt, for
motives which will not be hid from your clear judgment, such as
distances, difficulties of transport, unhealthiness of climate, etc.
You know what are the prerogatives and obligations of Peru as
sovereign of these territories, and you will not wonder furthermore
that our Government persists in obtaining the help of the Peruvian
Amazon Co. to put a radical end to whatever tends in any way to
impair the rights of the inhabitants of the Putumayo and its tributaries, whatever be their conditions, by affording to the natives, for
reasons known to all, a careful assistance.
By virtue of this I hope that you will be so good as to tell me if you
have any knowledge of the crimes to which the above-mentioned press
refers; and, if so, what have been the measures adopted by you in
your capacity as manager to contribute to the falling of prompt and
efficacious punishment upon the guilty.
I should remind you. that the Government of Peru has maintained
and does maintain in the different sections of this zone a regular
number of military forces, as well as political and judicial authorities
appointed to watch over the fulfillment of the laws and to whom
it was possible to have recourse with a request for help even in cases
in which the crimes denounced were not committed in the places where
they discharge their functions.
Similarly I have to advise you that from the 17th inst. there has
been established in this zone a garrison of police, commanded by a
lieutenant and under the orders of the comisario of the River Putumayo and its tributaries, Don Benito Lores, who, on account of his
honorable antecedents and his recognized aptitudes, will be without
doubt a powerful factor for progress in this part of the national
territory.
God guard you.
C. R E Y DE CASTRO.

A dispatch was addressed in the same terms to Señor Miguel S.
Loayza, manager at E l Encanto.

SLAVERY I N PEE £7.
[Translation.]

AUGUST 22,1912.

Señor C. K E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
SIR : The articles in the foreign press to which you allude are absolutely and fundamentally false, and in the time that I have had charge
of the management of this house there has come to my notice one case
only in which an employee maltreated an Indian. The employee
was immediately placed at the disposition of the judicial authorities,
who were, at that time in the region on a special commission.
To corroborate this statement I inclose certified copies of a letter
that I directed to Dr. Paredes, the judge charged with the investigation of the so-called crimes of the Putumayo, and of his reply. By
the report of Dr. Paredes, of whose impartiality there is no possible
doubt, and whose severity in the investigation that he undertook is
known to all, you will see that the treatment of the aborigines has
completely changed. I am perfectly sure that you will think the same
after the trip through the sections of this house that you are at
present making.
The appointment of Señor Benito Lores as special comisario, in
view of his well-known and honorable past, is a guaranty to all, and
he will be, as you say, a powerful factor in the progress of the region.
This answers your dispatch No. 5 of the 20th instant.
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON CO. (LTD.) I N LIQUIDATION,

J U A N A. TIZÓN, Manager.

[Translation.]

Benito Lores, special comisario of the River Putumayo and its
tributaries, certifies that, on page 47 of the book sundry of the
Peruvian Amazon Co., begun on the 12th day of February, 1911,
which he has before him, appears the following letter:
L A CHORRERA, June

21\ 1911,

SEÑOR D R . ROMULO PAREDES,

Judge of First Instance, President of the Judicial
Commission,
ESTEEMED DOCTOR: A S in the judicial investigations which you have completed
in this, house a n d i t s dependencies, you have visited all t h e sections without exception, I t a k e t h e liberty of addressing t h e present to you, and to beg you to
give me your sincere opinion of t h e present t r e a t m e n t of t h e Indians working a t
the exploitation of rubber in t h e different sections. You, who have taken
cognizance personally, by traveling over it, of t h e enormous extension of t h i s
business, of the n a t u r a l difficulties of which t h e roads a r e full, understand how
difficult it is to exercise active vigilance over t h e employees who work in dist a n t places, and hence the great interest I have in knowing t h e opinion of a
person like yourself, who, besides being completely impartial, is invested with
the high quality of a judicial authority, a n d president of t h e commission
charged with t h e investigation of t h e so-called crimes of t h e Putumayo.
Begging you to concede the liberty I take, I embrace t h i s opportunity t o subscribe myself, with all consideration,
Your attentive friend a n d faithful servant,
J U A N A. TTZON.

H e certifies also that in the archives of the above mentioned Peruvian Amazon Co. is to be found a letter from the judge of first
instance of Iquitos, Dr. Don Romulo Paredes, dated the 4th day of

SLAVERY I N PERU.

July, 1911, the signature of which I have legalized, and which reads
as follows:
ENCANTO, July 4, 1911.
SEÑOR D O N J U A N A.

TIZON,

Manager of La Chorrera,
ESTEEMED FRIEND : I n reply t o your letter dated J u n e 27 last, in which you
ask my opinion on the present t r e a t m e n t of t h e Indians, on account of the
judicial commission under my presidency having visited all the sections which
a r e under your management, I m u s t express to you with all frankness t h a t in
t h a t respect I retain the best opinion, for in the frequent intercourse I have h a d
for nearly three months with t h e six tribes t h a t a r e under the rule of your
management, I have become convinced t h a t to-day t h a t poor race—which is our
own—receives consideration, their needs are attended to and they a r e even, I
can asseverate, handled with kindness by your immediate subordinates, and it
can not be otherwise, if your honorable antecedents a r e borne in mind, and your
intelligent, zealous, and active conduct of the post you occupy, and t h e good
sentiments of your fellow workers, the present chiefs of numerous groups of
I n d i a n s who exert themselves visibly to interpret your noble idea tending to
ameliorate the condition of t h a t unfortunate people, which, there can be doubt,
h a s been t h e victim for a long time of every kind of injustice and iniquity, due
not so much to their savage state, which is worthy of compassion, a s to t h e
very bad staff t h a t governed it.
I t is indubitable t h a t this manifest transition, which is to be observed without
much trouble, from a time of reproach and shame to the present, which is noble
a n d humane, is d u e to yourself, and as in ail social phenomena of evolution, a s
in every change of system and administration which operates on great masses of
uncultivated: and primitive people, enormous difficulties are encountered; your
labor, indefatigable to overcome them, grows in my estimation, and must necessarily do so when one regards it with a judgment calm and tranquil, meritorious
and sympathetic.
If one takes into account t h e enormous extent of territory occupied by t h e
I n d i a n s who work under your management, your zeal and vigilance over the employees who work in places so distant from Chorrera, handling numerous
bodies of Indians, a r e worthy of all praise, and to it is due in great p a r t their
present flattering condition; for to watch over is also to correct, if by intelligent
observation a r e discovered errors and remedies to suppress and avoid them a r e
applied.
T h a t you do not consent to abuses nor punishments against the I n d i a n s nor
leave in concealment the misdeeds committed against them is proved to me by
your having denounced before my court t h e attempted homicide committed by
Emilio Mozambite on the person of t h e witoto " Iquibia," belonging to t h e
nation of t h e capitán " F a r i n a c u d i " (Atenas section), a crime for which I have
d r a w n up a separate indictment, which is on t h e point of being completed, t h e
delinquent being due to receive in i t s proper time the punishment he deserves.
I am sure t h a t you will continue with perseverance and energy the p a t h
which you have laid out, namely,-that of good, of lawful, moral, and honorable
t r a d e , and of love for humanity.
P a r d o n me, if, on account of the great amount of work I have in hand, I do
not expatiate in greater detail on t h i s subject, and accept the sincerest congratulations on your good administration from your friend and servant a t
command.
ROMULO PAREDES.

I n witness whereof this document is drawn up at the request of the
party at Chorrera, the 21st day of the month of August, 1912.
BENITO LORES.
[Translation.]
ENCANTO, September #7, 191%.
Señor C. R E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General
for Peru in the States of Amazonas and Peru.
SIR : I n reply to your dispatch No. 5, in which you ask me for a
declaration relative to the veracity that the latest publications on the

SLAVERY I N PERU.

part of the foreign press in regard to the commission of crimes which
they assert are at present being committed in this part of the national
territory may have, I beg to inform you that the publications referred to are not only inexact but also exaggerated and prejudiced.
Since Messrs. J. C. Arana and brothers took charge of the direct
administration of the Caraparana zone in 1906, and although for
some time difficulty was experienced in the task of repressing deeprooted abuses and immoralities among the old employees, commencement has been made of the task of eliminating all those chiefs of sections against whom there were grave and well-founded accusations
of the Indians and carried to such an extent that they were all
changed more than four years ago.
The letter books of the concern since 1906 are at your disposal.
From them you can see the way in which maltreatment and abuses
have been repressed in this zone, as well as the constant and repeated
instructions not to be exigent with the Indians as to working rubber.
Apart from this, in this place we always have granted and do always grant every attention to the slightest complaint that the Indians present, and always give them justice when they are the victims
of abuse.
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. (LTD.)

(in liquidation)
M. S. LOAYZA.
[No. 6.

Translation.]
CHORRERA,

September 16, 1912.
Señor J U A N A. TIZÓN,
Manager The Peruvian Amazon Co.y Chorrera.
SIR : I have to inform you that one of the most oft-repeated and
most serious accusations that has been made by the organs of the
foreign press against the enterprise whose management in this zone
is in your hands is that they oblige the Indian to undertake labor
greatly superior to his strength.
On this account will you please inform me what is the number of
Indians at work in each section, and what quantities of crude rubber
they extract per annum, so as to determine the average of the work
that is imposed on each one of them.
Also I shall thank you to be good enough to tell me what is the
maximum quantity that the Indian succeeds in delivering in the
whole period covered by the zafras of the year.
God guard you.
C. R E Y DE CASTRO.

(A dispatch in the same terms was addressed to Señor Miguel S.
Loayza, manager at El Encanto.)
[Translation.]
SEPTEMBER 21,

1912.

Señor

CONSUL GENERAL AND FISCAL COMMISSIONER OF PERU IN THE
STATES OF AMAZONAS AND PARA.

S I R : I n order to reply the better to your dispatch No. 6 of the
16th of this month, in which you inform me that this company is
accused of obliging the natives to perform labor much superior to

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

their strength, I will permit myself to draw up for you a summary
narration of the labor such as it is established at the present time,
and to place at the foot the production per section and the number of
Indians that work in each, so that you may judge from the proportion in kilos of rubber which each Indian furnishes in the time that
the zafra lasts whether the effort that he makes is or is not excessive.
The labor is divided in the sections nearest to the river, such as
Occidente, Sur, Oriente, Ultimo Eetiro, Atenas, and Entre Eios, into
periods of four months, which are here called zafras or fabricos, and
in the more distant ones, such as La Sabana, Santa Catalina, Abisinia, and Andokes, into periods of six months, for the purpose of
diminishing as much as possible the porterage, which distresses the
Indian greatly, in spite of its having been made a rule not to allow
the carrying of an Indian of a weight greater than 30 kilos for the
adults and the strong, nor that the working day be of more than
four hours.
I n these periods of four months the native occupies one in each
zafra in preparing the ground and making his chácaras, in constructing houses, nets for fishing, etc., and he dedicates the other three to
work.
I n the sections in which the zafras last for six months, as the
native has to do the porterage of the rubber and of the supplies for
the various sections, they take still more time for their plantations,
etc. You will see that these Indians, though they have a longer term
at their disposal, produce the same as or less than the others.
The production of the sections in the zafras that ended on the 31st
of March and the 30th of April of this year, and the number pf working Indians, were the following:
Section.

Occidente
Sur
Oriente
Ultimo Retiro
Atenas
Entre RÍOS
La Sabana
Santa Catalina
Abisinia
,
Andokes

*
."v

Number
of
Indians.
455
139
311
201
299
314
230
211
170
105

Kilos.

14,353
3,370
12,452
5,631
7,056
12,310
3,203
7,444
7,363
4,394

Kilos.

32.64
44.23
40.00
23.01
23.60
39.20
29.20
35.30
46.20
41.80

Months.

4
4
4
4
4
4
6
6
6
6

which gives a total of working Indians of 2,535, who produced
33,532 kilos gross, which would make an average of 34.94 kilos per
Indian, without deducting the shrinkage which the product undergoes and which is always very big.
The average for the year it is not possible for me to give, because
in the past (year) Chorrera produced only 120,000 kilos, more or
less, less than the half of, what it had produced in preceding years.
The natives occupied the greater part of the time in making chácaras
and houses, and there was even one section, Abisinia, which did not
work for the whole year. But it is easy to arrive at it with sufficient
exactness from the particulars I have given you above, for the zafras
are almost equal, and the sections to which I just referred, of course,
work three, the others two. The average, then, of what an Indian

SLAVERY IN PERU.

produces in a year is 100 kilos, more or less, considering one section
with another. The reason that some produce more is that they have
the rubber nearer and in greater abundance.
With these particulars, the statistical part of which you have been
able to control from the books, you can form an opinion on the work
of the Indian, comparing it with that of any other peon that works
rubber in other rivers, whether Peruvian or Brazilian.
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. (LTD.) (in liquidation),
J U A N A. TIZON, Manager.

[Translation.]
•ENCANTO, September 27, 1912.
Señor C. K E Y DE CASTRO,
Fiscal Commissioner and Consul General for
Peru in the States of Amazonas and Para.
S I R : I beg to reply to your note No. 6 of date the 22d of the
current month by annexing a table of the number of laborers of each
section, rubber produced, and average per laborer in each zafra and
for the whole year, from May, 1911, up to the same month of this
year 1912.
The Indian rubber gatherer works in the woods free from a constant
vigilance, which would be irritating to him. Each four or five days,
according to the rubber conditions of his part of the forest, he presents what he has collected, and which almost always is the product
of only some hours of the morning, the balance of the day being
occupied in hunting and fishing. Furthermore, from the averages
which appear in the note that I annex and which is based on the
section lists and the embarkation of product, you will be better able
to form an opinion of the matter and should be convinced that the
laborers, who here constitute the native labor, suffer no crushing toil,
as is affirmed in certain publications.
God guard you.
T H E PERUVIAN AMAZON Co. (LTD.) (in liquidation),

(Signed)

M. S. LOAYZA.

The following is a translation of the headings of the statistical
tables which accompanied the copy of M. S. Loayza's letter of September 27, 1912, in reply to Señor de Castro's, dispatch No. 6, the
original text of which will be found with the Spanish texts:
Merchandise delivered to the sections in payment for product received, fabrico
of April to August, 1912.
Fabrico.
Section.
Began.

Ended.

Value of merchandise,
soles.

Product
received,
kilos.

NOTE.—The section Campuya makes smoked rubber and the section Argelia makes bands by the Norzagaray system.
Same for fabrico August to December, 1911.
NOTE.—In the section Argelia the value of tin rubber cups and small hatchets used in the extraction of
rubber is included.
Same for fabrico December, 1911, to May, 1912.

SLAVERY IN PERU.
Encanto agency—TaUe of the production of rubber.
Tribe.

Section.

Captain
(native
chief).

Number August, Average
1911,
of
kilos. per man.
laborers.

IQUITOS, PERU, October 19,1912.
Señor D O N CARLOS R E Y DE CASTRO,
Consul General for Peru at Manaos,On Special Commission to the River Putumayo, Iquitos.
SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
October 14, 1912, received to-day, transmitting a copy of the letter
addressed to you by the acting prefect of this department and copies
of the correspondence that passed between you and the representatives of the Peruvian Amazon Co. in the Putumayo district, which
have been read with interest.
Please accept my thanks for this courtesy.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
STUART J . FULLER,

American

Consul.

[Translation.]

The Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.) wants employees to render services
in the River Putumayo and its tributaries for the following remuneration :
Soles.

Monthly salary, first year
Monthly salary, second year
Monthly salary, third year

50. 00
55.00
60.00

Food and medicine gratis. Passage to and from the work gratis
to those who work for a year or more. The work consists in watching labor and attending to the patrol duties intrusted to them. Bonus
to those that do well.
LABOR CONDITIONS I N THE PUTUMAYO REGION.
AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE, IQUITOS, PERU,

On board S. S. " Manco? November
The SECRETARY OE STATE,

26,1912.

Washington.

SIR : I have the honor to transmit herewith the text and translation of three dispatches from the consul general for Colombia, at
Manaos, Brazil, Nos. 1228, 1205, and 1217, which were handed to my
British colleague and myself at the Brazilian frontier post in the
Putumayo River September 30, 1912, and are referred to in my
dispatch, No. 33, of October 28. A noticeable circumstance in connection with these letters was that, although the launch Liberal
arrived at the post referred to at 6 p. m. and the customs officer came
promptly on board at that time, he did not hand oyer the packet
containing these letters until 9 p . m. Subsequently, though neither
the British consul nor myself discussed their contents, everything
said in the letters was told us, at different times, by Consul General
Rey de Castro, Señor Arana, and Comisario Lores.

SLAVERY I1ST PERU.

The relations between the Peruvian and Brazilian authorities and
between the Peruvian Amazon Co. and the Brazilian authorities were
apparently very close. The launch was detained till nearly midnight, while the Brazilian frontier chief came down from the interior
in a canoe to discuss with Señores Arana and Key de Castro the
visit of the Colombian consul general to the frontier, and a long
conference resulted.
We were informed that Consul General Torralbo had come up in
a launch flying the Brazilian flag and had asked the Brazilian customs
officer to clear the. vessel to the upper Putumayo. This gentleman
stated that he had no objection to clearing Brazilian launches for the
upper Putumayo, but if the Colombian consul general were on board
he could not clear them unless assured that ilie Peruvian post at
Tarapaca would pass it. On Consul General Torralbo's stating that
he did not see what Peru had to do with the question, as the territory
was Colombian, he was referred by the Brazilian officer to the fact
that by treaty Brazil recognized it as a part of Peru. Pie was also
refused permission to hoist the Colombian flag on the launch. On
being informed that the Peruvian authorities at Tarapaca would not
allow him to pass, he returned to Manaos.
Plis dispatches add nothing to the information regarding the treatment of the natives already in the department's hands. With the
unfortunate events of the guerrilla border warfare that has undoubtedly gone on in the district between Colombia and Peru for the past
8 or 10 years I do not understand that my mission is concerned, nor
do I understand that I have anything to do with the question of
disputed boundaries. The gentleman's facts are not all exact, and
he shows a tendency to confuse the maltreatment of the native labor
with guerrilla warfare against Colombian settlers.
I made no written acknowledgment of these communications, but,
in company with my British colleague from Iquitos, I called on Consul General Torralbo in passing through Manaos and found him
absent from his post. The consulate was in charge of the consular
agent for Bolivia, Señor .Fernando Eoig Sole, by nationality a Spaniard. He told us that he was fully informed of the contents of the
dispatches addressed to us by Consul General Torralbo. We informed him that we had not formed a commission to investigate
crimes, but had gone to the region solely in our consular capacities
to report on labor conditions; that we had nothing to do with the
question of disputed boundaries; that the sovereignty of the district
did not enter into any questions with which our visit was concerned;
that the Arana and Rey de Castro party not only were not asked by
us to accompany us, but did so against our wish; and that we made
our own investigations independent of them. I also called his attention to the fact that there had been no mail out of Iquitos by which
we might have acknowledged the consul general's dispatches since
our return from the Putumayo.
We did not take up the Josa claim (presented to us for mediation
at E l Encanto and referred to in my No. 33), as that gentleman was
on board the same ship with us and in a position to raise the point
himself if he so desired.
Trusting that the action taken in this connection will meet with the
department's approval,
I have, etc.,
STUART J. FULLER,
American Consul.

SLAVEEY I K PERU.
[No. 1228.

Translation.]

UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL,
CONSULATE GENERAL or COLOMBIA,

Cotuhe. September 86, 1912»
Messrs. CONSULS OF ENGLAND AND OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH
AMERICA, where they may be found:

On receiving the news in Manaos that the steamer Liberal had
departed from this river, leaving your excellencies in the upper part
of it in the exercise of your commission, I determined to take a trip
as far as this in the hope of complying with the order of my Government to cooperate in the work of your excellencies in the investigation which is engaging you. Difficulties of various sorts prevented
me from going farther than this place, and accordingly I limit myself
to inclosing a copy, authentic, of each of the dispatches, Nos. 1205
and 1217, which I sent to your excellencies by mail to Iquitos, and
which I confirm in all particulars, with the request that you do not
close the report that you are to send in until after your arrival in
that city, where, in addition to the dispatches referred to, you will
find other documents the reading of which will throw sufficient light
on the crimes of every class committed in this region by the agents
of Arana Bros, and the Peruvian Amazon Co., and which are indispensable for your work of justice. I t is the more indispensable
since the news that had already reached Manaos was confirmed to
me on my trip that with your excellencies there traveled from the
mouth of this river up, and will naturally have seen all your preparations, Julio C. Arana himself, partner, manager, and liquidator of
the Peruvian Amazon Co., the proprietor of the principal concern in
the extraction of rubber in this river, and Señor M. Zumaeta,
brother-in-law of Señor Arana and his secretary in the liquidation
of the company in question, and brother, furthermore, of the other
partners, Pablo and Bartolomé Zumaeta, celebrated in the annals
of the Putumayo. How laughable is the presence of these gentlemen at an investigation of crimes committed by their agents with
their consent, according to the information that is public property.
At one of the ports of this river I also had confirmation of the
news that the celebrated bandit Miguel Loaiza still remains in his
post of confidence as chief of E l Encanto, and always with his squad
of Indians, called " carabineers," who have no business other than
that of assassination. As an insult to civilization they have abandoned their old dress, which inspired pity for their acts of cannibalism, and have replaced it by the garb that distinguishes civilized
men, including shoes and trousers; but at an order from Loaiza or
any other of the major employees the squad sallies forth and only
returns when they can bring the news that their orders have been
complied with, thus giving to the chief the cause of rejoicing, whereat
he rewards them with gifts and marked proofs of distinction.
Loaiza in his post is the gravest indication that the devastation still
continues. I know that when some English recently came to various
sections the slaughter and further cruelties ceased, but the diminution in the amount of product collected has recently suggested to
the old employees to return to them again; and the worst is not this,
but that Iquitos .protects them just the same, since when, as in the
case of the departure of your excellencies, any boat leaves with

SLAVERY IE" PERU.

orders to make captures, the agency of the Peruvian dispatches, immediately a post which goes from Iquitos to E l Encanto overland
in five days, from which point they communicate the news to La
Chorrera by telephone, and that is sufficient to enable the guilty to
take flight, though not without receiving first a certain number of
Indians and some money with which to work somewhere else. This
protection does not speak well for the management, and also forms
part of their reputation the fact that there was not a single port
where my ship touched to take on fuel without I heard terrifying
tales of the acts perpetrated by their agents in this river as well as
the horror that is shown for the Peruvian name, all this without
surprise to me.
I am, etc.,

JOSE TORRALBO.
[No. 1205.

Translation.]

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE «REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA,,
STATES OF PARA AND AMAZONAS ( B R A Z I L ) ,

Manaos, August 2®, 1912.
The

CONSUL FOR ENGLAND,

Iquitos:
By cable from the Government of my country, it has come to my
knowledge that your excellency, in company with the consul of the
United States of America, is to constitute a special commission to go
to the Putumayo region to investigate the crimes that have been committed in that distant border country. I do not know whether this
refers to those previous to or since the visit of the English commission which made an inspection the year before last and of which
the consul for England in Rio de Janeiro was chief. But whether
you are to look into the incalculable and incredible things which
occurred before the former commission came or into some of recent
occurrence, it is most certain that the undersigned witnessed with the
greatest surprise the embarkation in this city, destination being the
Putumayo, of the counsul general for P e r u ; Señor J . C. Arana, manager of the house of J. C. Arana & Co. and liquidator of the Peruvian
Amazon Co., the proprietor of the enterprise which is exploiting the
forests of the river mentioned and whose agents have been the great
devastators of the native tribes that used to inhabit those selvas;
Señor E. Zumaeta, brother of one of the most celebrated murderers
of Indians, named by the Peruvian as secretary to the liquidator,
whose brother-in-law he is; and various other persons of Peruvian
nationality naturally interested to see that their fatherland may not
appear as protecting deeds which are in scandalous conflict with civilization and even with the least of the principles of humanity and
Christian kindness.
My surprise was originated, as your excellency will have understood, by the very unusual circumstance that these gentlemen left here
at the precise moment in which you and your associate in this mission were to come down to the Putumayo. How can I ever explain
to myself the standard of a justice by which one of the parties only is
heard in the proceedings, to the absolute detriment of the rights of
the other?
The company that will surround the commission is exclusively of
the nationality to which belongs the chief of the works in the Putu-

SLAVERY I K PERU.

mayo, who will be present. In all the tour of inspection there will
not be a discordant voice, not not. No one will have spoken in the
name of Colombia a single phrase as to her incontestable territorial
rights to that region which Peru presumes to usurp against all the
principles of international law. Nor will there have been anyone t o
relate a single one of the unspeakable assassinations of which my compatriots have been victims, nor to point out in the solitudes of the
forests the mountains of bodies of natives, of men, women, and children, fallen at the blow of the Peruvian machete, the ball of the
Peruvian rifle, or {he Peruvian bludgeon.
The silence on the part of the aggrieved party will have been complete—absolute. Nothing will have interrupted the imaginative narratives of the interested parties—not a thing. The praises of their
fatherland will have been the continual theme of the Peruvian committee wThich has surrounded the commission and, as a corollary, the
complete negation of what to-day the whole world knows regarding
the unspeakable acts of cannibalism of which the Putumayo has been
the theater. Nevertheless, if the commission headed by your excellency arrives at the place called E l Encanto you should run across
the young Colombian Herminia Serrano, daughter of David Serrano,
one of the first victims of the Peruvian machete in that district. She
could have said a great deal of the awful picture that was to be seen
when her father and his associates were assassinated and the house
of the hacienda attacked and robbed. This Colombian girl is now
there as a slave, as she has never been able to leave her prison for
lack of means with which to attempt flight, notwithstanding that the
goods stolen from her father totalled more than $16,000. Herminia
Serrano is there, but surely the head of the company made opportune
arrangements so that the commission coulH not secure information,
as he did also that there should arrive in advance of the commission
an Indian woman whom he had had in Barbadoes studing English
and who was brought from that city on purpose by Señor Zumaeta,
secretary to the liquidator of the Peruvian Amazon Co., Señor J. C.
Arana.
This Indian woman will have been the interpreter between the
commission and the savages, many of whom have, by the help of
fortune, escaped the butcher's machete; but as to the mutilated ones,
those who still bear the marks of flogging, those whose piercing
shrieks for help reach none but their cruel oppressors, as to these,
I say, your excellency will not be able to come across a single word.
They will be opportunely transported to a distance, not only so that
their voices will not be heard, but so that the glance of the commission
will not be compelled to rest on those-bodies indelibly marked by
the whips of the overseers.
And it is well that your excellency should know that the Indian
woman to whom I have alluded and who was brought by Zumaeta,
secretary to the liquidator of the Peruvian, was the principal paramour of one of the overseers who made themselves most marked by
their unheard of cruelty toward the savages of the Putumayo, and
who is now imprisoned in Barbadoes b}^ order of the English authorities. This murderer of Indians is called Andres O'Donell.
I must admit that the selection of this Indian to undertake the
study of English could not have been more intelligently made.
Your excellency knows that the bonds of the affections are strong.

SLAVERY IN" PERU.

Do not think that this woman, because she was a savage till yesterday, is not capable of feeling sincere love for him in whose arms she
was for a long time, for her condition, such as it was, could not
cause to disappear her psj^chic characteristic as a woman, naturally
moved by the tenderness of the affections. I t is not a circumstance
to be disregarded that to O'Donell she owes her rise from the savage
state and entry into civilization. The imprisonment of her former
lover must be to-day an obsession in the mind of this Indian woman,
whose feminine sentiments they will naturally know how to exploit to
make her work in favor of the whites, to the detriment of her former
companions of the selva. She will undoubtedly have understood that
on what she does in favor of them will depend to a great extent the
liberty of her chosen lover. She will have been, have no doubt of
it, an easily managed machine for these deceivers who are such by
system, by education and by ethnical tradition.
Your excellency will know that the report of the first English
commission, which remained unpublished for many months, has
finally seen the light. I am not familiar with it yet, but the echo
that has reached here from the European press mentions the horrors
narrated in this book, which will ever be an infamous stigma on the
nation which, in these hours of the twentieth century aids and protects acts of savagery that make those of the Belgian Congo look
like nothing.
E l Journal do Comercio of this city reproduces one of the many
commentaries published by the European press regarding the " Blue
Book" containing the report of the former English commission.
This they copy from the Spanish journal E l Matin. I take the liberty of inclosing a clipping for your excellency's information.
I also inclose a clipping of an article regarding the incidents of
the Putumayo which was recently published by one of the men most
eminent in international law that Peru boasts, and one who was for
some time minister plenipotentiary for that nation in my fatherland,
Señor Luis Ulloa. I n this article your excellency will see how terrible
has been the slaughter in the Putumayo, when from the very breasts
of the prominent men of Peru come cries of protest which are an
honor to those who utter them. The eminent Dr. Ulloa has sufficient authority for his voice to be considered as that of justice seeking purification. I n this article your excellency will also see how
the respectable Peruvian denies that his fatherland is so sure in its
pretensions to the basin on the Putumayo, which has been always
by inalienable right, Colombian territory. The sons of Peru already
begin to recognize the absurdity of the pretensions that have there
been kept up for 10 years over the basin of that river, since, before
this period of time, the banner of my fatherland blazed forth in all
the haciendas which had been founded on its banks altogether by
Colombian citizens,,
This dispatch has no motive other than simply that of conveying
information, as I have no instructions from my Government in this
respect. But I am almost certain that they will not have regarded
with complete serenity the fact that the commission was surrounded
exclusively by Peruvian citizens, with the circumstance, surely most
notable, that among these were to be found the very persons who
occasioned it, and perhaps even the authors of the crimes of the Putumayo. For it is obvious, and perhaps a common principle, that

SLAVEBY IN PEETJ.

justice demands that the commission should fulfil their duty alone
of their own own motion, or seconded by representatives of both
countries, Colombia and Peru. Any other proceeding is irreconcilable with, and does not follow equity.
I authorize your excellency to inform the consul of the United
States of America of the text of this dispatch.
I ask your excellency that whatever may be the reply to this communication, you will kindly send it under cover to your English colleague in this city.
JOSE TORRALBO.
LNo. 1217. Translation.]
UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL,
CONSULATE GENERAL or COLOMBIA,

Martaos, September

#, 1912.

The CONSULS OF ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

I quitos.
: As a sequel to my dispatch No. 1205 of the 22d ultimo,
I now beg to bring to your notice the following: By cable of the
29th of August ultimo, received yesterday, His Excellency the President of the Eepublic of Colombia and his excellency the minister of
foreign affairs inform me as follows:
GENTLEMEN

BOGOTA, August
CONSTJLBIA,

29, 1912.

Manaos.

We authorize you to cooperate in t h e inquiry which t h e agents of England
and of t h e United States a r e carrying out in t h e region of t h e Putumayo.
PRESIDENT.
M I N I S T E R OF FOREIGN A F F A I R S .

Considering that at the present moment your excellencies must
be returning to that town, T judge that my intervention in the criminal inquiry in the Putumayo is too late, since not having been present at its carrying out, I should ill be able to furnish the data which
I would consider indispensable for the best effect in the mission of
your excellencies.
The circumstance renders the data that you may have been able
to collect tainted with partialit}^, seeing that neither the head of the
concern, Señor Julio C. Arana, nor the Peruvian consul can have
permitted anyone to afford your excellencies information which would
not benefit either themselves or their country.
As the Heraldo, a newspaper of your city, has gone so far in several
of its August numbers as to call " an affaire " the innumerable murders in the Putumayo, I venture to transmit to your excellencies a
copy of the pamphlet entitled " The Cruelties in the Putumayo and
the Caqueta," 1 so that your excellencies may possess a sure and impartial source of information, since it is certain that there figure in
it names of Colombians denouncing facts, as it is also that there
exist those of North Americans, Englishmen, and even of Peruvians.
The engravings which appear in the text are reproduced from a
periodical of your town named La Felpa, which can not be doubtful
to any Peruvian.
If this pamphlet is read with attention, it furnishes material for
a good work of investigation, as it throws a sufficient light upon
x

L a s Orueldados en el P u t u m a y o y en el Caqueta, Bogotá, 1911.

SLAVERY I K PERU.

what has occurred in the Putumayo, where, as is now known to the
world, it appears that there is no torture which has not been practiced, however cruel and inhuman it may be, nor action which has
not been perpetrated, however low and ruinous its result.
The perpetrators considered only the advantage. Does it give a
result? That is to say: Does it produce a good quantity of rubber?
To work, then! And arms and legs fall by the hundreds.
How many times have those solitary forests been the dumb witnesses of the parties of Colombian natives who flee into them terrified, uttering hair-raising shrieks in the midst of the flames produced
by the kerosene sprinkled on them purposely to set them on fire.
The edge of the machete no longer produced any effect for the
hyenas of the Putumayo; its use was too frequent; they had to change
the system in favor of a more cruel process to stimulate the insatiable
thirst for blood on the part of these freebooters. Hence, the forest
sometimes presented the aspect of a vision of Dante, and yet those
spectacles which recall the Rome of Nero, never raised a fear in the
minds of the cruel overseers, who, on the contrary, with a permanent
longing for blood and with a voluptuous intoxication in the odor
of flesh cremation, reached the point of perceiving melodious harmonies in the craclding of the flames in the palpitating entrails.
They always counted upon the eternal silence of the thick foliage,
but they forgot that crime can not remain unpunished in the times
which humanity has reached. There is a voice which undertakes to
denounce them. I t is the voice of the invisible justice which thus
cries from, the solitudes of the desert, as from the depths of the
woods and the banks of the rivers. There is something like a mystery in the fact that every misdeed leaves a track, so as to prevent
impunity from fostering robbers of properties and those who by
moral perversion end by becoming a menace to humanity.
The waters of the Putumayo silently dragging along in their current the corpses of David Serrano, the owner of " La Reserva," or
Ordonez and Prieto owners of La Union, of L. Meló Pulido, Juan
Escobar, Rafael Cano, Fernando Rumaya, Felix Lemos, Vicente
and Francisco Ramirez, Ramon Castro, Luis Jaramillo, Juan Anocana, Benjamin Munoz, Abelardo Rivera, Manuel Herazo, and a
thousand more civilized Colombians, owners of undertakings, were
the invisible justice ordained to bring the indictment before the inhabitants of the regions of the west that the incendiary torch, the
devastating rifle and machete, and the degrading lash were dominating in the territories of the Putumayo, where they had been put to
work with the cruelty and the fury of jackals by the evilly notorious
Bartolomé Zumaeta^, Belisario Suarez, Armando Normand, a MiLoaiza, Miguel Flores, Andres O'Donell, Jose J. *Fonseca, Fidel
Velarde, Ernesto Siobens, Luis Acorta, Gregorio Olivarez, Zubiane,
Argaluza„ Stanley Lewis, Alcanta, Aguilar, Diago, and hundreds of
others, true human wild beasts and evident insults to civilization.
Since then, January and February of 1908, there has not been a
person who preserves any feeling of humanity, of whatever nationality he may be, who is aware of the facts, that has not expressed
his censure of a state of things which openly flouts the least principles of humanitarianism. Only the heads and the proprietors of the
rubber enterprise have kept profound silence, in undoubted com-

SLAVEEY IN

PERU.

plicity, in the presence of such horrible crimes, of which some have
been denounced before judges and others by the press before the
whole world. They have made no provisions to bring to an end any
such infamy in order to prevent their children from raising to their
mouths bread kneaded with the blood of so many innocent victims.
On the contrary, they have showed marked gratitude to those who
•distinguished themselves most by their cruelty. The famous Carlos
Miranda, if he does not occupy to-day the post of overseer of one of
t h e centers of work, on the other hand is chief of an exploring raid,
and Belisario Suarez, who was in this city a few months ago, made
a boast of having received a warning from his patrons so that he
could escape.
One of the principal points of the investigation ought to be whether
there still remains as an employee of the company any one of the
famous assassins, thieves^ and incendiaries whom I have enumerated
above. One of them continuing in his post is a grave indication that
the depredations continue, since cruelty to their fellow creatures is
with them a second nature.
I suppose that your excellencies would visit the stations of Matanzas, Ultimo Eetiro, Sabana, Santa Catalina, and San Victor. If this
is so, your excellencies would have the opportunity of seeing hundreds of corpses in the neighborhood of those places, for in March of
this year a traveler still had occasion to count as many as 122 heads
of men, women, and children in one single place in the vicinity of
one of these points. Those unburied bodies are a permanent accusation of the perversion of the sentiments of those who made them their
victims.
Another of the offenses which have not ceased to be committed up
to the present time is the sale of natives. These unhappy people are
stolen from their families in order to take them out of the region and
to place them on sale in the town like beasts of burden. This year,
in fact^ last month, in August, a party of those unfortunates came
down the Putumayo. The same day on which your excellencies
entered the Putumayo on a mission of humanity, perhaps at the very
hour when that entry took place, the steamer Manaos received on board
at San Antonio^ at the mouth of the lea or Putumayo, 12 Indians,
8 males and 4 females, of from 8 to 14 years of age. At the mouth
of the River Javary they were placed in the house of Señor Jose
Feréira da Rocha, and from there they were reshipped for your town
in the launch TFamhurgo. Who was the leader that went with his
cargo of human flesh in search of a market? None other than Señor
Aurelio E. O'Donovan, a lieutenant of artillery in the Peruvian
Army, and, in greater mockery, chief of the military detachment
which Peru maintains at the spot called Cotuhe. What sarcasm!
Your excellencies' mission was subjected to a bloody taunt on the very
day that you entered the region where you were to carry it out. But
how much more is this the case when the mockery began at the very
moment when your excellencies trod the decks of the Liberal, the
property of the company, and on board of which has flowed on many
occasions innocent blood, whose holds have been filled at different
times with the product of spoliation and assassination, and whose
cabins are dumb witnesses of rapes and violations. On board of that
ship Zumaeta and many of his companions have committed acts of
veritable piracy. The Liberal is to-day a veritable phantom ship,

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the whistle of which raises terror in the inhabitants of those forests.
Throughout the ship something like the odor of human flesh and of
blood in putrefaction must be smelt.
From the circumstances that your excellencies execute your consular
functions in a city where the hostility to my country is manifest yon
will have had occasion to hear only one side of the debated question
of boundaries between Colombia and Peru. I do not think it irrelev a n t for j o u r information to give your excellencies, though it be
concisely, some data in this controversy, so that your excellencies can
form a clear judgment of the state of the same with regard to the
strip of territory for which Peru contests against us and which
includes the basin of the Putumayo.
The fields of Junin and Ayacucho, where the independence of Peru
was settled, were still tinged with the blood, nobly shed, of the libertyconferring hosts of Colombia when Peru showed itself hostile to its
generous protector, a- hostility which assumed such proportions that
there remained no other course for my country but to prove to the
ungrateful nation that the Colombian arms which freed them, at
Ayacucho from the power of Spain were also able to prevent them
from trampling on their territory with impunity. The celebrated
battle of the Pórtete de Tarqui, in which 4,000 of my compatriots
vanquished 8,000 Peruvians in February, 1829, was the result of this
duel that Peru forced upon us.
This triumph was the cause of a convention of peace, which was
called the Convention of Giron, in which it was stipulated that the
Governments of the two countries should appoint a commission to
settle the boundaries of the two States, the basis of which should be
the political divison of the viceroyalties of New Granada and Peru.
The same commission was charged with the liquidation of the debt
of Peru to Colombia resulting from the war of independence. At
the foot of the text of this convention were the signatures of Gens.
Juan Jose Flores and Daniel J. O'Leary on the part of Colombia,
and of Grand Marshal Augustine Gámarra and Gen. Luis Jose
Orbegozo on that of Peru.
As an outcome of this convention there was signed in the same
year, 1829, a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce, which the
Congress of Peru approved on the 16th of October., 1829, and the
Government of Colombia on the 21st of the same month and year.
As a complement to the same treaty a protocol was signed in Lima
on the 11th of August, 1830, between the envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary of Colombia, Gen. Tomas de C. Mosquera,
and the most excellent the minister of foreign relations of Peru,
Señor Dr. Carlos Pedemonte, in which the dividing lines -were perfectly marked out between the two countries, who were made joint
masters of the navigation of the corresponding part of the Maranon,
Peru recognizing the right of Colombia to all the territory on the
left bank of the said river, and at the same time Colombia recognizing
that of Peru to the right bank. The only question that remained
pending was whether the line ended at the mouth of the Huancabamba, as Colombia had a right to believe, or at that of the Chimchipe, as Peru alleged.
.Colombia appointed commissioners, which she had the right to do
and to which the protocol obliged her; while Peru, with pretexts on
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SLAVEEY I N PERU.

which it is not necessary to comment here, has been continually occupied with formalities as to the fulfillment of her obligations.
The successive intestinal wars which have taken place in Colombia
and the international war between Peru and Chile contributed also
to the passing of years without the boundary protocol's being carried
into practice.
But as Colombia had always considered the basin of the Putumayo
as an integral part of her territory, many citizens of that country
entered the river, founding great enterprises, which tranquilly enjoyed, until the hour, fatal to humanity, when the exploiting firm of
the Aranas entered these regions, who at first bought from some of
my compatriots their stations of work, but later, parched by the thirst
for gold, decided to put into practice the more rapid and cheaper
process of having the proprietors murdered so as to retain for themselves the fruit of their labor. Those murders, burnings, and depredations of every kind, carried out by the agents of the Peruvian firm,
have always been the motive of claims on the part of Colombia against
Peru; but unfortunately the Government of the latter country has
never been loyally disposed to prove the fraternity which they claim
to show for Colombia.
Notwithstanding, in the year 1909 a convention was signed in which
it was stipulated that " the Governments of Peru and Colombia express their sentiments of lively regret for the events which occurred
in the region of the Putumayo last year * * * " and, later, " the
Governments of Peru and Colombia agree to renew the negotiations
with regard to the delimination of frontiers." Before that they had
agreed on a modus vivendi, in which it was settled that " in order
to obviate all difficulty and dangerous conflicts in the region of the
Putumayo the Governments of Colombia and Peru agree to withdraw
from that river and its tributaries during this temporary situation
all the garrisons^ civil and military authorities, and customhouses
that they hold established there." Colombia withdrew a small garrison which she had under the command of Gen. B. Velasco, but Peru,
far from doing the same, has continued her advance into the territory
of Colombia; and at the foot of this modus vivendi is the signature
of her minister of foreign relations, Dr. Prado Ugarteche, and that of
her then minister plenipotentiary in Colombia, Dr. Hernán Velarde.
The patient conduct of Colombia in the face of so much wrong may
very well have originated opinions by no means favorable to her
dignity as an independent nation, but her fundamental object has
been not to be the first to utter a discordant note in the concert of
South American brotherhood and to gather an accumulation of reasons such as must justify fully before the civilized world whatever
attitude she may find herself called upon to take in the future.
I beg your excellencies' pardon for the foregoing narrative, which
may appear irrelevant in treating of a mission purely of criminal
investigation, but which I consider indispensable for the reasons
already given.
Both of my preceding dispatch and of the present I shall inform
the minister of foreign relations of Colombia and his legations in
London and Washington.
With sentiments of consideration and esteem I have the pleasure to
sign myself your excellencies' attentive servant to command.
JOSE TORRALBO.

P A R T II.
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE—RESPONSE OF THIS GOVERNMENT
TO BRITISH REQUEST FOR EXERTION OF INFLUENCE ON PERU
FOR REMEDIAL TREATMENT OF NATIVES.
Consul Eterhardt

to the Secretary

State.

INDIANS OF PERU.
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

IquitoSj November 30, 1907.
SIR : The difficulty I experienced after receiving my appointment
to this post in obtaining reliable information relative to conditions
in general in this region leads me to believe that the results of certain studies I have made regarding the Indians of Peru may be of
some practical value and interest to others, as well as to the department, more particularly as the most of these tribes live across
the Andes, or in that part of Peru which would seem naturally to
form the territory of which this consular district is comprised. An
extra copy is also sent, with the idea that there may be some item of
interest to the National Museum. I had hoped to make a more
thorough study of this interesting subject from actual observation
among the different tribes, securing specimens of their weapons of
warfare, clothing, utensils, etc., but ill health has prevented any systematic work along such lines. I have been fortunate, however, in
being able to make several trips among different tribes with Mr.
George M. von Hassel, thus gaining first-hand a limited amount of
information on the subject, but the greater part comes from Mr. von
Hassel himself, who, it seems to me, is probably the best authority
on the subject and better qualified than any other person to give reliable data, and talk knowingly regarding the matter. I t may be
remembered that in my No. 12, of May 29, 1907, I referred to Mr.
von Hassel's long experience in the interior of Peru. During the
past 10 or 12 years he has lived for months at a time with various
tribes, speaks the " quechua " or old Inca language and many other
dialects, and, by gaining their confidence, has been able to mingle
freely with the Indians, gaining an insight into their customs,
methods, and manner of living, etc., which few white men have enjoyed. In 1903 he prepared a map dealing expressly with this subject, one copy of which I have been able to secure and same is transmitted herewith (inclosure No. 1). So far as I can learn, this is
the only work of its kind published in recent years,.if ever; certainly
it is the most reliable and authentic one, and though published some
four years ago it is still, in the main, accurate, even though some of
the smaller tribes have ceased to exist, through some of the causes
of which mention will be made later on. Regarding the accuracy
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of maps on Peru, I may say that I have consulted a great many since
coming to Iquitos and find that no two countries agree at all; each,
having explored only parts of the country, seems to take the rest on
hearsay, at the same time belittling the work of others.
Besides giving the names of the various Indian tribes (in red ink)
and the localities inhabited by them, the map transmitted may be interesting for the information it furnishes relative to projected roadways, altitude of certain districts, end of navigation during the dry
season on the different rivers, disputed boundary lines, etc. (See
"Signos.")
The accompanying photographs were taken by the French explorer,
Eobushon, who spent a number of years among different tribes.
Among his experiences was his romantic marriage with an utter
savage, Indian girl, whom he met in the forest one day, roaming
about entirely nude and alone, her father and mother and others of
the tribe of which she was a member having died of some pestilence.
H e took her to France, where she was educated, and she returned to
this country a few vears later thoroughly conversant with three languages and assumed, with credit to herself, a place in local society
among the best families here. Mr. Robushon himself undertook
another of his trips in a wild part of the Upper Putomayo District
about two years ago. He has never returned and searching parties
which have been sent out have been unsuccessful in their efforts to
find him and it seems most probable that he was killed and eaten
by some of the cannibal tribes of that region.
From such records and authorities as I have been able to consult,
the population of Peru (all Indian of course), at the time of Pizarro's
invasion and conquest, is estimated at 15,000,000. This no doubt
embraced a territory considerably larger than that now claimed by
Peru, which, taken into consideration with the fact of the widely
separated tribes in unexplored regions, render accuracy impossible.
The same difficulties, in a greater or less degree, are to be encountered to-day in obtaining data on this point, and due allowance
must therefore be made for the estimated number of inhabitants of
the Department of Loreto (in which Iquitos is located), 120,000, and
that or trans-Andean Peru, 300,000. Of this latter number, onehalf, or 150,000, are said to be wild Indians, most of whom, aside
from little tribal wars, are peaceably inclined, living quiet, tranquil
lives, obtaining food and such raiment as they require from the supply furnished by a generous and lavish nature.
Following is a list of. the principal tribes which go to make up this
total of 150,000, with the approximate number of inhabitants of such
tribes as are said to number more than 2,000, though names of smaller
tribes and subtribes, almost without number, could be added. The
total of these numbers is 116,000 and the difference therefore, 34,000,
is made up of such tribes as those whose number of inhabitants do not
appear on the list and which are composed mostly of from 200 to
1,000 souls each. Some of these tribes are said no longer to exist as
such, having become extinct by intermarriage with the settlers, taken
prisoners by stronger tribes and the whites, or dying from diseases
of the white man, usually smallpox.
I n the spelling of these names one will detect at once the Spanish
style which has been given to the words as pronounced by the natives
themselves and, as there is always considerable difference in accent,

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101

enunciation, etc., of different individuals in the pronunciation of the
same word, one often meets with several different wa}^s of spelling
the name of a certain tribe. Most of the tribes retain the name
handed down for generations, though others are known by the names
of the rivers or vicinity in which they live, being thus designated by
rubber gatherers or whites with whom they come in contact:
N A M E S OF P R I N C I P A L

INDIAN

THTBKS OF PERU.

H u i t o t o s : Gellas, Einuirises, Spunas, Ucheruas, d i o c a i s e s (20,000), Sebuas,
Nongoiiis, Comeyones, Sigayor.
Mirailes: Bonaiiisayes, Casabes. Caidullas. Lunas, Yaramas, Munjoses, Conroy, Ayafas, Achotes, Cnyubos, Canines (13,000), Yanis, Minicuas, Miretas,
Chonta deris, Oheseyes, Tamas, Hera ves. Tavajenes.
Guipi (2,000).
Angoteros (2,000).
Orejones : Rosamos
Inji-Inji.
Mura t o s : Andoas.
Iquitos (7,000).
Ita tos.
H u a m b i s a s : Batueos (2,000).
Antipas.
Agua r u n a s : Jeberos, Cayapas, Cahuapanas.
Cocamas: Nautinos, Ocayos (2.000). Cocamillas, Lagunas.
Omaguas.
Mayoranas.
Capanahuas (8,000).
N a h u a s (2,000)
Shipibos.
Shetibos.
Conibos.
Remos.
Sacuyas.
Amueshas.
Piros.
Amahuacas (7,000)
Uurimaguas (now extinct).
Ya ros.
Pa maris (3,000)
Yamamadis (2,000).
H i p u r i n a s (2,000).
Pnca h u a r a s ( 2 0 0 0 ) .
Mojos or Muzos (8,000).
A r a h u n a s : Capahenis (2,000)
C a m p a s : Machiganas, Campas ( p u r e ) . Campas í>ravos, Cashibos (15,000),
Chonta-Campas, Pangoas, Climáticas. Golangos.
Pucapacuris.
Masticas: Mashco-Piros (6,000), Sinneiris, Moonos.
Huachipairis.
A majes.
Tuiyneiris.
Andoques (2,000).
Araizaires.
H u a r a y o s : Yamiacos (3,000). Tiatinagnas. Aísahuaoas.
P a c a h n a r a s (2,000).
Cha cobas.
Amigos, or Inaperis.
H u a p a r i s (3,000).
Boras (3,000).
Cachiboyanos.
Ticunas (3,000).
Yumina gua s.
Y a h u a s : Pebas.
Za izaros.

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Short sketches of the manners and customs of a few of the stronger
of these tribes may be of interest before a general summary is made.
HTJITÜTOS.

The Huitotos, together with their subtribes, are considered the
strongest, in point of numbers, of any of the Indians of Peru. They
inhabit the district of the Upper Putomayo River (called lea in
Brazil) and the regions between that river and the Yapura, or
Upper Caqueta, on the north and as far south as the vicinity of the
Napo River. The greater part of these are inclined to treat with the
whites, and several thousand of them are employed by the rubber
gatherers in the extraction of that product from the forests. They
have a language of their own, use the lance and club as weapons,
while stone axes are to be found among some of the tribes of the
central regions. As is common with most Indian tribes, the women
are obliged to do the bulk of the drudgery and hard labor, Out No. 3
showing the very common sight of a mother with a babe at her
breast bringing in a supply of yucca for the noonday meal in a reed
basket hung from her head down her back. From Cut No. 4 some
idea may be gained of the houses in which they live. These are not
unlike huge circus tents in shape, constructed of poles covered over
from peak to ground with a thatching of palm leaves. I n one of
these nouses which I visited it was estimated that 150 persons were
living at the same time. Each family is allotted a triangular space
of about 12 feet, and at each point of the triangle poles are erected
from which their hammocks (made of woven reeds) are hung, while
in the center of the triangle the cooking is done for the family over
a small fire. The rougher work of crushing the yucca, etc., is carried
on in the open space in the center of the house, though this space is
free to all and always used for their dances and other celebrations.
Note also in the picture the collar of animal's teeth about the neck
of the boy and the tightly strapped bands about the ankles and below
the knees of the woman, a common practice among both men and
women, though the arms are also usually so wrapped.
CAMPAS.

Though less numerous than the Huitotos, the Campas, with their
subtribes, numbering in all some 15,000, are much the more intelligent
and in many respects the most interesting of any of the tribes of Peru.
They inhabit the vast region from Rosalina, on the Upper Urubamba,
to the junction of that river with the Tambo, and from that point
the left bank of the Ucayali as far as the Pampas del Sacramento.
All of the subtribes speak the Campa dialect and generally use the
traditional " cushma," a sort of a sleeveless shirt, crudely woven from
the wild cotton which grows in abundance on a large tree in those
regions. The Chonta-Campas and the Cashibos are the most backward of the subtribes and still use the light bark of a certain tree
for the scant covering they wear when any is used at all. They are
generally hostile to the whites and at times have been known to eat
human flesh, believing that they assume the strength, physically and
intellectually, of their victim. The Cashibos are almost continually
at war with the neighboring subtribes. They inhabit the region of

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103

Pachitea and Pampas del Sacramento. Their numbers are approximately 3,000, though these continual tribal wars and frequent excursions of the whites into their territory in quest of workers (when, if
they do not go willingly, they are often taken by force and practically
made slaves of) are steadily decreasing their numbers. Men and
women alike go naked or use the bark of the tree in the form of a
long shirt, as above mentioned. Because of the isolation of their
position, the machette and other arms so commonly used by other
tribes are almost unknown to them, and they still use, as for centuries
past, the stone ax, bow and arrow, and defend the entrance to their
homes by concealing sharpened spears in pitfalls. The Indians of
the head tribes of the Campas are generally of rather noble features,
friendly to the whites, and willing and quick to learn their habits
and customs. They are excellent canoeists, learn readily the use of
firearms, and are sometimes employed in the rubber gathering. They
spin and weave and cultivate quite extensive tracts of corn, yucca,
bananas, peppers, and a species of potato.
The Machigangas, another subtribe of the Campas, live in the
TJpper Urubamba and Pachitea districts and, with few exceptions,
are friendly toward the whites. They are rather small in stature,
with regular features, and men and women alike wear the cusha.
They are polygamists, and the marriage ceremony is reduced to the
simple procedure of seizing the intended wife by the hair and dragging her to the home of the husband. Their numbers are steadily
decreasing, as is the case with all the wild tribes, through fevers,
smallpox, and attacks of neighboring tribes. From their language
and customs they show that they must have been in contact with the
ancient Incas, though not entirely assimilated. They worship, in
their manner, the sun and moon, believe in witchcraft, and besides
their own language speak the Campa dialect. The Chonta-Campas
are distinguished from others of the Campa subtribes by the small
piece of wood, about an inch long, which they wear pierced through
the upper lip. Some also wear such a decoration from the lower lip
and a metal pendant from the nose, and tattoo their faces with blue
penciling.
AGTJARUNAS.

The Aguarunas number approximately 2,000, inhabit the Maranon
River district below the Cahuapanas River, have their own language,
laws, believe in a good and bad God, as well as witchcraft, and are
polygamists. They use the lance and blowpipe with poisoned arrows, are of medium stature, very muscular, with regular features,
some of the women being realty quite beautiful. They engage quite
extensively in cultivating the natural products of the country. This
tribe, in civilization sometimes called " Head-hunters," has the weird
and gruesome custom of preparing human heads in a manner by
which, though reduced to about one-fifth their natural size, they retain the exact likeness they possessed during life, and in a seemingly
mummified, diminutive head before .him, thus prepared, one can
easily recognize the features of any one he may have known alive.
This custom originated in preparation of the heads of enemies of
the tribe who fell victims to them during their wars and which were
kept as trophies of victory. The head was cut from the body and

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placed on a pole, where it was allowed to remain several days till
decomposition had fairly set in.
A vertical cut was then made in the cranium and the bones deftly
removed in such a manner that only the thick cuticle remained, and
immediately the inside of the head was burned and seared with hot
stones and afterwards allowed to smoke in a flame from the burning
roots of a certain species of palm. This flame is said to act much the
same as salt on the parts exposed, and by the process described the
head is made smaller in size by several degrees. Specimens of these
heads became quite generally in demand a few years ago for museums,
etc., so much so that a premium seemed to be placed on the heads of
persons venturing in the vicinity of this tribe and many murders
resulted. The Peruvian Government has now forbidden the practice
and the specimens being more scarce are commanding higher prices.
I have known of them selling for $150 to $200, United States currency, and rather a poor specimen was recently sold in Iquitos for
$80. I n the Rio Negro and Orinoco regions there is said to exist a
tribe which prepares entire bodies in this manner, and in the Putu-,
mayo district they are said to retain in natural size, by a smoking
system, the hands of enemies slain in battle. I have seen teeth, shinbones, and other parts of skeletons thus treasured. (See illustration
No. 5.) The Aguarunas, in common with several tribes, also make
use of certain poisons, both in their wars and in hunting. The poison
is extracted from different species of vegetables and plants and prepared by the women and old men of the tribe. I t has the peculiarity
of killing game without giving any evil effects to one who may eat
the meat. Another poison is scattered over the surface of some pool
where fish are known to gather and great numbers of them are killed
in this manner. The small fish, being able to withstand the effects
of the poison for onty a short time, rise to the surface first, and later
the larger ones, though onty the latter are taken. Thus a terrible
waste is carried on, and though this form of fishing is prohibited by
law it is by no means stopped. The Indians in the Putumayo use a
kind of poison in their wars which has the peculiarity of producing
putrifaction almost as soon as the wound is made.
HUACHIPARIS.

These Indians, united with neighboring tribes, have resisted to
this day the invasion of the whites, and remain hostile. They live in
the Upper Madre de Dios district, are very muscular, both men and
women, though not large of stature. The naturally fierce aspect of
the men is heightened by the custom of perforating the upper lip,
through which a piece of wood, feather, or shell is inserted and worn.
They have a language of their own, but many of them understand
the " Quechua " and Campa dialects, the latter being introduced by
the women of the Campa tribes, whom they are continually stealing.
INJI-INJI.

Five hundred souls, the remnant of what was once a powerful
tribe, go to make up all that now exists of the Inji-Inji Indians, who
live in the small streams and branches of the Curaray River. They
are the lowest in the scale of Peruvian Indians, both in their manner

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105

of living and in the progress they have made. They use stone axes
for breaking down the trees when small clearings are wanted in
which to plant corn and yucca. Their language is said to comprise
but two words, " inji-inji," from which the tribe receives its name.
By the use of these two words and accompanying them with different
gestures they make all their wants known and understand each other
perfectly. They are not hostile to the whites, but avoid as much as
possible any contact with them.
NAHUMEDES.

This tribe, now almost extinct, is remarkable only for the tradition
which clings to it of having been responsible for the naming of the
great, Amazon. I t was they who attacked the Spaniard Orellano on
his journey down the great river after he had deserted the Pizarra
expedition. The Indians, because of their " cushmas " and the mann e r of wearing their hair flowing loosely down their backs, were
thought to be women warriors or " amazonas," and from that incident,
as history also asserts, the river has retained to this day the name of
Amazonas.
OREJONES.

This name is given to the tribe which inhabits the Napo and its
branches from the fact of their enlarging the lower part of the ear
by a process which is begun when they are children, until sometimes
the ear hangs down almost to the shoulder. This custom is attributed by some to the Incas, who in this manner indicated the families
and descendants of Incas of royal blood.
The average traveler through the Amazon lowlands would probably notice little difference between the various tribes further than
that some wear " cushma," others a short covering from waist to
knees, and others go entirely nude. Several reasons are apparent by
which the Indians have been driven to wear clothing at times. First,
the moral; second, climatic conditions, such as cold in the mountainous regions; and, third, the abundance of flies, mosquitoes, and
other insects which abound in a hot country.
The man making a study of the Indians, their customs, etc.,
would immediately note other differences, probably the first and one
of the important ones being that in the regions on the right bank of
the Amazon, from Urubamba and Ucayali to the Mar anon, all of
the Indians, with the exception of the Aguarinas, use the bow and
arrow, while those on the left bank use the lance, and blowpipe with
poisoned arrows. These, and many other items, in detail, would
probably be interesting, but there has been no opportunity for systematic study of the subject, so general information regarding the
" Indians in Peru " is all that can be furnished.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

All of the tribes seem to be collections of numbers of families^
with one leader or chief, who is recognized in that capacity by all
these families. Among these families are subtribes, whom in turn
have their leaders, though the entire group in that vicinity are under
the head tribe. For example, the Aguarunas, who, because of their

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superior culture (if that term may be used), rule over several
smaller tribes, and each of these subtribes has its head man or
44
Curaca," but owe no allegiance whatever to each other; in fact,
they war with each other, without any interference from the head
tribe. They rarely unite to fight a common enemy, which fact has
been largely responsible for their condition to-day, as they have not
been strong enough, in their scattered condition, to repel the invasion
of the rubber gatherers.
LANGUAGES.

Most of the tribes have languages of their own, that is "to say,
languages known only among themselves, to say nothing of the
many dialects used commonly between various subtribes. The most
primitive language is the " inji-inji," which, as before mentioned, is
composed of but two words, which, according to the accent or difference in pronunciation given them, accompanied by different gestures,
suffice foj* the expression of all their wants. The most complete
languages are those of the Campas, Aguarunas, Antipas, and Muratos. Eegarding numbering, some tribes count as high as 5, a
very few even to 10, but the most of them use only the fingers in
eKpressing numbers greater than 1.
HOUSES.

Excessive rains have made the living under some sort of shelter
compulsory, and as a result, even during their wanderings in the
forests, rude shacks of poles covered over with a thatching of palm
leaves, hastily constructed, though their permanent abodes are often
very cleverly and strongly built of the same materials. A partial
idea of one of the better built houses may be had from cut No. 4.
FOOD, BEVERAGES.

The tribes subsist almost entirely on the yucca, bananas, corn,
fish, and meats of birds and game from the forests. Stones and hardwoods are used for the grinding and crushing, and earthenware pots,
etc.,"are used for boiling, cooking, and frying. I n only a few localities is salt to be found, and even then it is usually used in a mixture
with hot, wild peppers. Some of the tribes which live on the
Amazon and Ucayali eat earth from certain deposits (known by
the Inca word " coolpa " ) , which contains a certain per cent of salt.
The wild animals also seek these deposits. This scarcity of salt and
the natural craving of the system for such an article have been the
means of making the eating of this earth a real vice, which grows
on one just as the cocaine or opium habit. When taken in such
quantities the stomachs of the individuals become badly swollen and
death eventually results from it.
The rather insignificant yucca, a shrub which grows ordinarily
to a height of from 4 to 6 feet, is probably the most practical and
useful of all the native products of the forests of this region. The
root of this plant, which resembles somewhat our sweet potato, is
really the i4 staff of life " for the average Indian household. I have
eaten it prepared in many different ways. Baked, it serves as a very

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107

good substitute for bread; fried or boiled, it is as good as our potato; kneaded into a dough and baked with minced meats, fruits,
etc., it makes a splendid pastry, while the juice, after going through
certain processes, is, made into " masato," the beverage common to
nearly all the tribes of Peru. To make this masato, baked yucca,
crushed and ground till it forms a sort of a meal, is placed in earthen
jars, mixed with the raw articles likewise crushed (or sometimes
chewed by the Indians till, mixed with saliva, a considerable portion
is liquid), which serves to ferment the mixture, thus producing a
greater or less amount of alcohol. The preparation of this drink
is usually the occupation of the older women. Great quantities of
it are drunk at the celebrations of marriage ceremonies, births, the
beginning of a tribal war or its successful termination, etc. On
their journeys a certain amount is always carried, which, mixed
with water, furnishes a very refreshing drink. The juice of the
banana, prepared in more or less the same manner and mixed with
water, is also a very pleasant refreshment.
COLOR, STATURE, ETC.

I n color the pure-bred Indian of Peru is practically the same dark
copper color as the North American Indian. The most of the tribes,
however, seem to have become mixed at some time or other with
whites or blacks, and many variations of color are therefore to be
noted, from the very dark tribes of the Putomayo, in whom may be
traced strains of blood of escaped negro slaves from Colombia and
Brazil, to the very light Huarayos of the Madre de Dios, of an ancestry of mixed Indian and Spaniard. In stature they may be said
to be below the average in height, though usually very stockily built
and strong and muscular.
GRADE OF I N T E L L I G E N C E .

When brought to civilization from their native haunts these Indians are, as a rule, very quick to adopt the customs of the whites.
I t is admirable to see the manner in which they learn, in a short time,
to use firearms and as pilots on the smaller boats plying in the
tributaries of the upper Amazon. Many are rendering excellent
service, while the crews are often made up entirely of men born and
reared in the wilderness. A few of the more aggressive have become
shrewd business men and wealthy exporters of rubber.
POLYGAMY.

All of the tribes of Peru practice polygamy, a man's standing and
wealth being determined by the number of wives he may have,
though their number rarely exceed 10, the wives ranging in age
from 10 years to 50 years. (It is not uncommon to see a mother of
perhaps 10 years nursing her child.) The wives are obtained from
among the women of his own tribe or by bartering orx theft from
neighboring tribes. Thus a number of wives, one the favorite for a
longer or shorter period, will live together in one household with
very little jealousy or quarreling. They are submissive, attend to

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all the duties of the household, also work in the small fields of yucca,
corn, etc., and usually accompany the men as servants on their journeys into the forests.
DISEASES C O M M O N .

I n addition to the deaths from the many tribal wars and attacks
of the whites, certain diseases are proving an alarmingly great factor in decimating the ranks of the Indians of Peru. Probably
chief among these is the viruela, or smallpox, unknown among them
till after the coming of the white man, and whole tribes have been
known to perish from epidemics of this disease, to which they seem
peculiarly susceptive. I n the mountainous parts of the country
some die of pneumonia, and of course there are always a good number
of deaths from malaria and other tropical fevers. Beri-beri, or elephantiasis, a swelling of the legs, is also quite common in certain districts, and among the Aguarunas epilepsy has been known to exist at
times.
MEDICINES.

Contrary to the popular belief that Indians in general have a
wonderful knowledge of the value of herbs, plants, roots, etc., for
medicinal purposes, very little is known or pretended among the
Indians of Peru. For fevers of all kinds they commonly use a
species of tea made from the Peruvian bark and a mixture of quinine, and the leaves of certain shrubs made into a sort of a poultice is
placed on wounds. I n case of snake bite, the blood is immediately
sucked from the wound or the wound seared with a burning stick.
Those who use firearms place powder on the wound caused by the
bite, which is then set on fire in the attempt to burn out the poison.
When one is attacked by some unknown form of disease, he is supposed to have been taken possession of by the evil spirit, and for his
relief the Aguarunas, for example, use oaths and prayers, by which
they hope, through threats or entreaties, to free the victims from the
malady.
KELIGION OR B E L I E F S .

With the exception of a few tribes of the Campas, who still worship the sun and moon as in the days of the Inca, the religions or
beliefs of all of these Indians are a mixture of witchcraft and superstition. The most of them believe in the existence of two gods, one
good and one bad, to whom they attribute all of the circumstances
or accidents to which they are subject, adding to their beliefs innumerable superstitions and methods by which the evi] influence of
the evil god can be overcome and the good will of the good and just
god attained. Among some of the tribes certain animals, such as
the deer and black alligator, are never molested, it being the idea of
the people that these animals are departed loved ones come back to
earth in another form. Others believe in a better life which will
follow this one, but all beliefs are rather vague, transmitted for
generations from father to son, and amplified according to the character and intelligence of the narrator.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

109

CANNIBALISM.

Cannibalism is practiced among certain tribes of the Putumayo
River district, who not only enjoy the flavor of human flesh well
prepared, but also believe that they assume the strength, both physically and intellectually, of their victims. Prisoners of war are most
always disposed of in this manner, amid great celebration, the prisoners always having been allowed for days previous all the food and
delicacies of the village that they can consume in order that they may
become properly fattened. The indifference which these prisoners
display toward the fate that awaits them, even when they know the
exact date of their doom, is remarkable. They eat great quantities
of all that is given them that they may make the better feast for
their captors, perform duties as slaves, often going unaccompanied
considerable distances from the place of captivity and returning
without any attempt to escape. When the day for the feast arrives
the victim is brought to the center of the village, tied to a beam, and
some one of the tribe who may have lost a relative in a war with
the tribe of which the victim is a member, or perhaps had a brother
eaten by them, is allowed to perform the execution. With a stone
ax in his hand he addresses his victim, reminding him that his (the
executioner's) brother was sacrificed in a similar manner by the tribe
of the victim; that he died without a moan or a sign of pain; that
he was therefore one of the most valiant of his tribe; that the assembled relatives and friends of the dead warrior would now have the
opportunity of seeing if the victim could die as bravely and unflinchingly. After this little speech the victim's skull is crushed with the
ax, sometimes the unfortunate showing superhuman strength and
determination in receiving several blows without a groan before he
falls. Immediately after the execution the body is cut up and the
feast indulged in. Among the Amahuacas the custom of burning
the bodies is said to exist, and the charred bones are crushed and
ground and afterwards used as a flavor for their meals.
SLAVERY.

I n various works written on Pizsarro's conquest of Peru we read
that in character the Indians at that time were not at all warlike;
that their natural tendencies were toward husbandry and agriculture rather than war, which rendered Pizarro's advance much less
perilous, and, with a few notable exceptions, their complete submission was comparatively easily brought about, nothing like such difficulties having been experienced by the Spaniards as was the case
with Cortez in Mexico*. This same trait of character is easily discernible in their descendants, who seem to expect no better fate than
to become the servants of some " padrone," whom they serve submissively, with but little complaint. Their songs, so characteristic, are
indeed well named " t r i s t e s " (literally "sadness"), and when heard
on a dark night about a campfire in the stillness of an Amazonian
forest their pathetic wail and lament seems the climax of all the
sadness and pathos of their 400 years of slavery. The average Peruvian would, no doubt, show resentment at the statement that

110

SLAVERY I N PERU*

slavery exists in Peru, yet such is in reality the case with most of
the Indians who come in contact with the whites. For the most
part, however, they are not treated harshly, and in their submissive
way, with enough to eat and drink, seem to be contented and probably as well as when roaming the woods. Their existence might be
termed a system of peonage. The Indian enters the employ of some
rubber gatherer, often willingly, though not infrequently by force,
and immediately becomes indebted to nim for food, etc. According
to Peruvian law, a person so indebted to another can be held and
obliged to work till that debt is paid, and in these instances the
employer sees to it that the employee never receives sufficient wages
to pay off his indebtedness, and he is therefore always practically a
slave. A person can, by paying off this indebtedness, secure the
servant, who in this way becomes similarly the slave of the payer
of the debt. However, the scarcity of labor and the ease with which
the Indians can usually escape and live on the natural products of
the forest oblige the owners to treat them with some consideration.
The Indians realize this and their work is not at all satisfactory,
judging from our standards. This was particularly noticeable during a recent visit I made to a mill where " cachassa " or aguardiente
is extrated from cane. The men seemed to work when and how they
chose, requiring a liberal amount of the liquor each day (of which
they are all particularly fond), and if this is not forthcoming or
they are treated harshly in any way they run to the forests.
The employer has the law on his side, and if he can find the runaway he is at liberty to bring him back; but the time lost and the
almost useless task of trying to track the Indian through the dense
forests and small streams makes it far the more practical that the
servant be treated with consideration in the first place. I t is not
uncommon for launches returning from trips up the river to bring
Indians who have been taken from their tribes and sell or present
them to households in Iquitos, where they are kept as servants. They
are usually quick to learn what is expected of them and may often
be said to be better off than in their former state. During a recent
trip which I made an Indian woman and child, who had been sold
for $80, was brought aboard the launch and the woman seemed less
concerned about leaving her people, her new surroundings or probable
fate than an intelligent dog might have done. On another trip a
utile girl of about 8 years was brought aboard by her father and sold
for a small amount of silver and a half dozen cans of sardines.
Through intermarriage with the whites, disease, and battle, the
Indians of Peru are rapidly disappearing, and I am told that statistics compiled for a given period during recent years show that their
numbers are diminishing at the rate of 5 per cent per year; that in
20 years the wild Indian of the Upper Amazon will have disappeared
almost entirely, and it seems only a question of time when the dying
races of South American Indians must meet the fate of their brothers
pf North America, and the two in common, once the rulers of two
continents, become only scattered remnants of their former greatness,
if not entirely engulfed by the wave which seems sweeping over them.
I have, etc.
CHARLES C. EBERIIARDT.

(Published in vol. 52, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Oct.
28, 1908.)

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Ill

[Confidential.]

Consul Eberhardt

to the Secretary of State.

GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE PTJT0MAY0 RIVER DISTRICT OF PERU*
AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Iquitos, December 3,1907.
S I R : In view of certain articles which have appeared in different
periodicals at home at different times during the past few months
(India Rubber World, of May, September, and October, and New
York Times of September 6 and 19) regarding the exploitation by an
American company, under concession from the Colombian Government, of a large tract of rubber lands in the Upper Putomayo (or
lea) and Yapura (or Caqueta) Rivers district, a territory which is
now in dispute between that Government and Peru, the results of a
trip of inspection which I recently made to that part of the district
at present controlled by the company which has a complete monopoly
of all Putomayo rubber shipments through Iquitos maybe interesting.
Out of an absence of eight weeks from Iquitos, six weeks were spent
in the Putomayo River and its two branches, the Igaraparana and
Caraparana (sometimes written Carapanama), where the two principal posts of the local company of J. C. Arana y Hermanos are
located, and while it is by no means presumed that a thorough knowledge of existing local conditions could be gained in so short a time,
it is presumed that one could gain a knowledge of many phases of
those conditions—such as the manner of extracting rubber, the class
of work, conditions of the Indians, health conditions, feeling between
the Peruvians and Colombians of the district—which a promoting
company would probably not make public, and which the department, at least, might be interested in knowing.
As maps of Peru of any degree of accuracy are difficult to obtain
here, I must refer to that transmitted with my unnumbered dispatch
of the 30th ultimo, " Indians of Peru."
This territory, operated exclusively by the company referred to,,
contains approximately 12,000 square miles and is roughly designated
on the map by the space bounded on the north by the Yapura River,
on the south by the Putomayo River, and on the east and west by
heavily drawn blue pencil lines. The names of the two principal
posts of the company, La Chorrera and El Encanto, are also underscored with blue pencil. Of course, the area of this tract is only
roughly estimated as no accurate surveys have ever been made of it.
There being no overland means of communication between Iquitos
and that district, the trip is commonly made by launch, three days
down the Amazon to the mouth of the Putumayo and thence a journey of some six to eight days up the latter river, though a shorter
way for those who travel unencumbered is to enter the Napo about
three hours below Iquitos and ascend that river to a point from
which the journey by path to Encanto can be made in a few days.
The company, however, uses the former route, having two launches,
the Liberal and the Cosmopolita, of approximately 125 tons each,
which are employed in bringing the product to Iquitos and carrying
provisions, etc., to the employees stationed on the property. La
Chorrera is the larger and longer established of the two posts, ap-

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

proximately 500 metric tons of " jebe debit" having been shipped
from there in 1906, while the two posts together furnished approximately 800 metric tons during that year, or something more than
one-third of the entire amount of rubber of all grades exported from
Iquitos for that period, practically all of which was shipped to Liverpool, though it is hoped that a considerable portion of future exports
may be turned to New York now that we have direct steamship communication between Iquitos and that city.
To bring an organization to a degree of efficiency capable of successfully handling a business of such magnitude in a wild and but
partially explored region, where hostile Indians and other conditions most trying and perplexing abound, has not been an easy task.
The business is conducted from Iquitos, where a considerable office
force is employed, though a resident manager is stationed at both
posts, each of whom has complete charge of a given territory and to
whom the foreman of certain specified tracts of territory, or sections
as they are called, must report. These foremen, together with their
assistants, all of whom are armed, number approximately 200, and
they have control, by " rule of the rifle," over approximately 10,000
Indians—men, women, and children, principally of the Huitoto,
Bora, Ocaino, and Andoque Tribes.
The following arrangement of the sections under the Chorrera
management may serve to give a better understanding as to the manner of conducting the work:
N a m e of section.

U l t i m o Retiro
E n t r e Rios
Sur
Oriente
Matanzas
A b y s i n i a Morelia
E l P a m a S a n t a Catalina

Number
of foremen.

Number
of assistants.

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

14
14
6
4
8
8
12
18
35
17

Number
(approximate).
650
650
700
300
600
500
1,000
5,000
1,600
800

N a m e s of
Indians.

Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Ocainos.
Boras.
Andoques.
Boras.
Do.

These foremen work on a commission, and while their contracts are
not all alike the men are all making a great deal of money, at the
same time spending it most freely and gambling much of it away
during their three visits a year to the post, when they come from the
forests with their hundreds of Indians laden with rubber, the results
of some three months' work. One man with whom I talked receives
as his commission £2 sterling for every arroba (33 pounds) of
rubber delivered from his section and 7 per cent of the actual product,
which netted him during the months of June, July, and August something like 80fi00 soles, or approximately $40,000 United States currency. His contract, however, is the most liberal of any of the employees, as he has charge of a district which has always been considered particularly dangerous, the Indians never having been completely cowed, always ready to revolt, and uprisings are to be expected at any time. Indeed, they have killed and eaten several white
men during the last two years, and this foreman himself, after having

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

113

been seized and bound to a tree, was only saved from a similar fate
by the timely arrival of his armed assistants. Then, according to
his owji story, many of the Indians were killed in cold blood or
tortured and put to death in ways exceeding for their sheer
brutality the methods of the Indians themselves. When the Indians
flee to the forests, expeditions headed by armed whites and made up
of Indians of neighboring tribes toward whom the runaways have
always been hostile go in pursuit, and so, hunted by the whites and
surrounded on all sides by hostiles of their own race, they are
eventually killed or brought back captives to work as slaves of the
whites, though of course some do escape. The word " slavery " is
used advisedly, for the condition of the Indians is in reality nothing
else.
Perhaps the greatest problem confronted by the men who opened
up this district was that of securing labor, and as the country was uninhabited save by wild Indians it was very necessary to devolve some
scheme to secure their labor. I n some instances the chief was treated
with friendliness and for a small consideration and a promise of
a continuance of favors to him personally from the whites gave his
tribe over to the whites, though more often the Indians have been
secured by armed hunting expeditions. When once secured the men
are sometimes given a machete as a present ( ? ) , for which they are
required to pay in rubber at a valuation fixed outrageously high by
the whites, and the women enough cheap, highly colored calico for a
" cushma " (a loose gown). I n this way they become debtors to the
company, and in their ignorance they are held in this debt by other
gifts ( ? ) , or even by force the rest of their days, for as before mentioned by Peruvian law a debtor can be compelled to work for the
man to whom he is indebted till the obligation is canceled.
The lands upon which the company is at present working were
formerly occupied for the most part by the Huitoto Tribe and subtribes, though the territory of the Boras, Andoques, and Cocainos is
also embraced. As the foregoing figures show, these Indians are
parceled out in groups of 200 to 1,600 per section, under a foreman
and his assistant overseers. Arrived at the sections, the Indians under
the guard of armed overseers go about their work. First, the spaces
at the bottom of the trees are cleaned and a hollow scooped out of
the earth. Then the trees are pricked or cut with a machete and the
liquid allowed to run into these hollows at the foot of the trees and
later, after it has coagulated, it is gathered, washed in a near-by
stream, and thoroughly kneaded on a flat log into long rolls, in which
shape it is carried on the backs of Indians to the main post, these pilgrimages being made three times a year.
Rubber so crudely gathered and prepared is said to command an
inferior price in Europe to that from other districts of a similar
grade differently handled.
In the vicinity of Chorrera considerable land has been cleared and
it is an interesting, yet withal a sad sight, to see these Indians—once
the owners of this vast region—men, women, and children alike, now
slaves, filing along in the distance over this clearing, heavily laden
with rubber from their native forests, which they lay at the feet of
their conquerors. As has been said before, these overseers are in
reality armed guards who compel the Indians to work, and who are
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

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SLAVEBY JK PERU.

usually illiterate whites, receiving the equivalent of from $25 to $50,
United States currency, and board per month, and capable of most
any brutal deed. About two years ago a number of negroes were
brought from Barbados for these positions, but they soon sickened of
the brutalities they were obliged by their superiors to inflict upon the
poor Indians, and practically all have worked their way back to
Iquitos or Barbados. They have frightful stories to tell and have no
hesitancy in telling all they have been through.
As before mentioned, the formen receive a percentage on the product delivered at the post, and naturally drive the Indians as hard as
possible, which has been responsible for much of the ill treatment
of the Indians. One negro told me that he had been compelled,
under penalty of receiving the same punishment himself if he did
not carry out the orders of his superior, to punish Indians by all
sorts of cruelties; in fact, he showed me a scar which he said he had
received when he first began work for having interfered with the
foreman, who was beating and kicking an Indian woman. H e told
me, further, that he had seen a foreman shoot an Indian through the
foot for not having brought a satisfactory amount of rubber from
the forest, and he was told to return to the forest, wounded as he
was, and bring more, or he would be killed. Women and children
are also obliged to work, and the same negro told of a woman whose
baby seemed to interfere with her bringing in a sufficient amount of
rubber, and the baby was therefore killed by dashing its brains out
against a tree and the woman told to go to work again or she would
be similarly treated. A man of standing here in Iquitos says he saw
a woman, pregnant, disemboweled with a stroke of a sharp machete.
Such stories, almost without number, could be cited, and I have no
doubt they could be proven, for it is common rumor here that such
conditions do exist there, and from what I myself saw I am convinced of it. For example, a negro from French Guiana brutally
beat and bruised an old Indian in my presence till I went beyond my
right and interfered. Another employee, a Spanish clerk in the
storehouse, knocked down his little servant (they all have boy slaves
to wait on them), broke a rib and two teeth with brutal kicks, and I
also saw poor Indians, mere skeletons, in chains, living on fariña
(dried yucca meal) and water, thus detained as examples to others
because they had tried to run away and be free again in their own
native forests. The foremen themselves at first talked very freely
with me about the severe and even brutal measures which they considered necessary to adopt to keep the Indians under control, but
later, evidently having been instructed by the manager, they tried to
persuade me that such talk had all been an exaggeration. Of course
as consul of another Government, I had no comment to make, nor as
a plain American citizen could I have had anything to say on the
subject. The Peruvians are seeking to get the benefit of the Indian's
labor before he disappears entirely, and to that end do not hesitate
to perform the most outrageous acts of crueltyThe local papers, some of them said to be instigated by enemies of
this company, and Colombians also, have recently had a great deal
to say on the subject, publishing caricatures representing more or
less accurately and truly many of the acts said to be perpetrated.
However, I do not pose as a reformer in this matter, the instances I
have cited above, both hearsay and what I have personally seen,

SLAVERY I N PERU.

115

being intended only for the department's information, and it is
hoped that the dispatch, or, at least, the part pertaining to these
cruelties, may be kept from the public. A great deal has been written
in recent months about such acts in the Kongo rubber districts, and
a similar state of things could, no doubt, be proven to exist here.
I t at first seems incredible that so many Indians can be kept under
control by so few armed men, and there seems little doubt that they
could successfully resist for years to come the invasion of the white
man, poorly armed as they are in comparison, if they had any sort
of organization or union, but the different tribes and subtribes, enemies for centuries, will not lay aside their jealousies and differences
to unite and fight against their common enemy. Thus it is that, as
often happens, when numbers of them run away, expeditions made
up of Indians of another tribe who have been lifetime enemies of the
fugitives are sent after them and, in the end, the runaways are usually
recaptured. Not infrequently the leader of a certain group, or captain, as he is called, will even hunt down his own people who may
have tried to escape, in this manner further ingratiating himself in
favor with the whites and receiving more than ordinary consideration
and good treatment from them for his traitorous action toward his
own kind. Naturally the poor chances the Indians have with their
inferior arms (lances, spears, etc.) of any successful resistance and
the rough treatment they have received from the whites have cowed
their spirit to a certain extent, though the Boras are still untamed
and are being closely watched. During the past three years some 32
white men have been killed and eaten in this district. Some of the
men of this tribe are splendid specimens of manhood, lighter in color
than the other Indians, as a rule, and I saw two types absolutely
handsome, who, with hair cut, well-formed heads, and intelligentlooking features, seemed more like college athletes than savage
cannibals.
Generally speaking, however, these Indians may all be said to be
degenerating, the white man having introduced venereal diseases,
smallpox, etc., which are taking them off in great numbers. At
Encanto, for instance, I was informed that where a year ago they
had nearly 2,200 Indians they now have about 1,500, the most of the
700 having died of smallpox. When this disease once attacks them
it usually proves fatal, for in the first place the whites give them
but indifferent attention, in the form of patent medicines; and in the
second place, the Indians will not obey even the meager instructions
which they do receive from the whites as to best methods to pursue
lo effect a cure, but usually throw themselves into the water, which,
in their feverish state, most always proves fatal. This decimation of
the ranks of the Indians through the indifference of the Avhites toward
the state of their health and by bullets from their rifles (to say
nothing of those who successfully evade recapture) seems a shortsighted policy on the part of the management, inasmuch as they are
entirely dependent upon the Indian for labor; but the exploiters do
not care to look ahead, it seems, for, as one man expressed it to me,
" My father left me nothing, and I do not care to look out for the
future generation, either. I shall get all I can out of it for my own
enjoyment and let those who come after look out for themselves."
With this spirit prevailing it is but natural that they should be
looking about for some customer to whom they might dispose of the

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SLAVEBY I N PERU.

tract. I do not mean to imply that a gold-brick scheme is trying
to be floated, for there will likely be a great deal of money to be
made there for years to come; but under changing, perplexing conditions, such as labor supply, location in territory disputed by Peru
and Colombia, and consequent state of unrest.
' That the tract is in territory in dispute between these two Republics
is generally known; that sale of the same tract (or the great part,
at least) by both Peruvians and Colombians is at present being
sought, if not actually consummated, seems proven by the articles in
the periodicals referred to above, to the effect that the Amazon
Colombian Rubber Trading Co. had been formed in New York to
exploit the tract in the upper Putomayo district between that river
and the Yapura, and the announcement which appeared in to-day's
Oriente, a local daily, over the signature of the local manager of the
company of J. C. Arana y Hermanos, to the effect that the tract
controlled by that company, the same tract as described above, had
been sold, September 26, to the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Co. (Ltd.),
of London (purchase price and details not given). Therefore, the
relations between the Peruvians and Colombians in that vicinity as 1
found them during my visit of some two months ago may not be out
of place.
Peru and Columbia, in common with most South American Republics situated geographically side by side, have their disputes
over boundary lines, and, as the department is, of course, aware of
the whys and wherefores of the case, there is no need of going into
detail on the subject further than to state that the Pope at Rome,
as arbiter, has the matter in hand for final settlement, and that, pending such settlement, it is asserted that both Republics agreed to keep
the region free from officials or armed military forces. Each Government, however, seems to be suspicious of the other, and seems also
to be endeavoring by various means to further its own interests there
with the result that from present indications it seems that both have
violated the compact. Arana y Hermanos have always wished to
have the dominating voice in the business of the region, and with that
end in view began some time ago to buy up the interests of the different Colombians located there till about a year ago, having paid
several thousand pounds sterling to the Colombian partners for their
interests in Encanto, on the Caraparana River, and Florida, Argelia,
and other ports farther in the interior, they secured a practical
monopoly of the business of the district. Gradually they have gotten rid of the Colombian workmen who were employed as guards
over the Indians, until now there are very few Colombians in the
vicinity.
I n January of the present year the Colombian consul in Iquitos
German Velez, visited that region and, according to the story told
me by the Peruvian manager of the post at Encanto, roundly upbraided his countrymen who had sold their interests to the Peruvians, calling them traitors to their country and advising them that
their Government would be advised of their perfidy. He is also said
to have tried secretly to induce the Colombian overseers to join him
in a raid upon the house at Encanto, bind (or kill, if necessary) the
manager, also the captain of the launch Cosmopolita, which was in
port loaded and about ready to return to Iquitos, take the launch with
its rubber cargo and provisions up river to Colombian territory, loot

117

SLAVERY I N PERU.

her, and form an invading party of Indians and return a,nd take
possession. The Colombian overseers would not agree to such action,
however, and afterwards told the manager of the plan. The consul
is known to have talked a, great deal with the Indian workers, and
this fact is causing some uneasiness among the Peruvians, for the
Colombians are recognized as having always treated the Indians with
milder measures than the Peruvians, and as a consequence it is feared
that the natives would be more inclined to aid the Colombians should
any conflict arise between the two nations.
Mr. Velez returned to Iquitos soon after that occurrence and all
seemed running smoothly until, as it is now reported here, the plan
of Arana y Hermanos to get rid of all Colombians, even as to the
overseers, and substitute Peruvians (all of whom go armed, of
course) was interpreted by the Colombians as a violation of the
agreement to keep the district free from armed forces. The launch
Liberal, returning to Iquitos November 15, brought news that some
100 Colombian soldiers were encamped across the river from Chorrera, and as the Peruvian workmen are all practically out in the
forests overseeing the Indians at rubber gathering the manager,
storekeeper, and few clerks there feel helpless and fear an attack
most any time. Accordingly, on November 17, 40 soldiers from the
Iquitos barracks were embarked for the scene of the difficulty, on the
launch Cosmopolita, and should be at Chorrera by this time. These
men, reinforcing the armed overseers and such friendly Indians as
can be depended upon to carry arms, place the number of men on the
Peruvian side at approximately 500, while it is thought that the Colombian force is.but a part of the number in the vicinity; that they
have reserves in easy calling distance and many Indians who could
be depended upon to aid them, and it is hard to decide, therefore,
which side would have the advantage were a fight to ensue. However, the most of the citizens of Iquitos do not anticipate any serious
difficulty, saying that it is merely a neighborhood dispute which will
blow over shortly, and it is hoped that such may be the case.
Nevertheless, it must be admitted that when armed forces, antagonistic, remain for any length of time in the same vicinity it requires
very little to incite them to action, and the situation could easily be
made serious. I t seems that companies wishing to invest in that
region would do well to carefully consider the probability of such
occurrence in the future and the demoralizing effect it must have on
business in general there.
I have, etc.,
CHARLES C. EBERHARDT,
[No. 286.]

Mr. Combs to the Secretary

State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, November ^, 1909.
S I R : I have the honor to report that this community, especially
the English colony, is very much interested in the publication in
Truth (London, England), under dates of September 22 and September 29, of severe attacks on the administration of the affairs of
the Amazon Rubber Co.

118

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The articles recite numerous acts of outrage and brutality. I t
speaks of it as the Peruvian Kongo and declares the laborers are
forced with the lash and at the point of the gun to perform the work
of gathering rubber, and that women are outraged and children murdered as constant occurrences.
: I t is stated that an agent of the company offered a bribe to one of
the London newspapers to suppress publications, and the matter has
been the subject of parliamentary inquiry.
Much of the information upon which the publications are based
seemed to have been furnished by Messrs. Perkins & Hardenburg, for
whom the department has obtained the promise of the Peruvian Government for compensation for losses sustained while traveling in that
region.
There is no doubt, I think, that the rubber gathering is conducted
with much brutality in the greater part of the Amazon district.
Mr. William C. Farabee, for some years past in charge of a Harvard College scientific investigation of the uncivilized Amazon
Indians, and who passed two years recently in those districts, gave ma
an account in sickening terms of the atrocities that came to his
knowledge while there.
He felt that the district was so remote and the authority of law so
little felt that the conditions were attributable more to the weakness
than the fault of the Peruvian authorities. H e stated that in the districts he visited the Spaniards were most responsible for these outrages.
Doubtless, if the matter should assume a form that rendered further and more, particular information desirable, Mr. Farabee, who
has now returned to Harvard, would be willing to furnish it to the
department.
I have, etc.
LESLIE COMBS.
[Informal.

Confidential.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

W ashing tony April 13, 1911.
DEAR M R . SECRETARY: YOU will remember that last year we had
some correspondence about the atrocities alleged to have been committed by employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. in the Putumayo
district of Peru.
I have now received from the foreign office a report by Mr. Casement, our consul general in Eio de Janeiro, giving a lamentable
account of the atrocities which are committed by the officials of the
company, which apparently rules the whole of that district and its
unfortunate inhabitants.
I n addition to this report, of which I inclose a copy, I am promised
a further one on the general situation in the Putumayo region as it
affects the Indian population. This report shall be also forwarded to
you when it reaches me.
The report herewith sent has already been communicated unofficially to the Peruvian Government, which has taken steps to send a
judicial commission to the spot to inquire into the state of affairs.

119

SLAVERY IN PERU.

Sir Edward Grey has also urged the Peruvian Government to
prevent the escape of the principal offenders.
I feel sure that after reading Mr. Casement's report you will share
the horror felt by His Majesty's Government and trust that you will
be disposed to add your influence to theirs for the suppression of the
shocking cruelties which have been and apparently are still being
perpetrated upon the unhappy people whose sufferiixgs are here
described.
I am, etc.,

JAMES BRYCE.

[No. 76.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, May <9,1911.
SIR : I had the honor in a letter dated Aj)ril 13 of transmitting to
you copy of a report by Mr. Casement, British consul general in Rio
de Janeiro, concerning the lamentable atrocities committed by the
officials of the Peruvian Amazon Co. in the Putumayo district of
Peru.
His Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs has
informed me by telegraph that he is sending by mail a further report
on the same subject, drawn up by the British consul, which I shall
have the honor of forwarding to you on its arrival.
His Majesty's Government consider that this report affords conclusive proof that for years past the most terrible atrocities have been
systematically committed in these regions and that there is no exaggeration in the accusation of Mr. Hardenberg. I n one district, for
instance, 40,000 out of a population of 50,000 Indians have been either
killed outright or tortured to death.
On the report of the English commission, appointed by the Peruvian Amazon Co. to inquire into the accusations against its agents,
the company have taken certain steps to reform the conditions of
their workers. The Peruvian Government have interested themselves
in the matter and a judicial investigation commission was dispatched
to Putumayo in a gunboat. Telegrams have been communicated to
His Majesty's representative at Lima by the Peruvian under secretary
of state for foreign affairs, reporting the activities of the prefect of
Ijquitos in his attempt to bring the offenders to justice.
7 I n view of these facts His Majesty's Government would be grateful
if they could be put in possession of the views of the United States
Government on the subject, with the object of enlisting their assistance with the Peruvian Government, and I should consequently be
greatly obliged if you could inform me (as you doubtless feel the
same horror as His Majesty's Government do at the present state of
things) at your early convenience of what action the United States
Government would be inclined to take.
I have, etc.j
JAMES BRYCE.
The Casement report, January 31, 1911, is printed in the British
Bluebook.

120

SLAVERY I N

[Informal.,

The British

PERU.

Confidential.]

ambassador to the Secretary

•

•.••,, \

of State*

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington,

May W, 1911. .

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: In my letter of the 13th ultimo, transmits

ting a report by Mr. Casement, British consul general at Rio de
Janeiro, concerning the atrocities committed by employees of the
Peruvian Amazon Co. in the Putumayo district of P e r u , ! informed
you that a further report had been promised me on the subject. This
report—or rather two reports—have just reached me, and I have
been instructed to communicate them confidentially to your Government.
I t is no exaggeration to say that this information as to the methods
employed in the collection of rubber by the agents of the company
surpass in horror anything hitherto reported to the civilized world
during the last century. Flogging, torturing, burning, starving to
death, have been in this ill-fated region, constantly and ruthlessly
employed in the collection of rubber by the agents of the company
their tyrants, while the brutal lust and hideously cruelty wantonly
practiced on the women and children deepen, if possible, the horror's
of the scene.
I am, etc.,

JAMES BRYCE.
[Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July tf, 1911.
Inform Peruvian minister for foreign affairs that I have read the
report of your conversation with H . E., contained in your dispatch
of May 4, and impress upon him that His Majesty's Government
attach the greatest importance to Peru, giving visible proof, without
further delay, that she is determined to eradicate the present abuses
in the Putumayo, and to arrest and bring before a proper court the
criminals implicated. Failing such proof, they will have no alternative but to publish Sir K. Casement's reports (Spanish translations
of which are now on their way to you for communication to the
Peruvian Government).

I Telegraphic.

Received July 13.]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.

FOREIGN OFFICE, July 6, 1911.
See my telegram of to-day to His Majesty's representative at
Lima.
Please communicate substance to United States Government, and
say we should greatly appreciate any support they can give at Lima
in this matter. I t is public knowledge that very great crimes have
occurred, and that His Majesty's Government are in possession of

121

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

the facts. His Majesty's Government must confiné their action to
the protection of British subjects, and this they have done; but unless
they are in a position to say that criminals have been punished and
measures taken to prevent a recurrence of such cruelties they will
have no choice but to publish what they know, as publicity will then
be the only chance of remedy.
' [Paraphrase of telegram.]

Mr, Reid to the Secretary of State,
AMERICAN EMBASSY,

London, July 11, 1911.
Sir Edward Grey, in a conversation regarding the Casement report
upon the conduct of the employees of the British company in the
Putumayo district, said that he hoped you understood, that he was
giving the matter serious attention, and was trying to bring pressure
for the punishment of the criminals. He hesitated to publish the
Casement report until every such effort had been made, since that
would exhaust the last remaining remedy, namely, an effort to focus
on the toleration of such atrocities the indignation of the civilized
world.
REID.
[No. 1211.]

The Secretary of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 17,1911.
: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
excellency's notes of April 13, May 8, and May 29, 1911, the first and
third being confidential, in further relation to the atrocities committed in the Putumayo district on the boundaries of Peru and Colombia by persons in the employ of the Peruvian-Amazon Co.
This Government heartily sympathizes with His Britannic
Majesty's Government upon the subject of these reported atrocities,
and has, accordingly, transmitted appropriate instructions to the
American minister at Lima to express informally, at a favorable
opportunity, to the Peruvian foreign office the pleasure that was felt
by this Government upon learning of the steps that were initiated by
that Government, actuated by the high ideals of humanity, to put an
effective end to these excesses in the Peruvian rubber forests of the
Amazon Valley by dispatching a judicial investigating commission
to the Putumayo.
The minister has been further directed to express the friendly hope
that the action already taken indicates that adequate and vigorous
measures will follow to prevent unscrupulous and lawless exploiters
of the india-rubber wealth of Peru from practicing against the
native populations cruelties of the character reported, which this
Government has been informed threaten to accomplish the complete
extinction of a defenseless people.
,
EXCELLENCY

I have, etc.,

P . C. KNOX.

122

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The Secretary of State to Mr.

Howard.

DEPARTMENT or STATE,

Washington, July 17,1911.
S I R : Eeferring to Mr. Comb's dispatch No. 286, of November 4,
1909, calling attention to the interest aroused in the Lima section,
especially in the English colony, by the publication in the London
T r u t h of an article attacking the administration of the affairs of the
Amazon Rubber Co., which was accused of numerous acts of outrage
and brutality practiced upon the laborers employed by said company,
you are informed that the department has received representations
on the subject from the British ambassador here and is disposed to
cooperate, as far as it properly can, with the British Government to
put an end to the atrocities complained of.
You will, accordingly, express informally, at a favorable opportunity, to the Peruvian foreign office the pleasure that was felt by
this Government upon learning of the steps that were initiated by
that Government, actuated by the high ideals of humanity, to put an
effective end to these excesses in the Peruvian rubber forests of the
Amazon Valley by dispatching a judicial investigating commission
to the Putumayo.
You wTill also express the friendly hope that the action already
taken indicates that adequate and vigorous measures will follow to
prevent unscrupulous and lawless exploiters of the india-rubber
wealth of Peru from practicing against the native populations cruelties of the character reported, which this Government has been informed threaten to accomplish the complete extinction of a defenseless people. And, finally, you will point out that Peru will, of course,
not fail to appreciate tide friendly spirit of the Government of the
United States in making mention of this matter, and will realize
that the United States has no disposition or intention to give offense
by this reference to a matter which concerns the internal affairs of
Peru.
For your confidential information I inclose herewith a copy each
of three reports by Mr. Eoger Casement, the British consul general
in Eio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the subject.
I am, etc.,

P . C. KNOX.

For Casement report, see British Blue Book.

[Paraphrase of telegram.]

The Secretary of State to Mr. Reid.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 19, 1911.
The Secretary of State informs Mr. Eeid that instructions have
been sent to the American minister at Lima informally to make representations to the Government of Peru, expressing the friendly hope
of this Government that Peru will take vigorous measures in order
effectively to end the abuses practiced upon the defenseless natives of
the Putumayo district.
KNOX.

123

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 150.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Seal Harbor, Me., August 11,1911.
S I R : With reference to your No. 1211 of the 17th of July, on the
subject of the atrocities in Putmayo district, the substance of which
I did not fail to communicate to His Majesty's Governiueñt, I have
the honor, by instruction of His Majesty's principal secretary of
state, to report for your further information in the matter of instructions that have been issued to His Majesty's charge d'affaires in Lima
by His Majesty's Government.
These are to the effect that, in view of the President's assurance
that he would take any action that His Majesty's Government might
consider to be the most effective, His Majesty's charge d'affaires
should first of all urge that immediate steps be taken to compel the
local authorities to arrest and punish the criminals whose names have
already been communicated by His Majesty's Government. This must
still be possible, although it would of course have been easier had
prompt action been taken in the beginning.
Mr. Jerome was further instructed to press the Peruvian Government for an early answer.
I am at the same time instructed to state that His Majesty's Government will be very grateful for any information you may be able
to afford me as to any further steps that the Government of the
United States may think desirable or practicable in the matter.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYCE.

[No. 1244.]

The Secretary of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, August 15, 1911. *
EXCELLENCY : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
excellency's note, No. 150, of the 11th instant, in relation to the
atrocities in the Putumayo district, and in which you communicate,
by direction of His Majesty's principal secretary of state, the tenor
of instructions that have been issued to the British charge d'affaires
at Lima by your excellency's Government. You also state that His
Majesty's Government would be grateful for any information as to
what further steps the Government of the United States may think
desirable or practicable to take in the matter.
While thanking you for the information which you have been so
kind as to transmit, I hasten to inform your excellency that this department will be glad to communicate to you the character of whatever additional measures it may be found expedient to take in urging
the Peruvian Government to move effectively to put an end to the
excesses in the Putumayo district, to which my note of July 17 last
liad reference.
I have, etc.,

P . C. KNOX.

124

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 170.]

The British

ambassador to the Secretary

State.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Seal Harbor, September i, 1911.
S I R : Information has reached His Majesty's Government to the
effect that certain of the criminals implicated in the recent terrible
atrocities in the Putumayo district are now in Brazil.
They have accordingly instructed His Majesty's minister at Rio>
Janeiro to approach the Brazilian Government with the request that
these persons may be carefully watched and that prompt information may be given should any of them leave Brazilian territory.
The Government of Brazil have also been asked whether it would
be possible to extradite these persons to Peru.
Among the criminals who are understood to be in Brazil are certain Barbados negroes, as well as Montt. Fonseca, Agüero Velarde,,
who are among the principal offenders^ as is well known to you
from the reports I have had the honor of communicating to you at
different times.
I t is felt that great weight would be given to these representations
if the Government of the United States could see their way to instructing the American ambassador at Rio Janeiro to act in concert
with his British colleague in this matter, and I have accordingly,
by instruction of His Majesty's secretary of state, the honor to request that you would take into early consideration the desirability
or issuing instructions in this sense, as I feel assured from the sympathetic attitude hitherto adopted by your Government that they
are no less desirous than are His Majesty's Government that nothing
should be left undone which would insure the infliction of due
punishment on those guilty of such abominable and long-continued
atrocities as those reported to have been perpetrated upon those
unfortunate Indians.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRY^E.
* •

[Paraphrase of telegram ]

The Acting Secretary of State to Mr.

Dudley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, September llf, 1911.
The Department of State informs Mr. Dudley that, moved to
broad considerations of humanity and at the request of the British
Government, based upon information obtained through the personal
investigations of the British consul general at Rio de Janeiro regarding the terrible atrocities practiced in the Putumayo district by
rubber gatherers, resulting in the decimation of defenseless native
populations, it has instructed the American legation at Lima informally to express to the Government of Peru the hope of this Government that appropriate effective measures might be taken to put
an end to the abuses reported to have been practiced within Peruvian
jurisdiction and to punish the guilty parties.
Mr. Dudley is also informed that the British embassy in Washington now states that certain of the individuals accused of these

125

SLAVERY I N PERU.

crimes are at present within Brazilian jurisdiction, and is instructed,
after consulting with the British minister, to say to the minister for
foreign affairs that this Government feels confident that the Brazilian Government is entirely in sympathy with the efforts made
heretofore, and to express the pleasure with which this Government
would view any action which the Brazilian Government may take for
the purpose of assisting to bring to justice the criminals.
HUNTINGTON WILSON.

[No. 321.]

The Acting Secretary

of State to Mr.

Dudley.

DEPARTMENT or STATE,

Washington, September 15, 1911.
S I R ; Some time ago the British embassy at this Capital, in pursuance of instructions from the British foreign office, placed before the
department three reports prepared by the consul general at Eio de
Janeiro to the British Government upon conditions in the PeruvianPutumayo regions, based upon careful investigation of the methods
used by the rubber gatherers there, in their inhuman treatment of the
native population which they compelled to labor for them in the
exploitation of the rubber forests of the basin of the upper Amazon.
His Majesty's Government expressed the hope that the Government of the United States might find it possible to lend its support
to the representations that were being made through the British
minister at Lima, for the purpose of securing vigorous action on the
part of the Peruvian authorities to put an end to the horrible excesses reported to have been systematically practiced, and to bring
those responsible for such acts speedily to justice.
The department, feeling in entire sympathy with the humanitarian
endeavors of the British Government, consented to instruct appropriately the American minister at Lima, who was directed to approach the Peruvian foreign office in the spirit of the instructions of
July 17 last, a copy of which is transmitted herewith for your information.
The department is now in receipt of another,communication from
the British embassy, dated the 1st instant, a copy of which is inclosed,
in which it is stated that certain individuals responsible for the
crimes committed on Peruvian territory which have been the subject
of the informal representations to the Peruvian Government, had
come within Brazilian jurisdiction and that His Majesty's minister
at Rio de Janerio had been asked to express a desire to the Brazilian
foreign office that these persons be kept under observation, and that
prompt information should be given in case any of them should leave
the territory of that Republic. An inquiry, it is added, has also
been made as to whether these offenders may be extradited.
I n harmony with the action which has been taken by the department, based upon the broad grounds of humanity which the department is confident will appeal with equal cogency to the Brazilian
Government, you were instructed by cable of to-day's date to make
known to the Brazilian minister for foreign affairs the sympathetic
interest that is being taken by this Government in the efforts to se-

126

SLAVERY I N PERU.

cure full protection against the lawless practices of the rubber gatherers of the Putumayo, and to express the pleasure with which this
Government will view any action which Brazil may find it wise and
proper to take to bring the criminals to account for their misdeeds
before the justice which they have offended.
The several reports of Mr. Casement to the British Government,
dated January 31, March 17, and March 21, respectively, copies of
which are now in the files of the department, are not being sent you,
as they will undoubtedly be placed at your disposal upon your request by the British legation in Brazil.
The British ambassador to the United States has been advised of
the action now taken, and it has been suggested that you be given
full access to the information collected by Mr. Casement in his investigation of this question, transmitted to the department in the
form of the published reports above mentioned.
I am, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON.
[No. 1268.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT or STATE,

Washington, September 15,1911.
EXCELLENCY: I n further reference to the efforts that are being
made for the proper protection of the native population of the
Peruvian rubber forests against the horrible cruelties which have
been systematically practiced upon them by the exploiters of the
rubber wealth of these regions, and to cause the proper punishment
of those guilty of the unspeakable atrocities reported, I have the
honor to inform you, in reply to your note of the 1st instant, that
the American ambassador at Petropolis has been authorized, by
cable of to-day's date, to call upon the Brazilian minister for foreign
affairs, after consultation with His British Majesty's minister at Rio
de Janeiro, and to say that this Government feels confident that the
Brazilian Government will be in entire sympathy with the representations that have been made to the Peruvian Government in behalf of the natives of the Putumayo, and to express the pleasure
with which this Government would view any action that Brazil
should find it proper to take to bring the criminals to account before
the justice they have outraged.
The American embassy, in an instruction now on its way in the
mails to Petropolis, has been advised that copies of the printed reports by Mr. Casement, duplicates of which you so kindly furnished
the department in connection with your past correspondence on this
subject, may undoubtedly be obtained, for his further information^
from the British legation in Brazil.
I have, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON.
[No. 50.]
SEPTEMBER 15, 1911.

The honorable the SECRETARY or STATE,

Washington.

S I R : I n compliance with the instruction of July 17, 1911, No. 8,
referring to the numerous acts of brutality perpetrated upon the

127

SLAVERY I N PERU.

native Indians by the Amazon Rubber Co., I have the honor to re^
port that the minister for foreign affairs expressed gratification at
the department's message of appreciation of the steps taken by the
Government of Peru to suppress such practices and punish the perpetrators of the outrages. The minister, Mr. Leguia y Martinez,
volunteered and subsequently furnished a statement from the records
showing the steps taken, arrests made, etc. A translation of same
is herewith inclosed.
I n a conversation with the President of Peru upon another subject, he appeared fully conversant with the progress made, when informally referred to by me, mentioning the large number of arrests,
and the fact that one rubber company had been driven into bankruptcy by the prosecution, which entailed a considerable loss upon
the Government of Peru as the owner of the bonds of said company.
Both officials expressed a firm determination, by adequate and vigorous measures, to put an end to the barbarous practices and to punish
the guilty parties.
I have, etc.,
H. CLAY HOWARD.
[Memorandum. Translation.

The Peruvian

Inclosure with No. 50, Lima, Sept. 15, 1911.]

foreign

office to Minister

Howard,

The judicial commission for the investigation of the crimes perpetrated on the Putumayo, presided over by the deputy judge, Dr.
Paredes, has, after traversing the remote parts of that vast region,
such as Andokes, Abisinia, Morelia, and Entrerios, issued 250 orders
for arrest based upon circumstantial evidence.
The prefect of Loreto has advised this ministry that the leaders,
the brothers Homero, Aurelio Rodriguez, Albino Lopez Zumaeta,
and others have already been captured, and that active pursuit is
being made after the remainder.
Among the principal guilty parties there are many Barbados
negroes, who are now back again in their own country. Only the
minor criminals are still in Peruvian territory. Dr. Paredes has
been able to prove that the greater part of the crimes and acts of
cruelty which have been perpetrated took place previous to 1907,
especially between 1901 and 1905, and were committed by Colombians
and Peruvians. The Government of Brazil has been asked to look
out for and deliver up the 18 guilty persons who have taken refuge
in that country.
[No. 21.]

The Acting Secretary of State to Mr,

Howard,

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

'Washington, September 20,1911.
S I R : Eeferring to the department's instruction of July 17, 1911,
in the matter of the decimation of the Indian population of the
Putumayo by the rubber gatherers of that region, I inclose for your
information copies of a note from the ambassador of Great Britain
at Washington, the department's reply thereto, and an instruction

128

SLAVERY I N PERU.

to> the ambassador at Petropolis in regard to proposed preventive
and punitive measures.
I have, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON.
[No. 1284.]

The Acting

Secretary

of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, October 9, 1911.
Referring to past correspondence in the matter of
the representations which the American minister at Lima was instructed to make to the Peruvian Government regarding the atrocities committed by the rubber gatherers of the Amazon Basin within
Peruvian jurisdiction, against the defenseless natives, I have the
honor to inform you that a dispatch dated the 15th of September, last,
has been received from the American minister at Lima, in which he
reports his compliance with the instructions transmitted to him, regarding the character of which you have already been informed.
Minister Howard sends a copy of a memorandum handed to him by
the Peruvian foreign office, indicating the steps that had up to that
date been taken by the Peruvian Government to punish the parties
charged with the excesses reported. A copy of this memorandum is
transmitted for your information.
Mr. Howard adds that in a conversation with the President of
Peru it appeared that Señor Leguia was fully conversant with the
progress made in the prosecution of the offenders in the rubber forests of the Putumayo, and mentioned the large number of arrests that
had been made, and adverted to the fact that one rubber company
had been driven into bankruptcy as a result of the repressive measures taken b}^ Peru, which entailed a considerable loss upon the Government of Peru as the holder of the bonds of this company. Mr.
Howard further remarks that both the President of Peru and the
minister for foreign affairs expressed a firm determination by adequate and vigorous measures to put an end to the barbarous practices
and to punish the guilty parties.
EXCELLENCY:

I have, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE,

Acting Secretary of State.

[No. 196.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, October 11,1911.
S I R : I had the honor to report telegraphically to His Majesty's
principal secretary of state the substance of your note, No. 1268, of
September 15 last, in which you informed me of the instructions
issued to the United States minister in Brazil with regard to joint
action with his British colleague in regard to the atrocities committed in the Putumayo Basin.

129

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I now have the honor, by instruction of His Majesty's principal
secretary of state, to convey to you the thanks of His Majesty's Government for the action which your Government was good enough to
take in this connection.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYCE.
[No. 207.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, October 16,1911.
S I R : With reference to previous correspondence on the subject
of the atrocities committed in the Putumayo District of Peru, I have
the honor to inform you that a report has reached His Majesty's
principal secretary of state for foreign affairs to the effect that the
criminal Zumaeta, who, as stated in the memorandum from the
Peruvian Government inclosed in your note No. 1284, of the 9th
instant, was arrested by the prefect of Loreto, has been allowed to
escape and that Judge Varcarcel has resigned his appointment.
His Majesty's charge d'affaires at Lima has been instructed by
telegram to inquire of the Peruvian Government whether this report
is correct, as it has come as a most painful surprise to His Majesty's
Government at a time when they thought that the Peruvian Government had awakened to a sense of their responsibility and were acting in a manner that could not fail to evoke the approval of all
civilized nations. His Majesty's charge d'affaires has further been
instructed to urge that a competent and unbiased judge be appointed
at once in the place of Varcarcel to try the criminals already arrested, and that fresh efforts be made to capture those that have
escaped. I n view of the interest which you have evinced in the
efforts which are being made to check the barbarous treatment of
defenseless natives and to punish the guilty criminals I have the
honor, under instructions from His Majerty's Government, to ask
you to be' so good as to cause instructions to be sent to the United
States representative at Lima to support His Majesty's charge
d'affaires in making these representations should there be no objection thereto.
Further information has reached His Majesty's Government to the
effect that there is reason to believe that Armando Normand is at
Mendoza in Argentina, Victor Macéelo at Lima, and Elias Martinengni at Callao. Apart from their crimes against the Indians most
of the criminals have illtreated British subjects from Barbados
and His Majesty's charge d'affaires has been instructed to communicate a list of those convicted and of the sentences inflicted on
them.
I have, etc.,
*
JAMES BRYCE.
[No. 25.]

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister

Howard.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, October M, 1911,
SIR : Eeferring to past correspondence regarding the inhuman system which had grown up in the rubber forests of the Peruvian Pu77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3-

130

SLAVERY I N PERU.

tumayo region in the exploitation of native labor by the rubber
gatherers of that district, there is inclosed herewith a copy of a note
dated the 16th instant from His Britannic Majesty's ambassador in
Washington, from which it appears that certain information has
reached the British foreign office indicating that the prosecution of
the persons charged with the crimes in the Putumayo would not be
pushed by Peru with the commendable zeal which your dispatch, No.
50, dated September 15 (a copy of which was placed in the hands of
Ambassador Bryce) has led the department to feel would be the case.
If, upon discreet investigation, you find that there is reason for this
apprehension, you will take a favorable opportunity to say informally
to the minister for foreign affairs that the report transmitted by you,
communicating the firm purpose of the Government of Peru to leave
nothing undone to accomplish the condign punishment of those guilty
of these atrocities and pursued by the justice of Peru, had been noted
with great gratification, and that this Government hoped the rumors
which had come to the department of a relaxation on the part of
Peru in her announced determination to take effective action in the
matter would prove to be without foundation in fact.
I am, etc.,
ALVEY A.

ADEE,

Acting Secretary of State.
[No. 1299.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, October 21, 1911.
EXCELLENCY : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
note of the 16th instant in further reference to the subject of the
atrocities committed on the defenseless natives by rubber gatherers
within the jurisdiction of Peru, and to thank you for the information
therein contained. The department is transmitting an instruction
in harmony with your suggestion to the American minister to Peru,
together with a copy of the note from your embassy under acknowledgment, directing him to express to the Peruvian Government the
gratification with which this department had noted the announced
determination of that Government to relentlessly pursue the individuals charged with the crimes in the Putumayo and visit them with
condign punishment, and while alluding to the information which
you have furnished the department, to express the hope of this
Government that there will be no relaxation on the part of Peru in
the purpose of bringing the guilty parties to justice.
I have, etc.,
ALVEY A. ADEE,

Acting Secretary

State.

[No. 73.1

LIMA, November 17, 1911.

The honorable the

SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.
S I R : Referring to the apprehension and prosecution by Peru of
persons suspected of inflicting inhuman cruelties upon the Indian

131

SLAVEEY I N PEKU.

rubber gatherers in the Putumayo region, I have the honor to report
that on yesterday the President of Peru and the minister for foreign
relations both informed me that there had been no relaxation in their
firm purpose to diligently search for and vigorously prosecute all
parties implicated. The President said that, while there was no extradition treaty so providing, the Government of Brazil, by virtue
of the comity of nations, would arrest and surrender to the Peruvian
authorities any fugitives found there. He spoke of the prosecutions
being now in satisfactory progress, and could not credit the presence
of fugitives in Lima or Callao. The minister for foreign relations,
however, stated that he had heard of one's presence in Callao, and
that his immediate arrest had been ordered and attempted, but that
the fugitive had escaped. H e further spoke of the prosecutions in
progress, and said that the rumor of the resignation of the trial judge
was unfounded.
I have the honor to be, sir,
H. CLAY HOWARD.
[No. 235.]

The British

ambassador to the Secretary

State.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, November 20, 1911,
SIR : With reference to your note, No. 1299, of October 21 ultimo^
I have the honor t o inform you that I am instructed by His Majesty's
principal secretary of state for foreign affairs to request you to be
so kind as to express to the United States Government the thanks
oí His Majesty's Government for the instructions sent to the United
States minister in Lima to support His Majesty's charge d'affaires
in the matter of certain further representations to the Peruvian
Government respecting the Putumayo atrocities.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYCE.
[No. 1363.]

The Secretary of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, December IS, 1911.
EXCELLENCY: Referring to the department's note, No. 1299, of
October 21, 1911,1 have the honor to inform you that the department
is in receipt of a dispatch, dated the 17th ultimo, from the American
minister at Lima, in which he reports that on the preceding day the
President of Peru and the Peruvian minister for foreign affairs informed him that there had been no relaxation in their firm purpose
to make diligent search for the persons charged with the atrocities
committed on the Indian rubber gatherers in the Putumayo region,
with the view to the vigorous prosecution of all persons implicated;
and that the President of Peru also said that, although there is no
extradition treaty between Peru and Brazil whereby such criminals
can be extradited, yet the Government of Brazil would, out of
comity, arrest and surrender those found in Brazil.
The President also stated that the prosecutions are making satisfactory progress and that he could not believe that any of the fugi-

132

SLAVERY I N PERU.

tives are in Lima or Callao. The minister for foreign affairs said
that he had heard that one of the fugitives had been in Callao, and
that his arrest had been ordered and attempted, but that he had
escaped, and that the rumor of the resignation of the trial judge was
unfounded.
I have, etc.,
!

P . C. KNOX.

The Secretary of State to Mr. Howard.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, December IS, 1911.
S I R : The department acknowledges the receipt of your dispatch
No. 73, dated the 17th ultimo, reporting that you are informed by
the President of Peru and the minister for foreign affairs that there
has been no relaxation in their purpose to search diligently for and
to prosecute all parties implicated in the infliction of inhuman acts
upon the gatherers of india rubber in the Putumayo region; that
Brazil will surrender to the Peruvian authorities any persons suspected of such acts who may be found in Brazil; that the prosecutions are making satisfactory progress and that the presence of
fugitives in Lima or Callao is discredited. You add that the minister for foreign affairs has informed you that the rumor to the
effect that the trial judge in this case has resigned is unfounded.
The substance of the information contained in your dispatch has
been communicated to the British ambassador at this capital.
I have, etc.,
P . C. KNOX.

[Informal.

Confidential.]

The British ambassador to the Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington,

January &£> 1912.

DEAR M R . K N O X : I cabled to my Government the contents of the

draft telegram which you propose to send to Lima in regard to the
condition of affairs in the Putumayo district.
, I have now received by cable a reply to the following effect: The
Secretary of State learns of the action you propose to take with very
great satisfaction and he has instructed H i s Majesty's representative at Lima to cooperate with the United States minister there in
pressing on the Peruvian Government the point of view taken in
your telegram. H e considers that eventual publication will probably be necessary to insure against any recurrence of the deplorable
state of affairs in question, but he is suspending publication until
the effect of this action is ascertained and will consult you further
before coming to any definite decision as to publication. H e is convinced that the appointment of a United States consul at Iquitos
would be of very great advantage.
I am, etc.,

JAMES BRYOE.

133

SLAVBEY I N PEBTJ.
[Paraphrase of telegraphic instruction, dated Jan. 31, 1912.]

From the Secretary of State to the American minister to Peru.
With reference to your dispatch No. 73, the department has been
informed by Sir Roger Casement, the British consul general at Rio
de Janeiro, personally, that he has been convinced by his visit of
observation to Iquitos from October to December, 1911, that the
Government of Peru is making no really serious efforts to prosecute
the parties responsible for the atrocities in the Putumayo. Sir Roger
states that although the officials commissioned with judicial investigation are in possession of sufficient and conclusive evidence against
well-known rubber gatherers they have been forced to drop action by
corrupt local influence, and the entire case threatens to terminate
greatly to the discredit of Peru's good name, with the perfunctory
punishment of a few underlings who are detained at Iquitos while
those who are responsible for the iniquitous system are daily seen on
the streets and remain unpunished. You will, in cooperation with
the British jninister at Lima (who, the department has been informed, has received appropriate instructions from his Government),
bring unofficially and informally to the attention of the Peruvian
minister for foreign affairs the foregoing, and add that official reports
on the Putumayo situation probably can not much longer be withheld
from publication, the details of which will undoubtedly be exploited
by the press. Unless Peru previously takes the drastic and effective
action which the circumstances demand, such an exposé of the situation as almost inevitably must follow might lead the public opinion
of the world to believe that the Government of Peru had demonstrated its inability effectively to exercise sovereign rights over the.
region in dispute. You may add unofficially to the Peruvian minister
for foreign affairs that the Department of State would greatly appreciate the courtesy ol a copy of Dr. Paredes's report to the prefect
of Loreto on the Putumayo question. The department has decided
to reopen the American consulate at Iquitos, in view of the desirability of the department being kept informed on conditions in the
Putumayo region, and in the course of a few days will appoint a
consul.
The Secretary

of State to the British

Ambassador.

D E P A R T M E N T OF S T A T E ,

Washington, February tf, 1912.
M Y DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR : I have received your note of the 24th
ultimo, in which you informed me that you cabled to your Government the contents of the draft telegram which the department proposed to send to the American minister at Lima. You further inform me that His Majesty's secretary of state is very greatly satisfied
at the department's proposed action and that he has instructed the
British representative at Lima to cooperate with the American minister there in pressing on the Peruvian Government the point of view
taken in the telegram; that he considers that eventual publication
will probably be necessary to insure against any recurrence of the
deplorable state of affairs in question, but that he is suspending pub-

134

SLAVERY I N PERU.

lication until the effect of this action is ascertained, and will consult
the department further before coming to any definite decision as to
publication; and finally that he is convinced that the appointment of
an American consul at Iquitos would be a very great advantage.
I thank you for the valuable information which you have enabled
the department to obtain through conference with Sir Eoger Casement. These conferences have been of great assistance to the department in obtaining an insight into the situation that has recently
arisen at Iquitos.
As the result of these conferences, and based on the information
contained in your note of the 24th ultimo, as well as on the information which the department had already possessed on the subject, the
department sent a telegraphic instruction to the American minister
at Lima on the 31st ultimo, a paraphrase of which I am glad to inclose herewith for your information.
I am, etc.,
P . C. KNOX.

[No. 94.J

Mr. Howard to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, February 19,1912.
S I R : Upon receipt of your cable of January 31,12 m., touching the
prosecution by Peru of those responsible for the atrocities perpetrated by the rubber gatherers upon the interior Indians, I have the
honor to report that several interviews have followed with the British
minister and with the President of the Republic and the minister for
foreign affairs. Both of the Peruvian officials named reiterated their
entire willingness to proceed in every possible way that would lead
to the arrest and adequate punishment of the guilty parties, but both
also alluded to the extreme remoteness from the seat of government
of the Putumayo region and almost insuperable hindrances that attended any efforts to arrest the criminal classes in that region, by
reason of its dense forests and jungles, many rivers, and deep gorges
or canyons—all of these serving as a natural refuge for the fugitive.
The fact was also adverted to that the Putumayo region is the territory now in dispute between the Governments of Peru on the one
hand and Ecuador and Colombia on the other, and also to the impossibility of having that region, because of its vastness, properly
officered by the civil authorities.
The President especially alluded to the great difficulty, in that remote section, in finding men of sufficient or any legal education who
had also sufficient character to withstand the temptations offered by
the large corporations in the interior, who seek to get such pettyofficials upon their own pay rolls, under one device or another, with a
view of absolutely dominating their official acts. H e instanced a case
that had come to his knowledge of an official who received something
like £30 per month in salary from the Government, and in less than
two years had returned with a fortune of £20,000, when it was known
that said sum could not have been legitimately made by him.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

135

The difficulty of conducting from the central government in Lima
Such a large number of prosecutions in Iquitos can be better understood when it is recalled that the latter is far more remote from this
point than New York City. The President referred, besides, to the
fact that the judiciary was wholly independent from the executive,
and that the latter had only the power, under the constitution, of
urging that their official duties, under the laws, should be discharged
with promptness and impartiality.
The Peruvian criminal code of procedure, I learn, is unchanged
from the days of the viceroys, though a new code is in preparation
for submission to and the action of Congress. I t seems that upon
the judiciary at Lima is conferred the power of the appointing of a
deputy, somewhat equivalent to our special judge; and that, in the
exercise of such power, as stated by the President, Dr. Paredes had
been appointed to conduct a somewhat sweeping inquiry into violations of law and atrocities committed, having much the same power
as our grand juries to summon witnesses, etc. Upon the testimony
adduced before him, warrants issue. This procedure is followed by
what is known in natural course as an " appeal," and if the testimony
adduced so justifies, in the opinion of the appellate or intermediate
judge, that judge has but little to do but impose the sentence or discharge the prisoner for failure of proof. Unless so discharged a
further appeal lies tt the supreme court in Lima, where the records
and testimony are all finally sent. Until that time, however, they
are kept secret, much as testimony before grand juries and indictments are kept secret in the United States, for fear that knowledge
of their existence will come to the indicted before their arrest.
These records, the President has promised, will be forthcoming to
Lima as soon as they cease to be of service at Iquitos.
The only man of prominence who is suspected of participating,
either actively or as an accessory before the fact, who is at Iquitos
and not under arrest is one Pablo Zumaéta, who was the local head
at Iquitos of the Amazon Rubber Co. The said Zumaéta, it is reported, upon learning that a warrant had issued for his. arrest,
went into hiding, and through an attorney succeeded in securing his
liberty* by having tht warrant dismissed, or filed away, for failure
of proof. Upon regaining his liberty, he purchased, and is now
editing, a paper at Iquitos, in which he is strongly attacking the
governmental policy of prosecuting the rubber gatherers, in an
effort to effect a change of public sentiment at Iquitos, and in opposition to the Paredes paper. I t seems that Paredes belongs to that
branch of the governmental party, and is its head at Iquitos, between
which and the present administration there is a most serious estrangement, which series to accentuate the normally extreme feeling
that exists between the political parties here.
Mr. Paredes is en route to Lima and is expected at any time. The
President had promised to send for and hear the full report of Mr.
Paredes and to consider, upon its merits, what he will submit looking
tiJ: the reforming and betterment of conditions in the Putumayo.
The President remarked that they were far better now than formerly, and, emphasizing his entire willingness, he volunteered to
instruct his minister of justice, now ill, to telegraph the officials at
Iquitos, urging the acceleration and prompt conclusion of the prose-

136

SLAVEEY I N PEKU.

cutions now pending and the arrest of those implicated. H e has
agreed to send us a copy of the telegram so to be sent. I n this connection it should be stated that we were assured that under the
Peruvian laws Pablo Zumaéta can again be arrested should the trials
now in progress or any future developments implicate him. Both
the President and the minister for foreign affairs promised copies of
Dr. Paredes's report to the prefect of Loreto, and the President
agreed that the minister of justice should ask for the transportation
of portions of the record to Lima, as they were completed and not
further needed at Iquitos.
I t would seem that the failure of the prosecutions at Iquitos thus
far, is due to the neglect, primarily, of the interior officials in
promptly arresting the large number implicated. Whether their
escape was due to corrupt practices upon the local officers or to the
rumored prosecutions, in advance of the issuance of warrants for
their arrest, is now but conjecture. The proper conduct of over 200
prosecutions in any locality, besides being a great undertaking, is
rendered especially so when it is recalled that the crimes charged are
inflicted as the result of a common purpose, and upon a semibarbarous
tribe of foreign tongue, who are unconscious of any redress for
wrongs suffered, and.whose personal attendance upon the prosecutions, it is no doubt impossible to secure. There is besides the question of the legal sufficiency for conviction of the confessions of coconspirators, unsupported by corroborative testimony. Added to
these conditions are the many avenues of escape afforded to the
fugitive by that remote region; and the power of that guilty silence,
from fear or spiriting away, the Indians upon whom their crimes
have been perpetrated.
The President asked both the British minister and myself for suggestions, from any sources, to enable Peru to more effectively dominate these conditions, and he appeared to show the utmost willingness to do anything looking to that end.
The difficulties above outlined may or may not be aggravated by
the rumored disaffection of the region about Iquitos. I t is certain,
however, that there is a local sentiment against the governmental
policy of prosecution, which is reflected in the membership from that
region in the present congress.
I have pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to the British
minister for the benefits received from his complete mastery, from
their laudible initiative to the present time, of all proceedings looking to the betterment of conditions in the Putumayo, and for an
account of the procedure in a prosecution, according to the criminal
code of Peru, prepared by a member of the Lima bar. A copy is
inclosed.
I have, etc.,
H . CLAY HOWARD.
[Translation.]

Criminal proceedings consist of the sumario (preliminary inquiry)
and the plenario (or trial).
The object of the sumario is to discover the existence of the crime
and the person of the criminal. The sumario is secret.
The object of the plenario is to prove the culpability or innocence
of the accused.

137

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The same judge conducts the sumario and the plenario. The
sumario begins by a decree of the judge ordering the opening of
criminal proceedings and consists of the declaration of the accused
(instructiva) and of the injured party (preventiva), of the examination of the material proofs of the crime by experts, of the declarations
of witnesses^ and of the confrontation between witnesses, or between
witnesses and the accused, or between the accused. Provided always
that there exists a corpus delicti and indications of culpability, the
orders, the capture, and detention of the presumed guilty parties. If
the indications prove not to be founded, the judge can order the
liberation of the parties.
When the result of the sumario proves first, the existence of the
crime, and, second, the culpability of the accused, even if it be only
semiofficially proved, a formal committal to prison is issued after consultation with the agente fiscal (public prosecutor). The accused
may obtain freedom from detention or imprisonment by giving bail,
always provided that the crime does not deserve the punishment of
confinement, reclusión, imprisonment, or a greater penalty.
The order of committal to prison having been issued, a statement
of the accused is taken down, in which he must answer the charges
against him. The proceedings then pass to the plenario. The agente
fiscal then puts the accusation in formal shape and it is communicated
to the accused, who makes his defense or, it may be, refutes the accusation. The judge accepts any further proofs that may be presented
in the case and the accused can himself present proofs in his favor.
The legal term for the presentation of those proofs is up to 15 days,
but proofs presented and not completed within that term may be
completed later.
After the term (for presenting and completing proofs) is over, the
judge is supposed to deliver sentence within three days, but that term
is generally exceeded.
When the accused are absent they are summoned by the publication
of edicts and a person is named to defend them, to whom notice is
given of each stage of the sumario proceedings. The sumario is kept
open in their case until the accused present themselves or are taken.
If in a, case some of the accused are absent and some present, at
the termination of the sumario the proceedings continue as regards
those who are present, and the judge passes to the plenario with
regard to them and sentence is pronounced.
The sentence of the judge may be appealed against to the superior
local court, and an appeal from the decision of that court may be
made for nullity to the Supreme Court of Lima.

[Informal.]

The British ambassador to the Acting Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, February 28, 1912.
You will have in mind that at various times I have had occasion to*
communicate with your department regarding the atrocities in the
Putumayo district.

138

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I now understand that on the 17th or 18th of February, the United
States minister and the British minister, at Lima, had an interview
with the President of Peru. You wTill doubtless be informed of the
result of that conversation, which has been cabled to His Majesty's
Government. The latter having carefully considered the President's
reply to the representations then addressed to him, as reported by the
British minister, are of opinion that that reply contains no new information and that in view of the fact that His Majesty's Government have repeatedly made suggestions as to the best manner for
putting an end to the atrocities and punishing the guilty persons,
the request made by the President at this interview that His Majesty's
Government should indicate what steps they desire to be takpn can
not be regarded seriously.
The results of this interview have impressed my Government with
the conviction that no progress can be made and no action will be
taken by the present Government of Peru until Sir Eoger Casement's report has been published.
T am now directed by my Government to inform you of their
opinion and to ask whether your Government agree to the immediate
publication of the report.
I n view of the keen desire already shown by your Government to
put an end to the present deplorable situation and the warmth with
which it has expressed its readiness to cooperate with His Majesty's
Government in efforts to secure an immediate amelioration, it is
unnecessary for me to add anything, but I shall be glad to know as
soon as convenient to you how your Government regards the position.
Sincerely, yours,
JAMES BRYCE.

TParaphrase of telegram.]

The Acting Secretary of State to Mr.

Howard.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February, %6, 1912.
With reference to the department's telegram of January 31, 12
noon, you are informed that the department has been advised by the
British Government, through its embassy at Washington, that, having been convinced by the report of the British minister at Lima,
regarding your recent joint interview with the President of Peru,
of the futility of hoping to secure the needed effective action by the
Peruvian Government, except through the publication of the Casement reports, it now asks the consent of this Government to the
immediate publication of these reports.
You will telegraph briefly the result of your representations in
the matter, together with your careful personal opinion, as the
department is desirous of replying promptly to the British Embassy.
The department will feel constrained to inform the British Embassy
that it can not properly counsel a further delay in the publication
of the above-mentioned reports, unless you are convinced that the
Peruvian Government is about to take the necessary drastic action.
HUNTINGTON WILSON.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

139

[No. 98.]

Mr. Howard to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, March tf, 1912.
SIR: Confirming my cable of February 27, 12 m., I have the honor
to report, further, concerning the proposed publication of the reports of the investigations of the crimes inflicted upon and the treatment of the interior Indians of South America. Further inquiries
confirm the position therein taken.
When it is recalled that until in recent years all communication
from this point with Iquitos was by way of the Isthmus of Panama,
the Carribean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and up the Amazon River,
which route it is still necessary for women and children to take, some
idea of its distance from the Central Government will be conceived.
The trip now takes several weeks as made overland and by canoes on
the streams; and there are certain seasons when even that route is
impossible. The roads, moreover, are mere trails, and dangerous,
and at many places progress is made only by water courses in canoes.
Every traveler must take his own provisions, provender, water supply, tent, bed, and bedding. Ii is not possible to maintain a company of militia in that section, because it would be impossible to
transport overland the bare necessities for maintaining soldiery for
any material period of time; and if it were possible, it would be less
effective than a company in the vast territory of Texas before it became populated by the white race, for the reason that the Putumayo
region furnishes nothing to sustain life, and abounds in all sorts of
tropical diseases that endanger and destroy it. The many avenues
of escape open to the pursued, furnished by impenetrable forests,
streams, ravines, etc., serve as a hindrance to any sort of rapid movements by the pursuer, and it is even claimed that a hunter would
starve who depended upon game alone for subsistence. These details
but illustrate and emphasize the great distance from the seat of Government, and the difficulties that confront the national control of
anything in that region. The fact that an investigation was in
progress as to the conduct of the officials of the Amazon Eubber Co.,
with a view of securing warrants for their arrest, was no doubt
passed along from one to the other of the guilty parties, so that long
before such investigations were concluded and warrants issued, they
had abundant opportunity for escape, of which they no doubt availed
themselves promptly; for it should be borne in miñd that the said
rubber company had then ceased to exist. There was no necessity
for their employees to remain there longer, and every reason existed
why they should immediately depart; and even if the officers had
used due diligence the arrest of any material number of the guilty
parties could have been avoided.
The employees of the large corporations that misuse the interior
Indians are described as the worst sort of nomads, a combination of
the trams and criminals of all nationalities, without a home and
without a country. They infest the rubber and mining regions of
Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia, in a region that could
be well termed, in a limited sense, as "no man's land," and one in

140

SLAVEEY I N PEKU.

which the sovereignty of even the adjacent Republics is disputed,
the one by the other, saving Brazil alone; and such sovereignty existing more in name, only, than by the exercise of governmental regulation or the maintenance of law and order therein.
I n a recent conversation with the President, he again reiterated,
and with great emphasis, his entire willingness and anxiety to do
anything in his power and to exhaust every resource at his command
for the purpose of bettering these conditions. The construction of
the proposed Ucayali Railroad will do much to bring Peru in closer
touch with this remote region, and may of itself go far toward solving the question in hand, so far as Peru alone is concerned. One result of my inquiry is the belief that practically no more of the accused parties in Iquitos will be arrested, and that it will be difficult,
for failure of proof, to convict those now being tried. I t would
therefore appear that the welfare of the Indian would be better subserved if all efforts should be turned toward reforms for the future
than if actuated by a spirit demanding punishment of men who have
escaped and censure for the administration officials of Peru when
it is beyond their power to arrest and punish them.
Dr. Paredes, a deputy (or special) judge, who conducted the preliminary inquiry, recently passed through Lima en route to his home
at Eten for the purpose, as reported, of becoming married. The
President again stated that when he came to Lima he would send for
him and go over the situation fully. H e also stated that he had
caused a telegram to be sent to Iquitos by his minister of justice, and
was surprised to know that neither the British minister nor myself
had received copies of it. The minister of foreign affairs has for
some time been reading Dr. .Paredes's report, and has promised
copies of it. I t contains a plan for the betterment of conditions in
the interior, and we hope to have a joint conference with all the
officials named.
I have, etc.,
H. CLAY HOWARD.
[No. 73.]

The British

ambassador to the Acting

Secretary

of State,.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, March 15, 1912.
SIR : With reference to previous correspondence in connection with
the Putumayo question I have the honor by instruction of His Majesty's pricipal secretary of state for foreign affairs to transmit herewith copy of the instructions which he has caused to be issued to Mr.
Michell, His Majesty's consul at Iquitos, for his guidance in connection with the conditions of the rubber industry in that region,
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYOE.

FOREIGN OFFICE, February
G. B. MICHELL,

26,

1912.

Esq.,

His Majesty's Consul, Iquitos.
S I R : With reference to the letter from this office of August 4, 1911,
appointing you to be His Majesty's consul at Iquitos, I am directed

141

SLAVERY I N PERU.

by the secretary of state for foreign affairs to instruct you to study
and report upon the conditions of the rubber industry on the affluents
of the upper Amazon and the labor conditions under which it is being developed, with special reference to those regions where British
capital and British subjects are or have been recently employed.
I n pursuance of this direction you should visit personally, from
time to time, the various centers of rubber production in your district, such as the Putumayo, Javarí, Ucayali, and other rivers, and
should report upon all matters of interest that may tend to throw
light upon the character of the" industry and the conditions under
which india rubber or other products of the region are placed upon
the British market.
I am, etc.,
Louis MALLET.
The Acting

Secretary

of State to the British

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, March 26, 1912.
M Y DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR : I take pleasure in acknowledging the
receipt of your note of the 23d ultimo regarding the failure of the
Peruvian authorities to punish those responsible for the atrocities
in the rubber forests of the Putumayo and the report received from
the British minister concerning the recent unsatisfactory interview
of the representative of the United States and of Great Britain at
Lima with the President of Peru in this matter. You state that
your Government is convinced that no progress can be made in the
efforts of those interested in the welfare of the native inhabitants of
the upper Amazon until Sir Koger Casement's reports have been
given publicity. You add that it appears to you that the Peruvian
Government is merely temporizing while the persons chargeable with
the crimes are guaranteed immunity by the inefficiency of the Peruvian local administration, and horrors which are a disgrace to civilization are permitted to continue. You inquire, upon instructions
from your Government, regarding the views of the United States on
the present status of the matter in which this Government has been
so keenly desirous of cooperating with the British Government in
order to secure a permanent amelioration of the shocking conditions
attending the gathering of rubber by native labor in the Peruvian
montaña.
I feel, my dear Mr. Ambassador, the strongest regret that the
Peruvian Government has not been able to put into effect reforms
to safeguard the interests of the native populations, but I can not
altogether doubt the sincerity of the Central Government at Lima in
^expressing its desire and purpose of carrying out these reforms.
The difficulties presented by the remoteness of the provinces, the
dearth of citizens on the frontier available for judicial and civil
functions, and the attenuated form in which whatever pressure the
Central Government can bring' to bear necessarily reaches the local
authorities, particularly owing to the inadequate means of communication between Iquitos and the Peruvian capital, reveal the fact that
the task of radical reform which the Peruvian Government has before it is no easy one.

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

As to your observations regarding the advisability of the immediate publication of the reports of Sir Eoger Casement of his personal investigation of the situation of the indigenes of the Putumayo,
I am frankly inclined to defer to the judgment of the British Government, in view of all the circumstances attending the case, as to the
date on which this publication may be deemed necessary and opportune. This course is undoubtedly recommended by the professed interest of the Peruvian Government in the establishing of missions to
labor among the Indians of the region, and so should properly be regarded as an additional effort to support the policies which have
been repeatedly traced by the President of Peru to the British and
American representatives at Lima and in the prosecution of which
the Peruvian Government has up to the present emphasized the
almost insurmountable obstacles that confront the central administration in the peculiar character of local conditions at Iquitos.
I am, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON,

Acting Secretary of

The Acting Secretary of State to the British

State.

ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, March 29, 1912.
My DEAR M R . AMBASSADOR : I take pleasure in returning to you the
most interesting dispatches from His Britannic Majesty's minister
at Lima, dated the 17th and 18th of February last, in regard to the
recent interviews of the American and British representatives with
the President of Peru regarding conditions in the Putumayo.
I am also sending to you copies of two dispatches received by the
department from the American minister at Lima, dated February
19 and March 6, respectively, in regard to this matter, which, I believe, will prove of interest to the embassy in connection 'with the
efforts that are being made by the British Government and the Government of the United States to bring about the reforms imperatively
demanded by conditions in the Putumayo district.
I am, etc.,
HUNTINGTON WILSON.
[Informal.]

The British ambassador to the Acting Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, April 1, 1912.
With reference to your note of March 26, regarding the publication of Sir B. Casement's reports on the conditions in the Putumayo
district, I am instructed to express to you the thanks of His Majesty's
Government for the expression of the views of the United States
Government contained in that letter.
His Majesty's Government now intend to proceed with the publication of the reports. They agree with the opinion you express that

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

such publication should further the interests of the Peruvian Government and should be regarded in that light as an additional effort
to support the policies of President Leguia.
Very sincerely, yours,
JAMES BRYCE.
[Informal.]

The British ambassador to the Acting Secretary of State.
BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, April %, 1912.
I beg to acknowledge your letter of the 29th ultimo returning the
dispatches from His Majesty's minister at Lima in regard to recent
interviews of the American and British representatives with the
President of Peru regarding conditions in Putumayo.
At the same time I must thank you very sincerely for your courtesy
in communicating to me under the same cover copies of two very
interesting dispatches from the United States minister at Lima.
Very sincerely, yours,
JAMES BRYCE.

[No. 103.1

LIMA, PERU, April 8, 1912.
The honorable the SECRETARY OF STATE,

Washington.
SIR : Referring to my Nos. 94 and 98, of February 19 and March
6, 1912, respectively, concerning the Indians of the Andes, I have
the honor to transmit herewith the copy of the confidential report
of Dr. Romulo Paredes on the Putumayo region, dated at Iquitos,
September 30, 1911, chiefly concerning the work of the judicial commission under his presidencv, since his arrival at Chorrera on
March 27, 191Í.
The report is sent by the minister of foreign affairs. I t s length
and the pressure of time on the small legation staff have prevented
a full translation. Inclosed, however, are a summary and a translation of section 11, entitled "Justice in the Putumayo," both in
duplicate.
The report frankly states that wholesale judicial and other reforms
are a prerequisite to the establishment of law and order in the interior. The great difficulties of transit, and the hardships and practical banishment from civilization that attend a residence there,
make it almost impossible to secure men of proper training and character, at the risk of health and life, to adequately officer the interior—
the region is so vast and remains practically unchanged since its
creation. Under such conditions it follows that many crimes go
unpunished, as in a state of nature.
These are the chief reasons given by Dr. Paredes for the want of
governmental control of and protection to the barbarous and semibarbarous tribes, who are in varying stages of degradation and
savagery. However sincere the administration officers at Lima may

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

be, the problem of establishing well-ordered government in the interior remains unsolved.
There is yet no news concerning Dr. Paredes's return to Lima,
when it is hoped personal interviews and conferences with all concerned may result in definite plans for reform.
I have, etc.,
H. CLAY HOWARD.
[Translation.]
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT.
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS,
OFFICE OF C H I E F CLERK.
Mr. PREFECT OF THE DEPARTMENT:

I n view of the interest which you manifest in knowing everything
connected with the Putumayo region, where I was a short time ago
as judge of first instance commissioned for the purpose of gathermg
evidence in regard to various crimes denounced, I will now set forth
to you in a cursory manner my ideas, of a confidential character, on
the subject, and I hope that they may be of some practical utility in
bettering the condition of the Indian in future.
CHIEFS OF SECTION AND THE INSTITUTIONS WHICH THEY ESTABLISH.

I n view of the fact that the region was so far from Iquitos, so
new and unknown to the rubber traders, and so violent in its economic development, it was naturally no easy task to satisfactorily
obtain (if indeed there was any idea of selection), a well-trained
personnel to be placed in charge of the various sections acquired,
which were full of Indian laborers; and this problem was all the
more important because it was a question, not only of the administration of the interests of the company but also of managing many
aborigines, for which there was needed a great preparation, sentiments of humanity, knowledge of social organization, and even
notions of natural law; for it is no ordinary task or trivial and unimportant undertaking to move great masses of men who are not-without rights because they are savages, being subject to the laws of evolution and progress from the time they fell under the dominion of
the white man.
The acquisition of this kind of men to take charge of the Indians
from the very first undertakings of the Arana firm in E l Putumayo,
being known as chiefs of section, in these new regions where it is
almost impossible to obtain laborers, and even more difficult to meet
persons of any enlightenment, was such a serious matter that the
firm seized on whatever it could find first and did not afterwards
take the trouble to supplant all this personnel, but rather became
more attached from day to day to them because they procured large
profits every six months.
With no other ideal than percentage, and with no other standard
than to secure large returns with very little expenditure, this enterprise thought that it had accomplished an unforeseen triumph in
the way of organization with its chiefs of section found by accident
or, as it were, stumbled upon; and it had such a high idea of them
that it not only rendered them permanent in their tenure of office but

SLAVERY I N PERU.

145

granted them the broadest powers, approving all their acts, defending them, and protesting against any imposition that might be perpetrated against them, because it considered them above suspicion
(see the report from folio 20 to folio 58, appearing in the first volume of the proceedings had in regard to the crimes of the Putumayo) ; and what is more, it interested them in the business, there
existing a written contract, concluded between J. C. Arana & Co. and
.Aristides Kodriguez, Chief of La Sábana, under which the latter
enjoyed 50 per cent of the profits on the rubber gathered.
Who, then, were these men who were called chiefs of section and
who have caused and will continue to cause the Peruvian courts so
much trouble, engaging the attention even of our Government and
arousing that of the whole world ? We will endeavor to make them
known by revealing some of their most salient psychological traits.
According to the investigation made, it appears that these chiefs
were the product of the first hecatomb at La Chorrera. The execution of 30 Ocaina Indians, who were tortured and burned alive, was
thus, as it were, a commission or diploma for governing sections.Following these horrifying crimes came the designations, and the
criminal perpetrators of these unnamable offenses instead of receiving the punishment which they deserved for their savagery, were
given a generous reward, for apart from the position which was in
itself full of prerogatives and importance, they had a considerable
interest in the product gathered.
Once at the head of the sections, these soulless creatures gave free
vent to their evil instincts. They were genuine dictators, without
morals and without a God. They enacted terrible laws and created
shameful institutions, such as that of the "trusted boys." They legislated in regard to the gathering of rubber, imposing on the Indian
labor which exceeded his strength in order to obtain the greatest
possible yield of rubber in the shortest possible time. They considered the Indians as chattels and disposed of their lives by a simple
imperative mandate which was irrevocable. They' respected neither
women, the aged, nor the children, and all, without exception, were
subject to the audacious rules laid down for the work. Being interested solely in the profits, they did not concern themselves with the
wages, which, if paid at all,, were so miserable and ridiculous that
they caused a clamor, hence it was that hunger claimed more victims
among the unfortunate Indians than diseases themselves or the whip
and plummet of their taskmasters, who, being absorbed in getting
profits for the business, never took the trouble to learn whether those
whom they were exploiting ate or not. With a can of sardines, another of salmon, a pasteboard strap, a cap or a Cushma, they demanded comparatively impossible things. The Indians who earned
a shotgun labored many years, unless they were so fortunate as to
belong to the invidious group of " trusted boys."
The penalties inflicted by these chiefs were atrocious and increased
progressively according to every kilogram of shortage in the amount
of rubber which they gathered, this being the most aggravating
cause, while they sentenced to death every person who, owing to
fatigue, siclmess, or any other circumstance, failed to bring them any
jDroduct. The only ideal they had was the greatest possible production of rubber, so that every person who opposed this by not work77234—H. Doe. 1366, 62-3

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

ing, by not bringing in the amount required, or by evading the exactions of these henchmen was flayed with the lash or killed outright.
The penalties were graduated according to the rubber brought in,
and no consideration was given to the short amount of time allowed
these slaves within which to comply with the cruel demands or to the
inequality in the physical constitution of the different individuals or
to the question whether they were fed or not during the time that
they remained at work.
According to the strange ideas of these chiefs, the Indians had no
right to live unless they worked for them, and this demand went to
the inconceivable extreme of prohibiting them to cultivate farms, for
the time which they spent at agriculture was lost to the business.
For this reason there were chiefs who desolated cultivated fields
and burned houses in order that the Indians might not settle in
particular spots and in order that they might acquire an affection
for certain places where they reaped their sustenance and where they
might be solely occupied in wandering about the woods searching
for the rich rubber trees which were the cause of so many crimes.
I t is of no importance to ascertain the nationality of these chiefs,
nor is it necessary to have known them in order to make a rough
sketch of some of their psychological characteristics, especially as I
know many of their deeds committed while they were at the head of
the sections from the fact that I was in charge of the investigation.
Being genuine autocrats, they pronounced the sentence of death
with the greatest coolness, and once an order was given it had to be
executed. Morbid, degenerate criminals, of a sensual nature, they
lived surrounded by women, selected Indian girls, most of whom
were under age, from whom they exacted fidelity and of whom they
were very jealous, going so far as to kill them if they ever caught
them smiling at an employee. There was one chief who had 20 concubines, and so great was their power that they went so far as to
kill Indian chieftains in order to take coveted women from them.
As an example of this type may be cited one Armando Normand,
who assassinated four of his wives out of jealousy, first torturing
them in them most fearful and dastardly manner (see the papers in
the case, vol. 1, folios 173, 279 (reverse), and 430, of vol. 2, folio 444
(reverse), of vol. 2, and folio 778 (reverse)).
The very environment in which they lived, owing to its remoteness
and solitude, appears to have contributed toward still further irritating their passions and inducing, them to exhibit refinement in their
crimes; and if to this is added that all of them were drunkards, cocoa
chewers, idlers, corrupt in every possible way, and some of them even
imbecilic and illiterate, it will be very well understood what these
men were capable of doing, and for all the more reason because they
were confident, in view of the remoteness and ruggedness of these
regions and the organization of the enterprise, of enjoying the most
absolute impunity.
Their very degeneracy and the vices to which they were addicted
had rendered them cowardly. Their imagination was diseased and
they saw everywhere attacks by the Indians, conspiracies, uprisings,
treachery, etc.; and in order to save themselves from these fancied
perils, in order to defend themselves and not succumb, they killed, and
killed without compassion, whole tribes of Indians who were innocent
and free from any idea of liberating or avenging themselves, the re-

SLAVERY I N PERU.

147

suit being that the tyrannical domination of so many years now has
them completely crushed and subdued.
The greatest crime that an Indian could commit was not to work;
therefore a fugitive Indian was a convict sentenced to death; and
as the chiefs were powerless to pursue them, they created a. special institution composed of selected Indians, whom they first bribed in
order to attain their object, calling them " trusted boys." Thus we
have Indians themselves who place at the disposal of the chiefs their
special instincts, such as sense of direction, scent, their sobriety, and
their knowledge of the mountains, in order that nobody might escape
their fury. More correctly speaking, the "trusted b o y s " were the
betrayers of their companions, being educated especially for treason,
calumny, and the perpetration of many crimes, receiving for this infamous service good and abundant rewards, such as shirts, trousers
of stout serge, double-barreled shotguns, caps, and even suspenders,
which give them a certain predominance over that unfortunate multitude of outcasts and a certain comical superiority bordering on absolutism.
The " trusted boys " were, moreover, the overseers of the production,
and constantly passed about through the "nations," gathering up
the product and estimating the work of each Indian, who, instead of
the more or less wretched compensation which he deserved, had to
suffer punishment upon handing in his rubber if he delivered less
than the amount required, or if he did not stand in with the judges
thus placed immediately over him, with whom he was always at loggerheads, because, being backed by the white man, they became
abusive and turned into veritable henchmen.
Such was the power with which the " trusted boys " were invested
that often they punished and killed of their own accord, receiving the
approval of their chiefs; so that to the assassins existing the person
of the chiefs had to be added the Indian assassins, which was an additional calamity to this helpless race, the victim of a legion of criminals reenforced by these brutes of Indians trained and encouraged
to torture and assassinate.
We may now imagine all the evil which the creation of this accursed institution caused among the original inhabitants of the Putumayo. These selected savages, adulators of the white man, with no
other merit than their wickedness covered by a certain cloak of valor,
vindictive, full of rancor against their own companions in whom they
inspired envy, being excellent marksmen, perfidious, and insidious,
were constantly devising excuses to make excutions and continually
revealing meetings of Indians " licking tobacco" (which meant an
oath to kill white men), imaginary uprisings which never existed,
and other similar crimes which had no other object than the wreaking of wretched vengeance against the poor Indians, who had no
means of reparation under the odious regime to which they were
subject.
The chiefs, not being satisfied with committing assassinations themselves and ordering their civil employees to assassinate, required still
more executioners, and hence the shameful creation of these " trusted
boys," who were always the advance guard in their forays and the
first in their horrible butcheries. This was, as it were, the coronation
of the infamous work of destroying fellowmen, the complement of

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

crime; another escape valve for evil passions; absolute satiation with
blood.
And this new crowd of assassin, created and egged on by the chiefs,
worthy emulators of them, haughty and despotic toward their companions, humble and lowly toward the white man, acted only under
the influence of the most criminal passions, in order to take away
other men's wives, out of mere antipathy, out of fear, or for the 'sake
of committing petty thievery.
Without any idea of crime, being veritable savages, unbridled and
enjoying the support of the white man himself, these " trusted boys "
have taken away more lives from humanity than the most disastrous
war; and what offends one's dignity and sense of shame is that these
so-called chiefs of section, who call themselves civilized, should
bring them into existence, authorizing by their approval such reprehensible and unworthy acts, which, instead of preventing and punishing them, they encouraged as a means of satisfying their depraved
instincts and of appeasing their desire to kill, as if they had not been
satiated by the great amount of blood which with their own hands
they caused these unfortunate helots to shed, who had to labor without remuneration and without truce under the lash of the whip.
THE EMPLOYEES

THEIR ORGANIZATION.

Everybody has probably seen standing advertisements in the local
newspapers in which the Arana firm solicits employees for the Putumayo region, offering, in order to obtain them, salaries ranging between 60, 65, and 70 soles, according to length of service in the region.
As is known, living is very expensive and workmen much in demand in these places, a peon earning as high as 3 soles 50 centavos a
day, on the wharf, at the trading stations, and in other private enterprises; and inasmuch as the firm offered a maximum of 70 soles
in the advertisements to which we refer, we may easily imagine the
class of people it would secure for its work.
The Putumayo is a rough, deadly mountain region, the most isolated and remote of any in P e r u ; its supply of game is scarce if we
take into account the large number of Indians who have lived so long
and still live there, and the inhabitants are in constant danger from
wild animals, to such an extent that during my stay of eight days at
Ultimo Retiro, engaged in some judicial work, a single tiger had devoured three Indians. There is practically no fishing—in time of rain
the roads are heavy, storms are frequent, and there are windstorms
which blow down considerable sections of forest, constituting a dan-,
ger to the working people; the food, being composed in large part of
canned goods, is harmful; and if to.all this we add that life has to
be passed alone among savages, who are said to have even been cannibals in the past, and who speak different dialects, and have strange
customs, without mentioning their slavish subjection to their immediate superiors, who always enforced their will in the most abusive and
capricious manner; we may suppose, without fear of erring, that the
employees obtained could not have been good generally speaking, for
here we all know what that region is, some of us from personal experience and others from hearsay.
Such conditions, in view of the place where they were going and
the small salary offered, could not have been accepted by any but very

SLAVERY I N PERU.

149

unfortunate persons—poor wretches who could find no room elsewhere, or else by those who were under prosecution by the courts.
The truth is that, in view of the organization of the work of the
firm for the purpose of gathering rubber (the sole object of its mission), a superior class of persons was needed. These employees, who
served under the immediate orders of the chiefs of sections, were
only there for the sake of filling up and of constituting a material
force ( I refer to the employees of the section, not to the employees
of a certain category who worked in the managers' offices). They
lived with rifle in hand, compelling the Indians to work constantly,
watching over the production, corralling them for the special services
of loading, building houses, and conveying the product from the center of the mountain to the sections and from the latter to E l Encanto
or Chorrera in order to embark it on the steamers of the company,
ordering them to gather firewood for the launches and brushwood
for new farms or houses; and, finally, they also served for " errands,"
now to round up the Indians, now to subdue them when they dared
to refuse to work, or again to prevent hostile invasions by way of the
Caqueta or the Upper Putumayo, where they formed defensive
points.
Such were the employees, who, apart from the work mentioned
(not very frequent during the year, because those who did the most
in this line were the " trusted b o y s " ) , had no other duties to perform, for which reason they led most of the time an indolent and idle
life of abandonment and concupiscence, as I had an opportunity to
observe in various sections where the employees lived immured in
their dwelling rooms, lying on long hammocks surrounded by halfbreed concubines.
Moreover, they also served to escort their chiefs when they occasionally went out on a foray or else to execute their orders, whether
to kill, place in the stocks, or whip the Indians who did not comply
with the demands made; they were a sort of police engaged solely
in imposing their authority, keeping watch, and punishing.
These persons did not occupy themselves with anything else nor
could they be used for any other purpose, as they had no aptitudes
and were men of doubtful conduct and stil more doubtful origin.
Their companions, performing the same duties, were Barbados
negroes hired by the same Arana firm, being the most implicit executors of every kind of orders, however infamous they might be. They
were the real henchmen of the Putumayo, sowing horror and panic
among the Indians, the greatest punishment that could be imposed
on a woman of the place being to force her to be the wife of a negro,
who was called " T a i f e " by themselves, meaning devil or evil spirit.
Jn no way, therefore, did they differ from one another, the white
employees being of the same category as the negroes, and, being in
connivance with crime, they liked one another and fraternized
together.
The number of employees was from 250 to 300, and apart from
the negroes who were from Barbados and who numbered 30 at first,
and the Columbians, who were a small number, the remainder were
Peruvians from almost all the Provinces—deserting soldiers, men
of adventure and misfortune, with no place to work elsewhere in
Peru, and who sought the celebrated Putumayo region as the last
lefuge of their life.

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SLAVERY I K PEKU.
THE INDIANS.

I n treating of this subject we wished to refer solely to the report
of Engineer Robuchón, which is inserted in Volume X I I I of the
Collection of Laws for Loreto; but no one who has been in the Putumayojand known its inhabitants well can approve the glaring errors
contained in that report and the exaggerations discovered in it at
first sight.
The judicial commission over which I presided, realizing from the
start that the real work did not lie at La Chorrera, but in the interior of the forest comprised between the Igaraparana and the
Caquetá, where all the sections are scattered about, resolutely penetrated into this region—this was also necessitated by subsequent denunciations of crimes—and, as is natural, it had to come into contact
with all the Indians.
I was therefore among all the savages of the Putumayo for a
period of three months and a half, so that I am entitled to express
my impartial opinion about them and the idea which I formed of
them if, as I hope, I did not err in observing them.
I think differently than Engineer Robuchón. I n the latter's report
we discover a marked tendency to represent the Indian as a detestable,
bad, treacherous, morally monstrous, and dangerous creature, and,
finally, as a fearful cannibal. According to these fantastical paragraphs regarding the customs of the Indians, regarding their strange
manner of being and their macaberesque mode of living, it would
seem that no one, unless he were a daredevil, would venture to come in
contact with them, for, as they are painted, it is impossible to establish 'relations of labor with this kind of people, who live in human
orgies and assassinate for the sole pleasure of eating their fellow
men.
These pictures of horror, while they give an idea of the wroughtup imagination of the person who conceived them, deserve rather to
figure in a blood-curdling novel, but by no means in a serious dissertation by a man of science, unless he pretended to have a different
object, the scope of which we do not pretend to know, or unless Mr.
Eobuchón, without well knowing the element which he so gloomity
represents, was carried away by exaggerated reports of the interested parties, determined that the Indian should be considered as a
depraved creature, dangerous and incapable of being subdued, in
order to extenuate the crimes which they have committed against
him. There is no other explanation possible.
The judicial commission, which was in all parts of the sections,
was able to ascertain absolutely the contrary, and if it had previously
read the horrible scenes of diabolical feasts narrated by that engineer
it is probable that it would not have dared to make as extensive a
tour as it did, living for some time among seven tribes, viz, the
Witotas, Ocainas, Andokes, Muimanes, Nonuyas, Rezigaros, and
Boras.
By following an itinerary from La Chorrera and passing through
Occidente, Ultimo Retiro, Entre Rios, Andokes (formerly Matanzas), Atenas, Sabana, Santa Catalina, and Abisinia, one comes in
contact with all these tribes, and they are most curious and interesting.

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151

E/ich tribes occupies a particular section of the mountain and is
distributed in groups called nations. No other tribe may invade its
jurisdiction, and thus the territory which they occupy is their inviolable property. I t is said that in ancient times when a person of
another tribe was found within their domain he was condemned to
death.
The white men's house, where the chief lives, is almost always
situated equidistant from the sections, and this distribution contributes toward the best harvest of rubber, and also toward preventing the wild fruits, principally those of the Indian, from being exhausted, all being concentrated in the same place.
The most numerous tribe is that of the Witotas. They occupy an
enormous mountain area comprised between the Caraparana and
Igaraparana up to near the Caqueta, far to the north, like the Uranas
near Pureto de los Monos.
The Witotas, having been the first to be conquered and having
lived longest in contact with the whites, very near La Chorrera
(Aimenas, southern section), are the ones who have suffered most.
They are a wasted, rickety, and degenerate race. They have suffered
excessively for a long time and have labored without rest. The most
complete abjection prevails among them and it grieves the mind to
contemplate them. I t is rare to find a Witota, whatever his age,
who does not preserve enormous traces on the rump—cicatrized
scars produced by the whip. I have seen perhaps 3,000 of these unfortunates, who, as they live entirely naked (only a piece of bark
resembling the " t o c u y o " covers their genitals), exhibit every minute
this brand—this mark of infamy of their nominators. They are
conscious of their slavery and work constantly by force of habit.
They are very prone to begging and when they meet a white man
they ask him for charity, contradistinction to the other tribes,
who are very proud. Moreover, the Witotas are obedient, submissive, affectionate, and even tender-hearted, and they inspire sympathy and compassion. Of all of them, those who have been most
affected are those belonging to the Atenas section; they are not men,
but human wrecks. Here the chiefs were more cruel, and it may be
said that hunger and punishment have administered the finishing
stroke to all their sections. Those whom I saw look more like living
skeletons than rational beings. Any person feels shame, indignation, and disgust on seeing the few survivors of this fraction of a
zone file by.
I shall not undertake to describe the customs, beliefs, etc., of these
Indians, for it would be too much trouble in a mere report.
I thereupon went to visit the tribe of the Andokes, very far from
the center, for they occupy up to the neighborhood of the upper
Caqueta.
I had the chief of this tribe introduce me to as many of them as
possible, and in spite of all his efforts he brought me into the presence
of only a small number; these were under the orders of an Indian
chieftain named Doñecoy. Hence it was that I was able to observe
these people well, as was my desire, for they had interested me much,
owing to the gravity of the crimes charged against the previous chief
of the section, one Armando Normand.

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Notwithstanding the small number I was able to observe, and the
short time 1 was among them, my impression was a disagreeable one.
I have a very poor idea of the Andoke. He is apathetic, indolent,
vicious, and lazy; he likes solitude and misanthropy, even among
his own kind, being vicious and diffident toward the white man.
This tribe occupies a large extent of territory, which reaches to the
Caqueta, and when it is required to perform much work or is pursued,
it crosses over to the left shore of that river and becomes unsubduable.
Its dialect is gutteral, and none of the civilized people were able to
learn it; on the other hand, they easily acquire Spanish and Witoto,
and thus it is possible to understand them. I n conclusion, they are
strong, lusty, and of sallow complexion.
The Muinanes and Manuyas are very different from the two preceding tribes. They live in an area comprised between Atenas, Entre
Bios, Sabana, and Andokes. They are not very numerous, and are
very robust, active, hospitable, friendly, and excellent marksmen;
they inspire " s y m p a t h y " — t h a t is, have a genial way—and have
what we might call " light blood "—a cheerful disposition—being
almost always smiling and merry. They are distinguished by their
desire to serve and to become friends with the stranger. Their
dialect is comparatively easy and somewhat similar to the Witoto
of Entre Bios; they have very similar words, and it is easy for
Indians of these tribes to understand one another. I also saw many
of these who preserve scars from the scourging they suffered.
I was able to observe the Ocainas very little, owing to the-short
time I was in the Oriente (eastern) section and to the fact that the
Indians were in the interior in the forest. This tribe has also suffered
very much, because, like the Witotos, it has been much in contact
with the wliites; however, it still preserves its fortitude and virility.
They are distinguished for their love of work and their good organization. They severely punish crime, and they consider any person
suspicious whom they find within their positions, for which reason
they have succeeded in punishing many assassins of other tribes by
delivering them up to their pursuers.
Between the Sabana and Santa Catalina sections I stopped to
examine the curious tribe of the Rezigaros, who occupy the left side
of the road between said sections and extend to one day's journey before reaching the Caqueta on that side. I passed one night among
them, and had an opportunity to see all of them, for they do not
amount to 30 in number. Inquiring into the cause of this reduced
number, they related impressive warlike stories to me. I t has always
been a tribe that was hated and persecuted by all the other tribes,
but its valor has been terrible and indomitable, and, thanks to this,
it has been able to resist the attacks of its enemies looking toward its
annihilation. I t has struggled against all, sustaining truly bloody
combats, thus making itself an object of terror. I t is the only tribe
that preserves pretty traditions of heroism. They cherish the memory of their ancient heroes with veneration. As they were valorous
and bold very many of them were killed, so that the tribe is now
reduced to a small and insignificant group which still, however, commands respect. If civilized man had not interfered in these perpetual struggles it is certain that they would no longer be in existence
and that nothing but the memory of their valor would remain. They
also showed their feeling of haughtiness toward the white man. For

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some time they would not allow the latter to prosecute them and
prevented him from passing through their domain, but they finally
submitted. However, they have never assassinated civilized persons,
for whom they cherish respect.
They have noble sentiments and are very virile. There is one fact
which strongly commanded my attention, and that is their hatred for
the so-called trusted boys, for which reason they have killed many
of the latter. These unconditional services on the part of the adulating Indian for the benefit of the white man appeared to them to be
mean and unworthy. They did not understand how treason could
exist among their own kind whereby many unfortunate companions
who were fleeing in order not to serve without compensation were
betrayed. Their real enemies were these boys, and they pursued
them to the death. Whenever they went on an errand or made an
advance these boys were the first to fall, it being a peculiar fact that
in their attacks they never aimed at the whites under whose orders
the boys were serving. They thought that the whites had a right to
commit unworthy acts, but they could not conceive of Indians who
were capable of doing so, and therefore they detested them and dealt
a finishing stroke to these spurious companions expelled from their
community.
The Rezigaras are handsome, large-nosed, erect men, well built
and with a very gentle look in the eye. They are very scarce, and I
had not a little trouble in becoming acquainted with three of them,
who manifested to me much contempt for all the Indians of the other
tribes, whom they considered inferior.
Finally come the Boras, who are the Indians occupying the largest
territory. They inhabit from the Cahuinari to one day's journey
from Santa Catalina, embracing two-thirds of said river, the Putumayo, and the Igaraparana. If I am not mistaken they occupy a
large quadrilateral tract comprised within a line which, starting
from Puerto Tarma on the Igaraparana, runs as far as the Caqueta ;
thence to the mouth of the Cahuinari; then another line until the
Putumayo is met perpendicularly, whereupon the part of this river
up to the mouth of the Igaraparana, and the latter to Puerto Tarma
close the figure.
The Boras form a special race, somewhat numerous and very distinguished. They are the most intelligent and perspicacious of all
the Indians; very haughty and proud, with a serene and penetrating
glance; somewhat diffident, certainly owing to the treatment they
have received at the hands of the whites of Abyssinia; lusty and well
built; honest when they gain confidence and very apt at appropriating our civilization. While transferring the launch Audaz from
Puerto Huarumes to the avio (?) of Parana in order to run it down
to the Cahuinari I saw them leveling ground, raising bridges, and
opening up irreproachably straight cuts, as if they were engineers,
having received barely a few lessons from the director of the work,
an Englishman by the name of Burki.
Owing to the ill treatment which they have received and to the
great extent of territory which they occupy, the greater part of the
Boras live without coming in contact with the white man. Only
three great chieftains were subdued by the Abyssinia section, and# at
present only one is still faithful, namely, Huatipa, who dwells midway on the road to Huarumes.

154

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PERU.

The Boras of the Pama, who are the most Herculanean and resolute, still remain in a savage state.
I n view of the moral and physical condition of the Boras Indian
and the territory which he occupies (being the richest in rubber), it
may be said that the future of the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.)
depends on this tribe, provided it is commanded by apt persons prepared to govern, especially to govern this people, who are so different
from the rest, and consequently require great tact and care in order
to subdue and utilize them.
To sum u p : All the seven tribes, while speaking different dialects,
have common characteristics, the most salient being their intelligence.
The Indians of the Putumayo are good, and all that is needed in
order to govern them is kind treatment and just payment for their
work.
I do not deny that they may have practiced acts of cannibalism,
but I have been unable to find out any recent cases either among the
Indians themselves or between them and the whites, who, on the
contrary, fostered this barbarous custom, as may be seen on folio
676 of the case, volume 3.
The foregoing is my view regarding the Indians of the Putumayo,
whom I believe I know, owing to the length of time that I remained
in continual contact with them.
W h a t is to be regretted is the fact that these tribes do not now
amount to over seven or eight thousand Indians, due to the fact, as
T stated before, that the whites have not known how preserve them.
Unjustified assassinations, cruel punishments, famine, and persecution have rapidly done away with all these people, and the following
sad conclusion may be reached: That whereas in any part of the
Loreto wild land the rubber traders kill Indians because they do not
allow work to be done, and the Putumayo Indians were killed because
they worked.
ORGANIZATION OF T H E WORK OF T H E ARANA F I R M I N T H E P U T U M A Y O —
P A Y OF E M P L O Y E E S
CONTRACTS W I T H T H E C H I E F S
P R E S E N T CONDITIONS.

I believe that the present decadence and loss of prestige of the
Arana firm has undoubtedly been due to its bad organization in the
Putumayo region.
The evil started with the manager's office at Iquitos. I am assured
that a special business was carried on there with the goods sent to
the managers' offices at E l Canto and La Chorrera. I t is a public and
notorious fact at this commercial town that every time a steamer
left for the Putumayo certain employees of the Arana firm ransacked
the commercial establishments of the various ports in search of cheap
merchandise, even though it were bad, the only thing required being
that it should be cheap, for it was for the Indians, and therefore its
bad condition made no difference, the result being that a veritable lot
of refuse canned goods, cloth, and groceries, almost useless and
unserviceable, were sent to that region. The majority of the employees there and many merchants here have informed me of this
fact, and it may be proved from the correspondence of the firm, for
it is certain that Messrs. Macedo & Moayza, managers there, protested against this special line of business, which immensely injured

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their subalterans in that zone. So far did the abuses go in this
regard that the Indians often refused to accept the goods, and the
employees themselves would not accept them, preferring to do without them and suffer privations rather than submit to having heavy
items charged up against their accounts, to the risk of their health
and their life. The cloth would ravel on being touched, the canned
goods were rotten, and the rest of the goods detestable. But this
was doing business, and nothing else made any difference.
This fact, admitted by everybody in the Putumayo region without any hesitation, is in no way exaggerated, for notwithstanding
the heavy consumption of goods by the Arana firm in order to keep
up its business in that region it never imported anything, a fact
ivhich seems inconceivable in view of the magnitude of the business.
I t stands to reason that after the goods had been bought at such a
"high pricer—both the merchant and the broker receiving their profit,
Ibesides the profits which went to sustain this secondary branch of
business—the articles were exceedingly dear on reaching the Putumayo, where they had to be paid for by the Indian, who was the
principal and, one may say, the only consumer.
When the managers' offices at El Encanto and La Chorrera received
the goods they distributed them among the chiefs, adding 100 per
<;ent to the price assigned here, and the chiefs in turn added 200
per cent in selling them to the Indian, so that the latter had to work
several months and deliver several arrobas (25 pounds) of rubber in
'order to obtain the most insignificant article.
These statements are absolutely correct, for I saw the accounts in
all the sections.
Thus it was that the origin of the evil was at Iquitos, while it
assumed alarming proportions upon reaching the scene of distribution, for a profit was made on purchasing the goods here at a very
high price, a profit was made at the managers' offices (no less than
100 per cent), and a profit was made in the sections, where the value,
which had been doubled up to that point, was further increased two
or threefold.
The articles in possession of the chiefs were doled out to the Indian
workers gradually and under onerous conditions, the principal condition being an abundant delivery of rubber, fabulous quantities
heing demanded for a shotgun, and no less for powder, ammunition,
caps, cushmas, sardines, salmon, and straps, which are the articles
most desired by those poor people.
Every 10, 15, or 20 days, according to the sections, the chiefs went
about and gathered up the product of the Indians, and accumulating
it in special warehouses called by them " purones," they would have
it taken by the same Indians days before steamers were to arrive
from Iquitos to the managers' offices for transmission to said port.
Thus they went on paying for the overcharged merchandise which
was furnished them, which also had to suffice to maintain their many
concubines, charged to the account of the Indian, who was constantly
in debt.
To this striking speculation evil, which originated at Iquitos and
was thoroughly propagated in the Putumayo region, we must add the
mahadados ( ? ) , contracts concluded between the firm and the chiefs,
who did not earn any salary but received a certain per cent profit
on every arroba (25 pounds) 2 soles more, etc., up to 50 per cent.

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as happened with the Rodriguez Bros, in the Sabana and Santa
Catalina sections, which contracts gave rise to the audacious demands
of said chiefs, who naturally endeavored to obtain the greatest possible yield, in order to earn a greater profit, this monstrous fact giving
rise to the product being extracted by dint of infamous acts and
crimes.
The employees did receive a salary, and this ranged between 60*
70, and 80 soles.
In the Putumayo region, therefore, there was no other kind of
work but the distribution of merchandise and the payment therefor
with rubber, during a more or less short and preemptory period of
time. The value of the merchandise was charged to the accounts of
the chiefs, and the latter charged it up against the Indians. It was
better said a succession of "Aviamento" (providing articles for a
journey) from a higher to a lower dealer—from the manager's office
at Iquitos to the managers' offices in the Putumayo region, and from
the latter to the chiefs, and from the chiefs to the Indians.
There was not, properly speaking, any salary but an interchange
of products, for cash when the Indians did not command confidence
which was the case most of the time, or on very short credit, which
never exceeded 15 days, the laborer always having a balance againát
him.
I believe that the managers had a small salary and were also interested in the profits, so that, as was natural, they were concerned in
securing the greatest possible yield.
I do not know the exact manner adopted by the Colombians in paying for the rubber which they received from the Indians, but I am
certain that they employed a method similar to that which I have
pointed out, with very slight variations.
I t appears that some managers, being guided by very good intentions, sometimes called the chiefs of section and stated to them the
interest of the company in extending its business throughout this
zone and in improving the condition of the Indian as far as possible,
telling them to be prudent and sagacious with them and to inspire
them with confidence, removing from their mind the doubt, scruples,
and hatred which they felt against the white man, soothing the temper of the most docile, so that the firm might have at its disposal a
greater number of hands for work. Orders were given for merchandise and provisions which were to leave Iquitos every two
months, the chiefs being ordered to do the same thing with the La
Chorrera firm, calculating the number of Indians they had in their
service in order to distribute the merchandise among them all, asking each one beforehand what article he desired.
But all these efforts at reform were always a dead letter and
never succeeded in accomplishing anything, for the simple reason
that it was like preaching in a desert, and the managers could not
be convinced that their advice would be followed in the sections, for
they were enthroned at La Chorrera and did not know or pretended
not to know, what was really happening in the sections, for it may
be said with certainty that there was no manager or chief in the
Putumayo region who knew what the judicial commission knew in
the short time it was in that region.
This seclusion, this being doomed to live alone at one point, gave
rise to all kind of abuses and crimes which nothing was ever done to

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157

punish, the principal one being the iniquitous exploitation of the
Indians who were hardly ever paid for their work. To govern thus
was not to govern, but to serve complicitly.
Fortunately at present an attempt is being made to give a better
organization to the work of the company, there being at the head of
the managing office a gentleman of good intentions, active, intelligent,
upright, ancT humane—Mr. Juan A. Tizon—whose presence in that
region inspires confidence, serves as a guaranty, and will gradually
improve the condition of the Indians.
The present manager frequently visits the sections, making laborious journeys across the forest, having made one with me (from Entre
Rios to Atenas) ; he improves the personnel as much as possible,
having replaced the miserable and detestable personnel that was
there formerly; he does not permit abuses against the Indians, having reported some to me during my stay there, which were immediately punished; he has reduced the price of merchandise 75 per
cent, so that at present the Indian earns more for he gets the merchandise cheaper and at his choice; the orders are given to suit his
taste and there is an endeavor to have a variety and good quality of
goods; he takes care to have the Indians eat and be fed, giving special
encouragement to agriculture, both in the sections and at the homes
of the Indians; and, finally, he has given a great impulse to the
cultivation of rubber. I having seen about 200,000 plants in a very
good state of- development.
I n honor to the truth, the same thing is occurring at El Encanto,
where there is at the head a young man of clear intelligence and
happy initiative called Miguel A. Loayza. His sections are the best
organized of all, and let it suffice to say that they are all gone over
on horseback.
To-day, then, the condition of the Indian is different and it is to
be hoped that it will go on still further improving with time, until
he has been made a real worker and until his labor, which has
enriched so many persons, is justly remunerated.
The managers themselves are most keenly interested in establishing
schools, one at La Chorrera and the other at El Encanto, for the education of the Indian orphan children, who are exceedingly numerous
in the sections and live in the most complete abandonment, this fact
revealing that there is a real interest in doing good.
EXTENUATION OF THE CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE PUTUMAYO REGION
SICKNESS IN THE MOUNTAINS: PUNISHMENT OE CRIME ACCORDING TO
THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH IT IS COMMITTED.

The extenuation of the crimes and the grade of punishment with
respect to the environment in which they are committed is a theme
which it is not our place to develop, but rather that of the persons
who, being imbued with the ideas which we set forth in this report,
have to enforce the laws which govern us in penal matters.
In the foregoing there may be found reasons worthy of attention
for diminishing the punishment, especially in the present case, in
view of the abandonment of the Putumayo region, as declared officially in an international convention, the consequence of which abandonment was an absolute lack of guarantees, both as regards the
oppressors and the oppressed.

158

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Afterwards, when the effects of this modus vivendi were suspended,
we find the bad authorities who were unfortunately sent to that
zone and whose behavior we now know; that is to say, this bad personnel maintained by its conduct the very situation of unprotectedness existing there, which did not mean anything else than a " safe
conduct " in order that the inhabitants of the region might administer
justice with their own hands.
The lack of guarantees in the mountains is a question which ought
to be studied thoroughly, and in order to appreciate the condition
in which a man is placed who lives in such a place it may be sufficient to recall the celebrated phrase in the forest which means that
" there is no other authority than myself, nor any other justice than
myself."
This lack of guarantees creates a peculiar psychological condition
in the minds of those who experience it, especially in the midst of
the forest. They are always seeing dangers. They feel brave. Living out of necessity or habit with their weapon in their arm, even
when they sleep, they become wayward, authoritative, autocratic,
domineering. They know that they can not ask help of anyone in
the moment of a struggle in which their life is to be lost, and they
think that the only salvation is in their weapon. They think of
nothing but self-defense. These ideas of death, constantly striking
their imagination, make them timid and cowardly and they are
capable of any act, however reprehensible; and as they consider the
Indian an inferior being they assassinate him without the slightest
scruple. They think that the Indian is a product of the forest. They
are creatures who live in constant alarm and continuous alertness.
They are unable to think of peaceful composure, for they consider
themselves in the midst of war. The constant struggle with nature,
seeking food and wealth with the machete and bullet, imparts to
them a certain ferocity, and they think solely of the fact that they
live surrounded by vipers, tigers, and cannibals. Like children who
read the Arabian Nights, they have nightmares in which they dream
of witches and evil spirits; the men of the forest have nightmares of
death, treason, and blood. This is a phenomenon which I have often
observed. The solitude of the forest produces this disease, a mixture
of morbid valor and timidity which perturbs the imagination and
corrupts every human sentiment.
In the Putumayo region this phenomenon was developed enormously, perhaps owing to the nature of the men in charge and to the
character of the forest itself, which was so remote from the world,
so dense, dangerous, and gloomy. The reputation given to the Indian
by considering him a cannibal (an absolutely false accusation)
caused those so-called chiefs to suffer still more acutely this disease
of the mountains and to implant more firmly in their minds the idea,
stoutly adhered to and constantly put into practice, that the only way
to live there was to enforce respect by inspiring terror. Seeing
ambushes and uprisings everywhere; having no confidence in the
inhabitants, timid themselves and dominated to the point of idiocy,
the chiefs further refined their wickedness, and this crisis, which is
but transient anywhere else, became endemic here, entailing extermination and death as a permanent result.
Perhaps, then, these ideas which we are expressing with all sincerity may serve some time in shaping the punishment to be inflicted

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by the national laws or, at least, in order to extenuate to some extent
the unfortunate situation of the persons being tried in the noisy
affair which is now being ventilated.
I am setting forth my ideas regarding the real extenuation of
the crimes in the wild lands, for the public and even the local press
are insisting very strongly on this point, and it is necessary not to
confound the true situation of a man in the wild land and the value
of moral laws, which, as they say, change with the time and place
where they are applied.
I n the case in point it is not true that what is moral here is immoral there, and vice versa; it is not true that the criminal responsibility and the punishment which society imposes depends on the
injury suffered by that society owing to the loss of one of its members and the alteration which a crime causes in the social life; and,
consequently, that not all human lives are equal when considered from
the standpoint of their social utility; and therefore that all crimes
do not produce in society the same alteration of its life, and an
assassination in the Putumayo region is of less importance than one
committed at Iquitos.
These arguments, which are not without their advocates, are false
and dangerous, and in the present case they have not the importance
assigned to them, for apart from the fact that there are moral laws
which are common to all societies, whatever be their condition, being
general and invariable principles which are applicable to all, whether
they have reached the highest stage of civilization or are in the most
primitive state; in the Putumayo question the facts tend to demonstrate the contrary, and the more or less approximate statistics tend
to establish conviction in the most passionate minds, it being superfluous, therefore, to stop to demonstrate the importance of the Indians of the Putumayo region as contributors of the public treasury
and as powerful auxiliaries in the national defense, this importance
being still greater if we consider the present state of Loreto, so lacking in hands for its principal industry.
The tribes there have a special organization, and all of them recognize order and authority. They obey " great chieftains," who have
greater ascendency and power over them, and secondary " small chieftains," who also have the government of small groups. They consider assassination as an evil, and they punish it, to be sure, in an
uncivilized manner, for they know no other law than that which we
know by the name of the law of retaliation; he who kills is killed
by them, and if they are unable to find the real criminal at the time
when the punishment is decided upon, the nearest member of the
family suffers the penalty. I have had occasion to observe this procedure myself personally. I n an Indian house near Santa Catalina
an Indian assassinated a brother of a " trusted boy " called Carlos Vr
and the latter immediately sentenced the perpetrator; but when the
time came to carry out the established custom he did not find the
assassin at the place designated, but did find his brother, whom he
killed without the slightest scruple; and as order was now restored,,
according to practice, Carlos V became reconciled with the real criminal, and when I passed through the place where the events had occurred I found the two brothers of the victims reconciled and talking
together in a friendly manner.

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SLAVERY I N PEBU.

Other laws enforced by the Indians with the greatest severity are
monogamy and a profound aversion toward incest.
" The Indians of the Putumayo region have no marriage ceremony.
The wooer goes where the woman resides whom he desires, clears a
certain tract of land, cuts firewood for his future father-in-law, and
gives an offering of a pouch of tobacco or coca to the Indian chief.
Fifteen days afterwards they deliver him to the woman asked. Polygamy does not exist among their customs. I n very rare cases the
chiefs have had two wives." (Robuchón, Vol. X I I I of the collection of laws and resolutions for Loreto, p. 461.)
To the above-transcribed paragraph must be added that the Indians, owing to a repugnance for any incestuous act, always select a
wife in another tribe distinct from that to which they belong, for
among members of the same tribe they are all considered brothers,
which proves that they have a high respect for the bonds of the
blood.
Moreover, fidelity exists among the Indians, and it is considered
a crime for a wife to deceive her husband. This idea has been desecrated by the white man, who never respected the wife of anyone,
and the result has been many crimes and very odious acts, which
persist and will persist throughout all time.
History may be cited to prove these facts eloquently. According
to the report of the Peruvian consul at Manaos, Mr. Carlos Rey de
Castro, written in 1907 and inserted in Volume X I I I of the aforementioned collection on page 430, the population of the Putumayo
region was 50,000 Indians, " there is no risk in asserting," according
to the textual words of said official.
I t will not be out of place to state that, according to my information in that region, the Arana firm has a census which* was taken by
the manager of La Chorrera, Mr. Victor Macedo, who was helped
in this work by the employee, Mr. Manuel Torrico.
Now, the judicial commission over which I presided did not find
over 7,000 Indians in the whole Putumayo region, which proves that
about 40,000 Indians have disappeared from that region, comparing
the figure which I took from the managers' offices and from my visit
through all the sections with that given by the consul officially to
the Government, and supposing, of course, that there is no exaggeration in the figure given by said official.
We will stop at this point in order to prove the profound social
alteration which the repeated crimes in this zone produced, and
which had no other cause than the disorder arising from the panic
and terror which these criminal acts disseminated among this primitive people, which was in general timid and humble, which would
probably not have had so great an extent in any other society, however advanced.
The crimes of the Putumayo region not only caused the disappearance of the Indians who fell victims to the chiefs, but, what was more
grave and disastrous, fear drove whole tribes to more hospitable regions, there being numerous tribes who depopulated the region and
went to enrich foreign territories.
We may thus see how these moral laws govern the relations among
the savages and produce deep disturbances in their lives; therefore,
while the environment, the procedure of the authorities, and that
moral infirmity produced by life in the wild lands may be extenu-

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161

ating causes, not so is the corrupting and immoral argument that a
crime committed in the Putumayo region is not the same as a crime
committed at Iquitos.
P R I N C I P A L HECATOMBS A N D PLACES W H E R E T H E Y W E R E COMMITTED
CRIMINALITY I N THE PUTUMAYO
CAUSES OF ITS D E V E L O P M E N T .

I t is beyond all doubt, because it appears that there is full proof
of the denunciations that horrible crimes have been committed against
the Indians in the Putumayo region by the chiefs and employees of
the Arana firm, delinquency having assumed truly alarming proportions there at a time not long past.
Five principal hecatombs, besides many isolated crimes, call the
attention at first sight: That of the Ocainas, at La Chorrera (30
Indians whipped, murdered, and burned alive, folios 186 and 189 of
the papers on the subject) ; that of the Puinesas and Kenicuesas, in
the other strip of La Chorrera (30 Indians killed with the machete,
folios 189 and 195 of the same papers) ; that of the Boras (more than
100 Indians murdered in their wigwams on the other side of the
Cahuinari, opposite the Santa Catalina section); and, finally, that
against 35 Indians in the vicinity of the Pama, who were decapitated
in a single night, and to which reference is made in the denunciation
of the Government prosecutor, Dr. Salvador Cavero.
These hecatombs and a host of other crimes, which it is not necessary to mention in this report, reveal, then, a great development in
criminality which it seems to have been impossible to constrain in the
far-off regions of the Putumayo; and it is not difficult to point out
the causes thereof, as I shall proceed to do.
I n the first place, the interest is aroused by the per cent of profit
allowed the chiefs. The Arana firm, as must be shown by its accounts and even in its written contracts concluded before the notary
public, Dr. Arnaldo Guichard, in order that its business might yield
it more profits, interested the chiefs of section in the earnings, and I
have been assured that it went to the inconceivable extreme of granting 50 per cent to some of them.
Thenceforth these men, whose special psychological traits we have
described, being in possession of these contracts, no longer thought of
anything but enriching themselves in the shortest possible time, and
to this end they demanded the greatest possible production from the
Indian, compelling him to work barbarously; and as a less expenditure for merchandise was also a profit, they not only forgot about the
wages to be paid, but, what is still graver, about the maintenance of
these exploited men. No one escaped working—old men, children,
invalids, women, the sick—all were obliged to contribute something
every 10 days of the fruit of their efforts under the severest penalties
if they failed to comply with the audacious demands. Every person,
according to his condition or sex, had his special quota, which of
course was always most exaggerated, and he received a cruel punishment if, owing to any circumstances, he failed to comply and satisfy
the avarice of his taskmasters; and in return for these brutal impositions there was not even an inevitable obligation to furnish them food
for according to them the wild fruits of the wild land (pepas) which
they must find near the plants producing the rubber, ought to suffice
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

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to keep them satisfied. The canned goods and soups ordered from
the manager's office were consumed among the chiefs, their numerous
concubines, and the employees, salmon and sardines being on rare
occasions distributed among the best Indian workmen, as were also
shotguns, ammunition, powder, straps, and other baubles of slight
value. For this reason I am assured that the manager's office considered those chiefs best who spent the least amount of merchandise,
without paying attention to the fact that at such times these chiefs
never took any pains to encourage farms, for they did not permit the
Indian to concern himself with anything but the gathering of rubber,
which demand, as is to be supposed, also produced innumerable victims. Hunger has perhaps been the most terrible scourge that visited
the Putumayo.
The insatiable desire to obtain the greatest production in the least
time and with the least possible expense was undoubtedly one of the
causes of crime, for the Indians who did not comply with the requirements imposed were tortured and killed outright, while the stubborn
ones were compelled with machete and bullet to fulfill the mandatesCrime was in proportion to the yield, and the former (sic) increased
the greater was the number of kilograms of rubber extracted; that is,
the greater the number of assassinations the greater the production,
which meant that a great part of the production was obtained over
blood and dead bodies.
This fact, which is one of the most important in the criminal history of the Putumayo region, can be proven by statistics, which would
not or ought not to be difficult to obtain in the customhouse, regarding the cargo which was customarily sent by the steamers Liberal and
CosmopiMta in the years 1906,1907,1908,1909,1910, and 1911, as well
as of the rubber with which these steamers came laden. By means
of these statistics would be proven the effect produced by this campaign in behalf of the poor savages of the Putumayo; it would be
proven with the irrefutable eloquence of, numbers that whereas in
the years 1905 to 1910 little or no provisions and merchandise were
sent, the steamers returned nevertheless with enormous cargoes of
from 80 to 100 tons of rubber. Now the phenomenon has changed
radically, for the steamers which have gone with considerable cargo
(of provisions especially) come back with very little rubber. What
is likely to be the cause of this transformation? Can it be that at
that time there was more savagery and less need of provisions and
that to-dáy there is less savagery and more provisions are needed?
We should like to have this surprising economic change explained
to us.
I n the second place impunity had its influence. The managers,
the commissioners, and all the authorities in general never did anything to punish the criminals or stop crime, notwithstanding denunciations were made not only by the newspapers of Iquitos (folios
1223 to 1238), but by private parties, here and in the Putumayo
itself, as is shown by the proceedings on the subject. There was a
manifest complicity, something like an effort to hide everything
(report on folio 20, declaration on folio 394, and reports of the commissioners sent by you to the Senate in response to the inquiries of
Mr. Adrian W a r d ) . The punishment of the guilty parties was not
desired for any reason, and an effort was always made to evade investigations and explanations. It appears that the discovery of the

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163

truth was feared, it being believed without doubt that the triumph
of the truth would be the overthrow of the business. Everyone
made efforts to make the chiefs untouchable, as if their disappearance meant the disappearance of the profits. They were considered
indispensable and unreplaceable, for they held the key (and we know
what it was) to the flourishing state of the business, and if they had
been restrained in crime they might have ruined the enterprise; at
least this must be assumed if we think of the unanimous concealment
of their crimes, which were never stopped or punished, and if we
remember this secret approval on the part of all who were determined to conceal, defend, and deny.
This support, this conspiracy, this tacit understanding in regard
to crime strengthened impunity, and the assassins became more merciless, more courageous, and they continued imperturbably in the destruction of the Indians, for the sake of obtaining the greatest possible yield, and such were the ideas which they held, due to this support and to this obscurity which everyone was engaged in casting
over their criminal acts, that I am told that they had come to say
that the very Government of Peru protected and supported them,
which declaration will not surprise anyone if we take into account
that all the reports which said Government received tended to deny
what in reality was taking place and was publicly known.
I n addition to the two foregoing causes, which we may consider
as the principal ones, we must not forget other secondary ones.
On July 6, 1906, our Government concluded a modus vivendi with
Colombia, according to which the Governments of Peru and Colombia agreed to withdraw from these rivers all the garrisons and civil,
military, and customs authorities which they had established there
(Clause I I ) . According to this convention the criminals of the
Putumayo thought, and with reason, that they were exempt from
any judgment; that neither the Peruvian nor the Colombian Government could exercise jurisdiction over them; that they were exempt from penalties; that nobody could administer justice to thein,
since both contracting nations had placed that zone in an exceptional
situation. This conviction regarding impunity was further strengthened when the criminals learned that the Supreme Court of Iquitos
ordered suspended the criminal proceedings regarding murders in
the Putumayo, taking as its basis said international convention (superior order on folio 14 v in the proceedings had against Humberto
Garbajal and others for the murder of Ildefonso Fonseca), which
convention increased the criminality for the reasons which I have
stated, the most prominent being the situation of unprotectedness
and abandonment in which said zone remained.
Moreover, other factors contributing toward increasing crime were
the environment in which it took place, the bad authorities, and the
submissive, oppressed, and dejected Indian, beast of burden of the
chiefs who considered the Indians as chattels; thus they said, " a lot
of Indians," when referring to a group thereof whom they sent under
the orders of an employee to render certain services.
There is no doubt but this environment of frightful solitude and
isolation in which the chiefs lived, killing time with vices connected
with women and alcohol, predisposed them to all kinds of crimes.
The forest, always the same and dangerous, lacking everything,
and the little enlightenment which they had, being unaccustomed

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to read or to perform any engaging work; the lack of humane sentiments, which were lost (if ever they existed) owing to this wild
life, being preoccupied by the one redeeming thought of making
the Indian work without rest in order to finally have a redeeming
balancé in their favor; these were undoubtedly causes of the enormous development of crime, and which may be better appreciated
if one has ever lived in the wild land, which appears to offer at every
moment opportunities for crime and at the same time immediate
* acquittal owing to its august silence and density, which are the best
means for secrecy and mystery. The criminal who is isolated in the
wild lands thinks that he will never be detected or tried; he feels
society to be so far off that it seems that it will never be able to exercise its authority over him; there is a sort of reflex phenomenon
between (sic) somber and indifferent nature which forms in his mind
a strong conviction of irresponsibility.
These are, in my opinion, the principal causes of the development
of crime in the Putumayo, and if these causes deserve to extenuate
the punishment, it is not for me to pass judgment on them; but I
have thought it my duty to point them out in order that it may be
clearly known what occurred in this region in regard to which public opinion is in a state of suspense.
W O R K OF T H E J U D I C I A L COMMISSION
I T E N C O U N T E R E D — C O R P U S DELICTI
COVERED
FACILITIES IT HAD.

H O W I T PROCEEDED—DIFFICULTIES
SCARCITY OF P E R S O N N E L
AREA I T

The judicial commission, over which I presided, arrived on March
27 last at La Chorrera, the first section it visited, both because it
was the headquarters of the manager and because it was the first
place of investigation, according to the denunciation on folio 1 of
the papers of the case.
I n this section, and after many and prolix inquiries, it became possible to discover many more crimes which were not mentioned in the
denunciation, and also to prove two principal crimes against the
Ocaines, Puinesas, and Eenicuesas.
When all the data were acquired which the commission needed
;
for its work in the other sections situated in the center of the forest,
and the chiefs of which were José I. Fonseca, Armando Normand,
Fidel Velarde, Carlos Miranda, Andres O'Donell, Alfredo Montt,
Aurelio and Aristides Eodríquez, Augusto Jiminez, Elias Martinengui, and Abelardo Agüero, the commission began its tour through
the section of—
Occidente, on the banks of the Igaraparana, 13 hours from La
Chorrera. Although many crimes have been committed at this place,
only a very few could be verified, for the reason that the majority
of the native inhabitants belong to other sections and do not knowexactly where the corpus delicti are; however, a large number of Indians were recognized who preserve deep whip scars, which mode of
recognition had subsequently to be suspended, for there were so
'many victims that many months would have been required for this
operation.
Hereupon the commission went over to the Ultimo Eetiro section,
át the headwaters of the same river, 21 hours from L a Chorrera, in
a launch. I n this section, besides all the crimes of which the com-

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165

mission had knowledge being verified, still others were discovered
and likewise verified. Owing to the scarcity of Indians to give depositions (since the few who were present could not remember the
names of the assassins of their companions), it was impossible to
discover the authors of all the victims, the remains of whom were
scattered in different directions, from a few meters from the m a m
house to the highest part of the hill on the road going to Entre Rios.
On the shore of the river, opposite said house, bodies (corpus
delicti) were also found, the slayers of whom were already known.
I n this section, the same as in the Occidente section, the commission
had to go inland eight or nine hours' journey farther toward the
center in order to verify all the crimes.
When the few Indians who preserved traces of torture were recognized—I say few because the majority have abandoned the section
terrorized by punishments—the commission went to the section of—•
Entre Rios, 19 hours from La Chorrera and 8 from Puerto Peruano, which was the place from which the commission started.
From the inquiries made in the preceding sections there resulted
very few crimes to be verified in this section; but it was sufficient
for the commission to arrive and to make every effort in order that
not only the natives but also the employees themselves should denounce new crimes, forgetting the threats made against them by the
former chief, O'Donell, who told them before going away that he
would come back and punish all those who dared to tell anything
they had seen. I n spite of this drawback, it was possible with a
little work to overcome the resistance of the Indians against making
any declarations, and being finally won by the confidence with which
they were inspired, they related all the crimes committed in this
region, and which, like the rest, were verified to the satisfaction of
the commission, which thereupon passed on to the section of—
Matanzas or Andokes, 32 hours from La Chorrera. I n this section, completely annihilated and almost extinguished, it was impossible to utilize the services of the interpreters, for the reason that the
Indian inhabitants speak only the language which bears their name¿
not being intelligible by those who accompanied the commission; so
that the latter ran against this fresh difficulty, to which was added
the absence of the physician, who fell ill at Entre Rios, and the
scarcity of impartial personnel for the performance of various important errands ordered. Nevertheless the commission, which proposed to carry out its important task, overcame these obstacles. I t
appointed Andoke interpreters who did not speak Spanish very well>
but made themselves sufficiently understood, especially with the aid
of two other Wit oto interpreters, with whose assistance their ideas
were clearly interpreted. The first two Andoke interpreters, unconscious executors of the criminal orders of their chiefs, at the same
time that they carried out their mission threw considerable light on
the crimes whose ^verification was sought, for they had a good memory and related one by one, with minute details, all the crimes committed by the former Chief Armand Normand and others still.
Afterwards, in order to make up the four quacks who were to take
the place of the physician, it was necessary to appoint a fellow who
had had only one charge against him up to that time, but afterwards
he was also found to be a criminal.

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

Finally, after all these difficulties, we discovered a lot of human
remains scattered around the main house, within a radius of 800
meters, on absolutely unhealthy ground, where the effects of the
devastating hand of that chief could be seen; and it must be noted
that no Indians live in any section house, but only the employees and
a few women and servants, so that the existence of skeletons has no
other explanation than crime.
We also found several instruments of crime and wTe recognized 20
or 25 Indians, who I believe were the sole remnant of this once
numerous and strong tribe, though it is somewhat indifferent and
fond of idleness. I t may be said that of this tribe there remains only
the name. We now concluded our painful task in this vestige of a
section, and then proceeded to the section of—
Atenas, 12 hours distant from La Chorrera, but including the return to Entre Bios, they made a total of 35 hours' journey. At this
post, peopled with Witoto ghosts, the commission also had considerable labor, for it was operating in a veritable cemetery of human skeletons and skulls scattered on both shores of the Cahuinari, which
traverses this region.
Here we also met the difficulty of a scarcity of personnel to satisfy the exigencies of the law, which scarcity was a hard barrier to
cross for the purposes of the commission. Notwithstanding this,
everything was smoothed out and we continued to progress in our
discovery and verification of crimes which had been almost entirely
forgotten.
Upon terminating the necessary investigation in this section the
commission proceeded to the—
Sabana, 12 hours from La Chorrera, which section corresponds to
the name it bears, owing to the nature of the ground, which is arid
and open.
The service of the interpreters could not be utilized here either, for
the native inhabitants (Muinanes, Nonuyas, and Rezigaros) speak
their respective dialects, which are not understood by the interpreters,
for which reason three Indian interpreters were 'appointed, and
thanks to this means it was possible to discover the truth according
to the desire of the commission, which was operating in accordance
with the latest denunciations, proceeding thereupon to Santa Catalina, 24 hours from La Chorrera. Although this section has undergone a notable transformation within two years, to the extent that it
was exceedingly difficult to find traces, it was finally ascertained.
after many efforts, that there was a celebrated " crematory," in which
the bodies of many assassinated Indians had been burned.
The labors of the commission being terminated here, it continue'i
its journey toward the section of—
Abisinia, 38 hours from La Chorrera. Both this section and the
previous one were the principal centers of the bloody forays against
the Boras tribe, so that we may suppose how many butcheries must
have been committed. These forays (as the infamous errands were
called which had in view the implanting of fear and the infliction of
death among the unfortunate savages) had no other purpose than
destruction.
Here the labor was enormous, the commission having had to make
long trips afoot, to near Morelia, for the corpus delicti were far off
from the main house. However, much was accomplished, and the

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167

reason that more was not done was my illness, which particularly
prevented me from going in person to two disgusting scenes, one on
the Pama and the other on the left bank of the Cahuanari opposite
Santa Catalina. Thereupon we went to—
Oriente, 7 hours from La Chorrera and 2 hours from Puerto San
Rafael. The labor of the commission at this place was very little,
being confined to taking the testimony of several witnesses and the
declaration of one accused party, not because this place was not, like
the rest, the scene of various crimes, but because there were no complete denunciations for verification in the voluminous case prepared
for prosecution, for which reason the commission suspended its
work and went on to the section of—
Sur (south), 3 hours from La Chorrera. I n this section were
verified the crimes committed by an unscrupulous chief who had no
objection to confirming the charges made against him.
The commission being satisfied, it returned to La Chorrera, where
it completed its investigation by receiving several declarations, after
which it went to E l Encanto, on the Caraparaná, but not without
first taking the necessary measures for the capture of all the criminals, whose number had already risen to 215, giving the proper and
necessary orders for this purpose.
Upon the arrival of the commission at E l Encanto, where it had
gone solely for the verification of one crime, of which, unfortunately,
there were no traces, it confined its work to receiving no less important data regarding other criminal acts, and once they were secured
it went to " Indostan " for the purpose of ascertaining some very important facts, which were verified when the commission started back
to Iquitos, after having worked laboriously for four consecutive
months.
T n order to terminate the narration of this tour, I wish to state the
reason why the commission over which I presided did not succeed in
capturing the principal criminals who have operated throughout the
region traversed. As you will understand, the first measure which
I adopted was to communicate with the authorities on the Brazilian
and Colombian frontiers and in general with all the garrisons situated at the places through which the assassins might flee; but, unfortunately, this measure was useless, for the previous manager's office,
upon learning of my approach, protected the flight of the criminals,
affording them every kind of facilities, to such an extent that two
of the chiefs left La Chorrera only in February of this year, having
embarked at that place with the ex-manager, Mr. Macedo. Nevertheless the commission was indefatigable in making careful investigations for the sake of capturing some of the accused parties in order
thus to crown the efforts made.
To sum up, the time at the disposal of the commission in order to
carry out its delicate work was short, "and if it did not continue it,
it is just to state that this was not because the time was limited, but
because all the members of the commission were physically unable
to continue it.
Moreover, the time selected was unfavorable, for it was the season
of rains, which rendered impassible the roads which had to be traversed on foot, and the transportation of the provisions which have
to be taken along was consequently also difficult. Above all, the
great floods inundated many of the places where it was necessary to

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

make accurate examinations of the ground, and they consequently
prevented us from operating with greater certainty and success.
In^each one of the sections mentioned the commission did not confine itself to taking the declarations of the Indians, but also took
those of all the employees in general, who positively confirmed the
asseverations of the former, this being a curious fact, which proves
the truthfulness of the declarations, for although the declarants were
so far apart, their depositions were always found to be alike and did
not differ in the least, being verified afterwards by means of the
proven corpus delicti.
Another difficulty was the great ignorance of the Indians, who have
no notion of time, for they count by moons, nor of numbers beyond
the first two tens, for their calculations go only as far as 20, this
being the number of the fingers and toes, which are the basis of their
calculations.
Taking into account the enormous distances, the bad weather we
had to stand, the diversity of dialects, the character of the deponents, the lack of personnel for performing the formalities in accordance with the law, and the topographical situation of the places
where it was necessary to make the examinations of the ground
(three, five, six, and even eight hours' journey around the house of
each section), the judicial commission had too much work in order
to attain in an ideal manner the end which it was pursuing, and for
this reason there is much to be done in order to complete the voluminous report prepared on the very scene of the events, notwithstanding it is already pretty extensive, for upon my return it consisted of
about 3,000 pages.
Another difficulty was that the commission had to decide to penetrate into the sections without the eight gendarmes whom you furnished me for the sake of affording safety to the commission, for the
reason that the presence of these gendarmes in the sections would
have been enough to disorganize and overthrow the Arana enterprise.
A spirit of prudence and consideration for their business induced
me to proceed as I did, so that, at the risk of my life and of the
papers which I carried, I resolved to walk throughout this whole
region alone.
Moreover, at the time that I was officiating as judge in the Putumayo the situation with Colombia was very delicate, and you had
provisionally placed several garrisons on different points of the
frontier, such as Arica, Yubineto, Delicias, Puerto de los Monos,
Morelia, etc.; consequently, being well aware of this grave condition
of things, I had to be extremely discreet in my conduct, for any
violent measure would have involved as an immediate consequence the
flight of the employees, and with them the disbandment of the Indians, which would have meant the taking away of all protection
from the garrisons, which would certainly have perished, for without Indians it is impossible to maintain troops at such remote points
on the frontier.
I n a word, the commission over which I presided, without failing
to comply with the law and to perform the functions attached to the
mission intrusted to it, endeavored to assuage as far 'as possible the
asperities of a situation which was as unforeseen as it was delicate,
thus managing to have no injury accrue to the firm under accusation

SLAVERY I N

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169

and to prevent the perishing of our garrisons, which were defending
our sovereignty.
Finally, I will not finish this part of my report without mentioning the facilities afforded by the prefecture, which spared neither
expense nor effort in order to enable the commission to perform its
mission in the best possible manner; likewise the facilities afforded
there by the managers, Messrs. Tizon and Loayza, who overcame
every difficulty that could be foreseen, considering the difficulties
peculiar to the mountains.
I n order that you may form a clear idea of the judicial campaign
accomplished, I append a map to this report, being the most approximately accurate that I was able to obtain, from which you can judge
of the area of mountains traversed by the commission, which, for
greater clearness, I have marked with a red pencil.
JUSTICE I N T H E PUTUMAYO
PRESENT DIFFICULTIES
H O W I T SHOULD BE
ESTABLISHED I N ORDER TO EXERCISE I T S ACTION I N A P E R M A N E N T
M A N N E R A N D P U N I S H A N D P R E V E N T CRIMES
POLITICAL AUTHORITIES
R E P L A C I N G OF COMMISSIONERS BY S I M P L E SERGEANTS.

I n the Putumayo region, sad to say, there have never been real
judicial and political authorities, and hence the chaotic social state
which has existed in that region.
Justices of the peace and commissioners have existed in name only.
The former had necessarily to be appointed from among the employees of the Arana firm, because every person who lives there is
such an employee; the latter were appointed with the consent of said
firm, which almost always recommended the person and secured his
appointment.
Even in case the justice of the peace appointed were a competent
person, impartial and honorable, and determined to work and fulfill
his duties, the enormous extent of his jurisdiction sterilized his
efforts. Wherever this official located, his action must be absolutely
null, not only on account of the heterogeneous character of the environment, but owing to the enormous extent of the territory within
which he officiates.
Supposing the residence of a judge to be at E l Encanto, if a crime
is committed in the outermost sections, he had to travel several days
during the good season, and on foot, and all this provided he had at
his disposal a launch at the proper time and numerous Indian assistants for the loading of food, which he had to take with him2 and
for his india-rubber bags containing clothing, cot, and other necessary implements, for all of which pecuniary resources in abundance
are needed, and then there was the loss of time and other factors
attending the making of preliminary investigations, including the
scarcity of assistants for the examination of corpus delicti, which is
the soul of this class of cases.
There are, then, at first sight, the difficulties caused by the enormous distances, which require time and heavy expenditures;- then
comes the scarcity of suitable assistants; the diversity of dialects; the
lack of a police force to insure the safety of the official and enforce
respect for him; and, finally, the incompetency of this official, who
is almost always incapable even of executing a simple letter rogatory.
The distances which separate the populous centers of the mountains from places inhabited by civilized people and savages, orphans

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

of justice, impose the inevitable necessity of establishing a special
organization distinct from that which exists in the rest of Peru.
The principal cause of the evil is the lack of acquaintance with the
region over which our laws govern. The section of Peru comprised
between the Caqueta and the Putumayo is so great that France
might be situated within it. Nevertheless, all this great primitive
state—rich and inhabited—has but one justice of the peace, who resides at Sudesta, in the E l Encanto region.
I n the Chorrera region, which is still more iniportant, there is no
authority of this kind. The manager has to be everything there and
has to continually act as arbitrator in all cases.
The diversity of dialects (for there exist seven in this zone) is
another of the drawbacks. However, this difficulty can be overcome
at a little expense, for the Witoto—which is the most general dialect—serves as a basis of communication for the rest, so that it is
comparatively easy to secure interpreters in order to understand all
the Indians.
There are other causes of the evil with which we are dealing, but
they are of slight importance and can easily be overcome.
> To study the best mode of organizing the administration of justice
in these regions is a useful problem and one that is humane and truly
patriotic.
The correction of this evil ought to be the prime labor of the
legislator, and we are going to deposit our little grain of sand in this
important work of the future.
I n the mountains two classes of cases are constantly prevailing:
(1) The wages between employers and workmen, obligations between the former and the latter, delivery of merchandise, sale of
products, exchanges, disagreements regarding the weight, and claims
for advance of pay. Each Indian concludes verbal contracts with
his chiefs, promises of exchange, either for the articles which he receives or for the products which he delivers; and, (2) criminal questions.
F o r this group of civil cases such well-prepared judges are not
needed, for they are easy to settle, although a good training in legal
matters would of course be better, and this can only be secured by
allowing regular compensation to these officials; but not because
they are easy should it be supposed that they are not important, for
it is a question of real contracts which must be passed upon by real
judges with special powers and not such restricted ones as now prevail. " For instance, they should be allowed to take cognizance of
cases involving larger sums, as is the case in the present mining legislation, which may be said to represent the first step in this reform.
The criminal cases are even more simple, but nevertheless they
also require training and devotion to work, which is a thing that it
is impossible to expect from persons who are engaged with work of
their own; consequently special officials are needed for both classes
of cases.
Reform here in the mountains turns on these two great p i v o t s pay and ease of rapid locomotion. Then follows amplitude of'powers,
a broader radius of action in their operations and responsibilities
which should be incurred by judges who fail to perform their duties.
I n the Putumayo region must be added the food problem and the
judicial division which ought to exist in the zone.

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171

A single judge, although he be not " lettered," provided he is young,
intelligent, energetic of character, and having a good income, would
be sufficient to discharge the duties of this region very well, provided
he were given rapid means of conveyance for his judicial service.
Moreover, it would be well, if the present state of affairs were to
continue, to abolish sworn testimony, which entails so much difficulty
in the administration of justice; for it must be said with all frankness that this system, as it exists to-day, especially in criminal matters, does not make itself felt outside of Iquitos, and it is painful to
contemplates what really happens in this regard. All criminal trials
held outside of this port are paralyzed, and there are hundreds of
letters rogatory which can not be executed. The trouble, then, is not
only in the Putumayo region, but throughout Loreto. When a letter
rogatory is executed it is the result of the work of the interested party
himself, who, being in a position to spend money, does what he wishes
to do and succeeds in having the unfortunate justice of the peace sign
it. Mr. Prefect (I say this without the least scruple) I do not
believe in the honesty and veracity of the letters rogatory of Loreto.
To this situation, which can never be remedied, is due our social disorganization and our real misfortune in matters of justice.
I do not know how this court would report if the ministry of
justice were some day to ask it about the state of the criminal trials,
which almost all continue as high as nine years in the " summary "
(preliminary) stage, with the accused party in jail.
This is scandalous and grieves the mind; and if the evil is great at
the very seat of a court (the highest institution of justice here), you
may imagine what will happen in the forest.
Besides the class of judges which I indicate Jror the Putumayo
region, which ought to have its own special jurisdiction without being fixed in any one place, but the sections to be indicated which
they are to traverse continually, there are needed judges of a higher
category, "lettered," for the whole river system of the mountains;
examining magistrates and judges to revise the acts of the first
group; traveling judges, who would constantly run up and down the
rivers, visiting in person the places where crime is committed, examining and correcting the faults which might have been committed
by their inferiors, who, however badly they might do it, would
establish a basis for the preliminary investigations, would serve
greatly in the legal prosecution of the trials of this nature.
The creation of this class of judges is indispensable and urgent;
judges who would be everywhere, who would be seen everywhere,
and who would have their office everywhere—in the humble huts, in
the houses of the Indians, in those of the rubber traders, under the
trees, in the launches, over the ravines, and over the rivers—merciful
judges, who would be constantly making themselves heard in the
farthest corners; providential judges, who would carry the action
of justice even to the most unfortunate and unhappy beings.
And Avithout interfering with the creation of this class of officials,
the judges of first instance of Iquitos who can not leave here owing
to their abundant and delicate work ought to be obliged, at least
during their judicial vacations, to make a general round throughout
all the rivers within their jurisdiction in the mountains, watching
over all their companions, revising their acts, enlightening them,
admitting and deciding complaints, imposing fines, punishing, and

172

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

instilling emulation and encouragement in the justices of the peace
in the fulfillment of their duties.
If we are unable to do anything in this regard and the present
unfortunate condition of affairs is left to continue, referring solely
to the Putumayo region, which is the subject of this report, I must
say that at least there ought to be four justices of the peace—one at
Entre Bios, embracing Chorrera, Occidente, Ultimo Retiro, Andokes,
and Atenas; and another at Santa Catalina .with jurisdiction in
Abisinia, Morelia, Sabana, Oriente, and the part of the Igaraparana
comprised between its mouth and Port San Rafael.
There ought to be also two judges in the El Encanto section—one
to run up and down the Caraparana River and the sections in the
neighborhood thereof, and the other with residence at Sudeste and
having jurisdiction at La Sombra, Florida, Argelia., and the other
near-by sections.
The first obligation to be imposed on the Arana firm would be the
furnishing of food and conveyances to these officials at Government
expense.
As regards police officers, the commissioners should be persons enjoying the confidence of the judges, to be appointed by the prefect on
their recommendation; and in order that their action might be felt.
also and lend positive services to the unprotected dwellers of the forest, they ought to be obliged to serve under the immediate orders of
these officials, following them in all their excursions. To be more
explicit, cornmissioners are not needed, but sergeants of the new
military school, who should be in command of a small group of soldiers. The residence of the latter would be the same as that of the
judges, and they should be obliged to make the same journeys as the
latter whenever it might be necessary in order to uphold their jurisdiction and to surround them with all kinds of safety and guaranties.
These are my ideas on the subject, Mr. Prefect, and would that you,
as a public man and the well-prepared and authoritative spokesman
of this department, might be the author of this important reform;
for, in my opinion, this is the only way, for the time being, of exercising permanently in the Putumayo region judicial and political
action in order to punish and prevent crime.
I n conclusion., Mr. Prefect, I must thank you for the confidence
which you reposed in me in intrusting me with making this report,
which has no other merit than that of being absolutely impartial, being made according to my conscience and my modest observations
made during my stay in the Putumayo region, where I was a short
time ago as president of the judicial commission for the investigation
of crimes committed there, which crimes have produced so much
scandal within and without the country.
RÓMULO PAREDES.
IQTJITOS,

September

30, 1911.
| No. 113.]

LIMA, PERU, April
The honorable the SECRETARY or STATE,

$3, 1912.

~Washing ton.
\ S I R : Eeferring to my No. 103, of April 3, 1912, concerning the
report of Dr. Paredes and the matter of reforms in the Putumayo

173

SLAVERY I N PERU.

region, I have the honor to report that the President of Peru has
appointed a commission of five members who will prepare, for submission to the next Congress and the enactment into law, a plan for
the maintenance of law and order and the betterment of conditions
in the interior regions of Peru. The copy of the decree sent by the
foreign office and a translation are herewith inclosed. The step taken
is the result of several conferences between Peruvian officials, including the Presiden^ minister of foreign affairs, and Dr. Paredes.
I have, etc.,
H . CLAY HOWARD.
[Translation.]

Ministry of FOREIGN EELATIONS, Chief

Clerk:

Augusto B. Leguia, President of the Eepublic, in view of the confidential report transmitted to this office by the prefecture of Loreto
and referring to the crimes which, before, the year 1907, were committed in the Putumayo region, as well as to the measures which
it is seemed best to adopt to avoid their repetition, and considering
the necessity of establishing in the frontier region and in the
near-by territory an administration which, while affirming the
sovereignty and interests of Peru therein, assures the rights of its
inhabitants, especially of the natives, the proper authorities not
ceasing to efficaciously cooperate with the action begun by the judicial power for the discovery and imprisonment of the guilty parties, decreed:
1. A commission is created composed of Dr. J . Salvador Cavero,
fiscal of the supreme court and denouncer of the crimes of the
Putumayo; Dr. Javier Prado y Ugarteche, ex-president of the cabinet and ex-minister of foreign relations; Dr. Felipe de Osma^ president of the tribunal, mayor of accounts, and ex-minister of foreign
relations; Dr. Julio Ego-Aguirre, senator; and Julio Abel Eaigada,
deputy.
2. This commission will have for its object the formation of a general plan of reform, administrative as well as political and judicial,
which when introduced in the Putumayo and neighboring regions
will cause the laws to be rapidly and efficiently administered there.
3. The plan of reform announced will be presented before the 28th
of July of the present year, to be duly submitted for the study and
approval of the National Congress in the next legislature.
4. The minister of foreign affairs will give the commission such
data and information as may be necessary for the following out of
the plan alluded to and will summon for that purpose such persons
as he may deem it convenient to hear.
Given in the Government House, Lima, April 22, 1912.
A. B . LEGUIA.
G. LEGUIA Y MARTINEZ.
[No. 99.]

The British

charge d'affaires to the Acting Secretary

of State.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, May 10,191<£.
S19: With reference to previous correspondence on the subject, I
have the honor to transmit herewith a revise of papers which it is

174

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

proposed to lay before Parliament respecting the charges brought
against the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. on the Putumayo.
I have been instructed to ascertain whether the United States Government have any objection to the inclusion among the papers of the
telegrams and dispatches relating to their attitude in the matter.
His Majesty's Government would be grateful for a reply to this
inquiry at your earliest convenience, in view of the fact that it is
wished to proceed with the preparation of these papers as soon as
possible, and that His Majesty's minister at Lima has been instructed
to' inform the Peruvian Government that the correspondence is now
about to be published.
The only corrections to be made by His Majesty's Government in
the revise submitted consist of certain minor printer's errors and inaccurate references to previous dispatches.
I have, etc.,
A. MITCHELL I N N E S .

[No. 1516.]

The Secretary of State to the British charge tfajf aires.
DEPARTMENT OE STATE,

Washington, May 2b, 1912.
S I R : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
the 10th instant, in which you transmit a revise of papers which it is
proposed to lay before Parliament respecting the charges brought
against the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. of the Putumayo,
and in which you inquire whether the Government of the United
States has any objections to the inclusion among the papers of the
telegrams and dispatches relating to its attitude in the matter. I
hasten to inform you that the department sees no objection to the inclusion of these communications in the contemplated publication.
I n connection with this subject, the department is in recent receipt
of dispatches from the American minister in Lima regarding the
efforts of the central Government of Peru to formulate needed reforms for the Putumayo and inclosing copies in Spanish of the
Paredes report on conditions in that region and of an important
presidential decree looking to a general reorganization of administration on the Putumayo concerning which your Government has undoubtedly already obtained full information. The department has
read with great interest the Paredes report, which places before the
Peruvian Government indisputable evidence of the atrocities committed in the Putumayo and full corroboration of the statement of
conditions made in the reports of Sir Koger Casement, of which
copies were so courteously furnished this Government through the
embassy. The presidential decree of April 22, 1912, to which reference is above made, is understood by the department to be the result
of conferences between the President of Peru, the minister for foreign affairs, and Dr. Paredes, and establishes a commission " t o
formulate a general plan of reform, of an administrative as well as
political and judicial nature, which, put into effect in the Putumayo
and similar regions, may lead to application of the law in a rapid and
efl|cient manner." The commission thus constituted is directed to

175

SLAVERY I K PERU.

conclude its labors before the 28th of July next, in order that its
project of reform may be submitted to the consideration and approval
of the Peruvian Congress.
I am sure that His British Majesty's Government has been glad
to learn of this action of the Peruvian Government, which seems to
indicate that there will now be no delay in framing comprehensive
legislation imposing the restraints of law upon the hitherto unbridled excesses of this wild frontier region of the upper Amazon
and throwing about the natives of the rubber forests the protection
which the natural humanitarian impulses of a civilized community
should guarantee to them.
I n view of this positive manifestation of the purposes of the Government of Peru, I have the honor to inquire whether His British
Majesty's Government might not be of the opinion that it would be
most conducive to the attainment of the ends desired, to postpone for
the present the publication of the correspondence transmitted with
your note under acknowledgment.
I n the event, however, that it should be deemed advisable to proceed to the publication of these papers, this Government would request that this present communication also be included. A copy of
the translation of the decree of the President of Peru of April 22T
1912, is inclosed for the information of the embassy.
Accept, etc.,
P . C. KNOX.
[No. 63.]

The Secretary of State to Mr.

Howard.

DEPARTMENT OE STATE,

Washington, June 1, 1912.
S I R : The department is in receipt of your dispatches No. 94, of
February 19 last, and No. 98, of the 6th of the following month, regarding the atrocities systematically practiced by the rubber gatherers of the upper Amazon and the interviews which you and the
British representative had with the President and the minister for
foreign affairs at Lima.
The department has read with close attention the account of the
difficulties which the central Government of Peru faces in securing
the apprehension and proper punishment of those charged with the
crimes against the Indians, and in securing persons properly equipped
for the various branches of local administration and of a sufficiently
strong character to withstand the pressure of powerful influences
which those interested in the continuation of the present iniquitous
system are able to bring to bear upon the authorities at Iquitos.
You point out that Peruvian legislation, in guaranteeing to the
judiciary independence of the other branches of the Government,
makes it impossible for the Executive to attempt to impose the views
of the central Government upon the local judiciary officials, and you
emphasize the added obstacles interposed by the insufficiency of rapid
communication between the capital and the center of the Peruvian
rubber traffic on the upper Amazon.
I n the course of the interview reported in the dispatches from the
legation under acknowledgment you transmit an account of the

176

SLAVERY I N PERU.

efforts which have been heretofore made by the Peruvian administration to bring about the arrest and conviction of those responsible for
the brutal excesses in the rubber forests. The minister for foreign affairs, you state, has been studying the report of Dr. Paredes, which
contains a plan for the betterment of conditions in the interior which
you hoped to discuss in conference with the appropriate Peruvian
authorities. You add that the President had again reiterated to you
with great emphasis his willingness and anxiety to leave nothing undone to accomplish the reforms which the situation in the Putumayo
so evidently required, and to exhaust every resource at his command
in carrying out the policies of broad humanitarianism which he has
so frequently enunciated. The department is further informed that
both the British and the American Legations were asked for suggestions that might offer a way to solve the difficult problem presented, it
appearing that the central administration was frankly and eagerly
desirous of finding a practical expedient for enforcing its policies
in the administration of Loreto.
You mention a promise made to you by the President and the
minister for foreign affairs to furnish to you a copy of the report
made by Dr. Paredes to the prefect of Loreto, and that the minister
of justice would be directed by the President to transmit to Lima
for examination portions of the judicial record at Iquitos.
The desirability of focusing public opinion of the South American Continent upon the questions involved and of curbing the acts
of individuals and of companies brutally exploiting the labor of the
native populations has had great weight with the department, which
felt that the publication of the Casement reports would serve to
strengthen the hand of the President of Peru and prove conducive
to the fulfillment of those policies which he has so frequently outlined to you. I t was, consequently, in accordance with the highminded purpose of the Peruvian Government that the department
finally resolved to inform the British Government that the Government of the United States deferred to the judgment of Great Britain
in fixing the date upon which the publication of the Casement reports should be regarded as most opportune. The correspondence
exchanged by the department with the British Embassy on this
point is inclosed for your information, and in order that you may
present to the President of Peru an indication of the friendly disposition to cooperate with his Government in accordance with its
policies, which this course of the department has aimed to subserve.
The department was particularly gratified to receive the reports
contained in your dispatches numbered 103 and 113 of April 3 and
April 23 last, respectively, forwarding a statement regarding conditions on the Putumayo by Dr. Paredes and a copy of a decree
issued by the President of Peru organizing a commission to suggest
comprehensive reforms to be reported for the consideration of the
Peruvian Congress before July 28 next. Shortly following the receipt of these dispatches the British Embassy, in pursuance of special
instructions, inquired in a note of the 10th instant, herewith inclosed, whether any objection existed to the inclusion among the
papers the British Government proposed to publish on the Putumayo
question of telegrams and dispatches relating to the attitude of this
Government on the matter. A copy of the department's reply of the
S4th instant to this communication is inclosed for your information.

177

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I t was pointed out in the department's reply that the action of the
Peruvian Executive in designating a commission to report within a
reasonable time for the National Congress a plan for the systematic
reorganization of administration in the outlying districts of Peru
was a most satisfactory manifestation of the purpose of the Government of Peru to shirk none of the responsibilities imposed upon
it by broad considerations of humanity and its duty to those residing within its borders, and proceed at once with the reforms imperatively demanded for the Putumayo district. The department
thereupon suggested, for the ultimate decision of the British Government, the advisability of adding to the list of papers transmitted to Parliament a copy of this department's note of the 24th
instant, in order that the precise attitude of the Government of the
United States upon this important subject might be entirely clear.
The department is convinced that the efforts of the British Government, with which this Government has been glad to cooperate,
would be productive of great benefit to the real interest of Peru if
the general reforms, which seem to be foreshadowed by the appointment of a commission under the decree of April 22, are carried out.
The department continues to take the keenest interest in this matter
and desires that the legation keep it closely informed.
I n taking occasion to express to the President of Peru the pleasure
of this Government on learning of the formation of this commission
and presenting appropriate thanks for the copy of the report of Dr.
Paredes, you will informally say that you have been directed to
forward to the department any information which may reach you
regarding such further promises as may be made along the lines of
the humanitarian policies now inaugurated by the Peruvian Government in order to put an end to the ruthless exploitation of the*
defenseless primitive peoples upon Peruvian territory.
I am, etc.,
P . 0, KNOX.

[No. 124.]

Mr. Hoioard to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, June 5,1912.
S I R : Following the decree of April 22, 19125 appointing a commission to investigate and report upon the needed reforms in the Putumayo region (see my No. 113 of April 23, 1912), I have the honor to
report that the minister for foreign affairs informed me that an
auxiliary commission was being formed, to be composed of residents
of, and because of familiarity with, that territory and with the problems to be considered. This commission, he said, would cooperate
with Dr. Paredes, who would be given a definite field of investigation. The auxiliary body will report to the principal commission,
which in turn will submit a plan for definite reforms and for the
maintenance of law and order. The time hitherto allotted for the
investigation and report has been extended until January 1, 1913.
I have, etc.,
v
>
.
.
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3-

H.
12

CLAY HOWARD.

178

SLAVEKY I N PEKU.
[ Paraphrase of telegram. ]

Mr. Howard to the Secretary of State.
AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, July 27,1912.
I have frequently been informed by the President that the atrocities
óf five years ago have not recurred in Peru. For obtaining further
information, time will be necessary.
HOWARD.

The Peruvian minister to the Secretary of State.
PERUVIAN LEGATION,

Washington, August 7,1912.
S I R : I have read in the Congressional Eecord of the 1st instant the
following:
SLAVERY I N

PERU.

Mr. SULZER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs I
report the following privileged resolution, and ask to have it read, and move its
adoption.
The Clerk read as follows:
" House resolution 649.
" Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed, if not incompatible with
the public interest, to transmit to the House of Representatives all information
in the possession of his department concerning the alleged existence of slavery
in Peru, and especially all information tending to show the truth or falsity of
the following statement made in an editorial in the London Times of July 15,
1912: ' The Blue Book shows that in an immense territory which Peru professes
to govern the worst evils of the plantation slavery which our forefathers labored
to suppress are at this moment equaled or surpassed. They are so horrible that
they might seem incredible were their existence supported by less trustworthy
evidence.'"
The SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the resolution.
The resolution was agreed to.

As I understand, this resolution refers to the alleged Putumayo
atrocities as practiced by the agents and servants of the Peruvian
Amazon Co. (Ltd.) in a remote region of the territory of Peru.
Should you consider it not incompatible with the public interest to
transmit to the House of Eepresentatives the information bearing on
this affair in the possession of the Department of State, I would ask
you, Mr. Secretary, to transmit at the same time the several statements made by Dr. Eomulo Paredes, the presiding judge of the Peruvian judicial commission appointed by my Government to carry out an
investigation and to deal with the delinquents, and who has been here
on his way back to the Putumayo region to establish there such reforms as present conditions may call for.
I now beg to attach to this note the statements of Dr. Paredes y
which have appeared in the newspapers, and likewise a statement
made by me to the New York Herald on July 18 last.
I n closing I wish to emphasize the fact that my Government has
shown the greatest concern in regard to the atrocities from the
moment when they were first officially reported, and^that it has made
evWy possible effort to make their repetition impossible.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

179

The Government of Peru has given every class of facilities to
the commissioners of foreign governments who have wished to investigate the alleged crimes against the rubber gatherers, and at this
moment it is doing the same to help the American consul at Iquitos
to look into present conditions in the Putumayo region.
I feel confident that the House of Kepresentatives, in possession
of these facts, will understand that the Government of Peru has acted
in the matter in the only manner in which it could act, and that such
action is above reproach.
Accept, etc.,*
F . A. PEZET.
[From the New York Herald.]
PERU KUBBER ATROCITIES ARE ANCIENT HISTORY, DECLARES PERUVIAN
ENVOY.
SENOR PEZET, I N AN EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT TO T H E HERALD, STATES T H A T
T H E CRIMES MENTIONED I N SIR ROGER CASEMENT'S REPORT OCCURRED
I N 1 9 0 7 AND WERE STOPPED.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Wednesday, July
18,1912.
Federico Alfonso Pezet, Peruvian minister to the United States,
took some of the " atrocities " out of the much talked of Casement
report on the Putumayo rubber affair to-day when he said that the
crimes mentioned in the report occurred nearly five years ago, and
that the Peruvian Government has long since put a stop to them.
I n an exclusive interview with a reporter of the Herald, Mr. Pezet
said:
In reference to the report of Sir Roger Casement on the murder of Indians in
the Putumayo rubber region, I wish to state that the crimes mentioned in the
report occurred prior to 1907, when it was very difficult, if not impossible, for
the hand of the Peruvian Government to reach the region.
My Government has taken all necessary steps to bring to justice and to chastise the culprits, and it has done everything in its power to prevent the repetition of such criminal acts. A judicial Peruvian colnmission has gone into the
Putumayo region, and it is actively carrying on its work of thorough investigation. A new commission has been appointed to introduce into the region
such reforms as conditions call for, and it is evident that this will make
impossible a recurrence of the atrocities reported.
A full and detailed report from the Peruvian Government will be published
within a short time, which will prove beyond a doubt that the Government in
Lima has exercised the greatest interest in repressing all acts of cruelty against
the Indians of the region.
With, the recent installation of the most modern and powerful wireless system
between Lima and Iquitos, in the Amazon, the Government is now 'able to communicate with its most remote territories, and consequently such crimes as
heretofore have been committed by the unscrupulous rubber gatherers of all
nationalities who have flocked to that far-off region of Peru will not more be
possible.
[The New York Sun, July 19, 1912.]

Minister Pezet said:
The atrocities which Sir Roger Casement speaks of were committed years
ago. They all occurred not later than 1907. Things are very different now
and the Peruvian Government is in entire control of the Putumayo district. Of
course, it must be remembered that when Sir Roger Casement made his report
the rubber districts of the Amazon headwaters were far removed from comÍ

180

SLAVERY IN PERU.

munication with the Government at Lima. It was then very difficult to know
exactly what was going on there. Now, however, we have a system of wireless
communication over the mountains which permits of free and constant intercourse with these regions. We have our river boats now for policing the Amazon
districts and these craft penetrate to the most remote regions where the authority of the Government has but little been felt previously.
Peru has sent two investigating commissions into the Putumayo district to
report on conditions. Their reports disclose the fact that things are not nearly
so bad as they were, and improvement is continuing. Another commission has
been appointed for the purpose of recommending to the Government measures
which will absolutely prevent a recurrence of the practices of both butchering
and torturing the Indian rubber gatherers. This commission must present its
report before July 31, and I am expecting to be able to announce soon what
further steps this body has to suggest.
The commission is made up of men of the highest reputation and ability in
Peru. It includes Dr. Salvador Cavero, former vice president; Dr. Javier Prado
Ugarteche, a senator and former cabinet officer; Señor Egoaguirre, formerly of
the cabinet; and Señor Julio Raygda, member of Congress from one of the
Amazon districts.
The atrocities were committed by the agents of the British company which
engaged in the rubber business. These men were apparently the scum, such as
is found in every new and undeveloped region. To them the life of an Indian
was no more than that of a mosquito. But I believe it is about over now.
The minister said that the United States and Peru were in the most
friendly accord in the matter and that his Government appreciated
the helpful attitude of the United States. He called attention to the
fact that the services of Dr. Converse, of the Public Health and
Marine-Hospital Service, had been loaned to Peru for sanitating
Iquitos, which is the principal port of the upper Amazon region.

[ P r o m t h e New York Evening Sun, July 31, 1912.]

DR. PAREDES DEFENDS P E R U — H E DENIES LAXITY I N INVESTIGATING
RUBBER ATROCITIES—INQUIRY TO B E PUSHED—REGRETS MISAPPREHENSION AND CONFUSION I N PUBLIC M I N D .
WASHINGTON, July 31.
Dr. Romulo Paredes, special commissioner of Peru to Putumayo,
was in this city to-day for a conference with the Peruvian minister
oil matters pertaining to the atrocities in the rubber fields. He will
leave for Putumayo on Saturday to begin new investigations.
Through the consul general of Peru in New York, Dr. Paredes
gave out yesterday a statement denying the published reports that
his Government is adopting dilatory measures in preventing a recurrence of the atrocities in the Peruvian rubber fields. This statement
revealed the work now being done by the Federal authorities of the
South American Republic to stamp out the outrages which have
shocked the whole civilized world and showed the handicaps which
have had to be overcome.
Dr. Paredes said that he lamented the misapprehension and confusion which arise in the public mind about the situation at the
present time.
I would like to explain whnt the Peruvian Government lias clone and is doing
to establish orderly and responsible administration in those remote regions.
First, it has established a service of river gunboats for the mobilization and
transport of troops through the entire length of the rivers and their affluents
flowing through the vallej^s of these wild mountains; and all these vessels are
K

SLAVERY IN PEEU.

181

now on patrol duty to maintain order and to protect the Indians. It has also
established, at enormous cost, wireless communication between Lima and
Iquitos in order to have immediate contact with and more direct control over
its officials'. It has recently appointed a commission of jurisconsults in Lima
to formulate a complete plan of permanent reforms for the government of the
territory, and the object of my present mission is to minutely investigate the
conditions actually now prevailing to assist that commission in its labors, while
another resident subcommission has been appointed at Iquitos to deal with the
same question.
There is no necessity for new laws to secure orderly government for all the
inhabitants of that distant region. All that is needed is to install an administrative system that will assure a strict and impartial execution of the existing
laws, which are adequate for the purpose; and that object is being gradually,
though steadily attained.
One of the great obstacles to the capture and punishment of the parties implicated in the outrages arises out of the modus vivendi established with Colombia
in 1906 in the long-pending dispute as to jurisdiction over the River Maranon*
As provided in the convention of 1906, in order to avoid further armed conflicts,
the Governments of both countries agreed to withdraw their respective military
and civil authorities who had previously claimed the right to exercise jurisdiction in those territorial waters. In consequence of the total absence of authority thus created over this large area the criminals were enabled to effect -an easy
escape and enjoy immunity from arrest and punishment.
The Peruvian Government equally with the Governments of Great Britain
and the United States deplores the atrocities of the Putumayo district, more
from the humanitarian standpoint than from the fact that they constitute a temporary blot on the national escutcheon. It must be borne in mind, however,
that insuperable difficulties stand in the way of applying the forces of law and
of public authority, such as obtain in more populous and civilized centers, to a
wide territory (remotely distant from the most northerly point where we are
able to extend our national sovereignty), consisting largely of virgin forests, stupendously vast in extent and difficult of penetration, owing to the absence of
accessible paths and the presence of dread diseases. Nevertheless, my Government is proceeding with vigor and as much promptitude as circumstances permit
in taking such practical steps as may be necessary to stamp out these crimes.
While evidences of even isolated cases are rapidly disappearing, it may be
positively affirmed that by the course now being pursued they will gradually become merely unhappy memories of the past.

[ F r o m t h e New York Times of Aug. 2, 1912.]

SAYS PATROL I S EFFECTIVE—DR. PAREDES, PERU'S COMMISSIONER,
ABOUT TO START FOR PUTUMAYO.

" I can absolutely pledge my word of honor that no atrocities are
being perpetrated in the Putumayo rubber region of Peru at the
present time," said Dr. Eomulo Paredes to a representative of the
Central News, of London, yesterday.
Dr. Paredes, who is in New York en route to Putumayo as the
special commissioner of the Peruvian Government, warmly and eloquently resented the aspersions which have been cast upon Peru
respecting conditions in the rubber region and averred t h a t the
Peruvian Government had done and was doing everything in its
power permanently to stamp out the condition of things described
in the widely published report of Sir Roger Casement, the British
Government commissioner.
Said Dr. Paredes:
I paid a visit to Washington yesterday and fully reported to Dr. Alfonso
Pezet, the Peruvian minister there, the steps that are being taken by the Peruvian Government to establish a thoroughly efficient administration in the Putu-

182

SLAVERY IN PERU.

mayo territory, and the information which I gave him will enable Dr. Pezet
$o submit a statement to the United States Government clearly demonstrating
that the resolution just passed by the United States Congress calling for immediate action was wholly unnecessary.
I was in Putumayo up to July of last year arid at Iquitos up to January of
this year, and I am able to state of my own personal knowledge that none of
the crimes and cruelties practiced some years ago were being perpetrated then.
Further than that, I have seen the reports regularly transmitted to Lima by
the prefect of Putumayo up to June last, and these showed that the protective
measures adopted by him at the instance of the Government, consisting of a
systematic patrol of the rubber region by river gunboats and troops, have been
wholly effective
At the present time a commission of jurisconsults is sitting in Lima, engaged
in formulating a complete plan of permanent reforms for the government of
the territory, and a resident subcommission appointed at Iquitos is dealing
with the same question on the spot. Thanks to a system of wireless telegraphyestablished between Iquitos and Lima by the Government, the two commissions
will be able to work in complete accord.

[From the New York Sun, Aug. 5, 1912.]
BRITAIN GUILTY AS PERU I N RUBBER ATROCITIES—GOVERNMENT I N SISTS T H A T ENGLAND SHARE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIMES COMMITTED—EASY TO ESCAPE ARREST—SIR ROGER CASEMENT'S W I T -

NESSES F L E D C O U N T R Y — M A N Y W E R E

CRIMINALS.

W A S H I N G T O N , August

If.

The Government of Peru does not intend to shoulder alone the
responsibility for the atrocities committed against Indians in the
Putumayo rubber district. She will insist upon England sharing the
odium that has followed the disclosure of the horrible conditions that
existed in the Putumayo section of Amazonian Peru.
This is indicated clearly in a statement given to the Sun correspondent to-night by Señor F . A. Pezet, minister to the United States
from Peru. The statement is in the form of a brief prepared by Dr.
Romulo Paredes, Peruvian commissioner to the Putumayo, who conferred with Minister Pezet here a day or two ago before sailing for
Iquitos. The document, which was drawn up jointly by Dr. Paredes
and the Peruvian minister, is an official statement giving Peru's side
of the scandal.
*
" The responsibility for these crimes," reads the statement, " should
not be made to rest solely with the nation in whose territory they
have been committeed, but should be shared with the concern which
by its methods has obtained enormous profits which have gone into
a foreign country and have not benefited in the least the Peruvian
nation, her Government, or her people."
!
I t is set forth in the statement that the very witnesses whom Sir
Roger Casement, the English investigator, relied upon to furnish
evidence regarding the atrocities were themselves found culpable by
tJie Peruvian commission, headed by Judge Paredes. These men
were permitted by the Casement commission to leave the country
after having given such evidence and so were beyond danger of arrest
by the Peruvian authorities. The official statement points out further that the most of these men were Barbadian negroes, British subjects, and iíi the employ of the British rubber company, which was
exploiting labor of the Indians for profit.

SLAVERY IN PERU.

183

The Peruvian statement is in part as follows:
Since the beginning of rubber gathering in the Putumayo region the most
horrible methods had been the usage. The agents and employees of the Peruvian and Colombian concerns, which had been absorbed by J. O. Arana & Bros.,
to become later the Peruvian-Amazon Co. (Ltd.) (the British company now
holding the Putumayo concession), were recruited invariably from among the
worst elements of Peruvian and foreign outlaws in or about the Amazon region,
the only class of men who would be willing to go into the wild forest on a
comparatively small pay.
Though the atrocities were perpetrated by the direct orders of these agents
and employees, and often by them personally and at their own discretion,
responsibility must also rest with the parties who used such servants and who
reaped the benefits derived through such dastardly methods.
The greatest amount of leeway was given to the agents resident in Putumayo, the one and sole consideration being the amount of rubber gathered.
As the earnings of the agents depended on this item, it consequently became tlje
sole aim of all concerned to force the native Indian laborer to bring in the greatest quantity of rubber.
The investigations carried on by me and by others disclosed the existence of
certain degrees of corporeal punishment for the Indians who should fail to bring
in the allotted quantity of rubber. Such punishment was meted by individuals
from among the Indians, negroes, and white men who were detailed to such
duties. In this manner the agents and the chief employees had corrupted and
depraved many among the natives and had established a widespread system of
crime and degradation throughout the region.
Confirming reports of the alleged atrocities having reached the Government
at Lima, the attorney of the supreme court of the Republic, Dr. Salvador
Cavero, denounced the crimes in 1910, and in consequence a judicial commission
was appointed to investigate and bring to justice those persons who should be
found guilty. This commission, over which I presided, labored during several
months in the Putumayo region and indicted all of the principal agents and
employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.), and issued 215 apprehension
warrants. In the course of my investigation I was able to convince myself
of the culpability of the greater part of the Barbadian negroes who had given
evidence to the Casement commission. These British subjects, with the exception of one, had been allowed to leave the territory before the arrival of the
Peruvian judicial commission. As the Casement report is based principally on
the evidence of these men, it is to be regretted that they were prevented from
appearing before the Peruvian commission. Furthermore, that as a result of
their evidence before representatives of the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.), the
principal delinquents were dismissed from the company, thereby making it
more difficult for them to be apprehended by the Peruvian authorities when I
issued the warrants.
CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVING.

The great difficulties which the Government of Peru has had to overcome in
order to establish law and order in the vast region of Putumayo are of a nature
that would have taxed the energies of any Government. It is well to bear in
mind that Putumayo is a vast region of tropical forests, topographically and
climatically diflScult of access, inhabited only by scattered Indian tribes, and
first explored and occupied by the very white men implicated in these crimes.
On the arrival of the investigating commissions these men fled across the near by
border into countries with which Peru has no extradition treaties.
However, since investigations have been made conditions are rapidly improving, and while not yet free from fault their present state serves to show the
work done and the interest which the Government of Peru has taken and is
taking in the region and to what an extent it is mindful of its obligations and
its duties to its Indian population.
These investigations have established beyond a doubt what persons have committed the crimes!

Then follows the declaration that the responsibility for these crimes
should not be made to rest solely with the nation in whose territory
they have been committeed, but should be shared with the concern
which by its methods has obtained enormous profits, which have gone
to England.

184

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

The Peruvian minister to the Secretary of State.
PERUVIAN LEGATION,

Washington, September -5,1912.
S I R : Mr. Mitchell Innes, His British Majesty's charge d'affaires,
informed me some short time ago that he had read to the Secretary of
State a personal letter from Sir Roger Casement, in which it was
stated that the rubber shipped from Pütumayo up to-June 3 of this
year, from January 1, came to 227 tons, as against 236 tons for the
whole of the year 1911. From these figures Sir Roger Casement infers that the cruelties still continue in the region, as this quantity of
rubber represents 1^ tons per day, which is far above what could be
collected humanely and lawfully under present conditions.
. H a v i n g referred to statement of Sir Roger Casement to my Government, I have been instructed to inform the Secretary of State that
the said figures are wholly wrong, and that the customhouse at Iquitos
gives the following as the correct figures:
Exports of rubber from Putumayo, 51 English tons for the year 1911; 15S
English tons for the six months from January to June 30, 1912.

I have the honor to renew on this occasion the expression of my
highest consideration.
F . A. PEZET.

The Acting Secretary of State to the Peruvian

minister.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, September 6,1912.
SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
the 5th instant, in which you state that you have been informed by
His British Majesty's charge d'affaires that Sir Roger Casement had
estimated in a personal letter to Mr. Mitchell Innes that the quantity
of rubber shipped from the Putumayo during 1912 up to June 3 was
227 tons, as against 236 for the 12 months of 19 LI. You state that
you have now been instructed by your Government to inform the Secretary of State that according to the records of the customhouse at
Iquitos the amount of rubber exported from the Putumayo during
1911 was 51 English tons, and that the records of this customhouse
for the first six months of this year indicate an exportation of 156
English tons.
I desire to thank you for this information.
Accept, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE,

Acting Secretary of State.
[Paraphrase of telegram.]

Mr. Howard to the Secretary of

State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,

Lima, September 1£, 1912.
The foreign office has informed the legation that it has received the
following telegram from the prefect:
[Translation.]

The production of rubber on the Putumayo has increased remarkably, owing
to the change from the old cruel methods to humane ones, affording the Indians,

185

SLAVERY IN PERU.

who no longer flee, proper treatment. Those who formerly lived in r e t r e a t a r e
voluntarily r e t u r n i n g to work. T h e Indians now receive food and wages, a n d
consequently work willingly, w T hereas formerly they avoided work and thought
only of flight. Full protection is now enjoyed. I reiterate my assurance t h a t
t h e old system of t e r r o r h a s disappeared entirely.
HOWARD»
[No. 81.1

The A cting Secretary of State to Mr. Howard.
SEPTEMBER 18,

1912.

S I R : Eeferring to Consul Fuller's dispatch No. 19, of July 15 last,,
regarding labor conditions in the Putumayo region (a duplicate of
which the department understands has been sent to you from Iquitos), a copy of dispatch No. 29, of August 6,1912, from the consulate
at Iquitos is hereto attached.
The department desires the legation to forward hither a report in
triplicate for the information of the department and for the use of
the consulate at Iquitos regarding the subject of the inquiries incorporated in Consul Fuller's letter of July 10 last to the acting prefect
at Iquitos and listed as inclosure No. 10 to the consul's dispatch No,
19, of July 15.
The department regrets that a broader view apparently was not
taken of this matter by the central Government of Peru, and that instructions emphasizing the value of thorough cooperation between
the consular office and the local authority in the exchange of information and suggestions was not not clearly brought out in the instruction, which it seems was sent to the prefecture at Iquitos.
You may, at a favorable opportunity, in informal conversation
with the minister for foreign affairs allude to this correspondence
from Iquitos and to the department's comment thereon transmitted
to the legation.
I am, etc.,

ALVEY A, ADEE.
[No, 172.]

LIMA, PERU, October &£, 1912.
The honorable the SECRETARY or STATE,

Washington.
S I R : I have the honor to report, that upon receipt of instruction
No. 81, of September 18, 1912, concerning the written reference to
Consul Fuller by the prefect of Loreto for information to the central
Government at Lima, through this legation, I sought an interview
with the minister of foreign affairs with the following results:
H e wanted to know, first, whether the information desired by the
American consul concerned his general duties or the Putumayo atrocities in the treatment of the Indians, remarking that both the American and English consuls had been reported by the Peruvian consul
at Manaos as extremely reserved in expressing their conclusions as
to present conditions as the result of their recent expedition into the
interior, from which they had just returned. The minister stated
that a new prefect was soon to be appointed who would be a man of
more character and ability for the proper discharge of his duties o f
that position, and that it was his desire that there should be cordialcooperation between that officer and our own.

186

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

I had learned of the return of Consul Fuller only through a wireless telegram, dated October 8, for an order for the free dispatch of
certain official supplies. Later I was informed by the British minister
that the British consul had telegraphed him of their return, and
that they had found conditions in the interior very satisfactory. The
minister also stated that a Catholic mission would leave England
early in November for the Putumayo region. At the information
that satisfactory results had been found by the consuls named, the
minister of foreign affairs appeared pleased.
As to the subject matters of the inquiry made by Consul Fuller
of the prefect of Loreto, the foreign office maintains the same front
as heretofore, claiming that all efforts are being made to punish the
guilty parties in the Putumayo atrocities, and that conditions are
satisfactory throughout the region, the Indian being well treated, etc.
Both President Billinghurst and the minister of foreign affairs
have stated that the policy of this administration would be to exhaust all means within their power to prevent any repetition of
the Putumayo atrocities of 1907. They claim that such practices have
long since ceased, and that, therefore, no preventive measures of a
temporary character are required before a definite plan is determined
upon and made operative for the future.
I have been unable to join in the crusade of condemnation against
Peru for failure to arrest the criminals, as revealed by testimony
taken five years ago, for the reason that when Sir Roger Casement
was in that region and had to promise immunity to about 40 of the
worst criminals in order to secure any testimony, their associates
in such crimes had every opportunity for and, no doubt, did escape
in large numbers. I t was some time later when Judge Paredes,
clothed with power to make investigations, and to issue warrants
based thereon, visited that region and again undertook to secure testimony, in legal form, upon which to base such warrants of arrest.
Here was a second notice to all criminals of proceedings looking to
their arrest and punishment. I t is unreasonable to suppose that any
material number would remain within reach of the authorities when
the}^ knew that steps were being taken for their arrest and punishznent, and but natural to conclude that they made good their escape
while they could. Hence, but few were actually arrested and placed
in custody; and, even if others had remained in that region, my
information is from those who have traversed it that their apprehension would have been most difficult, if not impossible, owing to
impenetrable jungles, impassable ravines, etc., affording every opportunity for escape or to remain in hiding.
Upon the whole situation, therefore, there is nothing that can be
added to what I have already reported to the department concerning
the subject matters of the inquiry made by Mr. Fuller of the prefect
of Loreto.
I have, etc.,
H. CLAY HOWARD.
The Peruvian minister to the Secretary

State.

PERUVIAN LEGATION,

Washington, November 30, 1913.
SIR : I herewith beg to inclose a printed copy of the report of
Judge Eomulo Paredes to the minister of foreign affairs of Peru, in

18?

SLAVERY IK PEEU.

reference to the Putumayo region and the crimes therein committed
by certain individuals connected with the " Peruvian Amazon Co." '
And I beg you to file it with the other communications and documents emanating from this legation in reference to the " Putumayo
outrages," and to use it as evidence of the endeavors of my Government to repress crime in that region, in the event that the Department of State should be called upon to furnish the House of Representatives with data bearii^g on the subject of a resolution passed
by the House in its late sessions.
Accept, etc.,

F . A. PEZET.

THE INTERESTING STORY OF THE PUTUMAYO.

Dr. Rómulo Paredes, special commissioner of the Peruvian Government to investigate the charge of cruelty, murder, and oppression against the rubber gatherers of the Putumayo district in Peru,
after his second visit to the rubber district, answers the four questions submitted by the minister of foreign affairs. A careful and
unabridged translation.
1. " What is the present behavior of the employees of the Arana
Co. in the valley of the Putumayo River, and what is the condition
of the Indians who are at the present time working in that region? "
If the visit of investigation which the English consul general, Sir
.Roger Casement, made to the region of the Putumayo produced,
noticeable alarm among the former employees of the Arana Co., as
is generally known, the news of the coming of a judge of first
instance to the same region with the object of punishing the criminals,
produced a true panic.
I t is affirmed by many residents of Iquitos, and I am inclined to
believe it, that as soon as it was known for certain that the Government was sending a judicial commission to the Putumayo region, the
friends of those implicated in the crimes sent, with all haste, messengers to La Chorrera and El Encanto, by the way of MazanTinicuru-Algodón, for the purpose of putting them on their guard.
This news threw them into consternation. A persistent fear of
punishment, like to the accusing voice of conscience, impelled them
before long to decide upon flight; so that, as I can assert, upon
arriving I found hardly any of the principal assassins, who thought—
and not without reason—that the presence of a judge would end in
their discovery and prosecution, even in bringing them to punishment for the crimes they had committed.
If the visit of the English consul general frightened them in part,
my approach ended in their deciding upon abandoning the region
permanently. Such was the fear that seized them, as I was informed by the crew of the Liberal, upon my return from La Chorrera, that one day as this boat was descending the Putumayo on its
way to Iquitos they descried another vessel coming up the river.
On the Liberal were the two notorious criminals, Abelardo Agüero
and Augusto Jimenez, chiefs or managers of the rubber region known
as Abisinia, who, supposing the approaching boat had on board the
judge, and fearing discovery, behaved like madmen, committing the
most ridiculous acts, which caused even the crew to lose their wits,
especially when they were compelled to do their utmost to conceal
the outlaws in the hold.

188

SLAVEEY I N PEKTT.

These acts may have been due to remorse and expiation, or fear of
punishment, but in any .case brought about an exodus of murderers
from the scene of bloodshed; so that I did not find the principal
criminals upon my arrival in the region of the Putumayo. The
presence of a consul set them thinking; the approach of a judge put
them beside themselves with fear. All fled in terror, some to Brazil,,
some to Argentina, others to Barbados, etc.
The result was that I found in their stead new chiefs and employees : Normand, Fonseca, Martinengui, Montt, Aurelio, and Aristides Rodriguez, O'Donnell, Agüero, Jimenez, Flores, and others
fled upon my arrival, having been replaced at once by other employees
of the company who had formerly held subordinate positions: José
Plaza, in Sui; Manuel Torrico, in Occidente; Vega, in Entre Bios;
Bustamante, in Andokes (Matanzas) ; Garese, in Atenas; Vasquez
Torres, in Sábana; Solar, a young man from Cajamarca, in Santa
Catalina; and Carlos Seminario, in Abisina.
At the same time there existed a degree of selection among the
subaltern employees; so that at first sight, one would say there was at
least an earnest desire to improve the personnel. Such being the
case, it is natural to suppose that the treatment of the Indian is
different now from what it was before. Having thus selected as the
principal managers in each region men known for their uprightness
and humanity, who had still fresh in mind the examples of persecutions; the presence of officials of the law, prepared and eager to
enter the forests and bring justice to those unfortunate and helpless beings; convinced that the Government was in earnest and would
not fail to make justice a convincing reality—all of these tended to
bring about a substantial change in the order of things, which up to
this time had been most unsatisfactory, though the reform was' not
so thorough as we might wish, for if it is true that lives are not now
sacrificed as wantonly as before, there still exists niggardliness and
stinginess on the part of the "bosses" and insufficient pay of the
savages.
I t is also just to recognize that the new manager, Mr. Tizón, has
made his influence felt in bringing about the change of the former
employees. I can certify that the last who left Abisinia, Agüero and
Jimenez, did so because of the attitude of the said manager. These
repugnant fiends, as if still attracted by the blood of their victims,
were the last to abandon the gruesome scenes, leaving behind a
record of more than a hundred murders.
Mr. Tizón would not allow these assassins to remain a single day
longer in Putumayo, and I am pleased to put on record this fact.
A t present Carlos Seminario and a certain Rivas are in charge of
operations in Abisinia and Morelia instead of the wretches above
mentioned.
Summing up, we may say that the conduct of the employees of the
Arana Co. has materially changed for the better, owing to the complete renovation , of managers, although it is to be deplored that
the reform has not been as thoroughgoing as is to be desired.
The present condition of the savages is far from being in harmony
with noble desires and aims of the Government. ^ The change of the
personnel was not the desideratum. The criminals were replaced
by another set of men, most of whom are ignorant and badly paid,
and who, if they do not continue the reprehensible acts of their pred-

SLAVEKY I N PEEU.

189

ecessors in wiping out the aborigines, will certainly do nothing
toward improving their well-being.
In my last report there is a special chapter on the employees; and
although my judgments therein expressed do not apply with equal
force to the' present personnel, still one can not think very favorably
of: such employees, considering that the most competent persons are
not those who are willing to expose themselves to the deadly dangers
of the forests, which amounts to almost the same as committing suicide; in order to earn such miserable salaries. Only such as do not
fit into the social order in other parts of the world can resign themselves to work for such wretched wages, at the same time giving up all
contact with civilization and every idea of economic and social betterment.
I n spite of all, I repeat that the behavior of the employees has improved and that the condition of the Indian is not what it was, especially with regard to the tortures practiced on them and the annihilation of which they were the victims.
I I . " When did the criminal acts, which were being practiced upon
the Indians of the Putumayo region, cease? "
Unfortunately the Indians have a very imperfect notion of time;
they reckon it by so many " moons," and of these they keep the record
on their fingers and toes. But judging from my personal investigations, independent of my character as a judge, it appears that the
first massacres, those of the Ocainas, Puinesas, and Remicuesas Tribes,
date from the time when Larrañaga was manager of La Chorrera,
and the later ones when Victor Macedo was in charge.
The real massacres, the wholesale slaughter of Indians, continued
down to 1906, the time,in which they assumed a most horrifying extent. After 1907 they gradually diminished, although killing and
flogging continued, but in a gradually diminishing degree, until my
arrival in the Putumayo region on the 26th of March, 1911, when the
crimes against the Indians had become rare and exceptional.
To be more explicit: If one compares the gruesome epoch of the past
with the present, the enormous improvement seen in the diminution
of the number of crimes is such that, in spite of isolated and exceptional cases, it can safely be affirmed that conditions have greatly
changed; and if they are not yet entirely satisfactory, which is hardly
to be expected in the forest regions, no one can deny that the reform
is well on the way toward a complete regeneration.
I I I . " What efforts have been put forth by the Peruvian Government in behalf of the Indians of the Putumayo region, with the object
of repressing and punishing the abuses committed by the employees
of the company exploiting that region, and why have these efforts in
part failed ? "
In view of all that has happened in the past, it is only just to
declare that before the time of the present Government nobody undertook to repress and punish the crimes committed in the Putumayo
region, much less to improve the unfortunate condition of the Indians,
notwithstanding that accusations had been made and public opinion,
especially in the department of Loreto, was not uninformed of the
horrible crimes committed. These accusations were made in the
years 1906 and 1907 by Mr. Benjamín Saldaña Roca through the
weekly newspaper, La Sanción, of Iquitos. I t is not for me to pass
judgment upon the motive which this individual had, and which can

190

SLAVEKY I N PEKU.

be inferred from some letters signed by him and attached to the
indictment, the same being offered by Mr. Paul Zumaeta, nor is it
necessary to know the said motive in making up this report. The
point is that these accusations proved true, fox 'they were made in
such form and with such abundance of instances that from the moment in which they were first known they left no doubt in the mind
of the public.
I n view of the indifference of the legal authorities in taking up
these' accusations made in the newspaper, their author presented them
in legal form to the courts; and if one studies the first judicial proceedings it will be seen that these reflect very little credit upon the
authorities referred to. The Arana Co. at that time was held in
such fear that the act of Salclaña Roca was considered the limit of
audacity. For the magistrates of that time these accusations, this
impending strife, was like to a nightmare in which they were swept
by an irresistible force over a fearful declivity that would precipitate
them to destruction on the rocks of the hatred of powerful enemies.
The first 60 to 80 pages of the indictment presented in 1907 are a
painful recital that arouses one's indignation on account of the slowness and red tape in preparing the same and the dilatory and evasive
manner of reaching conclusions. The court issued a writ declaring
itself incompetent to act, to which I referred in my first report, basing
the same upon a treaty of temporary neutrality which had been signed
with Colombia regarding this region; and, in harmony with the attitude of his superiors, the judge of first instance, whose name I withhold, proceeding with audacity bordering on insolence, went even
further, and issued that astonishing decree which will mark, without
doubt, a new epoch in the annals of administrative justice: " Pigeonholed indefinitely."
.
As a result of this condition of things, which the residents of the
department of Loreto attributed to a cringing fear inspired by the
Arana Co., to say nothing of still more unworthy motives, and, further, the cowardice of the notaries public, the majority of whom
refused to act, the above-mentioned accusations were pigeonholed in
the archives, where they slept for several years the sleep of undisturbed oblivion.
Such was the condition of things until the present Government of
Mr. Leguia became aware of what was going on in regard to this
matter. The first accusations, which appeared to have ended in
complete desuetude, were suddenly revived in London at a most unexpected moment. I t was a certain explorer by the name of Hardenbourg, who, coming down upon the Putumayo region by way of the
Colombian frontier, was so outraged by the insolent treatment of the
employees of the Arana Co., and being an eyewitness of the atrocities
committed against the Indians, that he made terrible accusations in
the English newspapers. Sentiments of humanity were even more
profoundly aroused by the fact that many of the cruel slave drivers
and murderers were British subjects (negroes from Barbados) and
that the firm name of " J . C. Arana & Bros." had been engrossed in
the mercantile registers of London as an English company on account
of certain combinations and financial advantages brought by the head
of the firm, Mr. Julio Arana.
The great sensation produced in England by this scandal, as was
natural to suppose, spread rapidly. Reaching Lima, the matter was

SLAVERY I N PERU.

191

taken up by the prosecuting attorney, Dr„ Cavero, who presented a
most vigorous arraignment of the offenders.
Immediately our Government assumed an unmistakable attitude of
firmness and resolution. Many dispatches were sent to the prefect of
Loreto, and many numerous difficulties were overcome, due in part to
the activity and zeal of the prefect, Mr. Alaiza y Paz Soldán, with the
result that the Government sent to the scene of events a judicial commission, which was the only way left for securing a triumph of justice
and of putting an end to a most abhorrent and shameful state of
affairs.
There were many obstacles to overcome, but the desire of the Government was carried out. At that time there were very few launches
and the rivers were very low; the invasions of the Colombians, which
resulted in the battle of the Pedrera; a certain disorganization of
the work of the Arana Co., on account of the presence of an English
commission and of the consul general, Sir Eoger Casement; the
flight of some of the assassins, making possible the breaking up of
some of the working gangs of Indians; the establishment of Peruvian garrisons in certain points of the frontier, where the situation
was critical; a conflict between the interests of the Arana Co. and the
ends of justice; and, last of all, the excessive expenses caused by the
sending and maintaining of a commission with its full complement of
judge, soldiers, physician, interpreter, notaries public, etc. The English commission, which had already reached Iquitos on its return,
had spent, as was known and as the manager, Tizón, assured me later,
the sum of £8,000 in its round trip to Putumayo.
But all these difficulties together were not enough to discourage
President Leguia. He wished to send a Peruvian commission to the
scene, and he did so. I t left Iquitos in a war launch at 12 o'clock midnight on the 15th of March, 1911; it is well to know that the said commission had very definite and final instructions, imparted by the
prefect in the name of the Government.
These instructions were as follows: To fulfill the letter of the law
and comply with my duties as judge; to observe the condition of
the Indians and the behavior of the employees of the exploiters,
in order to report the same secretly to the Government; to punish
the guilty; to proceed with prudence and discretion in order not to
damage the Arana Co. or interfere with our garrisons which were
performing a genuinely patriotic duty in defending those far-away
frontiers of our territory, not halting the ends of justice, which for
the first time was bringing its beneficent action to bear in behalf
of numerous unfortunate and helpless tribes of Indians; and lastly,
to prosecute the murderers with the utmost tenacity, being authorized to call to my aid any and every official who could be of help
to me in executing my orders, as in truth I did, communicating with
frequency with the police commissioner and the leaders of the troops
encamped in different parts of the Putumayo.
These aims were fortunately realized; the task was difficult, but
proved beneficial. The judicial commission, carrying out the suggestion of the prefect, acted with tact in such a way as not to arouse
opposition. The three interests in conflict; that is, that of justice,
that of the garrisons, and that of the company under accusation,
were like three wheels which revolved regularly without the least
friction; to carry out this program the commission decided not to

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take advantage of the guarantees vouchsafed by the prefect and set
out for the most remote part of the forests without a single soldier.
The result was all that could be desired. The majority of the crimes
were proved, and once the commission, having arrived upon the scene,
t h e effect that its presence produced upon the criminals, all of whom
fled in the utmost terror, can be easily imagined; and the joy of the
Indians as soon as they were able to comprehend the mission which
liad brought me among them, to bring judgment upon their executioners. Of these matters, I will speak further in dealing with
another question.
The mere presence of a judge of first instance in the Putumayo
and the conviction that was carried home to everyone, that nothing
jcould thwart the ends of justice upon which the Government had
decided, in a matter of investigating and punishing the crimes committed, was enough to put an end to the abnormal conditions that
prevailed then in that region.
The cruelties and atrocities that had been carried on with the refinement of an art were vigorously and severely repressed, as is
proved by the legal documents of the case; for on the spot I issued
warrants for the arrest of 215 criminals, and to the end of capturing
them, communicated the same to all the political authorities and
officers of the different garrisons. The commission was successful
in carrying out satisfactorily the laudable purpose of the Government, undertaken with such decision in behalf of its inhabitants in
the name of justice, to restore the social order which had been upset
and lastly, to conciliate the sentiments of humanity, which had been
outraged by adventurers whose nationality was not known.
I am certain that the good results of the work of the judicial
commission sent by Mr. Leguia are well known to the English consul general, Sir Roger Casement, and even better by the institutions
of his country, which had manifested an interest in this much-discussed question. The proof of this is to be found in the legal documents drawn up by that functionary, which are closely related in
every detail with the indictment which I drew up.
I t is just and honorable to declare that as soon as the commission
began to act in the region in question, conditions were changed
very abruptly, to such an extent that there is not in service to-day
a single one of the former leaders or managers of the Arana Co.;
the significance of which can be fully seen only when taken in connection with the fact that those murderous wretches were like the
golden eggs of the hen in the fable. Warrants of arrest have been
issued and placed in the hands of all the authorities of the Republic; and what is even more satisfactory still is the fact that the
moral effect produced among the Indians of to-day will be even
more beneficial to those of the future, because the seven tribes of
Indians now understand fully the meaning of justice, which was
there to protect them, even to the remotest limits cf the country, to
be to them a source of salvation, succor, sanction, and reform.
I t is evident to everyone who has shown an interest in this gruesome matter, that at the present time even the manager of La
Chorrera has been discharged and replaced by another; since it was
one of the first steps of the judicial commission to secure the renovation of the entire personnel of the " Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.),"
which was made up of individuals entirely given over to the former

SLAVERY I N PERU.

193

methods of exploitation, so that I could not help feeling in doubt
as to how they would behave in the future.
I understand that justice has been triumphant in a large way,
although I am not in a position to declare whether it has done all
that was expected of it; still we believe that, in spite of the vices
suppressed which may be said to hover even yet over the disorders
of yesterday, with the cooperation of honest Government officials
who are capable of seconding efficiently this campaign of redemption, peace, and order will continue to reign, bringing progress and
producing a more genuine feeling of national unity.
Our Government, which has manifested so much interest and perseverance in this matter, has just taken two more important steps.
I t has appointed a commission of legal experts who are to prepare
a plan of reforms for the Putumayo; in view of the fact that this
task could only be carried out on the ground itself by a single
person, the honor of doing this work has been Conferred upon me,
which I shall try to carry forward to the most successful conclusion
that my limited faculties may permit.
I n the second place, a subcommission with residence in Iquitos
has been appointed to report upon my inquiry, so that it is reasonable to expect that, once this important investigation is completed,
great improvement in the condition of the Indians will be seen,
and that this region, which was till yesterday a scene of bloodshed,
will become in the future a real emporium of wealth, where order
and progress prevail.
Still, in view of the inefficiency of judicial proceedings, and of
what has already been said, something more could have been done
in behalf of the cause of justice, which was called upon to punish
the authors of so many crimes. The efforts of the Government
have not been as loyalty supported as they should have been, and
it must be confessed, as a serious and honest duty, that they have in
part failed.
I have already pointed out in my former report, citing indisputable cases, which are on record in the official documents, the fact
that the subaltern employees of the administration did everything in
their power to cover up the crimes that were being committed in the
Putumayo. There was a sort of tacit agreement to deny the facts,
in spite of their being known with certainty. A species of false
patriotism, foolish and mistaken, and a certain respect, based on
servility and adulation, for the opulence of the Arana Co., caused
everything to be kept under cover for a long time, even going so
far as to deny absolutely the existence of the evil. The former presidential administrations will surely have no other excuse to offer;
even that of Mr. Leguia was deceived by the same misrepresentations
at the outset of his laudable campaign, as can be seen by the report
which was presented, signed by the police commissioner, in answer
to the interpolations of Senator Ward. Eeferring to the former condition of things, when the commissaries and chiefs of the garrisons
lived on the management of La Chorrera, carried on trade, accepted
* g r a f t " (though of this I am not sure), and even lived in common
with the criminals, the scandal reached the limit (see the file of
documents referring to the investigations made in Ultimo Eetiro)
when even the leaders of the troops stationed in that zone flayed the
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

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SLAVEKY IlsT PERU.

Indians with rawhides; all of which can not be mentioned in the
same paragraph with the condition of things at the present time.
I am sorry to have to declare that the writs of arrest I issued have
not been served, because of the fear which is inspired by the powerful
Arana Co., another reason for which the efforts of the Government
have failed in part.
One of the reasons why the efforts of the Government were nullified was the exportation of the Barbados negroes by the English
consul general, Sir Roger Oasement, thus depriving the Peruvian
courts of an important source of information, for there can be no
doubt that their testimony would have thrown more light upon the
case, illuminating dark places in the court proceedings, because the
aid extended to these negroes—the real hyenas of the Putumayo—
was the first step toward the breaking up of those bands of assassins.
IV. " What are the results brought about by the commission
with which you were charged, during the year 1911, and what other
means have been employed against the lawbreakers of the Putumayo? "
The Indians, all of whom are intelligent, since their brains are so
free from exhaustion, have very strange notions. F o r example, a
rifle they call yoveca, which means the " voice of the white man " ;
the lead which this voice hurls obeys the will of the white man and
searches out whatever he wishes. A mirror they call acaram, which
means " ice frozen by the white man." When the Englishmen arrived in the Putumayo the Indians, on seeing for the first time the
fair-haired and light-complexioned foreigners, called them " the men
who make the cutlasses."
I n view of such ideas, we can easily imagine how the savages of
the Putumayo look upon the principle of authority, and therefore
how they regarded me, who was invested with judicial powers.
In the section called Entre Rios I found out what they thought of
me, not as a man, but as a functionary of the law. From the very
first day on which I began to examine witnesses I noted that everyone
refused to testify. Inquiring the reason, my interpreters informed
me that, in the first place, the Indians did not know who I was, and
that, moreover, there weighed upon them the terrible threat of a
former gang driver, a certain O'Donnell, who, on leaving that section, warned them that they should never speak of the crimes which
they had seen him commit, and that if they should do so " when he
returned from visiting his family," which, as he declared, was his
object in leaving the Putumayo, " their lives would pay the penalty."
I n such circumstances I could do nothing else than to get together
as large a number of Indians as possible, in order to communicate
with them by means of my interpreters, thus carrying on interesting
dialogues.
" Who are you ? " they asked me. "Are you a great captain or a
small one?"
" I am a very great captain," I answered.
A t once they pronounced in chorus the sound of " u," resembling
the guttural " u " in French, which meant, " Is that so? Well! "
" Tell us," they went on, " are you a greater captain than Vega?"
(Vega was the " boss " in that region.)
" Yes: much greater," I answered.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

195

"And are you greater than Tizón ? " Tizón was the manager of
La Chorrera.)
" Yes; much greater," I replied.
The expression " much greater " the interpreters pronounced in a
loud voice, raising their arms. From that moment the Indians began to look upon me with evident curiosity. Their eyes, filled with
terror and admiration, were fixed steadily upon me, scanning me up
and down. They were taking my measure, who, to them, seemed a
kind of divinity. I t was something incomprehensible to them to
look upon me (as superior to the manager of La Chorrera, up to that
time the most important personage in the Putumayo.
" Has some other captain sent you here ? Is there another greater
than you?"
" Y e s ; just one; the Government; Leguia."
(At this there was a murmur of surprise, and they continued their
questions.)
" So that you could kill all the captains of the Putumayo if you
wanted to?"
" Yes; every one."
"And there is only one captain, Leguia, who could kill you ? "
" Yes; he is the only one."
The savages were convinced by this and remained satisfied. I t
seems that these unfortunate beings were so accustomed to murders
that they could conceive of the idea of superiority only by the right
to kill. The principle resolves into " Who kills whom?" and the one
who, by his station, is empowered to kill is the highest in authority»
If I were empowered to slay the manager, Tizón, then my authority
must be immense; and if another still higher captain could kill me ?
then his authority must be supreme—something quite beyond their
comprehension.
Aware of my power (measured in the terms of my right to kill
there in the Putumayo) and convinced that I was the most powerful
captain that had visited that region, it was but natural that they
should feel for me a profound respect mingled with somewhat timid
confidence. But «as they were still possessed with the idea that the
" boss," O'Donnell, was going to return and kill them if he should
find them, they continued asking me questions.
" And do you guarantee us that he will not return?"
"Ido."
"Are we to understand, then, that O'Donnell, Normand, Montt,
and all the other ' bosses' have left because you came?"
" Yes."
"And if you should find them, would you kill them?"
" I surely would; they have fled because they are afraid of me."
"U-u-u."
" Tell me everything, for my captain wants to know what has
happened here in order to kill the criminals. My captain loves the
Indians greatly. H e can not come, because he is very busy and lives;
a long way off, and so he sent me to find out and tell him everything,,
My captain will not consent to the Indians being punished, and mucB
less to their being killed. You, like ourselves, are Peruvians, and he
looks after us all."

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With this last peroration, pronounced in Wittoto, I finally convinced the Indians, who began to testify willingly, showing me a
large number of cadavers.
1
The " boss ; " O'Donnell, according to the judgment of the manager,
Tizón, was a very estimable person, kind with the Indians and very
much liked by them, and yet, having arrived upon the scene myself,
I proved him the author of several dozen crimes.
As will be seen, the Indians, who were at first inclined to be vicious
and suspecting, soon came to have confidence in me, and revealed to
me a great number of crimes; perhaps if it had not been thus I would
not have been able to treat with them at all.
And finally they came to regard me, by reason of being at the top
in the scale of captains, as the highest authority that, up to that time,
had come to those far-away regions to protect them and kill their
persecutors. I was soon convinced that in the regions of Entre Rios
the Indians had entirely changed their attitude toward me. The
news of my authority spread through that whole interior country,
and I was soon so convinced of the kindness of the Indians that I
felt the utmost confidence.
One day just after arriving at La Sábana, covered with sweat and
grime, I went to take a bath in a near-by stream, but just as I reached
the pool I observed I was being followed by two men armed with
carbines. I asked them, in surprise, why they were following me;
they replied that they had been sent by the " boss " to protect my
life, because they feared that the savages might fire upon me while I
was in the water and off my guard and thus kill me. I refused their
services^ and asked them to leave me alone, for I was convinced that
the poor Indians were incapable of killing anybody, much less me,
now that they knew why I had come there.
These humble people, who have been forbidden to use even their
primitive arms, are noble, generous, and self-sacrificing in spite of
the fact that their executioners iii order to extenuate their crimes have
represented them as depraved even to the point of practicing cannibalism. I was not able to prove, after a most thorough investigation, a single case of man eating. Those who affirm the contrary are
gmlty of willful misrepresentation.
One day as I was crossing the River Cahuinari on the road from
Atenas to La Sábana I was sliding along cautiously upon a slender
and slippery pole, about as thick as a " tamshi " (bamboo of the
forest), placed across a deep and rapid stream, when in the midst of
this dangerous passage I lost my balance and was about to fall into
the river far below. The Indians, as soon as they saw the plight I
was in, came to my rescue, and almost before I realized what they
were about they took me up bodily and saved mjr life. This did not
astonish me, as it was only what I would expect in view of the opinion I had formed of them; they were only fulfilling their duty in
saving their great captain.
On another occasion in Entre Rios I presented an Indian woman,
somewhat advanced in years, with a Colombian coin which had a
hole in it. From that moment this woman went to live in the forest
and collected fruits for me; every afternoon she appeared loaded
with large baskets of wild fruits, which of course I could not eat.
This poor creature regarded me as the most generous of mortals,
knowing that I was the great captain.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

197

When I fell ill in Santa Catalina with acute ague I felt the urgent
need of going on to Abisinia and Morelia in order to continue my
duties as judge; the Indians disputed among themselves for the
honor of carrying me in a litter, but I did not wish to accept the
offer and thus compare myself with the Rodriguez brothers, who,
imitating our Inca, formed long caravans of savages, who bore them
on. their backs from place to place.
I will give but one other example, so as not to be* too tedious. One
evening when I was in the home of some Indians one of them beat
his wife over the head. She complained directly to me instead of
appealing as usual to higher authorities, and I imposed a punishment
upon the offender, with which all remained satisfied.
I have gone into these details which may seem insignificant, but
which are important in view of the purpose I have of making known
with perfect clearness the effects produced by the commission over
which I presided in the region of the Putumayo.
I n the first place, the simple fact of my coming to judge and to
punish the criminals made a cleaning up of the region, as I have
already pointed out. The accused fled, and with their exodus the
crimes diminished, inaugurating at once another regimen more humane and indulgent.
In the second place, the exemplary lesson proved to be as wholesome as it was terrifying, and it would have been efficacious in restraining the new administrators if they had been animated by improper instincts. Their treatment of the Indians was necessarily of
a different kind, for they knew very well if it had not been so the
fate that awaited them, observing as they must have, what happened
to their predecessors.
The idea soon became generally known, accompanied by a feeling
of surprise and fear, that the Government was going to take up the
case of the savages, defend and protect them, and at the same time
prosecute their murderers; and what was even more strange to them
was that there were judges courageous enough to enter the forests in
spite of thus exposing themselves to the same dangers run by the
rubber hunters, there to draw up indictments and punish the guilty.
The moralizing effect of this will tend greatly toward the repression
of crime; for, convinced of this determination, only the most hardened criminal will imagine that crimes may still be committed with
the same assurance of impunity that existed before. The memory
they retain of the judicial commission, moving about through the
forest, will always remain an ever present warning to the lawless
element. I t is already known that from now on every crime that is
committed will be prosecuted and punished.
But the judicial commission performed an even still greater service. The Indians now understand thoroughly my mission as a judge.
By means of the idea of captains of different rank they know that
there are Peruvian authorities who prosecute and punish those who
torture and kill. They have comprehended the full meaning of my
campaign of investigation and repression. They understand now
that the flight of their persecutors was due to my presence among
them; and the employees, who were much given to flattery, impressed
upon the minds of the Indians, perhaps even more than they meant
to, the idea of my power. They who had been so overbearing and
proud with the poor Indian wished to anticipate my desires; this

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

greatly attracted the attention of the savages, causing them to reflect
upon the changed condition of affairs.
I was so deeply convinced of this that whenever anyone wished to
represent the Indians to me as mean and reprehensible I offered for
a small wager to go alone through the forest without aid of any kind
except a guide to carry rations. Nobody ever accepted my wager.
Once I traversed the forest by night, setting out from the house of
an Indian situated some 6 miles from Occidente, without any other
companion than a little Indian boy 8 years old, whom they gave me
as a personal servant.
I t is certain, then, that the judicial commission has had a moralizing effect. I t is a pity that it did not arrive years before. Just think
how many crimes would have been avoided and what riches would
have been extracted from the forest by keeping strong and healthy
that privileged race, owner and master of an immense, imposing, and
prodigious territory.
I t is possible that even more would have been accomplished if my
incessant labors as judge had not hindered me. I went as a magistrate, and nothing more. I could not, as I should not, exceed my
limits as such. The results produced by the operation of the commission in the Putumayo were natural and spontaneous. The Indians understood the object which brought me, and that is enough
for the moment. I did not go as a teacher, and still the enterprise
undertaken, unostentatious as it was, was prolific in the amount of
good accomplished; of this we should all be convinced.
I n regard to the other part of the question I am answering, which
refers to " t h e other means which the Government is employing to
suppress the law breakers in the Putumayo," I only need to remark
that this has been answered in another chapter, in dealing with the
reasons why the efforts of the Government were not wholly successful.
I have personal knowledge that the archives of the prefect's office
in Loreto are full of wireless messages and official communications
calling upon the authorities to do their duty in apprehending the assassins. The same has happened, I am certain, in the other dependencies of the administration, because, as it seems, among the majority
of people to be a murderer in Putumayo is not to be a murderer.
I n regard to the efforts made for the extradition and capture of the
criminals who are in hiding in different parts of foreign countries, I
have been informed, though unofficially, that they are being carried
on with zeal and tenacity. All this is a secret of our foreign office,
and it is not for me to touch upon it, although it is a part of the
question under consideration.
I n conclusion, I wish to assure the minister that in this report, as
in the former ones, I have adhered strictly to the truth. If there are
defects and omissions I am not to blame. My observations in the
Putumayo during my trying journeys were necessarily rapid. I
had a great deal to do in the preparation of the voluminous indictment, working often at night. I n any other position than that of
judge, so delicate and laborious, perhaps I would have been able to
do more; but to proceed in any other way, thus assuming powers I
did not possess, would have been to exceed my limitations. Even tomorrow, when I shall again be there upon the scene collecting data,
perfecting observations, and completing my studies in order to formulate the plan of reforms that the Government wishes to introduce,

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SLAVEBY I N PERU.

in my character as commissioner, Math no further title than that of
simple visitor, I shall not be able to do anything directly toward restraining the law breakers, and even less in favor of the Indians. I
make this explanation in advance, so that in the future there may be
no misunderstandings in regard to my mission, which I have accepted
with the sincere intention of doing good.
In whatever else, Mr. Minister, I am at the disposition of your
office, whether it be to amplify this report, to answer other questions,
or to cooperate with the Government in the realization of its noble
ideal for bettering the condition of that unfortunate race, dwelling
in those vast and important regions of the Putumayo.
ROMULO PAREDES.
LAMBAYEQUE,

June H, 191%.

, The Secretary of State to the Peruvian

minister.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, December 16, 1912.
SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
the 30th ultimo in which you inclose a printed copy of the report
made by Judge Eómulo Paredes to the Peruvian minister of foreign
affairs concerning the Putumayo region and the crimes therein committed by certain persons connected with the Peruvian Amazon Co.
I have the honor to say in reply that your note has been placed on
file with the other correspondence relating to the case.
Accept, sir, the renewed assurance of my highest consideration.
P . C. KNOX.

Mr. Bryce tó the Secretary of State,
No. 263.]

BRITISH EMBASSY,

Washington, December 28,1912.
S I R : I have the honor, under instructions from His Majesty's
principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, to communicate to
you herewith a copy of a publication entitled "Anales de la Propagación de la F e en el Oriente del P e r u " (pt. 2 of Tomo V I I ) with a
translation of certain passages in regard to the treatment of the
Indians in Peru.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYCE.
[Translation of interesting portions of the "Anales de la Propagación de la Fé en el
Oriente del Peru " (Annals of the Propagation of the Faith in the Orient of Peru).]
EEPORT FOR

1911-12.

TPt. 11, Vol. VII, Aug, 1912, pp. 57-60.]

I t is 15 years since in our dear city of Lima under the vivifying
breath of our holy religion began the modest but highly important
work of the propagation of the faith in the Orient of Peru. Conscious of the importance of the work the founders worked with

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SLAVERY IN PERU.

admirable zeal, the fruits of their labor being the canonical establishment of the present three apostolic prefectures.
Our religion and our country have contributed to its material development and progress: The venerable prelates in their great
paternal love for their Peruvian flock b ^ writing pastoral letters to
the priests of their dioceses, full of touching eloquence and revealing
their high esteem and marked appreciation of this benevolent work,
have secured as a practical result the foundation of diocesan and
parish boards which like fountains have showered their periodical
and continuous alms on the work; the country also has contributed
by subscribing to the work £300 per annum, which sum has been
assigned in the general budget of the country, and pledging itself to
increase this amount to the extent that might be found necessary; it
has further contributed by granting to the natives who inhabit our
wooded regions the ownership of those lands they are able to cultivate. I t was owing to this fact, gentlemen, that the work of the
propagation of the faith in the beginning met with such great success and produced such abundant results in Christian evangelization.
I?ut at the present time, whether it be that the spirit of charity has
grown weak or the work has lost favor, it is nevertheless a fact that
the financial condition of our cherished enterprise is very lamentable
indeed. Recourse has been had to every means suggested by necessity, but without avail.
For five years the central board has not received any part of the
sum assigned it in the general budget; the yearly collections of the
boards have remarkably decreased, private alms have grown scarce,
and there is now but a very small amount of the reserve funds in
hand, as the rest has been disbursed to save the enterprise during
the threatening crisis. Under these circumstances, we must ask ourselves with what funds will the work of the propagation of the faith
have to be carried on in order to accomplish its aims? How will it
be possible to bring missionaries, establish and maintain them in the
wilds of the orient, not for two. or four years, but for an indefinite
period? Our trust indeed is placed in Divine Providence; future
events and providential combinations will furnish, we hope, new
prospects for the missions in the orient which will allow it to count
upon more reliable and abundant resources. But with all, I do not
consider it out of place on this occasion to cite, verbatim, the words
of the Right Rev. Monsignor Francisco de Sales Soto, the founder
and general promoter of tBe work of the propagation of the faith,
contained in the report which he read to us here on the 28d July,
1899, with a presentment, perhaps, of what would be the present condition of his cherished work. Monsignor says:
There are established at Lyon, Paris, and Rome large centers of the active
and powerful movement of evangelization which is extended to all the uncivilized countries of the world. Its benevolent action extends not only to the
barbarous nations of Asia and Africa, the savages of Oceania and Australia,
but also to the civilized nations of the West Indies and the United States of
America, where under its creative influence schools spring up, the number of
parishes and dioceses is increased, and Catholic charitable and benevolent
societies are founded. The offerings of the whole Catholic world reach these
centers, amounting yearly to millions of francs, which are spent in the various
regions gone over by the missionaries. There are established at Lyon, Paris,
and Rome what are called seminaries for foreign missionaries; that is, large
institutions for the education of the young priesfs, who, dominated by their

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SLAVERY IN PERU.

ardor for the apostolate and even desire of martyrdom alone, aspire at a later
date to carry the light of the gospel to the remotest of nations.
The great American Republic has not disdained the help of the propagation
of the faith and every year receives new missionaries and many thousand francs,
which enable it to sustain and multiply its religious institutions.
And now comes the question, continues Monsignor Soto, Why has not Peru,
with her vast virgin territory and numerous tribes to conquer, entered the very
noble confederation of the propagation of the faith? Why should she not receive the fertilizing waters of this beneficial tide? Why do not these peaceful
conquerors, audacious explorers, and founders of towns and villages we call
missionaries traverse its seas and rivers? Why should we not accept from the
common funds the obol which, by reason of its constancy, would assure the
stability of our missions and maintain uninterrupted the succession of these
evangelical workmen?
And what is required to effect this? * * * j know not. * * * I only
know that if we work energetically, if all Peruvians take a part therein, whether
small or great, in this patriotic work, if the constitution of the work is consolidated and extended so that all the dioceses and parishes send us yearly
with businesslike punctuality their contributions of prayers and money, the
moment will arrive when it will be enough to touch a spring, write a letter,
or say a word in order to convince Europe of the sincerity of our aims and
bring about amalgamation, so that Peru may share fully those benefits which,
like a flood of light, are shed by that great institution upon the most distant of
nations.
[P. 61.]
CONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS.
The Right Eev. Monsignor Fidel Olivas Escudero has ceded to
the work half the proceeds of the sale of his works.
Mrs. Ignacio Rodulfo de Sal y Eosas has given £100, and, besides,
promised to give £2 a month to the Ayna Mission under the management of the Eev. Father Antonio Battle.
Mrs. Carmen Lia Escurra, honorary member of the Board of San
Miguel, £1.
We wish to exteriorate our thanks to our benefactors for these alms.
[P. 64.]
APOSTOLIC PREFECTURES.
Prefecture

of San Francisco of the

Ucayali.

A resolution of the sacred congregation of the propagation of the
faith was passed on the 29th of August last appointing Eev. Father
Bernard Irastorza apostolic prefect in place of Eev J Father Agustin
Álemany.
A new missionary center has been opened at Ayna, the residence of
the Eev. Father Antonio Battle, who has lately made a very difficult
though fruitful evangelical expedition to Montehuasi, San Agustin,
Huainapata, Simariba, Mauntari, and Samugan; he has baptized 30
Campa Indians.
Eev. Father Buenaventura Hormaechea, the superior of the San
Luis Mission, with the authorization of the reverend father apostolic
prefect, Bernardo Irastorza, has appointed Señor Ernest A. Koechlin
procurator of the prefecture of San Francisco del TJcayaK, in view of
the resignation of Señor J u a n A. Granda.

202

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Prefecture

of San Leon del

Amazonas.

The sacred congregation of the propagation of the faith, after
accepting the resignation of the Apostolic Prefect Rev. Father
Paulino Diaz, has been pleased to appoint on the 24th of October last
to that high mission Rev. Father Pedro Prat, who solemnly inaugurated the church at Nazareth on the 19th of December last near
the River Yavari (Peruvian side of the river). On the 8th of February of this year the indefatigable missionary, Rev. Father Antonio
Carrasco, died at Pebas, inflicting a great loss on that mission. God
has already rewarded his heroic virtue. This prefecture has acquired
a house for its missions with funds furnished by the Province of the
Most Holy Name of Jesus.
Prefecture of Santo Domingo del ürub¿amba.
Three new missionaries for this prefecture have arrived at Lima,
Fathers Esteban Landáburu, Wenceslao Fernández, and Lorenzo
Martin.
On the 17th of February last the Government appointed the reverend father apostolic prefect of San Domingo del Urubamba chaplain of the sanctuary of Santa Rosa at Lima. He has also been commissioned to bring out Dominican monks to take charge later on of
a hospital and be director of a girls' school in the montaña.
Rev. Father Victorio Osende has been appointed at Lima procurator of this prefecture.
The missionaries of San Luis and San Jacinto during their apostolic visits along the rivers Manu, las Piedras or Tacuatunanu, Cujar,
and Alto Purus, have baptized 353 women and children, have confirmed 251, and blessed 17 marriages.
SUMS DELIVERED TO THE APOSTOLIC PREFECTURES.

From January to June of the present year each of the three apostolic prefectures have received £100 from the funds of the central
board.
Cash in hand June, 1912, £133 6 88.
Cash statement for the period of 31st December, 1910, to 31st December, 1911,
is as follows:
Balance, 1910
£471 6 14
Keceipts, 1911
339 8 38
Disbursements, 1911
Balance in hand December, 1911

811 4 52
489 4 56
321 9 36

The balance sheet for 1911 is published in its proper place in this
number, as well as the sums received during the same year, which are
as follows:
Collectors of divisions of 100
Private collections
Alms received at the general meeting. _
Subscriptions received from the boards
Mons. Fidel Olivas Escudero

£193 9 25
38 9 92
12 6 38
88 7 10
2 8 00
337 0 65

SLAVERY I N P E R U .

203

The amounts received subsequent to 15th January, 1912, will appear in the cash statement for next year.
Gentlemen, by the interesting letters of the missionaries published
herein in these annals you will be able to estimate the apostolic work
that is being carried on. Contribution to the support of these heralds
of the redeeming cross and the development of those missions by
prayer and alms is the duty which devolves on every Peruvian Catholic; and these alms and prayers will at the same time merit the
gratitude of our religion and country.
NICANOR D. GONZALES, S.
*

[ P . 68.1

H O W T H E M I S S I O N A R Y SUBSISTS
OMINOUS SERVITUDE—FREEDOM T H E R E PROM T H E O N L Y W A Y TO PROGRESS.

Never will social and Christian morality reach any development
solely by human means in a field which not only is refractory to all
permanent reform but was invaded long ago by relaxed morals, a
field in which private interests preponderate in close relationship.
These factors, which we do not hesitate to call dissocializing, besides
being decidedly anti-Christian, could be checked day by day if the
missionaries were assisted by the decided and efficacious cooperation
of the political authorities. That this cooperation has seldom been
frank and decided we can not deny; but, in general, speaking honestly, we must agree respecting the noneffective role played until
recently in this matter by all the authorities of the river districts, for
they have either appeared to be jointly interested or in league with»
the dissociating elements or have taken up a negative attitude of
abstention and complete indifference, with evident prejudice to civil
institutions. And, speaking of the efficaciousness of violence employed in the best of cases when the political authority considers it an
insult and a blot on his honor to stoop to guilty complicity, it is not
possible, whatever may be the means adopted for their restraint, to
punish and much less reduce to impotence so many factors of perversity.
The most that can be accomplished is to keep up appearances in
cases where injustice *and scandal might draw attention. Beyond
this, no heed is paid to the authorities. I f the latter decide to take
effective measures, they are met with the effective frown of those
around them which borders on effrontery and intimidation, and they
yield before the prospect of greater evils. How often have not the
prefects attempted to investigate and punish the inveterate outrages
that have bloodstained the Putumayo? W h y is it that they have
gone no farther than words? Why, notwithstanding the late and
most active judicial inquiries, have the people on the Putumayo
continued at their ease to make their forays (" correrías ") ? What
can be said of the mysterious cold-blooded murders of persons, not
Indians, who were suspected as capable of denouncing them? Let it
not be imagined we are telling a secret, for these are things we are
tired of hearing publicly talked of on the Ucayali!
There exists a semiatmosphere deleterious in itself which can never
be favorable to the missionary. As it is impossible for the political
authorities to protect him, a fact undeniable which anyone will admit

204

SLAVERY I N PERU.

after a simple inspection of the enormous distances to be traversed,
the missionary is abandoned and left alone to his own resources,
which are scarce indeed. Throughout the vast network of the rivers
that are tributaries of the Amazon it may be said that almost the
only power of the missionary is to administer certain sacraments
to the white men, and to the Indians also, but only when requested
to do so by their employers. His duty, a thousand repeated, is to
baptize, confirm, and witness the marriages celebrated according to
the church. And with this object the missionary visits the estates
situated along the river banks in a canoe manned at his own expense
and often rowed by himself in person. These voyages last whole
months, but though difficult are made every year, the missionaries
distributing the districts among them.
But before continuing it is our desire to meet an objection which
is immediately raised in the minds of our readers and is indeed grave
in character. If the whole work of the missionary on the large rivers
where the nucleus of the conversions are made consists of those^three
sacraments administered while in transit, what means can be employed so that they may receive baptism according to the desires of
the church? And in the case of those who already made Christians, by what means can their devotion be preserved? Objectively,
the answer that comes to us can not be more elemental—the teaching
of catechism, which is indispensable. In practice, the missionaries
fulfill this duty as best they can, entreating responsible persons to
carry on the duty of doing the rest. There is no other way of saving
the situation, either tox remain inactive or, as we have stated, take
action, knowing the while the scanty example of a Christian life
given by those whose thoughts and affections are concentrated in vile
interest. We do not fail to acknowledge the various and continuous
attention the colonists paid to the missionaries, but the latter have
in the majority of cases and in every respect to submit to the good
will of those who afford him lodging or transportation in their craft.
These services are in themselves very noble and deserving of thanks,
inasmuch as they return no temporal benefit, but we can not help
recognizing the situation in which it places the missionary as indefinite and precarious, which can not serve as a basis of operations,
the first condition of which must be a control of the situation and
complete independence. If in the best of cases the position of the
missionary comes to be simply secondary, and to ignore this is to be
illogical, tell us, then, what practical results can a mission obtain
when openly shown hostility, as happens, be it well understood,
whenever and wherever the efforts of the missionary fail to have a
passive character and give promise of important results.
So old and solid is this truth, as was experienced in all its sad
reality by the apostle of the Portuguese Indies in his mission to the
natives about the middle of the tenth century.
The hardest trial with which God tested the patience of St. Francis
Xavier originated in the cupidity of the Portuguese; and there is no
doubt that this cupidity and bad example were the principal stumbling blocks of the gospel during the 10 years and 7 months spent in
the apostolate by that distinguished son of the Society of Jesus.
His brothers were those who went out to Florida wTith the Spaniards
in 1570; and their presence with the missionary among the Indians

SLAVERY IN PERU.

was so fatal as to choke in its infancy all idea of God.
well tells the tale when it says:

205
History

Father Segura was about to start a new system of mission by penetrating
into the midst of the Indians, away from the Spanish soldiers who, it is true,
supported the missionary with their arms, but also often hindered him by
their vices. This was exactly the same hindrance encountered here in Peru
by the Franciscan missionary when in colonial times the Salt Mountain was
visited for the first time. We do not think there can be any clearer proof of
our assertions or^more obvious evidence of the results than as above set forth,
viz, that it is indispensable to penetrate into the midst of the Indians.

Although this is a fact, we wish to go further into detail.
Making a study of what can be accomplished with hopes of results
by the conversion of the native tribes, with the object of bringing
them within the pale of civilization, the point turns on these two
alternatives, either the Indians must be approached by visiting the
huts where their employers have collected them for work or settlements must be established amongst the Indians themselves independent of the white men, on the supposition that the former are
completely masters of their own persons. To submit the proposition
in this form would not be right, since we have already drawn one
conclusion; but we are not in a position to abstain, since our opinion
would be contradictory to another which is held by a distinguished
missionary. We therefore wish to pay him the tribute of a simple
observation.
As to the first, we will begin with the words of the illustrious
Father Gabriel Salas, already alluded to. He laments the small inclination of the savages to know the true God, but this is no reason
to deter the missionaries from making the attempt. " What shall we
do," exclaims our apostle, " to liberate so many thousands of men
and women from a state of savagery and darkness in which they live?
If it is a matter of the conversion and civilization of the tribes on
the Ucayali (which, as we have said, is the theme of our discussion),
we must not preoccupy ourselves so much with the Indians as with
the white men in whose employ the former are." If we propose to the
employer the building of a chapel for the Indians and other laborers
in order to teach them Christian practices, and he should second the
idea, the matter is in a fair way and the conversion is assured. By
the prudence of the missionary the employer falls in with the idea
of his duties, which later on he fulfills in practice, for the e m p l o y e r says Father Salas—is more in need of reform than all his savages.
If this reform is begun, nothing more can be desired, for the spirit
of imitation and the gregarious instincts of his subordinates do the
rest. Father Salas lays great stress on the almost unconscious routine of the natives, and very rightly so, for it is not necessary to go
among them to become acquainted with the reality of this curious
phenomenon. So much for Father Salas.
Granting that the rubber trader frankly decides upon a moral
and Christian conduct, in which he perserves and does not return
step by step to his original condition, what have we accomplished if
on all sides he and his men are surrounded by bad examples, when,
hard by, there lives a man without conscience, who never had any
respect for Christian ideals, and who is ever on the lookout to do all
the damage possible so long as it means a benefit to himself ? Neither
can the Christian life of the converted be strengthened nor much

206

SLAVERY IN PERU.

less the position of the missionary. I t is quite easy to see from the
interesting part of his discourse that Father Salas did not permanently reside on the Ucayali. I t is true there is hardly an employer
who manifests an altogether ill disposition, but it is equally true that
the promises and good reception that are wont to be granted to the
missionary amount to nothing more than mere courtesy, for it would
not be just to say that the white men are so degraded as not to be
capable of being polite. But it is questionable whether, in case the
teaching of catechism could be properly organized and the Indians
brought to comprehend their obligations, as also* those of their employer, for in God's sight we all are equal, the master would continue to show his original good ¿will and put into practice those teachings by correcting his own irregular conduct, bear patiently the
sermons and advice of the missionary to his men, and also the continuous and obligatory inspection of his none too clean proceedings;
or if, on the contrary, realizing that the missionary is attempting a
real and truly radical reform, would end up by dismissing him from
the house, never to allow him to return. The missionary who refuses
to close his eyes to the clear light of day will understand that once
he has finished his task above mentioned among the people indicated
by the rubber merchant his presence in the house is not wanted, and
this we maintain, however much it is sought to prove to the contrary. Is it therefore undignified conduct in the missionary to
accept the favors of these people? Not at all. If only the aim of
the missionary in the " montaña " has always been, and to-day is, the
good of all souls, preventing the blood of Jesus Christ from being
shed in vain, not on that account does he cease to be a human being
and as such may find himself in a necessitous condition, and there
is no law or consideration that prevents him from accepting the
favors of anyone. Nor does God himself forbid him to do so, but
rather by the merits of those good works which his children do to the
missionary He may be moved to bestoAV final grace on those who
have gone astray.
There remains to be considered the other form of evangelization to
be carried out by the missionary settling amongst the pure savages
without any contact with the white men. That this procedure is
adopted, and not without some success, we have never been able to
deny. But the difficulty lies in never being able to establish a firm
basis for this important work.
Having to study this matter from its beginning, we must go into
it still further, if possible, considering it alone from its financial and
purely material standpoint. Since every other hypothesis only shows
transitory results, we must accept the only circumstances under which
the missionaries' efforts may not be exposed to risk. He must have
a certain amount of capital to place himself on equal conditions with
those employers who are considered as moderately rich. Indeed, the
millionaire rubber trader, of whom there are a certain number, draws
after him by his wealth legions of Indian slaves; but many whites
have not this good fortune, and it is even true that the worst enemies
of the conversions are to be found among the traders of low origin.
Amongst the employees of the rich rubber trader teaching may often
be methodically accomplished with relative results, but with his
consent.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

207

I t is not necessary to prove the necessity of the missionary's being
provided with a small capital. Everybody is familiar with the extreme interestedness of the Indian; he comprehends the advantages
of our manufactures over his own, and his eyes are always in that
direction. Be the white man a missionary or not, it matters little to
them; who are guided not by speculation but by the desire of their
senses. The Indian finds that by following the white man he can
in one way or another obtain what he desires, and this magic enchains and attracts him with force irresistible. We see him with the
white man, and with him he will remain, in- spite of chastisement,
as long as he chooses, provided that the all-necessary lure of merchandise is kept before him. No employer is without his shop, be it large
or small. With cupidity the Indian views the guns, ammunition,
machetes, cloth goods, ready-made clothes, and trinkets for women
and children. Stores exist of rice, sugar, candles, pots and pans,
even liquors of the best marks, as well as brandy, without which the
rubber trader must ever be at the risk of finding himself abandoned
and alone in the depths of the forest.
So true is it that any missionary desiring to settle in the midst of
pure savages must be provided, in the beginning at least, with everything' his men may desire, which the rubber traders knowingly collect m order to exercise a positive right over the Indians. Should
the store of these things in the missionary's residence be small, he
may ill try to gain the inclinations of his neophytes. Some will visit
him until his little store is spent and then go away, and the father
will find himself again face to face with the hard alternative either
of doing nothing or commencing all over again with a new stock of
merchandise. F o r this reason we advise that the expense be made
once for all in order not to have to incur it a second time. And if
the case presents itself, as it has done in our residence on the banks
of the Pichis, where alongside the stockless missionary-^for in those
parts even stocks of food commodities are very scarce—there lives a
rubber trader whose endeavor is to provide the Indians with what
they even do not want, it will be seen how unbecoming is the situation of the converter if he persists in his endeavor.
The passion shown by the natives for our articles of trade, so opportunely exploited by the white man in the guise of a merchant, is
the worst drawback and the permanent blast that freezes and renders
sterile the efforts of the missionary. What were the methods employed by former missionaries? Precisely the same as those just indicated. The Indian manufactured wax, gathered sarsaparilla and
cascarilla in the forest, all of which he delivered to the missionary,
who with this scant income and a few alms was able confidently to
face the situation. He had to provide the Indians at his own expense with clothing, arms, and everything necessary. But at that
time the rubber industry and other trades did not exist, which have
attracted to those rivers so many hungry speculators. Impressment
and the slave trade did not exist, nor was there known amongst the
natives any other outside influence but that of the disinterested
missionary.
At this juncture it is opportune to mention a fact which appears
in the annals, where it is recorded that Father Paulino Diaz, after
realizing the difficulties we have described and the only possible solu-

208

SLAVERY I N PERU.

tion of the question, states that he proposed to the S. C. de Propaganda Fide (sacred congregation of the propagation of the faith)
" that the missionary should govern his neophytes by the same system employed by the rubber trader in his relations with his men."
And he gives the reason therefor, which is precise, accurate, and
satisfactory even to the most exacting, viz, so accustomed are the
natives to living under the authority of an employer that they are
on account of their ways unable to live otherwise. Few axioms of
government have been enunciated with regard to our Indians that
better evidence the insight and moral acquaintance contained in these
words.
We do not know if the Holy See has ever issued an answer to the
request for an opinion on the point by the said Rev. Father Prefect.
Should the idea be found acceptable, it would be necessary to begin
by investing a considerable sum in order to finance the residency.
The savages would flock i n ; they would be provided with regular
supplies, an account being opened for each in the same manner as
the rubber traders are accustomed to do, for it is a natural and satisfactory thing to the Indian to have an employer. Work would be
commenced in a proper manner and returns would soon be received
that would cover the first outlay and leave besides a good margin to
be invested in a second supply. All this could be accomplished by
a system of accounts, not repugnant and shameless like those of the
unscrupulous rubber traders, but fair, equitable, and correct, as prescribed by common justice. I t is needless to say that the missionary
would be able to provide the merchandise at cost price, as his ideal
is not profit but the support and continuity of conversions. Such
was the very exemplary conduct of the fathers of the Society of
Jesus on the River Napo.
Father LEANDER CORNEJO,
Franciscan
Missionary.
STATE OF THE MISSIONS—LETTERS EROM THE MISSIONARIES.

Prefecture

of San Francisco del TJcayali.
[P. 81-83.1

* * * Father Agustin Lopez sends us an interesting account,
published here below, of the Requena Mission, of which he has been
in charge since its foundation:
REQUENA, 6th November, 1911.
Señorita MARÍA CANDAMO,

Vice President of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith.
DEAR MADAM : I received your very kind favor of the 27th July on the 18th
ultimo, together with a parcel which arrived in good condition and for which
I very gratefully tender you my thanks. If you would send us a white
chasuable, you would do us a positive favor, for that is the color most used,
and we have only one for daily use.
Availing myself of this opportunity, I wish to give you a slight idea of what
has been accomplished at this mission, as I believe it will increase your enthusiasm in the work you have in hand.
Having been ordered by the superior to establish the mission where I should
consider most convenient, I left Contamana in the company of Father Juan
Cherin. After making our visit to the Ucaylai and the Tapiche Rivers, we
reached San Martin on the 6th September, 1904. Having been informed by
some persons of the neighborhood that the place had once been a village aud

SLAVERY IN PERU,

209

that two persons had taken possession of it, in view of the conditions of the
place and its location, after treating in vain with the so-called owners to give
us a spot where to set up our house and chapel, even offering to buy the
ground from them, and seeing the futility of all our endeavors, we resolved
to recover the ground. It was not very difficult for us to ascertain that the
village had existed, both from the old residents scattered along the river's banks
and from official documents obtained from the archives at Nauta, which we took
with us to Iquitos and presented to the prefect.
It would be a long story to record the opposition we encountered as soon as
ever the pretended owners discovered our object—notifications, publications,
threats, hostilities of every kind, even to the extreme of our being obliged to
pass the nights armed and ready to repulse an assault which was planned
against us but fortunately failed. They even tried to burn us in our huts.
Meantime we had followed the matter up at Iquitos from the 3d of March with
such enthusiasm that on the 25th of April, 1905, the prefect issued a decree
restoring the grounds. Great was our joy on receiving it; we believed that all
our difficulties were settled and terminated, but in vain. Far from giving up
the matter, the enemies of the village redoubled their efforts and the authorities themselves seemed to have turned on their side; for when we wished to
build, confident in his decree, we received a letter from the prefect forbidding
us to do so. In view of this check we had to continue to live as guests in a
small room in which we could only set up the bedsteads by night, as there was
no room to do so during the day, from which we could contemplate the stars
and receive a good bath on rainy nights. In this way we lived until we managed to construct a small rancho in the forest, where the mosquitoes, as the
curse of a plague, pursued us day and night. It was built, however, in the
heat of the struggle. We received two communications from the prefect forbidding us to construct the rancho.
fP. 85. J

* * * The prefect came when the village had already been formed and
when it was impossible to deprive the people of the constructions they had
made, and if the authorities had given their support to the village and the facilities which were to be expected, the place would to-day have from 5,000 to
6,000 inhabitants, considering the enthusiasm displayed by the people. But
unfortunately this was not the case, for so many were the difficulties put in
the way of construction and the hostilities shown that if the authorities had
not altered their attitude—far from progressing—the town would have ceased
to exist. Three times, indeed, during last year they have carried people off
Without the slightest consideration and in the most iniquitous manner, considering that the village is of recent creation. At the time of the difficulties
with Ecuador, they carried off with them at one time 20 men, whom I accompanied to Iquitos. On the 10th of March of this year, Capt. Armandos appeared in the place and set loose a number of disguised soldiers, who, like
so many greyhounds, attacked the unsuspecting people, pursuing them through
the streets and squares, even into their bedrooms, seizing everything that came
in their way just as if they were savages of the forest. This time they carried
off 25, the majority of them Indians, for they took good care not to lay hold
of the white men or those who were well dressed, thinking that they might
make their rights respected. Those who remained after this foray managed
to hide themselves that same night either embarking with their families in the
canoes or went away never to return. They had just cleared ground for a
whole square and had begun to build. All has been abandoned. Over 30 houses
were to have been built this year, but this has been prevented by the famous
foray (" Correría " ) . And, as if all this were not enough, the subprefect and
an officer were sent here a few days after to convalesce, as they said. As
they did not look ill, all took their coming with suspicion and distrust and the
people were kept away from the place. Lastly, as if the place were a manufactory of soldiers, on the 12th day of August, the subprefect sent a wireless
message ordering 20 men to be sent to him as soldiers, without delay, in the
midst of summer, when all the people were engaged in rubber gathering. The
deputy governor simply laid hold of those who remained, so that the village
was reduced to women and children. Their husbands are engaged rubber gathering or serving as soldiers; and the worst of it all is that of those who leave
the man seldom returns. In consequence the terror they have acquired of the
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-5

210

SLAVERY IN PERU.

place is so great that many, especially the Indians, do not even wish to nave
their children baptized or even to hear again of the place * * *.
In the midst of our constant care of the village and the fatigue of our journeys, our attention was ever fixed on the savages, who were to us all the dearer
on account of their being persecuted and despised. In 1908 and 1909 we made
two expeditions to the Capanaguas—savages inhabiting the headwaters of
the River Tapiche—and although we were unable to settle amongst them on
account of it not suiting a certain employer, although they themselves wished
to construct a house and chapel for us, nearly all of them have been baptized
and instructed and we now visit them with regularity as is done in the case
of the other Christians.
On the 20th of June, 1910, another expedition was made and I had the good
fortune—guided by a Mr. Melchor Vargas and a young man, called BartOlme
Ruiz, rubber traders, who worked in that place—to reach a settlement of Remo
savages who, having originally come from the river Blanco, found themselves
obliged to emigrate to the Yaquerana on account of the persecutions of the
rubber traders, after having witnessed the disappearance of a father, a mother,
a wife, or a husband, the kidnapping of their children, the sacking of their farms,
and the burning of their houses! Hunted down in new forays, many became
slaves gathering rubber until—having been transported to the Cururá and
made the victims of fresh crimes—they took flight to the place of their origin,
where I found them on my arrival. They number about 100 in all. They received me with a distrust, but were exceedingly glad when they learned the object of my mission. They told me their misfortunes as best they could, showing me the marks of the bullets. They counted on their fingers the children
that had been stolen from them. A woman showed to me scars, marks of
many other cuts, which a civilized barbarian had had the pleasure of inflicting upon her with a razor from the top of her back downward and on which
he had thrown salt. Another aged woman showed me her arm, broken by a
bullet; her leg, lamed by another; and her whole body full of shot. A young
man, with a bullet in his wrist, on being asked about his family—his father,
mother, brothers * * . * all, he answered me, having been assassinated * * *.
Sobs choked his words, tears welled into his eyes, and he withdrew, leaving me filled with consternation. On separating from them after three months'
stay among them, during which I managed to instruct and baptize the majority of them, almost all cried, saying: "Papa, mama, papa, mama, now we
have no father." In order to assure their preservation, in order that this
new Christian community might not perish, as soon as I arrived at Requena
I sent Father Enrique to them and immediately reported to reverend father
prefect that he has taken the new community under his charge.
In terminating, for this is endless, I have to inform you that last June we
made another expedition to the Mayo Indians who, according to history and
information I have received, ought to live in the vicinity of Requena, between
the Tapiche and the Yavari and the Galvez Rivers. Two Mayo Indians who
had.served us as guides, and three years before had been captured in a foray
("Correría") led us to their haunts. We have been in their "pumas," but
have found none of them. According to the guides the few that remained must
have been exterminated in forays and the constant wars waged against them
by another more powerful tribe, called the Pecanoyus.
We are trying to discover the whereabouts of the latter in order to visit them
at the first opportunity.
With expressions of respect and recommending our work to the prayers of our
members, I remain,
Yours, very truly,
Friar AGUSTÍN LOPEZ.
\P 93.1
Prefecture of 8 an Leon Del Amazonaz.
IQUITOS, 11th December, 1911.
Señorita MARÍA CANDAMO,

Vice President >of the Congregation of the
Propagation of the Faith in the Orient of Peru.
DEAR SEÑORITA: I have to-day assumed charge of this prefecture in consequence of the resignation of Father Paulino Diaz, who was in charge of the
work, and I therefore beg you and the rest of the members of this holy congregation to help me by your prayers and any temporal aid in the fulfillment of
this thorny task.

SLAVEKY IN PERU.

211

On the 19th November last the church at Nazareth was inaugurated (River
Yavari—Peruvian border), which has cost us so many difficulties in order to
see our efforts crowned with success.
During one of my excursions made this year on that river I baptized two
girl savages 9 and 11 years old, respectively, after having been given a fair
religious instruction, which will be continued by their godfather and godmother,
who bought them from some rubber dealers who made a foray (Correría) on
the Brazilian side of the river, cruelly assassinating several savages of the
Mayo and Mayuruna tribes. What happens in that district is very sad where
the rubber traders wage war to the death on the savages because the latter
sometimes rob them of their provisions, and the white men consider they have
a right to take possession not only of their farms, but also of their wives and
children.
Fortunately in the Jericho Mission, about four days' journey from Pevas,
the rubber traders do not make forays (" Correrías " ) , so that the Yaguas continue to build their houses in that mission. Here lives Father Anastasio Carrasco, who requires a great deal of patience in order to attract these savages,
who wish to be baptized with but little preparation.
On the 8th instant several girls of one of the schools of this village made their
first communion in the chapel of the Augustinian Fathers in the presence of a
numerous congregation.
(P. 95.]

Friar PEDRO PRAT.

* * * W e t r a n s c r i b e t h e following p a r a g r a p h s in w h i c h reverend f a t h e r prefect describes t h e w o r k of t h e missionaries a n d a
fresh a t t a c k m a d e b y t h e t r a d e r s on t h e mission at J e r i c h o :
The missionary at Pevas is administering the sacraments on the banks of the
Amazon.
About the end of December Father Laurentino went to the mission on the
Yavari at Nazareth, where the church was inaugurated by me.
I wrote Father Privincial to send us one or two more missionaries. I intend
to establish a mission on the Putumayo when this staff arrives. It was not
established before on account of the impossibility of penetrating into the interior of that region where the white men have committed many crimes, assassinating the poor savages.
I believe there is at disposal a certain amount in the estimate (£15 per
month) assigned to the vacant curateships, but I do not know who receives this
money. If the minister of worship would give orders for that sum to be
delivered to us, as was done for some time by the treasury of Loreto, it would
always help us to pay our transportation expenses, for on these swift rivers
steam launches must be hired at the price of £1 per day, the journey downstream being made in canoes.
The missionary father at Jericho (four days from Pevas) writes me as
follows: "A rubber trader made a foray (Correría) near the mission and,
accompanied by 10 men, surprised a Yagua family composed of four men and
their wives, who had settled in our mission and had gone out to supply themselves with bananas and the produce of their plantations/'
They bound these unfortunates and, says the letter, carried them off to the
banks of the River Yaguasa, placing the men on a raft and the women in a
large canoe, sending them on in front. The four Yaguas were guarded by five
peons of the rubber traders, but the first night they all fell asleep, and one of
the savages having loosened his bonds untied all the rest, taking vengeance on
and killing their caretakers, who had burned their huts, robbed them of their
bananas, thrown their canoes, machetes, and trinkets into a ravine, and had
besides taken from them their wives and children.
F o r t h i s simple reason will be u n d e r s t o o d t h e immense d a m a g e
t h a t h a s been done by t h e w h i t e m e n to o u r mission at J e r i c h o , as i t
is k n o w n how d i s t r u s t f u l t h e savages are, for w h i c h reason it will
be a long t i m e before t h e y can be got t o g e t h e r a g a i n by t h e missiona r y (if it even can be d o n e ) , i n t h e i r fear of t h e vengeance of t h e
w h i t e m e n (whose relations a n d f r i e n d s t h e y k i l l e d ) .
T h e a u t h o r i t i e s a r r e s t e d t h e e m p l o y e r of t h e m e n w h o h a d m a d e
t h e f o r a y ( " c o r r e r í a " ) , a n d it would be well t o p u n i s h t h e p e r s o n s

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guilty of these vandalio acts. The whereabouts of the Yagua women
is unknown.
By first opportunity I will go to the mission at Pevas and take
suitable measures. May God put an end to these innumerable obstacles to the civilization of the savages, which occur continually.
Great expense has been incurred in the above-named mission, but I
fear it will all be fruitless; on the other hand, the funds of this apostolic prefecture are getting lower every day.
Prefecture

of Santo Domingo Del

Urubamba.

Eev. Father Ramon Zubieta, apostolic prefect of the Urubabamba,
from his residence at the sanctuary of St. Rose, in Lima, writes the
following important letter to the vice president:
SANCTUARY OF S T , ROSE,

Lima, June 28, 1912.
Miss MARÍA CANDAMO,

Vice President of the Central Board of the Propagation of the Faith in the
Orient of Peru.
DISTINGUISHED SEÑORITA : I have little uews to tell you with regard to the
missions established at Santo Domingo de Urubamba, San Luis del Manu, and
San Jacinto del Madre de Dios.
These missions continue their work with untiring zeal, support the schools,
and make expeditions for the purpose of teaching and administering the sacraments; they work for the civilization and moralization of these regions and
struggle to defend the poor savage from the cruelty and tyranny of the incorrectly so-called civilized people, raising them from their present state of barbarism and incivilization, and devote their lives to making of them civilized
beings and useful citizens of Peru. Indeed, we may proclaim aloud that the
only benefactor and protector of the savage is the missionary.
Many are the conflicts and immense the difficulties met with by the missionary in his good work and the fulfillment of his sacred duty. But the most
terrible of all, on account of being directly opposed to the object of the missions
and the cause of the extermination and moral and material annihilation of the
savages, is the lack of protection of these unfortunates. The poor savage is
regarded not as a human being, but as a chattel; just the same as an animal
which everybody utilizes according to his fancy. And in this way he is bought,
sold, made a present of, ill treated, and even killed, with the most criminal
indifference. We do not enter into detail on this matter, as it would be interminable, for in the present case it will be enough to take note of what occurs.
We intend, however, to speak out very openly when the time comes for doing so.
All I have described is, indeed, to the missionary a source of terrible suffering
and deep mortification, not only on account of the sorrow he feels in witnessing
such great iniquity and seeing the way in which the redemption and regeneration of the savage is obstructed, but also the ill will of the misdoers whom
it is necessary to reprehend and denounce. This ill will of the misdoers always
turns into calumny, insults, threats, and doing the missionaries all the harm
they can. The day is possibly not far distant when some of these ministers
of the gospel shall pay with their lives the crime of doing good, for this is the
risk to which a redeemer is exposed.
We must not, however, confound matters and condemn everything in general.
The population of the forest regions is as varied as any in the world, for it is
made up of individuals of all nations, and the forest region is a kind of garden
for human acclimatization. On the other hand, the action of justice is there
very difficult, and thus the sincerest and most righteous intentions encounter
insuperable difficulties. Thank God, however, there are a few worthy and
zealous authorities who do all they can to fullfil their duty; neither are there
lacking honest men and excellent gentlemen, who censure and condemn these
crimes, taking interest in the savages and helping the missionary in his holy,
patriotic, and humane work.
More than once we have named several of these gentlemen, and shall have
occasion to mention many others. In the same way we do not hesitate to publish the names of the infamous when occasion requires; we are brothers of

SLAVEEY IK PERU.

213

the Habit of Las Casas, and our motto is truth and our object the protection
of the helpless. And if we do not do so now, it is out of consideration for the
good name of the country and because we hope for the speedy necessary remedy;
and, above all, since the outrages are innumerable and the responsible parties
are many, it would serve no purpose to denounce certain persons only, for in
addition to the great facility for frustrating the action of justice in these very
remote regions it would require a more efficacious and more general remedy
to deal with all the crimes and the persons concerned.
It was only on the 2d of January of this year, when setting out from the
Urubamba missions provided with data and documents for making a complaint
to the Government in order to secure the prevention and cessation of the misdeeds which are daily committed in those regions, I was surprised by the unexpected visit of a missionary from the Madre de Dios, who after countless acts
of abnegation and risking his life at every step had come away from the
forest region in order to tell me personally of almost the same kind of occurences which had occasioned my departure for Cuzco, and with the same object—
that of obtaining a remedy to so many crimes. We both agreed as to the
necessity of urging the supreme Government to pass a law for the protection
of the savages and for the severe punishment of the criminals who should transgress it, and also a law providing for their instruction and education. For it
is evident that the lack of instruction and brutishness of the savage is due to
the nonattendance of the children at school. Hence it is that the savages who
are mostly subjected to an employer, far from being civilized and abandoning
their former habits and learning civilized customs, learn only the vices of the
civilized, which are incomparably worse than their own.
It was thus necessary for me to go to Lima in order to make all these complaints, where in a providential manner I have been unexpectedly summoned
to treat of certain matters also relating to the forest regions. I must admit
that on setting out for this capital I felt somewhat disheartened, as on two
former occasions I had complained of these outrages without avail. But a few
days ago, when I reported to the head of the State all I have herein described,
I received the formal promise that a remedy would be sought for these urgent
and crying necessities and measures taken for the repression of the ill doers and
the promotion of the education of the children.
I do not go further into this matter, as I consider it inexpedient. But I
have hopes that a decree will be issued and later on a law passed which will
meet the requirements of the case and, when put into effect, will suffice to put
an end to slavery, make honest citizens and moral and conscientious men, who
shall respect God and love their country.
That is all I have to say at present.
Yours, very sincerely.
F. RAMON ZUBIETA, Chaplain.

PART III.
BRITISH BLUEBOOK.
CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE TREATMENT or BRITISH COLONIAL
SUBJECTS AND NATIVE INDIANS EMPLOYED IN THE COLLECTION OF
RUBBER IN THE PUTUMAYO DISTRICT.
[Presented to both Houses of P a r l i a m e n t by command of His Majesty.

July, 1912.]

[No. 1.]

Foreign Office to Consul General, Casement.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July
21,1910.
S I R : I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to inform you that
be has selected you to proceed to the Putumayo in connection" with
the commission of inquiry which has been appointed by the Peruvian
Amazon Co. to report on the possibilities of commercial development
of the company's properties and to inquire into the present relations
between the native employees and the agents of the company.
The commission, which will be composed of—
1. The honorable Col. R. H. Bertie,
2. Mr. L. H . Barnes, tropical agriculturist,
3. Mr. W. Fox, rubber expert and botanist,
4. Mr. E. S. Bell, merchant,
5. Mr. H . L. Gielgud, secretary and manager of the company,
proposes to leave Lisbon for the Amazon on the 29th instant, and
you are at liberty either to travel with it or to go out independently,
so long as you arrange to be present at the scene of its inquiries when
the commission reaches the Putumayo.
While in that district you will endeavor to ascertain whether any
British subjects have suffered or are in distress, and if so from what
causes, and whether they stand in need of relief. You should also
report, in a separate dispatch, any facts which may come to your
knowledge in the course of your inquiry, in regard to the methods
of rubber collection and the treatment of natives by the employees of
the company in the district which you visit.
You will of course be careful to abstain during your investigations
from any action that would be likely to cause offense or annoyance
to the Governments of the countries visited.
As regards the means of traveling you may decide to adopt, and
the actual methods you may employ for eliciting information, Sir
JE. Grey has decided to allow you complete discretion and freedom of
"action, and you are authorized to incur any necessary or unavoidable
expenditure and to take whatever steps you may deem essential
within the limits of your functions to enable you to arrive at an independent and impartial conclusion as to the relations obtaining between British subjects in those regions and the company's agents.
I am, etc.,
F . A. CAMPBELL.

215

216

SLAVERY I N PERU.
. [No. 2.]

Consul General Casement to Sir Edward

Grey.

January 7,1911.
(Eeceived January 9.)
SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a short preliminary
report dealing with my journey to the Putumayo.
The evidence upon which my conclusions are based is of a voluminous kind, and will be subsequently submitted along with a more
detailed report.
My conclusions are chiefly based on the direct testimony of Barbados men in the company's service, who brought their accusations
on the spot, who were prepared to submit them to investigation, and
to make them in the presence of those they accused, and whose testimony, thus given to me, was accepted without further investigation
by Señor Juan Tizon, the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s representative at
La Chorrera, on the ground that it was sufficient or could not be
controverted.
I t was equally potent with the members of the Peruvian Amazon
Co.'s commission, who expressed themselves as fully convinced of
the truth of the charges preferred, they themselves being often present when I interrogated the British witnesses.
There was, moreover, the evidence of our own eyes and senses, for
the Indians almost everywhere bore evidence of being flogged, in
many cases of being brutally flogged, and the marks of the lash were
not confined to men nor adults. Women and even little children were
more than once found, their limbs scarred with weals left by the
thong of twisted tapjir hide, which is the chief implement used for
coercing and terrorizing the native population of the region traversed.
The crimes charged against many men now in the employ of the
Peruvian Amazon Co. are of the most atrocious kind, including murder, violation, and constant flogging.
The condition of things revealed is entirely disgraceful and fully
warrants the worst charges brought against the agents of the Peruvian Amazon Co. and its methods of administration on the Putumayo.
I append to my report a list of those agents of the company against
whom the worst charges were preferred and against whom the evidence in my possession is overwhelmingly^ strong. The prefect of
Loreto again and again assured me that his Government was determined to deal with the criminals and protect the Indians.
I have, etc.,
LONDON,

ROGER CASEMENT.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 2.]
PRELIMINARY REPORT BY CONSUL GENERAL CASEMENT UPON HIS JOURNEY
TO THE PUTUMAYO.

Leaving England on the 23d July, 1910, I arrived at Iquitos on
the 31st August, and after a delay there of two weeks I left for the
Putumayo in company with the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission
on the 14th September.
We arrived at La Chorrera, the principal station of the company,
on the 22d September, where we were met by Señors J u a n Tizon

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

217

and Victor Macedo, the chief representatives of the company. Here
I took the statements of several Barbados men, three of whom
brought very serious and damaging charges against agents of the
company, which were not refuted by Señor Tizón, who declared himself forced to accept as substantially correct the evidence thus brought
forward, which was further supported by the declarations of another
Barbados man, at the time a steward on board the steamship Liberal,
the company's steamer plying between Iquitos and the Putumayo,
in which we had traveled. Leaving La Chorrera after several days'
stay there, in company with the members of the company's commission, and personally conducted by Señor Tizón, we proceeded up
the River Igaraparana in a small steam launch to the stations of
Occidente (Fidel Velarde, chief) and Ultimo Retiro (Augusto
Jiménez).
We stayed at Occidente until the 6th October, when, again in the
launch, we went on to Ultimo Retiro, which we reached on the 7th
October, and where we remained until the 11th. Here I took the
evidence of a Barbados man named Edward Crichlow.
Returning some distance down river by the steam launch, we landed
on the left bank on the night of the 11th October and proceeded next
day on foot through the forest to Entre Rios (Andrés O'Donnell),
which we reached on the 12th October. Here we stayed until the
16th, when we marched further inland through the forest to Matanzas or Andokes (chief, Armando Normand), which we reached in the
afternoon of the 17th. Here I interrogated two Barbados men.
I left Matanzas alone on the 19th and returned to Entre Rios on
the 20th, being followed by the commission and Señor Tizón two days
later.
Staying at Entre Rios until the 27th October, I visited the section
of Atenas (Alfredo Montt) on the 26th, and, embarking again in the
steam launch on the river on the 28th October, we all returned to
La Chorrera on the 29th October.
Here I interrogated 11 more Barbados men who had been called
in by my request to meet me, and whose evidence amply confirmed
that already laid before me.
The charges brought by these men were of the most atrocious kind,
and added to the accumulating weight of evidence that we had gathered
from station to station and the condition of the Indian population
as we had opportunity to observe it in passing they left no doubt in
our minds that the worst charges against the company's agents were
true. Many of the acts charged against agents whom we met were
of the most revolting description, and the Barbados men bringing
these charges dicl not omit, in several cases, to also accuse themselves
of shocking crimes, committed, they averred, under compulsion.
I remained at La Chorrera until the return of the steamship Liberal
from Iquitos. This did not take place until the 9th of November.
During this period I visited on foot the section Sur (Carlos Miranda),
along with the commission and met many of the principal agents and
employees of the company, including Abelardo Agüero, of Abisinia,
and José Inocente Fonseca, of La Sabana (stations that I had not
been able to visit), two of the men accused of the worst kind of acts
against the Indians. We also saw numbers of Indians from various
sections, who came in with the return of the rubber collected from
several districts during a period termed a " fabrico," which may

218

SLAVERY I N PERU.

roughly be put at four months. The Liberal left Chorrera (with
some sixty-odd tons of rubber) on thQ 16th of November, and as I
had seen all the Barbados men and British subjects in the company":?
service and had secured all the information that could be obtained,
acting within the limits of my instructions and the time at my disposal, I decided to return by that vessel to Iquitos.
I arrived at Iquitos on the 25th of November, and,'catching the
first down-river steamer, the Atahualpa, on the 6th of December, I
reached P a r a on the 13th. Here I caught the first homeward-bound
mail steamer, the Ambrose, and left Para on the 17th of December,
arriving at Cherbourg on the 31st of December.
The detailed evidence on which I base this preliminar}^ statement
will be submitted as soon as possible.
EOGER CASEMENT.
LONDON,

January 7, 1911,

NAMES OF SOME OF THE WORST CRIMINALS ON THE PUTUMAYO, ALL OF
THEM CHARGED WITH ATROCIOUS OFFENSES AGAINST THE INDIANS.

Fidel Velarde, a Peruvian, chief of Occidente. Dismissed, and to
leave the company's service on my departure. Will probably reach
Iquitos this month. Was in debt to the company.
Alfredo Montt, a Peruvian, chief of Atenas. Charged with atrocious crimes. Was to be dismissed at once on my departure, and
will probably be in Iquitos this month if he has not run away. Owes
money to the company.
Augusto Jiménez, a Peruvian. Is a half-caste—that is to say, has
got a mixture of Indian blood in him. Age about 26. Has been for
years the lieutenant of Agüero, under whom he has committed appalling crimes upon the Boras Indians in the section Abisinia. He
was subchief of Morelia and is often mentioned in the Truth charges.
He begged me to listen to his statement, and said he could prove that
one of the charges against him in Truth was not true. On the other
hand, the evidence against him is overwhelming, and the only excuse
that he was a half-Indian of humble birth and had been under the
influence of Agüero. He was promoted this year to be chief of
Ultimo Retiro when Montt went to Atenas, and since he took charge
of Ultimo Retiro his record is good.
Armando Normand, a Bolivian, I believe of foreign parentage.
Largely educated in England. A man of whom nothing good can be
said. The crimes committed by this man are innumerable, and even
Peruvian white men said to me that Normand had done things none
of the others had done. He has about £1,700 due to him by the company, which he declared he would draw out and then denounce the
company " for its treatment of the Indians." If anyone on the Putumayo deserves punishment, this man should be made an example of.
He was under sentence of dismissal and would have left Chorrera
by the Liberal with me, only I objected to travel with him and begged
Señor Tizón to send him by another vessel. He.is probably due now
in Iquitos to get his £1,700, unless he, too, has taken flight; but I
think this unlikely. He will brave things out and trust to accusing
others.
José Inocente Fonseca, a Peruvian, about 28 years old. Is now at
La Sabana in the Ricigaro Indians' district; is also under sentence

SLAVEEY I N

PEEU.

219

of dismissal, and will very soon be leaving for Iquitos. H a s committed innumerable crimes upon the Indians.
Abelardo Agüero, about 35 or 36 years of age. Chief of Abisinia,
of which section he has had charge for years. Has committed innumerable crimes. Señor Tizón thought this man would run away
into Brazil when he heard a judge was coming to investigate. He
is in debt some £500 or £600 to the company, and has nothing to gain
by staying.
All the above were actually chiefs of sections during my visit, and
I met all of them personally. They are all in the district of La
Chorrera under Señor Victor Macedo, who is now practically superseded by Señor Tizón.
I n addition to the foregoing, the following two men, now at large,
should certainly be proceeded against:
Elias Martinengui was chief of Atenas up to May or June of
1910, when he retired from the company's service, and is said to have
gone to Lima with his gains. The charges against him are many.
Aurelio Eodriguez, a Peruvian, was chief of Santa Catalina, in
the Boras country up to June, 1909, when he retired on what Señor
Tizón called a "small fortune," and is now living in Iquitos. The
crimes of Aurelio Eodriguez were vouched for by many, and are
widely known.
SUBORDINATE AGENTS OF T H E C O M P A N Y E Q U A L L Y CHARGED W I T H ATROCIOUS C R I M E S .

1. A. Vasquez Torres, or Alejandro Vasquez, at Atenas.
2. Eodolfo Eodriguez, a Colombian, at Santa Catalina, charged
with many murders.
3. Miguel Flores, a Peruvian, at Abisinia.
4. Armando Blondel, at Abisinia.
5. Aquiléo Torres, a Colombian, now at Abisinia. Innumerable
crimes against this man. H e was made prisoner by Normand in
January, 1907, and kept chained up for a year by Velarde and
others, and then released on condition he joined them, and was first
employed in flogging Indians. H e improved on his masters, and
has killed scores, and cut ears off, and done things that even some
of the worst Peruvians say they could not tolerate. Jiménez put
him out of Ultimo Eetiro when I was at Occidente, and he arrived
at latter station on foot while I was there, on his way to La Chorrera,
in October. Instead of handing him over to justice, or even dismissing him, Macedo sent him to Abisinia, the worst station, where
the commission of crime is easiest and most recurrent. This was
done, I believe, in order to have Aquiléo Torres put out of the way
quietly. H e was once a Colombian magistrate, and was captured by
Macedo's orders along with a lot of other Colombians because they
were " poaching " on the company's territory, and trying to get Indians to work for them. The subordinates were sent adrift down
the Putumayo, and one of them subsequently told the tale to the
Jornal de Comercio, of Manaos, but Aquiléo Torres and two others
(the chiefs of the party) were kept as prisoners in chains for
over a year. Torres was kicked and spat upon and passed from station to station to be reviled by the agents in charge. H e had once
captured Elias Martinengui and chained him up. When finally re-

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

leased from chains Torres became even worse than his captors, and
I am convinced they are now gravely embarrassed to know how to
dispose of him.
6. Jermin, or Filomene, Vasquez, at Abisinia. This man is charged
with many crimes, the latest of them only in August, 1910, when
he had 13 Indians—men, women, and children—murdered on the
road between the Caquetá and Morelia. He boasted on his return
to Abisinia " he had left the road pretty."
7. Simon Ángulo, a Colombian black man, is the flogger or executioner of Abisinia under Agüero; has flogged many to death.
8. There is also a Barbados man named King—calls himself s Armando King—who is at Encanto under Loayza. This man came to
Chorrera to be interrogated, and admitted to me killing and shooting^ a young Colombian named Justino (or Faustino) Hernandez.
This he said he did by Señor Loayza's orders and in order to save
his own life from Hernandez; but the story is elsewhere otherwise
related. I believe King to be as bad as any of the others almost.
When he admitted to the killing of Hernandez ( I knew of the crime
from other sources), I warned him that to plead that he shot a man
under the orders of anyone was no plea; that if his crime had been
committed in British territory, as he knew, he would probably have
to answer for it with his life; and I added that even there in the
wilderness he must not think these crimes could go on undetected or
unpunished; that some day, perhaps soon, a civilized Government
would take account of what was being done in the name of civilization, and then he might have to answer for his " shooting" of Justino Herdandez with his neck. I think if the arrest of others is
asked for that King's arrest should be asked for, too.
There are a great many others also charged with many crimes,
whose names occur often in the depositions of the Barbados witnesses to be submitted along with my detailed report.
[No. 3.

Sir Edward

Telegraphic]

Grey to Mr. des Graz.

PUTUMAYO INQUIRY.
FOREIGN OFFICE, January
16,1911.
Casement has returned and submitted preliminary report, which
confirms worst accusations. Many of the principal officials of the
Peruvian Amazon Co. are unquestionably guilty of the most revolting
atrocities against the Indians, of which abundant and irrefutable
evidence has been collected and has been accepted without demur by
Señor Tizón, the company's representative at La Chorrera, as being
incontrovertible. The crimes charged against these men include murder, torture, violation, and constant floggings of a barbarous nature
and other acts of unspeakable cruelty. These cases are not isolated,
but are part of a system.
You should so inform the Peruvian Government confidentially and
in a friendly manner, stating that His Majesty's Government are
unwilling to publish the facts without first bringing them to the
notice of the Government primarily concerned, who, they feel sure,

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are ignorant of the crimes committed, and will, in the interest of
justice and humanity, take steps at once to punish the criminals and
prevent the continuance or recurrence of the atrocities.
The following is a list of those who are stated to be the worst criminals: Fidel Velarde, chief of Occidente; Alfredo Montt, chief of
Atenas; Augusto Jiménez, chief of Ultimo Retiro; Armando Normand, a Bolivian; José Inocente Fonseca, at La Sabana—all of whom
probably are now or shortly will be at Iquitos; Abelardo Agüero,
chief of Abisinia; Elias Martinengui, retired last spring and said now
to be at Lima; Aurelio Rodriguez, living at Iquitos; A. Vasquez
Torres or Alejandro Vasquez, at Atenas; Rodolfo Rodriguez, a Colombian, at Santa Catalina; Miguel Flores, Armando Blondel,
Aquiléo Torres, a Colombian; Jermin (or Filomeno) Vasquez, Simon
Ángulo, a Colombian; all at Abisinia; and a native of Barbados
named King, at Encanto.
The names of these men are communicated in order to assist the
Peruvian authorities to bring them to justice and in the hope that
the severest penalties allowed by the law will be inflicted, particularly
in the cases where murder is proved. By this means alone can the
Peruvian Government hope to put an end to the present state of
affairs.
Measures should be taken immediately or the criminals will escape.
His Majesty's Government, in view of the fact that agents of a company registered in Great Britain are involved, are sure to be questioned in Parliament as to the facts when it meets early in February.
. I t will be exceedingly desirable that they should then be able to
announce the action taken by the Peruvian Government, as any impression that such crimes were to go unpunished, or that there is the
least chance of their being repeated, would be most deplorable and
could not fail to arouse strong feeling.

LNo 4.

Telegraphic ]

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, January

19, 1911.

(Received Jan. 19.)
I have addressed a confidential note to the Peruvian Government
in the sense of your telegram of the 16th instant. The acting minister
for foreign affairs has informed me verbally, pending a written reply,
that telegraphic orders were sent a day or two ago to Iquitos for the
dispatch of a commission of inquiry to the Putumayo under a judge
of the criminal court.
[No. 5.

Telegraphic ]

Sir Edioard Grey to Mr. des Graz.
FOREIGN OFFICE, January &4,1911.
Your telegram of 19th January, Putumayo inquiry.
Inform Peruvian Government that His Majesty's Government were
already aware that a commission was to be sent to the Putumayo,

222

SLAVERY I N P E E U .

and that the list contained iii my telegram of the 16th instant was
communicated to enable the Peruvian authorities to apprehend the
principal criminals before they had time to escape.
Three of the worst, namely, A. Rodriguez, A. Normand, and F .
Velarde, and possibly others, are probably now at Iquitos, and presumably can only be dealt with there.
[No. 6. Telegraphic. 1

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, January 2I¡,, 1911.

(Received Jan. 25.)
My telegram of the 19th instant.
Answer of acting minister for foreign affairs recapitulates substance of my note and states that Peruvian Government, keenly
interested that if such a system of cruelty exists in Putumayo regions
it should disappear as soon as possible, has taken measures previous
to receipt of my note for full investigation on the spot. Most important of those measures is nomination by superior court of Loreto of
a commission composed of judge for criminal cases at Iquitos with
necessary staff which shali investigate acts denounced, determine
responsibility, and punish the guilty. Orders have already been
telegraphed for commission to leave Iquitos for Putumayo, and it
is sure that commission will be discharging its important mission
next month. List of names has been telegraphed to prefet of Loreto
to be communicated to and to assist commission. Note concludes
with assurance that political authorities of Loreto will assist in every
way in measures which Peru is determined to enforce in its dominions
in interests of justice and humanity.
[No. 7.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. des Graz.
FOREIGN OFFICE, January &5,1911.
Your telegram of 24th January.
I t seems that the Peruvian conxmission of inquiry may have started
for the Putumayo some time ago, but the ^principal criminals are
likely to have left the district before it arrives. The ends of justice
will be frustrated if the Peruvian Government do not cause any
suspected persons now at Iquitos itself to be arrested at once, t
presume this Avill Be done.
[No. 8.]

Consul General Casement to Sir Edward

Grey.

January 31, 1911.
(Received Feb. 6.)
S I R : I have the honor to submit a report dealing with my recent
journey up the Amazon River to the Putumayo region.
On the 21st July last you instructed me to proceed to the Putumayo
with a commission of inquiry, which had been appointed by the
LONDON,

SLAVEEY IN PEBTJ,

223

Peruvian Amazon Co., to report on possibilities of commercial development of the company's properties, and to inquire into the present relations between the native employees and the agents of the
company.
This commission was composed of the honorable Col. R. H. Bertie,
C. B . ; Mr. L. H . Barnes, tropical agriculturist; Mr. W. Fox, rubber
expert and botanist; Mr. E. S. Bell, merchant; and Mr. H . L.
Gielgud, secretary and manager of the company.
Your instructions to me required me to be present at the scene
of its inquiries when the commission reached the Putumayo, and
while in that district I was to endeavor to ascertain whether any
British subjects had suffered or were in distress, and, if so, from
what causes, and whether they stood in need of relief. You empowered me to take whatever steps I might deem essential within
the limits of my functions to enable me to arrive at an independent
and impartial conclusion as to the relations obtaining between British
subjects in those regions and the company's agents.
Acting upon these instructions, I left England on the 23d July,
1910, and in company with the commission traveled to Manaos, the
capital of the State of Amazonas, in Brazil, which was reached on
the 16th August. Here Col. Bertie was invalided, and, acting upon
medical advice, returned to the United Kingdom.
I proceeded alone to Iquitos, leaving Manaos on the 17th August,
and reached Iquitos on the 31st, having been joined by the four
remaining members of the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission at a
point some 160 miles below Iquitos.
I remained in Iquitos until the 14th September, when, with the
members of the company's commission, I embarked for the Putumayo
on board the river steamer Liberal, belonging to the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s flotilla. I found resident at Iquitos, or at work there, a
number of Barbados men, British subjects, who had originally been
brought from the West Indies by direction of the firm of Arana
Bros., since merged in the Peruvian Amazon Co. The firm of Arana
Bros, in 1904-5 seem to have recruited in the island of Barbados 196
laborers who were shipped for Peru at the request of Sen or Abel
Alarco, at that time a partner of the firm in question. Six other
Barbados men were at the same time recruited in the island at the
request of a Señor J. Elias Solsol. A copy of the form of service
contract entered into between Señor Abel Alarco, as employer, and
these men as laborers, countersigned by the police magistrate at
Barbados, accompanies this report.
From this contract it appears that the men were engaged as general
laborers for a term of two years, work to commence one day after
arrival at the Putumayo, and to cease upon the completion of two
years. I t was stipulated that a free passage both ways should be
granted, and that the wages should be at the rate of £2 Is. 8d. per
month, with free food daily to consist of tea or coffee, breakfast and
dinner, free doctor and medicine, also free lodgings. The working
days were to be six per week, and the working hours to be from
7 a. m. till sunset, with one hour allowed for breakfast and one hour
for dinner. The contractor further agreed that the laborer should
not during his contract be left destitute in the place to which he was
going, and that on the termination of this contract, on his giving
notice of his wish to be repatriated, his employer should repatriate

224

SLAVEBY W

PERU.

him by paying his passage to Barbados. I have no information as
to the form of contract entered into in the case of the six laborers
engaged by Señor Solsol. The greater number of the 196 men engaged by 'Arana Bros, had already left the Amazon before my arrival, but there were probably a dozen or more men in Iquitos who
had originally been brought by Arana Bros., and who were working
for themselves in various capacities when I arrived there. During
my stay in Iquitos I interviewed seven of these men, two of whom
had just left the Putumayo, and one of these on completion of a
lengthy period of service there, and I found two more men, whose
depositions I took, serving among the crew of the company's steamer,
the Liberal, on which I traveled to the Putumayo from Iquitos.
One of the men found in Iquitos, by name Frederick Bishop, I
engaged to accompany me to the Putumayo to act as interpreter and
guide during my investigations in that region. The declarations
made before me by these men indicated that the terms of the contract entered into with them in Barbados had in some respects not
been faithfully fulfilled by the employers, and in some cases it was
clear from the men's statements that by illegal compulsion they had
been forced to commit illegal acts upon the Indian inhabitants of
that region in order to compel these to labor or bring in india rubber
to the profit of the company and its predecessors.
The firm of Arana Bros, had been, in the latter part of 1907, converted into the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Co. (Ltd.), which took
over, as from the 30th June, 1907, legal responsibility for the firm
of Arana Hermanos (Bros.), with headquarters in London. This
British company subsequently changed the name to the Peruvian
Amazon Co. (Ltd.), under which designation it now exists. At
the date of the transfer from Arana Bros, to the London company
it is not easy to say how many British subjects still remained at work
on the Putumayo. The original two years' contract by which these
men had been brought from Barbados had in the greater number of
cases already lapsed, but a number of the men remained on in the
new company's service, either at their own wish or because they were
unable to leave from a variety of causes. Others who had already
left the Putumayo had in several cases voluntarily returned from
Iquitos, most of them in May, 1908, and in these cases a fresh form
of contract had been drawn up at Iquitos in the name of the Peruvian Amazon Co. Under the original contracts made in Barbados
the men were brought in batches to the Amazon, and drafted from
Manaos either directly to the Putumayo or were brought up to
Iquitos and put to work upon an estate called Nanai, lying on the
banks of the river some few miles below that town. The men employed at Nanai appear to have been engaged mainly at agricultural work on the estate, and few complaints would seem to have
come from this quarter. They do not, however, appear to have been
satisfied, and in the majority of cases, I believe they left the service
of Arana Bros, before the completion of their contracts, i. e., before
the expiring of the two years. The grounds of their dissatisfaction
were briefly that the wages were insufficient, and that the food was
not such as they were accustomed to. As regards the first complaint,
the wages were what they had undertaken to accept, and judged by
Barbados standards were good pay for such work.

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

225

On the Amazon Kiver, however, no labor of the kind could be
obtained for that sum, and these men found themselves receiving, at
£2 Is. 8d. per month, wages that were probably one-half below the
local rate of pay. They became dissatisfied and left their employers'
service, chiefly on these grounds. The food, I understand, was such
as would be generally regarded as sufficient in that region, and it
would seem clear that as regards these men employed at Nanai no
serious grounds of complaint existed. The men, however, who had
been taken straight to the Putumayo found themselves from the
first in very different surroundings. I had no means of finding out
how many Barbados men from first to last had actually been brought
to the Putumayo and employed there. I should estimate that of the
'total of 196 men engaged by Arana Bros, the number sent directly
to the Putumayo was probably 100 or more. I found, as pointed out,
some dozen Barbados men in Iquitos, all of whom had once been
emplo3^ed on the Putumayo, and seven of whom gave evidence before
me. On the Putumayo itself I found 20 men actually employed in
the company's service and the two men engaged on the Liberal.
Several of these men had come straight from Barbados, either at the
end of 1904 or the beginning of 1905, and had remained continuously
at work in the Putumayo region without any new form of contract
having been made at the expiration of the original form entered into
at Barbados, whilst others had been enrployed at Nanai or had left
the Putumayo and had subsequently gone back upon the fresh form
of contract referred to as drawn up at Iquitos. The wages in all
cases appear to have been augmented, and at the date of my visit
ranged from £5 to £6 or even £7 per month, with food of an inferior
kind and lodging understood. The medical attendance stipulated
in the original contracts of engagement had in the vast majority of
cases not been forthcoming. When the men first came to the Putumayo, in all the earlier years, there was no doctor resident in that
region. Of late a doctor had been employed by the British company,
but he resides at the station of La Chorrera, and his services are
available only for a limited number of the company's employees
who may be resident there or occasionally visit that post. Medicines
needed by the men were either nonexistent or often had to be purchased from their wages. I found in several cases that quite large
sums had been debited to these men's accounts for medicines that
should have been supplied free under the term of their engagement.
So, too, in regard to the food; for long periods this often consisted
of what the men could find for themselves or get by some means from
the Indians.
The firm of Arana Bros, and its successors, the British company, do
not appear to have scrupled to lay the burden of feeding the great
majority of the employees very largely upon the surrounding native
population, who were compelled by illegal force to labor in a variety
of forms for the maintenance and profit of the company and its
employees. I n the exercise of this illegal compulsion, frequently
accompanied by gross outrages upon the Indians, including murder,
flogging, and torture, many of the Barbados men played a constant
part. By their positive declarations to me, which were often made
in the presence of the company's chief agent and before the commission of English gentlemen sent out by the company, it is certain
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

226

SLAVERY I N PERU.

that these men, instead of being used as laborers, were forced to act
as armed bullies and terrorists over the surrounding native population. Whether it was foodstuffs that were required, labor for building houses or planting cassava, sugar cane, maize, or other produce
for the needs of each station, or the collection of india rubber, the
Indians had to satisfy all the demands of the so-called commercial
establishment which had planted itself in their midst.
These demands were urged, not by persuasion or supported by the
offer of bartering goods in exchange for what was required of the
Indian, but were enforced upon him, his wife, and children by absolutely illegal and often terrifying methods. In this system of armed
extortion, wmich can only rightly be termed brigandage, the Barbados
men were active agents. This part, no doubt, the men themselves
were sometimes willing enough to perform, but in many cases it was
made clear to me that the men had themselves protested, and had
only discharged these duties with reluctance and often under threats
which in more cases than one had been realized. I n a region so
remote, where no civilized jurisdiction existed or Government authority wTas exercised, the agents of the so-called trading bodies had and
have supreme control. The Putumayo River is about 1,000 miles
long, and in the district affected by the operations of the Peruvian
Amazon Co. and its predecessors, the Arana Bros., it was not the main
stream of this little-known river, but two of its northerly affluents,
which were the theater of the scenes in which these British subjects
took part.
These two rivers, the Igaraparana and Caraparana, rise in a remote
forest region close to the watershed of the Japura, and flowing in a
southeasterly direction run parallel to each other for a distance of
from 300 to 400 miles through a continuous forest until they empty
themselves into the Putumayo. The mouth of the Igaraparana is
about 400 miles above the junction of the Putumayo with the Amazon,
and that of the Caraparana fully 600 miles from the Amazon. The
whole of this large region lies between the Republics of Colombia,
Peru, and Ecuador, and is in part claimed by the two former.
The district comprises an area, roughly speaking, of some 10,000
square miles, lying between the seventy-second and seventy-fourth
degrees of west longitude and the Equator and the second parallel of
south latitude. The Indian population of this district was estimated
a few years ago by the Peruvian authorities at from 40,000 to 50,000
souls. The majority of these primitive people dwelt along the course
of the Igaraparana, the larger of the two tributaries referred to.
This river has a course of fully 400 miles, and is navigable for vessels of 100 tons and over from its confluence with the Putumayo to
the station of La Chorrera, lying about 220 miles from its mouth.
La Chorrera is the principal rubber depot of the company and controls nine dependent stations, termed locally " sections," which, with
further branch dependencies of their own, collect, through the neighboring Indians, as much india rubber as these people can be forced
or induced to gather. The rubber so collected is transported partly
by water and partly by land, on the backs of the Indians, about every
three months to La Chorrera, whence it is shipped in one of the
company's vessels to Iquitos.
A similar state of things exists in connection with the Caraparana,
the smaller of these two rivers. The controlling center of the Cara-

SLAVERY I N PERU.

227

parana is a station situated close to the mouth of that river, where it,
enters the Putumayo, called El Encanto. I did not visit the Caraparana which, both commercially and geographically, is the less
important river of the two.
There was only one Barbados man serving in that district at the
time of my visit, and from their first coming the Barbados men had
been almost solely employed in the La Chorrera agency, either along
the banks of the Igaraparana or inland from it in rubber centers
situated in the heart of the forest—wherever, in fact, Indians, and
not necessarily rubber trees, were most numerous.
The true attraction from the first to Colombian or Peruvian
" caucheros," as the rubber collectors or traders are termed in the
upper Amazon regions, was not so much the presence of the scattered
Hevea hraziliensis trees throughout this remote forest as the existence of fairly numerous tribes of docile, or at any rate of easily
subdued, Indians. The largest gathering of these people was a tribe
termed the Huitotos, a mild and inoffensive people subdivided into
many sub tribes or families, each dwelling apart from its neighbor,
and ruled by its own hereditary cacique or " capitán."
The Huitotos chiefly dwelt along the courses of the Caraparana
and upper and middle Igaraparana, and occupied all the country
between these two rivers. On the north of the Igaraparana they
extended some distance, in various settlements, into the thick forest
toward the great Japura (or Caquetá) River until they merged in
the Andokes, Eicigaros, and Boras, tribes doubtless of a kindred
far-off origin, but wholly differing to-day in speech from the Huitotos, as also from each other. While these tribes were in each case
of one family, speaking the same language, little or no cohesion
existed among the scattered subtribes into which they were split.
On the contrary, enmity more often than friendship ruled the relations between neighbors.
Thus the 30,000 Huitotos, instead of uniting as one people, were
split up into an infinity of " families " or clans, and interclan fighting and raids perpetuated for generations disputes of obscure and
often trivial origin. So with the Boras, the Andokes, or other agglomerations inhabiting the neighboring reigions. While, collectively, each of these tribes might have put large numbers of men
into the field, they were so divided by family quarrels that no one
cacique probably could ever count on more than 200 men, and in the
majority of cases on very many less.
They were therefore an easy enough prey to the " civilized"
intruders who brought to their conquest arms of precision against
which the Indian blowpipes or throwing spears could offer but a
paltry resistance.
The object of the " civilized " intruders, in the first instance, was
not to annihilate the Indians, but to " conquistar "—i. e., to subjugate
them, and put them to what was termed civilized, or at any rate
profitable, occupation to their subduers.
These subduers formed themselves into bands and parties, clubbed
commercial associations, and having overcome the resistance of the
Indians, they appropriated them to their own exclusive use along
with the rubber trees that might be in the region they inhabited.
Henceforth to the chief of the band they became " my Indians," and

228

SLAVERY I N PERU.

any attempt by one of his civilized neighbors to steal, wheedle, or
entice away his Indians became a capital offense.
Thus where the primitive savage raided his savage neighbor for
reasons that seemed good to him, the white man who came on an
alleged mission of civilization to end this primal savagery himself
raided his fellow white man for reasons that seemed to the Indian
altogether wrong, viz, his surer enslavement. Constant thefts of Indians by one " cauchero " from another led to reprisals more bloody
and murderous than anything the Indian had ever wrought upon his
fellow Indian. The primary aim of rubber getting, which could
only be obtained from the labor of the Indian, was of ¿en lost sight
of in these desperate conflicts.
When the first contingent of Barbados men reached the Putumayo
at the end of 1904 the firm of Arana Bros, had not complete control of
the region in which it carried on its dealings with the Indian dwellers
in the forest. The majority of those who then exploited the Indians
and obtained rubber from them were Colombians, men who had come
down the Putumayo from that Republic and established themselves
on different sites along the banks of these two tributaries. I n some
cases these Colombian settlers appear to have held concessions from
their Government. As it was not easy to obtain supplies from Colombia owing to the mountainous nature of the country in which the
Putumayo rises, and as the market for the rubber obtained lay downstream where the Amazon forms the natural outlet, it was more
profitable to open up relations with traders in Brazil or Peru and to
obtain from them what was required than to seek supplies over the
distant and difficult route from Pasto, in Colombia. The Iquitos
house of Arana Bros, had at an early date entered into relations with
these Colombian settlers, and by means of steamers between Iquitos
and the two tributaries of the Putumayo named had supplied their
wants and brought their rubber to be disposed of in the Iquitos market. Little by little these relations changed, and from being merely
intermediaries the firm of Arana Bros, acquired possession of the
majority of the Colombian undertakings in these regions. These
transfers were sometimes effected by sale and purchase and sometimes by other means.
Throughout the greater part of the Amazon region, where the rubber trade flourishes, a system of dealing prevails which is not tolerated in civilized communities. In so far as it affects a laboring man
or an individual who sells his labor, it is termed "peonage," and is
repressed by drastic measures in some parts of the New World. I t
consists in getting the person working for you into your debt and
keeping him there; and in lieu of other means of discharging this
obligation he is forced to work for his creditor upon what are practically the latter's terms, and under varying forms of bodily constraint. I n the Amazon Valley this method of dealing has been
expanded until it embraces not only the Indian workman, but is often
made to apply to those who are themselves the employers of this kind
of labor. By accumulated obligations contracted in this way, one
trader will pledge his business until it and himself become practically
the property of the creditor. His business is merged and he himself
becomes an employee^ and often finds it very hard to escape from the
responsibilities he has thus contracted. At the date when the Barbados men were first brought to the Putumayo the methods of exploit-

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

229

ing the Indian population in the interests of the Colombian or Peruvian settlers were mainly confined to the river banks. They were
more or less haphazard methods. An individual with two or three
associates squatted at some point on the riverside and entered into
what he called friendly relations with the neighboring Indian tribes.
These friendly relations could not obviously long continue, since it
was the interest of the squatter to get more from the Indian than he
was willing to pay for. The goods he had brought with him in the
first case were limited in quantity, and had to go far. The Indian,
who may correctly be termed " a grown-up child," was at first delighted to have a white man with attractive articles to give away
settling I n his neighborhood, and to bring in exchange india rubber
for these tempting trifles seemed easy. Moreover, the Amazon Indian
is by nature docile and obedient. His weakness of character and
docility of temperament are no match for the dominating ability of
those with European blood in their veins. Yielding himself, first,
perhaps, voluntarily, to the domination of these uninvited guests, he
soon finds that he has entered into relations which can only be described as those of a slave to a master, and a master, be it observed,
who can appeal to no law that recognizes his rights. The system is
not merely illegal in civilized parts of the world, but is equally illegal
in the Amazon forests, since those regions are all claimed by civilized
Governments which absolutely prohibit any form of slavery in their
territories. The Barbados men on being brought into these regions
found themselves face to face with quite unexpected conditions and
duties. Already at Manaos 5 on their way up the river, some of them
had been warned by outsiders that in the countries to which they
were going they would not be employed as laborers, but would be
armed and used to force the Indians to work for their employers;
they were further told that the Indians, being savages, would kill
them. Several of them, taking alarm, had protested at Manaos, and
had even appealed to the British vice consul to interfere so that they
might be released from their engagement. This was not done. They
were assured that their contracts, having been lawfully entered into
in a British colony, would be faithfully observed in Peru, and that
they must fulfill them. I n some cases the men were not reassured,
and had to be taken on board the river steamer waiting to convey
them to the Putumayo under police supervision.
The first party to disembark in the Putumayo consisted of 30 men
with 5 women. They were landed at La Chorrera, on the Igaraparana, the headquarters station of the Arana Bros., in November, 1904.
Here they were armed with Winchester rifles and a large supply of
cartridges for these weapons, and headed by a Colombian named
Eamon Sanchez, with a man called Armando JSTormand, who served
as interpreter, and several other" white men—Colombians or Peruvians—they were dispatched on a long journey through the forest to
open up what were styled trade relations with an Indian tribe called
the Andokes. This tribe inhabits a district between the Igaraparana
and the Japura, but lying closer to the latter river. On arrival in
this region the men were employed at first in building a house, and
then on raids through the surrounding forests in order to capture Indians and compel them to come in and work for Señor Sanchez. They
were also used on what were termed punitive expeditions sent out to
capture or kill Indians who had killed, not long before, some Oolom-

230

SLAVEKY I N PEEU.

bians who had settled in the Andokes country with a view to enslaving that tribe and forcing it to work rubber for them. These men
had been killed by the Andokes Indians and their rifles captured, and
it was to recover these rifles that many of the first raids of the Barbados men were directed by Sanchez and Normand. In this way the
station of Matanzas was founded, and the man Normand soon afterwards, on the retirement of Sanchez, became its chief. A t the date of
my visit to the Putumayo he was still in charge of this district as
representative of the Peruvian Amazon Co. The station at Matanzas
was founded at the very end of 1904, I visited it on foot in October,
1910. I t lies some TO miles by land from La Chorrera, and the route
followed by the Barbados men would occupy some four to five days
of hard marching. The forest tracks in the Putumayo present innumerable obstacles. Owing to the very heavy rainfall, water and
mud accumulate, many streams—some'of them even rivers—have to
be crossed either by fording or upon a fallen tree; roots of trees and
fallen tree trunks innumerable bar the path, and the walker either
knocks his shins against these or has to climb over obstacles sometimes breast high. No food is to be obtained on these routes except
from the few Indians who may be dwelling in the neighborhood, and
these poor people now have little enough for themselves. For several
years after its foundation all the rubber collected at Matanzas was
carried down this route by Indian carriers to La Chorrera. The Indians were not supplied with food for this journey. They were
guarded by armed men, both going and returning, and Barbados men
frequently were employed for this work, just as they were used, in
the first instance, in forcing the Indians to collect the rubber in the
forest and bring it into Matanzas. During the last three years the
journey from Matanzas to Chorrera has been shortened by the placing
of a small launch on the river above the cataract which blocks river
navigation at Chorrera. Rubber from Matanzas still goes under
armed escort a distance of 45 or 50 miles through the forest, to be
shipped in this launch at a place called Puerto Peruano for conveyanpe thence to Chorrera by water. The duties fulfilled by Barbados men at Matanzas were those that they performed elsewhere
throughout the district, and in citing this station as an instance I
am illustrating what took place at a dozen or more different centers
of rubber collection.
At the date of my visit there were only two Barbados men left in
Matanzas, one of Avhom had been there six years from the foundation of that station. I found the 20 men still remaining in the company's service when I was on the Putumayo scattered at various
points. With the exception of three men at La Chorrera itself,
whose duties were those of ordinary labor, all the men still remaining
at the time of my visit were employed in guarding or coercing, or
in actively maltreating, Indians to force them to work and bring in
india rubber to the various sections. The men so employed at the
time of my visit were two men at Matanzas, one man at Ultimo
Retiro, four men at Santa Catalina, three at Sabana, one at Oriente,
and three at Abisinia, and two others temporarily employed on the
river launches who had just come in from forest duties. Another
man was employed at the headquarters station of the Caraparana
at the place called El Encanto. This man was sent for to Chorrera
while I was there, and I interrogated him. I n addition to La Chor-

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

231

rera, the headquarters station, I visited in succession the following
among its dependent stations, or " succursales " : Occidente, Ultimo
Ketiro, Entre Eios, Matanzas, Atenas, and Sur, the latter practically
on outpost of La Chorrera, being situated less than two hours' march
away. With the exception of Matanzas, which is situated in the
Andokes country, all these stations are in the country inhabited by
the Huitoto Tribe. This tribe, formerly the most numerous of those
inhabiting the so-called Putumayo region, at the date of my visit
was said to have considerably diminished in numbers. One informant assured me that there were now not more than 10,000 Huitotos,
if, indeed, so many. This decrease in population is attributed to
many causes. By some it is stated to be largely due to smallpox
and other diseases introduced by white settlers. The Indians themselves in their native state are singularly free from disease. From
trustworthy evidence placed before me during my visit I have no
doubt that, however high the deaths from imported diseases may
have been, the deaths from violence and hardship consequent upon
the enforced tribute of rubber required from these people have been
much higher.
Statements made to me by the Barbados men, and which could not
be controverted on the spot, made this abundantly clear. Many,
indeed all, of the men had been for several years in the closest contact with the Indians, and their duties, as they averred, chiefly consisted in compelling the Indians to work india rubber for the white
man's benefit, and otherwise to satisfy his many wants. I t would
be tedious to go through statements made by these different British
witnesses, and it may be sufficient to say that they left no doubt in
my mind or in the minds of the commission sent out by the Peruvian
Amazon Co. that the method of exacting .rubber from the Indians
was arbitrary, illegal, and in many cases cruel in the extreme, and the
direct cause of very much of the depopulation brought to our notice.
The Barbados men themselves complained to me that they too had
frequently suffered ill-treatment at the hands of agents of the
company, whose names were given to me in several cases, and
several of whom were still employed on the Putumayo in the service
of the company at the date of my visit.
On closer investigation I found that more than once these British
employees of the company had been subjected to criminal ill treatment. To cite four cases, certainly the worst that came under my
direct notice, but which may stand for an indication of how in those
remote regions the so-callecl commercial agent will often deal with a
subordinate employee of his firm, I give the following among several
specific complaints that were laid before me:
Clifford Quintín.—This man was engaged in Barbados with the
first detachment at the end of 1904, and was brought to Chorrera by
the man Normand, who acted as interpreter for all the Barbados men
at that time engaged. He formed one of the party that in December,
1904, proceeded to the Andokes country under the command of Ramon Sanchez. He remained two years in that district, and returned
to Chorrera in October, 1906. During his stay at Matanzas he was
twice tied up and cruelly flogged by Sanchez and Normand. The first
occasion was soon after he reached Matanzas, in the very early months
of 1905. His wrists were fastened behind his back, and he was then
tied up to a cross pole, the whole weight of the body hanging under

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the arms thus lashed together behind. I n this posture he received 50
lashes applied with a twisted thong of tapir hide. This man was examined by me on the 2d November, 1910, at Chorrera, and although
the date of this flogging was considerably more than five years earlier,
he bore the marks of it in several places, notably one broad scar extending across the ribs. The reason for this punishment was a very
trifling one, as he related it. All the men were short of food, the
rations they received from Sanchez being wholly insufficient. They
were often forced to steal food from the Indians, or to go out into the
forest and the surrounding plantations and look for it and rob it. On
the occasion in question he had nothing to eat, and was trying to buy
a piece of cassava bread from an Indian girl. A Colombian employee
interfered—a man named Muñoz—and they quarreled, whereupon
Normand had Quintín tied up as described, and the 50 lashes administered by Sanchez and himself. I n addition to the marks upon his
person, his statement was borne out by the evidence of another man
named Leavine (a Barbados man), who had been present at the flogging, and who at the date of my visit was still in the service of Señor
Normand at Matanzas. The second occasion on which Quintín was
beaten was a short time before leaving Matanzas, in October, 1906.
On this occasion he was beaten by Normand and a subordinate agent
named Bucelli. H e showed traces of this flogging; one of his ears
bore a scar upon it where Bucelli had cut him with the lash. He was
so hurt by this flogging that he was brought down to La Chorrera
sick. The reason for this second flogging was a charge of immoral
dealings with Indian women, brought against him b.y Bucelli. Bucelli
had crossed the Japura on a raiding expedition into Colombia to
catch fugitive Indians. These Indians had run away to escape the
working of rubber at Matanzas. The party, of whom Quintín was
one, had captured 8 people—4 women, 2 grown-up men, and 2 little
boys, children of the others. The two men were put in chains, and
the whole party were being driven back to Matanzas as prisoners. A
Colombian named Diaz was in charge of the two men in chains, and
they escaped in the night with the chains on them. Bucelli, who was
himself a Colombian, annoyed at the escape of these men and not
wishing to tell Normand that this was due to the fault of another
Colombian, charged Quintín with not keeping proper, guard throughout the night, and with being with the women instead of doing his
duty in guarding the prisoners. Upon reaching Matanzas, on the
strength of this accusation which he deprecatingly admitted'had
some truth in it, Quintín was flogged as described by Normand and
Bucelli together. He was so ill from this beating that he had to be
kept for nearly three months in Chorrera before being again actively
employed. Upon recovery from this illness he had been sent, in the
early part of 1907, to the station of Santa Catalina, where he was
still employed at the time of my visit to the Putumayo. As I could
not visit Santa Catalina, this man, along with others, was called into
La Chorrera to be examined by me. He had spent the last three and
a-half years in the section of Santa Catalina, and when I saw him in
1910 he was ill and bore evident traces of illtreatment as of short
commons. I n addition to the marks on his person, derived from the
flogging at Matanzas, he was wounded in one foot. This wound had
been caused by a splinter of wood, probably poisoned, placed in the
ground by the Indians in order to obstruct the approach to their

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233

dwelling places, in the hope of thereby hindering the armed raids
made upon them to compel them to work rubber. Although the
wound was nearly a year old, it had not healed, and the man limped
in his walk and got about with difficulty. As he pointed out, he received this injury in the exercise of the duties required of him,
which began and ended with compelling the Indians to work rubber,
and that to buy a pair of shoes cost him 10s. by the company's prices,
and he was often compelled to walk barefoot. These shoes, sold at
this price from the company's stores, are the cheapest kind of woolen
slipper, certainly not worth more than Is. in Europe.
The second case was that of a man named Augustus Walcott. H e
was born in Antigua in 1887 and came from Barbados in October,
1904, with the first contingent brought by Señor Normand, and was
sent to Matanzas along with the rest of the men under Eamon
Sanchez. This man, according to the statement he made to me on the
1st of November., 1910, at La Chorrera, stayed at Matanzas under
Sanchez and Normand for about one year, engaged in the usual work
of capturing Indians to make them work rubber and of guarding and
forcing them to this employment. Toward the end of this period he
was ordered by Normand to take prisoner an Indian man who had
escaped from the work imposed upon him. This he failed to do. The
Indian in question was caught by another employee, named Cordoba r
was put in chains, but escaped before he was brought into Matanzas.
They fired after the fugitive, but did not hit him. Immediately following this an Indian captive in the station was flogged. The " capitán," or chief, of these Indians was also a prisoner, but his son was
apparently at large, and the chief sent this youth to fetch a rifle that
was concealed in the chief's house in the forest, and to bring it to him
in order that he might have a weapon handy to defend himself whenever he could get free. The son went on this errand, but was found
bringing the rifle in and was seized by Normand and Sanchez. H e
was hung up by the neck in the station yard until he died. The father
was then taken out and beaten with swords or machetes and hung up
by the neck until dead. Walcott, along with other British subjects,
was a witness of these crimes^ and said in a loud voice that this was
not the way to punish people. He said it was a brutal act, and this
remark was overheard by Normand, who threatened to punish him
for making it. Shortly afterwards a dispute arose between Walcott
and another Barbados man about some food that both were seeking
to buy from an Indian girl. Walcott was accused by Normand of
stealing the food from the girl. He protested that this was not true,
stating that he could prove that he had bought it, but was not listened
to. He was seized by Normand's orders, his arms tied behind his
back, and then suspended by these from a cross pole. I n this posture
he was beaten with a matchete by Sanchez. H e was left hanging by
his arms in this posture until he became unconscious. When released
his arms were useless, and he was so ill that he had to be carried down
in a hammock to La Chorrera. This man's statement was confirmed
by similar evidence given in other quarters.
The third incident I would cite is that of a native of Barbados
named Joshua Dyall. He, like the two preceding men, was engaged
in Barbados at the end of 1904 and was one of the party that went
to Matanzas under Sanchez and Normand. This man, like most of
the Barbados men, was passed from one station to another, and in

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the year 1907 he was serving at the station of Ultimo Eetiro, where
he was grossly maltreated by the agent, Alfredo Montt, who was
then chief of that district and who at the date of my visit was the
company's representative in the district of Atenas. Montt charged
Dyall with having improper relations with the concubine of one of the
white employees, all of whom, it should be stated, kept Indian women,
many of them more than one. The accused man was hung up by the
neck, beaten with machetes, and then confined by the legs in heavy
wooden stocks, called locally a " cepo." Each station is furnished
with one of these places of detention. The stocks consist of two long
and very heavy blocks of wood, hinged together at one end and
opening at the other, with a padlock to close upon a staple. Leg
blocks so small as just to fit the ankle of an Indian are cut in the
wood. The top beam is lifted on the hinge, the legs of the victim are
inserted in two of these holes, and it is then closed down and padlocked at the other end. Thus imprisoned by the ankles, which are
often stretched several feet apart, the victim, lying upon his back, or
possibly being turned face downward, remains sometimes for hours,
sometimes for days, often for weeks, and sometimes for months in
this painful confinement. Prisoners so detained are released from
these stocks only to obey the calls of nature, when for a few moments,
guarded by armed men, they enjoy a brief release. Some of these
implements of torture that I saw ready for use had 19 leg holes. I n
one case I counted 21. The stocks at Ultimo Eetiro, where Dyall was
confined, were, in my opinion, the cruelest of those I actually saw.
The ankle holes were so small that, even for an ordinarily well-built
Indian, when closed the wood would often have eaten into the flesh.
For an ordinary-sized European or negro the top beam could not close
upon the leg without being forced down upon the ankle or shin bone,
and this was what happened to Dyall. He and men who had witnessed his imprisonment assured me that to make the top beam
close down so that the padlock could be inserted in the staple two men
had to sit upon it and force it down upon his legs. Although more
than three years had passed since he suffered this punishment, both
his ankles were deeply scarred where the wood (almost as hard as
metal) had cut into the ankle flesh and sinews. The man's feet had
been placed four holes apart—a distance, I should say, of from 3 to
4 feet—and with his legs thus extended, suffering acute pain, he had
been left all night for a space of fully 12 hours. When released next
day he was unable to stand upright or to walk, and had to reach his
quarters crawling on his belly propelled by his hands and arms. I
have no doubt of the truth of this man's statement. I saw the stocks
just as they had been used to confine him. I caused a man of ordinary stature, a Barbados man, to have his legs inclosed before me.
The stock did not close upon the legs, and to have locked the two
beams together at the end could only have been done by great pressure and weight exerted upon the top beam so as to force it down
upon the leg and thereby undoubtedly to inflict much pain and cause
]asting wounds.
The fourth case that calls for grave comment was that of a Barbados man named Edward Crichlow. I found this man serving at the
station of Ultimo Eetiro at the date of my visit, and I took his statement on the 8th October, 1910. His present age is 25, and, like the
three preceding men, he was engaged with the first batch in Barbados,

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235

and accompanied that party to Matanzas under Ramón Sanchez.
Like all of his countrymen he was shifted about from station to station, performing the customary service of hunting Indians in order
to compel them to work rubber. This man had some knowledge of
carpentry, and had frequently been employed to make the benches,
chairs, and tables, or other articles of furniture needed for the stations at which he served. He was a more intelligent man than either
of the three previously referred to, and some of the domestic furniture in use at the station of Ultimo Eetiro had been made by him just
prior to my arrival. During the first part of 1908 Crichlow had been
employed in the station of Santa Catalina, on the borders of the Boras
country. The Boras tribe of Indians is a numerous and physically
powerful branch of the great Indian family which inhabits, or it
might be better to say inhabited, the stretch of country lying between
the Rivers Putumayo and Japurá. The latter river is also known by
the name of Caquetá. Japurá is the name by which it is known in
Brazil, Caquetá that by which the Peruvians and Colombians term it.
The Boras Indians, being physically stronger and more courageous,
had not submitted so readily as their neighbors, the Huitotos, to the
methods of rubber collection imposed upon them by the parties of
invading white men, whether Colombians or Peruvians. They had
frequently resisted, sometimes with success, and on more than one
occasion had killed individuals and even numerous parties of these
vegetable filibusters. By 1908, however, they had been largely reduced to obedience, or had taken refuge in flight, and at the stations
of Santa Catalina and Abisinia the survivors were working under
strict compulsion to produce enough rubber to satisfy the agents of
the company in charge of those sections. The agent at Santa Catalina was a man named Aurelio Rodriguez. This man is still alive
and resides in Iquitos, the capital of the Peruvian Department of
Loreto. He retired from the company's service in the summer of
1909. While serving under this man Crichlow's time had been
largely occupied in carpentering work when not employed in raiding
the Indians. H e had made, by Rodriguez's direction, a special
" cepo " or stocks, for the confinement, or torture rather, of the recalcitrant india-rubber workers. Not satisfied with the ordinary stocks
to detain an individual by the legs alone, Rodriguez had designed a
double " cepo " in two parts, so formed as to hold the neck and arms at
one end and to confine the ankles at the other. These stocks were so
constructed that the leg end could be moved up or down, so that they
might fit an individual of any size. For a full-grown man they could
be extended to the length of his figure, or contracted to fit the stature
of quite a child. Small boys were often inserted into this receptacle
face downward, and they, as well as grown up people, women equally
with men, were flogged while extended in this posture. Crichlow,
quite an intelligent carpenter for an ordinary laboring man, had
faithfully carried out the design of his master, and this implement of
torture remained in use at the station at Santa Catalina until the
early part of 1909. I n May 1908, Crichlow had a dispute with one of
the other employees named Pedro Torres. The quarrel was of no importance, but Torres was a white man and Crichlow was a black man.
The former appealed to his chief, and Rodriguez at once took the part
of his Peruvian fellow countryman. H e struck Crichlow over the
head with a loaded revolver, and called other white employees to seize

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him. Crichlow tried to defend himself with a stick, but was overpowered, and his hands were tied behind his back. He was then
beaten by many of them and put in the " cepo," or stocks, to spend
the night. When released next day for a few moments for an obvious reason, he was chained round the neck, one end of the chain
being held in the hand of a guard. The same day, with his hands
tied and this chain padlocked around his neck, he was dispatched
under guard to the neighboring station of La Sabana, a full day's
march. A certain Velarde was at the time the chief of this section,
and at the date of my visit I found him chief of the section Occidente.
Velarde put Crichlow in the stocks at his station with his legs five
holes apart—an almost insupportable distance—in which posture he
remained all night. Next day a Señor Alcorta, employed at a neighboring section, who was on a visit to La Sabana, interceded for him
and he was released from the stocks, but was sent down to La Chorrera as a prisoner. Here he was again confined in the stocks by the
subagent, Señor Delgado, and was finally only released through the
friendly intervention of the captain of the port of Iquitos, who happened to be on a visit to the Putumayo at the time. Crichlow wrote
a letter to this official complaining of the ill treatment he had received from his employers, and begged him to intercede with Señor
Delgado, which was done.
No compensation of any kind was ever offered to these injured
men. On the contrary, they had been forced to buy at their own expense medicines in addition to many other things required (when ill
from this bad treatment) that by the terms of their original contract
should have been supplied free by their employers. Not only were
they not compensated, but no reproof or punishment of any kind had
been inflicted upon the agents so grossly maltreating them. With
one exception, that of Eodriguez, these agents were still in the service
of the company at the time I was on the Putumayo, and I met all
three of them. I have dealt at some length with these four cases of
assault upon the British employees, because they are typical of the
manner of dealing of so-called white men with inferiors placed under
their orders in that region. The Barbados men were not savages.
With few exceptions they could read and write, some of them well.
They were much more civilized than the great majority of those
placed over them—they were certainly far more humane.
Most of the 20 men I actually encountered in the service of the
company were in debt; that is to say, owing to their purchases from
the company's stores of things they needed from time to time, either
for their own wants or those of their Indian wives, and possibly
children, they had been debited with amounts which often considerably exceeded the wages credited to them. Their average pay
amounted to 50 soles 1 (or, say, £5) per month. Crichlow, for instance, at the date of my visit to Ultimo Retiro, where I took his
deposition on the 8th of October, was at that time some £24 in debt
to the company. H e informed me (and I am convinced quite truthfully) that he had been notified that, should he answer my questions
untruthfully—in other words, deceive me in the investigations that
I was instructed to carry out—this indebtedness would be wiped out
1
The Peruvian sole is of the value of 2s., Í0 soles to the pound being the official rate
of exchange, which may vary somewhat in commercial quarters at Iquitos.

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

237

against him in the firm's books. Similar promises (and even offers
of money) were made to more than one Barbados man to induce him
to state what was not true or to conceal the truth from the British
official deputed to investigate the circumstances attending his em?
ployment by this British company. The man Dyall, who had completed nearly six years' service when I met him at Chorrera on the
24th of September, appeared to be in debt to the company to the
sum of 440 soles (say, £44) for goods nominally purchased from its
stores. Some of this indebtedness was for indispensable articles of
food or clothing, things that the workingmen could not do without.
These are all sold at prices representing often, I am convinced, 1,000
per cent over their cost prices or prime value. Much of the men's
indebtedness to the company was also due to the fact that they were
married; that is to say, that every so-called civilized employee receives from the agent of the company on arrival an Indian woman
to be his temporary wife. Sometimes the women are asked; sometimes, I should say from what I observed, their wishes would not be
consulted—they certainly would not be consulted in the case of a
white man who desired a certain Indian woman. With the Barbados
men it was no doubt a more or less voluntary contract on each side—that is to say, the agent of the company would ask one of the numerous Indian women kept in stock at each station whether she wished
to live with the new arrival. This man Dyall told me, in the presence of the chief agent of the Peruvian Amazon Co. at La Chorrera,
that he had had nine different Indian women given to him as " wives "
at different times and at the various stations at which he had served.
When an employee so " married " leaves the station at which he is
working to be transferred to some other district, he is sometimes
allowed to take his Indian wife with him, but often not. I t would
depend entirely upon the good will or caprice of the agent in charge
of that station. As a rule, if a man had a child by his Indian partner, he would be allowed to take her and the child to his next post,
but even this has been more than once refused. I n Dyall's case he
had changed his wives as often as he had changed his stations, and
always with the active approval of the white man in charge, since
each new wife was the direct gift or loan of this local authority.
These wives had to be fed and clothed, and if there were children,
then all had to be provided for. To this source much of the prevailing indebtedness of the Barbados men was due.
Another fruitful cause of debt was the unrestricted gambling that
was openly carried on up to the period at which I visited the district.
The employees at all the stations passed their time when not hunting
the Indians either lying in their hammocks or in gambling. As there
is no money in circulation, gambling debts can only be paid by writing an I O U, which the winner passes on to the chief agency at La
Chorrera, where it is carried to the debit of the loser in the company's
books. From an inspection of the accounts of the Barbados men I
examined at La Chorrera—and the originals of many of which are
in my possession—it is clear that in many cases the duties of the chief
accountant must have largely consisted in debiting and crediting in
the company's ledgers the gambling debts contracted between the
company's various employees. This evil system remained quite
unchecked, nay, openly aided and indulged in by numerous members

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of the staff up to November, 1910. The chief agent of a station
would gamble with even his most subordinate employees. A man
who to-day might be tying up a Barbados man and flogging him
would next week be winning perhaps two months' pay from the same
man over the dice. Articles of clothing were pledged; everything,
in fact, that an employee actually possessed would go until the loser
had nothing left but to write a slip of paper for 70, 80, or 100 soles
(£7, £8, or £10), or whatever the sum lost might be. I saw numbers
of these " chits " duly signed and indorsed at the chief agency in La
Chorrera and I heard—but not on altogether satisfactory evidence—that in some cases documents of this kind had been forged.
Where detected, the forgery had been disallowed, so I was informed,
and the transaction had not been carried to account in the books. By
its recognition of such transactions the company assumed a full
responsibility for the continuance of this evil practice, as I took occasion to point out to the chief agent when the assurance was given me
that in future no gambling would be allowed, or at any rate that none
of these I O IPs would be carried to the debit or credit account in the
company's books. This would necessarily involve the cessation of playing for stakes other than articles of clothing, food, or possibly
" wives." Some of the Barbados men had informed me on first landing at La Chorrera that for a space of nearly six years they had
been occupied in purely agricultural or domestic duties, such as
planting foodstuffs around the stations, keeping the ground clean,
or building work and making rough articles of furniture. There was
a certain amount of truth in these statements, but, as first made to me,
they were misleading, or intended to mislead. Two such informants
subsequently apologized for their untruthfulness, and retracted much
of what they had said, and explained that they had been induced to
lay false evidence before me by the agents of the company they
actually served. I t was true, no doubt, that in many cases Barbados
men had been so employed, and certainly, so far as my observations
went, several of them were the most trustworthy, useful, and profitable employees the company possessed. Such rough furniture as
existed in the stations I passed through outside La Chorrera was
mainly the work of their hands. The houses themselves are all built
by the Indians.
The wild forest Indians of the upper Amazon are very skillful
builders with the materials that lie to their hands in their forest
surroundings. Their own dwellings are very ably constructed. Several Indian families congregate together, all of them united by close
ties of blood, and this assembly of relatives, called a tribe or "nation,"
may number anything from 20 up to 150 human beings. I n many
cases such a tribe would live practically in one large dwelling house.
A clearing is made in the forest, and with the very straight trees that
abound in the Amazon woods, it is easy to obtain suitable timber for
house building. The uprights are as straight as the mast of a ship.
The ridgepole will often be from 30 to 40 feet from the ground, and
considerable skill is displayed in balancing the rough beams and adjusting the weight of the thatch. This thatch is composed of the
dried and twisted fronds of a small swamp palm, which admirably
excludes both rain and the rays of the sun. No tropical dwelling I
have ever been in is so cool as one roofed with this material. The
roofs or thatches of Indian houses extend right down to the ground.

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239

They are designed to keep out wet and sunlight—not to bar against
intruders. They afford no protection against attack, and are not
designed for defense, except against climatic conditions. The white
settlers in the forest from the first compelled the Indians to build
houses for them. The plan of the house would be the work of the
white man, but the labor involved and all the materials would be
supplied by the neighboring Indian tribe or tribes he had reduced to
work for him. All the houses that I visited outside the chief station
of La Chorrera, in which the company's agent lived and where their
goods were stored, were and are so constructed by the surrounding
Indians, acting under the direct supervision of the agent and his
white or half-caste employees. This labor of the Indians goes unremunerated. Not only do they build the houses and the stpres for the
white men, but they have to keep them in repair and supply labor for
this purpose whenever called upon. The Indian in his native surroundings is satisfied with quite a small clearing in the forest around
his own dwelling, but not so the white man who has come to live
upon the Indian. These decree that their dwelling houses shall stand
in the midst of a very extensive clearing, and the labor of felling the
forest trees and clearing the ground over an area of often 200 acres
or even more, falls upon the surrounding Indian population. Here
again, neither pay nor food is supplied. The Indians are brought in
from their homes, men and women, and while the men fell the trees
and undertake the heavier duties, women are put to clearing the
ground and planting a certain area of it. Those of the stations I
visited outside La Chorrera, viz, Occidente, Ultimo Retiro, Entre
RÍOS, Matanzas, Atenas, and Sur, in addition to a large and extremely
well-built dwelling house for the white man and his assistants, as
well as «suitable dependencies for servants, women, etc., were each
surrounded by immense clearings which represented a considerable
labor in the first case, and one which had fallen wholly upon the
Indian families in the vicinity. Sometimes these clearances were put
to economic use—notably that at Entre Rios, where quite a large area
was well planted with cassava, maize, and sugar cane, but this wTas
the only station which can be said to maintain itself, and all the work
of clearing and of planting here had fallen, not upon the employees
of the company, but upon the surrounding Indian population. At
other stations one found the dwelling houses standing in the midst
of a very extensive clearing, which apparently served no other purpose beyond giving light and air. At Atenas, for instance, the station houses are built on a slope above the river Cahuinari, and an
area of fully 200 acres has been cleared of its original forest trees,
which lie in all stages of decay encumbering the ground, but scarcely
one acre is under any form of cultivation. A t Matanzas a somewhat
similar state of neglect existed, and the same might be said in varying
degree of the stations of Ultimo Retiro and Occidente, Large areas
of fairly fertile cleared ground are lying waste and serve no useful..
purpose. Food, which might easily be raised locally, is brought
literally from thousands of miles away at great expense and often in
insufficient quantity.
The regular station hands, that is to say, the employees in receipt
of salaries, do no work. Their duties consist in seeing that the surrounding forest Indians work rubber and supply them so far as may
be with what they need. For this purpose the principal requisite is

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a rifle and a sufficiency of cartridges, and of these there are always
plenty. I have said the Barbados men were certainly the busiest in
this assembly of armed idlers. At Entre Eios most of the furniture
in the houses had been made by various Barbados men who from
time to time had served there. The room in which I spent nearly a
fortnight had been entirely furnished, with the exception of a bedstead, by the man Frederick Bishop whom I engaged at Iquitos to
accompany me as a guide and interpreter. Every article in it, including the window frames, door frames, and the doors themselves,
had been the work of his hands when, two years before, he had been
an employee in that station. So, too, at Ultimo Retiro, as also at
Occidente, it was to the rough skill of these black servitors that the
white and higher agents owed in the main such rough furniture as
they possessed. Some of the Barbados men had received extra remuneration for this work, but in the majority of cases even slnllful
carpentering work had gone quite unrewarded. Nominally, the men
were well paid with from £5 to £6 per month, but this pay given
with one hand was generally taken back with the other, for the prices
at which the men were forced to satisfy their necessities from the
company's stores ate up each month's and even several months of
their earnings before they became due. A man in debt anywhere in
the Amazon rubber districts is not allowed to leave until the debt is
paid, and as the creditor makes out the account and keeps the books,
the debtor frequently does not know how much he owes, and, even
if he had the means, might not always be able to satisfy the claim.
Accounts are falsified, and men are kept in what becomes a perpetual state of bondage, partly through their own thriftlessness
(which is encouraged) and partly by deliberate dishonesty. I n some
cases (the proof of which is in my possession) the dealings of the
company's responsible agent with his black workers came perilously
near this definition. The man Edward Crichlow, for instance, produced the company's invoices to show that at the time when he was
in debt in its books to the extent of £20 he was induced or permitted
to add to this indebtedness by a further purchase of £14 worth of
goods, all of which, it must be understood, could only be met by
debiting his future wages with the goods so bought. One of the
articles which went to make this sum of £14 was a common accordion, worth, I am sure, not £1 in England. This had been debited
against him for £10 10s. He had played upon it four or five times,
and then was obliged to leave it behind him at Ultimo Eetiro when
coming away with me. He had decided at the last moment to leave
the company's service and to return to Barbados with me, and preferred to sacrifice all the things he owned at Ultimo Eetiro in his
hurried journey down river so as not to miss my departure. Owing
to representations I made, this man obtained a large refund for the
musical instrument, and of other sums as well against some of the
things abandoned. I cite the case to show how easy it is to tempt
even a civilized subordinate to pledge himself and months of his
future to satisfy a want his employers have no right to gratify by
such means. Crichlow, like all negroes, was of a musical turn of
mind, and the accordion, dangled before him in the stores at La
Chorrera, and temptingly offered again and again at what was said
to be a reduced price, he was quite unable to resist. H e closed with

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

241

the offer, and thereby added a fresh period of two months' detention
to his stay in the company's service.
Such incidents as this might be multiplied many times. More than
1 of the 20 Barbados men I found employed owed from four to even
nine months' wages, with no prospect of ever getting straight, since
their wants persisted, and no check opposed their accumulating debts
of this kind, which represented a considerable profit in the company's books to the agent selling. I did not hesitate to frankly state
my opinion of these transactions to those responsible at La Chorrera.
A system of bookkeping which permitted the lowest class of gambling
transactions to be formally carried to account for and against the
employees of a great British company is not easily defended. No
serious defense was attempted. So, too, with the otherwise conv
tráete d indebtedness of the men. However blameworthy or extravagant they may have been, they were not nearly so blameworthy as
their employers, who not only permitted but obviously encouraged
them to run into the company's debt upon terms highly unfavorable
to the men and profitable to the creditor. Perhaps the most extortionate of these charges was where medicines were bought. These
were charged to the men at outrageous prices, seeing that in many
if not all cases they should have been supplied free to the men by
the terms of their contracts of engagement. When I pointed out
that medicine had been stipulated for when the men were engaged
in Barbados, I was told that their indebtedness in these accounts
was " for medicines required for the men's Indian wives." As, however, the wives formed part of the establishment and were given to
the men in the first instance by the local heads of the company, who
themselves had several " wives " for the most part, the excuse was
not a very sound one. These women nominally figured as workpeople in the company's service. I t was the local agent and not the
Barbados men who in the first instance had taken these people from
their native surroundings and caused them by force or otherwise
to dwell in the white man's vicinity. Here they were put to all
manner of domestic use, such as washing clothes, carrying water
from the river for the kitchen, bathroom, and various other household requirements, planting and clearing the ground around to some
extent, but chiefly in order to supply the agent and his subordinates
with a helpmeet.
As the result of my remarks upon this system of dealing, the chief
agent at La Chorrera voluntarily offered to wipe out 25 per cent of
all the purchases made by the men I found actually on the spot since
the formation of the British company—that is to say, since the 30th
of June, 1907. This proposal was entirely spontaneous and was
gladly accepted by 19 men,I found serving under the La Chorrera
agency. I t was made by the chief agent of the company in the name
of the company, to these 19 individuals in my presence, and was
accepted by them. Nearly all of these men were in debt to the company. Before they could have left the Putumayo this indebtedness
would have had to be wiped out. As nearly all the men expressed
themselves as anxious to leave that region along with me, I was preared and fully intended to pay all claims against them put forward
y the company's agent, and of this I informed him. As a result of
this offer, however, a considerable sum, aggregating over £800, accrued

77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

242

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

to the men, and all of them found a balance in their favor. I n some
cases this balance was quite a considerable one, and most of the men
were able to come away with me with sums ranging from £10- or £15
to almost £100 to their credit. Only one man, Joshua Dyall, derived
no real advantage from this transaction. He had stood in debt to
the company some 450 soles, or £44 10s., and a refund of 25 per cent
of his purchases from the company since the 30th of June, 1907, left
him with a credit balance of 7 soles 50 c , or, say, 15s.
The last of his 9 Indian wives sought to accompany him on board
my departing steamer, but was not permitted, and I think under the
circumstances rightly, to do so. A child by a former Indian consort,
however, was suffered to leave with this man, whose fortune of 15s.
earned after six years on the Putumayo disappeared at the first
halting place en route to Iquitos.
I have described the state of things prevailing between employers
and employed over a wide region of the Amazon as " peonage." This
would be a mild term to apply to the relations existing between " caucheros," or rubber dealers, and the wild or uncivilized Indians, but
it pretty well applies to the civilized subordinates away from the
immediate centers of Government authority, and was certainly applicable in many cases to the Barbados men. Not only was their liberty
restricted, but arbitrary and wholly illegal punishments were frequently inflicted upon them. I refer not to the grosser forms of maltreatment, some of which have been specifically enumerated in the
earlier part of this report, but to corporal detention and insufficiency
of food for quite trivial faults. Men were put in the stocks, unaccompanied by violent handling, and so sometimes they remained for
days. One case of such detention, which lasted for nine days, was
reported to me as having occurred only a short time previous to my
arrival on the scene. Another case I might cite was that of the man
who served as my interpreter, Frederick Bishop, who had left the
company's service only in August, 1910, after five and a half years'
service. He had in January of last year been " put in guns " at La
Chorrera by order of the chief agent. " Putting in guns " is a form
of punitive detention in general use in the Peruvian Army, I understand. I t consists in trussing a man with his legs and arms closely
bound to a triangle formed by several crossed rifles and leaving him
in'this posture. As he is tightly lashed, any long detention in this
position of necessity becomes very painful ancl might, if too prolonged, have even serious consequences. In the case of this man the
punishment was applied for having left his post at Ultimo Retiro
without leave. Bishop, who during the greater part of 1909 had
served at the station of Entre Rios, had in December of that year
been transferred to Ultimo Retiro, where he found scarcely any food
for the use of the employees.
During the month of January, 1910, things went from bad to worse
in this respect, until he and others were forced to sustain themselves
chiefly upon a wild herb called by the Indians " airambo." As the
chief of the station had gone away with several of the white employees on a visit to a neighboring section, Bishop determined likewise to leave. He set out without food, carrying all his possessions
he could himself transport, and with his rifle and cartridges marched
through the forest down to La Chorrera. The distance is one of
from 70 to 80 miles. He received some help from friendly Indians

SLAVEEY IN PERU.

243

along the way, whose language he had long since learned, and, arriving at La Chorrera wet, hungry, and suffering from fever, he reported himself to the chief representative of the company and explained why he had abandoned his post. There and then he was
" put in guns " with his wet garments upon him, and in this painful
position remained till nightfall. The order to put him in guns was
executed by a Peruvian military officer, who at the time commanded
a small detachment of men temporarily quartered in La Chorrera.
The rank of this officer was that of a captain in the Peruvian Army.
The person who ordered him to put this British subject in this form
of military confinement was the commercial agent of an English company. Nevertheless, he acted upon the order thus given him, and
when appealed to by Bishop said he was unable to interfere. The
sergeant of the soldiers, a kindly man, at nightfall released the Barbados man, saying, " I will let you out after dark, but you must come
back so that they can see you by daylight." Bishop further appealed
to the officer in command by a letter written in Spanish, and he was
ultimately released and again dispatched up country to the neighboring station of Atenas. Here the food supplies were as scarce as at
Ultimo Retiro. In order to escape from this semistarvation he Avas
glad to be sent to a substation where more food was obtainable, chiefly
from the Indians, and where his duties mainly consisted in flogging
these same Indians. He assured me that he had flogged men and
women during the months of March, April, and May almost up to
the date of his finally leaving the company's service. Tiring of enforced starvation, accompanied by enforced flogging of those who in
the main had fed him, this man in July begged to be allowed to go
away, and his wish was finally granted. On two previous occasions
he had sought to leave the Putumayo, but had not been permitted to
do so.
I give particulars of this man's complaint at some length because I
saw more of him than of any other Barbados man. I found him
truthful, straightforward, and honest, and I have no doubt whatever of the absolute truth of what he told me. Similar statements
involving similar accusations against their employers and often far
more gravely inculpating themselves in regard to their handling of
the Indians, were made to me by almost all of the 20 Barbados men
I interrogated in the company's service. These men had, of course,
their faults. Many of them had done wrong willingly, I believe;
some, no doubt, under compulsion. Some of these men accused themselves of very grave crimes committed, as they averred, by order of
their superiors, and often under threats of physical maltreatment if
ihey refused to obey. On the other hand, I was informed of several
cases where Barbados men had themselves performed cruel and
often revolting acts (not on the instigation or direct compulsion of
their superiors) upon the Indians who were at the time in captivity
in the station where they worked. One such case should, I think, be
recorded, as no punishment whatever was meted out to the criminal.
This was a man called Hilary Quales, who left the company's service
some time ago, and has presumably returned to his home in Barbados. This man was employed along with several others of his
fellow countrymen in the section called Abisinia, then, as now,
directed by an agent called Abelardo Agüero. On one occasion
several Indians had been tied up by the arms in the usual manner;

244

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the arms were twisted behind the men's backs, and they were suspended by these. An eyewitness, who made his declaration before
me on the 2d November, was one of the Barbados men serving at the
time in Abisinia. Agüero had the Indians tied up for " running
away " from the rubber work, and they remained in this posture for
about three hours. Whilst hanging thus the Barbados man Quales, to
amuse himself and his master Agüero, who was looking on throughout, swung these unfortunate being violently to and fro. Not satisfied with this comparatively gentle form of amusement, he began to
bite their bare legs and buttocks. One of the men kicked him in the
face as he was being bitten. Angered at this, Quales laid hold of one
of the toes of the man and bit it off. Incredible as this may seem,
it was vouched for to me by two other men, one of them, a Peruvian
white, man. The injured Indian was, I was assured, in the station
of Abisinia at the date of my visit, and another Barbados man declared to me that a few weeks previously he had seen him in the
stocks of that station, and, noticing that one of his toes was gone,
asked the prisoner in his own language how he had lost it. H e
learned that it had been bitten off by one of the inquirer's own countrymen, but had protested that this could not be, and it was only on
coming to La Chorrera that he learned from the other Barbados
man (the eyewitness who related the incident to me) that the deed
had actually been committed by Hilary Quales. No punishment of
any kind had been inflicted upon Quales for this cowardly and
abominable act. Señor Agüero had looked on and (as I was informed) had merely laughed. I t was not that punishment could not
be inflicted or the proper legal authorities informed of crimes committed on the Putumayo. I n two instances Barbados men charged
with wrongdoing were actually sent to Iquitos to be tried by the
proper Peruvian courts.
At an early date a man belonging to the first contingent of Barbados men brought to the Putumayo had shot an Indian woman.
This man's name was Cyril Atkins. He was one of the 36 men and
women who had gone up with Sanchez and Normand to Matanzas in
December, 1904. Not long after their arrival Atkins had shot the
Indian woman under the following circumstances: He was married
to a Barbados woman, one of the five women who accompanied that
first contingent, and, believing that his wife had had intercourse
with a young Colombian, a ha]f-caste, he had had a violent quarrel
with her, and in a fit of blind passion had seized his rifle and fired
at her. Instead of hitting her he had killed an Indian woman who
was looking on. This man's crime was immediately taken notice of.
H e was seized, tied up, and sent down to La Chorrera, whence he
was dispatched as a prisoner to Iquitos in one of the steamers plying
to that port. La Chorrera lies (by water) some 1,100 or 1,200 miles
from Iquitos, the capital of the department of Loreto, which claims
jurisdiction over the Peruvian settlers on the Putumayo. Between
La Chorrera and Iquitos no police or magisterial authority of Peru
exists which could take cognizance of any offense' committed on the
Putumayo. Atkins was sent from La Chorrera as a prisoner to
Iquitos, where, charged with the crime, he was at once lodged in
gaol. Whilst detained in Iquitos gaol he became ill and died there
before being tried. Another case may also be cited. The man Crichlow, already referred to, himself reported it to me. In 1906 he was

245

SLAVERY IN PERU.

at La Chorrera, and, with another of his countrymen, wished to
leave the service of Arana Bros., but could not get away. There is
no means of exit from the Putumayo except on board one of the
company's steamers, and passage by these can only be obtained with
the consent of the company's representative. - From La Chorrera the
distance to the mouth of the Putumayo is fully 600 miles, and,
although this journey might be made in a canoe, it would be a very
long and trying one. Crichlow and the other Barbados man determined to steal some money they had seen in the trunk of a white
employee, and this Crichlow succeeded in doing. H e said he took
£4, but, failing to escape, confessed his crime, and the money was
recovered by the owner. The agent in charge of La Chorrera, however, said that Crichlow must purge his offense in Iquitos. He was
accordingly sent there by steamer and was at once lodged in gaol. No
witnesses against him were at any time brought forward. The
charge was sustained only by letters, written 1,200 miles away, and,
although admittedly guilty, he was never confronted with the accusers or at any time brought to public trial. He remained 15 months
in confinement in the gaol in Iquitos whilst the charge against him
was being investigated by correspondence with the Putumayo, and to
defend himself he retained the services of a Peruvian lawyer, to
whom he paid the sum of £29. Asked how he had been able to pay
so large a sum, he said that during his 15 months' incarceration he
had been permitted to follow his trade as a carpenter and had more
than sufficient to meet this legal expense at the end of the 15 months.
Upon his release, about the middle of 1907, he was sent back to the
Putumayo and resumed his normal occupations there up to the time
of my visit.
An analysis of a few of the invoices covering goods the Barbados
men had purchased from the company's chief store at La Chorrera
will show at a glance the character of these transactions and how it
was that so many of the men figured in the company's books as
debtors.
I take first two recent invoices carried to the debit of the man
Edward Crichlow, whose case I have just dealt with. These are
both drawn up at La Chorrera and are dated respectively 31st
August and 31st October, 1910. Tlie first amounts to 140 soles 70c,
or, say, £14; the second to 238 soles 40c, or, say, £23. The period
covered is from the 5th May to the 22d October, and represents a total
purchase by Crichlow during that period of £37 worth of goods
from the company's stores, which sum would go to the debit of his
wages in the accountant's books.
Of this sum of £37 no less than £12 6s. was expended on foodstuffs, as follows:
£ s. a.
Cassava meal, called " farina," 1 kilogram-Rice, 30 kilograms
Biscuits:
2 small tins
1 tin (about 2 pounds)
._
3 tins (each about 2 pounds)
Flour, 6 kilograms...
Condensed milk, 20 tins
Cocoa and milk (tins), 3 tins
<
Preserved meat (1-pound tin)
Sardines (small tins), 37 tins

3
1 10
_

0
0

3
5
15
9
1 4
7
2
1 2

2i
0
0
8¿
0
2£
0
1

246

SLAVEKY IN

PEKU.
£
1
1
1

TotaU

s.
10
10
16
16
3
9

d.
0
0
0
0
2£
7

Salmon (tinned, 1-pound t i n s ) , 5 t i n s
Soda biscuits, 3 tins
L a r d (2-pound t i n s ) , 6 tins
Sugar (in tins, each of 2 kilograms), 6 tins
Tea (in ^-pound paper packets), 2 packets
Cod roes (1-pound t i n s ) , 4 tins
i
1

Of the remaining £24 14s. the accordion already referred to accounted for £10 10s., while the balance of £14 4s. was made up as
follows:
£
1
1
1
1
3
2
1
11
10
3
16
4
2
1
5
2
2
2

wash basin (tin)
cooking pot (14 centimeters)
cotton hammock
plug Peruvian tobacco
packets candles
packets of matches
bottle r u m (local distilled)
y a r d s calico
.
y a r d s cotton print
pairs underdrawers
y a r d s cotton prints
small pieces of cotton
packets of sewing thread
cotton blanket
b a r s soap_
b a r s soap
pots toothpaste
cotton singlets
Total

s.
d.
7
1|
5
7
1 10
0
16
0
4 10£
2
3
4
0
10
0
16
0
18
0
1 5
9
16
0
4
0
3
0
0
6
0
6
0
6
7
16
0

The balance of some 30s. was made up by a few bottles of ginger
ale, some packets of cigarettes, six sheets of foolscap paper with six
envelopes, and some cigarette papers, and a box of caps for a gun.
Another man produced his accounts covering a considerable period,
from which it was seen that he had been debited with 109 soles 40 c.
(or, say, £10 18s.) for medicines that; had medical treatment been
supplied in accordance with the terms of his contract, should not have
formed a charge against his wages. I n this case a refund of 74 soles
50 c. (or, say, £7 9s.) was made to him on my drawing attention to
this charge.
As an instance of the evil results to the men of the unchecked gambling that was permitted, a third case may be cited. I take it from
the account current of one of the men named Preston Johnson, drawn
up by the chief accountant at La Chorrera for the half year dated
the 30th June, 1910. I t is shown by this account that on the 1st
January, 1910, this man had a balance to his credit of 582 soles 48 c.
(or, say, £58). His wages from the 1st January to the 30th June, at
50 soles (or £5) per month, came to 300 soles (say, £30.) Had he
contracted no indebtedness during the six months he should have had
a sum of £88 to his credit, instead of which he stood in debt on the
30th June to the sum ot 42 soles 52 c. (or, roughly, £4). This
indebtedness was made up of purchased from the company's stores to
the sum of 68 soles 56 c. (say, £6 16s.), while a sum of 912 soles 19 c.
(or, roughly, £91 4s.) was carried to his debit against 11 notes of
hand he had made out in favor of various fellow employees.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

247

In many of these cases the I O U's were to meet gambling debts,
as the man admitted in my presence, and in some cases they were for
purchases of clothing. As a set-off against his losses he" was credited with the sum of 55 soles 75 c. (£5 10s.) drawn in his favor by
two other employees to meet their losses to him. Little supervision
was needed from La Chorrera to prevent such a state of things as
this, but no effort would seem to have been made at any time to control the acts of subordinates toward a good end. Provided rubber
came in from the sections no question was asked as to what took place
there. Each chief of section did as he pleased, and even Peruvian
subordinates had frequent cause of complaint against their local superiors. Complaints if made by a Barbados man or an inferior
workman were not attended to, and the chief of each section knew
no law but his own will.
The controlling agency at La Chorrera occupied itself solely with
the quarterly returns of rubber each section produced and with keeping such accounts as those I have in part analyzed. Many of the
white employees, including several of the leading agents of the company, men who had for years directed large districts, were in debt to
the company at the date of my visit, often to the amount of several
hundreds of pounds each. There seemed no likelihood of the Barbados men in the midst of such demoralizing surroundings being put
to useful work or bettering their condition. Of 18 men whose
accounts were submitted for my inspection, made up to the 29th October, 12 stood in debt to the suni of 2;409 soles 82 c. (or, say, £240),
while six men had credits amounting to £247. Nearly half of this
latter sum was due to a man who had been kept for nearly all the
time (some five and a half years) at La Chorrera, where he had
worked as baker, and was much better paid (£12 per month) than
any of his fellow countrymen.
As a result of my investigation into the men's accounts, carried on
during my stay at La Chorrera, the chief agent of the company, as
already stated, voluntarily proposed to refund to all the Barbados
men still employed 25 per cent on all their back purchases from the
company's stores since the 30th June, 1907. This proposal, which
the men were naturally very pleased to have made to them, resulted
in a refund, which, in the case of the 19 men it affected (it was not
offered to the one man employed at E l Encanto) amounted, along
with one or two other refunds and allowances made at the same time,
to a sum of 8,641 soles 85 c. (or, roughly, £864). In consequence oi
this unexpected consideration men who had been in debt now found
themselves with a balance in their favor, and, with few exceptions,
they determined to take advantage of this change in their circumstances to leave the Putumayo and to accompany me on board the
vessel which conveyed me to Iquitos.
Two men (one of them the baker referred to) preferred remaining
at La Chorrera for a few months longer, while two others entered
the personal service of the commission sent out by the Peruvian
Amazon Co. to remain as servants during its continued stay in that
region. The man stationed at El Encanto also preferred staying on,
but the remaining 14 men, with 4 Indian wives and 4 children,
accompanied me on my journey down to the coast.
I had arrived at La Chorrera from Iquitos on the 15th September,
and I quitted it on the 16th November; having spent just over a

248

SLAVERY I K PERU.

month in visiting the outstations already mentioned and some four
weeks in La Chorrera itself and its immediate neighborhood. To
have prolonged my stay to visit other sections, along with the commission of the Peruvian Amazon Co., would have carried me beyond
the scope of the inquiry intrusted to me. I had seen all the British
subjects in the company's employ, had received from them statements
dealing with their actual condition and the causes that had led up
to it, and had taken such action as was possible under the circumstances to test the truth of their statements. I did not leave until I
was satisfied that these statements were substantially correct. The
men were not seeking to make out a case against others; several of
them gave their testimony with reluctance, some with obvious unwillingness. Where they incriminated others they also charged
themselves, and very many of their charges were again and again
confirmed by the evidence of my own eyes and by corroborative testimony that the course of my journey furnished. From first to last
during the two months I actually spent in the La Chorrera agency I
must have seen at least from 1,500 to 1,600 native Indians—men,
women, and children. The condition of these people was itself the
best proof of the truth and often of the singular accuracy of the
Barbados men's declarations.
I have, etc.,
ROGER CASEMENT.
[Inclosure in No. 8.]

Service

Contract.

Concluded the 27th day of September, 1904, between Señor Abel
Alarco, of Putumayo (Igiaraparana), Peru, South America, as employer, and Seiffert Greenidge, laborer, 20 years.
Said Señor Abel Alarco, per S. E. Brewster, emigration agent in
Barbados, declares himself willing to receive said laborer at Putumayo (Igaraparana), Peru, South America, as a general laborer
for a term of two years, work to commence the day after arrival at
the above-mentioned place, and to cease upon the completion of two
years. I n consideration of a free passage, both ways, of a loan of
22 Is. 8d. here and wages in cash at the rate of £2 Is. 8d. equal to
gold paid monthly; with free food daily, namely, tea or coffee, breakfast and dinner, free doctor, and medicine, also free lodgings.
The said laborer binds himself to serve his employer faithfully and
obediently during the term aforesaid.
The parties have agreed that the working days shall be six per
week, and that the working hours shall be as follows, daily: The work
to commence at 7 o'clock a. m., and to cease at sunset, with one hour
allowed for breakfast* and one for dinner.
And the said Señor Abel Alarco (employer), through S. E. Brewster, emigration agent in Barbados, agrees that the said above-named
laborer shall not during his contract be left destitute in the place to
which he is going, and on the termination of this contract of service
(should the said above-named laborer desire to be repatriated) he
shall give notice of his desire to be repatriated, and then his employer shall repatriate him by paying his passage back to Barbados.
The advance of £2 Is. 8d., or any portion thereof, desired by the

249

SLAVERY I N PERU.

laborer herein mentioned, may be paid here, and the amount so paid
to be refunded by the laborer at the rate of 4s. 2d. per month.
I agree to the above on behalf of Señor Abel Alarco (employer).
S. E. BREWSTER,

Government Emigration
Agent.
I n consideration of the foregoing terms, and the money advanced
me, I agree to serve my employer faithfully and obediently, and declare that any claim on my part whatever becomes null and void if I
break this contract. -I acknowledge receipt of $10 advanced me in
Barbados. I will confirm this contract if required before any legal
authority at the place of my destination herein mentioned.
SEIFEERT (his x mark) GREENIDGE,
Laborer.
Signed before me this 27th day of September, 1904.
E. B. EODEN, Police Magistrate,
s
District A, Bridgetown,
Barbados.
I certify this to be a true and faithful copy of the original contract
produced to me this 30th day of October, 1910, by the above-mentioned Sieffert Greenidge, at La Chorrera, made by me and compared
with the original by me.
EOGER CASEMENT,

His Majesty^s Consul
LA CHORRERA,

General.

October SO, 1910.

TNo. 9.]

Consul General Casement to Sir Edward

Grey.

LONDON, March 17,1911.
(Eeceived March 20.)
SIR : I have the honor to transmit herewith a report dealing with
the methods of rubber collection and the treatment of the Indians in
the region dominated by the Peruvian Amazon Co. on the Putumayo
affluents of the Amazon.
The region termed " the Putumayo," consisting principally of the
area drained by two tributaries of the lea or Putumayo Eiver, the
Igaraparana and the Caraparana, lies far from the main stream of
the Amazon, and is rarely visited by any vessels save those belonging
to the Peruvian Amazon Co. The only other craft that penetrate
that district are steamers of the Peruvian Government sent occasionally from Iquitos. Brazilian vessels may ascend the Japura,
known in Peru and Colombia as the Caqueta, until they draw near
to the mouth of the Cahuinari, a river which flows into the Japura,
flowing in a northeasterly direction largely parallel with the Igaraparana, which empties into the Putumayo after a southeasterly
course. The region drained by these three waterways, the Caraparana, the Igaraparana, and the Cahuinari, represents the area in
part of which the operations of the Peruvian Amazon Co. are carried
on. I t is impossible to say what the Indian population of this region
may be. Generally speaking, the upper and middle courses of these

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rivers are, or were, the most populous regions. This is accounted for
by the greater absence of insect pests, due to the higher nature of
the ground, which rises at La Chorrera to a level of about 600 feet
above the sea, with neighboring heights fully 1,000 feet above sea
level. The lower course of the Igaraparana, as well as of the Putumayo itself, below the junction of the Igaraparana down to the
Amazon, is through a thick forest region of lower elevation, subject
largely to annual overflow from the flooded rivers. Mosquitoes and
sand flies and the swampy soil doubtless account for the restriction
of the Indians to those higher and drier levels which begin after the
Igaraparana has been ascended for about 100 miles of its course.
I n this more elevated region there are no mosquitos and far fewer
insect plagues, while permanent habitations and the cultivation of
the soil are more easily secured than in the regions liable to annual
inundation.
I n a work officially issued by the Peruvian Government at Lima
in 1907, entitled " En el Putumayo y sus Afluentes," by Eugenio
Robuchon, a French explorer who was engaged in 1903 by Señor Julio
C. Arana, in the name of the Government, to conduct an exploring
mission in the region claimed by the firm of Arana Bros.; the Indian
population of that firm's possessions is given at 50,000 souls. M.
Robuchon lost his life near the mouth of the Cahuinari, in 1906, and
the work in question was edited from his diaries by Señor Carlos
Key de Castro, Peruvian consul general for northern Brazil. The
figure of 50,000 Indians is that given by this official as " not a chance
one."
I n the prospectus issued at the formation of the Peruvian Amazon
Rubber Co. in 1908, Señor Arana is represented as claiming that
there were then 40,000 Indian " laborers " dwelling within the area
of his Putumayo enterprise.
Whatever the true figures may have been, it is certain that the
region lying between the Putumayo and the Japura (or Caqueta)
was for many years known to be prolific in native life, and furnished,
therefore, the most attractive field for slave raiding in the earlier
years of the last century. No civilized settlements would seem to
have arisen in this region until toward the close of the nineteenth
century, and the Indian tribes continued to dwell in their primitive
state, subject only to visits from slave-searching white or half-breed
bands until a quite recent period.
The four principal tribes were the Huitotos (pronounced Witotos),
the Boras, the Andokes, and the Ocainas, with certain smaller tribes
of which the Ricigaros and the Muinanes are frequently mentioned.
These tribes were all of kindred origin and identical in habits and
customs, although differing in language and to some extent in feature,
complexion, and stature. The Huitotos are said to have been the
most numerous and may at one time recently have numbered 30,000
individuals, although to-da}^ they amount to nothing like that figure.
The Huitotos, although the most numerous, were physically the
least sturdy of the four chief tribes named. The name " H u i t o t o "
is said.to signify "Mosquito," I know not with what truth, and to
have been applied to these people by their stouter neighbors in derision of their attenuated extremities, for neither their arms nor legs
.^re shapely or muscular. The Boras are physically a much finer
xace than the Huitotos, and, generally speaking, are of a lighter hue.

SLAVERY IK PERU.

251

While some of the Huitotos are of a dark bronze or chocolate complexion, I have seen Boras little, if at all, of darker skin than a
Japanese or Chinese. The Mongolian resemblance was not alone
confined to similarity of color, but was often strikingly apparent in
features as well as in stature, and in a singular approximation of
gait to what may be termed " the Asiatic walk." So, too, with the
hair and eyes. Both are singularly Mongolian, or, at least, Asiatic
in shape, color, and the former in texture, although the Indian hair
is somewhat less coarse and more abundant than either Chinese or
Japanese.
A picture of a Sea Dyak of Borneo using his sumpitan, or blowpipe, might very well stand for an actual presentment of a Boras
Indian with his " cerbatana." The weapons, too, are identical in
structure and use, and in several other respects a striking similarity
prevails between two races so widely sundered.
These Putumayo Indians were not only divided tribe from tribe,
but within each tribe more or less constant bickerings and disunion
prevailed between the various "families" or "naciones" into which
each great branch was split up. Thus, while Huitotos had a hereditary feud with Boras, or Ocainas, or Andokes, the numerous subdivisions of the Huitotos themselves were continually at war with
one another. Eobuchon enumerates 33 subtribes or families among
the Huitotos, and he by no means exhausts the list. Each of these,
while intermarriage was common and a common sense of origin,
kinship, and language prevailed as against all outsiders, would have
their internal causes of quarrel that often sharply divided neighbor
from neighbor clan.
Such conflicts led to frequent "wars," kidnappings, and thefts of
women being, doubtless, at the bottom of many disputes, while family
grievances and accusations of misuse of occult powers, involving
charges of witchcraft and sorcery, made up the tale of wrong. As a
rule, each family or clan has its great central dwelling house, capable
often of housing 200 individuals, and around this, in the region
recognized by tribal law as belonging to that particular clan, indiAndual members of it with their families would have smaller dwellings scattered at different cultivated spots through the neighboring
forest. The wars of those clans, one with another, were never bloodthirsty, for I believe it is a fact that the Amazon Indian is averse
to bloodshed, and is thoughtless rather than cruel. Prisoners taken
in these wars may have been, and no doubt were, eaten, or in part
eaten, for the Amazon cannibals do not seem to have killed to eat,
as is the case with many primitive races, but to have sometimes,
possibly frequently, in part eaten those they killed. More than one
traveler in tropical South America records his impression that the
victims were not terrified at the prospect of being eaten, and in some
cases regarded it as an honorable end. Lieut. Maw mentions the
casé of a girl on the Brazilian Amazon in 1827 who refused to escape,
to become the slave of a Portuguese " trader," preferring to be eaten
by her own kind.
The weapons of the Putumayo Indians were almost entirely confined to the blowpipe, with its poisoned darts, and small throwing
spears with poor wooden tips, three or more of which, grasped between the fingers, were thrown at one time. The forest must have
been fairly full of game up to quite recently, for the Indians seem

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to have had a sufficiency of meat diet, and, with their plantations
of cassava, maize, and the numerous fruits and edible leaves their
forest furnished, they were not so short of food that cannibalism
could be accounted for as a necessity. They were also skilled fishermen, and as the forests are everywhere channeled with streams of
clear water, there must have been a frequent addition of fish diet to
their daily fare.
No missions or missionaries would seem to have ever penetrated
to the regions here in question. On the upper waters of the Putumayo itself religious instruction and Christian worship appear to
have been established by Colombian settlers, but these civilizing influences had not journeyed sufficiently far downstream to reach the
Huitotos or their neighbors. Save for the raids of slavers coming
up the Japura or Putumayo, their contact with white men had been
a distant and far-off story that in little affected their home life, save
possibly to add an element of demoralization in the inducements
offered for the sale of human beings.
Lieut. Maw, an officer of the British Navy, who crossed from the
Pacific to the Atlantic by way of the Amazon early in the last
century, in his work speaks of the Putumayo in the vaguest terms, and
it is clear that then, in 1827, and later on in 1851 when Lieut. Herndon,
of the United States Navy, went down the Amazon in a canoe, nothing was really known either of the river or of its inhabitants. They
were practically an untouched, primitive people when the first Colombian "caucheros," coming down the Putumayo from the settled
regions on its upper waters, located themselves at different points
along the headwaters of the Caraparana and Igaraparana, and entered
into what are termed trade dealings with these unsophisticated tribes.
This first Colombian invasion of the Putumayo regions took place,
I am informed, in the early eighties, some of my informants stated
about 1886. The earliest of these " conquistadores " were Crisóstomo
Hernandez and Benjamin Larrañaga, who entered the region in
search of the inferior kind of rubber there produced known as " sei n a m b i " or " jebe débil" (weak fine rubber). The banks of these two
rivers and the whole of the region inhabited by the Huitotos, the
Andokes, and the Boras Indians are fairly well stocked with trees
that furnish the milk out of which an inferior rubber is elaborated.
The Putumayo Indians merely gashed the tree with a knife or
machete, and, catching the milk as it exudes in little baskets made of
leaves, they wash it in their streams of running water and pound it
with wooden pestles into long sausage-shaped rolls, termed in Peruvian rubber parlance " chorizos," which ultimately are put upon the
market just as the Indian carries them in to whoever may be locally
exploiting him and his neighborhood. That these wild Indians
welcomed the coming into their country of Hernandez, Larrañaga,
and the other Colombians who succeeded these earliest of the modern
" conquistadores," it would be absurd to assert. They were doubtless
glad to get machetes, powder, and caps for the few trade guns they
possessed, with the prospect even of acquiring more of these priceless
weapons themselves, along with such trifles as beads, mirrors, tin
bowls, basins, fishhooks, and tempting tins of sardines or potted meats—
all of them articles of little intrinsic value, but of very attractive
character to the Indian dwelling in so inaccessible a region. H a d
any form of administrative authority accompanied the early settlers

SLAVERY IN PERU.

253

or searchers for Indians, as they should rightly be termed, their relations with these wild inhabitants of the forest might have been controlled and directed to some mutually useful end. But the "caucheros " came as filibusters, not as civilizers, and were unaccompanied
by any executive officers representing a civilized control. The region
was practically a no-man's land, lying remote from any restraining
authority or civilizing influence, and figuring on maps of South
America as claimed by three separate Republics.
Those who came in search of rubber had no intention of dwelling
longer in the forest than the accumulation of the wealth they hoped
to amass necessitated. They wanted to get rich quickly, not to stay
and civilize the Indians or make their homes among them. The
rubber trees of themselves were of no value; it was Indians who could
be made or induced to tap them and to bring in the rubber on the
white man's terms that all the invading " conquistadores " were in
search of. Generally, a leading man fitted out an expedition with a
few companions, partners in effort and initial expenditure, and with
a gang of hired " peons," or, as they are called in that region, " racionales " (half-breeds mostly who can read and write to distinguish
them from the "Indios," who are ignorant of all save forest lore),
he journeyed to some part of the forest in search of tribes of wild
Indians—" infieles " or " infidels "—who could be easily subdued and
reduced to work the wild' rubber trees in the territory they inhabited.
An Indian would promise anything for a gun or for some of the
other tempting things offered as inducements to him to work rubber.
Many Indians submitted to the alluring offer only to find that once
in the " conquistadores' " books they had lost all liberty and were reduced to unending demands for more rubber and more varied tasks.
A cacique or " capitán " might be bought over to dispose of the labor
of all his clan, and as the cacique's influence was very great and the
natural docility of the Indian a remarkable characteristic of the
upper Amazon tribes the work of conquering a primitive people and
reducing them to a continual strain of rubber finding was less difficult
than might at first be supposed. Moreover, their arms of defense
were puerile weapons to oppose to the rifles of the " blancos."
Lieut. Maw relates how, as long ago as 1827, the inferior firearms
of that day filled the Indians with terror. He says, speaking of the
then Portuguese raids up the J a p u r a :
So great is the dread of white men among these Indians, who are said to tight
desperately if opposed to each other, that if, as is sometimes the case, a hundred
or more of them are seen dancing at night around a fire, seven or eight
^brancos" (whites) by taking different stations and firing a few shots may
seize as many as they can get hold of, the others only thinking of escape. If
the Indians get information of " brancos" being on any of these hunting expeditions they dig holes in the paths and different parts of the woods and fix
strong poisoned spears in them, after which slight rotten sticks are placed
across and covered with leaves, earth, etc., and it requires much caution and
some experience to avoid them.

The foundations thus laid by Crisostomo Hernandez and Larrañaga
in 1886 grew, not without bloodshed and many killings of the Indians, into a widespread series of Colombian settlements along the
banks of the Caraparana and Igaraparana, and even in the country
stretching between the latter river and the Japura and on the upper
waters of the Cahuinari.

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

The " caucheros " so established, to obtain fresh supplies and necessities of civilized existence, as well as such barter goods as their
dealings with the Indians called for, had to look to the Brazilian and
Peruvian territories downstream instead of to the Colombian towns
whence they had first set out. I t was comparatively easy to get supplies from Iquitos by water, and in this way, about 1896, the firm
of Arana Bros, first opened up trade dealings with these Colombian
" caucheros." These reciprocal dealings grew, and ultimately ended
in the acquisition of almost all the Colombian settlements by the firm
of Arana Bros. The Indians went along with the trading establishments. I t is the commonest thing to hear on the upper Amazon a
trader speak of " my Indians " or of " my river." Men descend or
ascend a hitherto unsettled river, establish themselves on its banks,
reduce the forest tribe or tribes to work for them on their terms, and
henceforth that river and those Indians become the close preserve,
jealously guarded, of the first adventurer. Any attempt to ascend
that river by another is regarded as " piracy," while to enter into
friendty relations with the Indians is a capital offense, «and those
attempting it must go with their lives in their hands. "Rubber
pirates " are shot at sight, while " thefts " of Indians involve bloody
reprisals and private wars that recall the feudal conflicts of the early
middle ages. An Indian tribe once " conquered " becomes the exclusive property of the successful assailant, and this lawless claim is
recognized as a right over a widely extended region, which is not limited to the Putumayo district alone. Needless to say it has no sanction in law, whether in Peru or any other of the republics sharing
the sovereignty of the remote forests in which it prevails. Custom
sanctioned by long traditions, and an evil usage whose maxim is that
" the Indian has no rights,' 7 are far stronger than a distant law that
rarely emerges into practice. More than one instance of magistrates
actively intervening to capture or compel runaway Indians to return
to the bondage they had fled from were brought to my notice in
regions much more effectively administered than the Putumayo.
Appeals to the constituted authorities to investigate and redress in
cases of this kind, in more than one instance I am aware of, have been
of no avail. The established usage was far stronger than law. I
could cite many cases, resting on what I am convinced was unimpeachable testimony, that were brought to my notice by old-established residents on the upper Amazon in the course of my recent
journey. I will content myself with going to official sources of information to illustrate the state of things that prevails over a very
wide area of the rubber-producing forests of the upper Amazon ana
its tributaries.
I n the annual report of the minister of -justice presented to the
Peruvian Congress in 1907, an official document issued by the Government press, there are published, under the head of " Instrucción
y Culto," two reports addressed to the minister from the heads of the
Catholic Church in the upper Amazon regions of Peru. The first
of these is dated from Iquitos on 8th September, 1907, and is addressed to the minister of justice, Dr. Carlos A. Washbourne, by
Frei Pedro Prat, and deals with the condition of religious instruction in the apostolic prefecture of San Leon del Amazonas, in which
are situated both Iquitos and the region of the lower Putumayo.

SLAVEEY I N PEBU.

255

Writing of the district of Pebas, in the immediate vicinity of
Iquitos, which is the governing and judicial center of the whole
department of Loreto, Frei P r a t records:
Year 1903.—In the month of April of t h i s year a mission w a s established by
the Most Reverend the F a t h e r Prefect a t Pebas, on the left bank of t h e Ampiyaco, an affluent of t h e Maranon. The Rev. F a t h e r s Pedro P r a t and Placido
Mallo were appointed to t h i s mission, who sought by every means to convert
the infidel " Yaguas," some of whom dwell in the vicinity of Pebas, but t h e
greater p a r t in more distant localities, obtaining, however, scanty results, owing
to the very little support ("poquísimo a p o y o " ) of t h e " c a u c h e r o s " ("explotadores de goma elástica " ) , who a r e interested t h a t the savages should remain
in the grossest ignorance ( " e n la nías crasa i g n o r a n c i a " ) in order to exploit
them with the greater ease.

The reverend brother goes on to record Jtiow the apostolic prefect
himself visited these Yaguas Indians on foot, undergoing difficulty
and privation to reach " these unhappy infidels," and how after so
much labor the missionary often encountered " the opposition of the
fc
caucheros,' so that he should not learn the language of the Yaguas."
Pebas lies only a few hours' steaming from Iquitos, on the main
stream of the Amazon itself, and is constantly passed by various
steamers in search of rubber, as well as by the ocean mail boats that
ply from Liverpool to Iquitos. I visited this place on my way back
from the Putumayo, but my stay was a short one and at night, and
I saw only four members of the Yaguas tribe—two young men and
their wives. They struck me as of particularly pleasing appearance
and of a quite winning simplicity.
Coming to more distant regions, where executive authority is necessarily weaker, the missionary brother informs the minister of justice
of the state of things on the Putumayo itself:
Rive?- Putumayo.—In
this river it is not possible to establish any mission
owing to t h e abuses of the " c a u c h e r o s " against the Indians ( " l o s infieles"),
whom they m a l t r e a t and murder for no reason ( " p o r motivos f r i v o l o s " ) , seizing their women and children. ( P . 782 of the Ministerial Report.)

Lest this may be thought a vague indictment, I append a further
extract from the same report, this time directed by the apostolic prefeet of the district of San Francisco de Ucayali to the minister of
justice. I t is dated from Contamana on the Ucayali, the chief place
of the Province, on the 27th August, 1907, and deals at some length
with the condition of religion and education on that great river, the
main feeder and source of the Amazon, and one that has been largely
occupied and in civilized hands for the better part of the last century. The apostolic prefect begins his report by stating that having
received a telegram from the minister begging him to furnish a report upon the state of his apostolic prefecture, he hastens to perform
this task with every dispatch and pleasure. After describing the
state of more than one of the religious establishments under his direction along the course of this great river and its affluents, and the
influence for good they have exercised upon the numerous Indian
tribes dwelling in that part of Peru, the apostolic prefect addresses
the minister as follows:
Before speaking of t h e region of t h e Ucayali I wish to d r a w the attention
of the supreme Government to t h e infamous t r a d e in buying and selling boys
and girls which for years h a s been practiced in these p a r t s of the montana (i. e.,
the forest region), in spite of the repeated prohibitions of the Government, j u s t
as if these poor savages were irrational beings ( " s e r e s i r r a c i o n a l e s " ) , or, to

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be still more clear, just as if they were sheep or horses. This is intolerable in
such an illustrious country as Peru. This t r a d e excites and foments the huntin ( " c o r r e r í a s , " literally " c h a s i n g s " ) so frequently indulged in of these
poor savages, so as to seize them in their houses in the moment when they
least expect it. This is done by different t r a d e r s ( " c o m e r c i a n t e s " ) by means
•of their " p e o n s , " particularly some of those of t h e Upper Ucayali. I could
eite many examples in confirmation of this, but I will cite one alone which took
place last year (1906.) Here it i s :
" T h e Campas Indians of t h e River Ubiriqui were dwelling peacefully in
their houses when suddenly, as is reported, there fell upon them men sent on a
4
c o r r e r í a ' by one of the t r a d e r s of the Upper Ucayali, who lives n e a r Unini.
These, without warning, attacked the innocent Campas, seizing those whom
they could, killing many of them so t h a t few escaped their cruelties, so t h a t
even up to now t h e number of their victims is not known. I t is certain 'that
many bodies have been found in a state of putrefaction, and t h a t all t h e houses
of the Ubiriqui a r e burnt. These deeds have exasperated the I n d i a n s (' los
infieles'), and if no effective remedy is applied, later on we shall not be safe
even in the mission villages (' pueblocitos de la m i s i ó n ' ) , nor shall we be able
to spread our winning over and civilizing of the savages who dwell in our
forests." ( P . 783 and following of the report.)

I do not know what steps were taken to deal with this state of
things on the Upper Ucayali, but no steps of any kind followed on
the Putumayo the notification, as quoted, made to the minister of justice by Frei Prat. That the representations of these Peruvian
missionaries had not escaped the eyes of the minister himself is
clear from his own remarks. I n his prefatory address to the members of congress the minister of justice states in his report (p. 48 of
the part " Instrucción y Culto ") as follows:
PREFECTURAS APOSTÓLICAS.

T h e apostolic prefectures have continued their work of civilization and evangelization of the I n d i a n s of the Oriente, and in their reports, which a r e inserted a s an annex, will be found detailed accounts of its progress.

Where such a system of dealing with wild people has been allowed
to grow up and to remain practically unchecked, it can not be wondered at that these poor beings defend themselves as best they can
against their persecutors. This defense can take only one form—to
surprise, if possible, their hunters and take their lives. The Indian
knows the weakness of his own character as opposed to the resolute
enterprise and enduring purpose of the white man. He is aware that
he can not, intellectually, pit himself against those whom he dreads,
and that if he once surrenders to their control he has said good-by
to freedom and to all the joys of forest home and family life. His
only resource is to surprise and kill, and this very act of self-defense
becomes to those who are enslaving him a further incitement to fresh
barbarities. Some of the more atrocious crimes that were brought
to my direct notice on the Putumayo were apologized for by their
perpetrators, on the grounds that the massacred or tortured Indians
had first killed a "bianco." One of the agents of the Peruvian
Amazon Co., who was perhaps the best of the white residents in that
region, told me of how the Andokes Indians had some years beforekilled a large party of Colombians, Peruvians, and Brazilians who had
ascended the Japura with the intention of " conquistaring " that tribe
in order to found rubber centers among them. This informant was
a Peruvian, and he described the methods of the Colombian "conquistadores " as " very bad." I n 1903, when he had come first to the
place where I found him dominating a large section of the company's

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territories, the region had been chiefly filled with Colombian " caucheros." He described a notable massacre of one party of these
" caucheros " that had taken place just about the time of his arrival.
This was a party led by a man named Gutierrez, and consisted of 60
armed individuals, Colombians and Brazilians. They had ascended
the J a p u r a in a steam launch and then proceeded in search of a tribe
of Indians, carrying their goods with them. They were received in
friendly guise by the Indians, so much so that Gutierrez kept no
guard that night and even omitted to have a lamp lit in the big Indian house in which the party slept. Some of the Indians slept beside them, and in the deepest hours of sleep a large party of Indians
surrounded the house. These and the men inside the house first
quietly abstracted the rifles from the sides of the sleeping men and
then fell upon the sleepers and killed every man of them with machetes. The heads were cut off and the skulls'exposed on the drum
sheds of the Indian house. The bodies, after the arms and legs had
been cut off, were kept as long as possible in water to be shown to all
the neighboring Indians as proof that this party of slavers had been
effectually dealt with. My informant had buried 12 of the bodies of
this killing or of a later one, for he gave me particulars of several
incidents of the kind wherein the Colombians had been killed by the
Indians they were seeking to enslave. He had found the bodies tied
on stakes, and assured me the Indians had not eaten any of these
men—they " h a d a repugnance to eating white men, whom they hated
too much."
Terrible reprisals subsequently fell upon these Indians and all in
the neighborhood who were held responsible for this killing of the
Colombians in 1903 and later years.
I n 1905 the station of Matanzas or Andokes was the center of a
series of raids organized by the Colombian head of it, one Eamón
Sanchez, who was at the time a sort of agent of Arana Bros. To this
man the first contingent of Barbados men, British subjects, recruited
by the firm of Arana Bros, as laborers, was handed over. This contingent numbered, as far as I could determine, 36 men, accompanied
by 5 women, the wives of some of the men. They had been engaged
by a partner of the firm, one Abel Alarco, in Barbados before the
local magistrates in October, 1904, and were brought to the Amazon
by a Peruvian or Bolivian named Armando Normand, acting as
interpreter in the pay of Arana. On arrival at La Chorrera, the
headquarters of the Arana enterprise, where the original " conquistador," Benjamin Larrañaga, had died in 1903, these men were
handed over to Eamón Sanchez to accompany him on a mission of
vengeance and rubber gathering into the Andokes country» Armando Normand was still in charge of the station then founded when
1 visited that part of the country in October, 1910, and I found more
than one of the Barbados men who had formed part of the original
contingent still in the company's service, and one of them a man who
had never left the actual station of Matanzas since being first brought
there in November or December, 1904. The testimony of these men,
much of which will be found attached to this report in the copies of
depositions or statements made to me during the course of my inquiry, was of the most atrocious description. Not only did they
accuse Sanchez and Normand of dreadful acts of cruelty, but they
7T234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

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SLAVEEY I H PEKU.

also in more than one instance charged themselves with crimes that
were revolting in the extreme. The excuse put forward for these
initial attacks on the Indians in the first coming of the Barbados men
was that the Indians had massacred Colombian rubber workers and
appropriated their rifles.
The civilizing white men were always, I found, particularly anxious that arms of precision should not fall into the hands of the
wild Indians; and if by theft or otherwise Indians became possessed
of them, continual raids were made until the possessors were caught
and the captured arms recovered. The only Indians who were permitted the use of rifles were those young men—sometimes boys or
" cholitos "—who were being trained to oppress their countrymen in
the interests of the " caucheros." These " muchachos " were generally
young Indians taken from one tribe and used in acts of terrorization
in another district over people who were not their immediate kinsmen. No special qualification was needed to be a " muchacho." Just
as the bulk of the male adult Indians in any district " conquered " by
the " caucheros " were required to bring in fixed quantities of rubber
at stated periods, so some of the subdued tribesmen were compelled
to come into the white man's dwelling house and there serve him in
this special capacity of " muchacho." Some " muchachos " would
grow into the service from being first " cholitos," or small Indian
boys, possibly orphans, growing up around the white man's station
and trained to do his bidding. The " muchachos " would very often
be married, many of them with children, and they and their families
dwelt in one of the station buildings erected by the forced labor of
the surrounding tribes for the white man's use. Every station I
visited had its so-called " Indian house," or dwelling for the " muchachos," built, like all the other dwellings, by the compulsory labor
of the neighboring forest Indians. The "muchachos," generally
speaking, were as bad as those they served; and in some cases, by
reason of the utter thoughtlessness of the Indian's character and his
extreme pr oneness to obey without question-any order given him by
a white man, the crimes they committed on their brethren were
atrocious in the extreme.
I n fairness to the Indian character, however, it must be pointed
out that the worst crimes charged against Indian " muchachos"
serving white masters were committed under the direct orders of their
white lords. Moreover, the " muchacho " no more than the Indian
rubber gatherer could refuse to obey the white man. If he did not
maltreat his brother Indian at the bidding of the white man who
had invaded his country, he himself might be murdered. I came
across very many " muchachos " during my journey in the forest,
and some of them gave the distinct impression of being thoroughly
demoralized and capable of any crime in the calendar. Others, on
the contrary, seemed amiable Indian lads or men who not too willingly fulfilled their odious role of oppressor. To be a " muchacho "
was a species of promotion, of selection on approval; and as it
quickly entailed the possession of a rifle and cartridges with which
to terrorize the rubber-gathering Indians, it followed that the "muchacho " was able to indulge his own predatory instincts at the expense
of his unarmed and defenseless countrymen. As long as he successfully bullied those he was set to oppress 3 the " muchacho " might
rob the remainder of foodstuffs, of ornaments, of spears, or of any-

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2.59

thing the forest dweller called his own, not even always excluding
his wife or daughter, without the " cauchero" taking any severe
notice of his conduct. I heard of more than one " muchacho " who
was killed by his master, and in some cases I learned of " muchachos "
who had killed their employers. One case might be cited, since the
name of the principal white man killed occurs more than once iii
the depositions of the Barbados men attached to this report. This
was a man named Bucelli, a Colombian attached to the station of
Matanzas when it was founded, in December, 1904, by Ramón Sanchez. This man is particularly referred to in the statement of Clifford Quintin dealing with the ill treatment that British subjects
sustained while serving in the Matanzas district, some of it at the
hands of Bucelli. Bucelli had continued in the employ of the Arana
Bros., and later of the Peruvian Amazon Co., their successors, down
to the autumn of 1909, when he met his death along with three other
white men at the hands of four " muchachos " who were serving under
them. Bucelli and these other agents of the company were engaged
on one of the frequently recurring freebooting raids into the Republic of Colombia in pursuit of Indians who had run away from the
rubber slavery imposed upon them. My attention was first drawn
to the matter by meeting at two different stations two half-caste
children, sisters, who were acting as nursemaids to the children of the
chief of the station, and, on casually inquiring for the parents of
these two. girls, I was informed that the father had died on the
Cagueta. Subsequent inquiry in connection with the treatment of
British subjects brought to light that the father of these two children
was the man Bucelli, and that his death on the Gaqueta had been
due to a mutiny or revolt of the four armed " muchachos " who had
accompanied the party.
Bucelli and his three white companions had been killed by these
armed servitors and their rifles taken possession of. Bucelli's Indian
" wife," who accompanied him, and who was the mother of three
children by him, two of whom I met, had had so much sympathy
with the object of the " muchachos " that she had not warned her
husband of the plot against his life, although, as I was assured,
aware of it. The four " muchachos " had subsequently fought among
themselves, and two had been killed in this way. The two survivors
had, after some months, given themselves up to the station of Entre
Rios. They had been flogged repeatedly, and just before the date of
my visit had been confined in chains in the neighboring station of
Matanzas. Not long before my visit to that station in October, 1910,
they had escaped from the house in which they were confined and had
got off into the forest with the chains still on them. As they were
Huitotos and their escape had occurred in the Andokes country, it
wasWLikely that they would meet their fate in the end at the hands
of those Indians whom they had so often been engaged in maltreating.
Flogging of Indians is so frequently referred to in connection with
the methods of rubber getting practiced on the Putumayo that some
explanation of it is called for. Many of the British subjects employed by the company admitted to me in the course of their interrogation that they along with other " p e o n s " or "racionales" (i. e.,
salaried staff) employed at each station had been compelled to flog
the Indians. This staff of "rational employees" represented the

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so-called civilizing element engaged in what was termed, with a
singular disregard of accuracy, trade dealings with the Indians. The
rational staff of a section or station varied in numbers according to the
needs of the locality. I append to this report a full list of all the salaried
staff, with their distribution, belonging to the La Chorrera agency
at the date of my arrival in September, 1910. This list is derived
from the official lists as drawn up in the headquarters agency at L a
Chorrera. According to this list, made up for September, 1910,
there were distributed among the 10 stations or sections making up
the rubber-producing area of the Igaraparana and Cahuinari districts, which were controlled from La Chorrera, 101 salaried employees, including also the chief of each section. The remuneration
of the chief of section was not by salary but by a percentage on the
quantity of rubber he could obtain from his section and send to
Chorrera. These men were all armed with Winchester rifles, and
never moved a step from their station without their rifle.
I n addition many had revolvers, but these latter were not supplied by the company, whereas the rifle went with the salary. The
stations with the largest staff of "racionales" at the date of my
visit were the following:
Andokes or Matanzas
La Sabana
Abisinia (with its subsections of Morelia and Palmera)Santa Catalina
Entre Rios
.
Ultimo Retiro
.

Civilized staff.
13
12
18
13
11
11

The stations of Sur, Occidente, Atenas, and Oriente had a smaller
staff, ranging from nine individuals at Oriente to only three at Sur,
the latter station being, however, quite close to La Chorrera, the
headquarters agency, where a large staff of employees was maintained.
La Chorrera itself produced no rubber. I t was the administrative
center controlling the 10 sections enumerated, supplying them with
armaments, provisions, etc., and receiving their rubber to be stored
and ultimately sent to Iquitos by one of the steamers of the company, more or less regularly plying between the Putumayo and that
place.
I n addition to this staff of 101 armed men scattered through these
10 rubber-collecting centers, each section had also a staff of armed
Indian "muchachos." As a rule, I should say, the armed "muchachos" exceeded in numbers the staff of "racionales" at each post.
Thus, for instance, at Entre Rios, where I spent some two weeks in
October, 1910, 2 of the 11 " racionales " were at the time absent, temporarily lent to neighboring sections, and as against 9 armed " r a cionales " at the time of my stay there were actually 12 armed " muchachos." The weapon of the "muchacho " was also the Winchester
rifle, supplied by the company. Thus the fighting strength of Entre
Rios (one of the best conducted of the stations I visited) was composed of 11 armed "blancos" (some of them "mestizos," or half
breeds) regularly engaged as a civilized salaried staff, and of 12
armed native Indians who in the first instance were press-ganged
and were not paid any regular or monied wage at all. The total
armed force engaged in coercing the Indians in the 10 sections might
therefore be put at 100 " blancos," or " racionales " (of whom 15 were

SLAVERY I N PERU.

261

Barbados men at the time I visited the country, and possibly 200
armed " muchachos," with a reserve force of from 20 to 30 " blancos,"
and plenty of guns and ammunition available at La Chorrera. As a
rule the flogging of defaulting Indian rubber workers was performed
by one or more of the rational staff deputed to that special duty by
the chief of the section. Where Barbados men formed part of the
staff they were frequently assigned this task, but no monopoly of
flogging was enjoyed by any employee as a right, although some men,,
like the Colombian negro, Simon Ángulo (often referred to in connection with Abisinia), seem to have liked the task, and to have been
specially chosen for their ability in wielding the lash, so as, if desired, to draw blood or cut flesh at every blow. The chief of section
himself frequently took the lash, which, in turn, might be wielded by
every member of the civilized or rational staff. I did not gather
that the " muchachos " were frequently employed as floggers—that is
to say, as regular floggers.
The Indian has a natural timidity, an inherent dislike to flogging,
that, while it rendered this form of punishment one specially indicated for the end in view, namely, to terrorize him into compliance
with his captor's wishes, possibly militated against his own employment as an active chastiser of his fellow Indian.
The Indian dread of the lash was early recognized by the followers
of Pizzaro in their first dealings with the population of the Andes,
for we read in the records, of Spanish rule that the viceroy, Don
Francisco de Toledo, who came to Peru in 1569 and left it in 1581,
among other laws for civilizing the remnant of the Inca people, prescribed that " any Indian who makes friendship with an Indian
woman who is an infidel is to receive 100 lashes for the first offense,
that being the punishment they dislike most."
The Indians I encountered in the stations of the La Chorrera
agency in 1910 betrayed the same dislike of flogging. I t was a potent means of persuading them to work rubber or to renewed effort
if they had failed to satisfy their civilized masters. From first to
last during my inquiry in that region, dating from the 22d of September, when I landed at La Chorrera, to the 16th of November,
when I left it to return to Iquitos, I met more than 1,600 native Indians, I should say—men, women, and children, not counting the
numerous Indian staffs at the different stations visited. These 1,600
people were the wild forest Indians, the so-called " laborers " of the
company. As the women go entirely naked and the men and boys
wear only a strip of beaten bark " cloth " tightly wound round their
loins, their persons were fully exposed to view. The first " w i l d "
Indians I actually saw were seven men of the Boras tribe, from the
section of Abisinia, who were in La Chorrera on my arrival, having
been brought there by a higher agent of the company named Miguel
Flores, who had come from Abisinia for stores and who left with
these men to serve as carriers during my stay in Chorrera. Of these
seven nude figures five were scarred across the buttocks and thighs
with marks of the lash.
From this on, part of my observation at every station reached was
directed to this portion of the bodies of the many Indians encountered, and in the great majority of cases of those I inspected the
marks of the lash were more or less visible. These brands were not
confined to men. All classes of the native population—young as

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well as old—women and children, youths and girls—caciques, or
" capitanes" and their wives—were marked, some only lightly,
others with broad and often terrible scars. Some of these marks
were old^ some quite recent, and in more than one case young men
were brought to me with raw scars upon their hinder parts, with
requests that I might give some healing lotion. On one occasion,
on the night of the 19th of October, which I spent in a deserted
Indian house in the forest with well over 100 Andokes and Boras
Indians around me, employed at the time in carrying heavy loads of
rubber from the station of Matanzas down to the River Igaraparana
for shipment to La Chorrera (a march of some 40 miles )^ I applied
such healing medicines as I had with me to a dozen young men or
boys who appealed for relief. The armed guards who were marching this caravan down to the river were mainly behind at a point
in the forest some miles away, and only one or two armed " muchachos " were actually sleeping with the party, where I too was resting. I was able, therefore, to inspect them closely, and many of the
wounds were not yet healed. Some of the worst marked were quite
small boys—children of 10 or 12 years of age, as I should judge. I
was told by a resident who had spent nearly six years in the region,
and who himself confessed to me that he constantly flogged Indians—
women as well as men—that fully 90 per cent of the entire population
bore traces of these floggings. I mentioned this figure to some of the
English gentlemen who accompanied me throughout the greater part
of the journey, and they thought it was an exaggeration. I am inclined to think it was approximately correct. The day this statement was made to me we were out at what was termed " an Indian
house," in the forest of the section of Occidente, where the natives
of that part had been ordered to get some crude rubber ready to be
washed and pounded into " chorizos," for the inspection of the
commission of English gentlemen sent out by the Peruvian Amazon
Co. from London.
I was present at this operation, and the limbs of the four Indian
men actually employed in the washing were fully exposed to us as
they stooped forward in the stream in their task. All four bore
obvious scars across the buttocks—one of them, a middle-aged man,
was deeply marked. I went from the stream up to the Indian house
itself—100 yards away—where our lunch was being prepared, and
finding 11 Indians of the district in the house who had come in to
" compliment" us with small offerings of fruit, I took occasion to
ask this assemblage, through my interpreter, how many of them had
been flogged by the white men (who were at the time my hosts),
and they instantly replied, "All of us," and proceeded, as none of
their local lords were in sights to prove their words by exhibiting
their scarred limbs. The only individual not marked in this gathering was a young boy of about 12 years of age. Thus out of this
haphazard gathering of fifteen persons of both sexes a quite unpremeditated inquiry proved that all but one bore on their bodies the
proof of the charges that were daily being brought to our attention
that in the production of Putumayo rubber the iash played an unceasing part.
Flogging of the Indians had been prohibited some time before
our visit, " i was assured, by a circular letter sent out by the chief
representative of the company, and this gentleman, when I first

SLAVERY IK PERU.

263

arrived at La Chorrera, sought to convince me that it had actually
ceased.
From the direct testimony laid before me at the station of Matanzas on the 18th October, to which I invited this gentleinjin's attention,
it was clear that in that district, at any rate, his orders had not been
obeyed, for I there learned by personal confession of one of the
floggers himself that less than six weeks before my visit, in the month
of September, a native chief had been flogged to death and had died
in actual confinement in the station " stocks " between his wife and
one of his children. Flogging was the least of the tortures inflicted
on the failing rubber gatherer, but it was the most universal and indiscriminate. Every section visited had its " cepo " or stocks, and its
duly appointed floggers in ordinary. A t some of the stations the
principal flogger was the station cook. Two such men were directly
named to me, and I ate the food they prepared, while many of their
victims carried my baggage from station to station and showed
often terrible scars on their limbs inflicted at the hands of these men.
Indians were often flogged while actually confined in the stocks, but
this would be a sort of extra or gratuitous beating. The general
method of flogging described to me by those who had themselves
administered the lash was to apply it on the bare buttocks, the back
and thighs coming in for a share of the blows, while the victim, male
or female, lay or was forcibly extended on the ground, sometimes
pegged out. Needless to say I did not witness any of these executions.
As a rule the chief of each section, learning of the approaching
visit of the company's commissioners and myself, gave orders to his
subordinates to see that the worst-flogged specimens of the surrounding Indian population were kept out of the way during our stay in
that section. Despite this precaution, some of these injured individuals became visible, and in some cases Indians who had been
grossly maltreated were actually produced for inspection as proof
that the agent then in charge had not himself flogged them. They
were put forward as evidence of a former colleague's handiwork.
Before my visit ended more than one Peruvian agent admitted to
me that he had continually flogged Indians and accused more than
one of his fellow agents by name of far greater crimes. I n many
cases the Indian rubber worker, who knew roughly what quantity of
rubber was expected of him, when he brought his load to be weighed,
seeing that the needle of the balance did not touch the required spot,
would throw himself face downward on the ground and in that
posture await the inevitable blows. An individual who had often
taken part in these floggings and who charged himself with two
murders of Indians has thus left on record the manner of flogging
the Indians at stations where he served. I quote this testimony, as
this man's evidence, which was in my possession when I visited the
region, was amply confirmed by one of the British subjects I examined, who had himself been charged in that evidence with flogging
an Indian girl, whom the man in question had then shot when her
back after that flogging had putrefied so that it became " full of
maggots." He states in his evidence—and the assertion was frequently borne out by others I met and questioned:
The Indian is so humble that as soon as he sees that the needle of the scale
does not mark the 10 kilograms he himself stretches out his hands and throws
himself on the ground to receive the punishment. Then the chief or a subordi-

264

SLAVEKY IN PEEU.

nate advances, bends down, takes the Indian by his hair, strikes him, raise»
his head, drops it face downward on the ground, and after the face is beaten
and kicked and covered with blood the Indian is scourged.

This picture is true; detailed descriptions of floggings of this kind
were again and again made to me by men who had been employed in
the work. Indians were flogged not only for shortage in rubber, but
still more gr,eviously if they dared to run away from their houses
and, by flight to a distant region, to escape altogether from the tasks
laid upon them. Such flight as this was counted a capital offense,
and the fugitives, if captured, were as often tortured and put to
death as brutally flogged. Expeditions were fitted out and carefully
planned to track down and recover the fugitives, however far the
flight might have been. The undisputed territory of the neighboring
Eepublic of Colombia, lying to the north of the River J a p u r a (or
Caqueta) was again and again violated in these pursuits, and the
individuals captured were not always only Indians. Thus in an
expedition which set out from the station of Ultimo Retiro on the
Upper Igaraparana in March, 1910, and which was dispatched by
the direct orders of the principal agent of the company at La Chorrera (Señor Victor Macedo), the marauders were not content with
capturing over a score of fugitive Indians in Colombia, but actually
tied up and brought back to La Chorrera three white men, citizens
of Colombia, who were found dwelling at the spot where the Indians
were tracked down and overtaken. One of these men, by name
Ramón Vargas, had consented to enter the service of the company,
and was actually employed at the station of Atenas at the date of
my visit there on the 26th of October. The other two men, named
Mosqueiro and Tejo, after being brought to La Chorrera as prisoners,
had been sent downstream by Señor Macedo, and I could learn
nothing of their ultimate disposal or fate. This expedition had been
led by the chief of Ultimo Retiro, Señor Augusto Jiménez, and two
of the British subjects I encountered, natives of Barbados, named
Edward Crichlow and Reuben Phillips, had formed part of it. A
Peruvian named Eusebio Pinedo, who was one of the " r a t i o n a l "
staff of the station of Entre Rios, which I visited after spending some
days at Ultimo Retiro, at his own request made a statement to me
covering his connection with this expedition. H e bore out the evidence of the Barbados men and added that two Indians, one a woman
and the other a young man, had been wantonly shot by another
member of the expedition, a man named Aquiléo Torres. The two
Barbados men claimed a special " gratification " from the company
for their share in this raid and cited in proof of their claim an order
issued at the time the expedition was being organized by Señor
Macedo, the representative of the company. The original of this
order, signed by Señor Macedo, I saw at UÍtimo Retiro, and append
the following translation of i t :
NOTICE.

The employees who conduct themselves well on the expedition to the Caqueta,
and who present a certificate on their return from the leader of the expedition,
Señor Augusto Jiménez, will receive a reward.
V. E. MACEDO, the Agent.
ULTIMO RETIRO, February 25,

1910.

SLAVEEY I N PERU,

265

Both Crichlow and Phillips, the two British subjects concerned in
it, obtained a gift of 50 soles (or £5) each for their part in this raid
into the territory of a friendly State by the agents of a British trading company carrying on what were said to be commercial dealings
in Peruvian territory. Much later raids than this were conducted
into Colombia by the agent at Matanzas or Andokes Señor Armando
Normand, in which again two British subjects took part. The testimony of these two men, James Lane and Westerman Leavine, was
first given to me at Matanzas station on the 18th of October, and at
once laid by me before Señor Tizón, the principal representative of
the Peruvian Amazon Co., who accompanied me throughout my journey. Señor Nórmand, it was clear from the evidence of these men
and of others, had for years been engaged in hunting Indians who
had fled across the Caqueta to escape from the inhuman cruelties he
inflicted upon them in his efforts to make them work rubber for his
profit. This man, by the official " Planillas de Sueldos," or pay sheet
drawn up at La Chorrera in September, 1910, to which I have already
referred, received as remuneration from the company 20 per cent on
the gross output of rubber of his section (" 20 por ciento sobre productos peso bruto " ) .
The crimes alleged against this man, dating from the end of the
year 1904 up to the month of October, 1910, when I found him in
charge of this station of Matanzas or Andokes, seem well-nigh incredible. They included innumerable murders and tortures of defenseless Indians—pouring kerosene oil on men and women and then
setting fire to them, burning men at the stake, dashing the brains out
of children, and again and again cutting of the arms and legs of
Indians and leaving them to speedy death in this agony. These
charges were not made to me alone by Barbados men who had served
under Normand, but by some of his fellow " racionales." A Peruvian engineer in the company's service vouched to me for the dashing
out of the brains of children, and the chief representative of the
company, Señor Tizón, told me he believed Normand had committed
" innumerable murders " of the Indians.
Westerman Leavine, whom Normand sought to bribe to withhold
testimony from me, finally declared that he had again and again been
an eyewitness of these deeds; that he had seen Indians burned
alive more than once, and often their limbs eaten by the dogs kept
by Normand at Matanzas. I t was alleged—and I am convinced with
truth—-that during the period of close on six years Normand had
controlled the Andokes Indians he had directly killed " many hundreds " of those Indians—men, women, and children. The indirect
deaths due to starvation, floggings, exposure, and hardship of various
kinds in collecting rubber or transferring it from Andokes down to
Chorrera must have accounted for a still larger number. Señor
Tizón told me that " hundreds " of Indians perished in the compulsory carriage of the rubber from the more distant sections down to
La Chorrera. No food is given by the company to these unfortunate
people on these forced marches, which, on an average, take place three
times a year. I witnessed one such march, on a small scale, when I
accompanied a caravan of some 200 Andokes and Boras Indians
(men, women, and children) that left Matanzas station on the 19th

266

SLAVERY IN

PERU.

of October to carry their rubber that had been collected by them
during the four or five preceding months down to a place on the
banks of the Igaraparana, named Puerto Peruano (Peruvian Port)^
whence it was to be conveyed in lighters towed by a steam launch
down to La Chorrera. The distance from Matanzas to Puerto Peruano is one of some 40 miles, or possibly more. The rubber had
already been carried into Matanzas from different parts of the forest
lying often 10 or 12 hours' march away, so that the total journey
forced upon each carrier was not less than 60 miles, and in some cases
probably a longer one. The path to be followed was one of the
worst imaginable, a fatiguing route for a good walker quite unburdened.
For two days—that is to say, from Matanzas to Entre Eios—I
marched along with this caravan of very unhappy individuals, men
with huge loads of rubber weighing, I believe, sometimes up to 70
kilograms each, accompanied by their wives, also loaded with rubber,
and their sons and daughters, down to quite tiny things that could
do no more than carry a little cassava bread (prepared by the mothers before leaving their forest home), to serve as food for parents
and children on this trying march. Armed " muchachos," with
Winchesters, were scattered through the long column, and at the rear
one of the a racionales " of Matanzas, a man named Adan Negrete,
beat up the stragglers. Behind all5 following a day later, came
Señor Normand himself, with more armed " racionales," to see that
none fell out or slipped home, having shed their burdens of rubber
on the way. On the second day I reached Entre Eios in the early
afternoon, the bulk of the Indians having that morning started at
5.15 a. m. from the place where we had slept together in the forest.
At 5.15 that evening they arrived with Negrete and the armed
" muchachos " at Entre Eios, where I had determined to stay for
some days. Instead of allowing these half-starved and weary people, after 12 hours' march staggering under crushing loads, to rest
in this comparatively comfortable station of the company, where a
large resthouse and even food were available, Negrete drove them on
into the forest beyond, where they were ordered to spend the night
under guard of the " muchachos." This was done in order that a
member of the company's commission (Mr. Walter F o x ) , who was
at Entre Eios at the time along with myself, should not have an opportunity of seeing too closely the condition of these people—particularly, I believe, that we should not be able to weigh the loads of
rubber they were carrying. I had, however, seen enough on the
road during the two days I accompanied the party alone to convince
me of the cruelty they were subjected to, and I had even taken several
photographs of those among them who were more deeply scarred
with the lash.
Several of the women had fallen out sick on the way, and five of
them I had left provided for with food in a deserted Indian house in
the forest, and had left an armed Barbados man to guard them until
Señor Tizón, to whom I wrote, could reach the spot, following me
from Matanzas a day later. An opportunity arose the next day to
weigh one of these loads of rubber. A straggler, who had either
fallen out or left Matanzas after the main party, came into Entre
Eios, staggering under a load of rubber, about midday on the 21st
October, when Mr. Fox and I were about to sit down to lunch. The

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

267

man came through the hot sun across the station compound, and
fell before our eyes at the foot of the ladder leading up to the veranda, where, with the chief of the section (Señor O'Donnel), we were
sitting. ^ He had collapsed, and we got him carried into the shade
and revived with whisky, and later on some soup and food from our
own table. He was a young man, of slight build, with very thin
arms and legs, and his load of rubber by no means one of the largest
I had seen actually being carried. I had it weighed there and then,
and its weight was just 50 kilograms.
This man had not a scrap of food with him. Owing to our intervention he was not forced to carry on this load, but was permitted
the next^ day to go on to Puerto Peruano empty handed in company
with Señor Normand. I saw many of these people on their way back
to their homes some days later after their loads had been put into
the lighters at Puerto Peruano. They were returning footsore and
utterly worn out through the station of Entre Eios on their way
back to their scattered houses in the Andokes or Boras country.
They had no food with them, and none was given to them at Entre
Rios. I stopped many of them and inspected the little woven string
or skin bags they carry, and neither man nor woman had any food
left. All that they had started with a week before had been already
eaten, and for the last day or two they had been subsisting on roots
and leaves and the berries of wild trees they had pulled down on
the way. We found, on our own subsequent journey down to Puerto
Peruano, a few days later, many traces of where they had pulled
down branches and even trees themselves in their search for something to stay the craving of hunger. I n some places the path was
blocked with the branches and creepers they had torn down in their
search for food, and it was only when Señors Tizón and O'Donnell
assured me that this was done by " Señor Normand's Indians " in
their hungry desperation that I could believe it was not the work
of wild animals.
Indians were frequently flogged to death. Cases were reported to
me where men or women had died actually under the lash, but this
seems to have been infrequent. Deaths due to flogging generally
ensued some daj^s afterwards, and not always in the station itself
where the lash had been applied, but on the way home to the unfortunate's dwelling place. In many cases where men or women had
been so cruelly flogged that the wounds putrefied, the victims were
shot by one of the " racionales," acting under the orders of the chief
of the section or even by this individual himself. Salt and water
would be sometimes applied to these wounds, but in many cases a
fatal flogging was not attended even by this poor effort at healing,
and the victim, " with maggots in the flesh," was turned adrift to
die in the forest or was shot and the corpse burned or buried, or often
enough thrown into the " b u s h " near the station houses. At one
station, that of Abisinia (which I did not visit), I was informed by a
British subject, who had himself often flogged the Indians, that he
had seen mothers flogged on account of shortage of rubber by their
little sons. These boys were held to be too small to chastise, and so
while the little boy stood terrified and crying at the sight his mother
would be beaten " j u s t a few strokes" to make him into a better
worker.

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Men and women would be suspended by the arms, often twisted
behind their backs and tied together at the wrists, and in this agonizing posture, their feet hanging high above the ground, they were
scourged on the nether limbs and lower back. The implement used
for flogging was invariably a twisted strip, or several strips plaited
together, of dried tapir hide, a skin not so thick as the hippopotamus,
hide I have seen used in Africa for flagellation, but sufficiently
stout to cut a human body to pieces. One flogger told me the weapon
he used was " as thick as your thumb."
After the prohibition of flogging by circular I have referred to,
at some of the less brutal or more cautious centers of rubber collection
defaulting Indians were no longer, during the later months of 1910,.
flogged with tapir hide, but were merely chastised with strokes of a
machete. These machetes are almost swords, and shaped something
like a cutlass. They are used for gashing the trees in tapping them
for rubber milk, and they also serve as weapons in the hands of the
Indians. Blows with these laid across the shoulder blades or back
might be excessively painful, but would be unlikely to leave any permanent scar or traces of the beating. At the station of Occidente
this form of beating had in June, 1910, been varied with a very
cowardly torture instituted by the chief of that section, a Peruvian
named Fidel Velarde. This man, who was found in charge of that
section when I visited it in October, 1910, in order to still inspire
terror and yet leave no trace on the bodies of his victims, since Occidente lay close to La Chorrera and might be visited unexpectedly by
Señor Tizón, had devised a new method of punishment for those who
did not bring in enough rubber to satisfy him. Their arms were
tied behind their backs, and thus pinioned they were taken down to
the river (the Igaraparana) and forcibly held under water until
they became insensible and half drowned.
During my stay at Occidente, along with Señor Tizón and the
company's commission, two chiefs (or " capitanes" as they are
locally termed) of the surrounding Indians came at night to my
interpreter and told him of this new procedure, and how an Indian
had been quite recently drowned in this wise. They declared that
two of their men had been drowned by this process and not long
before. I drew the attention of the commissioners as of Señor Tizón
to their statement, and begged that the two chiefs might be interrogated and steps taken to verify this accusation. Two of the commissioners (Messrs. Barnes and Bell) questioned the Indians through
my interpreter, and the matter was subsequently referred to Señor
Tizón for fuller inquiry.
Señor Tizón employed as interpreter a " mestizo," and later on
informed me that the charge of holding the Indians under water
was, he believed, true, but that the death which had occurred had been
due to an accident, the Indian having escaped from his captors and
drowned " accidentally in the river." I was not satisfied with this
result to the inquiry, and believed that Señor Tizón had been misled
by faulty interpretation on the part of the half-caste. The matter,
however, lay outside those things I was entitled to investigate, since
no British employee of the company was, so far as I was aware,
concerned in it, and I could do nothing more, although by no means
satisfied that the truth had been fully stated.

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269

. I, learned later from one of my Barbados guides and interpreters
that a fellow countryman of his had actually been employed at Occidente at the time the allged drowning took place, and that when I
should meet this man, who was then employed in another part of
the country, I might find out more about the matter. On my return
to La Chorrera at the very end of October I caused all the Barbados
men to be brought in from the out stations I was not able to personally visit, in order that I might question them and satisfy myself
as to their actual condition. This man appeared before me on the
2d November, and in the course of my examination I questioned
him as to his employment at Occidente. H e then related circumstantially how on the 20th June, 1910, only a few hours after Señor
Tizón had quitted Occidente on a visit of inspection^ proceeding up
river to Ultimo lletiro, four Indian youths had been ordered by
Velarde to be taken down to the river, their arms tied together, and
to be then held under water until they filled—or, as James Mapp,
the Barbados man put it, until " their bowels filled with water."
Mapp had been ordered to perform this task, and had point-blank
refused to obey, declaring he would not lay a finger on the Indians,
whereupon a " racional " employee, by name Eugenio Acosta (whom
I had met at Occidente), had carried out Señor Velarde's orders.
The four Indians, with their arms tied, had been thrust into
the river by Acosta and an Indian he forced to help him, and held
forcibly under water. The whole station and the friends and kinsmen of the four Indians were gathered on the high bank to witness
this degrading spectacle, the Indian women weeping and crying
out. One of the young men in his struggles had kicked free from
the grasp of the man holding him down, and as his arms were fastened he had been unable to save himself by swimming, and had
sunk in the deep, strong current at ,the spot described. Mapp states
he never came to the surface. I had myself twice bathed in the very
spot indicated, and found that the water rapidly deepened from the
bank. The body had been recovered on the 24th of June, floating in
a backwater a couple of hundred yards below the beach at the mouth
of a little stream. I requested Señor Tizón to be present at Mapp's
examination on this point, which fully satisfied him, as it did me,
that the witness was stating the exact truth.
As Señor Velarde was at the time in La Chorrera, nothing would
have been easier than to have probed the matter. James Mapp was
perfectly willing to accuse him of the crime to his face, and, as he
declared, to prove it on the spot by appealing to eyewitnesses who
were also down at La Chorrera at the time. As the head of the company declared himself as fully satisfied of the truth of Mapp's charge
without further evidence, no action was taken to bring home to Señor
Velarde a crime that was light in comparison with a hundred others
preferred against that man. He, along with many others of the
principal agents of the company accused by the British subjects I
examined, I was assured, would be promptly dismissed. This promise of Señor Tizon's has since been carried out.
I have dealt at length with cases of flogging because they so
largely filled the evidence of those who testified to me, and because
the truth of these statements was so abundantly supported by the
scarred limbs of the Indians. I t can not be too strongly insisted on

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that these floggings, apart from the violence and brutality that
went with them, were wholly illegal. The excuse that the Indian
submitted to them, male or female, had done wrong or committed
any crime, could not be put forward by the agents of this company
to justify the use of the lash as a punishment. Punishment can be
applied only for an offense, but no offense had been committed by
these poor beings, and the agents of this trading company distinctly
disclaimed any legal right to punish individuals. To ninety-nine out
of every hundred Indians flogged the lash was applied as an instrument of torture and of terror, not to correct or chastise for some
wrongdoing, but to make the Indian bring in more rubber or stand
in salutary dread of the local agent. Those who ordered its application to this end were agents of a trading company which paid a
commission on results. The more rubber they could send to Chorrera
the higher their income. A glance at the " Planillas de Sueldos "
will make this clear.
Some of these agents drew fully £1,000 a year from the rubber they
forced by this means and by other lawless methods from the surrounding native population.
Flogging was varied with other tortures, designed like the semidrownings of Velarde to just stop short of taking life while inspiring the acute mental fear and inflicting much of the physical agony
of death. Thus men and lads, rubber defaulters or fugitives from
its collection, were suspended by a chain fastened round the neck to
one of the beams of the house or store. Sometimes with the feet
scarcely touching the ground and the chain hauled taut they were
left in this half-strangled position until life was almost extinct.
More than one eyewitness assured me that he had seen Indians actually suspended by the neck until when let down they fell a senseless
mass upon the floor of the house with their tongues protruding.
Several informants declared they had witnessed Indians chained
round the arms hauled up to the ceilings of the houses or to trees,
and the chain then suddenly loosed so that the victim fell violently
to the ground. One case of this kind was circumstantially related
to me where the Indian, a young man, dropped suddenly like this
from a height of several feet, fell backwards, and his head hit the
ground so violently that his tongue was bitten through and his
mouth full of blood.
Deliberate starvation was again and again resorted to, but this
not where it was desired merely to frighten, but where the intention was to kill. Men and women were kept prisoners in the station
stocks until they died of hunger.
These starvations as specifically related to me by men who witnessed them and were aware of the gravity of the charge they
brought had not been due to chance neglect, but to design. No food
was given to the Indians, and none could be given save by the chief
of the section. One man related how he had seen Indians thus
being starved to death in the stocks " scraping up the dirt with their
fingers and eating i t ; " another declared he had actually seen Indians
who had been flogged and were in extremity of hunger in the stocks
" eating the maggots from their wounds."
These dreadful charges could not be proved. I had no right or
powers of interrogation beyond the British witnesses, but I invariably brought grave charges of this kind, preferred against men still

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271

in the company's service (most of whom I personally met), to the
notice of Señor Tizón and the company's commission, and it was
by Señor Tizon's wish that no fuller investigation took place. These
charges were sometimes made unwillingly, the Barbados man himself being implicated or not wishing to be involved in accusations
against those he had so long served. More than once a witness only
accused himself when he saw that I already possessed information
from other quarters that enabled me to test the truth or otherwise
of what he was saying.
Confirmation of some of the charges made, however, arose in tha
course of our journey. I might cite one instance of the kind—it did
not stand alone. I had been informed by the man Frederick Bishop,
at Iquitos, in the early days of September, before I reached the Putumayo, of some of the things he had seen done during the period of
five and a half years he had spent in that region in the company's
service and that of its predecessor, the Arana Bros. I took this
man into my service as guide and interpreter, and he accompanied
me everywhere during my subsequent journey. One of the crimes
he denounced had been committed against an Indian girl by order
of the man Elias Martinengui, who had only just quitted the company's service and had gone, I was told, to Lima.
I t will be found referred to in the preliminary declaration of
Bishop appended to this report and is of too revolting a character to
be dwelt on.
Bishop repeated this charge at La Chorrera on the 23d September
before Señor Tizón and the members of the commission, and added
that he knew the girl well (he had flogged her by Martinengpi's
orders), and that he believed she was actually at one of the stations
in the vicinity of Chorrera.
On arrival at the subpost of Naimenes a few days later, Bishop
came and told me that this girl was in the station, and he at once led
me to her. I sought Señor Tizón and one of the members of the
commission, Mr. Barnes, and suggested that if doubt still lingered
as to the truth of Bishop's charges it could there and then be put to
immediate test, for the girl could be independently questioned.
Señor Tizón begged that no such action should be taken and said he
had already assured me that he accepted the Barbados men's testimony. This was a crime of purely private or personal malice, not
directly connected with the larger crime of lawless rubber getting.
Of this class of crime, mainly arising from the prevailing immorality that led every agent to help himself to Indian women and
often to intrigue with those kept by his civilized companions, abundant evidence was forthcoming. I do not propose to deal further
with misdeeds of this character.
I more than once pointed out that in the eyes of the law the Indians
were as much citizens of the Eepublic, since Peru claimed to possess
sovereignty in that region, as the chief agent of the company himself.
I bore with me a letter of authority, issued by the prefect of the
department of Loreto, addressed to the officers of the Government
said to be in the Putumayo, which ran as follows:
[Translation.]
His Britannic Majesty's consul general in the Republic of Brazil goes to the
Putumayo and its affluents sent by his Government, and with the assent oí

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ours, to investigate and appreciate the conditions in which the subjects of His
Britannic Majesty may be found in that region.
I hereby order all the authorities of the district to afford him every kind of
facility and to furnish such data and information as the consul may be in need
of for the better discharge of his mission and to lend him all the support he
may require.
Iquitos, September 2, 1910.

From first to last I met no authority of the Peruvian Government,
and could appeal for no assistance in my mission save to the agents
of the Peruvian Amazon Co., who were in absolute control not only
of the persons and lives of the surrounding Indians, but of all means
of transport, and, it might be said, of ingress to or egress from that
region. Had it not been for the presence of Señor Tizón and his
ready cooperation with me, my journey could not have been carried
beyond Chorrera. The perils, perhaps not to myself but to the Barbados men, would have been too great. An officer of the Peruvian
army, with a small file of soldiers, arrived at Chorrera a few days
before I left, the river, traveling on the steamer of the company that
conveyed me away, but he left at once for E l Encanto on the Carapavana. A magistrate was said to be residing at one of the company's
stations on that river, but I never heard him once referred to, and,
when peculiarly atrocious crimes were dragged to light, admitted, and
deplored, the criminal charged with them would be sitting at table
with us, and the members of the company's commission and myself
were appealed to give no indication of our disgust lest this man
" might do worse things " to the Indians or provoke an impossible
situation with the armed bandits under his orders. The apology for
this extraordinary situation was that there was " n o authority, no
administration, no one near to whom any appeal could be made," and
that Iquitos was 1,200 miles away. Every chief of section was a law
unto himself, and many of the principal agents of this British company were branded by the representative of that company, holding
its power of attorney, in conversation with me as " murderers, pirates,
and bandits."
I have mentioned the stocks, termed locally the " cepo," as playing
a prominent part in the terrorization of the Indians. Each station
or section had its stocks. Sometimes this apparatus was placed on
the upper, veranda or residential part of the chief dwelling house,
so that those confined in it might be under the direct eye of the chief
and his subordinates. This was the case at Ultimo Eetiro, where the
stocks were centrally situated in the middle of the house and near
the cellar or black hole referred to in the testimony of some of the
Barbados men.
The houses were all raised on beams and poles from 12 to 15 feet
above the ground, the lower space being either left entirely open or
else palisaded in to serve as a rubber store, and it was in this large
«tore that, as a rule, the stocks were fixed. This space was open at the
station of Matanzas, and two days before our arrival there the stocks
had been hurriedly removed and hidden under a pile of brushwood,
so that when questioned the agent might be able to say they no longer
existed. I heard this denial actually being made to Señor Tizón and
the commissioners at the very time when m my own room next door
one of the British subjects was informing me of how it had been
hidden so that we should not see it, and after the double interrogatory
was over he conveyed the commissioners and myself to the spot where

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273

we found the stocks concealed under palm branches and rubbish.
While this same witness was confessing to me, with some reluctance,
how only a few weeks before an Indian chief had been flogged till he
died in the stocks, I heard Señor Normand in the next room assuring
the commissioners that " no Indian had been flogged for two years,"
and that he only permitted an implement, termed a "palmatory " in
Africa—a flat board with holes—to be applied to the palms of the
hands in light chastisement of those " who had done wrong."
Of Señor Normand's record of crime abundant evidence was obtained, and the task of questioning him as to the conduct of his district was resorted to by the commissioners, not in the hope of eliciting
the truth, but as part of a formal task of no value that was prescribed
by the necessities of the situation.
The idea of stocks is associated in European minds with an obsolete
instrument of exposure rather than of permanent detention, a pillory
where the wrongdoer was for a brief time subjected to the gaze of
the curious or to the insults and taunts of a Pharisaical mob. I n
Peru it has endured as a recognized method of detention—possibly
of punishment—down to the present day. Lieut. Herndon refers in
his journey more than once to the stocks and sometimes to floggings
as being in use in the regions he traversed in 1851. The missionary
fathers, who were often the governors of large areas inhabited by
Indians they were seeking to civilize, had stocks and whippings as
part of the machinery of government; but Herndon, although he
refers to the " sacred cudgel " as an approved instrument of reform of
Indian character in the eyes of some nonecclesiastical Peruvians of his
day, nowhere speaks of a cruel abuse of either stocks or floggings as
coming under his observation. Even at Iquitos the stocks are still
used, or were up to almost the date of my visit. I n the village of
Punchana, one of the outskirts of Iquitos, a village inhabited solely
by civilized Indians, there was still such an implement. These stocks
were in charge of the village schoolmistress, whose authority over the
gentle, good-natured, and kindly tempered Indians was exerted in
the absence of any better-qualified magistrate.
On one occasion a Punchana Indian, in a state of intoxication, had
beaten his wife, and the schoolmistress at once had the offender
seized by his fellow villagers and his legs fastened in the stocks.
These were in an exposed part of the village square, so that as the
sun mounted, the man, exposed to the glare, began to cry out in distress. The schoolmistress, however, was obdurate and refused to
release him, whereupon the wife, with the help of friends, forgetting
her blows, had built over her offending husband a screen of palm
fronds and thatch and sat by him throughout the day to condole with
him and receive his apologies. The story was told to me in illustration of the friendly and affectionate character of the Indians, and
stocks as thus employed, merely to reprove, are not objectionable instruments of correction. But, as made use of on the Putumayo, they
were instruments of torture, lawless and cruel in the extreme. Men,
women, and children were confined in them for days, weeks, and
often months, only being released, under guard, to obey the calls of
nature. The overlapping beam might press so tightly on the confined ankle that the flesh would be cut, but even without this added
torment the long confinement in this cramped position, the legs
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tightly held in the clasp of two immovable beams, with the body
finding its sole rest on the hard ground, must have become well nigh
unendurable. When to this was added the actual and positive starvation that often accompanied this method of confinement, death,
when it came, may well have been a happy release. The Indians
had a terror vof the " cepo " not less than of the lash. The Occidente
" cepo " had 21 leg holes, the Entre Eios " cepo " 24 leg holes, with a
large neck hole in the center for inserting the head of a victim. I n
this latter case the body would have been stretched on the ground
and the arms inserted in two of the leg holes next tó this head
aperture.
Indians were often flogged while confined in the " cepo," this
notably in the special flogging " cepo," with movable extremities,
made by order of Aurelio Rodriguez at Santa Catalina, and referred
to by its maker, Edward Crichlow, in his testimony to me. Sometimes the most abominable offenses were committed upon the Indians
while held by the legs or leg in this defenseless position (see particularly the statement of James Chase, borne out by Stanley Lewis, as to
the crime committed by José Inocente Fonseca, at Ultimo Retiro,
upon a young Indian man.) Some of the British subjects I questioned
declared to me that they had known Indian women to be publicly
violated by the " racionales " while in this state of detention. As an
added punishment the legs of a man or woman would be distended
and confined several holes apart in the stocks—some of the Barbados
men asserted that they themselves had been confined with their legs
" five holes apart," a distance, I should say, intolerable to be borne
for any length of time. The Ultimo Retiro stocks were the worst I
saw, for the leg holes were smaller, and the beams, to have locked on
any ordinary-sized leg, must have been forced down into the flesh.
The Occidente stocks, which I personally measured on the 6th of
October, had the following dimensions:
Length, 13 feet 3 inches.
Breadth of beams, 7£ inches broad by 4 to 4J inches deep (squared
and heavy timbers of great weight).
Diameter of leg holes, 3J to 3J inches each, nearly round (the
Ultimo Retiro leg holes were much smaller, being only 2£ to 2f
inches in diameter).
Distance of holes apart, about 5 inches. Measurement between
five holes gave from 33 to 36 inches.
An individual confined with his legs " five holes a p a r t " would have
had them extended almost a yard at the extremities, and, if confined
for a few hours in this posture, he must have been in acute pain.
Indians who spent long periods in the stocks were sometimes confined by only one leg. Whole families were so imprisoned—fathers,
mothers, and children, and many cases were reported of parents
dying thus, either from starvation or from wounds caused by flogging, while their offspring were attached alongside of them to watch
in misery themselves the dying agonies of their parents. One man
at Ultimo Retiro, himself a living witness to the enforced starvation
he denounced, in the presence of Señor Jiménez and his subordinates, related before me and the members of the commission, on the
8th of October, how, in Señor Montt's time, a year previously, many
of his countrymen and women had been so starved to death, or flogged

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275

to death, in the station " c e p o " that we were then inspecting and
experimenting with.
I n addition to these permanent stocks, which were in each station
and remained for years, a similar apparatus was often hastily constructed out in the forest when Indians were collected after a raid,
and I learned of them being roughly made even when on the march,
so that captives might be secured each night. As a rule, however,
Indian prisoners on the march were either tied up or heavily chained,
and men and women were often chained like this in the stations for
months at a time. At the first station of the company where the
commission and myself set foot on shore, a place called Indostan,
which we stopped at to get firewood for the steamer on our way to
La Chorrera, on the 21st of September, I found an Indian boy thus
chained up. A length of chain about 8 feet long was wound around
his neck and waist, and fastened by a padlock at the ankle. This
youth's offense, so the white man in charge of that station informed
me, was that he had attempted to escape by stealing a canoe belonging to the post and fleeing down to Brazil. We caused this youth
to oe released, and he accompanied the commission to Chorrera.
I t was not only the india rubber gatherers who were put in stocks
or chained like this. I know of more than one white man even who
was so treated. Colombians who had poached upon the company's
" t e r r i t o r y " and sought to obtain rubber workers for themselves,
when not killed were sometimes thus attached and marched from
station to station, chained up, to be insulted, kicked, and buffeted.
One such case is worthy of special notice. A man named Aquiléo
Torres, along with a party of Colombians, had been captured by
Señor Normand in, as far as I could place it, the beginning of 1907,
when engaged in founding a rubber station in the Andokes country,
about two days' march from the station of Matanzas. This party,
consisting of eleven men and two women (all of whose names are in
my possession), were led by a Colombian named Felipe Cabrera,
with Aquiléo Torres and a man named José de la Paz Gutierrez as
seconds in authority This party was dispatched by the firm of
Urbano Gutierrez, and set out from Florencia, in the department of
Tolima, Colombia, toward the end of 1906. They descended the
J a p u r á or Caquetá in six canoes until reaching the point at which
they intended beginning their dealings with the Andokes Indians.
While employed in building a house with a party of these Andokes
they had induced, or more likely compelled, to serve them, they were
surprised by Normand, in whose band of armed men were two
British subjects, both of whom I still found in the company's service
at the date of my visit. Most of the Indians escaped, being warned
in time, so I was informed by one of these Barbados men, but one or
more was killed at the time, and the whole party of Colombians captured and taken as prisoners tied up with r o p e s t o Matanzas, along
with some of the Indians, who were there clubbed to death. The
Colombians were sent on to different stations, and eight of them
finally dispatched to La Chorrera, where Señor Macedo, the chief
agent of the* firm of Arana Bros., as it then was, shipped them on
a steamer to be conveyed to Iquitos. On the wey they were set
adrift in a canoe before reaching the Brazilian frontier, and left to
shift for themselves. They were succoured by the Brazilian cus-

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toms authorities at the frontier, and I know not what subsequently
became of them. The three chiefs, Cabrera, Torres, and Gutierrez,
were, however, kept at first in close confinement and then separated
and quartered as prisoners in different stations, being subjected to
varying kinds of ill-usage. Two of them, Cabrera and Gutierrez,
finally escaped in 1908 from Abisinia, where they were being detained, and one of the Barbados men, Stanley Sealy, who formed my
escort, had even passively assisted on the 28th of July, 1908, at the
escape of Cabrera, as he himself told me.
Against Aquiléo Torres a seemingly special rancour existed. This
Colombian, who, I was told, had been a "corregidor," or divisional
magistrate', in the Colombian Territory of Caqueta, had himself once
captured and held prisoner Elias Martenengui, a Peruvian agent of
the company, who had left its service some two or three months before I reached the Putumayo. Of Martenengui, the worst things
were alleged to me by those who had served under him. During his
term of service at Atenas he had wasted that region, and so oppressed the Indians that they were reduced to a condition of wholesale starvation, from which they had by no means recovered when
we visited the district in October. Those Indians (some 40 men and
boys), who were ordered to act as carriers for the English commissioners from Atenas to Puerto Peruano at the end of October, were
many of them living skeletons, and filled us with pity at their miserable condition. All the evidence we obtained showed that owing
to the strain put upon them by Martenengui, the Atenas Indians had
been unable to cultivate their own clearings, women as well as men
being compelled to work rubber. Aquiléo Torres, on his capture by
Normand in January, 1907, was passed from hand to hand with a
heavy chain round his neck, waist, and ankles. H e was seen thus
by many witnesses at, among other stations, Port Tarma and Oriente,
where the man Velarde for a long time held him prisoner. He was
spat upon, kicked, and beaten. He was not released until he agreed
to take service in the company, and was first put to flogging indiarubber workers. I n May of 1908 he had been dispatched from La
Chorrera to Abisinia to assist Agüero and Jiménez in the terrorization of the Boras Indians. Here he committed constant murders,
and certainly fell no whit behind the men he served under. Among
other practices, he cut the ears off living Indians, a pastime that to
my knowledge was also indulged in by another subordinate still employed by the company at the date of my visit, a man named Alfredo
Zegarra. I traced Torres's career through more than one station—
Sábana and Santa Catalina among them—until, when the commission
and myself arrived at Chorrera, he figured on the lists of the district
of Ultimo Retiro at a salary of 100 soles (£10) per month.
When we were at Occidente on our way to Ultimo Retiro this man
• arrived in the evening of the 4th of October bound, we were told, for
La Chorrera. We learned that Señor Jiménez, the then chief of
Ultimo Retiro, had dismissed him from the staff of that station.
Torres was sent from Chorrera again to Abisinia, where, at the date
of my departure on the 16th of November, he was still employed as a
salaried servant of the company. I know not what has been his subsequent fate, but he was one of those who figured on the " black list "
drawn up before I left. There were many others whose record was
as black as this man's, and with perhaps less excuse for their crimi-

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277

nality. H e could never have been anything but a very bad man,
but his plea might well be that in the crimes committed since his
release he was only paying the price stipulated for freeing him.
One of the Barbados men who accompanied me throughout my
journey as guide and interpreter, Frederick Bishop, had on one
occasion at the end of 1907, as near as it could be put, come across
Jose Inocente Fonseca, who was then in charge of the district of
Ultimo Retiro, on his way from Atenas home to his station.
Among his party of Indian carriers and armed " muchachos " was
Aquiléo Torres, heavily chained, being taken by Fonseca to his station to undergo further insult and confinement. Bishop accompanied the party for some distance, his path lying in the same direction. He was himself out on what is termed a " correría," chasing
Indians to make them come in to work rubber, and before he parted
from Fonseca he heard Torres appealing to him to take the heavy
chains off, as he could not keep up with the party. Fonseca's reply,
given in the Barbados man's hearing, had been that it was better for
Torres to be silent and hurry on, because if night fell on them still
in the forest he would make him carry one of the heavy loads the
Indians were bearing. More than a year of this treatment, while it
in no wise justified the brutal excesses Torres committed on the Indians when he had entered the company's service, debarred those
who had conspired to brutalize him from complaining that he had
improved on the methods of his mentors. His crimes were wanton
acts of savagery, almost purposeless crimes, the outcome of a degraded and debased life. Like Jiménez, before going to Ultimo
Retiro, he was a subordinate, and might put forward the plea that he
only did what was the order of his chiefs. Those men were murderers and torturers by profession—as their crimes swelled so should
their fortunes. Whole tribes were handed over to them by a lawless
syndicate which had no title deed to one yard of land or one sapling
rubber tree., and they were supplied with the armaments necessary to
reduce these people to a terrified obedience and given a wholesale
interest in the terror.
I was informed, for instance, that the arrangement come to with
the brothers Rodriguez—Aurelio now in Iquitos and Aristides,
dead—was that these two men should control the neighboring districts of Santa Catalina and La Sabana, and get 50 per cent each of
the profits. Both these stations lie in the Boras country, La Sabana
actually on the Cahuiari River, and Santa Catalina not far from
it. Señor Tizón assured me that their joint rule had meant the
massacre of " hundreds of Indians," and, from the clear and categoric
depositions made to me by various British subjects who had served
under Aurelio Rodriguez up to the date of his retirement in the summer of 1909, " on a small fortune," it is certain that this was the case
in the district of Santa Catalina.
Wholesale murder and torture endured up to the end of Aurelio
Rodriguez's service, and the wonder is that any Indians were left
in the district at all to continue the tale of rubber working on to
1910. This aspect of such continuous criminality is pointed to by
those who, not having encountered the demoralization that attends
the methods described, happily infrequent, assert that no man will
deliberately kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. This argument would have force if applied to a settled country or an estate

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

it was designed to profitably develop. None of the freebooters on
the Putumayo had any such limitations in his view, or care for the
hereafter to restrain him. His first object was to get rubber, and
the Indians would always last his time. He hunted, killed, and tortured to-day in order to terrify fresh victims for to-morrow. Just
as the appetite comes in eating so each crime led on to fresh crimes,
and many of the worst men on the Putumayo fell to comparing their
battues and boasting of the numbers they had killed.
Everyone of these criminals kept a large staff of unfortunate
Indian women for immoral purposes—termed by a euphemism their
"wives." Even " peons " had sometimes more than one Indian wife.
The gratification of this appetite to excess went hand in hand with
the murderous instinct which led these men to torture and kill the
very parents and kinsmen of those they cohabited with.
Drink again played a part with some, or an outraged sense of
" pride," of dominion set at naught, would lead to a massacre of
hunted fugitives, for those who dared to fly had committed the unpardonable sin. Not only had they to be punished for flight, but
this evil example to others still working rubber had to be dealt with
in exemplary fashion. Eevenge, too, called for victims. A variety
of motives that unchecked indulgence in crime may stimulate to
activity Christian civilization is unaware of moved in these men.
Aguero's subordinate, Filomene, or Jermin Vasquez, for instance,
whose pursuit of the Boras chief Katenere is outlined in the statement of James Chase, boasted on his return to Abisinia after the
series of beheadings Chase had witnessed, and narrated to me that
" he had left the road pretty." Such men had lost all sight or sense
of rubber gathering—they were simply beasts of prey who lived upon
the Indians and delighted in shedding their blood. Agüero himself,
despite his commission on results of 5 soles per arroba 1 of all the
rubber from the Abisinia district, was in debt to the company £470 at
the date of our visit to La Chorrera. I t had been £530 on the 31st
December, 1909. So with many others. Their exploitation of
their districts was being conducted at a loss to the company—a loss
that in some sections ran into thousands of pounds, I was informed,
and they themselves figured as being always in debt to the company
as far back as the accounts produced were carried.
Normand alone of this category of superior criminals had any
large balance to his credit. H e figured for some £1,600 due to him
in the La Chorrera books, a sum that stood to be augmented by his
share of the 8 tons of rubber I witnessed being driven down to Puerto
Peruano on the backs of the 200 burdened Indians who left Matanzas
in my company.
I t may be wondered how numerous assemblages of men, not individually cowards, could be so coerced and dealt with by a very small
band of oppressors. Apart from the dissension, already touched on,
which split the separate Indian communities into hostile groups,
the white men were organized and armed and could always act as
one man. Moreover, they had proceeded from the first on a definite
plan, and such poor arms as the Indians in their primitive state possessed had been unceasingly confiscated. Although I passed through
m u c h of t h e d i s t r i c t on foot a n d m e t m a n y I n d i a n s , t h e i r p r o p e r n a t i v e Peruvian soles=10s. An arroba is 15 kilog., or say 82 lb. weight. Thus, Aguero's
commission came to about £34 per metric ton of rubber.

SLAVERY IE" PERU.

279

tive arms were nowhere visible. Neither blowpipe nor spears remained to them. These had everywhere been long since seized, and I
did not meet a single Indian who openly retained his natural weapons. A few possessed the most inferior kind of cap g u n ' I have
ever met, and against the rifles and revolvers of their exploiters these
trade weapons, only obtained after a years rubber' working in each
case, were entirely worthless. Perhaps a greater defense than their
spears and blowpipes even had been more ruthlessly destroyed.
Their old people, both women and men, respected for character and
ability to wisely advise, had been marked from the first as dangerous,
and in the early stages of the occupation were done to death. Their
crime had been the giving of " bad advice." To warn the more credulous or less experienced against the white enslaver and to exhort the
Indian to flee or to resist rather than consent to work rubber for the
newcomers had brought about their doom. I met no old Indian man
or woman, and few had got beyond middle age. The Barbados men
assured me that when they first came to the region in the beginning
of 1905 old people were still to be found, vigorous and highly respected, but these had all disappeared, so far as I could gather, before
my coming. At Entre Kios I learned of an Indian chief named
Chingamui, who at Señor O'Donnell's arrival in 1903 had exercised a
widespread influence over all the Huitotos in that district. This man
had fallen at the hands of a Colombian named Calderón, who then
directed the neighboring district of Atenas, but not before he had
shot at and wounded his murderer. So, too, I learned of an " old
woman" who was beheaded in the station of Sur by order of its
chief, and whose crime had been the giving of " bad advice," Her
head had been held up by the hair in the presence of my informant
as a warning to the assembled Indians of the fate they, too, would
incur if they did not obey the white man.
Perhaps the bravest and most resolute opponent the murderers had
encountered had met his death only a few months, or even weeks,
before my arrival in the district. This was a Boras cacique, or
" capitán "—often referred to in the depositions of those I examined—
named Katenere. This man, who was not an old man, but young and
strong, lived on the upper waters of the Pama, a small stream that
empties into the Cahuinari not far from its mouth in the Japura.
My interpreter, Bishop, had seen this chief in 1907,,when Normand
had gone to find him in order to induce him to work rubber. H e
had, from necessity no doubt, consented to bring in rubber, and for
some time had worked voluntarily for Normand, until, through
bad treatment, he, like so many others, had fled. He had been captured later on, along with his wife and some of his people, and confined in the stocks of the Abisinia district, to undergo the taming
process. While thus himself a prisoner, his wife, so I was informed
by a Peruvian white man holding a well-paid post in the company's
service, had been publicly violated before his eyes by one of the highest agents of the syndicate, a Peruvian whose name and record was
frequently brought forward in the course of my inquiry This man
had been obliged to fly from the Caraparaná agency on account of
his crimes in that region in 1908. He had there murdered several
Colombian " caucheros " and violated their wives—white women—
and his crimes were no notorious that the Peruvian military authori-

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SLAVERY IN PERU.

ties, in some force there at the time, had, it was said, been ordered
to arrest him.
That the intention to arrest was not rigorously prosecuted is evident, for he merely transferred his residence from one part of the
company's territory to another, and he openly boasted of the killing
of the Colombians in his new quarters. He gave the man Frederick
Bishop, who served me as interpreter and guide, a revolver, which
he told him he had taken from one of the Colombians he had helped
to kill. This was at Ultimo Eetiro in the beginning of 1908. Then
he proceeded to the Abisinia district to joint Agüero and Jiménez
in constant raids upon the Boras Indians, and while here it was that
he outraged the wife of Katenere before the eyes of that captive
chief. Katenere escaped, aided, I was told, by an Indian girl, who
lifted the top beam of the " cepo " when no one was looking. H e
not only got off, but succeeded then or later in capturing some Winchester rifles from " muchachos" of the Abisinia district. With
these he armed others of his clan, and thenceforward waged an open
war against the whites and all the Indians who helped them or
Avorked rubber for them. More than one of them he shot, and
although a young man, he became as dangerous as Chingamui, and
renowned as a " very bad Indian." About May of 1909 he found
the white man who had so wronged him in the act of compelling a
party of Indians to wash their rubber at a stream, and shot him
dead. Thenceforward he became an object of constant fear, and
expeditions were fitted out from Abisinia and Morelia to catch or kill
Katenere. I t was on one of these missions that Filomene Vasquez
and his party had gone in the summer of 1910, when he " had left the
road pretty." They had captured the wife of Katenere, and she was
brought back to Abisinia to act as a decoy, her captors feeling sure
that Katenere would come to look for his wife. This he had indeed
done about the beginning of August, 1910, or end of July, and it
was while preparing to attack Abisinia in the dusk that hé was shot
by one of the young " muchachos " of that station, as stated in the
deposition of Evelyn Batson, which accompanies this report. His
brother, who was already a prisoner in the stocks, tried to escape
that night, and was murdered by J u a n Zellada, one of the station
a
racionales," who often seems to have taken charge of that district
in the temporary absences of its chief, Agüero. The death of
Katenere was greatly to be deplored.
I have touched on the prevailing immorality that was nowhere
concealed from our eyes. Many women and girls were put, it is
true, to station services of one kind or another, carrying water from
the river for the house, and possibly even in planting sugar cane or
cassava, or in washing clothes or other light work of that kind.
None of these females were paid for their work. At L a Chorrera
some of them were employed m stitching strips of very cheap cotton
prints into pantaloons, which then served as a form of remuneration
for loads of rubber the Indian men brought in. Scores of these
pantaloons were stored at La Chorrera and were dispatched along
with other goods to the sections as requisitioned to meet payments
for rubber workers.
Women engaged on " household duties " were not necessarily put
to immoral use, but every station we visited had a number of women,
obviously the " wives " of the chief and his subordinates. One gen-

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

281

tleman, whose guest I was for several days, had four native wives
and three children by separate mothers—all visible daily in the one
menage. I rarely saw an agent or "racional" go a step from his
door without being dutifully followed by the Indian girl or woman
whom he called his " wife." These women accompanied their lords
on "correrías," on the march, and even to the riverside when the
" racional," rifle over shoulder, went down to wash his person. The
half-breed who cooked for us on the march was everywhere accompanied by an Indian girl. A chief of section, however, traveled in
state. I met more than one en route, and, while the half-starved
Indians staggered under enormous baskets of rubber, a troop of
pleasant-faced girls and women, decently clad in long chemises 01
" cushmas" of bright cotton prints, sleek, shining, and well fedy
waited upon the chief of section, or possibly carried their infants
and his.
Some of the wives of the agents were, like the " cholitos " and
"muchachos," being turned into murderers of their own people.
One witness declared positively to me he had seen Jiménez order his
Boras wife—a young Indian woman I met more than once—to take
his rifle and go and shoot an Indian man, a prisoner at the time in
Morelia, and this order the girl had obeyed. She had put the rifle
to his head and killed him.
Little or no regard to decency existed where lust impelled. At the
" fabrico " gathering at the beginning of November, 1910, the chiefs
of several sections came to Chorrera with their usual train of dependent concubines and " muchachos " during the stay there of the
company's commission and myself. Among others, Agüero arrived
from Abisinia with several of his subordinates on the 1st of November. He and they left again in a small steam launch of the company, the Huitoto, in the evening of the 2d of November. The vessel started about 8 p. m., and I heard crying not long before the vessel left the bank only some 20 yards away. In the morning two of
the Barbados men who had been seeing three of their countrymen off
by the Huitoto informed me of the cause of the crying. Agüero had
taken a fancy to one of the humble Indian women workers of La
Chorrera—a woman, indeed, who daily swept out the dining room
and the veranda past the door of the rooms where the commissioners and myself resided. We had often noticed her at this task,,
and had been struck by her gentle, pensive face. I was told her
Indian husband was dead, and so she was gathered into the La
Chorrera household to help make pantaloons and otherwise serve
(not in an immoral capacity) the needs of that large station.
The caprice of Agüero, who already had a harem of 11 women at
Abisinia, was, however, gratified, and this poor being, against her
entreaties and in open tears, had been forced on board the company's
steamer to add to the numbers of those degraded by the favors of this
higher agent. I drew the attention of the company's commission,
as of Señor Tizón, to this disgraceful act, and we hoped that some
step would follow to release this poor woman and have her returned
to La Chorrera, where at least she was spared attentions of this kind
and might have been comparatively happy.
Of José Inocente Fonseca, who also spent some days at Chorrera
during this period, I learned of graver crimes than this—deeds committed to allow him to possess himself of the wives of Indians

282

SLAVERY I N PERU.

whom he coveted. As a rule, the criminals who controlled the Indian
population of the Putumayo were chary of robbing an Indian husband of his wife. The harems were maintained mainly by orphans,
generally girls whose parents were " dead." Asking once why it
was that the wives of the Indians seemed usually to be spared this
contamination, a reliable witness answered me: " Because, sir, if they
take an Indian's wife that Indian don't work rubber." I urged
that since these men stuck at no act of terrorization to make Indians
work rubber, a husband could be forced, even if robbed of his wife,
to go and get rubber. " No, sir," my informant said, " the Indians
love their wives, and if she is taken they won't work rubber. They
can kill them—do anything they like to them—but the Indian won't
work rubber."
This assertion was made more than once by men who, like this man,
had taken an active part in making Indians work rubber, and I believe that this obstinate prejudice of the Indian preserved a native
marriage from invasion more surely than any respect the " cauchero "
has for its sanctity. An Indian marriage is not a ceremony but a
choice sanctioned by the parents of the bride, and once a child or
children result from the union there is rarely infidelity or separation.
The very conditions of Indian life, open and aboveboard, and every
act of every day known to well nigh every neighbor, precluded, I
should say, very widespread sexual immorality before the coming
of the white man. Certain it is that immoral intercourse among
Indians leading their natural lives is rare, and, as polygamy scarcely
existed, only a few of the bigger men having more than one wife,
the affection that grew up between an Indian man and his wife was
very often sincere and deep-rooted, just as the love of parents for
their children was.
My interpreter, Bishop, related of Fonseca the following incident,
declaring that he knew the circumstances well, and I have no reason
to doubt the accuracy of this statement. Bishop declared that once
at Atenas section, when Fonseca was in charge there, he had coveted
the wife of an Indian and at length had annexed her. The husband
protesting, Fonseca had promised to restore the woman if the Indian
brought in a certain quantity of rubber. This the man did; whereupon Fonseca had declared the rubber was insufficient, and a further
supply must be provided. This, too, was done and again the same
excuse was made.
The Indian once more complied, and a third
delivery of rubber took place, when Fonseca, instead of restoring the
wife, gave to the husband a girl, one of his concubines, saying that
she must serve instead. The Indian refused to be contented, refused
to work rubber, and then was disposed of by Fonseca's " muchachos "
and the wife of the murdered man, as well as the substitute given in
her place, remained in the household of Fonseca, where my informantsaw them frequently after the husband had disappeared.
The Indians often displayed a fortitude" in the face of impending
torture and death that speaks for itself of the excellence of some of
their qualities. Thus it will be seen in the depositions accompanying
this report how, on more than one occasion, men had refused to
betray the hiding place of fugitives under terrible threats of torture
if they did not point out the retreat of the runaways. Normand is
charged with having cut the arms and legs off a chief he captured
and questioned, who preferred to suffer such a death to betraying

SLAVERY I N

PEEU.

283

the refuge of those who had fled. I learned of more than one case
of the kind, and have no doubt of the truth of the accusation against
the white man as of the f ortutitude of the Indian. The tribes of the
Putumayo in the hands of good men could be made into good men
and women, useful and intelligent workers under an honest administration. Trained to be murderers, with the worst example men ever
gave to men daily held up for imitation, with lust and greed and
cruelty so often appealed to, I daily wondered that so much goodness
still survived among the remnant we encountered. That that remnant itself would soon be gone I became convinced. A Peruvian
who spoke good English, having spent some years in England, confessed as much to me two days before I left Chorrera. I said to this
man that under the actual regime I feared the entire Indian population would be gone in 10 years, and he answered, " I give it 6
years, not 10."
Apart from the wholesale murdering that arose merely from the
criminal instincts of so many of the agents living a life of unrestrained power, there was a pressure put upon the Indians, that
originated in other quarters, and was set up and maintained for what
may be termed financial reasons. Even in the pages of the official
publication of M. Robuchon's diaries, it is made clear that the operations he described were in no sense commercial, but were an armed
and forcible exploitation of savages.
M. Kobuchon states:
The above sections employ Huitoto Indians, who are placed in charge of a
rational employee, assisted by five or six companions.
The principal employee or chief of the section receives ordinarily as salary
a percentage of the produce collected in his section and nearly always succeeds in making important gains. I know several who in two years have been
able to accumulate a small fortune. But to direct a section means to be brave,
to be very active, and to know the language and customs of the Indians, over
whom it is necessary to watch day and night with arms in the hand. The
production of rubber in the Putumayo and its affluents is 500,000 kilograms (to
which the Peruvian consul-general editing the work appends a footnote that
it had reached 644,000 kilograms in 1906.1
Year.
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904—

Kilos.
15, 863
- 54, 180
,_ 1 2 3 , 2 1 0
201, 656
343, 499

Year.
1905
1906

Kilos.
470, 592
644, 897
Total

1, 853, 897

M. Robuchon goes on to say:
The production will increase as more savage tribes submit to the work of
exploitation (pp. 24 and 25 of the official publication). Further on the explorer
records how he was present one night at a dance of these wild Indians in the
forest. The Indians were under the influence of the " chupe del tabaco,"
their sole intoxicant, a drink that excites them greatly, and is said to be administered when it is sought to bind them to solemn engagements by an irrevocable promise.
From the beginning, Robuchon writes, the scene interested me keenly, and
in order to better regard it I laid aside my papers. It was indeed no other
ceremony than the " chupe del tabaco," in which the Indians recall their lost
liberty and their actual sufferings, and formulate terrible vows of vengeance
against the whites.

The payments made to the Indians for the rubber they were compelled by this lawless organization to furnish were as capricious as
1

The Peruvian consul general t h u s w r i t e s :
The success of t h e work of the firm of A r a n a Bros, is proved by the following table of
exports of rubber coming from the districts to which we have referred, as detailed in the
customhouse r e t u r n s of Iquitos :

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SLAVEBY 1ST PERU.

were the names of the sections. No fixed or recognized scale of payments or of rubber values seem to have anywhere existed. Various
statements were from time to time made to the commission by chiefs
of sections in answer to inquiries upon this head, but I do not think
much reliance could be placed upon these answers. As proof of payment they were not above suspicion, and if one turned to the storeroom attached to each station it furnished wholly negative evidence,
for as a rule the storeroom was empty of almost all save a very few
things the white employees might need for their personal wants.
I took an inventory of the contents of one of these storerooms, that
at Ultimo Retiro, and append herewith the list:
13 tin cups of enameled iron.
3 glass globes for candlestick lamps.
10 enamelled iron plates.
12 cotton hammocks.
6 or 7 pairs of hemp-soled canvas
shoes.
3 empty bottles.
1 cooking pot.
Some drugs of different kinds.
1 metal jug.
3 small rolls of lamp wick.

3 (single) cotton handkerchiefs.
27 trade guns and Winchester rifles
(the latter in addition to the rifles
in active use).
13 old Sniders and muzzle-loaders, 6
with bayonets.
Several packages of Winchester cartridges.
15 enameled iron chamber utensils (13
with lids).

Scarcely anything of this scanty assortment was of use or value to
the Indians. The storeroom at Entre Rios was even emptier. When
I sought an explanation of this state of things I was assured that the
Indians were only paid for their rubber each " fabrico " on delivery
at La Chorrera, where the general store for the whole agency
was kept.
A " fabrico " varied in length of time at different sections. The
general period was from 75 to, perhaps, 100 days at the date of our
visit, although at Matanzas and, I believe, Abisinia there were only
two " fabricos " in the year. There is no English translation of the
word in the sense used that I can furnish, but a " fabrico " was the
general gathering in of all the rubber of five or more " puestas." A
" puesta," literally a setting down or putting down of the rubber,
took place every 15 or, perhaps, 20 days, according to locality. The
Indians of a certain district were collected with their rubber by
" muchachos " or " racionales " sent out from the section and marched
in to the deposit where there rubber was stored, each man knowing
what he had brought. If at these " puestas " the quantity brought
by an individual was insufficient, he (or she, as the case might be)
was flogged or otherwise punished in order to stimulate him to
greater exertion before next " puesta." When the full quantity of,
say, five " puestas" had been thus brought in, the whole rubberworking population of the section—men, women, and children—were
marched down with this " fabrico " either to La Chorrera itself or to
the nearest point on the River Igaraparana, whence the rubber might
be shipped to that station.
The Indians were at no time fed by the company during this
collecting or delivery of rubber, save onty when the actual " fabrico "
was brought in or sometimes if detained in the station at a " puesta."
They got no food for the long march to La Chorrera, and no food
during the lengthy periods of collecting, tapping, and washing the

SLAVERY IK PERU.

285

rubber between each " puesta." Their own plantations and the efforts
of their families had to supply this. Such food, scanty enough, as
was given in the stations or at La Chorrera consisted of beans and
rice, boiled in a big pot by a " racional" and ladled out to each individual, who brought palm leaves or bits of wood on which to receive
his or her portion, which was swallowed as often standing up as
sitting down.
Payments for rubber were not made at a " puesta," but only on
completion of a " fabrico," and these payments were termed " advances," i. e., advances for the next " fabrico." The principle here
is that the Indian having accepted an advance must work it off. He
is a " debtor " ; on the Putumayo a compulsory debtor, for he could
not evade the next " fabrico " by rejecting this advance. The chief
kept the lists, often unreliable, of all such " workers " in his section—
that is to sayj of all the Indians he had sufficiently reduced to compel
to work for him. These lists continually altered—by flight of whole
" naciones " or tribes across the Caqueta or elsewhere in search of
safety, or by death from various causes.
The central agency at La Chorrera was supposed to know the numbers of the Indians actually working rubber in each section, but these
numbers as supplied at La Chorrera did not always agree with the
numbers as furnished by the chief of a section on the spot. Thus it
was said that at the section of Atenas there were 790 laborers, while
Señor Montt, the chief of that section, asserted, when questioned by
the commissioners, that he had only " a b o u t 2 5 0 " Indians. Discrepant statements of this kind met one at every turn.
I t was no part of my mission to investigate this aspect of the
company's affairs, and I do not claim that the conclusions I draw
in this regard are authoritative. But the inconclusive statements
made in my hearing or mentioned to me during my journey left
it abundantly clear that the payment of the Indians ior their laboi
was uncontrolled from headquarters and dependent solely upon the
humor, good or bad, of the chief of section, and that it bore no
true relation to the value of the produce forced from the Indian
and little to his needs or wishes.
Each chief of section put his own value on the rubber his Indians
brought in, and paid them according to his arbitrary scale. He
fixed the quantity of rubber for each article offered as " pay " or
" advance," and equally fixed the quantity of rubber each man
must supply to make up each " fabrico." Thus, Señor Normand
informed the commission at Matanzas on the 18th October that he
required the following quantities of rubber against the articles
stated :
Kilograms.
An "escopeta," or trade gun (of very inferior make, worth only a very
few shillings)
75
A cotton hammock
55
A cotton shirt (cost price, about Is. 3d.)
20
A pair of cotton trousers (made at La Chorrera, certainly not worth 2s.)__ 20
A leather strap—called a belt
.
5
One impound flask of powder, with a handful of shot and caps for the trade
gun
20
One cotton blanket
20
One felt hat (value about 9d.)
15

286

SLAVERY IN PERU.

Señor Montt, at Atenas, furnished the commission with the following as his scale of prices for similar articles:
A single-barrelled trade gun
A double-barrelled trade gun
A cotton liamniock
A niacliete
A pair of trousers and a shirt
A flask of powder with shot and caps
A cotton blanket
—
A felt hat

;

Kilograms.
(about) 35
(about) 45
25 to 35
12 to 15
15
15
25
Not stated.

I purchased several of these articles from the store at La Chorrera,
and brought them home with me as samples of the kind of goods and
quality furnished the Indians. They are the most inferior kind of
trade goods, and can not compare with the articles supplied in any
part of tropical Africa I have been in. A note was appended to
the Atenas price list—" Prices not certain; dependent upon circumstances." The circumstances that might- alter respective values were
not stated definitely.
Another chief of section said in my hearing:
The Indians never ask the price, and on being questioned replied, " We tell
the Indians to bring a certain amount of rubber; no specific weight named, as
they would not understand it," and he, the chief of section, then fixed the quantity due by each individual according to the " advance."

This may be taken as a fairly correct statement—everything depended on the chief of section. The Indian took his advance and
made off—glad to escape. The Barbados men, who were fairly trustworthy witnesses of the manner of dealing with the Indians, frequently gave me details of how they had seen " fabricos " paid for.
Thus, Evelyn Batson, at Santa Canalina, had seen an Indian receive
a tin bowl as payment for an entire " fabrico " which might be put at
possibly 80 kilograms), which he had thrown on the ground and left
behind him in disgust. Frederick Bishop declared that he had been
present at payments where a single coin—a Peruvian " sole," or 2shilling j)iece—had been given to an Indian as reward for 70 or 80
kilograms of rubber. I met numbers of Indian women who wore
these coins strung around their necks as ornaments. On one occasion Bishop had seen a harassed individual asked what he wanted for
his " fabrico," declare that all he wanted was food, and this man got
four 1-pound tins of " roast beef " and make off without a word.
Another man, at another section, had accepted a puppy dog and disappeared to his forest home, glad to have escaped so easily. There
was often a sense of the comic in these swindling transactions, as when
Agüero, for instance, made one dog serve for several " fabricos."
An Indian had asked for a dog as the price of his five-months' rubber
supply, and Agüero had given him this animal, which " he knew
would not stay with an Indian." I n a few days the dog had returned
to its white master, and figured more than once in similar subsequent
transactions.
A " fabrico " of rubber would represent anything from 50 kilograms up from each Indian, according to his capacity to gather it
and the fictitious value of the " advance " entered against him. At
Matanzas the weight of a full-grown man's " fabrico " was even up to
80-100 kilograms, more than could be carried by a single individual.
I n such a case the Indian would have his wife and children to help

SLAVERY I N P E E U .

287

in carrying it down to Puerto Peruano for shipment to La Chorrera.
The loads of some of the men I journeyed with on the road were,
I am convinced, fully 70 kilograms, but I was denied opportunity of
weighing them. The heaviest load I actually weighed, borne by a
single Indian, was at La Chorrera, where a Naimanes Indian brought
in his " fabrico " from Sur section. This load I caused to be weighed
as the man brought it in on his back from the forest to the station
store, and it came to 63J kilograms, or, say, 138 pounds. I caused
several loads of rubber in this same caravan, borne by quite small
boys, to be also weighed, and found in many cases that the load outweighed the bearer. I n one case a boy of 12 or 13 years of age was
carrying a weight of 29 kilograms of rubber, while he himself when
put in the scales came to only 25 kilograms. The forest track over
which this heavy weight had been carried is trying enough to an unburdened walker, and how many of these people succeeded in getting
such loads over the fallen tree stumps, through interlocking boughs,
across mud and water and deep hollows was a mystery that only the
lash, the " cepo," and the unfailing Winchester explained.
Señor Tizón placed himself in the hands of the commission and
myself, and loyally cooperated with us throughout our journey. H e
pledged himself to not only get rid of every criminal agent charged
by the Barbados men, but to at once begin sweeping reforms in the
whole method of dealing with the Indians. The worst stations.
Matanzas and Abisinia, he determined to abolish altogether, and, as
far as possible, to withdraw the work of rubber collection to posts
along the riverway which could be more frequently inspected, and
where the long marches with heavy loads of rubber would become
unnecessary. The scheme of reform as outlined by Señor Tizón and
generally approved by the commissioners., who added valuable suggestions to it, if honestly set going by the company, must bring
changes for good to the Indian dwellers in the forest and ultimately
to the company's financial prospects in that region. Not only had
the methods so long in force cut down the Indian population by
possibly three-fourths of its former total, but they had directly injured the economic resources of a large area of country, and gravely
imperiled the financial prospects of the enterprise with which they
were associated. I t was time, as Señor Tizón more than once asserted, that this commission had come. The rubber output had already fallen to some 400 tons of rubber per annum, with every prospect, so far as I could see, of continued decrease if the wholesale
abuses denounced to us were not speedily stopped. T h a t Señor
Tizón would faithfully carry out the promises he repeatedly made
to the commissioners and myself we had every right to believe. The
work of punishing the wrongdoers lay not with him, but in other
and far distant hands.
The unrelieved barbarity of this report does not rest alone on the
testimony of the Barbados men, whose depositions accompany it.
I had other evidence to go by at the outset, and this was found to be
in more than one instance amply confirmed by the independent statements of the British witnesses, and again and again borne out by the
evidence of our own eyes and the general condition of the Indians.
Could these people have been themselves fully interrogated the
weight of testimony would have been far greater, but could not have
been more convincing. The circumstances under which the British

288

SLAVERY IK PEBU.

witnesses testified to me placed their evidence beyond controversy.
I asked that it should be challenged, that rebutting testimony should
be brought forward. None was produced—I was informed that none
could be. That every detail of this testimony is equally trustworthy
I do not assert. I t is evident that men of this class, some of them
illiterate, all of humble calling, many demoralized by long years of
savage indulgence, would sometimes be untruthful from fear or
unworthy motive.
Their memories, no more than those of white men, could recall,
step by step, actions and incidents that had transpired years before,
but that the great majority of them honestly sought to state the
truth to me I was convinced—a conviction that the commssioners
of the company, I believe, fully shared before we separated.
Señor Tizón refused to accept the challenge made at ethe outset of
my examination of these men, that their accusations against the
agents of the company should be put to the test of confronting them
with those they charged. Joshua Dyall, Frederick Bishop, Stanley
Lewis, three of the British subjects I first submitted to interrogation
after reaching La Chorrera, were all willing that this should be
done. These men, Dyall and Bishop, charged themselves (as later
on did others) with grave crimes against the Indians, and I suggested, in the presence of Señor Tizón and the commissioners, that
if judicial inquiry were desired, I was perfectly prepared that the
British subjects should be put upon their trial, and that I would
telegraph to His Majesty's Government for support, and that legal
assistance should be furnished to insure a full and fair hearing.
Señor Tizón deprecated fuller investigation, and declared categorically, in the presence of the commissioners, that he accepted the evidence of the British witnesses I brought before him, and would act
upon it, against all the agents they incriminated, without putting
it to further test.
These agents, he declared, in the absence of a Peruvian authority
upon the Putumayo, could not be arrested or submitted to any form
of trial there. He wTas content to get rid of them as quickly as could
be. Many of the Barbados men were aware that the crimes they
charged themselves with were capital offenses. They only pleaded
that these crimes had been committed under the direct orders of the
superior agents of the company, whom they were required to obey,
and that however guilty they might themselves be, those who ordered
these deeds and profited from them were far more guilty parties.
I n this contention I supported them, and pointed out that the first
parties to be brought to justice must be those higher agents. The
members of the company's commission cooperated loyally throughout this investigation, and I handed a " black l i s t " to them before
leaving Chorrera of those chiefly implicated before me. I also left
a copy of this document with Mr. David Cazes, His Majesty's consul
at Iquitos, for such use as might be advisable in that chief center of
Peruvian administration east of the Andes.
I took occasion at Iquitos to impress personally upon the prefect
of the department the urgent need for prompt action by the Peruvian Government. If the disgraceful state of things existing on the
Putumayo was not dealt with, and the principal wrongdoers arrested.
I assured him a deplorable impression would be created. The prefect promised that immediate action would be taken, and gave

289

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

repeated assurances that not only should the Indians henceforth be
protected, but that those found guilty of the many crimes alleged,
some of which I laid personally before him and supported with the
verbal testimony of eyewitnesses (one a white Peruvian employee
of the company, who had appealed to me on the Putumayo to listen to
him, and who accompanied my return from that river), should be
adequately dealt with.
^
The prefect informed me that he had telegraphed to Lima an outline of what I had laid before him, and that at an early date in
December—so he hoped—a Government judicial commission would
be dispatched to the Putumayo with large powers. The prefect's
promises of speedy action were reiterated to me on the morning of
the 6th of December, when I called to take leave of him on the point
of sailing from Iquitos, which I left in the forenoon of that day
on the mail steamer Atalmialpa.
I have, etc.,
ROGER CASEMENT.
[ N o . 10 ]

•

Consul General Casement to Sir Edward

Grey.

LONDON, March 0i, 1911.

(Received March 23.)
SIR : With reference to my report of the 17th instant, dealing with
the methods of rubber production and the treatment of the native
Indians in the region dominated by the Peruvian Amazon Co., I
have now the honor to transmit the statements of the Barbados men
made to me in the course of my investigations on the Putumayo.
As far as possible I have given these statements in the men's
words taken down at the time, but it would have required a shorthand writer and clerical assistance to have fully transcribed all that
was stated at these lengthy examinations, some of which extended
over many hours in the case of a single individual. Several of thef
depositions were later read over by me to the deponents and signed
by them, but it was not always possible to adopted this course., As
transmitted, the statements are as faithful records under the circumstances as it was possible for me to take down, of a mass of evidence
that ran to great length, and was offered sometimes in circumstances
of difficulty for the witness to state, and often for me to record.
Where contradictions occur, and even obvious misstatements, I
think these can be attributed chiefly to failure of memory and not to
intentional prevarication. I t would be a very trying ordeal for any
person to be called upon to state precisely what he had been doing
over a lengthy period, often covering more than five years and to make
no error of statement in an extended appeal to memory of that kind
would be very remarkable, even for a highly trained and well-educated person. I have no doubt that the majority of the men answered
truthfully the questions put to them, although more than one sought
to minimise his own share in the wrongdoing he had for so longtaken part in.
I t would have been easy to have put the statements of these men
to open test upon the spot—a course I was willing should be fol77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62^3-

290

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

lowed. This would have involved, however, their confrontation witl
the agents of the company implicated; and it was this step thai
Señor Tizón, as representing the company, begged me earnestly tc
abstain from, and to use my influence to dissuade the company's
commissioners from insisting on.
I n the course of our subsequent journey it become clearer everj
day that the statements of i^he Barbados men were only too wef
founded, and before I left the Putumayo it was definitely establishec
that their indictment could not be called in question.
My contention from the first day's examination at La Chorrera
had been that either it must be called in question then and there anc
rebutting testimony brought forward, or it must stand. If it coulc
not be challenged successfully on the spot I should form the independent and impartial conclusion I was authorized to form from this
the only evidence laid before me, or that I was empowered to call for
No attempt was made to challenge the evidence of the Barbados mer
at any time during my stay in that region, although every agent ir
the district knew that I was submitting the men to lengthy and exhaustive examinations, the results of which were being communicated to the company's commissioners and to Señor Tizón. On th(
contrary, instead of seeking to upset the testimony of these Britisr
employees of the company made to a British consular officer, the
higher agents of the company often sought to bribe these men tc
deceive the officer sent to inquire into their circumstances.
I n this they failed; the evidence of these men was given often ir
the face of intimidation and in opposition to what many of them
thought to be their own interests. Instead of being contradicted, the
highest agents incriminated by that evidence were judged on it anc
dismissed by the principal representative of the company.
I have, etc.,
ROGER CASEMENT.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 10.]
L I S T OF B R I T I S H S U B J E C T S , N A T I V E S O F BARBADOS, ALL COLORED M E N
E X A M I N E D B Y CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T I N T H E COURSE OF HIÍ
MISSION TO T H E P U T U M A Y O .

1. Frederick Bishop.—First on the 1st September, 1910, at Iquitos
and subsequent days there. This man was engaged by Mr. Casement as guide and interpreter, as he spoke the Huitoto language
and accompanied Mr. Casement throughout his subsequent journey
being sent home to Barbados in December, 1910. His early statements were added to throughout the journey in the rubber districts
on many occasions. He gave evidence to the prefect at Iquitos ir
December at Mr. Casement's request. The prefect asked for it.
2. Nellice, or Nellis Walker.—At Iquitos on the 1st September
1910. This man had not at any time served in the rubber districts
his acquaintance with the Putumayo being limited to service on rivei
launches or at the station of El Encanto in the Caraparaná agencj
which Mr. Casement did not visit.
3. Norman Walcott.—At Iquitos on the 9th September, 1910. Hac
been employed only on river launches in the Putumayo region or
brief runs from Iquitos; never in any work connected with rubbei
getting.

SLAVEEY IN

PERU.

291

^ 4. Preston Ford.—At Iquitos on the 9th September, 1910. I n a
similar capacity and identical circumstances.
^ 5. Joseph Jones.—At Iquitos on the 9th September, 1910. I n a
similar capacity and identical circumstances.
6. Joseph Labadie.—At Iquitos on the 9th September, 1910. This
man was working in Iquitos at independent employment at the time
he was examined. He remained in Iquitos, and was there in December, 1910, when Mr. Casement left for Europe. He was not again
examined after this interrogation.
7. Adolphus Gibbs.—At Iquitos on the 13th September, 1910.
8. Stanley S. Lewis.—On board steamship Liberal on way to Putumayo from Iquitos. First on the 20th September, 1910, then on
the 22d September, and subsequently at La Chorrera on the 24th
September before Señor Tizón and the commission, and later at
Iquitos. Testified to the prefect of Loreto at Iquitos in December,
being sent to give evidence by Mr. Casement.
9. James Clark.—On board steamship Liberal on way to Putumayo
on the 22d September. Had never been on shore in Putumayo or at
work in rubber districts.
1
10. Donald Francis.—At La Chorrera on the 23d September, 1910,
and subsequently.
1
11. Philip Lawrence.—At La Chorrera on the 23d September.
1
12. Siefert Greenidge.—At La Chorrera on the 23d September.
1
13. James Chase.—First at La Chorrera on the 23d September and
subsequently on many occasions. This man remained with the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission of inquiry in personal attendance
throughout their journey.
1
14. Stanley Sealey.—First at La Chorrera on the 23d September
and subsequently on many occasions. This man was engaged by Mr.
Casement as guide and escort, and remained with him and the commission up to Mr. Casement's departure from the Putumayo, when
he was taken over by the commission on same terms as the preceding man.
1
15. Joshua Dyall.—At La Chorrera on the 24th September, and
again at La Chorrera in November, 1910.
1
16. Edward Crichlow.—At Ultimo Retiro on the 8th October,
1910.
1
17. James Lane.—At Matanzas Station. First on the 18th Octo ber, and subsequently at Entre Eios and La Chorrera.
1
18. Westerman Leavine.—At Matanzas Station. First on the 18th
October and subsequently.
1
19. Evelyn Batson.—At La Chorrera on the 31st October.
1
20. Sydney Morris.—At La Chorrera on the 1st November.
1
2 1 . Preston Johnson.—At La Chorrera on the 1st November.
x
22. Augustus Walcott.—At La Chorrera on the 1st November.
1
23. James Mapp.—At La Chorrera on the 2d November.
1
24. Alfred Hoyte.—At La Chorrera on the 2d November.
1
25. Reuben Phillips.—At La Chorrera on the 2d November.
1
26. Clifford Quintyne.—At L a Chorrera on the 2d November.
1
27. Allen Davis.—At La Chorrera on the 2d November.
1
28. Joseph Minggs.—At La Chorrera on the 10th November.
x
29. Armando King.—At La Chorrera on the 10th November.
1
Nos. 10 to 29 found actually employed in the Putumayo region and examined there
after Mr. Casement's arrival at La Chorrera.

292

SLAVEEY I N

PERU.

30. John Brown.—At Iquitos on the 3d December. This man was
sent by the governor of Barbados to join Mr. Casement at Para, but
arrived too late, and only met Mr. Casement in November as he was
leaving the Putumayo to return to Iquitos. He gave evidence before
the prefect at Iquitos at Mr. Casement's request.
[No. 1.1
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T BY FREDERICK B I S H O P ,
AGE 2 9.

The first Barbadian examined at Iquitos by Mr. Casement was
Frederick Bishop.
This man, along with another named Nellis Walker, was brought
to Mr. Casement on the 1st September, 1910, through a Barbadian
resident in Iquitos named Carlton Morris, who had been requested by
Mr. Cazes, the British consul, to inform any Barbadians actually in
Iquitos that they should come to the consulate to see Mr. Casement.
Both men had only just returned from the Putumayo, having
landed in Iquitos from the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s steamer Liberal
only three days before, the 28th August.
This witness, in the course of his examination, stated that he had
been in the Putumayo region from the first period of his engagement
by Arana Bros., so that his residence in that district covers a period
of some five years and three months, from end of April or beginning
of May, 1905, to August, 1910.
This man's statements were made to me on the 1st September in the
presence of Mr. Cazes and Mr. Barnes, again on the 4th September,
in the presence of all the members of the commission and of Mr.
Cazes, and again late in the day of the 4th September, before Mr.
Cazes and myself. Most of his statement was made in the form of
answers to questions put to him, chiefly by myself, but sometimes by
Mr. Cazes or a member of the commission. From the notes of his
replies the following summary of his various declarations is
drawn u p :
He states that he was engaged in Barbados in 1904 (subsequently
corrected to 1905) about the month of March. He came with the
same batch of men as John Brown, of Montserrat, whom he knew.
He was engaged by Mr. Brewster, of Barbados, for Arana & Co.,
us a " workman." He was sent to the Putumayo on arrival and was
engaged " making commissions " i. e., " correrías," ío make the Indians work at " cutting " rubber in the forest. He was armed. His
duties were to see that the Indians brought in, each man, his quantity
of rubber at fixed dates. If they did not bring in rubber when it
was due, he was sent out, with others, in an expedition to search for
them.
These Indians were not station hands or laborers engaged by the
company; they were forest Indians, members of the various tribes
dwelling in the districts. They are not asked if they want to work
rubber; they are forced to do it, just like slaves. If they do not
bring in rubber they are flogged, or put in chains, or in the " cepo "
or stocks.
He himself had several times flogged Indians for not bringing in
rubber, acting under the direct orders of the chief of the section he

SLAVERY I N PERU.

293

was employed in at the time. Tie did not like doing it, but had to.
Asked by the consul general if he did not know this to be wrong, he
said he could not refuse—that a man might be a man clown in Iquitoa,
but "you couldn't be a man up there." Some of the chiefs of sections who had ordered him to flog Indians, which orders he had
obeyed, were Andreas O'Donnell (Entre Eios), Elias Martinengui
(Atenas), Inocente Fonseca (Sabana), and Alfredo Montt (written
" M o u n g " in John Brown's statement to commissioner of Montserrat) (Ultimo Eetiro). (The chiefs of sections change localities
often.)
Some Indians would lie down of themselves and take the flogging*
others would struggle and have to be held by the arms and legs, laid
flat on the ground. H e had seen Indians pegged out to stakes in the
ground and flogged.
The flogging would be given on their bare buttocks. They were
often cut and bleeding, and healing washes would be rubbed into
the wounds, such as vinegar or salt, so that they might be able to
go to the forest for more rubber. H e has flogged Indians himself
within the last year—within the last six months—always for not
bringing in their rubber or bringing in insufficient quantities of rubber. H e has himself flogged Indians this year, between April and
May, for not bringing in rubber at Sabana section, by order of José
Inocente Fonseca.
The system was not trade at all; it was a lie to call it so—the Indians were slaves, and had to do what they were ordered. I n answer
to a question put by Mr. Cazes he said they are paid " i n a way. n
The man who brings in plenty of rubber gets, perhaps, a shotgun
or something good—it depends on the quantity of the rubber. Others
would get gowns, or axes, or knives. These payments were not made
every time rubber was brought in, but every two or three months.
The Indians were not given food to go into the forest; they were
fed while on the stations with anything that could be got, but often it
was not enough—not nearly enough, and many of them were half
starved. At Atenas section now the Indians were starving. He
had seen them this year, when he was coming down to La Chorrera
just the other day. There was no food in the place, and their own
plantations had been neglected on account of the rubber getting, and
they were now not able to continue getting it, they were so weak
from hunger, and the rubber at Atenas was less now than before.
He believed it was on this account, viz, that the Indians were starving.
This was due to the driving of them by Elias Martinengui, who,
as he was leaving the company's service, wanted to make plenty of
money. Martinengui came down to Iquitos by the last Liberal before he (Bishop) did, and has gone to Lima, he hears. As he was
leaving he wanted a big commission, and so drove the Indians to get
more rubber so that they could not attend to their own wants and
plantations. He declares that all the chiefs get profits according to
the quantity of rubber—he believes in every section.
I n answer to a question put by the consul general if he had himself
seen any Indians killed by agents of the company, he said yes. First,
he remembered that when he first came, long ago, he had seen two
Indians killed. They had " r u n a w a y " because they did not want
to work. They were pursued, captured, and their heads were cut
off by order of Señor Martinengui. This he saw with his own eyes;

294

SLAVERY I N PERU.

but it was long ago. Their heads were cut off with machetes. I t
was done in section Urania—a section that Mr. Gielgud stated now
no longer exists.*
Recently, during the course of the present year, he saw Señor
Montt (Ultimo Retiro) take four youths ("muchachos"), who had
been in the stocks or " cepo." They were taken away in chains by
two " muchachos de confianza " out Into the forest. He found their
dead bodies on the path about three and a half hours from the
station some days after when he passed that way. They were in a
high state of decomposition, and he had to go around them.
He is sure they were the same four young men, and he met the two
confidential men, who had shot them, coming back with the chains.
He has no doubt at all about it. These four youths were charged
by Señor Montt with trying to get up a rising of the Indians against
him. He does not know anything about that, but he is sure that
many of the Indians hate and dread the " whites," and would kill
them if they could, but they are too timid and cowed and have no
arms. Sometimes some Indian will try to do that, to get others to
come and attack the whites, so as to stop the rubber drives. That
Avas how Bartolomé Zumaeta was killed " a few months ago." He
was shot by a Boras Indian named Katenere down by a stream when
he and Zumaeta were making Indians work the rubber. This Indian was shot subsequently by Indians armed by the company, and
he heard that one of the Boras under Katenere had then killed the
company's Indian who had shot Katenere by shooting him. I t was
not far from the place where he himself had left M. Robuchon, the
Frenchman, that Zumaeta was killed. He had been sent with
Robuchon as one of his guard, and Robuchon had sent him and
others to Morelia to try and get relief. They were without food,
and he and the others nearly died before they got to Morelia; they
did not know their way and had no food. Robuchon was never
seen again. This was in the Boras country, and the Boras are the
wildest and fiercest of the Indians, and many of them have not yet
been " conquered " and made to work rubber.
Asked if he knew of any more people who had been killed, he
said he knew of a girl, an Indian girl, who had been in the stocks at
Ultimo Retiro. I t was this year in January.
She was taken out of the stocks at night and taken up on a hill
just outside the station and shot. Asked, how he knew, he said he
heard the shot and saw the man go off with her, guarding her with
the gun. Everyone knew she had been shot. The consul general
said she might have escaped or been released by the man conducting
her. He said with a smile that this was not possible. This girl
was charged by Montt with wanting to " run away."
Some of the statements made by John Brown in his letter to the
commissioner of Montserrat were read to him. H e recognized the
names of nearly all the Barbadians therein mentioned, particularly
the case of Dial, whose name he says is Dyall. This man and he had
been together in the same section, when, as stated by Brown, Dyall
was hung up in chains.
Bishop then gave a long account of DyalPs ill treatment. He had
been charged with having connection with one^ of the Indian station
women belonging to one of the white employees at Ultimo Retiro.

S L A V E R Y IJST P E R U .

295

He was put in the stocks and kept there for hours by Montt, the
chief of the section. The leg holes of the stocks were too small for
his ankles and, the wood cut into his legs badly, and he was screaming
out. The holes were so small that when they tried to close the stocks
on his legs they could not shut them, and a man sat on the stocks and
pressed with all the weight of his body to make them shut, and Dyall
groaned and cried with pain. After he had been a long time like
that they turned the stocks over so that he lay upon his belly, and
he lay like that all night, groaning and crying. When released from'
the stocks Dyall could not walk, but had to crawl on all fours back
to his house. He was also chained up with a chain around his neck
and hauled up like this, so that his feet just touched the ground.
Putting Barbadians " into guns " was a common enough practice.
He had been " put into guns " this year, just before he came away,
by order of Señor Macedo, the chief agent of the company at La
Chorrera. This was done because he had left his section without
leave. He had left Ultimo Retiro without permission—ran away,
in fact—but he did so because they gave him no food, only ." the
leaves of some bush." 1 He could give no other explanation of it,
but said it was not proper or sufficient food, and he had to get out.
When he got to La Chorrera Señor Macedo ordered him to be put,
" in guns," as described by John Brown. He complained to the
officer in command of the Peruvian detachment there, who said he
could do nothing, but he would speak to Señor Macedo. He was
subsequently released after perhaps an hour " in guns." 2
Asked if the Peruvian officer and soldiers were not there to exercise
control, he laughed and said they were there " for sham; " that the
company's agents did as they pleased, and the officer could not stop
them—they were all one.
Asked why he had stayed so long, he said he wanted to get enough
money—that he stayed on only for that; but he came away, as he was
sick of the whole thing and the " rules " of that company and the
work they put him to—slave driving the Indians.
Asked if Indians bore marks of flogging, he said, yes, he had seen
many with scars and weals.
Asked did he think Indians would be found who, if an interpreter
were there they could trust, would speak out and say how they were
treated, he said yes, he thought some Indians would; others would
not because they were too frightened, and there were others who did
not mind; they got pay and they knew no other method of treatment—they were too ignorant. The white men came for rubber;
they were told to get it and flogged if they did not, and that was
what they were used to. Others of them were paid as " muchachos
de confianza," and others—some of the chiefs—were rewarded by the
company's agents for making their people work.
Asked if the woman Dyall was charged with having had connection with was the wife of the aggrieved employee, he said no, not
his wife, but his "woman," that some of the chiefs of section he
knew had plenty of " wives," and he said " some have 20 or 30."
H e (Bishop) had complained to Montt at the time about Dyall's
treatment and said it was too severe, that a man should not be treated
like that even if he had done wrong with the woman.
1
2

Airambo is the name of i t — a native shrub used in starvation times.—R. C.
This in August, 1910, a t tbe chief station on the P u t u m a y o .

296

SLAVEEY I N PEBU.

Asked if the Indians were very numerous, he said it depended on
the places—sometimes there were none for days. He thought there
were not so many Indians now as when he first came, because they
were often starving and working rubber in the forest. H e said the
whole business was to make them work rubber; that was the truth,
and it was a lie to say they were " workmen " or engaged, or that it
was trading or commerce or anything resembling it.
Asked if he would be afraid to go back to the Putumayo and to
say any of these things in the face of the men named, he said no,
he was not afraid; he would speak the truth. The consul general
assured him that if he did that he would be protected, and offered
to take him to the Putumayo as his servant interpreter to show him
the country. To this he agreed, and declared repeatedly that he had
spoken only the truth and that all he said could be proved. He
stated that when Mr. Whiffen came with John Brown everything
was " cleared up " before he arrived at a section. They knew beforehand where he was going to, and word would be sent so that everything bad was put away, but he thinks John Brown told Mr. Whiffen
a ]ot of things and showed him things. He saw Mr. Gielgud last
year (when he was out auditing the company's books), and he
knows that the same was done with him. When Mr. Gielgud came
to the station where he (Bishop) then was, they sent all the " prisoners " who were in chains away into the forest guarded and kept them
there until he left. They put the stocks away too.
FURTHER STATEMENT OF F. BISHOP, EVENING OF SEPTEMBER 6, 1910.

The story of burning Indians related by Capt. Whiffen as witnessed by his boy John Brown was to-day read by me to F . Bishop.
H e states he heard that story too, and others just as bad. Things
told of Agüero and Jiménez taking women and killing Indians and
torturing them he had heard.
\
The chief agent at La Chorrera would not know what was going on
in the sections; often things would be done he would never hear of.
He was told thiayear by a young Colombian named Okanya (Ocaña),
now at Sabana (or Atenas), that Macedo has warned him this year
to get as much rubber as he can because there were Englishmen coming out, and when they heard what he (Macedo) and Ocaña had done,
killing and flogging the Indians, they would both be sent away, and
so they must get as much money as possible before they were dismissed. Ocaña told him this in secret, and said Macedo had brought
him (Ocaña) into the service and was giving this friendly hint to
make hay while the sun shone. Macedo might be better than the
others—he could not say, but Macedo knew what happened often in
the sections, as he visited them and saw prisoners and flogging. The
" comisario " of the Peruvian Government, he states, rarely left the
chief station, and did not visit the sections, and was no good to Indians or anyone. He (Bishop) has been five years and some months
there, and never met the " comisario " that he knows, or saw any
Peruvian official in any of the sections where he was. Normand, 1
he says, speaks English, and, he believes, was once in London. He
1

This is the chief of Matanzas, Armando Normand.—R. C.

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

297

was brought first as an interpreter when the first batch of Barbadians was brought to the Putumayo. H e does not know, but has
heard that Normand is not a Peruvian, but does not know what
nationality he is. He is quite certain that the Peruvian officials and
soldiers are useless in the Putumayo; those at La Chorrera now are
simply under the orders of Mr. Macedo, and do what he tells them,
and as for protecting the Indians from abuse, the company's agents
own the Indians just like the rubber trees and do what they please
with them.
Asked again as to the cause of the starving condition of the Indians at Atenas when he passed through recently, he said it was due
to Elias Martinengui alone, who had driven them too hard to get
rubber so that he might have a big " commission " to go to Lima
with. This same Martinengui, Bishop said, was a brute, and he then
related an incident he had been an eyewitness of. Martinengui had
an Indian girl—one of several—he kept, and one night when with
her he discovered that she was sick with venereal disease—so he said,
So in the morning he had her tied up and flogged in the station
yard, and then made one of the young Indians—Bishop called him
" an Indian boy "—insert burning firebrands into her body. Bishop
did not like to say where, but indicated with his hand. I said, " Diet
you actually see that?" and he replied, " Yes, sir; I saw that don©
with my own eyes. That girl nearly died, but she got better in the
end. She is at Occidente now." (This is one of the sections in the
Chorrera division.) I then asked, " W h a t did the Indian boy do
after being forced to perform such an act?" Bishop answered^
" T h a t boy ran away, sir; we never saw him again."
Bishop said that, as to flogging, it was done in many ways. One
of the approved ways was to cut a tree off about 8 feet from the
ground with a flat top, and then cut a wedge, V shaped, into the tree r
This became a whipping post. A chain was passed around the neck
of the victim, male or female, man, woman, or child, and they were
dragged up, with their feet off the ground, by the chain being pulled
through the wedge and made taut. He had seen lots of Indians
flogged like this, and sometimes they would, when released, fall back
like people dead. Once he saw an Indian man or youth thus flogged
who fell back so violently, hitting his head on the ground, that he
bit his tongue clean through. This flogging is done at all the sections nearly.
Asked how he, a decent enough man, who knew the difference be*
tween right and wrong, could have stayed on so long among such
scenes, and himself aiding the malefactors, he said it was all for
money; that he wanted to have some money before he came out; that
at one time he owed the company 267 soles ( = £26 14s.), and that
after he had wiped that out he stayed on to earn enough to take him
clear away. He now has nearly £50, and the company are keeping it
to his credit and will pay him interest on it, and, if he likes, take him
back again. I advised him to get his money out of the company's
hands and to leave it with Mr. Gazes, with directions as to where
he wished it to be sent in case of his death when up the Putumayo.
ROGER CASEMENT,

298

SLAVEKY I N

PEEU.

[No. 2.]
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T BY N E L L I C E
AGE 2 7 .

WALKER,

Born in Barbados. Father and mother both living there. Engaged by Mr. Brewster in 1905, in February, in Barbados, to come
to Peru to Alarco Arana & Co. Ninety others came at the same time.
nil for the same employment.
Came to Manaos, and from Manaos to Pevas. Stayed at Pevas
seven days and then was brought to Nanai.
Stayed at Nanai one month at plantation work, clearing, etc. He
then left of his own accord, breaking his contract, but was paid for
his month's work. His salary was £2 per month, and he left because
it was too small, and he was not used to the work.
He came to Iquitos seeking work, and got it as fireman on the
America, a Government launch, at £7 per month. Stayed six months
and left her of his own accord, and opened a shoemaker's shop in
Iquitos. Stayed in Iquitos as a shoemaker a year and six months.
Having made some money, he closed his shop, thinking to go to Lima,
but changed his mind and went to the Putumayo. A Peruvian
friend advised him to go to the Putumayo, where he thought he
could make more money as a shoemaker. H e therefore signed a
contract with Arana & Co. to go to the Putumayo as a workman for
one year at 50 soles per month, thinking that at the end of the year
he would be free to start his shoemaking business.
His Peruvian friend, names Reyes, went with him as a mason in
the company's service. They both went to E l Encanto, where they
arrived the 24th July, 1907. H e remained in the company's service
as a worker until the 16th August, 1910. His pay was increased, and
he stayed on on that account.
He was employed as cook and steward on the launch Callao, with
headquarters at E l Encanto. He was well treated. Has been properly
paid and received his wages all the time. H e was never flogged, or
put " in guns," or illtreated. There was one other Barbadian at E l
Encanto, named Armando King. He is there now. H e is chief cook
in the house. H e was never employed on a commission, or on a
"" correría." He was a cook and steward on the launch.
He heard of no ill treatment of Barbadians at E l Encanto, and saw
none, there being only the one other, King, the whole of his time.
He knows of no cases of ill treatment of Barbadians of his own
knowledge, but heard of some at Chorrera, but knows nothing of
facts, only hearsay.
His chief was Señor Loayza, who was a very kind man.
He knows there are some Barbadians at La Chorrera in the company's service; he knows about nine in the company's service, but
thinks there must be more.
I n answer to some questions put by Mr. Cazes and Mr. L. H. Barnes,
the deponent stated that so far as he had ever observed the Indians at
El Encanto and elsewhere where he had been were well treated.
Señor Loayza certainty treated him well, and they were paid for
their work every week when they might be acting as station hands,

SLAVEEY I K

PERU.

299

while the Indians who brought in rubber were given gowns (" cnshm a s " ) , hatchets, knives, etc., and he never saw them abused or illtreated. H e was generally on the launch at his work, and was once
at La Chorrera.
He did not go up the river in January, 1908, but remembers steamers going up, and thinks that Señor Loayza went up then. This last
reply was to a question put by Mr. Casement.
FNo. 3 ]
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T ON SEPTEMBER Ü, 1 9 1 0 .

Name, Norman Walcott; age, 20 (he thinks). Engaged in Barbados 20th May, 1904, by Mr. Brewster for Arana y Hermanos.
Arrived in Iquitos 21st June, 1904. Employed at Nanai about two
years at plantation work, and then after that in Iquitos, and then
was in the Putumayo; was sent there five times on launches as a fireman on the Liberal and Cosmopolita,
Left the service of Aranas on
the 25th August, 1910, on Cosmopolita.
Never worked on shore there
at all. Was always employed on the launches.
Were you well treated ?—It can pass—according to the country.
Were you flogged ?—Yes; on board the launches.
Who flogged *you ?—The captain of the Cosmopolita.
Other men
held him, and he was flogged with a piece of wood—only once
flogged. This was because he complained of bad food, and the
captain was angry and flogged him; it was on the way from Putumayo here. H e was cut and bled, and was bruised. Can not remember the captain's name. The captain has left the company's
service " a long time."
During the time he was up the Putumayo, he was only at El Encanto and L a Chorrera; sometimes the launch would be for three
weeks at one place in the river. Did he ever see people flogged there ?
Yes; once he saw an Indian boy flogged at La Chorrera. The boy
was tied up, naked, and was badly flogged with a twisted cowhide.
The boy bled. H e was a youth, about 18 years of age, and was cut.
Did you hear what the Indian boy had done ?—No; never heard,
Mr. Macedo was the chief of La Chorrera. A Peruvian " white
man "—he was flogging the Indian boy. I t was out in the open—in
the compound.
How long ago?—It was about 10th November, 1909—he is sure it
was in November last year.
H e never saw any other cases of ill treatment; he himself was
properly paid all his wages.
He explained, in answer to questions as to his age, that he had
left Barbados quite a small boy. There were others left Barbados
very young. One of them was here now, a small boy who had been
servant to Julio C. Arana. H e is in the Peruvian army now.
The deponent is now working for Booth & Co. in the customs sheds,
clearing cargo, etc.
ROGER CASEMENT.

In the presence of D. Cazes, at Iquitos.
SEPTEMBER 9,

1910.

300

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

LNo. 4.]
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T ON SEPTEMBER 9 , 1 9 1 0 ,
BY PRESTON FORD, AGE 1 9 .

Engaged September, 1905, by Mr. Goodrich, for Olegario del Castillo, of Iquitos, at Barbados.
Worked seven months, and then, as he was badly treated, he left
him and came to the" mole to work. Stayed there two months and
then engaged with Arana y Hermanos and went as a trimmer on the
Liberal to E l Encanto. This about two years ago. Was about five
months in the service of Arana y Hermanos, always as a trimmer
and always on the Liberal.
He left the Liberal and went on the Cosmopolita, after some
months ashore—altogether about seven months in their service. He
left the Cosmopolita about three months.
On the Liberal he was well treated, never flogged, and got enough
to eat.
On the Cosmopolita were you well treated ?—They put me in the
hatchhold. He was never flogged. He got enough to eat and was
properly paid, and has no complaint against the company.
ROGER CASEMENT.

In the presence of D. Cazes, British consul.
IQUITOS, September 9, 1910.
[No. 5.]
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T ON SEPTEMBER 9 , 1 9 1 0 ,
BY J O S E P H J O N E S , AGE 2 6 .

Born in Barbados. Engaged about six years ago—the 3d April,
1904—by Arana y Hermanos. Mr. Moniz brought 90 Barbadians
to Iquitos—to Nanai.
He worked at Nanai eight months; he then left Nanai and came
to Iquitos, leaving Arana y Hermanos. He left Arana because the
pay was not enough and the food was not suited to him.
The food was not bad, but was not suited. He then worked at
the mole for Booth & Co.
When did you go back?—Not until three months ago, when he
went up in the Cosmopolita as a steward to La Chorrera—only to
La Chorrera.
This wag the only time he was in the Putumayo. He was well
treated all the time, waiting on the table on board ship.
Did you see anyone illtreated when you were there?—Not of my
color, not Barbadians.
Whom did you see illtreated when you were there?—He saw one
Peruvian " gentleman " kick another Peruvian all round the yard.
The man kicked was not hurt, but he was knocked down, and the
other man kicked him when he was down. The man kicked " cried
like a child." He does not know the name of the white man who
was kicking, or the name of the other man. The latter was a workingman. The man kicking was a " jefe "—a big man over the
Indians. He saw no Indians flogged, or in stocks, or illtreated.
He was only in La Chorrera a few days—9 or 10 days.

SLAVEEY I F

PERU.

301

Another Barbadian then at La Chorrera, the baker at the station,
was put in stocks as follows: The blades of the propeller of their
launch had gone wrong, and he and several other Barbadians were
trying to put them right. This man—the baker—whose name he forgets, came to help his countrymen at the job. They were given something to drink after it was done, and the baker got " salt," i. e., a
little tipsy. Mr. Macedo came and ordered some Peruvian soldiers to
put the baker in the stocks. I t was 10 a. m., and he was not let out until 6 p. m., and it was very hot. The baker is there now at La Chorrera
and can tell about it himself, also about other things—how the Indians
are treated—not in La Chorrera; there everything looks right, but out
in the sections. He himself heard lots of things said about flogging
Indians. Stanley Lewis, now on Liberal, knows all about illtreatment of Indians. He lives with Jones when on shore, in same house
here in Iquitos. H e will tell Stanley Lewis to come and see me when
the Liberal returns from down river.
ROGEK CASEMENT;

In the presence of D. Cazes, Esq.
IQUITOS, September 9, 1910.
[No. 6.J
S T A T E M E N T MADE TO CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T ON SEPTEMBER 9 , 1 9 1 0 ,
AT I Q U I T O S , BY J O S E P H LABADIE.

Born in Dominica. How old?—22, he thinks.
Engaged in Barbados five and a half years ago by Arana Bros.'
agent by Mr. Moniz for Mr. Brewster.
Came to Nanai. Stayed there eight months and took his pay and
left the company. He ran away; he corrected himself. He could
not stand the treatment; the food was little and bad, and the £2 was
not enough.
When you left Nanai, where did you go?—He came to join Mr.
Cazes's boat, the Beatriz, where he was well treated, and then on the
San Paulo as a steward and cook. Then he left this service after
four months and went up the Putumayo as cook to work on launch at
£10 per month. The first launch was the Huitoto, where he
stayed two and a half months, and then he was put to work on shore
at E l Encanto. I t might have been three years ago, but he can't remember. H e was cook on shore at same pay.
The chief was Señor Loayza. Then from Encanto he was sent to
JLa Chorrera; he was not employed as cook when he arrived in La
Chorrera, but was sent out " on the mountain."
He was put to work the Indians. H e had a gun. The first section was Sur, and he went with two Peruvians, rational men
(" empleados racionales " ) , always armed, to look after the Indians,
to see they bring in the rubber.
Were the Indians paid for the rubber?—They give them shirts;
they give them very little things.
*
Did you ever see the Indians flogged?—Oh, yes; many times.
Yes; I saw them flogged many times, many times—badly flogged.
Who flogged the Indians?—The chief of the section gave the
orders,* and if you don't flog them he flog you.

302

SLAVEKY IN" P E E U .

Did you flog the Indians?—No; because I was a new man, and
they take old men who know the language, who can ask them questions and tell why they flog them.
Who did you see flog the Indians?—The boss of the expedition;
the chief man was Miranda, and the other man was Puet. 1 The
first, Miranda, was a very bad man. All the chiefs of the sections,
very many of them kill Indians.
How do you know?—I hear the men who do it talk about it;
sometimes they boast of it. This was in Spanish at Sur, and at other
stations, too. He has heard plenty of talk about it.
Did you ever see any Indians killed ?—Yes; I saw one killed at Sur.
I t was a woman.
How was she killed?—Miranda sent to call her, and I saw her
brought in from the bushes. A boy was sent to call her; she was
brought in chained around her neck. Miranda sent an Indian boy to
take her about 25 yards from the house and shoot her.
You saw her shot ?—Yes; I saw her. She got two shots.
How old was the boy ?—A young boy, perhaps 20.
Was she buried ?—No; they have burned her.
You saw her burnt?—Yes; I saw her body burnt. They cut off
her head, after shooting her, and it was brought into them all and
shown to the Indians, and they were told if they "did bad " they
would be treated the same.
What had she done?—I don't know; they said she was a " b a d "
woman. She was not a station woman; she was an old woman. 1
never saw her till they brought her in and killed her, and I don't
know what she had done. This was about two years ago. He is
not quite sure of the date.
He left the company's service about a year ago; he ran away and
got sick. I t was like this: He was sent back to La Chorrera, and he
was then sent to Abisinia, a very bad section, and he did not want
to go.
He was told he must go, but that he would only go and come
back at once. On the way one of the men of the party told him he
would not be allowed back; that he would be kept a year at Abisinia.
He got sick on the way. H e was not used to the walking in the
bush, and he got sick, and he was frightened, so he ran away back
to La Chorrera. Señor Macedo was vexed with him, but would not
let him go away. H e was cook again at La Chorrera, and Señor
Macedo told lies about him and did tricks. H e said he had
u
pinched " rice to give to his chickens, because he kept two chickens;
and so when the launch came up river again he left and came back to
Iquitos.
H e explained that he had seen " lots of Indians " flogged at the
sections; that at La Chorrera one would not know what was being
done in the sections; that in the sections the men in charge did just
as they pleased; they flogged Indians, and killed them and burnt
them, without anyone stopping them.
H e had seen men, women, and children—even little children—
flogged at Sur. They would be really flogged, badly cut, and bleeding, and sometimes they would be put in the " c e p o " (the stocks)
after being flogged, and left there without medicine or without food.
1

This is the way the name was pronounced, but spelling is probably incorrect.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

303

Sometimes they might get food, but not often, and their families
would bring them " seeds " to eat. If the Indians were not flogged,
they would not bring in rubber; some might if they were well paid,
but many would not; they bring the rubber now because if they do
not they get flogged and they are frightened; nothing else—they are
flogged only because they don't bring enough rubber to please the
" jefe " of the section.
ROGER CASEMENT.

In the presence of D. Cazes at Iquitos.
SEPTEMBER 9,

1910.
LNo. 7.1

E X A M I N A T I O N OF ADOLFUS GIBBS, A NATIVE OF BARBADOS, BY H I S M A J E S T Y ' S
CONSUL GENERAL AT IQUITOS ON SEPTEMBER 1 3 , 1 9 1 0 , I N PRESENCE OP
MR. LOUIS BARNES, A M E M B E R OF T H E P E R U V I A N AMAZON CO.'s COMMISSION.

Aged 24.
His mother alive—is in Barbados, in St. Michael's parish. He
writes to her, but has not heard for some months from her. Is now
at work on the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s steamer Liberal, which plies
between Iquitos and the Putumayo.
Engaged first at Barbados on the 3d April, 1905, along with about
92 men, all engaged by Arana Bros, through Abel Alarco. Was engaged as a laborer at £2 Is. 8d. ($10) per month.
Came first to Nanai, close to Iquitos here, along with others, and
Avas there for eight months, working at farm and plantation work.
He then left Nanai of his own accord, forfeiting his return passage
to Barbados, because the pay was too small for this country, and the
food was not suited—beans and rice.
After leaving Nanai he came up to Iquitos and got work, first at
the brick works at Morona Cocha (a suburb of Iquitos).
H e left that and took work at Booth & Co.'s dock works, on the
Mole. He then engaged voluntarily to go to the Putumayo for the
Peruvian Amazon Co.
Some of his countrymen were going, and they told him he could
ggt better money there, so he engaged himself to go at £5 per month,
Jtis contract is lost. H e went to " look out for Indians." I t was in
1908. H e went first to La Chorrera, and then was sent to Abisinia.
Abelardo Agüero was the chief of Abisinia. He was put " on general
work," and often on " commissions " to see after the Indians.
Sometimes 20 men went; sometimes 10—always armed with Winchesters. They would go out under a headman to gather the Indians
together, and bring them into the station with rubber. If the Indians
did not come willingly they were chained up. Indians would be hung
up with their hands tied behind them : or with a chain around their
neck.
Simon AngúilOj a Colombian, " a colored fellow like myself,"
would flog the Indians in Abisinia, He himself never did flog them ;
he was not ordered to, but he saw it done.
I t was done in the station itself, in the yard. Indians were tied
up and flogged; he did not see them tied to a tree, but laid on the
ground and flogged.

804

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

I n Morelia, the section under Abisinia, where Jiménez was the
chief, he saw a man's head cut off. An Indian was in chains there.
He was thin and sick. He got out of the " cepo " or stocks, and was
running away with the chain on him; Jiménez sent a boy, a " muchacho," a young man about 18, after him to catch him, and he overtook
him and brought him back. The boy cut his head off with a
" sword "—a machete.
Jiménez stood by and ordered it, and the boy cut the other Indian's
head off against a tree stump. The murdered man was a young man,
too; he was a cacique or headman of the Boras Indians. H e and his
men had escaped, but he had been caught and brought back, and put
in chains and in the " cepo," and not fed properly: so he was weak
when he tried to escape and get away. He had been about three
Weeks in chains.
He saw two old Indian women flogged at Morelia, badly flogged.;
and cut and bleeding. They had pulled up some sweet potatoes,
because they were hungry. The Indians get nothing to eat; they are
driven for rubber, and are flogged if they don't bring it. They are
just slaves. He came back to Iquitos on the 29th July. His last
section was Morelia, where he was sick for seven months. He got
no medicine, and a little starch mixed with water for food. (He
means cassava meal or farina.)
There is a man, a Barbadian, now with Normand at Matanzas,
named Leavine. Leavine came from Barbados before him; he knows
how the Indians have been treated; he has seen it all; he is a small
chap. H e saw many people flogged. Señor Jiménez and Señor
Macedo, in July, when he was at La Chorrera and wanted to come
awTay, struck him in the face because he would not stay and go to
another station. H e was ill and sick, and said he would not stay,
but must go to Iquitos, so they beat him, and at first tried to keep him.
NOTE BY CONSUL GENERAL C A S E M E N T .

This man had been most unwilling to appear before Mr. Casement.
Mr. Casement had heard that there were four Barbados men employed on the Liberal, then in Iquitos, and they were sent for by Mr.
Gazes, the British consul, but failed to appear. Finally, this man
presented himself before Mr. Casement on the morning of the 13Íh
September.
As Mr. Casement was embarking the next day on the Liberal he
did not take further steps in Iquitos to interrogate these men, believing that he would have occasion to do so on board ship on the
Way to the Putumayo. On going on board the Liberal on the 14th
September it was found that Gibbs and another Barbados man, named
Cresset, had deserted that morning.
Only two Barbados men still remained on board, and their depositions were taken on the journey to the Putumayo.
Gibbs and Cresset deserted because they did not wish to be involved—so they informed Mr. Casement's interpreter—in charges
against the company in whose employ they were. They said they
were frightened.
On Mr. Casement's return to Iquitos from the Putumayo in December he founds that Cresset had already gone to Brazil, and he subsequently met this man at Manaos. Gibbs was still in Iquitos, but left

SLAVEEY I N

PERU.

305

for Manaos at the same time as Mr. Casement, shipping as a sailor on
a Brazilian steam launch.
[No.

PRECIS OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF S T A N L E Y S. L E W I S , A NATIVE OF BARBADOS,
MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL ON BOARD T H E " L I B E R A L 1 5
ON SEPTEMBER 20 AND 2 2 , 1 9 1 0 , AND ON S U B S E Q U E N T OCCASIONS.

[This man is referred to in one of the declarations published in
Truth by Mr. Hardenburg. A deponent who refused to give his name,
publishing only his initials, " M . G.," refers in his declaration to " a n
Englishman named Estan L u i z " who had flogged the girl Simona,
who " M . G." stated he himself was afterwards forced to shoot.
During my stay in Iquitos, before leaving for the Putumayo, I was
informed that this Barbados man, Stanley Lewis, was actually employed on the company's steamer Liberal, in which I was about to
embark for the Putumayo. I sent twice to call him to the British
consulate in order that I might question him, but he refused to come,
and I was told by Bishop, the Barbados man taken into my service,
that Lewis was afraid to appear before me. After embarking on the
Liberal I told the captain I wished to interrogate two Barbados men
he then had employed on board, these being Lewis and a sailor named'
James Clark. Lewis appeared before me on the 20th September, and
I questioned him as to his connection with the Putumayo and actual
employment there. His statement was to the following effect:]
His age, he believed, was about 21. He had been engaged in
Barbados in 1905, when he was about 15 years old. H e stated that
some even younger Barbados boys came away in the service of the
Arana Bros, at that time. He was brought direct to the Putumayo
in May, 1905; he thinks he landed about the 10th May. The pay was
$10 per month, the work stipulated in the contract as that of a laborer.
On landing at La Chorrera, where Señor Macedo was the chief, he
was sent to a station called Santa Catalina. I t lay in the country of
the Boras Indians, beyond a place called Santa Barbara. • He was
only there about one week, as he was sent from La Chorrera to help
in guarding the Indians who were to carry rubber from that station
down to La Chorrera. Although so young, he was armed with a
rifle. He and others, armed like himself, marched a great number
of Indians down through the forest to La Chorrera. There were
more than 600 Indians, he thinks. Each armed man had about 100
Indians to guard on the way and see that they did not escape. There
were also Indian " muchachos," or boys, in the service of the company, armed with rifles, who also acted as interpreters. Each armed
man had, or was supposed to have, 100 cartridges for his Winchester.
After this his first service he was sent to La Sabana, a neighboring
station to Santa Catalina, where one Eodriquez was chief.1 He was
at Sabana four months keeping guard with his rifle either at the
house or going on what are termed " commissions " against runaway
Indians, to find them and bring them in to work rubber.
No questions were put to him by Mr. Casement as to the specific
nature of his duties on these commissions at La Sabana.
1
This was Aristides Rodriquez, now dead, a brother to Aurelio Rodriguez, the chief of
S a n t a Catalina.

77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

From La Sabana he was sent back to La Chorrera, where he remained about three months, he thinks, employed in cooking. H e
was then sent up the river to the station of Ultimo Eetiro, where
José Innocente Fonseca was chief and where he stayed " the balance of
his time," or, as he believed, about 18 months. At Ultimo Retiro he
was employed chiefly on " commissions " against the Indians and in
compelling them to work and bring in rubber.
Asked by the consul general who it was had ordered him to flog
the girl Simona, as referred to by " M. G.," he was surprised and
then said he did it by order of one Argaluza, a subordinate white
man who acted under the orders of Fonseca, the chief. Asked who
was the other Barbados man the deponent " M. G." had referred to
as " El Frailecito," who had flogged this girl along with Lewis, he
says it was a fellow countryman named Ernest Seales, who has since
gone home to Barbados. Asked who was " M. G.," he says it was a
man named Marcial, employed by the company. He forgets his
other name, but thinks it was Gomez. After he had flogged Simona
along with Seales, Marcial took this girl out to the bush and shot
her. That happened very soon after he went to Ultimo Eetiro; he
thinks it must have been the end of 1905 or thereabouts. Simona was
the only Indian he flogged at that time. He objected when ordered
to flog her, but was threatened, and in fear he obeyed. H e was subsequently ordered to flog people, but refused, and he was punished by
Fonseca for refusing. He was put in stocks and was beaten by
Fonseca for refusing to flog other Indians. He confirms several
statements made by " M. G." and Juan Castaños in their declarations.
He often saw Indians flogged at Ultimo Eetiro—very often; they
were badly cut, sometimes each time they got a lash the flesh would
be cut. They were staked to the ground, and naked, and he has
known them to die after flogging. The wounds would get maggots
in them and then fester, and the house even became foul smelling
from the number of these people in this condition. They would
then be taken away and shot. He has seen men and women shot like
this. He saw it often in Ultimo Eetiro.
Asked by consul general had he seen Indians killed in La Chorrera,
he said he had seen them flogged, and very badly flogged there, but
not shot afterwards, as in Ultimo Eetiro.
He then recounts at length how Fonseca ordered him to kill an
Indian who was in what he terms a " cellar," or black hole, that had
been constructed under the house at Ultimo Eetiro for the better
confinement of Indians. This Indian was being kept a prisoner in
this cellar, or black hole, because his people had run away from the
rubber work. He was ordered by Fonseca to shoot him. H e refused, and Fonseca threatened to kill him, and then put him in the
stocks and down in this cellar for two days and nights without food
or water. He would perhaps have died, he thinks, only Juan Castaños came secretly and gave him food and water. Fonseca hated him
for this refusal to kill the Indian, and afterwards treated him so
badly that when his time was up he insisted on going to La Chorrera.
He worked there for some time, and on one occasion Fonseca came
down country on business, and seeing him there tried to coax him to
go back to Ultimo Eetiro, offering him higher pay, but he refused.

SLAVEEY IN" PERU.

307

As soon as^ his whole time was up, he left La Chorrera, refusing to
stay at Señor Mácedo's request, and went to Iquitos in the steamer
called the Cosmopolita.
He had only £3 balance of wages due to him;
all the rest of his pay had gone in various expenses and in buying
things at the company's stores.
Since that time he has been working on different launches on the
river, sometimes as a fireman, sometimes, as IIOAV, as a steward. He
gets now £6 per month, but never has any money saved, and has
none now. He describes how harshly he and other Barbados men
have sometimes been treated on the launches. H e declares that since
he left La Chorrera he has tried to forget all the dreadful things he
saw committed in Ultimo Eetiro.
When he was in Iquitos once, Castaños was there, and one day took
him to a house where he made a statement about the things he had
seen done at Ultimo Eetiro. The statement was made some time
ago, and he does not remember the name of the gentleman to whom
he made it, but it was taken down in writing.
He further confirms in many particulars statements of Castaños
dealing with that man's stay at Porvenir.
On the 22d September, whilst still on board the Liberal, I again
requested Lewis to appear before me in my cabin in order that I
might further interrogate him. I then read over to him several
statements that had been made to Mr. Hardenburg by various deponents, and he confirmed in more than one particular that testimony. H e went on to say that during his stay at Ultimo Retiro he
had seen the most atrocious crimes committed by José Innocente
Fonseca and his subordinates at that station.
H e says:
I have seen Indians killed for sport, tied up to trees, and shot at by Fonseca
and the others. After they were drinking they would sometimes do this.
They would take a man out of the " cepo " and tie him to a tree, and shoot
at him for a target. I have often seen Indians killed thus, and also shot after
they had been flogged and their flesh was rotten through maggots. Others I
have seen killed by the " cholitos "—the small Indian boys being trained into
"muchachos." These boys were armed with machetes, and they would cut
their heads off against the tree stumps. I once saw Fonseca do the following
thing: lie had an Indian nurse girl minding a child of his, a baby he had by
one of his Indian women. This nurse was quite a young girl, and she was carrying the baby, and it picked up a leaf of tobacco and put it in its mouth. T Fonseca came along just then, and because the baby was crying and he saw why.
he beat the girl with his fists, and when she was knocked about a lot and her
mouth was cut, he sent her down to the river to wash, and then when she came
up he drew his revolver and shot her, and one of his men, named Ohicodiño (a
nickname—his right name Vas Orsavio or Miguel Rengifo), came out and
drew his revolver and shot the girl, too, and so they killed her. Her body was
buried.
Another thing there I saw was this Rengifo kill a girl. This was a girl that
he had, and she was friends with me, loo, and with several of us. She was sent
by Rengifo to wash clothes, and she went to a stream in the forest where he
had told her not to go; so he took his gun and shot her right through the back
and belly, and she fell down and cried out, and lay there on the grouud crying,
raid died. Both these things I saw with my own eyes just as I saw Indians
tied to the trees and shot at, or shot after they had been flogged or killed with
machetes.

On the 24th September; after arrival at La Chorrera, Lewis was
again called—this time in the presence of Señor Tizón, the represent-

308

SLAVERY I N PERU.

atiye of, the Peruvian Amazon Co., and of all the members of that
company's commission. The statement of a Barbados man named
Joshua Dyall was being made to the consul general in the presence of
these persons. I n confirmation of certain things Dyall was asserting which Señor Tizón questioned, the consul general summoned
Frederick Bishop, and later Stanley Lewis from his work on board
the Liberal. Lewis then repeated the substance of the foregoing in
the presence of these gentlemen and declared himself prepared, if
required, to repeat his accusations before Señor Fonseca himself,
who is now the representative of the company at the station of La
Sabana in the Boras country. Lewis declares further that Fonseca
had threatened to shoot him if he ever met him again. Despite this
he would go up to Sabana in company with the consul general and
the commission if desired. Señor Tizón ultimately accepted as substantially true the statement made by Lewis and begged that no confrontation of this man with Señor Fonseca should take place.
I n consequence of this it was decided by the commission that
Lewis's testimony should be accepted as sufficient proof as it stood,
seeing that the representative of the company declined to put it to
the only test available, namely, the confrontation of the accuser with
the accused.
(NOTE.—Lewis remained as servant on board the Liberal upon her
return voyage to Iquitos in October, 1910, where he left her to await
Mr. Casement's return from the Putumayo. At his request he was
conveyed by Mr. Casement to P a r a in Brazil, where employment was
found for him.)
While at Iquitos at the end of November and beginning of December, at the request of the prefect, Lewis was sent to be interrogated along with other persons. Mr. Casement desired the prefect
to question him as to the reality of the crimes alleged against actual
agents in the employ of the Peruvian Amazon Co.
On the 30th November the prefect questioned Lewis, and took
down something of the foregoing evidence in writing. From first
to last Mr. Casement saw a good deal of Lewis, and had no doubt
of his sincerity or of the truthfulness of his statements in so far as
his recollection held good. He had gone to the Putumayo when very
young, and since leaving it more than four years before, had sought,
as he said, to forget as much as he could or to wipe out from his mind
the recollection of many crimes he had witnessed. His statements
were again and again tested during the course of Mr. Casement's
investigations on the Putumayo itself and were borne out quite independently by the testimony of other witnesses. Lewis was present
once when, as described in one of the declarations made to Mr. Hardenburg, the heads of various Indians whom Fonseca had sent his
" muchachos " to kill were brought in for his inspection wrapped up
in leaves. Lewis stated that he saw Fonseca undo the coverings,
take out the heads, holding them up by the hair, regarding the features with a laugh, even naming the dead individuals, and throwing
the heads away. He saw Fonesca commit the atrocious crime declared to by James Chase in his statement the details of which are
unprintable. See James Chase's statement*.
KOGER CASEMENT.

SLAVEEY I N

PERU.

309

[No. 9.]
E X A M I N A T I O N OF J A M E S CLARK, A NATIVE OF BARBADOS, BY H I S M A J ESTY'S CONSUL GENERAL, ON BOARD T H E S T E A M S H I P " L I B E R A L , " ON
T H E W A Y TO T H E P U T U M A Y O , ON SEPTEMBER 2 2 , 1 9 1 0 .

Age, 24.
Born in Barbados.
Parents both dead.
States he was engaged in 1905, in Barbados, by Arana Bros.,
through Abel Alarco.
H e worked for one year on his first contract, which was for £2
Is. 8d. per month. He was sent to Nanai, and left it of his own
accord.
H e then went to Iquitos and worked as a sailor on the Urimaguas
(a steamer of the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s flotilla, now at Manaos).
He never worked on shore in the Putumayo; only on launches all
the time. H a s worked on and off on different launches; this one the
Liberal, the Cosmopolita, and others, but has never been on shore at
work or in any of the rubber sections.
Never went past La Chorrera, and only there for a few days at
a time, on board one of the launches.
His present wages are £9 per month. He states this is his last
voyage, he hopes, in the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s service; he hopes
to go to Brazil again. He worked there on board launches before
coming up to take his present service.
This man left Iquitos early in December, on Mr. Casement's
return from the Putumayo, but has since returned, and is now working there.
[No. 10.]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF DONALD F R A N C I S MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S
CONSUL GENERAL I N T H E P R E S E N C E OF SEÑOR TIZÓN A N D M R . BARNES
A T LA CHORRERA ON SEPTEMBER 2 3 , 1 9 1 0 .

This man was the first Barbados man interrogated by Mr. Casement on reaching La Chorrera from Iquitos. He was found working at La Chorrera as a sort of head man, and appeared to be trusted
by Señor Macedo, the head of the company. There were five Barbados men actually at La Chorrera on the arrival of Mr. Casement
and the commissioners on the 22d September, and on Mr. Casement notifying Señor Tizón of his wish to interrogate these five
men, they were all brought up by Señor Macedo. As Mr. Casement
had been informed privately that the men had been threatened by
Señor Macedo, he thought it was undesirable that this gentleman
should be present when they were first examined. He informed
Señor Tizón that he did not wish Señor Macedo to be present, but
that, of course, he could be told of all that the men had declared
in answer to the questions put to them by Mr. Casement in his presence and that of Mr. Barnes.
Donald Francis was the first of these five men sent in by Señor
Macedo to answer the questions put to him. He gave his age as

310

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

27, both his parents being still living in Barbados. He was engaged
in 1905 on the ordinary contract—flO per month for two years, as
a laborer. He was first employed at Colonia Eiojano, on the Amazon, waiting for a steamer to bring him up the Putumayo to La
Chorrera, where he arrived on the 6th of May, 1905, along with
several fellow workers. Asked where he had been working since,
he answers:
Not all the time in La Chorrera, but sometimes in the sections, but most of
the time here a t La Chorrera.

Asked the nature of his work, he answers:
I w a s planting yucca (i. e., c a s s a v a ) , and so forth, and Sugar cane. I w a s
growing p l a n t a i n s ; also guarding myself against t h e wild Indians, who were
savages and would attack the sections.

The first section was Santa Catalina, where he spent five months.
During these five months the work he did was " planting yucca and
guarding himself." From Santa Catalina he returned to La Chorrera, where he remained two months, and was then sent to Ultimo
Retiro, where he remained at the " same kind of work." He stayed
there six months, and then returned to La Chorrera, where he stayed
one month, and was sent to Andokes—to Matanzas station—where he
stayed one year and nine months under Señor Normand. He came
back to La Chorrera and worked " cutting boards "—i. e., as a carpenter here—and then went to Occidente, where he " sawed boards,"
and then returned to La Chorrera, where he had been employed ever
since. His present pay is £6 per month, food, and lodging, and he
has received a promise that it shall be increased to £7. He is not
married, but has one child in Barbados and one dead here by an
Indian wife. He has an Indian wife now whom he wishes to take
away with him whenever he leaves. He is well treated and can not
find any fault. Has not been punished either in La Chorrera or any
of the sections. Asked had he ever flogged any one in the sections or
elsewhere, he answers:
No, s i r ; never.

Asked if he owes any money to the company, he says he does not
owe any money. He is quite free now; if he liked he could go away
at any time.
(NOTE.—It was quite plain that this man was not speaking the
truth. From first to last he never held up his head or looked Mr.
Casement in the face. As there were other men waiting to be interrogated it was not thought desirable at that time to press this man
to be more explicit or to bring about an open rupture. Prior to
being summoned by the consul general this man had informed Frederick Bishop that Señor Macedo had some time before threatened to
have him shot if he told anything about him. Since this he has been
promised an increase of pay, and he is very anxious about his Indian
wife. She is about to become a mother, and he has declared that he
is determined not to marry anyone but her, and will certainly take her
to Barbados when he goes, if he is allowed. He fears that should
he state the truth and incriminate his superiors he would be prevented from taking her with him, and possibly his child also. Later,
on the afternoon of 24th September, after DyalPs interrogatory and
the very full evidence brought out before the commission and Señor
Tizón by the evidence of Dyall, Bishop, and Stanley Lewis, Donald

SLAVERY IN PERU.

311

Francis sent a message to the consul general by Bishop to say that he
had not told the truth in his statement made the previous day, and
that he had done so from two motives: He had not liked to speak out
before Señor Tizón, and also Maceflo had begged him not to say anything against him and had promised to increase his pay to £8 per
month. No further action was taken by Mr. Casement at this time,
but on his return to La Chorrera from his journey through the forest
Francis made repeated overtures to be again heard in order that he
might retract the statement he had falsely made and supplement it
with a truthful record of his doings. Finally, on the 3d November,
1910, he was allowed to again appear, when at his own request he
signed a written statement to the following effect:)
FUKTPIEE S T A T E M E N T OF DONALD FRANCLS MADE AT H I S OWN REQUEST TO I-TTg
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 3 , 1 9 1 0 .

Donald Francis appears at his own reiterated request before His Majesty's
consul general to state that when first called on to speak before the consul
general on the 23d September, 1910, he did not state the truth.
He wishes to make this voluntary and spontaneous admission of his former
untruthfulness because he is ashamed of the part he then played and desires to
correct the wrong impression that his former statement may create.
He is prepared to state his reasons for having spoken untruthfully and to
answer now with full truth any questions the consul general may put to him.
He wishes that his former statement of the 23d September last may be cancelled, and he will make a full statement of all his acts and of the proceedings
he is acquainted with, concealing nothing since the date of his arrival on the
Putumayo.
He desires that this spontaneous declaration of his may be recorded as proof
of his regret that he did not at first and from the first do his duty when called
on to speak by His Majesty's consul general.
DONALD FRANCIS.

Signed by the aforesaid Donald Francis before me, Eoger Casement, His Majesty's consul general, this 5th day of November, 1910,
at La Chorrera.
ROGER CASEMENT.

As Mr. Casement already knew from other quarters sufficient as to
what this man had done in the Putumayo, and as little time remained
to him, he did not take down the further evidence that this man
voluntarily offered. I t was known that it confirmed the worst
charges brought against Señor Normand as to the torture and murder of Indians at Matanzas, and also incriminated other agents, including Macedo, the company's representative at La Chorrera, and
incriminated Donald Francis himself; for he had previously admitted that he had killed Indians sometimes, not acting on orders to
do so, and that one of his motives at the first for trying to deceive
Mr. Casement had been his fear that, if he accused Señor Normand
and others of their murders, they might in turn accuse him^and as
he was a black man he feared it would have gone hard for him.
This man at his own request was left working at La Chorrera
when Mr. Casement came away on the 15th November. H e had not
sufficient money saved to take his Indian wife to Barbados. I t was
distinctly promised that he should be employed only in La Chorrera,
and only upon the ordinary duties of a laboring man, and that
under no circumstances should he be used for compelling Indians to

312

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PERU.

work or bring in rubber, and that at an early date, when the state
of his wife's health permitted him to travel, he should be free to go
home to Barbados.
EOGER CASEMENT.
[No. 11.]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF P P I I L I P L A W R E N C E MADE TO PUS M A J E S T Y ' s
CONSUL GENERAL I N T H E P R E S E N C E OF SEÑOR TIZÓN AND MR. B A R N E S ,
AT LA CHORRERA, ON SEPTEMBER 2 3 , 1 9 1 0 .

This man was found on arrival at La Chorreraj employed as a
cook, and appeared to be the trusted servant of Señor Macedo. He
was a young boy of only 19, and had been engaged in Jamaica, of
which place he was a native, by Juan B. Vega, a former manager
of La Chorrera before Señor Macedo's time. He had been engaged by Vega as a personal servant, and on that agent's departure
had been left in La Chorrera at his own consent, where he had been
acting as cook. He states that his wages are £7 a month; that he is
well treated and happy. He has never been punished, and has never
done any wrong. He expects to leave in December, and will then
go straight home to Jamaica. He has been saving his money, and
has something due to him now—enough to go home with. As all his
service had been that purely of a servant here in La Chorrera, and
he had not at any time been engaged in outdoor labor or in the rubber
sections, he was not further questioned. Mr. Casement, seeing that
he was only a boy, and believing that he stated quite truthfully that
he knew nothing of himself of the general condition of things outside La Chorrera, refrained from questioning him beyond ascertaining that he was well and in no need of assistance. Upon Mr. Casement's departure, on the 15th of November, this boy came and said he
also wished to leave with him, and he was brought away and taken
down river, and ultimately sent on board ship bound for Jamaica,
at Para.
»
[No. 12.]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF SIEFERT GREENIDGE MADE TO H I S M A J E S T r ' s
CONSUL GENERAL I N T H E P R E S E N C E OF SEÑOR TIZÓN A N D MR. B A R N E S ,
AT LA CHORRERA, ON SEPTEMBER 2 3 , 1 9 1 0 .

This man was the third witness interrogated by Mr. Casement
after his arrival at La Chorrera. He was serving there as the baker,
having sole charge of a large bakehouse where bread for quite a large
number of people was daily baked under his direction. Though he
could neither read nor write, he was a very intelligent man, and certainly the hardest working employee that was encountered anywhere
in the company's service. He had built himself quite a good house
and lived in comparative comfort, and the two Indians working
under him were well cared for, well clothed, and abviously well
treated. He gave his age as 23, having been born in Barbados, both
his parents being dead now. He had been engaged in October, 1904,
along with the first contingent and upon the terms specified in
all cases, namely $10 per month. He had retained his original
contract, which he produced after his examination. He states that he
went first to Colonia Riojano, was then transferred to a Peruvian

SLAVERY IN PERU.

318

steamer, and brought'here to La Chorrera on the 16th of November,
1904. He was one of those sent up to Andokes, under Ramon Sanchez
and Normand immediately after arrival. He stayed there only one
month and a few days, and then came back sick to La Chorrera,
Upon his recovery he was made a cook, and was thus employed for
two years and four months here in La Chorrera. H e was then promoted to be baker, and is baker here now, so that, except for one
month and a few days spent in Andokes, all his time has been here
at La Chorrera.* He stated he has always been well treated and
properly fed, and when sick had some one to attend to him. His
wages at present are £10 per month, and he gets £2 per month extra
for outside work, and he has saved money and can leave at any time
he likes. He does not know of any Barbados man who has been
kept prisoner in the company's service; as far as he is concerned he
is quite free.
The following admission was not voluntary. I t was drawn from
him by a question put by Mr. Casement, who had been informed of
the circumstances elsewhere. He admits that he has been locked up
once for having been drunk. H e has not seen any Barbados men
here at La Chorrera flogged, put in stocks, or illtreated. When he
was in Andokes there were many Barbados men there, but it was five
years ago, and he can not recollect.
The following, again, was not voluntary—it was in answer to Mr,
Casement's direct questions. He remembers a man named Cyril
Atkins; he knew him; he is dead. He died at Iquitos when &
prisoner.
What was the charge against him?
That he shot a woman in Andokes.

I t was in 1904 or thereabouts. The witness thinks it was an accident, because after Atkins had done it he cried out. He himself was
in a hammock, sick, and heard the shot, and got up and saw the
woman lying down. She died soon after. Cyril Atkins was arrested
and sent down to La Chorrera. There were witnesses sent down, too.
That was the only Indian he saw killed in Andokes. He never
flogged any Indians himself, either in Andokes or here in La Chorrera. He would swear that he has never seen any Indians flogged by
Barbados men. He is quite contented, and will go home in December
to Barbados.
(NOTE.—This witness spoke frankly enough, but he, too, like
Francis, gave the impression of not saying anything of himself,
Much of the foregoing brief statement was elicited by questions put
to him by Mr. Casement, who had learned beforehand something of
the facts. For instance, when first asked if he had ever been punished, he said promptly, " N o , n e v e r ; " and it was only when the
consul remarked, " except when you got drunk and were locked up
here in La Chorrera " (this had been learned from the declarations
of a Barbados man named Jones, made at Iquitos), that he had admitted to his confinement under these circumstances. H e added:
I should have been punished in Barbados for being drunk, too.

He denied that he had been put in the stocks on that occasion as
Jones averred, " only locked up in the house."
The evidence as to Cyril Atkins did not come voluntarily. Mr. Casement seeing that the man was unwilling to make any frank statement

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of himself, and having heard by chance that a* Barbados man named
Cyril Atkins had been confined in gaol in Iquitos, for some offense
committed in the Putumayo, asked suddenly, "Did you know a
man named Cyril Atkins ? " and it was then that the facts concerning
the shooting of the woman in Matanzas were drawn from the witness.
As it was not desirable to press this man at the first examination, he
was dismissed. He stated the next day, in answer to the consul, that
he had been tipsy more than once; that the chiefs of sections, i. e.,
the head employees of the company and all the hands got drunk
sometimes; that everyone could buy liquor at the store. Mr. Casement subsequently learned that this witness was in the confidence of
Señor Macedo to a considerable extent, and was so well treated by
him and so well paid, that he was himself unwilling to say anything
detrimental to the interests, as he believed, of his employer. He was
stated to have been employed as gaoler of the Indians who were kept
as prisoners at La Chorrera, and that the bakehouse, with its strong
walls, was frequently used as a gaol where Indians were confined
under his orders. This man at his own request stayed on at La
Chorrera when Mr. Casement came away on the 15th of NoVember.
He had then a considerable sum, close upon £200, to his credit, and he
desired to add to this before returning to Barbados. He was to perform no other duties than those he performed at the time, and in no
case was to be put to any task involving the imprisonment and ill
treatment of the Indians, and it was clearly understood that he
should leave La Chorrera whenever he wished.)
[No. 13.]
P R E C I S OE T H E S T A T E M E N T OF J A M E S C H A S E , A NATIVE OF BARBADOS,
MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT LA CHORRERA ON S E P TEMBER 2 3 , 1 9 1 0 , AND S U B S E Q U E N T L Y .

This man was found by Mr. Casement at work at La Chorrera on
his arrival there, and was one of the five Barbados men summoned
to appear before Mr. Casement on the 23d of September, in the presence of Señor Tizón and Mr. Barnes, the chief of the commission.
Chase stated his age, as he believed, to be 23. H e was engaged in
1904 with the third contingent brought from Barbados, under contract with the Arana Bros., as a laborer, at a salary of $10 per month.
They were brought first to Manaos, where they stayed some time
awaiting the means to get up river—he thinks about two months—and
were then conveyed to a place on the Amazon called Colonia Riojano,
whence they were brought on to La Chorrera, where Señor Macedo
was the chief, where Chase remained, he thinks, for about 12 months.
After that he was sent to Ultimo Retiro, where he stayed about
three months under Fonseca. He was then sent back to La Chorrera, where he remained about three months, and was sent down to
Iquitos sick. H e reengaged to return to the Putumayo, at Iquitos,
in April, 1908, his new salary being 50 soles per month, or, say, £5,
the pay he is at present getting. Has not saved any money, and
believes he is now in debt to the company. Except for possibly
owing this money he is free, and could go away if he liked.
On his return in 1908 he stayed only two or three days in La
Chorrera, and was then dispatched to Abisinia, where Señor Agüero
was chief, and is still chief.

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315

This man's evidence was given evidently under a sense of fear;
his agitation was plainly marked, and he was greatly disconcerted.
Asked by the consul general what his chief duties had been as an
employee of the company, he stated that when at Abisinia he had
been employed "making commissions" against the Indians. He
explained fully that these consisted in bringing the Indians in
under arms with rubber, and that often they were flogged for not
bringing it in, and that they often were killed, too. H e declares he
has seen them killed, shot after being flogged, and even shot sometimes by Barbados men. He persisted in this in spite of Señor
Tizon's interruptions, who sought to assure the consul general that
such deeds were matters of past history, and that to-day, or recently, Indians were neither flogged nor killed. Asked by the consul
general if this was so, Chase stated distinctly that he liad seen Indians flogged quite recently and killed quite recently, but as time
pressed it was not possible to take down precise details of such occurrences, as other men were to be interrogated.
Having learned from another quarter that one of the Barbados
men actually employed at Abisinia, by name Allen Davis, had been
ordered by the chief of that station, Señor Agüero, to kill an Indian
whose name has been given as " Chico," Mr. Casement asked Chase:
" Who killed the Indian 6 Chico' ? " Chase, who had only left Abisinia a short time before, said that he had heard of a Boras Indian
named like that who had been killed by his countryman, Allen Davis,
now in Abisinia. Davis had told him that he had taken part in
the shooting of this Indian along with a Peruvian named J u a n
Zellada, and that they had been set by Agüero to do it.
Señor Tizón frequently intervened during this interrogation to
point out that this " Chico " was " a very bad Boras Indian " who
had stolen a rifle and was in revolt, trying to kill white men and
Indians who were working rubber for them. He sought to justify
the shooting of " Chico " by Agüero's orders as an act required by
the danger of the situation and the entire absence of any responsible
authority in the country. Chase maintained that Agüero, he had
been told by Davis, had given orders that the men sent after " Chico "
were to bring him in alive or dead, and that Davis had admitted to
him to firing the first shot. There was an Indian " muchacho " along
with Zellada and Davis who had helped in the killing of " Chico."
Chase, in answer to further questions, stated that he had seen Indians shot in Ultimo Retiro under the orders of Fonseca in 1906 when
he was there. ' He has seen Indians die from flogging in Ultimo
Retiro, and within the last year he has seen an Indian killed from
a flogging given to him in Abisinia. He was flogged b}^ a man named
Simon Ángulo, acting under Señor Agüero's orders. I n this case the
Indian had run away and was flogged for this offense, and the man
died from the flogging. He was here again interrupted by Señor
Tizón, who endeavored to make him retract, or at least to shake his
statement as to the period when this death from flogging took place.
The witness persisted, although evidently in great distress of mind,
and again and again averred that he had seen Indians die from flogging. He had seen Indians shot after flogging and had seen Indians
shot without being flogged. That was in Ultimo Retiro long ago, but
he had seen Indians flogged up to quite recently, and killed, too.

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Asked by Señor Tizón if flogging had not now quite ceased, he said,
I i o " ; that perhaps it might be better to-day in Abisinia because
they had heard that strange white men were coming to inquire.
This man's interrogation constituted for him a trying ordeal. I t
was evident that the man was seeking to speak out in the face of
what seemed to him considerable danger. When he had gone Señor
Tizón sought to minimize the importance of his testimony and said
that with regard to the shooting of the Indian " Chico " by the other
Barbados man Davis, Chase had probably charged Davis because
they were probably " not friends." To this view the consul general
look exception, and said, with the concurrence of Mr. Barnes, that he
believed Chase was stating what he was aware of or believed to be
true.
As five witnesses were being examined that afternoon it was not
possible to continue the interrogation of Chase at that time, but it
was decided he should again be called upon to speak.
On the 25th of September he was again sent for by the consul general and was then, in the presence of Señor Tizón and of the four
members of the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission, further questioned. Señor Tizón had sought to impress upon Mr. Casement and
the commission that flogging of Indians, having been abolished by
him by a circular letter addressed to the agents, had ceased several
months before. Chase, recalled, and asked when was the last date he
had seen Indians flogged, replied: " Quite recently, in Abisinia." Indians were still flogged, perhaps not so badly or so often as formerly.
" They were flogged for not bringing in enough rubber—always for
that, for nothing else, and were badly cut and bled." To a question
put whether flogging was not a mere light chastisement, he answers:
" No; it is not child's play now any more than before." Floggings
had been less of late because Agüero and the white men in Abisinia
knew that this commission of strange gentlemen were coming. He
has seen Indians flogged within the last two months in Abisinia. He
has known Indians die from flogging; the last case of such death
was less than one year ago. I t was a boy, an Indian " muchacho "—•
i. e., one of those being brought up to guard the working Indians and
prevent them from running away. This boy had been employed on
one of the launches here at La Chorrera itself and had run back to his
own country. They had caught him at Abisinia and flogged him
there so badly that he died. He died from that flogging and from
nothing else. His death followed the flogging in about three weeks.
Señor Tizón, as principal representative of the Peruvian Amazon
Co., at the end of a lengthy discussion, this day agreed to accept the
evidence of the Barbados men called upon by the consul general as
substantially correct, and declined to put it to further test on the
ground that he could not controvert it. James Chase was engaged
as a body servant and escort for the commissioners of the company to
accompany them on their subsequent journey of investigation.
During the six weeks that followed Mr. Casement accompanied the
commission and Señor Tizón. Much further evidence was received
from Chase of the gravest kind, which was amply borne out by the
testimony of other Barbados men, and was communicated from time
to time to Señor Tizón and the commission by Mr. Casement.
On the first occasion when he had been called up in the presence of
Señor Tizón at La Chorrera there was no time to take down a detailed
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317

account of his extended experience in the company's service, but on
the 1st of October, when at the station of Occidente, Mr. Casement
again called James Chase, along with Stanley Sealey, to be interrogated as to certain charges that he had heard brought against
Augusto Jiménez, the actual chief at Ultimo Retiro, who was said to
have committed grave crimes against the Indians when in charge of
the subsection of Morelia under Agüero at Abisinia. Both these
Barbados men had been for a considerable time serving either at
Abisinia or at Morelia subsequent to May, 1908.. This evidence, as
laid before the consul general on the 1st of October, is given in the
statement of Sealey, all of which Chase confirmed, and on the following day, the 2d of October, Mr. Casement requested the full commission of the Peruvian Amazon Co. and Señor Tizón to hear these
categorical declarations as to the murders committed by Jiménez,
whose station at Ultimo Retiro the commission was then about to
visit on leaving Occidente.
On the 13th October, at the station of Entre Ríos, a further interrogatory of James Chase was held by Mr. Casement. The man had
declared at Occidente on the 1st and 2d October, that he had other
things to state referring to his term of service at Abisinia, and the
present was the first occasion that had presented itself of taking down
at length this further statement.
His further examination is as follows:
He states that about four months ago whilst engaged at Abisinia he
was sent on a commission toward the Caqueta River. The expedition
set out from Abisinia, and was commanded by a man he calls'Jermin
Vasquez, whose right name is found to be Fernánd Vasquez, but
usually called Filomene Vasquez. There were also two other Peruvians, one named Armando Blonde!, and the other Esias Ocampo, he
himself, the deponent James Chase, and eight Indian " muchachos,"
all from the station of Abisinia. All were armed with Winchester
rifles, he himself having 36 cartridges. They were sent by Agüero
to go toward Gavilanes, an Indian " house " on the River Pama, a
tributary of the Cahuinari, which is itself a tributary of the Caqueta.
They were sent to look for fugitive Indians who had run away from
the district of Morelia, of which Armando Blondel was then subchief.
The date would be about May, 1910. They were also to hunt for a
Boras Indian named Katenere, a former rubber worker of the district
of Abisinia, who had escaped, and, having captured some rifles, had
raised a band of his fellow Indians, and had sucessfully resisted all
attempts at his recapture. Katenere had shot Bartolemé Zumaeta, the
brother-in-law oí Julio C. Araña, and was counted a brave man and
a terror to the Peruvian rubber workers. The expedition set out
from Morelia, and at the first Indian " house " they reached in the
forest they caught eight Indians, five men and three women. They
were all tied up with ropes, their hands tied behind their back, and
march on farther. At the next house they reached they caught
four Indians,; one women and three men. Vasquez, who was in
charge, ordered one of the " muchachos " to cut this woman's head
off. l i e ordered this for no apparent reason that James Chase knows
of, simply because " he was in command, and could do what he liked."
The " muchacho " cut the woman's head off; he held her by the hair
of her head, and, flinging her down, hacked her head off with a
machete. I t took more than one blow to sever the head—three or

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four blows. The remains were left there on the path, and the expedition went on with the three fresh male prisoners tied up with the
others.
They were then approaching the house where they believed Katenere
to be living. He was the chief of the Indians in whose direction they
were going—the fugitives from the rubber work. At a point about
half an hour's walk from this Indian house Vasquez ordered him,
Ocampo, and two or three " muchachos " to remain there to guard
the prisoners, while he himself (Vasquez) went on with the rest of
the expedition. This party, so Vasquez told them when he had
returned, reached the house of Katenere about 6 in the evening.
Katenere and his wife, or one of his wives, were in the house—only
these two persons. Vasquez caught the woman, but Katenere got
away. Vasquez stayed there and sent four of the " muchachos " into
the forest to find and capture the rifles that Katenere had got. When
the " muchachos " got to this other house in the forest they found
several Indians in it, whom they captured, and four rifles. The
Indians were tied up with their hands behind them, but after a time
the head " muchacho," a Boras Indian, nicknamed " Henrique,"
ordered them to be released. He then sent on his three " muchachos "
to another house to bring in some Indians whilst he stayed with the
men whom he had just released. These Indians, it should be noted,
were all Boras Indians, " H e n r i q u e " as well as the rest of the
" muchachos." Whilst " Henrique " was with these men he found
amongst them an Indian girl of whom he was very fond and who
had probably joined them in their flight. He endeavored to seize
this girl, and in a quarrel that followed he was killed. The three
" muchachos," on their return with two prisoners, found their leader
killed and his rifle in the hands of the released Indians, with the four
guns they already had belonging to Katenere. Each party fired at
the other, the forest Indians without effect. The three " muchachos "
killed two of the Boras Indians and then returned to the house where
Vasquez was spending the night and where he held the wife of
Katenere prisoner. I n the morning Vasquez returned to Ocampo
and Chase, bringing only this woman with them. I t was then that
Chase learned from Vasquez's own lips what had happened. They
had then, Chase states, 12 Indians as prisoners, who included Katenere's wife, and also of the original party that left Abisinia, two
Indians, who were in chains, who had been brought as guides to point
out where Katenere and his fugitive people were living. These were
some of Katenere's men who had not succeeded in escaping when he
got away. The whole party set out to return to Morelia through
the forest, having lost " Henrique " and his rifle. Soon after they
began their march in the morning they met in the path a child—•
a little girl—who was said to be a daughter of Katenere by another
wife he had once had, not the woman they now held as a prisoner.
This child, Chase states, was quite a young girl, some 6 or 8 years of
age. She was frightened at the sight of the armed men, the Indians
in chains and tied up, and began to cry as they approached. Vasquez
at once ordered her head to be cut off. He knew it was Katenere's
child because Katenere's wife, in their hands, told them so. There
was no reason that Chase knew for their crime save that the child
was crying. Her head was cut off by a " muchacho " named Cherey,
a Kecigiro Indian boy. He was quite a young boy. They came on

SLAVERY IN

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319

about half an hour's march past that, leaving the decapitated body
in the path; and as one of the women prisoners they had was not
walking as fast as the rest, Vasquez ordered a " muchacho " to cutí
her head off. This was done by the same boy Cherey in the same
way, he flinging the woman on the ground and chopping her head
off with several blows of his machete. They left this body and severed
head right in the path and went on again toward Morelia. They
were walking very fast, because they were a bit frightened, thinking
the Indians were pursuing them. About three-quarters of an hour's
walk farther on, one of the male Indian prisoners, a boy about 15
or 16 .(Chase indicates the boy's height with his hand), a lad who
could work rubber, was lagging behind and could not keep up with
them, as they were going very fast. The Indian was hungry and
probably weak. Vasquez ordered his head to be cut off. This execution took place there and then in the same way and was performed
by the same boy Cherey. The Indian's hands were tied behind him.
Cherey took hold of the lad's long hair, threw him on the ground,
and cut his head off. They came on after this toward Morelia, walking as fast as they could, and when they were getting near it in the
evening time and perhaps three-quarters of an hour's distance,
Vasquez was in a great hurry to reach the station. Three of the
Indian men who were weak through hunger and not able to walk fast
could not keep up with them, so Vasquez himself shot one, and he
ordered Cherey, the " muchacho," to shoot the other two. These
were all grown-up men, Boras Indians, and belonging to Gavilanes,
and were part of Katenere's people. The three bodies were left lying
there on the path, and the place where they were killed was so near
Morelia that when they reached it they learned that the station hands
had heard the shots of the rifles that had killed the men.
Chase stated that they arrived in Morelia with only five people, a
woman, three men, and a little child. I t was pointed out to him that
these numbers did not correspond with those of the original number
of prisoners. He repeats he is certain of the number that actually
returned. There were five persons alive, and he is equally certain
of those he saw killed as described. On the way back the others,
too, may have been killed without his actually seeing. He was told
that they had killed 13 Indians on this expedition, and he knows
positively of those he saw killed.
They reached Morelia in the evening, and of their five prisoners
three were put with their feet in the " cepo," while the fourth was
hung up by his neck with a chain round it. The chain was pulled
taut over a beam in the roof of the house, so that the man's toes
rested on the ground, but he could not budge or even move his head.
H e had to stand like this with his head and neck stretched up all
night. Those in the "cepo," two men and a woman, also had chains
round their necks. The little child was not tied up, but kept beside
its mother all night. They did not get food—he is certain of this—
all night. He is quite positive they received no food. The next day
the expedition, i. e., Vasquez and Ocampo, with seven armed " muchachos," took these four prisoners in chains and the child on to Abi~
sinia. Again they got no food before starting from Morelia in the
morning. Of that he is certain. Asked again whether they received anything to eat, he declares " No." That he saw them go in
that starving condition in chains, and that the journey from Morelia

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to Abisinia is one of from five to seven hours' march over a very
bad track through the forest. He himself was kept at Morelia, to
continue working there under Blondel. He can not positively state
the date. He is certain it was this year, 1910, and he believes not
more than four months ago, he thinks, about May.
(NOTE.—James Chase reads and writes only very poorly, and his
English is that of a wholly uneducated man; but, on the other hand,
he gives the impression that he is honestly and sincerely relating
just what he saw, heard, and believes, and the mistakes or apparent
contradictions that occur from time to time are due rather to inability to express himself very clearly than to any intention to
deceive.
Evidence confirmatory of James Chase's statement with regard to
this expedition of Vasquez was subsequently obtained by the consul
general from other quarters.
Allan Davis, a Barbados man, who was in Abisinia when Vasquez
arrived there, stated in his examination that Vasquez declared on
arrival " h e had left the road pretty." Davis saw him arrive with
the emaciated prisoners, who were put in stocks, and all of whom
subsequently met their deaths in Abisinia, as averred by Davis and
Evelyn Bastón, another Barbados man, whose testimony was subsequently taken. One of them was murdered by being shot, and the
others were deliberately starved to death while confinecl in the
stocks.)
The distance from Morelia to Katenere's house he reckons about
a day and a quarter's march, perhaps 30 miles. He fixes the period
of this march by the following deductions: He stayed in Morelia
three months with Blondel, and was then sent to the headquarter
station at Abisinia, where he was forced to remain some time longer
to get his belongings that, had been left behind in Morelia. His
clothes and his Indian wife were both stolen, he declares, and after
Waiting some time in Abisinia, in hopes of their recovery, he came
on down to La Chorrera, where he had been 12 days, when the consul
general arrived there from Iquitos on the 22d September.
Chase desires to correct the elate of his first engagement. He nowT
states it was in 1905 that he was first engaged, and not in 1904, as
he had stated in error, because he came to Putumayo along with
Frederick Bishop, the consul's interpreter and other Barbados men.
After his first stay at La Chorrera, he was first sent to Ultimo
Hetiro, as he had already stated. He remembered some of the other
Barbados men who were there at that time with him. They were
James Scales, a man nicknamed " E l Frailecito " (or " t h e little
monkey"), Stanley Lewis, now a steward on the Liberal, a man
called Gill, and Donald Francis, now at La Chorrera. He thinks
he stayed at Ultimo Retiro then about three months. During that
time he was chiefly engaged on commissions after Indians; he also
had worked in the house as a servant. I n answer to questions by
the consul, he states he saw Fonseca himself kill Indians at that time,
as well as the other station hands, including the "machaehos," or
trained Indian murderers.
Asked if he had seen women thus killed, he replies, " Yes. They
Were shot and died from blows" (from floggings). They were cut
to pieces sometimes and smelt dreadfully. Once he himself was
put in " cepo " alongside some of these rotting human beings who

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321

had been inhumanly flogged, and the smell was s*o bad he begged
and implored to be taken out—he could not stand it; but Fonseca
kept him in all night. He saw these people die from these floggings;
their bodies would sometimes be dragged away and thrown in the
bush around the station, or burnt. He has seen the " muchachos "
shoot Indians under the order of Fonseca. Continual floggings
went on at that time among women and children. He was not there
when Stanley Lewis flogged the girl Simona. That occurred, he
knows, after he had left Ultimo Retiro.
From Ultimo Retiro he was sent back to La Chorrera, where he
spent most of the rest of his time before going away to Iquitos sick.
He was sent up once on an expedition and came here to Entre
Ríos, where we now are. He stayed three weeks here at E n t r e Ríos;
there were other Barbados men with him, one boy whom they called
Dick, but whose other name he can not now remember. During the
three weeks he spent in Entre Ríos he and others were sent on expeditions around to make Indians bring in rubber. He describes the
customary methods of going down to collect the Indians in their
forest dwellings and see the fixed quantity of rubber brought in
by each person. He saw many Indians flogged both in the station
at Entre Ríos and out on these expeditions.
Asked who flogged the Indians here in Entre Rios, he says he can
not remember; it was white men who did it. He did not see the
chief, Andrés O'Donnell, flog Indians with his own hands, but he
was in charge here and the flogging was done by his orders. He saw
Indians badly flogged here at Entre Rios, also in the forests around,
badly cut, but did not know of any Indians who died from flogging
here at Entre Rios during his three weeks5 stay. Asked had he seen
anyone killed here, he answers, " Yes; one man." Asked to describe
how, he states that does not know the reason. "An Indian came in
one day from the forest and the present chief, O'Donnell, spoke to
a ' muchacho' up here on the verandah where we now are, and the
Indian was standing down below in the compound. His hands were
not tied, he had apparently come in of his own accord; he had
been sent for, probably. The c muchacho ' went straight away from
talking with Señor O'Donnell and took his shotgun, not his carbine,
and shot the Indian in the face, in the head." H e states it was here
in the compound before all their eyes; he and others were all looking
on. The Indian fell down, but not dead; he was groaning on the
ground, so the " muchacho " took a bow and arrow—a poisoned
arrow, he thinks—and shot him as he lay on the ground. O'Donnell
was looking on from the verandah. He does not know what the
Indian had done nor his name. H e knows the " muchacho's " name,
but can not recall it now; he will try to do so. H e knew that
" muchacho " well. H e is not here in Entre Rios now—at least he
has not seen him since our arrival yesterday afternoon. He and the
Barbados man, Dick, returned to La Chorrera after these three
weeks. H e remembers they went with " a white fellow," by name
Galvez. His memory is not clear as to dates. H e thinks that it
was not long after his return to La Chorrera that he went down to
Iquitos sick. He was kept in the house of the Arana Bros., at
Iquitos, he thinks about 18 months. He worked like an office boy—
swept, cleaned up, and ran messages, and did other things in the
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house—and then*he asked himself to return to the Putumayo and
came back in the Cosmopolita to Chorrera. He does not know the
date, but it was the same time that Stanley Sealey and others came
(this would be May, 1908). On returning from Iquitos he stayed
only a very short time at La Chorrera and was sent to Abisinia; he
does not quite remember how long he then sta}^ed at Abisinia, but
most of this second period of service was spent in that district with
a. few journeys from it in other directions. While at Abisinia he
remembers that he was recalled once to La Chorrera and again
visited Entre Rios and other sections. He was kept working at La
Chorrera for a time, and then came a journey to Entre Rios. H e
was sent up, accompanying a Peruvian named Torico, whom the
consul had #found as second in command at Occidente. I t would
have been aloout the year previously, in summer of 1909, when Chase
accompanied Torico on this journey.
Asked what they were doing, he'states Torico, he thinks, was going
round on a sort of inspection for Macedo, or else to give warning to
all the sections that things must be put straight, because an Englishman, Capt. Whiffen, was then in the country and visiting the company's territories. He remembers Torico taking the names of the
Indians at each station, and talking to the agents about Capt.
Whiffen's coming. They stayed first at Occidente about 10 days:
Fonseca was in charge there. He saw no Indians being flogged in
Occidente on that occasion. Then they went on to Ultimo Retiro
where Alfredo Montt was in charge. There he saw only four prisoners, three men and a woman in chains. They found them in chains
on arrival, and when they left after four days they were still in
chains, but he saw no one flogged. They came from Ultimo Retiro
to this place, Entre Rios, where he remembers some Indians were
prisoners in the "cepo." He thinks there were five of them. They
had chains on as well. He saw no one flogged during these three
days he then spent in Entre Rios.
They next went to Atenas, some three or four hours' march distant»
where Martenengui was the chief. At Atenas they stayed two days,
and saw plenty of Indians being flogged. I t was the time of the
" p u e s t a " or the bringing in of each 10 or 15 days' rubber by the
Indians. He saw plenty of Indians flogged—very badly flogged—
cut and bleeding and also beaten with big sticks, too, by Martenengui's
orders, who was looking on. The chief flogger was Argaluza. H e
did the most of it; but was helped by the "muchachos," who would
be ordered to take their share of flogging. He saw no one in stocks,
nor did he see any Indians killed. He saw women flogged as well as
men, lots of them, for the women there at Atenas had to work the
india rubber just like the men by Martinengui's orders.
From Atenas they returned to La Chorrera, whence he was again
sent to Abisinia. He saw there men flogged to death. There were
Indians in chains there and in " cepo," one of these was taken out to
be flogged. His two hands were pegged out on the ground and his
legs also, and then in this posture he was flogged by Simon Ángulo,
by order of Agüero.
(NOTE:—Simon Ángulo appears on the company's list of employees
of September, 1910, as still at Abisinia at a salary of 60 soles, or £6
per month.—R. C.)

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323

Chase did not count the number of lashes because it was very many.
He saw the whole proceedings. When they had finished flogging the
man they threw salt and water on his wounds. H e was bleeding very
much. They then put him in this state back in the " cepo " by one
foot only, and kept him thus for two days, and then put him in the
cellar, i. e.., where the india rubber is stored, the big store underneath
the house. Some of the employees gave him food, i. e., their own
leavings, but none was sent to him from the house by Agiiero's orders.
He was taken from the " cepo " one night or evening and put in this
cellar and the next morning they found him dead.
During his two stays in the Abisinia district, Chase says he was
often sent on commissions. He frequently was sent under a Colombian named Aquiléo Torres. 1 During these journeys at different
times he saw many Indians killed by Aquiléo Torres—shot and beaten.
He did not see them beaten to death by him, but he saw him shoot
very many. He is prepared to swear to it. He also , saw men,
women, and children frequently flogged. I t was during his first
stay at Abisinia, on returning from Iquitos in May, 1908, that he,
Sealey, and other Barbados men, had gone on the expedition under
Jiménez, when the people were burnt alive, as already described by
himself and Sealey. The chief of the Indian family, to which belonged the old woman burnt on that occasion, had been kept a
prisoner in Morelia. His name was Waichai, and Chase saw him
there in chains. H e had been a prisoner for many months to Chase's
knowledge, and had been chained up to try to make him give in and
call in his people to work india rubber. H e finally consented, and
was taken out of chains and the " cepo," and was sent out guarded
by Miguel Flores with a party, to find his people and call them in.
H e escaped, however. This was about seven months ago, and they
Had not caught him when Chase left Abisinia quite recently. H e
had got clean away, and they said had gone right over the Caqueta
into Colombian territory. They sent some "muchachos" to look
for him, but they could not find him. Chase further confirms in several particulars the shooting of Katenere, referred to elsewhere.
Further statements were from time to time received from James
Chase in the course of the journey made by Mr. Casement in the
company of the commission, and finally, on the 5th November, at La
Chorrera, he gave still further testimony in the presence of several of
his countrymen. H e states that amongst other things he saw Fonseca
do was to kill an Indian man who was at the time confined in the
stocks, or "cepo," at Ultimo Retiro. The Indian in question had
run away from working rubber, but had been caught and brought in
a prisoner. Fonseca said to him: " I am going to kill you." The
man protested, and said he had done no harm. H e had not killed a
white man, he had not injured anyone or killed anyone, and could
not be killed for running away. Fonseca laughed at him, and had
him hung up by the neck first with a chain drawn tight, and then
when let down from this torture he had him put in the " cepo " with
one foot only, the other leg being free. Fonseca came up to the
u
cepo " with a stick with a club head much bigger than the handle
of the stick. H e put one of his legs against the Indian's free leg
and stretched it apart from the confined leg. H e then pulled off the
1

Captured by Normand in January, 1907.

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SLAVBEY I N PERU.

man's " fono,*' or loin cloth made of beaten bark, so that he was quite
naked, and then struck the man many times with the club end of the
stick on his exposed parts. These were " smashed," and the man
died in a short time. Deponent described the occurrence fully, declaring that he was an eyewitness.
(NOTE.—This statement was confirmed by the Barbados man,
Stanley S. Lewis, who stated he also saw Fonseca commit this
deed.)
Chase states that Fonseca at Ultimo Eetiro would shoot Indians
with a long rifle which he had; he thinks it was a Mannlicher.
Sometimes he shot at them whilst they were actually prisoners in the
stocks, and others were taken out in the open ground round the
house, and he shot at them from the veranda. The last case of this
kind that Chase witnessed was that of a young girl. Fonseca bandaged her eyes and face so that even her mouth and nose were covered. She was then made to walk away, and whilst she was thus
blindfolded Fonseca shot her, " as a sport for his friends." The
people then present were Alfredo Montt, who was then the second
chief at Ultimo Eetiro and is now in- charge of Atenas; also a man
named Mozambito, now in Atenas, and a man^now in La Chorrera
who works as a carpenter, by name Hamacari. There was also present who saw this deed performed a man by name of Ildefonso Tachón, who is now stationed in Matanzas. This last act was just before Chase left Ultimo Eetiro—he thinks only four or five days be :
fore he left. He was put in the " cepo " himself very soon after this,
and asked to be sent away, and was dispatched down to La Chorrera
almost at once.
Chase further states that he has seen Aquiléo Torres cut the ears
off living Indians for sport. Torres took deponent's own knife from
him. I t was an open knife, and he used this knife for the purpose.
He saw him do this several times. Once he cut off a man's ears and
then burnt his^wife alive before his eyes. This was done by Torres
in the Abisinia district since deponent returned from Iquitos, namely,
since May, 1908. He further states that he saw J u a n Zellada, who is
now in Abisinia, shoot a Huitoto Indian under the following circumstances :
I t was in the Boras country, at a place called Gwarunes. The
party had no food, and Zellada sent them to try to get food at a house
belonging to an Indian named Gwatipa, and this man or boy stole
some sardines from a box stored in Gwatipa's house, and he was
killed by Zellada for this. With regard to Armando Blondel, now
second chief under Agüero in Abisinia^ he states he has frequently
seen him brutally flogging the Indians; also hang them up by chains
around their throats so that they are almost suffocated. Sometimes
they would be flogged before this and sometimes afterwards, and he
has even seen them flog Indians while actually in this position of
torture. The last time he witnessed this was in August last (1910),
about 15 days before he left to come to Chorrera. This was before
the people in Morelia knew that a commission of inquiry had actually
reached the Putumayo.
The evidence of James Chase, when not actually given in the
presence of Señor Tizón and the members of the commission, was
communicated to them by the consul general, and no attempt at any
time was made to rebut it after the first unsuccessful efforts in the

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

325

early days of Mr. Casement's inquiry at La Chorrera. Chase, as
already stated, accompanied the commission as a servant throughout
the whole of the journey up to Mr. Casement's departure, when, along
with Stanley Sealey, he remained rwith the commissioners in personal
attendance on them during their further visits to Abisinia^ Morelia,
Santa Catalina, Sabana, and other stations belonging to the company.
He was left behind by Mr. Casement for this purpose on the undertaking of the chief of the commission, Mr. Louis Barnes, that on their
departure he, along with Sealey, should be brought away with them
and sent home to Barbados, and on no account left behind in the
Putumayo.
[No. 14 ]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF S T A N L E Y SEALEY, A N A T I V E OF BARBADOS,
MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y J S CONSUL GENERAL ON SEPTEMBER 2 3 , 1 9 1 0 , AT
LA CHORRERA, AND ON S U B S E Q U E N T OCCASIONS.

This man was found at work at La Chorrera, and on the 23d September appeared before Mr. Casement, in the presence of Señor Tizón
and Mr. Barnes, the chief of the company's commission.
H e stated he was born in Barbados on the 27th February, 1886;
that he was engaged in 1905, along with others of his countrymen, at
a salary of $10 per month, to work as a laborer. They were brought
to Nanai, near Iquitos, and, like the others, he was dissatisfied with
the work there, and, leaving it of his own free will, he went up to
Iquitos in search of other work.
He first worked in a brick factory at Iquitos. H e then went as
fireman on board a steamer. Next he went down to Manaos, where
he worked for a considerable time. He then paid, his passage and
came up to Iquitos, and made a contract with the Peruvian Amazon
Co. at £5 per month (50 soles) to come to work on the Putumayo. He
arrived here (La Chorrera) about the 12th May, 1908, along with
several other Barbados men, who were engaged like himself. This
Avas his first visit to the Putumayo, so that he has now been some two
years and four months actually employed here. This witness, like
James Chase, gave his evidence under some degree of excitement.
He was evidently uneasy at the presence of Señor Tizón, but despite
this spoke with sincerity and straightforwardness.
He was first sent from La Chorrera to Abisinia, to Señor Agüero's
section. H e was sent out on commissions, armed with a rifle, to look
for Indians and make them work rubber. When thety got Indians
they would tie them—men and women—and bring them into the station. ' They were ordered to tie them. These would be Indians who
had run away from working rubber. When broughtnn they would
be put in " cepo," where they might be kept two days or more, and
then let loose to go back and work rubber, if they agreed. They
would be fed while in " cepo."
Asked by the consul general, " Have you seen Indians flogged ? "—
" Yes, sir," he replies; " many times—sometimes for not bringing
enough rubber."
From Abisinia he returned to L a Chorrera and was here for six
months. He had been about seven months in the Abisinia district.
He was working in L a Chorrera as a mason, and then he was sent to
La Sabana; Señor Velarde was then chief of La Sabana. He went

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SLAVEKY I N PERU.

out, just as in Abisinia, on commissions to hunt Indians. H e himself tied up Indians to bring them in. H e was ordered to do it.
He was in La Sabana about four months. H e saw Indians flogged
in La Sabana for not bringing in sufficient rubber.
Asked by consul general, " Did you yourself flog Indians ? "—Yes,
sir; often in La Sabana—sometimes 20 lashes, sometimes 12, sometimes 6, sometimes 2—depending on the rubber. The chief decided
who should be flogged, and the Indians lay down there and take the
flogging."
I n answer to consul general's question, " Did you ever see. children
flogged ? "—Yes, sir," he replies; " I saw one boy flogged in La
Sabana. H e was sent to look for Indians " (i. e., to call them to come
i n ) , " and he stay in the Indians' house."
Deponent again states he himself flogged Indians, because he was
afraid and was ordered to do it. After he left La Sabana he came
back here to La Chorrera and stayed about four days. He was sick,
and came down from La Sabana with fever. He was then sent to
Ultimo Retiro by Señor Macedo. He got drunk here three days after
his arrival. He got the drink from Greenidge, a Barbados man who
is baker here, and so he was sent away by Señor Macedo to Ultimo
Eetiro. He can not remember the exact date. He was put there to
the same kind of work. He was not very strong, but he made three
commissions after Indians. Sometimes a commission would take
eight days. The Indians at that time came in willingly at Ultimo
Retiro. They were not tied up. He did not see Indians flogged in
Ultimo Retiro, nor was he himself ordered to flog them. He did not see
any Indians killed in Ultimo Retiro. He was there about three or four
months, he thinks. He himself was punished once there by a Peruvian named Plaza. This Plaza was a young Peruvian, and, with
Aquiléo Torres, a Colombian, put him (Sealey) in the " cepo." He
had done nothing wrong. Asked why he had not complained to
the chief of the section, he said it was no use complaining to Señor
Montt " because he knew all about it." He had not seen Indians
killed at Ultimo Retiro at that time, but he knew of Indians being
killed there. There were four " muchachos " he heard of being shot
outside the station, and of a girl who was taken up the hill and shot.
He heard the shots but did not see the act.
There was no time to enter into details in questioning this man on
the first day. Señor Tizón said this witness represented " the bad
things " as being done solely in Abisinia and Sabana. He made
attempts to question or shake the witness, who adhered to his statement, and repatedly asserted that he himself had flogged Indians, and
that not very long before, and that he had seen very bad things done.
After this witness had been dismissed, Señor Tizón confessed to the
consul general that the system was " a criminal one, a barbarous
one," and that " it could not be allowed to go on." The Indians, he
admitted, had been treated shamefully, but he though chiefly by the
Colombians rather than by the Peruvians.
The same evening Stanley Sealey produced his contract with the
Peruvian Amazon Co., dated at Iquitos, 25th of April, 1908. As this
man's testimony had been given in a straightforward way, Mr. Casement decided to engage him for escort duty on the journey he was
about to take along with the commissioners. Sealey declared in the
presence of two members of the commission that whilst he had an-

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

327

swered the questions put to him truthfully on this first occasion, he
had of necessity not been able to tell all the things that he had seen
done. He had answered questions, but there was much left unsaid.
His subsequent interrogation was a much lengthier one, and took
place on the 1st October, at Occidente. The following is a precis
of i t :
The date of his first engagement at Barbados, Sealey states, was 3d
April, 1905, whilst he only arrived on the Putumayo on 12th May,
1908. Since arriving at La Chorrera on that date, he has spent from
seven to eight months first in Abisinia section. He was then at La
Chorrera for about six months, then at Sabana for about four months,
back at La Chorrera for a few days, then at Ultimo Retiro for perhaps four months, and then back to La Chorrera, where he was in
September, when the consul general arrived. His first period covers
roughly from June to December, 1908, in Abisinia. Here he often
himself flogged Indians, but only men; he did not flog women or
children. He acted always under the orders of Agüero. He can not
state how many persons he flogged. I t was a great many, and some
of them were badly flogged. He does not know if any one of the
Indians he flogged died from it.
Sealey then describes his relations with different Indian women
given to him as wives by the different chiefs of sections where he had
worked, from which it is evident that the charges of an immoral
character brought against the company's servants may frequently be
true. From first to last Sealey had four Indian women "given to
him," and much of his indebtedness to the company was due to his
purchases of food and other things that they needed or asked for.
Some of his time spent in Abisinia was put in at Morelia under
Jiménez, who was then the subchief. Whilst with Jiménez he was
often out on commissions after the Indians. He describes the character of these expeditions as follows:
A party of armed employees is sent out to collect the Indians of a
certain division on the day when their " puesta " of rubber is due and
to march them into the station with their loads of rubber, after this
has been weighed and found sufficient. The man in charge of the
expedition will have a list of the Indians he is to collect and the
amount of rubber each is to bring in, and he proceeds to summon or
find them. They call the chief or " c a p i t á n " of these Indians, and
if all his people do not appear with him, he may be put in the " cepo,"
made out in the forest and kept guarded there. Sometimes he, deponent, and others of the expedition would be sent to look for the
missing Indians. If the Indians do not all come in the " c a p i t á n "
will be treated in a variety of ways. Sometimes they tie his hands
behind his back and then by a rope through his bound wrists he will
be hauled up off the ground, the rope passing over a tree branch.
Sometimes his feet would be three or four feet off the ground. They
kept him in this position for sometimes an hour or an hour and a
half, he screaming out with pain. This is to make him confess where
the missing Indians are. When he admits this and says he will go
for the truants they let him down and, keeping him tied, they go with
him to where the people are hiding. If they find his people they
may still keep him tied up. They do not then flog the Indians. They
collect all they can, those with the rubber, and those who have failed
to get it, and march them all down to the station. The arms of the

328

SLAVEKY IK PERU.

" c a p i t á n " will be loosed on reaching the station, but his legs put in
the "cepo." Then they weigh the rubber and if any man has not
brought the right weight he is flogged. The severity of the flogging
depends on the amount of rubber the man is short. The deponent
has not seen more than two dozen stripes thus given. With regard
to the Indians who had not appeared in the first instance and had to
be collected they would be flogged and put in the " cepo;" thej would
get " a good flogging." Sometimes the " c a p i t á n " himself would be
flogged in the station. Whole families would be marched down in
these gatherings, men with their wives and children, who would help
the men with their rubber. On all these marches the Indians would
have to carry their own food, too; they get no food except what they
bring themselves. They would only get food from the white men
during the time they are actually kept in the station. The station
would have a big pot of rice and beans boiled. This would be the
food. H e has seen sometimes 150 people thus marched in. Those
who had brought the fixed amount of rubber are allowed to go back
after this meal. The others are punished by being kept in "cepo."
Some are put in a hole in the cellars of the house. There is such a
hole at Ultimo Eetiro which the consul can see when he gets there.
The Indians are not paid at all on these occasions for such rubber as they bring in. They only get payment when the full
" fabrico," say 75 days, is completed. These commissions take place
sometimes every 10 days, sometimes every 15 days, according to the
period fixed for each "puesta" depending on the neighborhood.
Sealey gives this as a general indication of the manner in which he
had been employed on "commissions" and collecting the Indians
from the forest. He next states he wishes to describe what took
place on a certain occasion when he with other^ Barbados men went
on a commission from Abisinia under Jiménez. They were stationed at Morelia at the time, and went under Jiménez to the
Caquetá. I t was a journey to catch fugitive Indians who had fled
from the rubber working, and was soon after Sealey had gone to
Abisinia, he thinks it was in June, 1908. On the first day's march
from Morelia, about 5 o'clock in th$ afternoon, when, they were some
one and a-half day's distance from the Caquetá, they caught an old
Indian woman in the path. Jiménez asked the old woman where
the rest of the Indians were. Sealey states she was a bit frightened.
She told him that the next day at 11 o'clock he would get to the
house where some Indians were. She was an old woman not able
to run. They did not tie her up. They went on with her, keeping
her all night in camp until about 2 o'clock of the next day, and then
Jiménez asked her " Where is the house; where are the Indians ? "
The old woman stood up, and said nothing. She could not speak,
she kept her eyes on the ground. Jiménez said to her:
" You were telling me lies yesterday, but now you have got to speak the
truth."
With that he called his wife—he had an Indian woman, the woman who is
still with him—and he said to his wife: " Bring me that rope off my hammock."
She took the rope off, and gave it to him, and with that he tied the old
woman's hands behind her back. There were two trees standing just like
that—one there and one there. He made an Indian cut a post to stretch across
between the two trees. Then he hauled the old woman up, her feet were not
touching the ground at all. He said to one of the boys " a muchacho " :

SLAVERY IIST PERU.

329

" Bring me some leaves—some dry leaves," he said, and he p u t these under
the feet of the old woman as she hung there, her feet about a foot or so above
the ground; " and he then t a k e a box of matches out of his pocket and he light
the dry leaves, a n d the old lady s t a r t to burn. Big bladders (blisters) I see
on her skin up h e r e " (he pointed to his t h i g h s ) . "All w a s b u r n e d ; she w a s
calling out. Well, sir, when I see that, sir, I said ' Lord have mercy!' and I
r a n ahead t h a t I could not see her no more."
" You did not go back ?"
" I stayed a little ways off to where she was. I could hear him speaking. H e
say to one of t h e boys, * Loose her down now,' and they loose her, b u t she was
not dead. She lay on ground—she w a s still calling out. H e tell .one of t h e
I n d i a n s : ' Now, if this old woman is not able to walk, cut her head off,' and
t h e Indian did so—he cut her head off."
" Y o u saw t h a t ? "
" Yes, s i r ; he leave her there in the same place. W e left her t h e r e going a
little w a y s into t h e forest; it w a s about four hours' walk after we left the old
woman, we met two women. They had no house—they h a d run away. One
h a d a child. Jiménez axed the one t h a t had the child: * W h e r e is these Indians t h a t h a s r u n away?' She tell him t h a t she don't know where they were.
H e tell her after she tell him t h a t she don't know t h a t she was a liar."
' ' D i d he tell her this himself in her own language?"
. " H e tell his wife to tell her. H i s wife speaks Spanish, too. H i s wife is u p
there with him now a t Ultimo Retiro. H e tell his wife t h a t she w a s a liar.
H e took the child from t h e woman and he gave it to an Indian, one of t h e
I n d i a n s who h a d been collected to work rubber. ' Out this child's head off!'
h e say and he did so."
" H o w did the Indian cut the child's head off?"
H e held it by the hair and chop its head off with a machete. I t w a s a little
child walking behind its mother.
W a s it a boy or a girl?
I t w a s a boy. He left the child and the head in the same place, everything
there, on t h e path. H e went on t h e n ; he take t h e two women with him, but
t h e woman w a s crying for her child. Well, sir, we got a little ways more inside
the wood; walking, we met an Indian man—a strong young fellow he was, too.
T h a t is, after we gets over to near the Oaqueta. Jiménez say he wanted to go
to t h e next side—the other side—of the Oaqueta, but he do not know where h e
would get a boat, a canoe, to go over. So this time he tell his woman, his wife,
to a x the Indian to tell where the boat is. Well, sir, the Indian say he do n o t
know where it is. By t h a t time Jiménez say the Indian lie—he w a s a liar and
he got a rope and he tie the I n d i a n ' s hands like t h a t behind his back. I t w a s
in t h e same way with the post across between two trees. H e made the Indians
tie a post across between two trees and he haul the Indian, like that, up to the
post. H i s feet could not touch the ground and h e call for some dry leaves and
tell t h e boys to bring some dry leaves, same a s t h e old woman. H e put the
leaves under his feet and he take a box of matches out of his pocket. T h e
m a n w a s there, shouting out, greeting. Jiménez d r a w a match and light t h e
leaves a n d this time, sir, the Indian s t a r t to burn, big bladders going out from
his skin. The Indian was there burning, with his head hanging like t h a t —
moaning, he was. Jiménez s a y : " W e l l , you will not tell me where t h e canoe,
where t h e boat is," he says, " so you must bear with that." Well, the Indian
w a s not quite dead, but was there with his head hanging, and Jiménez he tell
the " c a p i t á n , " by name José Maria, a Boras I n d i a n (he is chief " c a p i t á n " of
t h e Abisinia " m u c h a c h o s " ) ; he says, " G i v e him a ball," he says, and t h e
I n d i a n took his carbine and gave him a ball here, shooting him in the chest.
Well, sir, after I saw how the blood started I ran. I t w a s awful to see, and
he left t h e Indian hanging up there with the rope and everything on him.
W a s t h e Indian dead?
Yes, sir, he w a s dead with the ball, and we left him there in the same place.
T h a t ' s all.
That's all? W h a t next? W h a t did you do t h e n ?
We went on the next day and came to t h e Oaqueta—to t h i s side. We never
crossed. Jiménez then sent a " m u c h a c h o " to find a boat. The " m u c h a c h o "
found a canoe, about t h e length of from h e r e to the corner there. Well, sir,
after he find the boat he leave me with some more P e r u v i a n s and he went tothe other side.

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Witness then states the names of the Peruvians who were left with
him and declares that Jiménez said he would be back in six days'
time and that they were to wait for him. He returned with three
canoes from the opposite side of the river, with about 50 Indians—
men, women, and children. The expedition then returned to Abisinia
with all these prisoners. These people had originally fled from working rubber, had crossed the Caqueta, and gone far into Colombian
territory. They were kept as prisoners in Morelia and were kept
there in confinement up to the period when witness left Morelia.
They were to be kept in confinement until they became " tamed " and
agreed to work rubber. All the time witness remained in Morelia
the chief of these Indians had a chain round his neck and a chain
round his two feet. This was a period of about two months. These
prisoners had received rice and beans as food and were not, so far as
witness saw, brutally ill-treated. He thinks it was in August, 1908,
that he left Morelia, these people being still prisoners there. H e remembers the 28th July, Peruvian Independence Day, he spent in.
Morelia, and it was some time after that he left Morelia to go to
Agüero's headquarters at Abisinia.,
Witness has not returned to Morelia since that. H e was subsequently at Abisinia and from Abisinia he went down to La Chorrera.
Asked if he had reported these things to Señor Macedo, he replied,
"No."
Asked why, he states: " I believe he knows all that goes on in
these sections like that. He knows all about it—-he don't make
nothing of it."
He states that he had reported these things to his fellow countryman, John Brown, who, when he reached Chorrera, had become the
servant of a Capt. Whiffen, an English officer who had then arrived
there. He hoped that Capt. Whiffen, hearing of it, might be able
to do something, and so told John Brown.
Asked if prior to his first being questioned by the consul at La
Chorrera on the 23d September he had been spoken to or threatened
by any agent of the company he replies " No," but that Señor
Macedo had sent for him the next day after he had been first questioned in La Chorrera. He had then been asked what he had said
to the consul in the presence of Señor Tizón and Mr. Barnes, and
having told him, Señor Macedo asked why he had not been informed
earlier, and witness had replied, speaking in Spanish, that he had believed Señor Macedo knew all about the wrong things done, and that
there was no use telling him. He had then been warned that he
must be careful what he said and how he " told things," and he had
replied that he had spoken the truth to the consul, and that he would
tell him all he knew. He added that the man Miguel Flores had
gone to his countryman, Joshua Dyall, and had begged him not to
tell the consul anything about him, and had offered him £2 or some
money if he would keep silent.
Sealey further states that James Chase was with him on the expedition with Jiménez when the Indians were burned alive, and was
any eyewitness with himself of these murders. Also another Barbados man named Alfred Hoyte.
Asked why, when first interrogated, witness had not told all this series of crimes by Jiménez, he said he was a bit " timid " that day and,
moreover, he had been answering questions put by consul, and there

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331

was not time to tell all the things he had seen, but only to answer
the questions put to him. Moreover, he had been frightened at that
time at being called up to speak before Señor Tizón, and he did not
know what would happen.
This witness accompanied the consul general throughout his journey on the Putumayo, and along with Frederick Bishop constituted
his escort. He frequently acted as guide', sometimes as an interpreter, and on more than one occasion was called upon to testify before
the commission sent out by the Peruvian Amazon Co. Notably on
the 2d October, at Occidente, when both he and James Chase were
required to repeat the statement dealing with the burning of the
Indians by Jiménez on the raid to the Caqueta.
Prior to the consul general leaving La Chorrera in November,
Sealey became the servant of the commission like James Chase, on
the same terms, to remain with them throughout the remainder of
their stay in the Putumayo, and to be sent home when they left.
He added on man}^ occasions to the declarations he had first made by
information that was found of much service, and on the 5th November at La Chorrera he was again called and made a further statement.
This dealt with the shooting by Agüero of an Indian girl who was
at work in the plantation round the station house at Abisinia.
Agüero apparently shot her for sport. H e was standing on the veranda, and he aimed his rifle at her and shot her in the thigh. She
was wrounded but did not die, and recovered from that. This was in
1908. He further states that while in Abisinia he saw Armando
Blondel, one of the present staff there, ill treat an Indian in the following wa}^: Blondel wanted to flog this Indian, who resisted and
would not lie down " to take the flogging." H e was escaping, when
Blondel having hold of one arm struck him over the head with his
revolver, badly cutting him. The Indian, however, got away, and
was running toward the forest, and Augustus Walcott, a Barbados
man, ran for his carbine and shot the Indian in the leg. He, Sealey,
went out and brought back the Indian after he was shot, and Blondel
gave him " two kicks," and then some remedies were put on the
wounds, and the man recovered." Witness has seen Simon Ángulo,
who is at present at Abisinia, and is chiefly kept as flogger and executioner there, flog an Indian so badly that the blood was streaming
on the floor. This was done in the station house itself, " muchachos "
were holding the Indian down, and Ángulo gave him 25 lasKes,
and each cut took flesh out. This was about two years ago in
Abisinia. The blood was so plentiful that he, Sealey, had to swill
the floor with water. This Indian did not die that he, Sealey, knowrs
of. He was a Boras Indian who had run away from working rubber and had been caught and brought back.
He further states that while in Ultimo Eetiro, within about the last
year he had seen Alfredo Montt, chief of that section, tie up a
" capitán," or Indian chief, for about an hour every morning for
eight days. The man's hands were twisted behind his back and
lied by the wrist, and he was thus suspended by a cord from them
with his feet well off the ground. This was done every morning in
order to make him tell where his people were. They had run away
from working rubber. On the ninth morning the chief's hands were
so swollen that Montt could not hang him up again, so he put him
in the stocks. This man is still alive, and witness states that the

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consul general and the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commissioners actually
met him when at Ultimo Retiro in October, and he proceeds to Rescribe him. This man is identified both by Mr. Casement and by
Mr. Fox, a member of the commission, when spoken to on the subject.
Mr. Fox had seen him at Ultimo Retiro, and on the second day after
meeting him had noticed how terribly this Indian was marked with
the lash. Sealey declares he saw Montt on several occasions throw
Indians down into the cellar below the house at Ultimo Retiro without light or air. There are no steps to this hole and a drop of some
12 feet to the ground. They would be kept there in darkness and
with very little air for long periods—often for three weeks—and
given only water and " air am bo."
Sealey further states that during the time he was in Sabana he
has seen Pasqual Zambrana, who is now acting as cook at Ultimo
Retiro, flog Indians. The Indians were cut and blood often drawn.
The whip at Sabana was as thick as his thumb, very hard, with sharp
cut edges, made of twisted tapir hide. I t was made of many strands
of tapir hide, cut square and plaited together. He further states
that while at Ultimo Retiro—and, he thinks, in January of this year,
1910—four of the station boys or " muchachos " w e r e taken away by
Señor Montt with a chain round their necks. Señor Montt was
accompanied by José Plaza, Juen Lopez, Vasquez Torres, and
"Juanito " Rodriquez, and they took the four " muchachos," guarded
and chained by the neck each to the other. These boys never returned, and he, Sealey,*had heard from several persons and all the
employees at Ultimo Retiro that they had been shot on the road to
Entre Rios. He never saw the bodies. 1 One of the " muchachos "
was nicknamed " Felipe." He had a wife and child, Sealey said, and
added: " I can not remember the names of the others." He states
that whilst in Ultimo Retiro a girl was taken out of the station
guarded by about four " muchachos " and shot on a hill near at hand.
I t was at night and he heard the shot. The girl was not seen again.
He heard the boys say that they had shot the girl; they talked of it
openly. On their return to the house Montt put them in the " cepo "
and then had their wives brought up in custody and also put in the
" cepo." I t was these same boys, two of whom had children, who
were subsequently shot on the road to Entre Rios, as he believed.
[No. 15.]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF J O S H U A DYALL MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ^
CONSUL GENERAL I N T H E P R E S E N C E OF M R . LOUIS H . BARNES, T H E
C H I E F O F T H E C O M P A N Y ' S C O M M I S S I O N , AND T H E N REPEATED BEFORE
SEÑOR TIZÓN AND ALL T H E R E M A I N I N G MEMBERS OF T H E COMMISSION
ON T H E SAME DAY, SEPTEMBER 2 4 , 1 9 1 0 , AT LA CHORRERA; ALSO
S U B S E Q U E N T L Y E X A M I N E D AT LA CHORRERA BY MR. C A S E M E N T I N
NOVEMBER.

This man was working, at the date of Mr. Casement's arrival at
La Chorrera, on one of the company's steam launches navigating the
upper river above the falls. He came voluntarily, on learning that
the consul had arrived, in the early morning of the 24th September,
1910, to make a statement.
1

See statement of Frederick Bishop and of Edward Crichlow.

SLAVEBY I N PERU.

333

He declared that he was born in 1886; that both his parents were
living, so far as he knew; his father being in the employ of the
Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. in Barbados. He was engaged with
the first contingent in Barbados at the end of 1904, and, like all the
rest at that time, was sent up to Matanzas under Ramón Sanchez and
Normand. He gives the names of 25 Barbados men, his fellow
countrymen, who formed part of that expedition, and says it consisted
of 30 men and 5 women. Each of these were armed, and, he believes,
they had 100 cartridges given to each of them. The leader was
Sanchez, next Normand, a man called Cordoba, Alcorta, now dead,
and a Mr. Gleeman, a white man whose nationality he is not sure of,
also a Colombian named Liscaña. There were other white men went,
too, perhaps 10 or 15. These would be quite subordinates, " peons,
as they are termed in Peru. He can not remember all their names,
but he can recall a couple. These were a man named Eugenio Acosta
and a Colombian called Padilla. This latter, he believes, is still in
the station of Matanzas. Of the Barbados men he gives the following list:
Siefert Greenidge, now the baker here in La Chorrera.
Lindsay King (or Armando K i n g ) , now with Sefíor Loayza in El Encanto.
Greenidge, who w a s once a soldier in the West India Regiment, now
gone home to Barbados.
Lloyd Downs, now gone home.
Buckey Downs, a young fellow, now gone home.
Westerman Lea vine, who is still in Matanzas.
C. J o r d a n and another Jordan, not b r o t h e r s ; both gone home.
Sinclair Smith, gone home.
Mr. Waltermann, a married m a n ; gone home.
Woodroffe, gone home.
Cyril Atkins, who shot the girl and died in prison in I quitos.
Allen Davis, now in Abisinia with Agüero.
—— Blades, gone home.
Augustus Walcot, now in La Sabana.
J a m e s Mapp, now in La Sabana.
Mortimer, died in Andokes. His gun went t off and shot him. H e had
been shooting Indians, and forgot to unload his carbine with the muzzle under
h i s a r m and w a s so shot.
Rolleston, died in Andokes from swelling of the legs (probably beriberi).
Mr. Thompson, an old man. He died in Andokes. H e was drowned in the
Cagueta River.
Another young man, but he can not remember his name. Will t r y to recall it.
Another young man, who came from St. Vincent. Can not remember his
name. H e shot a man up there—b^ accident they said. .
J a m e s Percy, gone home, b u t nearly died there. He w a s hung up by his
h a n d s by Normand and Sanchez. H i s hands were nearly useless afterwards.
Sidney Morris, now in La Sabana.
Rock, gone home.
Myers, gone home.

These are all the men he can recall at this time.
On reaching Andokes they had found only a palm-thatched Indian
"hut, where they slept at first, setting guards at night—eight men
would guard throughout the night. They were afraid of the
Andokes Indians coming at night because they were " wild " Indians.
Then they cut posts and trees and dug holes and built a house, and
then they would be sent out with their rifles to look for the Indians
and try to catch them. They were ordered by the manager, Señor
Sanchez, and by Gleeman and Cordoba, who used to lead them on
these expeditions, that if they could not catch the Indians they were
to fire on them. Asked why this was done, he said it was to frighten

334

SLAVEEY IN

PERU.

the Indians and make them come in, because if they were killed for
running away they would be less likely to run. Asked " Did you
shoot Indians at that time ? " he answers:
Not a t t h a t time—I w a s a little bashful with the gun and a coward.
B u t later on did you shoot Indians?
I have shot one—let me see, two—Indians, because I h a d orders. T h e first
one I shot myself. T h e m a n in charge told me if I did not shoot the Indian
he would p u t me in the stocks and break my ribs or something. H e take a
big stick and hold it and shake it a t me. The I n d i a n w a s chained up and
in the stocks a t the time. I was frightened for my own life, and I did shoot
the Indian.
Who was the white man who ordered this?
Fonseca, in Ultimo Retiro.
When?
I n 1906, I think.
W h a t h a d t h i s Indian done?
Nothing; Fonseca take the Indian's wife/. H e had the m a n there in chains,
and he t a k e his wife, and he made me kill him for that. The Indian had done
no wrong a t all. The I n d i a n ' s n a m e w a s Cherichema. T h e woman is t h e r e
now—with Fonseca in S a b a n a ; she h a s borne him two children, one died, and
now another—she is t h e r e with him now.
T h a t w a s the first Indian you killed? T h e second Indian you killed, who
w a s he, a n d when?
H e w a s in Andokes.
When?
L a s t year, in July, or somewhere about t h a t time last year. It w a s going
along the road, sir, here on t h e Atenas road, close to La Chorrera. We killed
him with a stick, not with a gun. Normand also, he and I beat him to death.
We mashed u p his

He describes how Normand compelled him to commit this crime.
The Indian was thrown on the ground by Normand and himself,
his legs distended apart, Normand holding the legs apart while he,
Dyall, beat the man with a thick stick between the legs, and so killed
him.
The interrogatory proceeded:
You did t h a t ?
Yes, sir. Wait, sir, you do not know how we do things here. If we do not
do w h a t the chief tells u s he beats us. H e p u t s u s in " cepo," a n d then he
sends us down with a letter to Señor Macedo, and h e s a y : " You have failed—
you have not done your work," and he send us back again where we a r e flogged.
This I n d i a n we beat to death—Normand tell me to do it, and he, too, helped.
H e said, " T a k e a stick and beat him to death," and I refuse a t first, a n d
then I say, "All r i g h t ; up here you can do it," and we smashed him all up, a s
I have said, and killed him.
W h a t had this Indian done?
H e would not walk. H e did not w a n t to go along with us and carry the
" t u l a " (i. e., the india-rubber sack in which clothes a r e p a c k e d ) .
Where were you going?
W e were going back to Andokes from La Chorrera. T h e r e were more of u s
t h a n Normand and myself. T h e r e were only Indian carriers, then Normand
and myself. This I n d i a n had been brought down by us from Andokes, and we
were going back home with them carrying. We h a d been about a week in La
Chorrera. We came down to get goods, and they were going back with these
loads. They were all Andokes I n d i a n s who were carrying the loads—there
were about five of them. T h e m a n we killed w a s a young man, his name w a s
N a i r i p a ; he w a s a B o r a s Indian.

Asked by the consul general if he could remember the place where
he committed this crime and could, if called upon, show the spot
where the body was left, he answers:
He thinks he can remember i t ; it is about two hours this side of Athens.
The body w a s j u s t thrown into the bush.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

335

Then they went on to Atenas, where Elias Martenengui was
chief.1 There Normand told Martenengui about the man they had
J
killed.
How do you know?
Because we had to get an Atenas Indian to take the dead man's load and
carry it on.

H e had not been in Chorrera since that occurrence, only to come
down here in May or June, 1910. He had been obliged to run away
again from Matanzas.
Asked had he told Señor Macedo about the killing of this Indian,
he answers:
No, sir; because it is no use—he knows everything—he knows all about it.
Did you tell the other white man who has since come to La Chorrera (Señor
Tizón) ?
No, sir; I never tell him nothing. I do not think he knows. He say "Good
morning" to me—that's all.
You say you killed another Indian?
I killed two more—one I shot long ago with Señor Normand, and another
one I beat with a stick and kill the same way.
Tell me about the one you shot long ago.
The one I shot for Señor Normand wes like this. Normand sent me to Entre
Rios with some loads of sugar-cane. I was to take the cane to the Indians'
house, and they were to carry it to Entre Rios, and this Indian boy was to
carry sugar-cane.
Was it a boy or a man?
A boy, sir; and he had want to run away, and Normand had done tell me if
he want to run to shoot him.
And you shot him and killed him?
Yes, sir.
Was it near the station house?
No, sir; it was in the bush, out by the Andokes station. It was last year. It
was after I had killed the man by beating him with the stick when he got to
Andokes.
What did you do with the body?
Threw it in the bush. The fourth man I kill was out in Andokes. I beat
him in the same way (he indicated). Normand himself hold the Indian's
legs open and the boys (i. e., the " muchachos " ) , too, and I beat him there till
we kill him. This was a middle-aged man—a married man.
What had this Indian done?
He had run away; he do not want to work rubber—he had run away from
the rubber, and they caught him, and Normand give him a heavy bag (a
"tula," or load), to carry, and he could not walk with it, and so Normand
said: " You do not want to walk? All right, you shall not walk again," and
began to beat him; and he gave the order to another fellow—a white man
named Juan Sifuentes. The Indian was in chains as we went along, because
he was a prisoner, when we start to beat him.
Could you remember the place where you say you and they beat this man to^
death?
Oh, Yes, sir; it was in a small open savannah near Andokes about one and
one-half hours from Androkes on the other side.

Asked if he was quite sure of when this took place, he answered:
Yes; he is certain it took place since July of last year, namely, 1909; and it
was after he had killed the other man, and in the same way, in Atenas. He is
quite certain it was after- July of last year.
These were the only people you killed, you say?
Yes.
But you have flogged people?
Oh, yes; every time; plenty. In Andokes, in Ultimo Retiro, in Occidente;
these were the only three stations where I flogged Indians. I have been also
in Abisinia and Santa Catalina, where I did not flog anyone. My first station
1

This man left the company's service about June, 1910, and proceeded to Lima.

336

SLAVEEY IN PERU.

was Andokes. I was there from the beginning until I ran away. I came to
La Chorrera and Señor Macéelo send me to Abisinia, and then from that I go
back to La Chorrera, and he send me back again to Andokes.
Who was chief in Abisinia?
Agüero. Normand all the time in Andokes. Wait, sir; I tell you wrong.
When I come back from La Chorrera Macedo send me to Occidente, where
Miguel Flores was chief. From Occidente they send me to Ultimo Retiro, where
Fonseca was chief. That was the time he made me kill the Indian to take his
wife. After that I came from Ultimo Retiro they send me back to Occidente
the second time, and then when I get there they wanted men for Ultimo Retiro,
for Alfredo Montt, and so they send me back to Ultimo Retiro.

The witness then made a long statement with regard to his own
ill treatment at Ultimo Eetiro by Alfredo Montt, who had put him in
u
cepo/' so that his legs were permanently injured. This statement
was borne out by the evidence of Frederick Bishop and other witnesses; and the marks upon Dyall's ankles were plainly visible where
the heavy wood of the upper beam of the " cepo " had been forced into
the flesh. This statement has been dealt with elsewhere.
On leaving Ultimo Eetiro he was sent back to Andokes to serve a
second time under Normand, and it was during this last time that he
had killed the Indians as recorded.
Witness further states that an Indian he once flogged had died from
the flogging he gave him. H e was sure that it was from the flogging
he gave that this man died.
The man was named Pacheni. H e was half Muinanes and half
Andokes, these tribes intermarrying, and he spoke both tongues.
This man had run away, and Dyall was ordered to give him a severe
flogging^ which he did, and the man died under it. This took place
in Matanzas, in the station itself, during his last period of service
there. I n addition to his ill treatment by Montt, he had also been
knocked about the head with a gun and badly flogged, and had complained to Señor Macedo, who only ordered him to Ultimo Eetiro.
H e could not " get r i g h t " from Señor Macedo, who had threatened
to tie him up and flog him.
NOTE.—This man's evidence was given in the most fearless manner.
He not only admitted his gross crimes, but also that his ill treatment
by Montt was due to his own immoral conduct with Indian women,
but this, he said, was only what took place with all of them, and in
that he was no worse than Montt or any of the others—indeed, much
better.
His charges against Montt, Fonseca, and Normand he made in the
presence of Señor Tizón, as head of the company, and the four commissioners sent out from England. H e declared himself fully prepared to repeat these accusations to the faces of all those accused and
to conduct the consul and the commissioners to the very spots where,
as he alleged, the bones of his victims might very probably be found.
With regard to the atrocious acts committed by Normand and himself, he said there were many witnesses to Normand's manner of
murdering the Indians. His statements with regard to the general
ill-treatment of the Indians were supported by two Barbados men—
Frederick Bishop and Stanley Lewis—whom the consul general
called in before Señor Tizón and the commissioners. These men and
Dyall adhered to all their accusations, and declared they were quite
ready to have them put to the test in any way suggested to make
them good in the face of those they accused. Frederick Bishop, when

SLAVEBV I N

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337

called upon, declared that he had flogged Indians up to May, 1910,
just before leaving the company's service, and that the work he had
been employed on, in enforcing rubber by armed raids and floggings,
was not trading or commercial dealing in any known sense of the
word to his mind, but was slavery, and nothing else.
At the request of Señor Tizón, Dyall's statements were not put to
the test as he had asked, and Señor Tizón declared that he would accept as substantially correct these charges preferred against the
three agents named, who would be dismissed from the company's
service as soon as possible.
Dyall was sent to El Encanto to await the return of Mr. Casement
from his further investigations in the stations outside of La Chorrera,
and was subsequently brought away along with other Barbados men
and conveyed clown to Manaos in Brazil, where work was found
for him.
[No. 16.]
P R E C I S OP T H E S T A T E M E N T OP EDWARD CRICHLOW MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S
CONSUL GENERAL, AT U L T I M O RETIRO, ON OCTOBER 8, 1 9 1 0 .
MESSRS.
BARNES A N D POX, OF T H E C O M P A N Y ' S C O M M I S S I O N , WERE P R E S E N T
T H R O U G H O U T T H E P I R S T PART OF T H I S M A N ' S E X A M I N A T I O N .

This man was found by Mr. Casement employed at the station of
Ultimo Retiro on the arrival of the commission there on the 7th of
October. The chief of the station was Augusto Jiménez, who had
been promoted a few months previously from the post of subchief of
Morelia, in the district of Abisinia, and who is frequently referred to
in various depositions.
CricMow was first questioned by Mr. Casement as to his recent service in Ultimo Retiro, where he stated he had arrived on the 15th of
January, 1910. At that date the chief of the section was Alfredo
Montt, who had since been transferred to Atenas, being succeeded
in March by Jiménez. Mr. Casement had been informed that this
witness was unwilling to give his testimony in a straightforward
way, as he wished to continue in the company's service, having just
been promised an increase of pay of £2 per month, as well as beingpromised additional remuneration for the carpentering work he was
engaged on—making tables, benches, etc., for the furnishing of the
station. On appearing before Mr. Casement he was warned of the
possible consequences to himself should he not answer the questions
put to him truthfully. Mr. Casement had further been informed
privately that bribing offers had been made to this man should he
conceal the truth.
I n answer to questions put to him, he declared that on the 7th
March, 1910, he had formed one of an expedition led by Señor
Jiménez, which had left Ultimo Retiro for the Caqueta in search of
fugitive Indians. They had been absent on this journey nearly two
months, returning to Ultimo Retiro on the 6th May. This journey
had been undertaken by the direct orders of Señor Macedo, the chief
agent of the company" at La Chorrera. They had arrived on the
banks of the Caqueta River on the 22d March and had crossed that
river and proceeded a considerable distance into the country on the
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

-22

338

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

other side. They spent some three weeks on the other side of the
river in the Colombian district of the Caquetá searching for the
fugitive Indians who had fled from the rubber working at Entre Bios.
They captured 21 Indians, men and women, and three Colombian
white men whom they found engaged in building a house. Crichlow
stated that they found these men beside a previous Colombian house
which had been burned by agents of the company on a former expedition. Asked by the consul what expedition he meant, he said it
was an expedition that had set out from Entre Ríos headed by Montt
and Fonseca which had burned the Colombian house on this Colombian territory. The 21 Indians they had captured had been all tied
up and brought back to Ultimo Retiro in this manner, closely guarded.
The three Colombian white men were also tied up. Their names were
Mosqueiro, Ramón Vargas, and Tejo. They were living in a tent
when surprised by Jiménez. Asked what had been done with these
men and why they, Colombians on their own soil, had been captured
by agents of a British trading company in Peru, Crichlow stated he
did not know what they had done—he supposed they were affording
protection to the Indians who had run away from Ultimo Retiro.
These men were not tied up on the march back to Ultimo Retiro, but
merely brought back as prisoners, and then were sent down to La
Chorrara. One of them, Ramón Vargas, he had heard, was now in
the company's service employed at Atenas under Montt. He did not
know what had become of Mosqueiro and Tejo, but had heard that
Señor Macedo had sent them away from La Chorrera.
With regard to the 21 Indians, on reaching Ultimo Retiro these
were put in the " cepo " for a brief period and then released on promising to work rubber. They had fled from the section in Montt's time
owing to bad treatment. Asked whether these people were now working voluntarily in the district, Crichlow said he thought not; he believed they had run away again, as he had not seen one of them since
the date of their release in May. They had been given trade goods on
promising to work rubber if released from the " cepo."
Asked whether he had seen Indians flogged at Ultimo Retiro,
Crichlow replied, " N o " ; since he had come there no one had been
flogged within his knowledge. Indians were sometimes confined in
the stocks by Señor Jiménez, but not for any length of time. Asked
whether he had been in Ultimo Retiro when Montt was said to have
taken away four of the station Indians in chains and to have had
them shot on the road to Entre Ríos, he answered, " No "; this had
occurred before he arrived, but that he had heard of the occurrence
from Sealey, and that was all. Asked whether a white messenger had
recently arrived from La Chorrera he answered, " Y e s " ; that an
agent of the company named Solar had arrived a few days previously,
coming from Atenas; that he had brought letters for Señor Jiménez
from La Chorrera, and that after their receipt Jiménez had taken
him aside and told him that the consul was coming and that he was
to say nothing and that if he kept his mouth shut his " account" with
the company would be made right. He owed a considerable sum to
the company; he was not sure of the amount, but when last he had
seen a copy of his account he was in debt 120 soles. H e understood
from this statement that he would get money for his silence before
the consul general. Señor Ma cedo's name was mentioned by Jiménez
when he assured him that his " accounts " at the headquarters station

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339

would be made all right. He believed it was the 2d October when
Solar had arrived with these letters, and after their delivery he had
gone away again.
With regard to the alleged murder of the four " muchachos " by
Montt, he had heard that Montt had had the bones cleared away from
the path to Entre Ríos when he had heard that strangers were coming
up country.
The expedition to the Caquetá was undertaken by the direct orders
of Señor Macéelo, who came up to Ultimo Retiro on their return.
There was a notice posted up in the station signed by Señor Macedo
promising a monetary gratification to every member of the expedition who gave satisfaction to the chief, Jiménez. This was signed
by Señor Macedo on the 22d February, 1910.
Leaving the subject of Crichlow's recent service at Ultimo Retiro,
he was asked to state what duties he had been employed on from the
date of his first engagement in the company's service. He declared
that he had been engaged in Barbados on the 6th October, 1904, along
with the first contingent brought from that island by Arana Bros.
They had all been brought to La Chorrera, where they had remained
only a few days, and had then been dispatched under Ramón Sanchez
and Armado Normand to Matanzas, in the country of the Andokes
Indians. All of them were armed, and each had 200 cartridges.
There were 36 Barbados men, all told, who went up to Matanzas at
that time. He recalls and gives the names of 20 of these men, as
follows:
C. Jordan, A. Jordan, Joshua Dyall, Mortimer Yarbick, Lindsay
King, Allen Davis, Westerman Leavine, " Tackie " Cox, Ernest Jones,
Downs, Eleazer Rock, Seifert Greenidge,
Greenidge, Arnold
Benn,
Comberbach, Clifford Quintin,
Waterman, Augustus
Walcott,
Hines, Cyril Atkins.
From Chorrera they had marched to Atenas and then to Entre
Ríos and then on to Matknzas. I t was toward the end of the year,
for he remembered that Christmas of 1904 was spent in Matanzas.
When they came there there was only a rude Indian house in 'the
forest, and they were put to N clear the ground and build a new house.
" Then we had to make expeditions with guns to hunt Indians, like
hunting wild beasts." As first they were coming in quietly, and then
the manager, Ramón Sanchez, caught them and tied them up.
Did the Indians not resist?
They were tied up and killed.
You saw them killed?
Yes; I saw several shot, chiefly those that had run away. They burned down
their own house and ran as far as they could go. We had to go out on expeditions and catch them. We got a few at that time and brought them in chained
up. We kept them in chains.
Why was this?
The manager said these Indians had killed Colombians before we had come
and had their rifles, and he wanted to get the rifles back. We got back 18 rifles.
Who shot these Indians—the ones you say you saw killed?
Ramón Sanchez, Many were kept in chains all the time I was in that section,
(namely, 10 months). There were about 25 of them chained like this. They
worked during the day with the chains round them. There were women and
men and children—little children at the breast.

Crichlow^ does not remember any of them dying from the chains.
Ramón Sanchez left Andokes while Crichlow was still there and

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SLAVERY I N PERU.

Normand became chief. Normand kept them in chains, trying
always to get more rifles back.
He then relates how Cyril Atkins, one of his fellow countrymen,
had shot by mistake an Indian woman and had been sent to La
Chorrera as a prisoner. 1
During the early months at Matanzas the Indians did not bring
rubber in. They had not then taken to getting the Indians to work
rubber. They were hunting them first to get back the rifles they had
captured from the Colombians, and they had not succeeded in this up
to the time he left Matanzas. H e saw Indians flogged as well as
kept in chains. H e left Matanzas, he thinks, in October, 1905, and
went back to La Chorrera, where he was kept working as a carpenter
and sawing wood for about two months. H e was anxious to escape
from the company's service, but could not then get away. The Barbados man, " T a c k i e " Cox, had told him he had seen a Peruvian
man putting £4 into a trunk, and as they both wanted to escape, he
(Crichlow), went and stole it at " T a c k i e " Cox's suggestion. Cox
then informed upon him to Señor Loazya who was in charge of La
Chorrera at the time. H e was sent down by Loayza as a prisoner
to Iquitos where he remained for 15 months in gaol.
Asked whether he had been brought to trial, he said " No; not to
any open t r i a l ; " and at no time had he been confronted with witnesses. H e had admitted his offense and had made no effort to deny
it. I t was really because he had wanted to get away and had no
money. During his detention in gaol in Iquitos he had followed his
calling as a carpenter, and had earned enough money to obtain a
Peruvian lawyer to defend him. H e paid this lawyer £29. He was
released from gaol without having been tried in June, 1907. As he
had nothing to do and no money, and the Arana Brothers refused to
send him back to Barbados unless he went again to the Putumayo, he
returned to La Chorrera on the 1st June, 1907. He was first sent to
the station called Oriente, where Fidel Velarde was chief. H e saw
¿here Áquiléo Torres, chained up and kept a close prisoner. Asked
wa's Torres ill treated, he answers.
Oh, yes, sir; he had about S feet of chain round him, and they did spit upon
him

He remembers Torres was in chains during the whole of the seven
months he was in Oriente. His time there was spent in expeditions
made above every 15 days. These were ordinary " commissions," (o
bring in the Indians with their rubber.
We go out to the " capitán's" or chiefs house in the forest and call them
all and bring them in with their rubber. He and the others on these commissions were always armed. There would be two or three or four armed men,
just as the station could spare them.

. Asked to explain what he meant by " calling the Indians," he
answers—
You go to the " capitan's " house, with your ''muchachos." We all sit in the
"capitan's" house and sent out the "muchachos," who are armed, to call Iudians. The " capitán " is kept guarded, because if all the Indians do not come
in he wall be flogged.
Have you ever seen the " capitán " flogged thus?
1
This evidence dealing with Atkins is supported by other testimony received from
other quarters by the consul general and is dealt with elsewhere.

SLAVERY IN PERU.

341

Oh, yes; often. The "capitán'' would be flogged out in the forest-house,
and he would be flogged in the section-house, too; tied out on all fours and
flogged. Señor Velarde himself would flog the Indians sometimes with his own
hands. All would flog them because they had to. They ordered us to flog the
Indians and we had to obey.

From Oriente he was transferred to Santa Catalina under the chief
Aurelio Rodriguez. He is uncertain of the date, but remembers he
spent the 1st January, 1908, in Santa Catalina. Here he was employed chiefly as a carpenter. The expeditions after Indians were
mostly by others there, not by himself. He states that the Indians
there were treated in just the same way as at Oriente. They would
be chained up, put in " cepo," and flogged—brutally flogged. He
describes how Rodriguez made a plan for a double " cepo," to hold
head and arms at one end and legs at the other, which he, Crichlow,
made. He describes this as a movable " cepo," the feet end sliding
up and down so as to fit a person of any stature. I t was thus possible to put quite a small child into this, face downward. I n this position men, women, and children were flogged. Little boys and girls
he saw flogged thus. Women would be flogged thus, sometimes because their husbands had not brought the rubber required. This
" cepo " was at Santa Catalina till May, 1908, when he was sent
down to La Chorrera as a prisoner.
Asked to describe the circumstances of this, he relates that he and
a Peruvian named Pedro La Torres had one day had a dispute. La
Torres asked him (Crichlow) why he carried a revolver in addition
to his Winchester rifle, Crichlow told him to " g o to hell." Whereupon they had bandied words, and La Torres threatened to assault
him. I n consequence of La Torres's threats, Crichlow asked the
chief, Rodriguez, to send him back to La Chorrera, but Rodriguez
took the side of La Torres, and struck him over the head with the
butt of his revolver. Crichlow ran to his own room followed by
Rodriguez and his subordinates, and after struggling for some time
he was knocked down and put in the " cepo." His hands were tied behind him, and he was beaten on the head and shoulders with sticks.
Both Rodriguez and La Torres beat him, and Rodolfo Rodriguez,
who is still at Santa Catalina, threatened him with his revolver. He
was chained round the neck and sent to the next station, La Sabana,
where Velarde was the chief. He arrived there late at night, and was
put in the " cepo " with his feet " five holes apart," and the chain
round him as well, where he remained all night. Two of his countrymen, Batson and Quinton, who were in Santa Catalina at the time,
were witnesses. He was kept chained up all the next day, and was
only ultimately released at the intervention of Señor Alcorta, who
took him away and brought him to his section of Oriente, where he
stayed four days. He was then sent down to La Chorrera with
letters to deliver to the chief agent. These letters he flung away, as
he knew they contained a request for his further punishment. Señor
Delgado was in charge at La Chorrera, and he explained his presence
to him by saying that he had run away. Later on a paper came
from Rodriguez accusing him, and he was then put in the " cepo " at
Chorrera. He gave a long account of his punishment at Chorrera,
and of how he was only ultimately taken out of the " cepo " on the
intervention of the captain of the port of Iquitos, who happened to

342

SLAVERY IK PERU.

come there on a steamer from E l Encanto. He remained some time
after this in La Chorrera, working as a carpenter. He was then sent
to the station of Occidente, returning thence to La Chorrera, and then
being sent to Oriente, where he spent about a couple of months.
Thence he returnend to La Chorrera, and was dispatched to Entre
Bios for a brief period, and then back to Santa Catalina, where a
man named Seminario had succeeded Aurelio Rodriguez as chief, and
after some six weeks' service there had been sent back to La Chorrera,
and then, in January of the present year, 1910, had been sent to
Ultimo Retiro, where he now was.
When at Occidente during part of his time there Fonseca was the
chief. He sent out only Indian " muchachos " to bring in the Indians
with rubber every 15 or 10 days; and these, when they brought too
little, were flogged. He has seen Indians flogged at all the lastmentioned stations, except this one of Ultimo Retiro, since his arrival in January. He has seen Indians so badly flogged that their
wounds were full of maggots, and declares that he has even seen
Indians eat these because they had nothing else to eat. He has seen
them, while imprisoned in the " cepo," eat the dirt—the earth. H e
has flogged Indians himself until his arm got tired sometimes, and
then passed the whip on to another man. He thinks he has given
up to 25 lashes, and then he had enough and passed the lash to another
man to give on up to 50 lashes.
Crichlow explains how it is he is in debt to the company, chiefly due
to the poor food given him and the high prices charged for necessities.
Two months before he had gone down to La Chorrera and spent 150
soles (£15) chiefly on foodstuffs for himself and his Indian wife.
He can produce his accounts (he goes and gets them and leaves them
with the consul). His clothes and his food and that of his wife
account for most of his expenditure. His actual pay is 50 soles per
month, and quite recently Señor Jiménez promised to give him 20
soles extra out of his own pocket. This was before the day when he
called him to say that Señor Macéelo would " regulate his accounts."
A question was put to this witness by Mr. Fox, a member of the
Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission, who was present. When wh>
ness was describing how the Indians had been flogged in Oriente by
Velarde and at Santa Catalina by Rodriguez, Mr. Fox intervened
with the question:
"Would the Indians come in voluntarily to work rubber in exchange for goods if simply invited, if they were promised barter
goods in return for their rubber and were not flogged ? "
Crichlow replied that he did not think any would so come in, for
they would not come near the section for anything the white men
offered them if they were not forced; that they would stay away
because they were terrified.
Crichlow's statement was subsequently amplified in the afternoon
of the same day, and he wrote out with his own hands an account of
his ill-treatment by Aurelio Rodriguez in May, 1908, which he signed
before the consul general on the 10th October, 1910.
NOTE.—This man, at his'own request, was left by Mr. Casement to continue
working at XJltimo Retiro. He declared he was contented there, that Señor
Jiménez treated him well, and as his pay was increased he wanted to earn
enough money to return to Barbados with something in Tiand. He was informed that he could only stay on the distinct understanding that under no

SLAVEKY IN PERU.

343

circumstances was ñe to lift bis hands against Indians, that the duties he had
been describing were entirely illegal, that for all these offenses against the Indians no defense could be set up on his behalf should the Government responsible for the administration of .that country at any time intervene, and that if
arrested on a charge of ill-treating the Indians he could look for no protection
or defense from His Majesty's Government; that when he had crossed the
Caqueta and made prisoners of the Colombians and Indians, he might quite
rightly have been shot along with Jiménez and the others by any Colombian
authority in that part, since he and the others with him were merely lawless
pirates; that it was no use to plead in law the orders of Señor Jiminéz or of
Señor Macedo for acts that he knew to be illegal, and which called for severe
punishment.

These instructions to Crichlow were repeated by Mr. Casement in
the presence of the chief representative of the Peruvian Amazon
Co., Señor Tizón, and in the hearing of Señor Jiménez, and it
was understood that under no circumstances should this British subject be put to any illegal tasks during the rest of his stay in the
company's service.
On reaching the station of Entre Eios, after leaving Ultimo Eetiro,
a statement was voluntarily made to Mr. Casement by a Peruvian
employee of the company—a white man named Pinedo—who had
been a member of the recent expedition across the Caqueta, from
which it became clear that Crichlow had concealed certain circumstances attending that journey. This it seemed clear he had done,
as he hoped to stay on at work at increased pay under Señor Jiménez.
When he had been asked if any of the 21 Indian prisoners captured
in Colombia and brought down to Ultimo Eetiro had been badly
treated, he had said " No." Pinedo, in his voluntary statement,
which was made to Mr. Casement in the presence of Mr. Bell, one of
the Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commissioners, who acted as interpreter,
declared that one of these Indians had been shot by Aquiléo Torres,
who also formed one of the expedition. Torres, from sheer brutality
or sport, according to Pinedo, had killed this man. He had put his
rifle to the Indian's face and had told him " as a joke " to blow down
the barrel. The In.dian obeyed; then Torres pulled the trigger and
blew his head off. Pinedo further declared that at the very outset
of this expedition, namely, on the 7th March, when they were leaving
Ultimo Eetiro, Torres, for wanton sport, had shot an Indian woman
who was one of the party. Pinedo's statement was referred by the
consul general to Señor Tizón, who was at the time in Entre Eios.
Señor Tizón informed Mr. Casement that Aquiléo Torres had been
sent away from Ultimo Eetiro by Jiménez as being " too much for
Jiménez," and as a punishment, or for some other reason : had now
been sent to Abisinia. Mr. Casement pointed out that Abisinia,
apparently being one of the very worst sections where crimes against
the Indians seemed to be of the most frequent occurrence, it was
scarcely advisable to send there an agent already accused of atrocious
crimes, where little or no control could be exercised over his actions.
Subsequently, on returning to La Chorrera, Mr, Casement received
two letters from Crichlow, written from Ultimo Eetiro, saying that
since Mr. Casement's departure things had changed, and he no longer
believed he was safe; that he had heard things said that made him
fear for his life, and he implored that he might be sent for so as to
leave the Putumayo along with the consul general. This was done
by Señor Tizón at Mr. Casement's request. Crichlow came down to
La Chorrera, leaving all his effects behind him rather than miss the

344

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

chance of departure, and he Avas brought away by Mr. Casement and
returned to his home in Barbados. All his accounts, showing how his
indebtedness to the company had been arrived at, are in Mr. Casement's
hands, and from these it is clear that when the proposal was made to
" regulate " his accounts, if he should conceal the truth from the consul
he was in debt to the company, not 150 soles, as he thought, but really
240 soles, or some £24, which was to be the price of his untruthfulness.
He explained how it was he had not told of the two people murdered
by Torres by saying in the first case the woman had been killed before
Señor Jiménez, whom he accompanied, had joined Torres, and the
others on the first day of leaving Ultimo Retiro; and as to the other
Indian shot by Torres when blowing down the muzzle of his rifle,
Pinedo's statement, he declared^ was true, and this was found to be
borne out by the declaration of another Barbados man, Reuben
Phillips, who formed one of the expedition. 1
[No. 17.]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF J A M E S L A N E , A N A T I V E OF BARBADOS, MADE
TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT MATANZAS I N T H E A N D O K E S
COTTNTRy ON OCTOBER 1 8 , 1 9 1 0 .

This man was employed at Matanzas which was reached by Mr.
Casement and the commissioners on the 17th October. He gave his
age as 24, and said that both his parents were dead. He had been
engaged in April, 1905, and came to the Amazon along with 90 other
Barbados men. He had first been employed at Nanai, close to
Iquitos, where he worked for one and a half years, and then left the
service of his own accord. He went to Iquitos, where he worked
for about one year, and then engaged himself to a Portuguese trader
up the Javari River. On returning from this he entered the service
of the Peruvian Amazon Co. to go to La Chorrera on the 25th April,
1908. H e made a contract with them for £5 per month, and arrived
at Chorrera on the 12th May, 1908, along with Sealey, Chase, and
some others. He was at once sent to this section—Matanzas—where
he has been employed ever since. He states that he has been engaged
here on commissions and expeditions after the Indians, going out
with a rifle and cartridges—always with other men, never alone. H e
was warned to speak the truth and answer all questions put to him.
Asked if he was employed to flog Indians, he states that he has not
himself flogged Indians, but has seen them flogged very often. He
has seen them flogged here, in this house, in this section. They will
be put in the stocks for some days after being flogged and then, perhaps, would be let go. The manager, Señor Normand, would order
them to be flogged when he is here and in his absence Señor Bust a mante, the second in charge. He has seen Indians flogged at the
other house—La China—it is a new station where Normand himself
lives. He has seen Indians flogged as recently as September last, or,
say, a month ago. These Indians had run away and would not
work rubber. Women were flogged as well as men. They belonged
to the Apocupa, a subtribe of the Andokes. Their dwelling house
1

See s t a t e m e n t No. 25.

SLAVEEY IN

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345

was two hours from here. H e has not seen other Indians flogged
since that date, namely, one month ago. The Indians now get ten
lashes, sometimes fifteen, but, as a rule, it does not go higher than 15
lashes. He states that he has not seen Indians shot. H e repeats this
statement—that he has not seen an Indian shot since he came to this
station nor has he seen an Indian die from flogging. He has seen
very many Indians flogged, chiefly for running away, also when they
do not bring enough rubber. He was not here when the house of the
Muinanes Indians on the road from Entre Ríos was burned. When
he came it was already burned and in the state in which it nowT is.
He remembers Dyall being in Andokes. H e thinks Dyall left in
November, 1909. Indians are generally flogged stretched out, one
man holding the hands and another the feet; women the same as men.
He declares again that he has not seen Indians killed, neither has he
seen any white man killed by Indians. The only white men he
knows of who were killed by the Indians near this were Bucelli,
Silva, Rojos, and Isuiso. They were killed near the Caqueta, but by
their own " muchachos." He has not been punished himself, has not
been put in guns nor in " cepo " since he arrived. He is not in debt
to the company; by his last account he had 545 soles to his credit.
This was on the 31st December, 1909.
This witness, in a contradictoiy manner, next described in answer
to the consul general's questions how he and other employees went
out on commissions to catch Indians. H e more than once contradicted himself. If the Indians ran away they called after them.
Asked, " Did the Indians come then for you calling? "
He says, " Some of the men fired at them."
" But you said you had seen no Indians shot ? "
" He fires over their heads."
" But then that would make them run faster ? "
He answers that sometimes when he called to them he would take
a stick and hold it out to the Indians, to which the consul objects.
" But you said you never flogged them."
He then states that if he and the others do not catch the Indians
in this way they would follow them to where they slept, and surround the house and catch them at night, and tie them up and
bring them in to Matanzas and put them in the " cepo." They get
fed when in the " cepo," but not much—just what there is to be had.
He has seen Indians die from flogging when thus brought into the
station here. He has seen three die thus from flogging since he came
to Matanzas; they were all men. He has seen 50 lashes given to
men who had run away, and 30 and 40 lashes. Men thus flogged
would be cut to pieces. The lesser floggings—10 to 15 lashes—are
only for those who fail to bring in enough rubber. He has not seen
Indians die from hunger, neither here in the station nor when carrying rubber down on the road to Puerto Peruano. He himself is
generally at the station called La China, where Señor Normand
lives, 10 hours from Matanzas—it is nearer to the Boras country.
The rubber from La China comes here carried by the Indians, and
then they carry it on down through the forest to Puerto Peruano,
where it" is shipped in the launch for La Chorrera. He has not
known an Indian to die from fatigue or hunger when carrying the
rubber down to Puerto Peruano. If Indians get sick when on the
way the men in charge guarding them try to give the sick man's load

346

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to another Indian, and the sick man is sent here to Matanzas and
perhaps given medicine. The station " cepo " was under the house
here until yesterday. 1 The day before yesterday, when they heard
that the consul and the others were coming, they carried it away,
and hid it in the bush. He will show the consul where it is hidden.
They had two Indian prisoners. The day before yesterday, when
they heard that the party was coming, Sen or Bustamante sent them
away. These were two men who had run away. They were tied
up by the neck, but their hands were free. Señor Bustamante himself took them out into the forest thus tied up and handed them to
SüJiie " muchachos " to take to La China, where Westerman Leaving,
his fellow countryman, is generally stationed. He himself has
beaten Indians with a stick, bringing them in from the forest when
ordered to. This when on commissions making prisoners. All three
men he saw flogged to death were badly cut. They were washed
with salt and water, and they had food given to them, but they died
all the same—two last year and one this year. Last month lie accompanied Señor Normand across the Caqueta in pursuit of Indians
who had run away. He has often crossed the Caqueta thus into
Colombia. Sometimes they went 20 days' journey on the other side.
This last journey, a month ago, they were 21 clays absent from
Matanzas and were 6 days of- that time across on the other side of
the Caqueta. The expedition consisted of Señor Normand, himself,
Westerman Leavine, Elias Rodriguez, José Cordoba, Nemisio Cuenca,
and six " muchachos." All had Winchesters, the " muchachos " as
well. He himself had 25 cartridges. They got six Indians across
the Caqueta, three men and three women. They were caught in
a house by night sleeping. They were tied up with rope, their
arms at the elbows and their wrists tied behind their backs. They
were taken to La China thus tied up, put in the " cepo," and beaten,
both men and women. One man died from the flogging—he saw
them flogged. Señor Normand gave the order to flog them, and they
got some 30 lashes, some less. There was a tall man and there were
two young men. I t was the tall man died, by name Kodihinka, an
Andokes. He died from the flogging. He died three days after
the flogging. He was put in the " cepo " after the flogging with his
back and buttocks all cut. He died in the " cepo " with his feet in
the " cepo," and the other five Indians were in it beside him all the
time up to his death, one of these being his wife and one his child.
The two other men, or boys, recovered, and are now free. They are
working rubber; at least when Señor Normand took them out of the
" cepo " he gave them a sword, i. e., a machete, to tap the rubber
trees. That is all he gave them. He does not know their names,
but knows their faces, and that they are now working rubber. The
three women are working near La China on the plantation. They
had belonged to a " capitán " of the Andokes named Cahicage, who
died, " fom sickness," so they told him, but he does not know how he
died. Then his people ran away to the other side of the Caqueta.
Francisco Borber (an employee at the station) had told him that
Cahicage had died of sickness. He was quite certain it was last
month that this flogging of Kodihinka to death took place. I t was
in September. His flesh got rotten in the " cepo " before he died,
1
This refers to an open spare in which rubber is weighed under the dwelling part of
the house.

SLAVEKY IJST PEKU.

347

with his family alongside him. No medicine was given to him,
only they washed him with salt and water after the flogging. The
body was buried near the house.
As to payment of Indians. Lane states in answer to the consul's
questions that an Indian might get a pair of cotton trousers and a
shirt for 2 " fabricos " of rubber (roughly 80 to 120 kilograms) or
a hammock. If he got a hammock he would get nothing else. He
also got a flogging if Mr. Normancí did not like what rubber he
brought in. A " fabrico " is six months' rubber work. He is quite
such that this is so, and a man would only get a shirt and a pair of
pantaloons for a whole " fabrico," and he might get several floggings
as well. Seven "chorizos" (a long roll of rubber made up by the
Indian worker weighing from 10 to 20 kilograms) make 1 " fabrico "
for one grown-up Indian, and if a man brings a small " chorizo "
he. gets flogged and has to bring two sometimes the next " puesta "
to make up. A man would never get a trade gun for a " fabrico;"
he would have to work a very long time—certainly a year—to get a
gun. H e has never seen an Indian get a gun for even 2 " fabricos "
of rubber. I t would have to be over two 'á fabricos "—of that he is
certain. He thinks 3 "fabricos," i. <?., 18 months or some 200 kilograms of rubber for a trade gun.
Lane himself wishes to go awa}^ now, and will be glad if the consul
will take him away with him or get permission for him to leave. He
has already asked Señor Normand to allow him to go, but he has
refused. His contract made at Iquitos is at La China. I t is the
same as Sealey's, for one year's service, after which he has a right
to his passage back to Iquitos, and he has now been two years and
five months here.
NOTE.—This witness was not unwilling to speak, but he was confused and troubled while asserting always that he was trying to
speak the truth and wished to conceal nothing. His contradictions
were more due to embarrassment and ignorance of how to express
himself clearly, or possibly misapprehending the question put to
him, rather than to untruthfulness.
A t 4 p. m. in the afternoon it was necessary to send again for
James Lane, in order to confront him with Westerman Leavine, who
had committed himself to another version of the imprisonment and
flogging of Kodihinka in the course of last month at La China. For
this see Leavine's statement. The result of this confrontation wa&
that Leavine admitted that he had not been speaking the truth to
the consul general, and that Lane's statement was completely true.
Señor Tizón, as representing the Peruvian Amazon Co., was asked
by consul general to be present at this confrontation and to hear
this final statement of Leavine agreeing with^ that already made by
James Lane to show that only a month previously a man had died
from flogging administered by an employee of the company, under
Señor Normand's orders, after having been further grossly maltreated by other employees of the company while lawlessly held
prisoner by Señor Normand. The facts were asserted here on the
spot by these two men, and Señor Normand was himself here.
Señor Tizón accepted the statement of the two Barbados men as
correct without further investigation. H e was satisfied that it
would be useless to confront them with Señor Kormand, who would

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deny the truth of the statement. He assured the consul general that
this station of Matanzas should be closed down with as little delay
as possible and all the employees dismissed. He hoped to get rid of
Señor Normand by the end of November. He had already told him
of his intention, and this evidence now laid before him only increased
his desire to shut down a post of this kind, where it was impossible
to control the acts of the employees or to exercise any supervision.
The facts of these interrogatories of James Lane and Westerman
Lea vine were communicated by the consul general to Messrs. Barnes,
Bell, and Gielgud, of the company's commission of inquiry who had
journeyed with him to Matanzas.
James Lane, by direction of Mr. Casement, was freed from further
service, and left Matanzas on the 19th October, to accompany him
on the road down to Entre Eios. On the 23d October he was again
interrogated at Entre Eios. H e was asked if he could not recall
the names of the two men and three women who had been captured
along with Kodihiiika across the Caquetá. He answers that this
he can not do, but that he saw two of them—a young man and a
woman-—among the Indians, carrying rubber down country, whom
the consul general had met and walked with on the 19th and 20th
instant. They were now down at Puerto Peruano, and they had
been among the people who had slept in the deserted Indian house
where Mr. Casement passed the night. Lane was directed to look
out for these people on the return of the Indian party, and, if possible, to bring them for Mr. Casement and the commissioners to see
and speak to. H e was also directed to look out for a Boras Indian
who had been seen on the same occasion very badly marked from a
quite recent flogging, also a very small boy who bore most severe
traces of flogging on his legs and buttocks, who had also been seen
carrying rubber down country.
Asked if any effort had been made to induce him from, speaking
the truth, Lane said that when Señor Normand had arrived from
La China in the evening of the 18th October, he had sent for him,
and asked him what he had been telling the consul, and he hoped that
he, Lane, had not been "humbugging" him. H e had said to Señor
Normand that he had told the truth of all he personally saw in the
section. Lane further states:
The morning after you go away when you ^tell me to go with you he call me
before I follow you and ask me what I did tell you. I tell him I tell you I had
seen men flogged and of the man T saw flogged who died in the boy's house.
Then he want to deny it. He tell me did not die there—he die in his father's
house. Then I tell him, "No, sir; I did saw him die in the boy's house." Then
he shut his mouth—he clone tell me nothing.

Asked if Señor Normand at any time offered him money he answers
that the first night when the consul general had arrived in Matanzas
before he (Lane) had been interrogated, Señor Normand, who had
arrived the same evening from La China, sent for him about 10
o'clock. I t was outside his room on the veranda. Señor Normand
then said to him, if the consul asked him how the Indians were
treated he was to say that he beat them with a palmetto only. [He
means a wooden stick for beating on the hands.] Señor Normand
said that if he would say nothing about him he would give him " a
good piece of gold."
" H e wanted me to tell lies and not to tell you what I see up there in
that section." There were other Peruvians near Señor Norm&nd and

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349

he had taken Lane aside from them to say this. Asked what he had
replied, he said that he had informed Normand that he would tell no
lies and at that moment the Barbados man, James Chase, coming out
to him he had gone back to his room.
Questioned as to whether any further efforts had been made to
bribe him, James Lane says that a man came from La Chorrera—a
white man---with letters from Señor Macedo. This was a few days
before, and on receipt of these letters Señor Normand had told the
Peruvians that Donald Francis in La Chorrera should get a good
reward from him because he had told the consul nothing. I t was said
out loud so that all could hear.
Messrs. Barnes and Gielgud, of the company's commission, were
requested to hear this statement showing that Señor Normand had
attempted to bribe this man, and that a communication had been sent
by Señor Macedo around the different sections to inform the incriminated agents that the Barbados men in La Chorrera were being
prevented from telling the consul the true state of things. James
Chase certified to the conversation between Señor Normand and
James Lane and said that the white man who had brought the letter
from La Chorrera was the same Solar who had carried the information to Jiménez and find Crichlow. I t was further found that this
Solar had also visited Señor O'Donnell at Entre Ríos a few days
before the arrival of Mr. Casement and the commissioners.
James Lane accompanied Mr. Casement to La Chorrera, and was
brought away from the Putumayo and repatriated to his home in
Barbados in December, 1910.
[No. 1 8 ]
P R E C I S OF T H E S T A T E M E N T OF W E S T E R M A N L E A V I N E MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT MATANZAS ON OCTOBER 1 8 , 1 9 1 0 , AND
SUBSEQUENTLY.

Westerman Leavine states his age as only 20 (he looks m o r e ) ; he
can not remember the date of his birth. Both his parents are still
living in Barbados, at Carrington village. He was engaged at the
end of 1904 by Señor Normand, acting for the Arana Bros., and
came away with the other men engaged at that time. He has lost
his contract made then in Barbados, and has never received any fresh
form of engagement. Has been employed ever since in this section
under Señor Normand. I n November next it will be six years. The
contract was for two years as a laborer, and when it expired he
stayed on at his own wish. He believes it was the 17th November,
1904, when he arrived at La Chorrera. There were 30 Barbados
men who came on from La Chorrera with him; Eamón Sanchez was
in charge. When they arrived here there was no house—he and the
others were set to build the house. This same house that we are
now in is the one they then built. There were no Indians to help
them then. Crichlow was one of the party. The whole of the party
numbered 20 white men or "blancos," 30 Barbados men, and 5
Barbados women, all well armed. After the house was built they
went out to search for Indians. They began here at this station
looking all around for Indians, searching the forests. Sometimes

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SLAVEEY I N PERU.

they got to an Indian house, but they did not get the Indians. These
ran away. The first Indians they caught were the Muinanes Indians. They got as many as they could, and tied them up. Others
came out of the forest of their own accord and gave themselves up.
They were also hunting for Indians who had got rifles from the
Colombians they had killed before. They did not get back all the
guns—they got about 20 rifles. There were Indians killed in doing
this; while they were searching fc-r them to get back the rifles they
would shoot Indians, and many were flogged, and some died from the
floggings. That was when they began here to build this station, and
get the Indians to work rubber. When the Indians agreed to work
rubber, after being caught, they would get things given to them, i. e.,
cloth, etc., a shirt, a pair of pantaloons, a cutlass, ax, powder, and
shot, and perhaps trade guns. When the Indians had finished paying for these things and had carried the rubber to La Chorrera,
they would get more goods given to them. They had to carry the
rubber itself all the way down to La Chorrera. I t took them five
days. The Indians got no food on these marches. They had to
bring their own food. Their wives and families went with them to
help to carry the rubber and their food. Now they would get food
given them here in the station before they set out for Puerto
Peruano. There" are now about 150 Indians working rubber for
Señor Normand, and these and all their families come down to the
port and carry each " fabrico." All these six years he has done no
other work than this, namely, to go after Indians to make them come
in to work rubber, and also keeping guard at night. The Indians
have been flogged—they get " palmetto " as well. He has flogged
Indians himself, both here and at La China; the last man he flogged
was about six days ago—the man that the consul general saw a few
minutes ago with two broad scars still raw across his arm.
Note.—This was an Andokes Indian, with two bad cuts on the
right arm above the elbow, both still raw, with half-formed scabs.
Mr. Casement's Barbados servants were feeding him with their own
food—he and many others had just come in from the forest with
their heavy loads of rubber, and Mr. Casement's servants had called
him in to see this man, so recently flogged.
Leavine stated he had given these " two cuts " by Señor Normand's
orders at La China six days before. H e had flogged Indians in the
ordinary way very many times. H e can not say how many. At
each " puesta " floggings were given to the " bad ones," who did not
bring enough rubber. Many Indians died of fever; sometimes they
died on the road carrying rubber when they got fever, because sometimes fever will attack them on the road. He had shot Indians.
He was attacked by an Indian once, who Avanted to cut him with a
machete, and he shot him in self-defense. Señor Normand had not
ordered him to shoot this man; he was by himself, and did it himself.
He has not been ordered to shoot Indians, but has seen them shot
by the " muchachos." These " muchachos " did as they pleased on
the march, and they did just what they liked.
The consul general then read out a portion of Eoso Espana's
narrative, dealing with the capture of Aquiléo Torres and the Colombians in the beginning of 1907, wherein it was said that two Barbados negroes had accompanied the Peruvians who attacked Torres's

SLAVEEY IN PERU.

351

party. Leavine confirms much of Espana's statement. He does not
remember Indians being shot and rolling off the roof of the house
that they were building, because he says a little Indian boy shouted
out giving warning that the Peruvians were coming, and these Indians had run away, but he remembers the Colombians all being
taken prisoners and brought into Matanzas. The two Barbados men
were himself and Donald Francis, now at La Chorrera. H e heard
of the Indian chief they caught at the time, and the two men
(Indians) with him being beaten to death on the hillock just outside
Matanzas. H e had not seen this happen, but was told of it at the
time. He has seen 25 and 30 lashes given to Indians, and has known
them to die from being flogged. H e has known very many to die
from being flogged. Asked if he has known of Indians dying quite
recently from a flogging at La China, he answers, after hesitation:
Yes, sir: about four weeks ago. The boys beat him on the road going in,
and then, sir, I flog him again.
Who told you to flog him?
No person did tell me to flog him that time.
So you flogged him j^ourself without anyone telling you to flog him?
Yes, sir; I flogged him myself.
And he died?
Yes; but when I flog him I only give him three cuts. The boys had flogged
him on the road very much. That is why he died. 1 gave him these three cuts
because I axed him why he did not pay me for what I gave him. I gave him
a box of matches, and he do not pay me nothing, and so I gave him the three
cuts. But he has not died from that; it was from what the boys done to him
on the road he die.
Was this man being brought in a prisoner by himself?
The man was with the boys, and James Lane was with them.
Do you know his name?
His name was Kodihinka.
Was he put in the " cepo "?
Yes, sir.
Was he in the " cepo " when you flogged him?
No, sir. When he came I gave him three lashes standing up, but his back
was very bad from the cutting the boys give him on the way. I did not do
him no harm.
Was he in the " cepo " when he died?
He die when he were loose, sir; he was not in the " cepo " when he die.
Where had he come from?
He were from Oapueta—the other side.
How many more people with him?
He and his wife and child. There was one more man, who is working here
now—not in Matanzas, but in La China.
Then, you say the man did not die in the " cepo " ?
No, sir; not in the " cepo."
Then you are quite sure there were only four—the man who died, his wife,
his child, and the man who is now working?
Just these four.
Were they tied up?
Yes, sir; they were tied up.
How were the boys allowed to beat this man so badly as you say on the road ?
The boys beat him with sticks on the road. There were Julian Lane and
two " muchachos " with him, and it was the way they beat him he die.

At this point, as witness's statement differed so completely from
that previously made by James Lane referring to the same incident,
the latter was sent for and confronted Leavine. The evidence of the
two men was then read over. I t was pointed out that one or other
must be stating what was not true. Leavine then began to excuse
himself, and said the man had died in the " cepo," and had. been
flogged in the station after he had been beaten by himself. As it was

352

SLAVEBY 1ST PEBTT.

clear that he had been lying he was warned that he had better now
speak the truth. The witness then said he " had not remembered,"
although it was only a month before, and he now admitted that what
James Lane said was true. The party consisted of six Indians, prisoners—the big man Kodihinka, two boys or young men, a woman, a
child, and a girl. They were all flogged, and José Cordoba had given
Kodihinka 30 lashes. This after Leavine had admitted that the man's
back was already badly cut and bleeding from the brutal ill treatment
he had received on the road plus the three cuts he had himself given
to him on his arrival.
Señor Tizón having been requested to be present, Mr. Casement
asked that Westerman Leavine should at once be dismissed from the
company's service and not be allowed to remain any longer serving
under Señor Normand, but should leave Matanzas with the commission. He, witness, then repeated in Señor Tizon's presence that he
had seen very many persons shot or killed by flogging, or die from
exposure and hunger and sickness when carrying rubber. This he
repeated. He himself had flogged very many people, ¿md had " brutally " flogged them, but this had been done by the^orders of Señor
Normand; that he had been employed in this way for nearly six
years, doing only this kind of work, and nothing useful or good;
that he had been used on commissions only, and flogging the Indians,
and on keeping guard at night, and this only; that in flogging when
he had given 25 or 30 lashes and got tired, then José Cordoba, another employee, would take the lash and give more. Fifty lashes
were thus often given. On Señor Tizón asking with what instrument
the floggings were administered, he said with a piece of tapir hide
twisted, that there were two of these whips at La China.
NOTE.—Mr. Casement left Matanzas the following day, 19th October. Señor Normand following two days later, and bringing Leavine with him. Señor Normand endeavored to send Leavine by a
separate path, so that he should not again be interrogated and refused to allow him to come to Entre Rios when ordered i n writing
by Señor Tizón to send back this Barbados man to the consul. I t
was necessary to issue imperative orders for Leavine to be given up,
and it was only on reaching La Chorrera on 28th October that Leavine was again encountered. He was then interrogated by Mr.
Casement on several occasions, and finally on 19th November on
board the Liberal after having left La Chorrera. He then said that
Señor Normand had told him in Matanzas before being questioned
by Mr. Casement that he was to say nothing about him, and he took
him past Entre Rios on purpose to prevent the consul from further
interrogating him, and on reaching La Chorrera promised him £30
if he held'his tongue. He did not get this money, because the consul
general interfered, and he is now prepared to answer truthfully
any questions that may be put to him. Leavine then confirms specifically the worst charges that had been brought against Normand
by various witnesses.
He confirms the statement made by Genaro Caporo, in the " Truth "
charges read out to him, who had declared what he saw in the middle
of 1907. The statement made by Caporo that three old Indians and
two young women, their daughters, were murdered by Normand in
cold blood and their bodies eaten by the dogs, was corroborated by

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

353

Leavine. H e saw this take place and saw the dogs eating them. As
to the starving to death of Indians in the " cepo," it was a common
occurrence, and the dead and stinking bodies left there alongside
still living prisoners he declares he more than once witnessed. The
statement made by Caporo as to an Indian chief who was burnt alive
in the presence of his wife and two children, and the wife then
beheaded and the children dismembered, and all thrown on the fire,
Leavine says he remembers, and was a witness to it. H e also remembers the occurrence narrated by Caporo of an Indian woman who was
cut to pieces by Normand himself, because she refused to live with
one of his employees as he directed her to do. He was a witness to
the woman being set fire to with the Peruvian flag soaked in kerosene wrapped round her, and of her then being shot. The statement
made by Caporo as to the ground round Andokes being sown with
skulls was then read out by the consul general to Leavine. He (Leavine) of himself stated that there were days in 1906 and 1907 " when
you could not eat your food on account of the dead Indians lying
around the house." He frequently saw the dogs eating them and
dragging the limbs about. The bodies and arms were thrown all
round and were not buried.
With regard to the statement of Roso España, read over to him
from the " Truth 5 ? charges, he saw one child rammed head first down
one of the holes being dug for the house timbers.
The statement of Julio Muriedas, made in the same quarter,-who
stated that he had been at Matanzas, was then read over to Leavine.
He remembers Muriedas. With regard to the statement "that 200
lashes were given to Indians, Leavine says this often took place, also
(he burning alive of children to make them reveal where their parents
were hidden. This he declares he has seen Señor Normand do more
than once. The eating of the limbs of the dead people by the house
dogs, attested by Muriedas, he again confirms and says it was " a
common occurrence." The statement of " M. G.," from the Truth
accusations, was then read to Leavine. He recalls this man named
Marcial being a short time at Matanzas, when Señor Normand wished
to make him a station cook, and this man had refused; and they had
quarreled. This man's statement that he had seen in one month
and five days " 10 Indians killed and burned " Leavine declares is in
no wise remarkable. H e has himself seen 20 Indians killed in five
days in Matanzas. As to the " stinking " of this section referred
to by " M. G.," he affirms that this was often the case to a revolting
degree. H e recalls " M. G.," or Marcial, shooting the little Indian
boy by Señor Normand's orders, as he (" M. G.") accuses himself of
doing.
Leavine finally declares that Señor Normand killed many hundreds
of Indians during his six years at Matanzas, during all which time
he (Leavine) served under him, and by many kinds of torture, cutting off their heads and limbs and burning them alive. He more than
once saw Normand have Indians' hands and legs tied together and
the men or women thus bound thrown alive on a fire. The employees
on-the station would look on or assist at this. The station boys, or
" muchachos," would get the firewood ready, acting under Señor Normand's orders. H e saw Normand on one occasion take three native
men and tie them together in a line, and then with his Mauser rifle
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-^3

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SLAVERY I N

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shoot all of them with one bullet, the ball going right through. He
would fire more than one shot into them like this.
This man was taken away by Mr. Casement, and at Manaos, in
Brazil, at his own request, he was left with employment found for
him.
[No. 19.]
S T A T E M E N T OF E V E L Y N RATSON MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL
AT LA CHORRERA ON OCTOBER 3 1 , 1 9 1 0 .

Age 25; born in Barbados. Parents he believes to be living, both,
but has not heard from or of them for some time.
Date of engagement, the 3d of April, 1905, on a contract made by
Abel Alarco through Mr. Brewster. Has not got his contract; has
given it to the house, i. e., the company, in Iquitos, and gave it up
in 1906. This is because the house wanted to send him (and others)
back to Barbados, and he had no wish to go, so he stayed on in this
country. He remained on at his own wish, working first in Iquitos
as a fireman on a river launch, and then he came here as fireman on a
launch.
When first he came from Barbados he stopped at Leticia, where
he stayed 11 days, whence they proceeded to the Arana estates at
Pebas, where he remained as a house boy for about two weeks, serving
the table. H e and others were then taken on to Nanai, near Iquitos,
where ha remained 18 months, working as a house boy and serving at
table. He was then sent up to Iquitos and paid off and his return
passage to Barbados given to him, and his original contract with the
firm terminated. I t was then he handed up the contract at request
by the company.
He then got work at Booth & Co.'s port works and remained in
Iquitos at this and other work untiL the 15th February, 1907, when
he was engaged as fireman on the launch Callao, belonging to Arana
Bros., and came to La Chorrera in her. His wages were 60 soles
Peruanos per month. No contract of any kind was made—no agreement entered into save a verbal one. The captain of the Callao
engaged him on a verbal promise only, sent him to Arana Bros., and
gave him an advance of SA in gold, and he came away on this. He
has been employed here at La Chorrera and elsewhere in this agency
ever since, and he has no form of contract or engagement entered into
of any kind. H a s not returned to Iquitos since that date, the 15th
February, 1907. He was for six months employed as fireman on the
Callao—one month on the journey from Iquitos and five months here
in the agency on her. The launch was engaged on the lower Igaraparana to communicate with the sections in that region and convey
the rubber to La Chorrera for shipment thence to Iquitos.
He then got sick and asked the chief agent, Señor Macedo, to send
him to one of the sections where he thought he might get stronger,
and he was sent to Santa Catalina, This was entirely his own wish.
The chief was Aurelio Rodriguez. Edward Crichlow arrived there
while he was in Santa Catalina. H e was employed on commissions
at first. That was his first work. H e made three or four commissions, going out with a rifle and cartridges, 50 at a time, along with
other men, to catch Indians. Generally this was to look for Indians

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355

who were already engaged working rubber and it was to collect them
and bring them into the station with their rubber.
He has not tied up any Indians on these commissions. He has
flogged them and seen them flogged in the station. He himself
flogged Indians, but had to desist, as he had rheumatism in his right
hand and wrist and could not wield the lash. The lash he used and
saw used was the skin of a tapir, twisted (called "suruma").
Asked if he had seen Indians killed there, he replies, " Yes, in the
station itself by the agent, Señor Aurelio Eodriguez." He has not
seen Indians killed in the torest when out on commissions, but in the
station itself. Questions were then put as follows:
Q. You have seen Indians killed by Señor Rodriguez?—A. Yes. He has had
their heads cut off; and I have seen him take his revolver and shoot them-^a
good many of them.
Q. How did he have their heads cut off?—A. With a machete. He would
send "muchachos" to behead them, and I have seen this done—their heads
cut off.
Q. Never by a Barbados man?—A. Yes; I have seen one Barbados man do it.
Q. Who was the Barbados man you saw do this?—A. His name was Quintin—
Clifford Quintin.
Q. When did you see him do this?—A. I can not remember the date, but the
year was 1907.
Q. You are sure it was 1907 ?—A. Yes; the last part.
Q. What had that Indian done?—A. He had not worked rubber. He had not
brought in his rubber.
Q. And the manager told Quintin to kill him?—A. Yes, sir; he did, sir.
Q. And he cut his head off?—A. Yes, sir; he did,
Q. Do you remember the name of the Indian ?—Á. No, sir; I can't.
Q. And you say you have seen this often done—Indians killed, either by being
shot or beheaded, while you were in Santa Catalina, and always for the same
thing—not working rubber to the satisfaction of Señor Rodriguez?—A. Yes.
(To the whole question put slowly.)
Q. How many Indians do you recall being killed like this?—A. I've seen
plenty killed.
Q. One hundred?—A. More than that, sir.
Q. But only that one Indian killed by a Barbados man?—A. Yes; only that
one. (A pause.) He has killed others, but I did not see him do it. Í only
know what he has told me.
Q. And you have seen many Indians flogged in Santa Catalina?—A. Yes, sir;
very many.
Q. Badly flogged?—A. Yes, sir; very badly flogged, sir.
Q. Have you known them to die from these floggings?—A. Yes, sir; some of
them died on the road going to their houses.
,
Q. But have you seen them die from floggings?—A. Yes, sir; I have been sent
by the manager to bury Indians who have died on the road, going back to their
homes after being flogged. I had to make a hole to bury them, and I could
see that they had died from the flogging.
Q. Have you seen an Indian die in the station itself from a flogging?—A. No,
sir; I haven't, sir.
Q. But you have seen them very badly flogged and cut from the flogging?—
A. Yes, sir; very badly.
Q. Have you seen women flogged?—A. Yes, sir; I have.
Q. What were they flogged for?—A. Some of them would be flogged if their
husbands had not come in with " caucho."
Q. Yes; and others?—A. Some when working " caucho " themselves, and they
brought very little " caucho," and they were flogged.
Q. You mean the women had to work " caucho " too?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. When did you leave Santa Catalina?—A. In 1908, sir—in July, 1908.
Q. And did you see Indians killed and flogged like this up to the end of your
stay there ?—A. Yes, sir; up to the very end; men and women were killed and
flogged up to the time I came away.
Q. And was Aurelio Rodriguez there all the time?—A. Yes, sir; up to the end
when I came away.
Q. You saw Indians in " cepo " there?—A. Yes, sir; very many.

356

SLAVERY IN PERU.

Q. And in chains?—A. Yes; in chains, some of them.
Q. Would they be properly fed when in these stocks?—A. No, sir.
Q. Men, women, and children?—A, Yes, sir; men, women, and children.
Q. And they would not be properly fed?—A. No, sir; some of the working
men, the " empleados," gave them their own food, often—in the morning and
evening. The manager gave them no food—I myself have given them my own
food—a little sometimes. Otherwise they got no food.
Q. Were they often kept a long time in "cepo" like this?—A. Often, yes;
they would often be kept for months in the " cepo," many months.
Q. Did you see when in Santa Catalina a double "cepo" made for the head
and arms and then for the feet?—A. Yes, sir; I did—one of my countrymen
made it.
Q. Who was that?—A. Edward Crichlow, sir.
Q. And you have seen Indians flogged in that " cepo," extended thus head and
feet?—A. Yes, sir; I have seen plenty flogged like that.
Q. Who flogged the Indians?—A. I myself, sir; flogged, and Crichlow flogged,
•and Quintin.
Q. And who else flogged Indians?—A. Plenty more; the Peruvians, too,
flogged. Most of the employees flogged.
Q. What work did you do besides going on commissions and flogging Indians?—A. After I took sick, sir, and couldn't go on expeditions I was working
in the station as a cook—I cooked for the other men.
Q. You have seen quite small children flogged?—A. Yes, sir; boys—little
Jx>ys [holding his hand about 3 feet from the floor], not girls.
Q. Do you remember how much " caucho " an Indian had to bring in to satisfy
the manager? You no doubt sometimes helped to weigh it and can recall some
of those weights?—A. Sometimes it would be 20 kilograms for one time.
Q. That means one " puesta "—one fortnight, or 15 days?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. How much for a whole "fabrico" by one man?—A. A "fabrico," I think,
sir, was from 50 to 60 kilograms on one man. Sometimes they brought more
than that, sir.
Q. How many " fabricos " in one year—in 12 months—when you were there?—
A. Three, sir.
Q. So that an Indian in your time had to bring in from 150 to perhaps 200
kilograms of rubber in the year?—A. Yes, sir; quite that.
Q. And how were they paid?—A. For one "fabrico" for four months he
4?ave them a machete. Nothing more, sir.
Q. You would swear that?—A. Yes, sir.
'Q. You have seen that?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. So that a man would be forced to bring in, say, 50 or 60 kilograms of rubber'and be cruelly flogged if he did not do so, and have his wife and children
flogged, too, and imprisoned and starved, and would get as reward for this one
single machete?—A. Yes, sir. I would swear it anywhere; I have seen it many
times. Others would get a hammock.
Q. For how much rubber?—A. The same amount, or more than that, sir.
<Q. And others would be paid what?—A. A "tasa," sir.
<£. A what?—A. A "tasa"—one of those white iron bowls.
Q. That would be given for how much rubber?—A. The same amount, sir.
Q. For 50 kilograms?—A. Yes, sir; fcr a whole "fabrico" of rubber.
Q. How much rubber for a gun—an " escopeta " ?—A. An " escopeta " was for
two " fabricos."
Q. That is for 100 or 120 kilograms of rubber?—A. Yes, sir. I had to pay
them often myself. I stood there and he (the manager) say, "Take that," and
1 would take it and give it to that Indian he told me. I have seen it often.
Q. The Indians—did they like being paid in this poor way ?—A. No, sir; some
< f them would be very vexed.
©
Q. But they could do nothing?—A. No, sir; they could do nothing. I have
«een an Indian get one of those white cups (he means a jug) for a "fabrico"
and he has thrown it on the ground and go to his house.
Q. When you were at Santa Catalina, did you see Crichlow get into trouble?—
A. Yes, sir; I did.

He was then asked to describe the circumstances of Crichlow's case.
He gave a brief account, which almost word for word agrees with
Crichlow's description, as follows:
He saw7 Crichlow running to his room, did not know why, and
others, the Peruvians, after him, and Crichlow came out with a stick

SLAVERY I N PERU.

357

to defend himself, and they around him. H e swung the stick to keep
them off, but they caught him and threw him down and beat him
and put him in the " cepo," and then Señor Aurelio Rodriguez came
and struck him over the head with his revolver two or three times and
cut him.
Q. And now we leave Santa Catalina, You came away in July,
1908 ?—A. Yes, sir. I came to Chorrera and was working as a fireman in the launch Huitóto.
I was there for about 10 months going
up and down the river the same as in the Callao.
Q. And after you left her ?—A. I asked Mr. Macedo to send me to
El Encanto, but he said he could not send me there, and he sent me to
Abisinia.
Q. Do you remember the, date of your going to Abisinia?—A. I
leave here in June—June, 1909.
Q. Did you go alone?—A. I leave with the manager, Abel Agüero,
and two other men—one of them was Allen Davis and the other a
Peruvian named Antonio Ahuanari.
Q. And when you reached Abisinia—did you stay there or go to
Morelia?—A. I stayed there two weeks and then he sent me t o
Morelia. I was in Morelia five months. I was doing a kind of carpentering work about the place, making boards and windows. I was
not on commissions or flogging Indians. I am quite sure I did not
flog. There were only about 10 Indians working " caucho " then in
Morelia.
Q. What had, become of the rest?—A. They say they had run
away—I don't know. Very little rubber was brought in—it was
only with those 10 Indians.
Q. Did you see any Indians killed there?—A. I saw a man by the
name of Blondel—Armando Blondel—kill an Indian with his fist«
I t was a woman; she was the wife of a " capitán," a " capitán " by
the name of Terakagwo (the name is hard to pronounce). He was
a Boras Indian. He was the " capitán " of these 10 Indians, and his
wife was working the land round the " c h á c a r a " for the house.
Blondel was the chief of the section, and this woman and a lot more
were working the land. " H e didn't give her or the women any
food. He give them a piece of ' cassava'—very small. That woman,
the ' capitán's' wife, she been to her house not very far from Morelia,
about two hours, to get food, sir. I n the evening time of the same
day, sir, the time she went away to get food, she came back, and the
chief, Blondel, asked her why she did not tell him she was going to
her house. The Indian turned and said, ' I hungry, I been to get
food'; and he takes up a piece of stick and he gave her two stripes
on the head with the piece of stick, and after that he gave her three
or four blows in the chest, in the ribs, sir, with his fist; and the last
cuff he gave her he hit her here in the nose, sir, and five minutes after
that she died. I stood up and witnessed it. I told him what the
Indian said—that she was hungry and had to go for food. I know
the language of the Indians. I told him that, and he still went on
beating her, and in five minutes she died. She died there on the
ground."
Q. Was she a young woman?—A. No, sir; she was a middle-aged
woman—not so very young, sir.
Q. Was she buried ?—A. Yes, sir; he did bury her.

358

SLAVEEY 1ST PERU.

Q. What did the " capitán " do ?—A. A t that time he were in the
" cepo " in chains.
Q. I n chains, too?—A. Yes, sir; he was chained round the neck.
Q. What was he in " cepo " for ?—A. Some of his men would not
work. They had run to the caqueta to get away from working the
" caucho."
Q. Do you remember the date of that ?—A. I think it was in November—about November last year, 1909.
Q. Was anything done to Blondel for this ?—A. No, sir.
Q. Why was nothing done?—A. The chief wouldn't do him anything, because the chief is the same sort of man. H e likes to kill
Indians.
Q. You mean Agüero?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Have you seen Agüero kill Indians?—A. No, sir; I haven't
seen him kill Indians—but I have seen him send " muchachos " to kill
Indians. H e has taken an Indian man and given him to the " muchachos " to eat, and they have a dance off it.
Q. Did you see that?—A. Yes, sir; I seen that.
Q. You saw the man killed?—A. Yes, sir. They tied him to a
stake and they shot him, and they cut off his head after he was shot
and his feet and hands, and they carried them about in the section—
in the yard—and they carries them up and down and singing, and
they carries them to their house and dances.
Q. But the body, where was it left?—A. I did not see the body
where they put it. I did not stand at the spot where they killed
him, but I could see them round him where they shot him, and they
carries off their pieces of him, and they pass in front of the manager's house with these—his feet and his arms and hands and head,
and took them to their own house.
Q. How do you know they ate them?—A. I heard that they eat
them. I have not witnessed it, sir, but I heard the manager, Señor
Agüero, tell that they eat this man.
Q. The manager said all this?—A. Yes, sir; he did.
Q. When was this?—A. I t happened in—a pause—it's about
four months ago, sir.
Q. Do you remember the name of the man ?—A. No, sir; I don't.
Q. Who was he?—A. A Boras Indian.
Q. Did you hear what he had done ?—A. He ran away, sir.
Q. Do you know if he was one of the men brought back by Filomen Vasquez when Chase was with him on an expedition ?—A. No,
sir; he was not one of those men.
Q. During the time you were at Morelia how many Indians did
you see killed ?—A. Only that one, the woman that Blondel killed.
Q. When did you leave Morelia?—A. I n December last, and returned to Abisinia, and I stayed there seven months and then I came
here to Chorrera.
Q. So it was during the last seven months you saw the Indian cut
up and eaten ?—A. Yes, sir; about four months. No, it was in March
or April of this year. I left Abisinia in June and came to Chorrera,
Q. During those six or seven months you were in Abisinia did
you see any Indian killed besides this man?—A. I saw another man
shot, by name Katenere, but there was no person sent to shoot him.
Q. Tell me about Katenere and how he came to be shot.—A. One
evening, sir, I came out of my room and I saw one Indian standing

SLAVEEY I N PEBU.

359

up on a stump of tree in the " chácara." 1 I were in charge of cultivating the land, sir, and I called three of the men that were in the
house to see that Indian, sir, and two little " muchachos " boys came,
too, to look to see him, sir. The two boys said they would go to see
what he is doing. I had a mind to go, but I wouldn't go, but the
two boys says: " I will go to see what he is doing."
And I said, " If you are going, there are Indians walking about
here that are very wild and have arms, and I think you had better
take my gun with you." J u s t as the two boys got there, sir, there
were Indians behind a stump with guns and they start to shoot at
the two boys. One got a bullet here, in the mouth, sir, it was right
through his lips and cheek; and the next one, that had my gun, there
was another Indian come from behind a stump—what happened
I did not see, but I think the Indian that came from behind the
stump got a bullet that pass right through here [marking his right
side], and the boy got a bullet that pass through the same place.
Both of the boys came running back crying, sir, both wounded. A t
that time I didn't know that they had shot that Indian, too, sir.
The boys shouted " Its Katenere! " The boy came back crying, and
I asked him " Where's my gun ? " and he told me it's in the road.
As it was nighttime—dusk time—none of the men been to see whether
he had shot an Indian or not. The boy was in so much pain he
could not say whether he had shot an Indian or not. I took him up
and carried him up to the kitchen and put him down, and he died
five minutes after I laid him down.
Q. Was the manager there?—A. No, sir; the manager was not
there that time.
Q. Who was in charge of the section?—A. J u a n Zellada, sir.
Then, the next morning myself, Zellada, and another man go out in
the " chácara " next morning and, looking about, we saw an Indian
dead—lain down dead. This was Katenere, We took him to the
house, and his wife she were in chains in the section and she knew
and said it was Katenere.
Q. That wife was the one Vasquez and Chase brought back from
Pama?—A. Yes, sir; that one.
Q. So Katenere really had come to look for his wife?—A. Yes,
sir.
Q. Were any other Indians killed besides him?—A. No, sir; this
one, that was all, and the " muchacho " that he had shot, too.
Q. W h a t did they do with the body of Katenere ? Did they bury
it?—A. Yes, sir. Zellada cut his head off and his feet and his
hands—they put these in the grave along with the body.
Q. Did they show these members to everyone in the station?—
A. Yes, sir; the head they put in the river till the manager come,
that the manager could see it.
Q. How long ago was this?—A. (He thinks a long time.) A t present, sir, I've forgot the month; it was this year when I was in
Abisinia.
Q. What has become of that wife of Katenere?—A. Well, sir, I
left her in Abisinia; I don't know if she is still there or killed.
Q. Was she in " cepo " then?—A. No, sir; she was walking about
with a chain around her neck and hooked to her feet. That was in
J u n e last when I left Abisinia.
1

Chácara, the cleared plantation or garden around a dwelling place.

360

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Q. During these last six months have you seen Indians flogged
in Abisinia?—A. Yes, sir; I have seen them flogged. Excuse me,
sir, I think I've made a mistake in the month I left Abisinia. I
think it was in August or July. I can't rightly recall.
' Q. And you saw plenty of Indians flogged ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Eight up to the time you left?—A. Yes, sir; right up to the
time I left. They were flogged for bringing in very little " caucho,"
sir; and not coming to the time. The man who flogged them was a
chap named Simon Ángulo, a Colombian—a black chap. They put
them in " cepo," too, and in chains, and they were often hauled up by
a rope put over the top beam of the house—like this. [Describes it.]
Their hands were tied together and they would be hauled up by their
tied hands stretched above their heads, with their feet well off the
ground, and kept like that for 15 or 20 minutes, hanging by their
hands, and they were then let down and flogged.
Q. Was this done to women, too?—A. No, sir; only to men and boys. Boys, too—I have seen it done to boys as well as men.
Q. How many lashes would be given when they were flogged?—
A. Fifty, twenty, thirty, twenty-five, ten, and fifteen and five, according as they had not brought enough " caucho." Men and boys were
flogged like this.
Q. Were women flogged ?—A. I have seen them flogged there, but
not for " caucho," sir.
Q. What were they flogged for?—A. They were flogged if they
had a son who did not bring enough " caucho " ; if it's a little boy—
too little to be flogged—they flog the mother.
Q. You saw mothers flogged like that?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. With their little son standing by ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Would the women cry when they were flogged?—A. Yes, sir;
they cried.
Q. And did the little boys cry when they saw their mothers
flogged?—A. Yes, sir; they did, sir.
Q. How many have you seen flogged like that?—A. I have seen
plenty, sir.
Q. AH within the last few months?—A. Yes, sir; up to the time I
left it were going on.
Q. How were the Indians paid for the rubber at Abisinia?—A.
Some were getting a hammock, some an ax? some a pants (i. e., pantaloons), and some a shirt.
Q. All this for a " fabrico " ?—A. Yes; for one " fabrico " ; it depends ; some gets one, some another.
Q. Did any Barbados man flog Indians in Abisinia these last six
months?—A. No, sir; no Barbados men have flogged. That one man,
Ángulo, is strong—that's all he does—he's there for licking.
Q. Have you known of your own knowledge any of these Indians
you saw flogged during these last six months at Abisinia die from the
flogging—I mean of your own personal knowledge?—A. No, sir; I
haven't.
Q. Have you been told of anyone who died from flogging?—A.
Yes, sir; I have been told.
Q. Who told you?—A. A Peruvian, sir.
Q. Who was that?—A. Several of them—Ahuanari, Simon Muñoz,
a Colombian, Pantino-Froilan Patino—plenty of them speak about
it, but I can't remember their names.

SLAVEEY I S PERU.
ÜT

361

Q. They said they had seen Indians die from flogging?—A.
Yes, sir.
Q. This year?—A. I don't know if it was this year they have told
me of the Indians being beaten to death, but they have been there a
long time, sir—before me.
Q. So you have not seen anyone killed in Abisinia except the man
they cut up and ate and Katenere?—A. That's all, sir. I've heard
they kill plenty on expeditions, but I've never been on expeditions
there.
Q. You were in Abisinia when F . Vasquez brought back some prisoners from the Pama when James Chase went with him this last summer?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you remember the number of prisoners that Vasquez brought
back to Abisinia that time?—A. I do iiot remember rightly; but I
should think they were about seven. I think there were three women
and four men.
Q. What was done with them?—A. The men were sick, because
they didn't have no food. Three of them died from sickness—I mean
from hunger. They died in Abisinia; they were in chains underneath
the house and they died in the chains. When they were brought in
not a]l were very thin; some were thin, but some were fat, and they
were starved there in the chains.
Q. You would swear that they were kept thus in chains under the
house ? They got no food, or so little food that they died of starvation?—A. (Deliberately.) Yes, sir; I will swear that upon my oath;
I would swear it if in a court.
Q. Three men died like that?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the women?—A. The women were sent to another Indian
house in the section and given to their nation or their tribe.
Q. And the one man who did not die from hunger?—A. That
man, they said, sir, was the brother of Katenere.
Q. And what did they do to him ?—A. They said he was a brother
of Katenere. Well, that day they shot Katenere the man was in the
" cepo " with a chain, and he lift up the top of the " cepo " and get
one of his feet out. I t was in the night, and the man on the guard
heard the chain rattling. I t was about half-past 7 or 8 o'clock, and
he come and see the Indian getting his feet out of the " cepo/' and
he caught him, and he call Zellada—Agüero was not there—and he
himself, Zellada, took the man and chuck him down the stairs and
shot him.
Q. He killed him?—A. Yes, sir; he killed him.
Q. Were you there and saw it?—A. Yes, sir; I saw it. I was on
guard at the same time. I was up on the verandah.
Q. Did you hear the chain, too?—A. No, sir; I didn't, Zellada
quarreled with me about that. He said I was sitting down and didn't
hear that.
Q. Did they bury that man ?—A. No, sir; they sent him out by two
Indians and throw him in the bushes.
Q. How did they know it was Katenere's brother?—A. I don't
know, sir; that's what they said. Vasquez, who brought him, said
he was Katenere's brother.
Q. So, then, of all the prisoners Vasquez brought back^ the four
men—you think they were four—were killed, one thus and the others
starved to death?—A. Yes, sir.

862

SLAVEEY I N PEEU.

Q. How long after they were brought to Abisinia was it that they
were all dead ?—A. About a month or a month and a half.
Q. And did no one give these men food?—A. When I wants to
take food to them I go to the cook, and he refused, saying he had
no orders to give it.
Q. And Zellada gave them no food?—A. No, sir.
Q. Or Agüero?—A. No food, sir.
Q. So they were deliberately starved to death ?—A. Yes, sir. The
men, the " empleados," could not give them much food. We gets
very little food ourselves there—water and a few grains of rice in
the water—and we could not help them.
Q. Were those three men who died of starvation buried or thrown
in the bush?—A. They were buried, sir. I myself buried them and
two other Indians.
Q. Have you yourself been punished?—A. Yes, sir; I have.
Q. Who by?—A. By Agüero, the manager, sir.
Q. What for?—A. Well, sir, I have charge of 15 Indian women
clearing the land, sir, and an Indian woman that I had talks to the
next and says that I had dealings with another Indian woman. And
the chief heard of it and called me in, and I told him it was not so—
that I did not done the act. Before he struck me he call the Indian
woman and tied her two hands behind her back and hung her up by
a rope to the top beam of the house, and call an interpreter to ask
her. And the Indian woman say it wasn't so, sir, and he started to
beat me—to cuff me and kick me—and put me in the " cepo " for
two days and two nights.
Q. For two days and two nights ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the woman?—A. The woman she run away the same night
they put me in the " cepo," sir. The woman they hadn't found, sir,
when I left.
Q. Was that all?—A. That's all, sir.
Q. You were not flogged; you were beaten and cuffed?—A. Yes,
sir.
Q. Were you fed when in " cepo?"—A. Yes, sir; they did feed me.
Q. W h a t was the name of this woman?—A. Her name was [tries
to remember a long time]. I can't remember it.
Q. What was the name of your own woman ?—A. H e r name in her
own people is " Behiji." She is a Boras. They calls her a different
name; I gave her the name " Sophie."
Q. And where is she?—A. She is here now in Chorrera.
Q. And you can talk properly to her in Boras ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who gave her to you ?—A. Mr. Macedo, sir.
Q. When?—A. He gave her to me in November, 1908—here in
Chorrera-—and she has been with me ever since.
Q. Have you any children by her ?—A, No, sir.
Q. Do you wish to marry her?—A. No, sir; I am married in
Barbados. I have my wife in Barbados.
Q. Any children?—A. No, sir; one that's died, sir, in Barbados.
Q. Then when you leave what will become of this Indian woman
Behiji?—A. I'll give her back to the " h o u s e " [i. e., the Peruvian
Amazon Co.].
Q. But does the " house " own people—human beings ?—A. Yes,
sir.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

363

Q. And you don't know what will become of her after you go
away ?—A. No, sir.
Q. What do you intend doing—staying on here, or do you wish to
return to Barbados to your own wife?—A. I would like to go back,
but as I am away a long time I would like to get a couple of pounds
more to go straight on.
Q. You mean you want to earn more money before you go away?—
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know how much you have now ?—A. No, sir; I couldn't
rightly say now, sir. They are making up the lists to-day to see
what I have taken out.
NOTE BY CONSUL GENERAL.—E. Batson appears, by a list handed to
me to-day, to have 200.97 soles Peruanos to his credit, or nearly £20.
His passage from Iquitos to Barbados, however, will take £12*
Q. How much money do you want to have in hand before you go
home ?—A. I want to stay till June next year—I want to have about
£50 to £60, sir; then I want to go away.
EVELYN BATSON.

The foregoing statement was read over to Evelyn Batson and
signed by him in my presence.
ROGER CASEMENT.

Evelyn Batson left the Putumayo along with Mr. Casement and
went home to Barbados in December.
[No. 20.]
S T A T E M E N T OE S I D N E Y MORRIS MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ? S CONSUL GENERAL
AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 1 , 1 9 1 0 .

Born in Barbados.
Twenty-six years of age in July, 1910.
His father not living; his mother was alive the last time he heard
of her. H a s not heard of her for three years.
. Date of contract to come to the Putumayo was in the end of February, 1905. H e sailed from Barbados about the 3d of March, 1905,
along with about 50 other men, natives of Barbados. Came to the
place called Colonia Rioj ano, where he and the others stayed some
two or three weeks waiting for a launch to bring them up the Putumayo to La Chorrera. Arrived here, at La Chorrera, in May, 1905.
H e remained about 16 months in this agency working here at La
Chorrera and in the sections and then went to Iquitos because he
was taken very ill. H e was carried to Iquitos very sick, taken to
the house of Arana Bros., attended by the doctor, and when he recovered was employed there, in the house, as a porter or messenger
boy. H e remained thus for about one year, and then he left the
Arana Bros. 5 service and was engaged by Capt. Goode, of the Booth
Co., at their work.
Stayed there about three or four months and was then employed as
a steward on a launch owned by Don Louis Felipe Morrey named the
San Pablo, and remained about four months. The launch not being
busy, he decided to return here as he had no employment at Iquitos,
and he was accepted by the agent in Iquitos and sent back to the

364

S L A V E R Y IiST P E R U .

Putumayo. He returned accordingly, coming here on the 12th of
May, 1908. Since that date he has been all the time in the Chorrera
agency, working chiefly in the rubber sections.
I n regard to the first part of his service, his contract made at Barbados was, handed back to him when he left the service of Arana
Bros, at Iquitos, and his return passage money to Barbados was paid
to him there. His second contract he has in his possession—he has
it here in Las Chorrera.
I n regard to the first part of his service, extending from May, 1905,
to July, 1906 (he states he left Matanzas or Andokes in May in a
hammock very ill), he makes the following statement:
He was here in La Chorrera for several months as a carpenter, as
he had some knowledge of that kind. He was then sent to Entre
Bios under Andrés O'Donnell, where he stayed, he believes, three or
four months, and whence he returned to La Chorrera, where he
worked in the store for about three months. From this he was sent
to the section of Andokes, or Matanzas, as it is often called, where he
stayed until he got sick.
At Entre Eios, during his three or four months he was employed
on " commissions," after the Indians, to help in building the house
and planting the ground and that kind of work. " Correrias,"
after Indians, and general work, trying to get the rubber brought
in; those were his duties.
Indians were flogged. H e himself did not flog any Indians, but
he saw them flogged. They were not badly flogged, " only five cuts
or so." Did not see any Indians killed there, not by himself, but
heard of one being shot there. Mr. O'Donnell was kind to the
Indians, or as well as he could be under the circumstances. The
Indians worked willingly, he thinks. There was trouble with them,
but they still worked.
During his stay at Andokes, which was for about three or four
months, as far as he can remember, from December, 1905, when he
left here to go to Andokes—it was after Christmas Day—and he left
Andokes in the following May very ill.
During that time he was employed in " correrias " after the Indians
until he got sick. He did not flog Indians there, but he saw them
flogged. They were badly flogged, men and women and children.
H e saw a boy, a small boy, flogged to death. The Indians were
flogged by the chief, Mr. Normand, and by the better part of the
employees.
Mr. Normand would give the first strokes and up to perhaps six
lashes, and then hand on the lash to others who completed the flogging.
H e saw a girl flogged to death as well as the small boy. She did
not die at the time: She lay there on the floor all night. She was
a girl who belonged to one of the employees—a Colombian—and she
had gone home to visit her family, her " nation," without asking
leave, and when she came back the chief, Mr. Normand, gave
orders for her to be flogged, and she was flogged, as he states, to
death. The number of lashes given to her, he believes, was 200. She
lay on the floor of the house all night unable to move, and in the
morning she was dead. She was a young girl—she had no children.
H e saw other Indians killed there. H e saw them taken out of the
" cepo" and thrown down the steps to the ground some 10 or 12

SLAVEEY I2sT PERU.

365

feet below and flogged. Some were badly flogged and died from the
flogging. These were men.
*
Asked if he saw any Indian shot, he hesitates and says yes, he
saw them shot. Did not himself shoot an Indian, but saw an Indian
burned alive by Mr. Normand. This man was shot while burningI t was done in this way. The Indian was out for some time; he had
run away and they hunted for him and when they caught him he
was brought in to Matanzas, and Mr. Normand asked him where he
had been and where were the rest of his people.
And the man answered, but Mr. Normand was not satisfied, and he
had some kerosene and put it on the man's head and set fire to it
and he told the man to go away, and as the man went away some
one shot him in the back and he fell dead.
He can not remember the name of that man. H e was an Andokes
Indian; he was a lad, not a fully grown man. H e saw others killed,
too. One he saw burned alive. H e was a prisoner in the " cepo,"
upon the house floor, and he was taken out and his feet tied together
and he was thrown alive on a burning fire of wood. They made
the fire to burn the man. H e was a young man also, a bit older than
the first he saw burned on the head. Mr. Normand himself was
there and did this. H e saw him giving directions, giving orders to
make the fire to burn this man. H e was an Andokes man. H e does
not know what this man had done.
He remembers one more, a man being killed. He was taken out to
the " chácara "—the plantation around the house. The deponent
did not go to see it. He saw them making the preparations to burn
this man. They had firewood collected out on the "chácara." He
saw the " muchachos " take the man, but did not see him killed. H e
knows he was killed, and he believes he was burned, because it was
so ordered, and he heard it had been done. Mr. Normand was there
at the time, and gave the orders. This man was an Andokes, but he
can not state what this man had done or failed to do. Dyall was not
at Andokes then. There was a Barbados man named Downs there;
Woodruff, another, was there, and a man named King, now in E l
Encanto; also one named Jordan (C. Jordan) ; also one called Thomson, who got drowned; also a young lad named Eollstone, who died
there. There were others there, too, at the time he was there, but he
can not recall all their names. Clifford Quintín was there, too.
Some of these were employed to flog Indians, and all were employed
on " correrias " save those who might be ill.
Sidney Morris stayed at Andokes till May, 1906, and then came
to La Chorrera and waited here, ill, for a launch to go to Iquitos,
and sailed for Iquitos on the 7th of July, 1906.
Since his return on the 12th of May, 1908, he was at first in La
Chorrera for only two days, and then was sent to Entre Bios a sec
ond time, where he stayed four months—about four months.
During that period he saw Indians flogged—but not killed. They
were flogged by the Peruvian employees. H e returned to La Chorrera and was employed here about two and a half months in the
storeroom, and then was sent to Ultimo Eetiro, where Alfredo Montt
was the chief of section. He went there in the early part of February, 1909, and stayed there till April, 1909—about two and a half
months.

366

SLAVERY I N PERU.

During that time he was employed on commissions and " correrías,"
and saw Indians flogged. Did not see many flogged. He saw one
Indian killed. H e was killed by the "muchachos" in the station.
H e was brought in a prisoner by Sidney Morris. He, Morris, fell
sick in a " correría," and Señor Montt sent him to the station and to
bring this prisoner in. H e was given to Señor Montt already tied
up by his own " capitán."
Morris brought this prisoner in and handed him over to Ocampo,
and Ocampo put him in " cepo." When the chief, Señor Montt, returned, after four or five days, he ordered him (Morris) to take this
prisoner up the hill, with the "muchachos," and see that he was
killed. This he did—because he was ordered to.
The " muchachos " shot him—they turned his face away and shot
him in various places in the back.
Augustus Walcott was present and saw this.
This Indian was a young boy—not a man—about 14 years of age.
He said he did not want to work rubber—that was his crime. So
the " capitán " tied him up, to save himself, and brought him to the
chief, and this was the result.
He saw no other persons killed during his stay at Ultimo Retiro.
From that station, in May, 1909, he returned to La Chorrera,
went to E l Encanto on an expedition, returned to L a Chorrera, was
sent on one journey to Atenas and elsewhere just round La Chorrera,
and then was sent to Sabana.
Stayed at Sabana, he believes, about four months, but is not quite
sure, because he was sent to Andokes. There had been trouble there.
The "muchachos" had shot "four rational men"—Señor Bucelli
and his companions. This was in August, 1909, and he (Morris)
and Stanley Sealy went as a relief expedition to help in Andokes.
He stayed in Andokes from middle of August to middle of November. H e got ill in Andokes and returned to La Chorrera. H e
worked here for some time—he can not say how long—and then returned to Sabana, where he has been employed ever since.
When first at Sabana F . Velarde was chief, and Señor Fonseca all
the last time.
During the first spell at Sabana under Velarde it was the same
kind of work—flogging Indians—but no killing that he saw.
During the two months at Andokes it was to hunt Indians who had
run away with the guns and clothes of the four white men who had
been killed by the two " muchachos." These were recovered. The
" muchachos " were caught; he is not sure how. One of the " muchachos," named Segundo, was caught. H e had killed another
" muchacho " because they quarreled about a plan to attack Andokes,
and the boy failed to carry out the attack so Segundo killed him.
Morris states he saw two of these " muchachos " captured—one was
Segundo and the other was a boy who belonged to Señor Bucelli, one
of the men killed.
These two boys were kept prisoners and one was in chains. They
escaped and got clean away, and they have not been caught. One
of the boys was flogged and died—he corrects himself—the one who
escaped got off with another man; this was Segundo. The boy who
had been Bucelli's was flogged and died a couple of days after, while
deponent was there.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

367

Deponent returned to La Chorrera, where he worked about six
months, he thinks, with the mason and sometimes with the carpenter,
and then went to Sabana under Señor J . I. Fonseca.
During this last period he had seen no Indians killed, but has
seen them flogged. Often flogged, every time the rubber comes
round; that is to say, every 15 days or each " puesta." Some do not
get flogged, but some are always flogged.
Deponent has been employed on the same kind of work, on " correrías," but as a rule he remained in the section at carpentering work.
SYDNEY MORRIS.

Signed by the aforesaid Sydney Morris, to whom the foregoing
statement has been read, and which he admits to be a true and faithful rendering of his statement made to me on the 1st day of November at La Chorrera this 6th day of November, 1910, before me.
ROGER CASEMENT.

This man left the Putumayo with Mr. Casement and found work
in Brazil.
[No. 21.]
S T A T E M E N T O F PRESTON J O H N S O N , MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' s C O N S U L
GENERAL A T LA CHORRERA O N NOVEMBER 1 , 1 9 1 0 .

Born in Barbados.
Going on 27 years of age.
Parents both living and are in Barbados, living at Blackrock.
Date of engagement in Barbados to come to the Putumayo, the
26th of March, 1905, he believes. H a s still got his original contract.
I t is in the section at Sabana. Will bring it. H a s not been all the
time here on Putumayo; was first at Nanai, where he stayed about
16 months, and then he went to Iquitos. H e broke the contract because he was not satisfied with its terms, and he went away and got
work in Iquitos from Booth & Co., where he stayed a very long time,
but can not say quite how long. Then he left Booth & Co. and came
to the Putumayo of his own accord. Came on a contract—it, too, is
in the Sabana section, where he left it. The date of that was the
25th of April, 1908. I t was the same time as Sealey and Chase.
They all came together. H e arrived here, at L a Chorrera, the 12th
of May, 1908, and has been employed in this agency ever since at
different sections.
H e was sent to Santa Catalina as his first post and stayed there
about 18 months.
The chief of section when he arrived was Aurelio Eodriguez, who
was followed by Señor Seminario, who is there now.
After 18 months deponent was sent from Santa Catalina to
Sabana. H e thinks the date of his leaving Santa Catalina was the
25th of September, 1909, at which date Señor Seminario was the
chief of that section.
Asked by consul general to state what work he had done during
those 18 months at Santa Catalina, and to describe his duties generally, he states:

S68

SLAVERY I N PERU.

That he was generally employed going to the houses of the Indians
and bringing them into the station with " caucho," going on what
are termed commissions. We went armed, always armed, and with
about 50 Winchester cartridges,
During these commissions Indians were flogged, sometimes by
himself and by other employees—all of them flogged as directed.
Women would be flogged as well as men; also children, little boys of
about 10 to 12 years of age. The whip used was a piece of " danta,"
i. e., a tapir hide. A hide whip of this kind was carried on the commissions for flogging. Indians were flogged out in the forest; very
many were thus flogged by himself and others for not bringing in
the proper quantity of rubber arid for " running away." Other Indians were flogged in the section itself—they were put in a movable
" cepo " (as described by Crichlow, Batson, and Walcott) and flogged
thus.
Their head and arms in one part and their legs in another. I t was
Crichlow made this "cepo." This " c e p o " is not there nowT, it Is
burned.. Aurelio Eodriguez had it burned—it was going to pieces and
they took it down and burned it. H e can not recall date.
Some Indians were badly flogged. H e knows of Indians who have
died from flogging. States "plenty died from flogging." Is sure
they died from flogging. Has seen Indians die from flogging.
States he saw " about four " die from flogging. They did not die in
the section, but on the way home after the flogging or in their houses
when they got back. This was all in the time of Aurelio Rodriguez.
Does not remember the names of any Indians who died from
flogging. He was not there when Edward Crichlow was beaten and
maltreated by Aurelio Eodriguez. He got to Santa Catalina on the
29th May, 1908, and Crichlow had just gone away and he heard
about it.
During the 18 months he served at Catalina, in addition to the
numerous floggings of Indians by himself and other employees, he
states he has known Indians to be killed in other ways than by
flogging. Asked to describe how these other deaths occurred, he
states he saw Indians shot with rifles and also killed by having their
heads cut off with machetes. Asked how many, he declares they were
so many he can not say. There were " a great many."
He is prepared to swear that he saw a great many Indians killed.
He can only repeat a great many killed in this way, by being beheaded by machetes or shot with Winchester carbines.
Sometimes they were killed in ¿he section—that is in the station
itself—and some out in the forest.
Some were killed for running away, others for "different other
causes"—such as if an Indian ran away and they caught him, they
killed him. The majority of these people were killed for trying to
run away.
Has not seen an Indian die in the " cepo" or in the chains. Has
seen Indians in chains, but has not known them to die from that.
Asked if he has known of Indians dying from starvation, replies
that in Sabana plenty have so died in the time of Aristides Rodriguez,
the brother of Aureiio Rodriguez, but that he does not know if they
so died in Santa Catalina.
The Indians, he declares, were killed for not working rubber—for
running away in order to escape from this work. Some may like to

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

369

work rubber, but others do not, and these latter are not asked if they
like to work rubber, but are chased and killed.
That was what he was really employed for, to chase Indians; often
to flog them and always for the same offense—their effort to evade
the working of rubber.
He, himself, has not killed an Indian; he is prepared to swear it.
The Indians were mostly killed by the "muchachos."
He only once saw an "empleado" (a white man) kill an Indian.
Did not ever see Aurelio Rodriguez kill an Indian himself. Is sure
of that. This was put to him twice, and he replies each time he is
quite sure he has not seen Aurelio Rodriguez himself shoot an Indian,
but very many were killed by his orders and their heads were cut off
by his orders. He, Aurelio Rodriguez, gave the " muchachos " orders
to kill the Indians, women as well as men—and they would be taken
aside and either shot or beheaded by the "muchachos." Many of the
same "muchachos" are there now.
On leaving Santa Catalina deponent, as stated, went to Sabana,
where he has been employed ever since.
H e has been engaged there in the same way—on what he terms
" correrias," i. e., runnings or chasings after Indians, and commissions
with the same end in view, always to get the Indians to work rubber.
He has been in Sabana since the 25th of September, 1909, until the
27th of October, 1910, he and the others who have arrived here having taken three days to come down to Chorrera, arriving here on
Sunday last, the 30th of October.
He has not flogged any Indian, not one, in Sabana, during the
whole of these 13 months. He has seen Indians flogged. He has
seen many Indians flogged—and badly flogged. Asked who flogged
them he states F . Bishop, who is at present the servant of the consul
general. Asked who else flogged Indians, he states the manager,
Señor Fonseca. Velarde was the chief of Sabana when he arrived
and he was succeeded by Fonseca. Fonseca has been chief there for
two " f abricos." Velarde he did not see flog with his own hands,
but he has seen Fonseca flog the Indians many times with his own
hands.
Has not known any Indians to die from flogging in Sabana, nor
has he seen them shot there, or killed by cutting off their heads. He
will swear he has not seen Indians killed in Sabana during this last
year—but flogged, put in chains, and put in " cepo." When he left
Sabana, five days ago, there were Indians in chains—four, one woman
and three men; they had been in chains for three or four months.
The woman is kept to try and make her husband to come and work
" caucho," and the three men in order to make their wives come in to
be kept as prisoners so that they shall go out to work " caucho."
Sidney Morris, called to identify the names of these prisoners, says
the " capitán " is one I joma, the woman is the wife of an Indian
named Kananumea. She has a little boy with her. Another man
whose name is not known to Sidney Morris or deponent. These
prisoners are fed and are not starving, and they are not beaten or
maltreated.
Asked about himself, he owes money to the company—102 soles
Peruanos—or, say, £10, but his accounts are left in the section. Asked
if he wishes to remain here in the company's service, he states he is
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62^^

370

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

very doubtful. H e does not truly know what to say. I f he stays
here and goes back to work in the sections, he does not know what
will^ happen to him. Is prepared to do whatever consul general will
advise; would prefer to leave decision to him.
PRESTON JOHNSON.

Signed by the aforesaid Preston Johnson before me this 6th day
of November, 1910, at La Chorrera, after the foregoing statement
made by him to me on the 1st day of November, 1910, had been read
over to him, to which he sets his signature as being a true and faithful rendering of the statement then made before me.
EOGER CASEMENT.

This man left the Putumayo with Mr. Casement and was brought
to Brazil, where work was found for him.
[No. 22.]
S T A T E M E N T OF A U G U S T U S WALCOTT, MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL G E N ERAL A T LA CHORRERA O N NOVEMBER 1 , 1 9 1 0 .

Augustus Walcott called, states his age as 23.
Born in Antigua.
His father is alive and resides in Barbados; his mother is dead.
Is not married.
Date of engagement in Barbados to come to Putumayo was in
October, but he can not state the year of this engagement. 1 Believes
it was six years ago. I t was on the 6th October he left Barbados
with many other Barbadians, all brought by Señor A. Normand.
I t was the first contingent that came, and they were for Eamon
Sanchez at Matanzas. H a s lost his original contract—it was stolen
from him in Oriente.
H e stopped first at Colonia Eiojano on the Amazon, in Brazil,
and then they came straight here, and he has been employed here
ever since.
Has no contract now—no fresh agreement in writing has ever been
made with him, neither on expiry of original contract, which was
for two years, nor when the Peruvian Amazon Co. was formed.
(His present engagement rests simply on a verbal agreement, and
his pay is entered on the pay sheets as 60 soles Peruanos per month.)
He states it is £5, and then when this entry is pointed out in the pay
lists, says he was told he was getting 50 soles per month.
He is in debt to the company, by last account made up, 385.57 soles
Peruanos, or, say, £38.
When first arrived at Chorrera was sent to Matanzas along with
many more Barbados men; all of them that came he states.
Q. How many?—A. There were 60 men besides 3 women.
Q. B u t they did not all go up to Matanzas?—A. Yes; all they
went up.
Q. B u t other Barbados men have told me that only 35 or 36 all
told went up to Matanzas at that time. Also that there were 5
women. How do you account for this?—A. Yes, it is true—I now
remember. I didn't keep good date. I did forget.
1

I t was October, 1904.—R. C.

SLAVERY IJSTPERTJ.

371

Q. What did you do at Matanzas?—A. I did stop there before
making the expeditions, and did build a house first. *
Q. Did any Indians come in and help to build the house ?—A. Yes,
!
they did.
Q. How many?—A. One day about 16 came in, one day, to help
to build the house.
Q. Were they tied up?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Chained up, or tied?—A. Chained.
Q. Who brought them in?—A. They send me to brought in, ana
I didn't went.
Q. Who went ?—A. A Colombian man named Cordoba; I can not
remember his other name, but he is not here now.
Q. And when the house was built what did you do?—A. We made
expeditions.
Q. You mean commissions to catch Indians and make them work
"caucho"?—A. Yes.
}
Q. Did you catch many Indians then?—A. We haven't catch any
the first voyage we went out.
Q. But did you catch them later?—A. Yes, we did.
Q. And what did you do with them?—A. We brought them m
the house. '
•
Q. How did you bring them in—tied up ?—A. They brought them
tied.
Q. And chained?—A. When they came to the place they put
chains on them.
"
'
Q. Put them in " cepo " ?—A. Well, the " cepo " didn't make that
time (i. e., was not then made).
Q. Well, what was done with these Indians?—Á. Well, they keep
them there for about a month—they kept them in chains for a month
and paid them and sent them to work " caucho."
Q. Did any of them die while they were in chains?—A. One.
Q. Were any of them flogged?—A. Yes.
Q. How many ?—A. Two of them that I see.
Q. Who flogged'them?—A. The manager and Mr. Normand.
Q. Do you mean they flogged them themselves with their own
hands?—A. Them own hands flogged them.
Q. Who was the manager?—A. Eamon Sanchez.
Q. How long was it before he went away?—A. He stop about
a year.
Q. Did you not all go out also to get Indians who had taken rifles
from some Colombians they had killed?—A. No; I didn't there.
Q. But you. knew of expeditions going out for this ?—A. Yes; I
knew of expeditions going.
Q. Did you see these expeditions go ?—A. Yes; I see.
Q. And return ?—A. Yes; they did.
Q. Did they bring prisoners ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you remember how many ?—A. Ten.
Q. Indians?—A. No; they didn't bring Indians along with them-+I didn't see Indians.
Q. Who were those prisoners ?•—A. Colombians.
Q. You did not go yourself on that expedition?—A. I was to go,
but I meet them on the way.
Q. One of them was Aquiléo Torres?—A. Aquiléo Torres, Paz
Gutierrez, Juan Felipe; the other names I didn't know, I can't
remember.

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SLAVEKY I N PERU.

Q. What was done with these men?—A. They brought them to
Matanzas and-put them in " cepo " the night; then in the morning
they bring them to Sabana. They take them from Sabana and
bring them to Oriente. They was there for the time being. The
time that they were there was about four months. They carried
the rest of them away and leave three of them. They carry seven
of them away (i. e., release them) and leave three of them.
Q. Do you not remember if when these 10 Colombians were
brought to Matanzas there were Indians as prisoners also with
them ?—A. No; I can not remember because I didn't see. I did not
go exactly to the spot where they bring, because I wasn't employee
of that section of Matanzas when they was brought there.
Q. Where were you ?—A. I was in Oriente.
Q. When did you leave Matanzas then?—A. I leave Matanzas
together with Ramon Sanchez and he bring me to Chorrera. I have
both my hands injured in Matanzas, my arms, and he leave me there.
Mr. Normand is the cause of that.
Q. What do you mean by that?—A. He send me to bring this
Indian to flog and I didn't went for him; and Cordoba went for
him, the Indian himself. H e knew that them was going to flog
him, and when they take the chain from the Indian neck he tell him
to follow him, and then he tell me to follow the Indian, and I could
not follow him, and the Indian run, and they fire bullets after him;
well, they^ didn't shoot him then. Then after that another Indian
that was inside in the yard they flog him. The " capitán " of these
Indians was a prisoner. His son was not prisoner, and he told the
son to go for the arm that he had—a gun—that they should let
him go and not make him in prison any more. And that same day,
when the man bring the gun in, they hold down on him—the same
man that bring the gun.
Q. What did they do to him?—A. They hanged him up.
Q. By the neck?—A. Yes; he did die—he died.
Q. And the father?—A. The father, they killed him, too.
Q. How did they kill him ?—A. They hanged "him, and they beat
him with dry swords. (He means the " sword," or machete, was
used as a stick, not to cut and pierce.)
Q. And what has this to do with your arms being injured?—A.
Well, I am telling you now.
Q. Go on.—A. I say that not the way to chastise any persons.
Q. Who did you say it to?—A. I say it to myself, and Mr. Normand hear.
Q. And what then?—A. I say it was brutishness.
Q. Yes?—A. And after that he heard me he say I'll be punished
for it. They didn't clo me anything that time. We fall short of feed
and we needed to go out in the Indian ground to look for something
to eat. That day I didn't went; and I was hungry, and I see a girl
had a little flour—farinha—and I beg her for a little and she gave;
me a little. Another young man named Arnold Benn, a Barbadian,
at the night went and stole it
Q. Stole what?—A. Stole the balance of flour what the girl leave 1
the Indian. And they say I the person that stoled it, because they
seen me with a little—with some that the girl have give me. I told
1

Had in nor possession.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

373

them no, that it did not so, that the girl has give me a little. They
told me no, that you's the person that stoled it, and I had evidence to
see that didn't stoled it.
Q. You had evidence?—A. Yes; I did. I say, no. They tell that
you be punished and I say no, that not so. They sent two of my
countrymen, Barbadians, to hold me. I tell them, don't you hold me,
and neither one didn't hold me. Mr. Normand he came hisself and
hold me. I asked him why the reason that he hold on to me, and he
say I's to be punished,, and he tied me up by the shoulders about
half an hour, he tie me up then. They fling a rope across a post
they had there> like a gallows, and they hang me up there, and the
manager s beat me. with a sword—Ramon Sanchez. They had me
' there for half an hour hanging, and then they let me go. I couldn't
use my hands for two months.
Q. Were you hung up again?—A. Only one time—only that one
time.
Here the witness is confronted with John Brown's statement to the
commissioner of Montserrat that "Augustus Walcott was hanged up
by Normand in 1905 for six hours." H e replies that, " That is so,"
that he got unconscious and did not know how long he had been hung
up, and that some said it was half an hour and some six hours. I t
clearly could not be both, and the man's ignorance and slowness make
it difficult to follow him, or rather so tedious to come to the point
that much time is lost in putting questions and getting redundant
answers. He contradicts himself from stupidity.—R. C.
Q. Did you see James Percy hung up by Normand?—A. Yes;
they did hanged him up.
Q. Did you see it?—A. Yes; I see it.
Q. How long was he hung up ?—A. About an hour. I didn't have
any watch to keep the time, but I judge about that, about an hour.
Q. Was he beaten ?—A. Yes, they did; with the dry sword.
Q. Then how long were you in Matanzas altogether ?—A. I stop
in Matanzas 13 months.
Q. And during that period did you flog Indians yourself ?—A. No;
I didn't.
Q. Did you see Indians flogged?—A. Yes; I see the Indians
flogged.
Q. Plenty?—A. No; not many.
Q. Not many Indians flogged?—A. Not many that I see. I see
iie Indians flogged that Ramon Sanchez flogged, and they died from
the flogging.
Q. How many died from this flogging?—A. Two of them that
I see.
Q. What had they done—the Indians?—A. They didn't done; they
said that the Indians had killed white people.
Q. You only saw two die from flogging?—A. Only two die from
flogging.
Q. How many Indians did you see flogged in Matanzas?—A. I
only see two of them flogged.
Q. No; you saw two die from flogging?—A. Yes; but I see only
two flogged.
Q. Then the two you saw flogged were both killed by the flogging?—A. Yes: they both died from the flogging.

374

SLAVERY E T PERU.
S

Q. Who flogged these men to death ?—A. Ramon Sanchez flogged
them—both of them—with Mr. Normand helping him.
Q. Did you see any other people killed?—A. A white man got shot.
Q. Who shot him ?—A. A Colombian named Cordoba.
Q. But you saw no Indians shot?—A. No—in Matanzas—no. I
see them shot out in the expeditions, but in the house not.
Q. How many did you see shot in the expeditions?—A. I see a
matter of about 10 of them, women and men.
Q. Were they running away ?—A. Yes; the Indians had run away,
and they went to the house.
Q. Did they burn the house?—A. Yes.
Q. And shot the Indians as they came out ?—A. Yes.
Q. That's what you saw ?—A. I saw that.
Q. Did you know of Indians who died of hunger in the " cepo " or
in chains?—A. I hear after I leave of that, of plenty.
Q. You never saw Mr. Normand kill children?—A. No, I didn't
see him; I didn't be there when he was manager.
Q. Have you heard that Mr. Normand killed Indian children?—
A. I heard so; when I was in another section I heard it.
Q. Who told you ?—A. I heard the other whites speak about it.
Q. What section ?—A. I n Oriente.
Q. W h a t whites?—A. Peruvians.
Q. Do you remember their names?—A. No, I couldn't.
Q. Then you yourself, when in Matanzas, did not flog any Indian
or shoot one?—A. No; whatsoever neither one. Not shoot, nor flog,
because they told the Indians that we was Indians too, and eat those. 1
Q. When you left Matanzas did you leave Joshua Dyall there ?—
A. Yes; I leave him there.
Q. You never saw Dyall kill an Indian ?—A. No, sir.
Q. Did you hear that he killed an Indian ?—A. No, sir.
Q. Never?—A. No, sir.
Q. Dyall told me that he himself had killed several Indians by Mr.
Normand's orders. Did you never hear him speak of this?—A. No,
I haven't heard i t ; I never hear him speak of it. Only one time I
meet Dyall here since I leave Matanzas.
Q. Then you know nothing about that?—A. No; nothing.
After leaving Matanzas deponent came to La Chorrera and stayed
about a month, and then was sent to Oriente, where Fidel Velarde
was chief. He stayed two years at Oriente, he thinks, up to 1907.
During those two years he was engaged nearly all the time on expeditions and " inspecting " " caucho." These expeditions were not to
catch Indians—the Indians were working; it was only to see the
" caucho " brought in.
The Indians were flogged during his stay in Oriente many times—
men, he states, only; no women and no children—only those that were
working " caucho."
Asked if he was at Oriente when Edward Crichlow was there, he
replies " No," but explains that Crichlow came there while he was
already there, and he thinks Crichlow stayed there about three
months, but is not quite sure.
Asked if he saw Indians killed while he was in Oriente, he says
that he did; that he saw about four get killed. Two died from flog1

See later.

Explanation made on Nov. G, 1910.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

375

ging and two others were shot. They were young men, all four.
These were all he saw killed. He also saw Aquiléo Torres in chains
there. H e was beaten, kicked, and abused. H e lost plenty of blood;
he saw this. He thinks that Aquiléo Torres was in chains there for
about two years, but he didn't keep the date.
After leaving Oriente the deponent was sent to Santa Catalina,
where he remained about eight months, where he was similarly employed on commissions to make the Indians work " caucho " and to
hunt for them, so as to make them, by force, come in and. work
rubber.
Many Indians were caught in this way, and tied up, and brought
in to the section and tied up. They were then put in " cepo," often
in chains, too, and flogged also. Aurelio Rodriguez was the chief of
Santa Catalina then.
He saw there the double " cepo," for head and arms and for feet,
as described by Crichlow, and knows it was made by Crichlow. H e
saw children put into it, quite small children—the legs of the " cepo "
slid up so as to hold them—and saw these children flogged like that
while thus stretched in the " cepo."
He saw many Indians flogged during his time in Santa Catalina,
repeats " very many " men, and women, and children. States Batson
was there during the time he was there.
Saw many Indians killed during his stay in Santa Catalina.
Asked " How many do you think ? " he answer:
" I imagine—I think that I see killed with my own eyes about 20—
women, and men, and children—«hot, and beheaded, their heads cut
off with a machete."
Q. And you say you saw Indians burnt?—A. Yes.
Q. Burnt alive?—A. Alive.
Q. How do you mean? Describe this.—A. Only one I see burnt
alive.
Q. Well, tell me about that one.—A. He had not work " caucho,"
he ran away and he kill a " muchacho,"' a boy, and they cut off his
two arms and his legs by the knee and they burn his body.
Q. And he still living?—A. Yes; he stiíl living.
Q. Did they tie the body up and burn it so?—A. They didn't tie
him up. They drag the body and they put plenty of wood and set
fire to it, and throw the man on it.
Q. Are you sure he was still alive—not dead when they threw him
on the fire?—A. Yes; he did alive. I'm sure of it; I see him move,
open his eyes; he screamed out.
Q. Was he a young man ?—A. A young man, about 24 years of age.
Q. What tribe—what family of Indians?—A. Well, I could not
say. I did not know the people then, because I newly went there.
Q. Was Aurelio Eodriguez looking on all the time?—A. Yes; all
the time.
Q. Giving directions?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. H e told them to cut off the legs and the arms ?—A. Yes.
Q. And then to put the man on the fire ?—A. Yes.
Q. Where were you ?—A. I was standing up watching it.
Q. Had you a gun?—A. No; I didn't have no gun then. I was
cooking that day.
Q. Did they burn the body to pieces?—A. Yes; everything burnt
to ashes.

376

SLAVEEY IK PERU.

Q. Did you know of any Indians die from flogging at Santa Catalina?—A. No, sir.
Q. Did you hear of them dying from flogging?—A. I heard that
they died after they went home.
From Santa Catalina deponent was sent to Ultimo Retiro, where
he stayed about eight months under Alfredo Montt. Does not remember clearly^ but thinks it was November, last year, 1909, because Montt
left soon after. Saw many Indians flogged by Montt's order when
at Ultimo Retiro. Badly flogged—put in " cepo," too. Does not
know of Indians who died from flogging there, but saw three Indians
killed in the station itself. Corrects himself as to date. I t was in
November, 1909, he left Ultimo Retiro, so that Montt was chief there
all the time he was there; that is, from, say, about March or April of
1909. During this period of eight months he saw three Indians—two
men, prisoners, and one woman, also a prisoner—who were killed.
They were shot by Montt's orders. They had not been willing to
work " caucho." H e said they were giving bad advice to the others,
telling them not to work. They were put in the " cepo," and he then
had them shot.
Q. Were they flogged?—A. Yes.
Q. Badly flogged?—A. No; not badly flogged.
Q. Who flogged them ?—A. 'He called me to flog them.
Q. Did you do it?—A. I tell him that I didn't know to do it^ and
he tell me, " No; that you know, and you must flog them."
Q. And you did it?—A. Yes, sir; the lashes I give half went on
the earth. I try not to hurt them; I don't leave the wheal on them.
Q. Were they then taken away and shot?—A. No.
Q. What happened then ?—A. H e keep them in the " cepo "—they
stop there about a month—and after that their family didn't come to
show any face with " caucho." He ordered them to be shot by the
interpreters, the " muchachos."
Q. And you saw this donej—A. Yes; I saw it done.
Q. Were they buried?—A. Yes.
Q. This was about what date?—A. I could not really tell the date,
but it was after April of last year. I t was between April and November. I quickly leave there after that and go to Entre Rios.
Q. So it was nearer November, 1909, than April?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Those were the only people you saw killed in the section?—
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you see Indians killed out in the forests or on expeditions ?—A. Yes, sir; two.
Q. Men?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. How were they killed?—A. Shotted.
Q. W h a t for?—A. They didn't work any "caucho."
Q. Who shot them?—A. The "muchachos." The "muchachos"
were told by the manager, by Montt; they went and caught the Indians out in the house where the Indians meet to put their " caucho,"
and they were shot there. The "muchachos" caughted them and
bring them there. I saw this. Those Indians had runned and
wouldn't work- Mr. Montt was there at the house inspecting the
" caucho," and when the " muchachos " brought in these two men he
had them shot.
Q. Were they buried?—A. Yes, sir.

SLAVEEY I N PEEU.

377

Q. Did you see any more Indians killed ?—A. One woman, belonging to one of the white men—one of the employees. She was shotted.
Q. Who by?—A. Montt.
Q. What for?—A. He said she had dealing with another Indian,
and she has a white man for a husband, and so he shot her.
Q. Did he shoot her himself, with his own hand?—A. Yes, sir;
three of them shoot her.
Q. Who were the three?—A. Montt, Plaza——
Q. This Plaza who is here to-day at Chorrera?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Go on.—A. Montt, Plaza—beg pardon; it was not Plaza; there
were only two of them—Montt, Lopez—only these two, and then
the " muchacho " boys finish her.
Q. Who was the white man who claimed her as his wife?—A.
Valasquez. H e want to shoot her.
Q. How long ago—before you left Ultimo Eetiro, was it?—A.
About two months before I leave.
From Ultimo Retiro deponent was sent to Entre Bios, where he
stayed about six months under Andrés O'Donnell.
Q. Did you see Indians flogged there?—A. Yes; I did.
Q. Did you see many Indians flogged there?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who by?—A. Me.
Q. By yourself ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who told you to do it ?—A. The manager, O'Donnell.
Q. What did you flog them for?—A. They didn't work plenty
" caucho," and some ran away.
Q. Why did you flog them ? Why did you not refuse to do so ?—
A. I did refuse.
Q. Well?—A. H e tell me I must do it; that I am an employee of
the house, and I'se got to do whatever they send me to do.
Q. When did you leave Entre Bios?—A. I leave there about two
months ago.
Q. And where did you go to?—A. I went to the Sabana section,
and I've been there till now.
Q. During those six months you were at Entre Bios?—A. I told
you eight months I stop at Entre Bios. I stop there two " caucho "
seasons for two " fabricos."
Q. I see. You went from Ultimo Eetiro to Entre Eios in November, 1909, and you left for Sabana in August, 1910—that would be
about the dates?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Between 9 and 10 months ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And during those 9 or 10 months, up to August last in Entre
Eios, you yourself have flogged plenty of people?—A. Yes, sir. I
have order to do it.
Q. You flogged them badly?—A. No, sir; I take a part for the
Indians.
Q. What do you mean ?—A. I would not like to have the Indians
done in a brutish way.
Q. What was the most number of blows you gave an Indian in
Entre Eios?—A. I n Entre Eios only three lashes—every Indian
three lashes.
Q. Did you flog women, too ?—A. No, sir.
Q. During those nine months you were there did you see any In«
dians killed?—A. No, sir.

378

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Q. Or did you hear of any killed?—A. No, sir; he likes the Indians—the manager—so as he don't do them any danger. He chastises them to make them work.
Q. And then when you left Entre Eios you went to Sabana ?—A.
Yes, sir.
Q. Under whom?—A. Fonseca.
Q. Have you flogged Indians there?—A. No, sir.
. Q. Have you seen them flogged ?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who Ify?—A. By the manager himself.
Q. With his own hands?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. How?—A. With a sword, a machete.
Q. Not with a whip?—A. No, sir.
Q. None flogged with a whip?—A. He told me one day to flog
two of them, and I told him no.
Q. What then?—A. Well, he flogged them his own self. With a
sword he give them three lashes apiece with a machete.
Q. Where do they flog with a machete ?—A. On the shoulders.
Q. Does it hurt very much?—A. Yes, it do.
Q. Does it cut the skin?—A. No, sir; it leaves the wheal on the
back.
Q. It doesn't break bones ?—A. No, sir; but it hurts very much—
it pains them.
Q. Do they scream out?—A. No, sir; when you give them two or
three lashes they don't scream.
Q. Did you see people killed in Sabana ?—A. Only one.
Q. This last time?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who was it ? Tell me the facts.—A. The " muchachos " killed
him. We was out on an expedition, looking for Indians to get rubber, and one of the Indians we were looking for have guns, and he
was killing plenty of Indians, he was killing the Indians that was
working rubber, and we went to look for him. At the same time we
went on and we met signs of where the Indians had run, and we
stopped to see if we could trace the marks, and the manager told me
to go and see, and the boys came back and told him where the Indians were, and he sent them to see and we stopped there half an
hour, and then I was sent to see what it was with two other assistants, and we find one Indian has died—the boys had shot him. The
manager was very annoyed about it. The house give order not to
shoot any Indians.
Q. When did the house give that order?—A. The house give it
many times, but the managers in the bush would not mind it,, they go
on. They hide it from the authority of the house.
Q. When you were in Santa Catalina was Evelyn Batson there?—
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And Clifford Quintin?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. And how many more Barbados men ?—A. Edward Crichlow—
no others.
Q. Did you all flog Indians there?—A. Yss, sir, all. I flog,
Crichlow flog, all flog them.
Q. And you flog them badly there?—A. No, sir.
Q. None of you?—A. No, sir; none of us flog them badly that I see
with my eyes—none of them flogged them badly.

379

SLAVEKY I K PERU.

Q. Did any Barbados man kill an Indian there while you were
there ?—A. One, that I knows, did—Crichlow—no, Quintin, Clifford
Quintín.
Q. How did he kill him?—A. He cut off his head.
Q. Who told him to?—A. I saw it done.
A. The man in charge of the expedim Q. Who told him to do it?
tion—Lopez Eodriguez—I means Eodolfo Eodriguez.
Q. That was the only one that a Barbados man killed?—A. That
was the only one.
Q. That woman that was killed at Ultimo Retiro by Montt and
Lopez, was she the wife of an Indian?—A. No, sir; of a white man.
Q. I know. But had she been the wife of an Indian ?—A. Yes, sir,
Q. Then she was taken from an Indian to give to Velasquez?—A.
I could not rightly say—I knew her as a white man's wife—three
whites had her, this same woman.
Q. Who were these white men had this one Indian woman?—A.
Ocampo, Cabrera, Velasquez—the one I called Spice. All :n Ultimo
Retiro.
Q. She was passed from one on to the other?—A. Yes, sir; and
the last time that she leave she went to her people, and stay there
two months and the last white man, Velasquez, when Aie was with
him she have an Indian for her husband, but she didn't tell the
truth. H e ásk her if she have a husband, and she say no, and she
had a husband, and still told a lie. And she was sent home for a
time, and then she went with the other husband, the Indian, that she
have on the mountain, 1 and the manager hear of it, and he kill her
for that, that she have dealing with the Indian.
Q. I see. I think that is all. You have told me all your dealings with the company truthfully in answer to my questions?—A.
Yes, sir.
Q. Is there anything you want to say to me?—A. I'd ask you to
help me to get out of here. I want to get out of here, and if you can
help me to get away and put me in a place where I can work and get
a few pence to go home to my country I would like to go.
AUGUSTUS (his x mark) WALCOTT.
Witness to Augustus (his x mark) Walcott:
WALTER

Fox,

Retired Civil Servant, late
Superintendent
of Forests, Straits
Settlements.
Signed before me by the aforesaid Augustus Walcott this 6th day
of November, 1910, at La Chorrera, after the foregoing statement has
been read over by me to him, which he declares to be a true and faithful rendering of his statement to and interrogatory by me on the
1st day of November, 1910.
ROGER CASEMENT.
EXPLANATIONS BY AUGUSTUS WALCOTT.

Augustus Walcott, called on to explain the answer given by him to
one of the questions put on the 1st of November, namely, that wherein
1

" On the mountain," i. e., in the forest,

380

SLAVEBY I N P E R U .

he stated, " because he told the Indians that we was Indians, too, and
eat those—"
States that this meant that Señor Normand, to frighten the Indians,
told them that the negroes were cannibals and a fierce tribe of cannibals who eat people, and that if they did not bring in rubber these
black men would be sent to kill and eat them.
This is what he meant to say. Señor Normand had so described
the Barbados men on bringing them among the Andokes Indians, in
order to terrify the Indians.
ROGER CASEMENT.

L A CHORRERA,

November

6V1910.
[No. 23.]

S T A T E M E N T OF J A M E S M A P P , A N A T I V E OF BARBADOS, MADE TO HTS
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL A T LA CHORRERA O N NOVEMBER 2 , 1 9 1 0 .

Age 25.
Parents: Father, dead; mother, he is not sure of, because he has
been away from the island a long time.
Was engaged for Arana's by Abel Alarco, on the 6th of October,
1904, and brought here by Señor Normand. The contract was for
two years. I t is lost, but he has a second contract made subsequently
in Iquitos. I t is in Santa Catalina, where his wife and child and his
things are.
When first arrived from Barbados he came straight from Manaos
to the Putumayo in a launch called the Paz de Carvalho, which
brought them to the mouth of the Putumayo, and there they were
transshipped into a launch called the Putumayo and brought up to
La Chorrera.
There were 36 Barbados men and 5 women came, all told. After
a brief stay in Chorrera the whole party, headed by Ramón Sanchez
and Normand, set out for Andokes—J. Dyall, Clifford Quintín,
Augustus Walcott, E d . Crichlow, Allen ^ Davis, Siefert Greenidge,
and W. Leavine, of the Barbados men still here, were of the party.
All the men were armed and each with 200 cartridges. On arrival at
Andokes they were set to build a house, as there was only a small
Indian hut, and then they worked at the plantation or " chácara " a
little for two days. After that he was cooking in the station for the
other men. H e liad arrived there in the end of November, 1904, and
left Andokes in January, 1905. H e was not sick.
During this period of about two months he was not on commissions,
but worked only in the station. One day deponent saw Señor Ramón
Sanchez cause a young Indian man to be tied up by his hands twisted
behind his back to a cross pole and then flog the man. H e beat him
with a sword, or machete, first and then stabbed him with it, and
when the boy was released he fell dead on the ground. As far as the
deponent could understand the reason for this was that the young
man had not guided Señor Sanchez correctly through the forest.
This was what Señor Sanchez said. Deponent also saw an Indian
chief, a " c a p i t á n " of the name of Nefideko, a Muinanes "capitán,"
hung up in the same way and very badly flogged. H e was hung up
three times in the same way. H e was flogged and then stabbed with
a machete in several places. H e was cut across the head also, and

SLAVERY I F PERU.

381

sickened and died. .This treatment was going on for about 18 days,
until the man died.
James Mapp does not know what this chief had done. Did not
see other Indians killed, but saw them flogged in the station. Was
also witness of Augustus Walcott's ill-treatment by Señor Normand.
Believes that Walcott was hung up for about one hour and he was
beaten with a sword or machete, and when released he could not use
his arms.
Was not there when C}^ril Atkins shot the woman. That occurred
after he left Andokes. Has not heard Joshua Dyall speak of
Indians he has killed. Knows nothing about it.
During the time he was at Andokes no rubber was brought i n ; the
employees under Sanchez and Normand were hunting for Indians."
During these two months about 180 Indians came or were brought
in to work rubber, but, owing to the bad treatment they got, they
ran away. They were often flogged.
On leaving Andokes he came to La Chorrera, where he stayed 12
days; he went to a section called Gondar, since completely abandoned. I t was done away with five years ago. He stayed there about
three months. The chief was a Mr. Eichards, " a sort of AmericanPeruvian."
This is Enoch Eichards, since dead and buried in Chorrera. His
remains were brought to Chorrera in 1908.—E. C.
During these three months James Mapp made one commission with
Mr. Eichards, but did no other work. He was simply there to hunt
Indians. They caught no Indians at all; no one was killed. They
got no rubber because they caught no Indians. Gondar lay between
Abisinia and Santa Julia in the Boras country. I t lay one and a
half days from Abisinia. This Mr. Eichards went away from Gondar to Abisinia and was shot by an Indian about six months after.
James Mapp did not see this Mr. Eichards kill or flog Indians, but
he knew of an Indian he ordered to be killed on a commission which
occurred while he (Mapp) was at Gondar.
On leaving Gondar he was sent on to Abisinia where Señor Agüero
was chief. Señor Agüero and this Mr. Eichards were together as
" some kind of partners." This was about the middle of 1905. Mr.
Eichards was there up to August, 1905, when he got shot. James
Mapp stayed in Abisinia for 18 months, for he remembers the actual
date he left that section was the 19th of October, 1906. During
these 18 months his soíe employment was going on commissions,
hunting Indians, to try to catch them to make them work rubber.
Many Indians were caught, men, women, and children, chiefly Boras
Indians. They were tied up and brought into the station. Many
that refused to come or did not want to come in were killed. He
has seen so many killed there that he can't remember all of them.
H e has seen men, women, and children killed—killed for no reason
at all except that they would not work rubber. Some were shot,
some were beheaded with a machete. H e has seen women and
children beheaded, and has seen the little babies taken from their
mothers and " t h r o w n away alive." Asked to explain this phrase
he explains that sometimes when the mother was killed they threw
the babies away alive, to die thus; at other times they would smash
their heads against trees or throw them into the T Í ver. These crimes

382

SLAVERY IN PERU.

were committed generally by the Indian boys or " muchachos"
acting under orders from the chief, Señor Agüero. Indians were
flogged, and he has seen Indians die from the flogging, women as
well as men. There were 21 Barbados men in Abisinia at the time
he was there. They were sent from Chorrera there to hunt the
Indians thus under Señor Agüero's orders.
Asked if he can recall the names of the Barbados men, he says
" Yes," and gives the following: John Brown, James Henry, Albert
West, FitzGerald Archer, Nathaniel Cadogan, Joseph Stokes, Sinclair Smith, Joshua Crichley, Joshua Ford, Alfred A. Voiss, Kobert
Scandleburg, Albert Stuart, James Clark, Eleazer Eock, Henry
Jacob,- Eobert Isaacs.
Can not at present remember the names of others. Recalls now
two more—Edgar Prescott and Mackay Clark. H e can not recall
the remainder; wTill try to do so, and will tell consul general later on
if he remembers.
All were armed and were employed solely on commissions, hunting
the Indians for rubber. Has not seen a Barbados man kill an Indian
in Abisinia. They did not flog the Indians; this was done by a
Colombian negro named Simon Ángulo. This man is still there.
Simon Ángulo was the flogger, and it was from floggings he gave
that witness saw Indians subsequently die. Knows of Indians who
died in " cepo," of starvation chiefly. Many died like that. He saw
them die. Many of them from being starved to death. They were
often kept long in " cepo " and given no food. Never saw an Indian
killed by Agüero as food for his dogs, nor has he heard of t h a t ; but
has known of Indians who were killed, being " casually " eaten by
the dogs. Has seen that actually " about four or five t i m e s " in
Abisinia station itself. He saw the dogs eating the limbs of dead
Indians—people who had been killed. Augusto Jiménez was there
then. He was acting as second chief, under Agüero. H e has seen
Jiménez send his Indian wife to kill an Indian man. She was sent
with a rifle by Jiménez to kill the man, and James Mapp saw it done.
This was between Abisinia and Gondar, on a commission. That was
the same " wife " that Jiménez has now—the very same. She was a
young woman—a girl.
Has seen Jiménez have Indians burned, but not burned alive.
They were shot and beheaded also, and then burned. This to men
and children, too, and to women. Many cases; he often saw this.
Both Agüero and Jiménez would do this.
Never saw Jiménez put kerosene on an Indian and set fire to him,
but has heard of it being done by him. H e has heard the Barbados
men talk of it, but did not see it himself. Did not hear of it from
Peruvians. I n the month of January, 1906, he saw about 30 Indians,
men and women, killed by Jiménez at night. This was on a commission; he (Mapp) was one of it. They had caught these Indians in
the forest and were bringing them to Abisinia. Asked what happened, he states as follows:
About half-past 8 I was on guard, and I heard the Indians "-telephoning," as
we call it—beating the big drum, the "manguaré"—and I told Jiménez that
there was a drum beating in such a direction; and he called out to the interpreter, a boy named José Maria, a Boras, who is there now in Abisinia (he is
an interpreter who speaks Spanish), and he told him, " Listen to the ' manguaré *
to hear what it says." And he went out and listens, and he comes and says
that the " manguaré " says the Andokes is calling the Boras to come and help

SLAVERY IN PERU.

383

to kill us where we slept last night. And through that he told him to take all
those Jndians out of the " cepo " and have them killed. There was one man that
didn't die—an old fellow—and he took leaves and set fire to him, and he was
burning and calling out. He was alive when they burned him, because he
rolled about and called out. They cut his neck first, but he didn't die then—
not till he was in the fire. Jiménez did not set fire to the house because we
slept there.

Asked if they did not run away that night after killing those
Indians, he states " No " ; that they slept there all night in that Indian
house. These people were killed not because Jiménez was frightened
and wanted to run away, but only because the " m a n g u a r é " was
beating and calling the Indians—only for that reason.
This happened about six hours from Morelia in the Boras country.
I t was about the month of January, 1906. There were other Barbados men on that commission who witnessed this act. John Brown
was one of them, Nathaniel Cadogan also. Henry Jacob, Sinclair
Smith, and himself (James Mapp)—all were present, saw these
Indians killed and the old man burned, and slept that night in the
house.
I here read to James Mapp the paragraph from Capt. Whiff en's
letter recording, as affirmed by John Brown, this incident. James
Mapp says it is not true as told by Brown. Only the one man was
burnt—and the jmrty did not run away that night, b u t slept there
on the spot, and it was not one of the captives who read the drum's
message to Jiménez, but the " muchacho," José Maria. Otherwise
the story as related by Capt. Whiffen is true, as to the killing of the
Indians, and it occurred in January, 1906. I also read to him the
paragraph from Capt. Whiffen's letter in which occurs Brown's
statement as to the shooting off of an Indian prisoner's
-, to be the
prize in the competition between Agüero and Jiménez. He declares
he did not witness this spectacle,. but has heard of it. I t occurred
after he left Abisinia, when he was with Carlos Miranda, chief then
of Puerto Carlos, a station that is now abandoned. H e has heard it
spoken of by several of the Barbados men who were left behind in
Abisinia, after he came away, who state they were eye-witnesses of
this deed.
Proceeding with his general statement as to the condition of Abisinia in 1906, James Mapp states he frequently saw women shot and
beheaded. They were killed for all sorts of reasons. They were
innocent. They had not really done anything wrong that he knew
of. They were killed for sport by this man Agüero now here in La
Chorrera to-day. H e saw Agüero send to have a man killed, in
Abisinia, because he had only one foot and could not walk. He sent
a " muchacho " to kill this man. There were about eight Indians
killed that morning. Agüero had just arrived from Iquitos. H e
went to Iquitos sick, and he returned; and the morning after, drinking a couple of glasses, he went down below" the house, underneath,
and he saw some Indian prisoners and he inquired where they came
from, and he was told by Jiménez that those Indians had not long
been caught, and he sent and called the boys and sent these Indians
out one by one to the " chácara " to be killed.
They were all shot. The man with one foot was one of them. He went
hopping along. I saw them shot; it made the water come in my eyes to see
them. They had been starved, too, before this. After shooting them, they had
them burned also.

384

SLAVEKY IN" PERU.

I t was in 1906 this occurred, and James Mapp and other Barbados
men then in Abisinia saw it, some of the same men whose names he
gave before.
I read to James Mapp some of the extracts from M. F . Camacho's
statement of the 20th February, 1908, which he says are true, except
as regards the cutting up of the chief and giving him to the dogs, of
which he had no knowledge.
The floggings, he states, were almost daily, and that many Indians
died from effects of them, becoming putrid and full of maggots.
Also that quite small boys, " cholitos," were armed and made to kill
their defenseless countrymen, as described by Camacho.
James Mapp, on leaving Abisinia, came to Puerto Carlos, at the
mouth of the Avio Parana, a stream that flows into the Cahuinari, in
the Boras country, where he stayed for nine months under Carlos
Miranda.
Asked was he a good man, he says, " Yes, he was." Asked if he
had people killed, he states that Miranda had no Indians there.
They went there to found that station, and for a time they were
building a housey and made only one commission to try and get
Indians. On that commission they caught about six Indians, between men and women, and brought them into the station. They
were not tied or put in " cepo," they were set free upstairs in a room
and were fed and had clothes and several other things given to them,
and they agreed to work rubber and were allowed to go. They stayed
for some time around the house, and were never ill-treated. During
those nine months he did not see Carlos Miranda ill-treat any Indians,
and neither flog nor kill them.
Nathaniel Cadogan, Joseph Stokes, F . Archer, and Sinclair Smith,
as well as himself, were at Puerto Carlos at this time.
On leaving Puerto Carlos he came to La Chorrera, in July, 1907, he
believes this was. Señor Miranda was left at Puerto Carlos. James
Mapp was kept here about 18 days and was then sent back to Abisinia,
where he stayed 4 months, until about the end of November, 1907.
During these four months he was not on commissions. H e was
kept in the house doing guard and other little tilings, and he did not
see flogging during those months. He saw one man, the interpreter,
José Maria, with his bowels protruding from a wound in the addomen given with a u sword," or machete.' He did not see how it
occurred, but he was told it had occurred in this way: José Maria
was accussed of plotting to kill Agüero and Jiménez, and was made
a prisoner, and one night Agüero and Jiménez were drinking, and
Jimenez's boy, " Pedro," took a sword and pierced him in the bowels.
NOTE.—This was the same boy " Pedro " who waited on us at
Ultimo Eetiro.—E. C.
José Maria recovered, a Colombian man there put his bowels back
and sewed up the wound—and he is there now. He, James Mapp,
did not witness any killing of Indians during that time in Abisinia.
He saw four Indian men hung up by their arms twisted behind
their backs and kept for about three hours like that, and " both of
them had a piece bitten out of them by a Barbadian lad—when I say
both of them I mean four of them, because there were all four."
Asked how this happened, that a Barbadian boy should do such a
thing, James Mapp declares that the " lad " did it only for sport. No

SLAVERY I N PERU.

385

one sent him to do it. His name was Hilary Quales—a boy about 24
years of age. H e has returned to Barbados. H e went away in
the end of November, 1907. Asked if others had seen this, James
Mapp said Batson had heard of it, but did not believe it until he
(Mapp) had told him the other day. He saw it done with his own
eyes. Quales bit the little toe off one of these men, and he saw him
spit it out on the floor. H e bit the other three also—he bit them in
the legs and in the thighs; and the one whose toe he bit off he had
bitten first in the calf, and the Indian " got vexed " and kicked out
at him, so Quales then bit his toe off. Nothing was done to Quales.
Agüero was looking on and laughing. Jiménez was not there.
Asked if he (Mapp) had not done anything to Quales, he said he;
and his companions " scolded him very much," but he did not mind.
Asked what became of the four men, he states that after they were
let down they were put back in the " cepo." While they were hanging up for three hours Hilary Quales was swinging them by their
legs, and playing with them, and Agüero looking on. They were all
four young men. He does not know what became of them, but thinks
they ran away, because some of them are in Abisinia now. The man
whose small toe Quales bit off is there now. Batson saw him in the
" cepo " the other day—a few weeks ago when he was in Abisinia in
September last, and saw that his toe had gone, and asked him how
he lost it, and the man told him it was done by a Barbados man, and
Batson would not believe it true until a few days ago when he
(Mapp) told him how it had occurred. They met here only a few
days ago when he came down from Santa Catalina.
l i e left Abisinia in November, 1907, and returned to Chorrera,
where he stayed until January, 1908, and on the 18th of February,
1908, he went to Iquitos and was paid off. H e worked a short time
in Iquitos, but as he could not save any money he decided to return
to service in the Putumayo, and engaged in April, 1908, and returned
here in company with Sealey, Chase, Sidney Morris, Johnson, Phillips, Hoyte, and James Lane. They had all been working in Iquitos,
but could not make enough money. He arrived here on the 12th of
May, 1908, and was sent to Sur—two hours' journey only from Chorrera—where he stayed for one month, under Carlos Miranda, the
present chief of that section.
H e went on commissions and got Indians to work rubber. Saw
only two Indians flogged by Miranda one day. Those were the only
cases he saw. No Indian was killed. He returned to Chorrera, and
was sent to Atenas, where Elias Martinegui was the chief, where he
stayed four months. There he saw Indians flogged—very many, but
not badly flogged. None died from flogging that he knew of. H e
himself (James Mapp) and a Colombian named Daniel Alban were
the floggers, and flogged under Martinengui's orders. They flogged
only men. H e did not see women flogged there, nor did he do it.
Little boys were flogged for not bringing in sufficient rubber. H e
saw no Indians killed at Atenas. H e left Atenas and returned to
Chorrera, and went to Ultimo Betiro about the 18th of November,
1908, where he stayed three months under Alfredo Montt, There he
saw only one man flogged. H e was badly flogged. H e had 50 lashes.
These lashes were given by a Peruvian lad of the name of Manuel
P e n a ; " h e is since drowned." H e did not see any Indians killed
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

386

SLAVEEY I N PERU.

there. H e made only one commission during the time he was there;
he was generally working as a carpenter in the house.
He left Ultimo Eetiro about February, 1909, and came to Chorrera,
where he stayed only one day and was sent to Sabana, where Fidel
Velarde was chief. He stayed there 11 months up to March of this
year; he means, he says, 13 months, up to a date in March of this year.
During these 13 months he was most of the time engaged on commissions after the Indians to bring them in with the rubber. There
were other Barbados men there too; Johnson, Morris, and Sealey were
there.
Indians were flogged, but not badly. H e and Sealey were floggers
there; they did not flog Indians too badly. He did not see Indians
killed in Sabana at that time.
He left Sabana in March, 1910. Before that Velarde had gone
away and Fonseca came as chief. He has seen two Indians hung
up by their necks by Fonseca—that was in February of this year.
They were hung up for about five minuses with a chain round the
throat. They could not be kept longer up without dying; they were
nearly choked. Their tongues were hanging out when let down.
They could not walk. They lay down about an hour, they gave no
water, they just lay there with their tongues out—upstairs in the
house this was. H e does not know what they had done; they were
station Indians, men working there at the time. They were both
young men. They were released after and he does not know what
became of them. The Indians Avere often flogged for not bringing
sufficient rubber—that was the reason. They were put in " cepo"
too, and kept them there sometimes 1 month or 15 days. Some would
be put in chains; the " capitán " would be put in chains if his people
had not come in. He or his wife (the " capitán " and his wife) were
chained up there. This went on up to February last (1910) and up
to March of this year (1910) when James Mapp left Sabana. H e
came to Chorrera and was sent to Occidente under Fidel Velarde.
There he was engaged on commissions also. H e was there for
four months from March to July of this year. The work was the
same as at other sections—bringing in the Indians. They# were not
tied up, he only walked behind them with a gun. Indians were
flogged right up to July last. H e himself flogged them. Eugenio
Acosta also flogged, and Velarde himself and " Juanito " Eodriguez
also flogged them. They were not badly flogged. They were flogged
with whips and with machetes also. They were not put in " cepo "
or in chains during the time he was there. H e saw an Indian
drowned there. Asked to describe how this occurred, he states:
H e was a young man; his rubber was not enough, and Acosta,
Eugenio Acosta, tied his two hands behind his back. Not him only,
but several Indians were tied in that way, and they^ were taken to
the river side and held under the water " till their bowels were
swollen " by drinking too much water. They were held under by
another Indian man sent by Acosta. Acosta could not reach the
Indian to hold him under. Mr. Velarde sent him (James Mapp) x to
hold the Indians under the water, but he refused to obey; and Acosta
himself took the Indians, who were tied up, four of them, and took
them down to the water, and after they got to the waterside Acosta
made another Indian take them one by one and hold them under
the water, by force, until they were nearly drowned, and when they

SLAVEBY I N PEBTJ.

387

lost breath, they opened their mouths and swallowed water. One of
them, while being held under water kicked and got away from the
Indian who was holding him under, but as his arms were tied he was
drowned. The body was found on the fifth day afterwards—it was
found down at the mouth of the river just below Occidente, in the
" chácara." This occurred on the 20th June of this year, and the
body was found on the 24th June.
Mr. Velarde himself gave the order for this—he gave the order to
Acosta and to deponent-—who refused even to lay hands on the
Indians. Ácosta tied the hands of all four Indians. They were
all men, young men. Does not remember their " capitan's " name.
They were getting the rubber ready to send down to Chorrera, and
a lot of Indians were there. That very morning, the 20th Junej
Mr. Macedo and Mr. Tizon had left Occidente for Entre Rios, and
it was after they had gone away that it happened.
Mr. Velarde was very anxious to find the body before they
returned from Entre Rios, as he was afraid they might see it floating on the river. The body was buried. A lot of people saw it,
and the station girls were there, screaming out. The other three
Indians were taken out of the river unconscious. They lay on the
banks half-drowned. I t was about 20 minutes before they opened
their eyes or came to. They got better and went to their homes.
NOTE.—Señor Tizon was asked to come and hear the latter part of
this statement, and he questioned James Mapp, who answered him
fully, repeating the statement in its entirety. Asked by the consul
why he had not reported this at Chorrera when he came down in
July, he said Señor Tizon had gone to Iquitos then and Señor
Velarde had asked him to say " nothing about it unless he was questioned." The dates as given by him agree with Señor Tizon's own
record of his journey to Entre Rios. Señor Velarde is in Chorrera
to-day, having arrived from Occidente last night.—R. C.
The rest of James Mapp's statement deals with his stay at Santa
Catalina under Señor Carlos Seminario up to three or four days
ago, when he was sent for to come to Chorrera to be interrogated
by the consul general.
During his stay at Santa Catalina he states he has seen no case
of ill treatment of Indians by Señor Seminario.
Not much flogging—only a few lashes given, and those by a boy
who is not strong, Señor Seminario " will not allow any strong man
to flog." The lashes are a few only, given as a chastisement for not
bringing in enough rubber. He does not know of any Indians
killed there now. Has seen a dead Indian when out on a commission,
but does not know how he came by his death. The man was killea
he believes by the station " muchachos."
He has a wife and child up in Santa Catalina. Is in debt to the
company for 171.77 soles Peruanos (say £17), and is very anxious
to be allowed to stay on in the service at Santa Catalina until he
has earned enough money to go away with his Indian wife and
child.
JAMES MAPP.

The foregoing statement read over to James Mapp, who states that
this is a fair and truthful rendering of his statement made at La

388

S L A V E R Y I3ST P E R U .

Chorrera on the 2d day of November, 1910, to His Majesty's consul
general, and signs it in presence of Eoger Casement.
NOTE.—This man, along with Alfred Hoyte and Eeuben Phillips,
was directed by Mr. Casement to return to Santa Catalina to get his
Indian wife and child and his effects, so that he and the other men
might be able to leave the Putumayo along with Mr. Casement, The
three men left La Chorrera on board the launch Haitoto, on which
Señor Agüero with his subordinate, Armando Blondel, was returning to Santa Julia to go back to his station of Abisinia. On arrival
at the landing place for Santa Catalina, a port called Providencia,
where the launch stopped all night, Agüero and Blondel had interfered and refused to allow the three Barbados men to go up to Santa
Catalina (a long march of many hours through the forest) by daylight^ Agüero ordered them to stay on the beach at Providencia
till nightfall, and said they were to set out for Santa Catalina only
after nightfall on the 3d of November.
A Brazilian named Pinheiro, a servant of the company at Providencia, came to the three Barbados men in the night and warned
them not to set out for Santa Catalina, as he had heard Agüero and
Blondel plotting to have them attacked in the dark on the way by
Indians—" muchachos " of these men who were to be put up to the
job. James Mapp and the others had refused to leave the launch;
Blondel had tried to force them on shore, but they had resisted, and
they returned to Chorrera on the 10th of November in the Huitoto
without having left the launch or gone near Santa Catalina. The
statements of the three men were referred by Mr. Casement to Señor
Tizón, who sent messengers overland to Santa Catalina with these
men to Señor Seminario, the chief of that station; and the wives of
the men, and the children of Hoyte and Mapp, and their effects were
sent by land in time to reach La Chorrera before Mr. Casement left
on the 16th of November, when all three men and their families
accompanied him and in Brazil found other employment.
[No. 24.]
S T A T E M E N T BY ALFRED H O Y T E , MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL
A T LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 2 , 1 9 1 0 .

Born in Barbados.
Age 28.
Engaged in March, 1905.
Came to Manaos along with 90 Barbados men. Went first to Nanai
and there stayed 16 months and then left the service of his own
accord. Then worked in Iquitos 18 months, and then reengaged in
Iquitos on the 25th of April, 1908, to the Putumayo, and arrived
here at La Chorrera on the 12th of May, 1908, at the same time with
Sealey, Chase, and others of his countrymen.
After a short stay in Le Chorrera, was sent to Abisinia under
Señor Agüero, where he stayed 14 months and some days. Corrects himself—was over 16 months in Abisinia, because he remembers he left it in October, 1909—just a year ago.
From Abisinia he returned to La Chorrera and went to Santa
Catalina, where he has been ever since. His whole period of service
has been at these two sections.

SLAVEKY IJST PERU.

389

During his stay at Abisinia he went three times on commissions
after Indians, and then was put in the kitchen cooking. He got
sick with fever; remembers Capt. Whiffen coming to Abisinia, with
John Brown as his servant. Was there cooking then all the time
of Capt. Whiffen's stay at Abisinia.
When on the three commissions he saw many Indians killed—a
good many. He saw Indians burned alive. They were hung up by
Jiménez and burned alive. H e saw this with his own eyes. He saw
only one burned alive like this—a man. This was out on a commission. Other Indians he saw burned, but they were already dead.
Señor Jiménez ordered the Indian to be hung up by his arms
behind his back, and had a fire made under him and burned him
alive, and then gave him a ball. States this was on an expedition
to the Caquetá; and, asked if Sealey and Chase were there, too, says
" yes." Pointed out by consul general that those men both declared
that two persons were burned there—a woman as well as a man.
He states he knows only of one—the man. Another person was
beheaded.
Sealey and Chase, called by the consul general, repeat their statement exactly as made before, and say that the woman was burned.
Alfred Hoyte admits that it was so; that he had not remembered it
at first, but that there was a woman burned alive also. First they
met a woman, and she was burned first. He remembers meeting two
women with a small boy, but he can not remember clearly. He
remembers the man being caught and tied up by Jiménez and burned
alive and then shot.
He did not cross the Caqueta that time, but returned to Morélia
with the rest of the expedition. During the time he spent in this
section he saw people killed by Cordaira (a Spaniard), at Abisinia.
He saw people (Indians) flogged—flogged very badly, too—for not
bringing in rubber. This was done by the orders of Agüero and by
Cordaira. He himself has not flogged Indians. He has been punished; he has been confined in the " c e p o " for cooking a j i t t l e rice
dry—too dry—and he was chastised by being put in " cepo," where
he was left for one hour and a half. He has known Indians starved
to death in Abisinia, deliberately starved to death. They were kept
prisoners underneath the house in the store. H e saw a man starved
thus. He died on a Tuesday in March, 1909. This man died of
starvation. He does not know the Indian's name; he was an Indian
they had caught in the forest and brought in.
He left Abisinia in October, 1900, and went to Santa Catalina on
the 8th November last, where Señor Seminario was the chief of the
section. He had seen Indians flogged at Santa Catalina, but not
very badly flogged—only four or five lashes. Has seen Indians put
in " cepo " there, too. Has not seen an Indian killed there, but while
on a commission they found an Indian with his hands and feet cut
off. He does not know who did it; they said it was clone by " muchachos "—he never found out. The chief of section did nothing in the
matter. There were two like this; two with their hands and feet cat
off; both were men. This was the month before last—in September
last (1910). The "muchachos" were not punished. He thinks it
was the " muchachos " who killed these two men. He has not flogged
anyone in Santa Catalina.

390

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

He has not been punished there either; he has been well treated
there, and he thinks the Indians are well treated there, too.
Bfe owes no money to the company—has a credit balance of 55.83
soles Peruanos. He has an Indian wife and a, child. If his countrymen were staying on he would like to stay, but if they go he would
go, too. He does not know what to do, as he has no money to go
away with.
ALFREDO HOYTE.

See statement attached to James Mapp's deposition as to attempt of
Agüero to ambush this man on the way to Santa Catalina on the 3d
November.
[No. 25.]
S T A T E M E N T BY R E U B E N P H I L L I P S , A N A T I V E OF BARBADOS, MADE TO H I S
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 2 , 3 9 1 0 .

Born about 1889; thinks he is 21 years of age.
Both parents living. His father is in the United States of America, his mother in Barbados; has heard from her since he came away.
Was engaged in Barbados at the same time as Stanley Sealey and
James Lane and the men who then came from Barbados, but can not
say exactly what date that was.
Was first engaged at ISTanai, and left the service o f his own accord,
and after working at Iquitos he reengaged in April, 1908, and came
to La Chorrera on the 12th May, 1908, along with the other men who
came then.
Was first sent to Abisinia, where he served nine months; was then
sent to Ultimo Eetiro, to serve under Señor Alfredo Montt, and then
to Santa Catalina, where he has been ever since.
Was not on a commission to the Caqueta with Jiménez in 1908
from Morelia, and does not know anything of that journey. During
his stay in Abisinia he did not himself flog Indians. The Indians
were flogged by Simon Ángulo. He saw Indians killed. He sawT
five Indians killed in Abisinia—a woman, a child, and three men.
They were killed in different places; three men were killed in Morelia
and the woman and child out on a commission. These were the only
Indians he saw killed with his own eyes. H e knows of others, but
did not see them.
He saw Indians very badly flogged, both by Simon Ángulo and
by Señor Agüero himself with his own hands. Does not know if
Indians died from being flogged; did not see them die, but they were
dreadfully flogged. Was punished himself. One night, when doing
guard in Morelia, Bartolomé Zumaeta struck him across the shoulders
with a sword, and another time he was sent to look for goods left by
Capt. Whiffen at a port, and as he was sent without food and was
absent three days, he took a tin of biscuits and two tins of sardines
from an Indian boy, who had them in a case he was carrying. He
thought they were goods belonging to Señor Agüero, so he took them.
On getting back he was put in "cepo," and the boy—the Indian
boy—was hung up by his hands tied behind his back. He himself
was kept in " cepo " there for a night.
At Ultimo Retiro he did not flog Indians. Señor Montt was the
chief of section. He saw plenty of Indians killed by Señor Montt's
orders. They were shot like animals, and they were killed in the

SLAVERY I N PERU.
u

391

cepo." They were starved to death in the " cepo." They were
flogged, too—-bady flogged. This was about a year ago at Ultimo
Eetiro; it was after Capt. Whiff en was here. He left Capt. Whiffen
in Morelia and went to Ultimo Eetiro, and these things happened
there. Very many Indians were killed and flogged there.
• On the expedition to the Caquetá this year in March to May, he
went along with Critchlow from Ultimo Retiro.
Two Indians were killed on that journey—one was a boy and one
a woman. They were killed—Aquiléo Torres killed the first, an old
woman, on the way to the Caquetá. He shot her with a revolver.
Deponent saw this done himself. This was the first day the expedition left Ultimo Retiro for the Caquetá.
Coming back from the Caquetá a boy was killed; he does not know
how, as he was in front. Crichlow told him of it, but did not say
who killed him. This boy had been a " muchacho " of Señor Montt
before, and he had run away and they caught him now this time.
Deponent only knows that Zumaran, the cook, had guard over this
boy, and the night before he was shot the boy was tied up, his hands
and feet stretched out on the ground. His feet were in the " cepo."
Every evening a " cepo " was made for the prisoners, and they were
put in it before nightfall.
NOTE.—This was the Indian Aquiléo Torres shot when he told him
to " blow down his rifle." See Pinedo's statement at Entre
Eios.—R. C.
There were 23 Indians prisoners and three Colombians—white
men—prisoners. One of them, Ramón Vargas, is in Atenas now.
The Indians were put in the " cepo " every night and the Colombians
too. The Colombians were put in the " c e p o " only across the
Caquetá, not when they returned to this side, but the Indians were
put in every night until they reached Ultimo Retiro. They were let
go after their return to Ultimo Retiro—soon after—and sent to work,
all except the one boy who was shot on the way. He does not know
what has become of them since.
He saw Indians flogged in Ultimo Retiro this year, by Señor
Montt, but not any by Señor Jiménez.
He knows that Señor Montt had four " muchachos " shot this year.
H e did not witness it, but knows well of it. They were wrongfully
shot. He saw the four boys taken out of the " cepo " and taken in
chains to the bush with Señor Montt, Vasquez Torres, Plaza (who is
here to-day in La Chorrera on a visit from S u r ) , and another man
whose name he can not recall. He thinks it was Juan Lopez. Señor
Montt went on to Entre Rios. Lopez returned to Ultimo Retiro.
H e knows they were short, because sometime after he passed that
way on a commission and he saw the bones on the path.
He declares that Señor Montt shot many more Indians than those.
During the time he was there, at Ultimo Retiro, he saw many men
and women shot by Montt's orders by his " muchachos." He saw a
woman shot by Montt himself and Lopez. Also very many floggings
and bad floggings. He was at Ultimo Retiro up to about August or
July—it was the 30th July, 1910, he remembers—and came to Chorrera on the 2d August? 1910, and went to Santa Catalina, and has
been there until the 28th October, when he was called down here to
meet the consul.

392

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

At Santa Catalina he has not been well treated. He has been put
in the " cepo " there for eight days and nine nights and fed once a
day during that time. The facts were as follows:
He was buying food from an Indian woman, and Alfredo Zegara
had a dispute with him about this and complained to Rodolfo Eodriguez, the second in charge of the section, that he (Phillips) had
told him " to go to hell." Señor Rodríguez wrote to the chief, Señor
Seminario, who was on a vist to Abisinia, and informed him; and
Señor Seminario wrote back ordering him to be put in the stocks,
and this was done.
H e was also punished by Alfredo Montt in Ultimo Retiro. H e
was asleep on the guard, and Montt found him and beat him and put
him in the " cepo."
During these last three months in Santa Catalina he has seen
Indians flogged—not badly flogged. They were flogged for not
bringing in rubber. They got four to five lashes each. Women or
children he did not see flogged—only men were flogged. Rodolfo
Rodriguez flogged them. H e (Reuben Phillips) was also ordered to
flog, but he refused and was called names by Señor Seminario for not
doing so. H e has seen no one killed in Santa Catalina. He wishes
to leave the service and be taken away. His woman is there at Santa
Catalina, about to become a mother, and he wishes to be allowed to
bring her. He owes the company 113.42 soles Peruanos, and has, he
states, no clothing at all. (He has no shirt or singlet now, and has
only the coat and trousers he is standing up in at the present moment.) He wishes to buy more things from the store here and has
no means of doing so. H e states that Señor Jiménez owes him 50
soles Peruanos and Aquiléo Torres 30 soles Peruanos, but even if
these debts are admitted and credited to him it is pointed out he will
still owe the company some £3 odd.
The consul general directs him to return to Santa Catalina along
with James Mapp and Alfred Hoyte by the launch going to-day to
Providencia, so that they can get all their things and leave that place
in time to catch the Liberal.
REUBEN PHILLTPS.

See statement attached to deposition of James Mapp as to the
journey to Santa Catalina and attempt by Agüero to ambush these
men.
[No. 26.]
S T A T E M E N T OF CLIFFORD Q U I N T Í N , A N A T I V E OF BARBADOS, MADE TO H I S
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 2 , 1 9 1 0 .

Born, the 24th December, 1884, in Barbados. Father living in
Barbados, but his mother is dead.
Was engaged in Barbados with the first lot of men in end of
(October) 1904, and was brought here by Señor Normand, arriving
at La Chorrera on the 10th November, 1904, along with 30 other Barbados men and 5 women. There were 29 others. He made 30 men.
All of them went to Andokes in December, 1904—he can not recall
the exact date—led by Ramón Sanchez, with Armando Normand.
Deponent stopped at Andokes for two years without coming away.
I t was in October, 1906, that he left Andokes and came away and

SLAVEEY I N PEETJ.

393

returned to La Chorrera. He was sick, because he had been flogged
there. He was twice beaten there, first by Señor Normand soon
after he arrived. He was tied up by the arms and was given 50
lashes. (He- shows one very large scar across the ribs and other
marks that date from that flogging, now much more than five years
ago.) I t was about a month after he got to Andokes this occurred.
They had nothing to eat at all, and he was trying to get a piece of
cassava bread from an Indian girl. He was offering her a box of
matches for it, and a Colombian, named Muñoz, carne to tell him hot
to have any dealings with the girl, and he shoved the Colombian
away, whereupon Señor Normand had him tied up with his arms behind him, and he got 50 lashes. H e calls Westerman Leavine (who
was standing below in the yard when this man's evidence was given)
and asks him to state the facts. Leavine admits that the flogging
was given to Quintin by Normand, that it was a very severe flogging, but he can not recall the exact reasons for it. Quintin was
again beaten later on in Andokes, before coming away in October,
1906, this time by Señor Normand and Bucelli. Bucelli lashed him
over the ear (he shows the mark on it) and Normand beat him with
a stick. He was very badly beaten, and came to La Chorrera sick
from it. The reason for the second flogging was as follows:
Bucelli was on a commission to the Caqueta, of which he (Quintin) was a member. They crossed the Caqueta in search of Indians,
and had captured eight of them—four women, two big men, and
two little boys—quite young, small boys. These prisoners were being brought back to Andokes, the two men in chains. A Colombian
man named Diaz was in charge of the two men in chains, and they
escaped in the night with the chains on them. Bucelli was vexed
and did not want to tell Normand that these men had escaped
through the fault of a Colombian, so he charged him, Quintin, with
not having kept proper guard and being with the women that night
instead of doing his guard. So then Bucelli and Normand both beat
him. This was the chief cause of his illness, and he came to La
Chorrera very ill. He was nearly three months sick here in Lá
Chorrera.
During the two years that he spent in Andokes his work was to go
out hunting Indians. All of them were employed like that. He
did not kill Indians then—not in Matanzas. He saw plenty ^ of Indians killed at that time. They were killed by Señor Normand and
by Sanchez, too. They were tied up and chains put round their
necks; and they were hung up, and he, Sanchez, would take a
" sword," or machete, and stick it right through them. H e saw
Ramón Sanchez do this to plenty of Indians—men, not women. One
day Sanchez killed 25 men—he shot some, others he cut their heads
off, and some he hanged slowly with a chain round their ne?cks till
their tongues came out, and they died like that. Altogether he saw
Sanchez kill with his own hands some 30 Indians, and this in two
months.
He saw two Barbado® men, Augustus Walcott and Percy Francis,
tied up by Sanchez and flogged with swords. That was the last that^
Sanchez did in Andokes, because he left soon after they arrived
there and Señor Normand then took charge.
Deponent often went on expeditions with Normand—always after
Indians—and very many Indians were killed by him (Normand)

894

SLAVERY I K PERU.

then. One day they came to an Indian house in the Andokes country
and caught all the Indians in the house; there were women and men
and young children, some about a month old, quite small. All were
killed except the little children; they were left alive in the house to
die there, but their mothers were killed. H e cut off the heads of all
these Indians; Señor Normand himself did it. Deponent will swear
it—he saw him do it. He cut off their heads with a machete. H e
said: " Those were to pay for the white people they had killed."
The Andokes had killed some Colombians before this.
Another time the " muchachos " went out on an expedition from
Matanzas and they brought in an Indian man, a " capitán," by name
Nequen (as near as it can be written). H e was brought up to Señor
Normand tied up, and he got his hands a n d h i s feet both tied with
native rope; and then Señor Normand ordered a fire to be made of
wood, and the boys did this, and then he (Señor Normand himself)
took kerosene oil and' poured it over the Indian's head. H e then
took a match and lighted the man's hair, his long hair, and then
threw him tied on the fire and he was burned alive. The man died
quickly; it was a big fire. He hollered out and begged to be taken
out, but he died then and was burnt entirely in the fire. There was
nothing left of him; he was quite burnt up.
He saw it with his own eyes. Some of the Barbados men saw it,
too. One of them, Downs, has now gone away. Leavine was there
and he saw it done. Dyall was not there. H e had run away from
that section. This burning of Nequen was getting toward the end
of his (Quintin's) stay at Andokes, say autumn of 1906.
Another time Quintin accompanied Normand on an expedition
and they caught another " capitán," and Normand cut off both his
hands and both his feet and left him to die like that on the road—in
the path. The man was not dead when they left him. He does not
remember that " capitan's " name; he was a wild Indian in the forest.
Normand caught this Indian and ordered him to conduct him to the
Indian house where all his people were and the Indian refused, and
Normand cut his feet and hands off for that.
Soon after that Quintin left Andokes and came, as he described, to
Chorrera, ill. H e stayed here three months to recover from the illtreatment, and then was sent to Santa Catalina, where Aurelio
Rodriguez was the chief of section. This would be about February,
1907. He can not fix the date nearer. He stayed at Santa Catalina
all the time, ever since, up to now. I t is nearly four years since he
went there, and with the exception of four months he spent here in
Chorrera about a year ago all the rest of his time was spent there.
During the time he was there under Aurelio Rodriguez he was employed on commissions and hunting Indians.
Very, many Indians were killed there both by Rodriguez himself
and by his " muchachos." They were shot; their heads were cut
off, too. He saw lots of them killed like this—men and women, and
little children, too. Little children of only a few days old—some
were thrown in the river (the Cahuína ti) by Rodolfo Rodriguez, a
Colombian, who is now the second in charge of the section.
He saw this man Rodriguez shoot Indians, men and women, and
heave children into the river to drown.
He saw plenty of Indians flogged—Indian women as well as men;
they were all flogged at that tinté. Some of them died of flogging;

SLAVEEY I N PEKTJ.

395

some died before they were finished getting licked; they were tied
out on four sticks. He saw Indians die thus in the section under
the lash; others died after it in their houses when they got home.
They were flogged for not bringing in rubber, or not enough rubber.
H e himself has flogged them—women as well as men. He was ordered to do it, and did it. He does not know of any who died from
his flogging of them; he tried not to kill them or hit them too hard.
Asked how about the man whose head he cut off, he states he had
" a right to do that." Asked to explain, he says he went out on a
commission and caught that man, who had killed a " muchacho " and
got off with his rifle, so they were all sent out after him. The Indian
was caught; Eodolfo Rodriguez had him tied up. The Indian would
not tell them where the rest of his people were? and with that the
manager in charge of the expedition, Rodolfo Rodriguez, ordered
him (Quintín) to cut the man's head off. H e did not wish to do it,
and he was forced. The manager said if he did not do it. he would
tie him up and carry him into Aurelio Rodriguez to put him in the
" cepo." Quintín still refused, and then Rodriguez threatened him
with his rifle, and said if he did not do it he would give him a ball;
so then he did it. Asked how he did it, he said the man was tied up
and they covered his eyes, and he (Quintín) took a machete and cut
his head off against a tree. H e cut the head off with one stroke
against the tree. That is the only man he killed; he did it because
he was afraid. H e dreaded being put in the " cepo," with his legs
wide apart, and he was afraid, and he feels this killing of the Indian
very much. He did it solely from fear for himself, because he was
forced to do it.
Aurelio Rodriguez was there as his chief nearly three years. H e
left for Iquitos about June last year (1909). During that time he
(Quintín) saw plenty of Indians killed, more than he can count, more
than he can remember. H e used to flog the Indians, too, himself.
H e was ordered to do it. Sometimes he gave them 25 lashes, and
they would be badly flogged from it—cut badly.
When Aurelio Rodriguez left Santa Catalina, Señor Seminario
came as chief of the section^ and he is there now.
Things are better with him—much better. He treats the Indians
well. They are flogged, but not badly. The most they get now is
four or five lashes.
He has not seen Señor Seminario kill Indians, and does not think
they are now killed. So that for more than a year now the Indians
have not been killed, and have not been badly flogged, and when they
come into the section with rubber he gives them food from his own
"chácara."
Deponent himself has not been ill treated at Santa Catalina since
Señor Seminario took charge of the section. He has nothing to complain of. He gets good food, etc.; there is a big " chácara " there
and he can not complain. He came down to La Chorrera about four
days ago, sick. His foot is bandaged up and he is ill (he looks very
thin and sick).
He wishes to go away, but has not money to go. H e would like to
go away. He is tired and has been here a long time and would like
to go away. He has got a woman—an Indian woman in Santa
Catalina, but no children. The woman is there now. She will
be given away to some one else. H e has no means to carry her

396

SLAVEEY IN PERU.

with^ him. He owes the company 72.92 soles Peruanos after nearly
six years' continuous work. Asked how it is that he has got no
money saved, he states it is chiefly due to buying food, as until lately
they got little to eat—often nothing to eat. He has got his accounts,
and he can show them. His pay is 50 soles Peruanos per month,
and he often had to spend much more than that on food, and medicine, too.
The last time he was down here, about a year ago (he left L a Chorrera about seven months ago to return to Santa Catalina), he spent
about 152 soles Peruanos, and much of it on medicine. I t was the
same illness he has now, this disease of his foot. H e has a hole in
the sole of his right foot, caused by a wound made by a spike—a poisoned spike—put by the Indians in the roads. H e got it about a year
ago. The Indians dp this to defend themselves—to keep the company's people away from their houses if they can. That is how he
got his present sickness, and that is one reason he has no money
saved; that and the food he bought and the very high prices charged
by the company for the things sold to the men.
CLIFFORD Q U I N T Y N E .

Signed by the aforesaid Clifford Quintin—spelling his name Quintyne—before me, this 5th day of November, 1910, at La Chorrera, to
whom the foregoing statement has been read over and to which he
subscribes his name in my presence as assenting to its being a true
and faithful rendering of the statement made by him to me on the
2d day of November^ 1910.
ROGER CASEMENT.
F U R T H E R S T A T E M E N T OF CLIFFORD Q U I N T I N MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ^
CONSUL GENERAL ON NOVEMBER 5 , 1 9 1 0 .

Clifford Quintín, recalled, and that portion of Evelyn Batson's
statement wherein Batson states that Quintin had told him of killing
other Indians besides the man whose head he cut off (read out to
him). H e is asked if this is true; and after some delay and hesitation states it is true—that he has killed other Indians.
He confesses that he killed two other Indians—a man and a little
girl—and that he had not stated the truth in his first statement when
asked if there had been others killed by him besides the man whose
head he cut off.
Asked about the man, he states that he and Preston Johnson at
nightfall went to enter an Indian house in the Santa Catalina district.
I t was in 1908. They were both on a commission to catch Indians,
sent by Aurelio Rodriguez. He (Quintin) sought to enter the Indian house first, and he stooped to go inside. An Indian man inside
aimed a blow at him with a machete, and he (Quintin) shot this man
with his carbine and killed him. The Indian was shot through the
heart.
The other Indians all ran away; they all escaped. The body was
left there where it fell. This was a Boras Indian—a young man.
The two Barbados men went on and slept in a small Indian house
about 15 minutes away. Quintin reported this to Aurelio Rodriguez,
who said it was all right. H e is positive he reported it, and this was
said.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

397

Another time he (Quintín) was out on a commission with Eodolfo
Rodriguez. This was last year, 1909; he can not exactly remember
the date, but is certain it was last year and still in the time of Aurelio
Rodriguez as chief of section.
They were on a commission in the Boras country and came to an
Indian house where they found a man and a little girl—quite a small
child. Rodolfo Rodriguez took the man prisoner and the little girl
was left in the house alone. She had bad feet and could not walk.
She was quite lame and could not walk. There were only these two—
the man and the little girl who lived in that house. H e asked Rodolfo Rodriguez if he (Quintín) might carry the little girl into the
section. They were two days away from Santa Catalina. Rodolfo
refused to allow this, and told him to leave the girl there to suffer.
Quintín protested, and said it was better to carry the child in to save
her from starvation. Rodriguez then said, " I t is better to shoot
her " ; and he ordered him (Quintín) to do it. H e obeyed. H e was
ordered more than once to do it—under threat, of punishment in
Santa Catalina if he refused. H e obeyed, and shot the girl. H e
shot her in the left breast, and she lay on the ground and she died
at once. She was left there; not buried at all. She saw him with a
rifle and knew he was going to shoot her. This act was reported to'
Aurelio Rodriguez, who said nothing.
He makes this further statement to His Majesty's consul general
this 5th day of November, declaring it to be true and that he conceals
no fact.
CLIFFORD Q U I N T Y N E .

Signed by the above-named Clifford Quintín—spelling his name
as Quintyne—before me this 5th day of November, 1910, at La Chorrera, to whom this statement has been read over, and to which he
subscribes his name as proof of it being a true and faithful rendering
of his statement made to me at La Chorrera this 5th day of November,
1910.
ROGER CASEMENT.

This man left the Putumayo with Mr. Casement and was bound
for Barbados in December, 1910.
[No. 27.1
S T A T E M E N T O F A L L A N DAVIS, A N A T I V E O F BARBADOS, MADE TO H I S
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT LA CHORRERA O N NOVEMBER, 1 9 1 0 .

Born
•. Can not state his age. Thinks he is about 26 or 27.
Father he believes to be living, but is not sure, as he has not heard
for a long time; his mother is dead.
Came to the Putumayo in 1904; was engaged in Barbados with the
very first contingent and arrived in Chorrera in November, 1904.
Went to Andokes or Matanzas with a large party of his countrymen and others, led by Ramón Sanchez and by Señor Normand, where
he stayed only about six months. Was employed there doing guard,
working the ground too, cutting down trees, helping to build a house.
Went only once on a commission to look for Indians. They found
some. I t was like this: Normand stayed at an Indian house and sent
him, a Colombian named Ortiz, and some " muchachos " on to another
house where he knew Indians were; and when they arrived there the

398

SLAVERY I N PERU.

Indians ran away, and Ortiz fired and shot one man through the back
and out by his stomach—and the man died next morning. That was
the only Indian they got, and that one was killed. H e did not go on
more commissions then, he stayed in the section making doors and
doing carpentering work.
He saw Indians brought in and killed. Eamón Sanchez killed three
with a sword, he cut them in the head, and they died some days after
it. They got no rubber that time. The Indians had not begun to
work it then, they had not got them to work it. Just when he was
leaving they were beginning to bring in rubber, some of them. Did
not see Mr. Normand kill anyone at that time. He left Andokes
about the time Cyril Atkins left it as a prisoner for shooting the
woman. 1
He stayed in Chorrera about a month and then he was sent to
Entre Eios. That would be about the middle of 1905. H e served at
Entre Rios about two years and a few days, all the time under Mr.
O'Donnell as the chief of section.
He was chiefly employed on commissions to go out and see that the
Indians got the " caucho."
He flogged Indians then. The Indians would be flogged out in
their own house if the rubber was a little bit short, and they were
flogged in the station itself for the same reason.
H e flogged Indians whenever he was called on to do so.
Asked if Indians were killed there, he answers that two Indians
ran away from working rubber, and they were caught and brought
into the station, and were shot there by Mr. O'Donnell's orders by
the " muchachos." They were shot at the side of the compound.
James Chase was not there at that time. These two Indians were
men. Did not see any women killed—and he knows only of those
two men being killed by Mr. O'Donnell's orders in his time. Women
were flogged as well as men, but he himself did not flog any women;
he only flogged men. Boys were flogged too—little boys, quite little
boys were flogged. They got a small lash—so—or two to tell them
they must work " caucho." He himself was well treated at Entre
Eios—all the time. • He had nothing to complain of.
From Entre Eios he returned to Chorrera, and Señor Maceda kept
him there to work in the carpenter's shop. H e remained about a
year and seven months here at La Chorrera doing carpentering work,
or it must have been longer perhaps, because he has been a year and
three months in Abisinia. I t was therefore toward the latter end
.of 1907 he left Entre Eios and came to Chorrera, and he left for Abisinia in July, 1909. He has been in that section ever since.
Asked what he has been doing there, answers he has been at carpentering work all the time and in Abisinia all the time. He was in
Morelia once for a short time with Capt. Whiffen. I t was while
he was.here in Chorrera they sent him to Morelia with Capt. Whiffen,
whose own servant, John Brown, was sick. He stayed there only a
short time and then returned to Chorrera. During this last 15
months he has been engaged all the time in Abisinia itself, except
for one day and a night he went on a commission. He went with the
second chief, a man named Cordaira (as he pronounces i t ) , who has
gone away and is now in Iquitos.
1
1 find by his accounts in the company's ledgeis that he was in Matanzas certainly
on May 23, 1905.—R. C.

SLAVEKY I N PERU.

399

On that commission the chief was J u a n Zellada, and Joseph Minggs
and himself and " muchachos." They were looking for an Indian
by the name of Eochipo—a Boras Indian. This was this year, but
he can not state the month; he can not remember, except that it was
this year. When they reached the house of the Indians Eochipo
ran away a short distance, and a " muchacho " by the name of Michichineva shot him in the feet, but it only grazed him and cut the skin.
H e (Davis) was then a little way off, and Eochipo had an " escopeta "
loaded (a trade gun, not a Winchester), and he pointed it at him
(Davis) and he stepped behind a tree and fired at Eochipo and hit
him in the hand. The wound was not serious. Zellada then came
and shot Eochipo in the head and killed him. Eochipo was killing
Indians that were working " caucho "—walking about killing thq
Indians who worked for the white man. " Some of the Indians work
fair because they want things or don't want to be flogged—others
don't like working." That is the only commission he went on. All
the rest of the time he was in the station of Abisinia doing carpentering work. During that time he has seen Indians flogged many
times, some severely flogged, by a Colombian named Simon Ángulo.
Some wTere put in " cepo " after being flogged, others were let go after
being flogged. He had seen an Indian so badly flogged by Cordaira
that his back could not get better—it was stinking—so they send and
shoot him. Cordaira ordered him to be shot—a Colombian named
Muñoz shot him. That was because the Indian was so badly flogged
he could not get better. H e was stinking, and could not be able to
walk, so the}^ did not put him in the " cepo." He could not walk.
He lived about four weeks after he was flogged, but could not get
better. They put medicine, but it would not get better. They put
iodiform, but it would not get better. The man was badly cut with
the whip, and then they shot him so—and he was buried. That man
had run away from working " caucho," and he was caught and made
prisoner, and Agüero ordered him to be flogged. H e does not know
the Indian's name. I t was this year it happened; he can not say
what month, but he knows it was this year.
He has also seen Cordaira send " muchachos " to shoot two Indians—two Huitotos. They were two brothers. They belonged to
Entre Eios; they were sent to Abisinia as " muchachos," and they
did not like being there, and they ran away to try and get home, and
they stayed to get food at an Indian house—the house of Gwatipa, a
" capitan's " house—and they stole some sardines, and Gwatipa 1 saw
them stealing the sardines, and he shot one of them in the leg, but it
did not break the leg. Gwatipa caught them both and brought them
into Abisinia. When they arrived there Agüero was not there. Cordaira had the oldest of the two brothers shot when th&y were brought
in, and the other one was kept a prisoner, and he escaped again and
ran away, because he did not like the place. They caught him again,
and brought him to Abisinia, and he was sent to Morelia. H e did
not like ^lorelia, and he stole an ax, and he came back to Abisinia
and hid in the " chácara " round the house; and one evening they
saw some smoke, and when they sent some " muchachos " to see, they
found it was that Indian. They brought him in, and Cordaira gave
him to a " muchacho " by the name of " Eeuben " and told him to
1
Gwatipa apparently had charge of stores belonging to Abisinia that were stored in his
house on the road up from the river to Abisinia.

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shoot him. He was shot there and killed, and they buried him.
Both were killed this year; one was killed a few days before the
other. He does not recall the month, but i s sure it was this year.
Señor Agüera, was not there. Gordaira was in charge and did it.
He has not seen other Indians killed in the section. Corrects himself—he has seen another killing. I t was in October—last month.
I t was not the killing of Katenere, because then he was here in Chorrera ; he had come here to get some things for his family. When he
went back from this, Batson did tell him about Katenere and there
is something else he should have told before.
He says, " I did see Agüero take an Indian from the ' cepo'—this
year—and give him to the ' m u c h a c h o ' boys to kill and eat. They
did shoot him, and they cut him up, and they had him in their house
a day and a night dancing, and they cook him and eat him. I did
not see them eat him because I did not went to their house, but I see
them come along with his hands in their hands."
He knows they eat him, because Agüero went to the Indian house,
the boy's house, when they were dancing that night, and he came
back and he heard him say they were eating him.
He was an Indian who would always run away and wouldn't work.
I t is about five months ago—he is not quite sure, but it is about that
time.
Also another thing he forgot to tell was in October (1910). One
day he was in the " chácara " cutting a piece of wood to make a
plane, and he saw Simon Ángulo and an Indian man by the name of
Pachacko. He saw Ángulo and " a friend of his," J u a n Zellada;
Pachacko was behind Ángulo; they were taking him away to kill
him. He did not see Pachacko killed, but they were taking him to
be killed. He was walking behind them. He heard that they
flogged Pachacko first and then they shot him. They flogged him,
and he did not die from that, so they shot him. Ángulo flogged him
and Juan Zellada shot him. This was last month in Abisinia. Pachacko was a " muchacho " there. His brother is there, too—all his
family was there. He heard that Pachacko had made a conspiracy
against the station. He had talked with an Indian named Dihé,
and had said, " Come, let us attack the house." That was what he
heard, and it was known by the chief Agüero. Blondel was in charge
at the time. Agüero was not there and Blondel was in charge.
Agüero was on the road trying to get the launch across to the
Cahüinari. Batson had come away, and he (Davis) was there alone
in Abisinia. Ángulo lied to him on coming back from killing Pachacko, and pretended he had run away in the forest, but his
(Davis's) own woman came and told him about 3 o'clock. An Indian had seen them killing Pachacko and had run and told Pachacko's
wife, and she told his (Davis's woman). They caught Pachacko's
wife and put her in the " cepo," but after some time they let her go
and sent her to an Indian house.
Asked if he had not seen seven prisoners brought from Morelia
(from Vasquez's raid as declared by James Chase and E. Batson) —
three women and four men—he says " Yes," and he remembers that
two of the men died from starvation. That he did see with his own
eyes—their dead bodies—but he does not know about the others, or
the killing of Katenere, because it was when he was here in Chorrera. The women he knows were given to other men and sent to

SLAVERY I N P E R U .

401

other Indian houses to live. H e knows nothing aoout the commission to the Pama because he was not there, but he heard Jermin
Vasquez (or Filomene) say when he got back, " I left the road
pretty;" he meant he left it " p r e t t y with dead people—that I did
hear him say."
Since he (Davis) heard that this Peruvian Amazon Co.'s commission and the consul general were on the Putumayo they have
not flogged Indians—" even when they don't bring enough rubber."
They tell them, " If you don't bring enough I'se going to flog you,
but they doesn't flog him." This was about October—it was the time
Miguel Flores got back to Abisinia from Chorrera—in October.
From that time that Flores went back the place is changed. The
food got changed, too—the food got better.
From October up to this time when he came away they were giving
good food to the people.
ALLAN DAVIS.

Signed by the aforesaid Allan Davis before me at La Chorrera
this 10th day of November, 1910, after the foregoing statement has
been read over to him, which he declares to be a true and faithful
rendering of what he stated to the consul general on the 2d instant
at La Chorrera.
ROGER CASEMENT.

This man left the Putumayo with his wife and child along with
Mr. Casement and returned to Barbados.
[No. 28.]
S T A T E M E N T OF J O S E P H M I N G G S MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL
AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 1 0 , 1 9 1 0 .

Was born in Barbados.
Is 21 years of age.
His mother is dead, but his father is alive in Barbados.
Engaged in Barbados on contract to come to the Putumayo in
1905, on the 5th April, 1905, he thinks. Has lost his old contract.
Came first to Nanai, near Iquitos, where he stayed working as a
laborer for a period of about 18 months. Was then discharged at
Iquitos; was paid in full, and got his return passage money, viz.,
£12, to return to Barbados, but preferred to stay on in Iquitos, where
he got work as a sailor, on board a German company's launch named
Emilia, and then as a sailor on the Yurimaguas, a river steamer
belonging to Arana Bros. He then engaged on a launch called
the Anastasia, and then engaged as a sailor on board the Liberal,
also belonging to Arana Bros., and then on leaving her went as
a workman on the pier or mole belonging to Booth & Co. in Iquitos.
On leaving this he engaged voluntarily, along with other Barbados
men, to come to the Putumayo for the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.),
and on a similar contract to that of Stanley Sealey and the others
who arrived here on the 12th May, 1908. H e came with them, and
landed here at La Chorrera on the 12th May, 1908. H e has not got
his contract. H e lost it on a " commission " when his clothes were
all swept away in the river.
He was sent to Abisinia. H e left Chorrera with Aquiléo Torres
and another employee of the company he calls Orre ( ? ) , who is now
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3-

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in Iquitos. He, James Chase, Stanley Sealey, and Augustus Walcott
all left for Abisinia together. He stayed at Abisinia a couple of
months, got sick with fever there, and was sent back invalided to
La Chorrera. He was employed as cook then until he got sick. H e
went on short commissions—not very far away from the station
(Abisinia)—as he could not walk well.
These commissions were going to look after Indians with rubber
and bring them in to the station. There were Indians close to the
station, and they were working rubber; they were not tied up.
He saw Indians flogged in the section at this time. H e did not
see Indians badly flogged at that time. He saw no Indians killed
at that time. He did not at that time-flog Indians himself.
Pie arrived back in Chorrera on the 3d October, 1908, and stayed
at Chorrera nearly six months, employed on the launch Huitoto
going up and down the lower river to Providencia and other ports.
He was then sent to Entre Bios, can not recall the date, but thinks
it was about April, 1909, where he stayed three months.
He was employed then on commissions after the Indians to get^
them to bring in the rubber. He always has carried a gun both
on these commissions and while employed on the launch.
At Entre Rios he himself flogged Indians, by direction of the
manager, Señor O'Donnell. Augustus Walcott was there at the
same time; he was the only other Barbados man there at that time.
They both flogged Indians; they and the present cook at Entre Rios,
who is there now, Basilio Cama, did the flogging. They did not
flog the Indians badly not at his hands, or Augustus Walcott's, or
Basilio Cama's that he saw. Asked how it is that so many Indians
at Entre Eios, as elsewhere, bear visible marks of having been badly
flogged, he states he saw that, too; that he saw many Indians very
badly marked from flogging, but he did not do it, nor was it done,
so to his knowledge, while he was there. Asked who had flogged
the Indians so badly as to leave these traces, he says he heard that
Frederick Bishop 1 had done it; also that Cama had done it, too.
He saw no Indians killed at Entre Rios during his stay there. He
states that Señor O'Donnell, the manager, was fair to the Indians,
and that he did not have them flogged " too much." Women were
flogged as well as men, but not by himself and Walcott. Señor
O'Donnell himself flogged the women with a small whip. They
were standing up, and not laid down. Señor O'Donnell would not
allow the others to flog the women, but did it himself. They were
not cut by the whipping. The men were cut; blood would come from
the floggings he, Walcott, and Cama sometimes gave. He states he
did not give at the outside more than five or six lashes. To small
boys, children, only two lashes. These were the manager's orders.
He left Entre Rios and came to Chorrera. He was discharged
from Entre Rios, he believes, at Señor O'Donnell's request. He had
had " a row " with him. He had been sent to Ultimo Retiro to bring
some Indians on the road, to guard them on the way. The Indians
were dispatched to Ultimo Retiro to bring some bags and provisions,
and he was in charge of them. One of these Indians " got away " ; he
ran away back to his house, and on arrival at Entre Rios, Señor
O'Donnell blamed him for this, and he was recalled to Chorrera in
consequence.
1

My servant interpreter.—^-R. C.

SLAVEKY IN

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403

He can not remember the date of this. He was kept at Chorrera
two days, and was then sent to Sabana, wherfc Señor Fonseca was
the chief. He can not remember tlie date exactly, but he believes it
was in August of this year he went to Sabana. He stayed there one
month up to about September last. He was not on commissions there.
His feet were swollen, and he could not walk, so he remained in the
station as cook. Did not flog anyone then—Señor Fonseca himself
flogged the Indians, he saw no one else flog Indians there except
Señor Fonseca. They were not badly flogged. He beat them with
a machete across the shoulders and back. The blows given were
hard blows with a bare machete given with its flat side and would
hurt a man very much, but would not leave marks, as the skin would
not be cut.
Indians were put in "cepo." Some were in for a week or four
days. This was for punishment. Some Indians had got guns and
were using them against the "whites," and these prisoners would
not tell where the guns were.
H e was sent down to Chorrera because his legs were so bad he
could hardly walk. He took five days to walk from Sabana to Chorrera—instead of one day or one day and a quarter, as is ordinary.
H e remained four days here. He got some medicine for his feet.
H e was then sent to Oriente where Señor Alcorta is the chief. This
was done for a change, to give him a chance of recovering. H e
stayed there about a month, but as his leg did not get better he was
sent here, and has been employed ever since on the launch Iluitoto.
He was sent down because Señor Macedo had sent up for him to
come down to meet the consul on his return to Chorrera. His feet
are not better yet. Since coming back to Chorrera he has been
working on the launch Hwitoto as a fireman.
He knows that he is in debt to the company. This is due to the
high prices charged the men for the things they need. He bought
medicines, too, and things to eat often. (He appears to be in debt
to the company on the 29th October, 1910, to the sum of 463.47 soles
Peruanos, or nearly £46.) H e has got all his accounts, which can
show how this indebtedness has been incurred, and will bring them
to the consul.
During his stay in Oriente he saw no Indians flogged, neither men,
women, nor children. He did not see Indians beaten with machetes
or in any way maltreated. He is sure of this. Señor Alcorta treated
the Indians well. He says he is " a gentleman—like Señor O'Donnell." He heard of one Indian who was killed during the time
he was there. I t was like this: Some women, three of them, came
running up crying one day, and they all heard what they said.
They said that an Indian, "belonging to Sabana," had come round
and shot one of Señor Alcorta's Indians, " a cauchero," an Indian
who was working rubber. This was done to try and stop Indians
from working rubber for the white men. Señor Alcorta went out to
look for the man, but did not find him. They found the man who
was shot at his house out in the forest. He was not killed, and when
he, Minggs, left Santa Catalina he does not know if the man had
recovered. They took medicines out to him.
He wishes to" correct the first part of his statement dealing with
his stay in Abisinia. I t is that he had then gone only on short
commissions just round the station. H e went on one long commis-

404

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PERU.

sion to the Caqueta. I t was soon after he got to Abisinia, about
June, 1908. Sealey and Chase and Alfred Hoyte were on that commission. Gibbs was not on it. Augusto Jiménez was in command of
the expedition. There were also " plenty of Peruvians " on the commission; he can not recall all their names. Aquiléo Torres was also
on the commission. He went to the Caqueta, but did not cross that
river. He did not see an old woman burned to death, but he had
heard of i t ; and on the return journey, coming back from Caqueta,
he saw the body of an old woman, that had been burned partly, dead
on the p a t h ; he saw the body of a small boy with the head cut off,
and also the partly burned body of a man—but he did not witness
the killing of these people. He heard from Sealey and Chase and
Hoyte how these people had been killed, but he did not see the burn-'
ing of the two or the beheading of the child, but he saw the dead
bodies. He saw a fight between Jiménez and the leading part of the
expedition with Indians who were lying down in the bushes at the
side of the path. He was ahead of the other Barbados men part
of the time. The Indians attacked them and the Peruvians fired
back, but he did not see anyone killed in that fight.
When Jiménez returned from the Caqueta he brought " p l e n t y "
of Indians as prisoners. Some were tied up, some not. They were
men, women, and children. They were taken to Morelia to make
them work rubber. One of them, he believes, is still in chains in
]ty[orelia—a man named Nuwiatchi, a Boras Indian. He left the other
Indians in Morelia " to work rubber " ; he does not know any more
about them, only that this one man was in chains.
Asked what he wishes to do now, states he would like to go away
with the consul if he can get work. That he has no money at all,
and has an Indian wife who expects a child. If left in La Chorrera itself he would be willing to remain, but would not willingly go
to work on any of the sections after the consul general goes away.
He wishes to leave it to the consul. H e is not in a position to decide
anything for himself, and begs to be taken away if the consul thinks
any work can be found for him.
He wishes to correct his statement as to the dates of his moving
from station to station, seeing that the periods he assigns to his stay
at each place do not accord with the time elapsed since he arrived on
the Putumayo up to this date. The error in calculation, he thinks,
applies more likely to the length of his stay at Abisinia. He stayed
there, he believes, till probably October, 1909, not 1908, and his first
statement that he spent only " two months " there is incorrect. H e
meant to say two months in the station, but he was much longer in
the section of Abisinia, and stayed some time in Morelia. He admits
that his statement is incorrect in several particulars as to the dates
of his stay at particular places, and that he has made misstatements,
but they were not intentional, so he declares.
He admits that he has not answered the questions put to him in a
straightforward way because " he did not remember." H e did not
answer all the questions put to him in a straightforward way because
he was " a bit upset."

Signed before me,

JOSEPH MINGOS.

RoGER

CASEMENT.

This man accompanied Mr. Casement to Manaos, in Brazil, where
work was found for him.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

405

[Ño. 29.]
S T A T E M E N T OF ARMANDO K I N G MADE TO H I S M A J E S T Y 5 S CONSUL GENERAL
AT LA CHORRERA ON NOVEMBER 1 0 , 1 9 1 0 .

Native of Barbados.
About 25 years of age.
Engaged with the first lot of Barbados men in November, 1904, to
come to the Putumayo on a contract entered into before Mr. Brewster
by Abel Alarco and himself.
Has lost his contract.
Stopped first at Colonia Rio j ano and then came to La Chorrera.
Was sent from La Chorrera to Matanzas and Andokes along with
many other Barbados men led by Ramón Sanchez and Señor
Normand.
Stayed there three months and returned to La Chorrera. Stayed
here a short time and then went to Occidente, where Señor Miguel
Flores was the chief of section.
Stayed there about six months and returned to La Chorrera,
whence he was dispatched on a journey to the Caqueta along with
F . Bishop and a young man named Norman, as escort for Mr.
Robuchon. That was about the end, or toward the end, of 1905.
Mr. Robuchon sent them from the mouth of the Cahuinari to look
for help. He was not seen again, and King, Bishop, and the rest
of the expedition came out on the Putumayo a good way below the
Igaraparana, and got up to La Chorrera by steamer.
On his return to La Chorrera from this expedition he was sent
back to Matanzas, where Señor Normand was chief. This would be
in 1906, and he stayed there about nine months, which completed the
two years' contract on which he had originally left Barbados.
No fresh contract was made of any kind, and he has no contract
now of any kind, only a verbal agreement. His present agreement
is with Señor Loayza at El Encanto, and is not in writing, but this
verbal agreement, he understands, is not with Señor Loayza personally, but with the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.), in whose name Señor
Loayza, has reengaged him.
At the termination of the two years or thereabouts in Matanzas
of his contract he returned to La Chorrera, and was sent to E l Encanto, where he has been ever since. He was transferred to E l
Encanto at his own wish, and he has been working there ever since.
He is cook at El Encanto at the present time, and has been in that
capacity for about three years and a half. His present wages are
£10 a month, not 100 soles. He does not owe the company anything, and is quite free to go away at any time he wishes. He is well
treated and has nothing to complain of. Has not been ordered to
perform any illegal tasks at El Encanto, to flog Indians, or to exercise illegal force over them.
Asked is he knew a man named Hernandez^ he asks what name,
and is told Justino Hernandez. After inquiring if this was a Colombian, he says " yes "—he knew Justino Hernandez.
Asked what has become of him, he says he is dead.
Asked how he died, he says he shot him.
Asked who ordered him to shoot Hernandez, he says the manager,
Señor Loayza.
He then proceeds to relate how the occurrence took place. Hernandez pointed his revolver at him and threatened to shoot him,

406

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and he complained to Señor Loayza, who went to the room of Hernandez and asked him what was the cause of his conduct, whereupon
Hernandez fired two revolver shots through the door. Señor Loayza
warned deponent to arm himself and, if necessary, to shoot Hernandez ; and as Hernandez came out from his room and pointed his gun
at him he shot him. Hernandez came to his (deponent's) room
door with a revolver in his hand and pointed it at him, and he (deponent) struck up his arm and shot him. He thinks his shot
killed him. There were plenty of people firing there then; three
bullets went through the cookhouse. Among others he remembers
who were there—Señor Luis Alcorta (now at Oriente). and a man
named Suarez, but he can not remember the names of all. I t is
about four years ago this occurred. I t was about the beginning of
1907, as far as he can recall.
Hernandez was the manager of a section and had come down to
E l Encanto. The matter as related by deponent was in this wise:
When the company—he means Arana Bros.—bought E l Encanto
from its Colombian owners, some of the Colombians of the neighborhood who had interests in El Encanto carne to make trouble. They
did not agree to the sale. They wanted to fight, but Mr. Loayza
quieted them. H e spoke to them " kindly " and got them to go away.
A very short time after—a week or two at most—Justino Hernandez
came to El Encanto to protest against the sale, and came with a
revolver in his hand and attacked deponent. Hernandez was, as
he declares, actually working for Arana Bros, at the time as a chief
of one of the sections, and he came to E l Encanto to protest against
the sale to Arana Bros. His section, he believes, was Esperanza.
He declares this was the only man he shot in the El-Encanto
district.
Asked where he was in January, 1908, answers he was in E l Encanto, but can not remember. He went to Iquitos once, but he is not
sure where he was in January, 1908, except that he was in the E l
Encanto district.
Asked if he were present when others were shot, or if he knew the
names of certain Colombians read out, he admits to having heard
of several and of having known Ildefonzo Gonzalez. He knew Raymundo Caceras, had heard he had been shot, but was not present. #
H e states he was promised a "gratification" for the journey with
Señor Eobuchon, but did not receive anything.
H e has nothing to complain of now. He is well treated and is
perfectly free to go any time he likes.
H e is asked if he has anything further he wishes to say to the
consul general, and he says " no."
The foregoing read over to Armando King, who states that in
Barbados he was baptized Alfonzo and has been called Armando
here on the Putumayo, who declares it is a true and faithful record
of the statements made by him in reply to the interrogatory of His
Majesty's consul general, this 10th day of November, 1910, at La
Chorrera.
ALPHONZO K I N G .

Signed by the aforesaid Armando or Alfonzo King before me
this 10th day of November, 1910, at La Chorrera.
EOGER CASEMENT.

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

407

This man remained on the Putumayo at his own wish. H e was
warned by Mr. Casement that his shooting of Justino Hernandez by
Señor Loayza's orders was a crime and that he might be held responsible for it and answer for it with his life. As he elected to
work with people who were murderers and to stay with them he must
take his chance. The charge of shooting Hernandez was not the only
one brought against this man.
[No. 30.]
S T A T E M E N T OF J O H N BROWN, A NATIVE OF MONTSERRAT, MADE TO H I S
M A J E S T Y ' S CONSUL GENERAL AT IQTJITOS ON DECEMBER 3 , 1 9 1 0 .

His age is 32.
H e is not married. His mother lives in Montserrat; his father is
dead.
Was engaged in Barbados in May, 1905, for Abel Alareo, before
Mr. Brewster.
Went to Colonia Riojano first, and after a short delay there was
sent up to La Chorrera. On arrival there, after three days, he was
sent to the section of Abisinia where Señors Agüero and Enoch
Richards were in charge of the district. A party of Barbados men
to the number of 15 were sent along with Brown from La Chorrera
to Abisinia, "and he found four of his countrymen already there. All
were armed with Winchester carbines.
His work began at once; after three days he and five other Barbados men, under Agüero himself, went out on a commission to the
Boras country to try and catch Indians to make them work rubber.
They caught six women and tied them up with " chambira " (native
rope) and three men, who were also tied up in the same way, and
three children, who were not tied up. I n the effort to catch these
nine adults and three children, six Indians were killed—four men,
one woman, and one little boy. The little boy was shot through
his bowels trying to run away. The man who shot him was Filomene
Vasquez, who is still employed at Abisinia. The " capitán " of these
Indians was shot by Filomene Vasquez and Rodolfo Rodriguez, who
is now at Santa Catalina. The three men and the woman were decapitated. Brown saw it done. These four persons were caught and
beheaded. They were held by their hair and their heads hacked
off with machetes. This was done by the " muchachos " under the
direct orders of Señor Agüero, who stood by and saw it done. This
was Brown's first commission, and, so far as he can recall the date,
it must have been in July of 1905. H e believes it was July because
he remembers it was a Sunday in July, 1905, and as it was the first
time he had seen human life taken it produced a great impression
on him.
The prisoners were brought into Abisinia and put in " cepo " there.
One of these prisoners was subsequently shot by Agüero. H e was
one of six men who were in " cepo " in Abisinia long afterwards,
and Agüero, on coming back to Abisinia after an absence in Iquitos,
had the prisoners then in " cepo" all shot. This was the occasion
related by James Mapp to the consul general when one of the
prisoners so killed by Agüero was a man with one leg only who had
limped or " hopped " as he was being taken to be shot.

408

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PERU.

The other men, prisoners all, subsequently escaped, some from
work in the " chácara " round the house; one of them while in his
(John Brown's) charge, when carrying a load of rice up from the
port of Santa Julia to Abisinia, about two days 5 journey. The man
threw down the sack of rice and got away. He thinks the women
escaped, too.
John Browne's stay in Abisinia was for two years and three
months, some of which was spent in commissions to other sections
and going and coming upon various journeys, with Abisinia, however, as his headquarters.
Enoch Kichards was at Gondar most of the time. H e does not
recall Carlos Miranda, except at the Avio Parana at its mouth. H e
saw very little of him and knows practically nothing of him. H e
does not know much of Enoch Richards. When he arrived at Abisinia, Augusto Jiménez was not there. Jiménez arrived in Abisinia
not long after Brown arrived there. H e (Jiménez) was in charge
of the port of Santa Julia on Brown's arrival in the country and
was soon after transferred to Abisinia itself.
During his two years and three months at Abisinia John Brown
was generally on commissions after the Indians and saw lots of
Indians killed. H e saw hundreds of Indians killed. They were shot,
they were beheaded; there were men, women, and children killed.
He has seen a woman suckling a small baby at her breast have her
head cut off and the baby killed, cut to pieces. This was done by
a man named Esteban Ángulo, chief of the actual commission on
which this crime occurred.
The Indians were raided the whole time of his stay in that section;
they got no peace. Commissions of armed men were continually
being sent out to try to " conquer " them and compel them to come in
and submit to working rubber, and these murders were a part of
the campaign against the Indians. The Indians he refers to were
Boras Indians all the time. During the two and a quarter years he
spent in Abisinia section, Brown was more than once sent to Santa
Catalina, where Aurelio Rodriguez was the chief. One section would
help the other with men when needed, and these sections lie only two
day's march apart. • I n Santa Catalina, during the times he was lent
for work there, he frequently saw Aurelio Rodriguez and his conduct
to the Indians was the same as Agiiero's. These Indians were Boras,
too. Aurelio Rodriguez sent out frequent commissions in which he
(Brown) and other Barbados men took part, and Indians were
frequently killed in the most brutal way.
H e saw women and children often killed. He saw Aurelio Rodrigues in an Indian house where he spent 10 days and whence expeditions were being daily dispatched to the surrounding forest to
catch Indians, and as they were brought in Rodriguez had them
beheaded—all that he did not want.
The murdering of the Indians between Santa Catalina and Abisinia by orders of Agüero and Rodriguez went on all the time of his
stay in the region. He remembers the journey well when Jiménez
killed the 35 Indian prisoners at night and declares the facts were as
related by James Mapp to consul general (that statement read over
to him) and not as recorded by Capt. Whiff en from memory in his
letter to the foreign office (read to h i m ) . H e had misinformed

SLAVEEY I N P E E U .

409

Capt. Whiifen, or Capt. Whiifen, writing from memory, had not
remembered clearly.
He was present when Jiménez and Agüero had the six men taken
from " cepo," one being lame, and had them shot in Abisinia, and the
facts are as recorded by James Mapp. The only Indian he saw
Jiménez burn alive was the man who was thrown wounded on the
fire the night they killed the 35 Indians.
H e has seen Jiménez kill very many Indians, but not by burning
them alive. H e left Abisinia section in October, 1907, he thinks, and
returned to La Chorrera where he spent most of the balance of his
time. He left Chorrera in June, 1908, to come to Iquitos, with the
intention of leaving the company's service altogether; and here in
Iquitos, he thinks in July, 1908, he met Capt. Whiifen and was
engaged by him.
During his stay at Chorrera up to June, 1908, Indians were flogged
there. They were not flogged out in the open, but in the " caucho "
store. They would be taken in there, the door shut, and flogged
inside. This was usually done by Dancuart, the chief storekeeper.
Brown more than once was dispatched to the forest to bring in
Indians' to be thus flogged. Señor Macedo was present at these
floggings—they were done by his orders. This went on up to Capt.
Whiffen's arrival. During the time he spent with Capt. Whiifen
in the sections and at Chorrera the Indians were not punished openly
and everything was done to hide from Qapt. Whiffen the true facts
of the case.
I n addition to the deliberate killing of Indians he so frequently
witnessed in Abisinia and Santa Catalina, John Brown saw many
Indians, women and men, who were starved to death, who died by
hunger while kept chained up and in the " cepo " at Abisinia. No
food was given to them, and these people often died of starvation.
H e has seen Indians in " cepo " in this starving condition eat the
dirt near the " cepo;" they would scrape it up with their fingers and
eat it.
During his stay at Abisinia the principal employees who took part
in these crimes were Abelardo Agüero, the chief of the district;
Esteban Ángulo, who went away and was replaced by Augusto
Jiménez; Bucelli, since killed in Caqueta; Filomene Vasquez, still
in Abisinia; Simon Ángulo, a Colombian who was kept for flogging
only and is still at Abisinia in this capacity; and in Santa Catalina
the worst characters were Aurelio Rodriguez, the chief; Alejandro
Vasquez, or Vasquez Torres, still in the company's service and at
Santa Catalina; Manoel Lopez and Rodolfo Rodriguez, still at
Santa Catalina.
I n La Chorrera at that time the worst man was Dancuart, who is
now in the Caraparana agency.
John Brown is not aware that any action was taken at any time
by the Peruvian authorities to prevent these crimes or punish their
authors. There were troops in La Chorrera during his stay there,
under an officer, and the method of dealing with the Indians was well
known. There were troops there in Chorrera when Dancuart flogged
Indians in the rubber store, but he can not say if their officer knew
that Indians were being flogged as the door of the " caucho " store
was shut so as to prevent the cries of the victims being heard, but
often the Indians would have their mouths shut, and would v be

410

S L A V E R Y IN

PERU.

ordered to keep quiet or worse would be done to them. These
Indians were accused of not being willing to come into Chorrera to
work. They were Indians of a Capitán Akina on the other side of
the river across from La Chorrera.
NOTE.—Mr. Casement sent John Brown, at the prefect's request,
to be questioned by him. During his interview with the prefect at
Iquitos on the 30th of November, John Brown did not relate all the
foregoing to the prefect, but only as much'as there was time to
record. He told the prefect among other things of the killing of the
35 people by Jiménez; of the murder of the 6 men in the " cepo 5)
by Agüero and Jiménez; of Aurelio Eodriguez killing many Indians
and flogging to death, and of Alejandro Vasquez also, and Eodolfo
Rodriguez, of Filomene Vasquez killing; of Agüero and Jiménez
taking an Indian and making a target of him and shooting" at him
until they killed him; of Agüero shooting a girl charged with immoral intercourse with a young Brazilian employee who is no longer
there; of Jiménez murdering 12 Indians (men and women) in
Morelia who had been brought in as prisoners. He killed these
Indians because they had " run away and were bad and Myers not
wanted again."
This covers briefly what John Brown related to the prefect, who
thanked him for the information and said that if John Brown should
be in Iquitos when the perfect heard from Lima he would send for
him and call him. This refers to expected telegraphic instructions
from Lima to dispatch an investigating judge to the Putumayo.
John Brown, at his own request, remains in Iquitos to obtain work
there.
I suggested to the prefect that no effort should be spared to obtain
good interpreters, and John Brown knows the language of the Boras
Indians fairly well.
ROGER CASEMENT.
IQUITOS,

December

3,1910.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 10.]

COPY OF T H E P A Y L I S T OF T H E LA CHORRERA A G E N C Y , AS D R A W N U P FOR
SEPTEMBER, 1 9 1 0

( P L A N I L L A S DE S U E L D O S ) .

[ N O T E . — O n e P e r u v i a n sole equals 2 s . ; 1 arroba equals 15 kilog.]

1. Sección Sur:
Carlos Miranda (chief), 2 soles per arroba of rubber and 7 per cent.
José Plaza, 100 soles per month.
Ezequiel Lara to, 75 soles per month.
2. Sección Occidente:
Fidel Velarde (chief), 2 soles per arroba ("peso bruto") and 7 per cent.
Manuel Torrico, 100 soles per arroba ("peso bruto") and 7 per cent.
Eugenio Acosta, 100 soles per month.
Apolinar Atravea, 80 soles per month.
Augustin Pena, 80 soles per month.
3. Sección Entre Ríos:
Andres A. O'Donnell (chief), 3 soles per arroba and 7 per cent.
Juan B. Rodriguez, 50 cents (Is.) per arroba and 80 soles per month.
Florentino Santillan, 125 soles per month.
Martin Arana, 80 soles per month.
Abel Ortiz, 70 soles per month.
Basilio Cama, 60 soles per month.
Pedro Garcia, 50 soles per month.
Abel Valle, 50 soles per month.

SLAVERY IN PERU.
3. Sección Entré Rios—Continued.
Maximo Borbolino, 70 soles per month.
Eusebio Pinedo, 60 soles per month.
Miguel Castillo, 50 soles per month.
4. Sección Atenas:
Alfredo Montt (chief), 3 soles per arroba.
A. Vasques Torres, 150 soles per arroba.
Jeremias Gusmán, 80 soles per arroba.
Ismael Tortilla, 50 soles per arroba.
Ramon Vargas, 50 soles per arroba.
Emilio Mozambito, 120 soles per arroba.
5. Sección Ultimo Retiro :
Augusto Jiménez (chief), 3 soles per arroba.
Suen Lopez, 80 soles per month.
Aquiléo Torres, 100 soles per month.
Eleuterio Zamorra, 80 soles per month.
Elias Velasquez, 60 soles per month.
José Dias, 60 soles per month.
Fabian Montoya, 100 soles per month.
Edward Crichlow,1 50 soles per month.
Pascal Zambrano, 70 soles per month.
Manuel Becorra, 50 soles per month.
Juan Vallejos, 50 soles per month.
6. Sección Oriente:
Luis Alcorta (chief), 2 soles per arroba and 7 per cent.
Federico Arias, 60 soles per month.
Toribio Grandes, 60 soles per month.
Esteban Ángulo, 100 soles per month.
Maximo Collazes, 50 soles per month.
Crisóstomo Castillo, 50 soles per month.
Santiago La Calle, 50 soles per month.
Oscar Euciso, 70 soles per month.
7. Sección Andokes (Matanzas) :
Armando Normand (chief), 20 per cent "sobre productos peso bruto."
Cesar Bustamante, 126 soles per month.
Juan Sifuentes, 80 soles per month.
Ildefonso Tachón, 60 soles per month.
Adán Negrete, 80 soles per month.
Westerman Leavine,1 60 soles per month.
Francisco Borber, 50 soles per month.
Elias Rodriguez, 50 soles per month.
José Cordova, 50 soles per month.
Nemesio Cuenca, 50 soles per month.
Juan Villota, 50 soles per month.
Adolfo Cortés, 60 soles per month.
James Layne (Lane), 1 50 soles per month.
8. Sección Sabana:
José Inocente Fonseca (chief), 4 soles per arroba.
Remigio Vega, 150 soles per month.
Alejandro Diva, 80 soles per month.
Glorioso Rodríguez, 60 soles per month.
José Burbano, 80 soles per month.
Preston Johnson,1 50 soles per month.
Juan Collazes, 50 soles per month.
Rafael Ocana, 80 soles per month.
Sydney Morris,1 60 soles per month.
Adolfo Castro Pol,1 60 soles per month.
•
Augustus Walcott, 60 soles per month,
1
Joseph Minggs, 60 soles per month.
9. Sección Santa Catalina:
Carlos Seminario (chief), 4 soles per arroba.
Rodolfo Rodriguez, 80 soles per month and 30 cents per arroba.
Adolfo Lopez, 70 soles per month.
Hipólito Medina, 50 soles per month.
Lucas Trejo, 60 soles per month.
1

Barbados men.

411

412

SLAVERY IN PERU.

9. Sección Santa Catalina—Continued.
Braulio Muñoz, 80 soles per month.
Victor Gusmán, 60 soles per month.
Alfredo Zegarra, 80 soles per month.
Alfredo Hoyte,1 50 soles per month.
Clifford Quintyne,1 50 soles per month.
Vicente Cubicles, 50 soles per month.
James Mapp,1 50 soles per month.
Reuben Phillips,1 50 soles per month.
10. Sección Abisinia:
Abelardo Agüero (chief), 5 soles per arroba. »
Miguel Flores, 200 soles per month.
Armando Blondel, 100 soles per month.
Isaias Ocampo, 60 soles per month.
Allen Davis,1 70 soles per month.
Antonio Ahanuari, 80 soles per month..
1
( Evelyn Bat son, 70 soles per month.
Jermin or Filomene Vasquez, 70 soles per month.
Juan M. Lopez, 70 soles per month.
Simon Ángulo, 60 soles per month.
Simon Muñoz, 60 soles per month.
Juan M. Zelada, 80 soles per month.
Subsección Morelia (under Abisinia) :
Abelardo Agüero (chief).
Miguel Montoya, 50 soles per month!
Mariano Cuba, 50 soles per month.
Subsección Palmera (under Abisinia) :
Abelardo Agüero.
Ciriaco Ordonez, 50 soles per month.
James Chase,1 50 soles per month.
Froilan Patino, 50 soles per month.
Launches:
Launch Witoto (on Lower Igaraparana, below Chorrera) —
Guillermo Bruce.
Lorenzo Murayari.
Pedro Salinas.
C. Hammacari.
Miguel Davila.
Stanley Sealy.1
Launch Veloz (on Igaraparana, above the cataract at La Chorrera) —
Eudisio Arevalo.
Launch Audaz (on Cahuinari River) :
Guillermo Burke (a British-Australian subject).
At La Chorrera, the chief agency, and at subposts under it, none of which produce rubber:
Victor Macedo, chief agent, 315 soles per month and 6 per cent on the profits
of the agency, i. e., all sales of goods and all produce of rubber from all
the sections.
José S. Rodriguez, doctor.
Francisco Ponce, accountant.
H. S. Parr, storekeeper.
Victoriano del Solar.
Luis Garece, chief steward.
Juan Cardenas, table steward.
Manuel O. Lopez.
Samuel Pelaez.
José M. Alvarado.
Philip Lawrence, cook.2
Juan Pinheira.
Isaac Puertas.
Publico Agudelo.
Davila Salazar.
Siefert Greenidge, baker.1
José C. Miranda.
Gregorio Arimuyn.
1

Barbados men.

Jamaica boy.

413

S L A V E R Y IJST P E R U .

At La Chorrera—Continued.
Donald Francis. 1
Antonio Antis, mason.
Sabino Bendezu.
Pablo Canpoyo.
Manuel Perez.
At fishing station down river:
Arturo Macias.
Marcial Sifuentes.
Miguel Tapulima.
José Cerrón.
At Indostan:
Zumaran.
Santiago Ortiz.
Near La Chorrera at the transport post over the cataract:
Daniel Alvan.
Domingo Quispé; also
Joshua Dyall, a Barbados man transferred from La Chorrera agency to El
Encanto in September.
[No. 11.]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.
FOREIGN OFFICE, March

30,1911.

S I R : With reference to my dispatch of the 10th instant, inclosing a
copy of a report 2 by Mr. Eoger Casement on his recent visit to the
Putumayo district, I transmit to your excellency herewith a copy of a
dispatch 3 to His Majesty's representative at Lima, instructing him to
communicate the report in question unofficially to the Peruvian Government, for their confidential information, intimating that a further
report by Mr. Casement on the general situation in the Pütumayo
as it affects the Indians will be similarly communicated to them later.
Copies of telegraphic correspondence with H i s Majesty's representative at Lima, showing the steps taken by His Majesty's Government
in the matter since Mr. Casement's return, are also inclosed.
I have to request your excellency to communicate unofficially to the
United States Government, for their confidential information, Mr.
Casement's report, intimating that his further report will similarly
be communicated to them later, and to apprise them generally at the
same time of the action taken by His Majesty's Government, as
recorded in the correspondence now inclosed, and of the present instruction to His Majesty's representative at Lima.
I am, etc.,

E. GREY.

[No. 12.]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, March

30,1911.

SIR : With reference t o previous correspondence, I transmit to you
herewith copies of a report drawn up by Mr. Eoger Casement,
C. M. G., on his visit to the Putumayo district to inquire into the
1

Barbados men.

No. 8.

No. 12.

414

SLAVERY I N PERU.

state of affairs prevailing there as regards the British subjects in the
employ of the Peruvian-Amazon Co. 1
A further report by Mr. Casement on the general situation in the
Putumayo, as it affects the Indians there, is now under preparation,
and will be sent you later.
You should communicate the report now inclosed unofficially to
the Peruvian Government, for their confidential information, intimating that the further report will be similarly communicated to
them in due course.
I am requesting His Majesty's representative at Washington to
inform the United States Government of this instruction, and of the
steps taken by His Majesty's Government in the matter since Mr.
Casement's return, as recorded in the recent telegraphic correspondence with Mr. des Graz.
I am, etc.,

E. GREY.
[No. 13.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, April

21,1911.

Inquire of Peruvian Government whether they have succeeded in
effecting the arrest of any of the criminals mentioned in my telegram of January 16. So far as I am aware, Aurelio Rodriguez alone
has been discovered and he has been given bail, while Aquiléo Torres
is reported to have been drowned; most of the others are reported to
have escaped, Agüero with an armed band into the Caqueta district
after burning and destroying everything that he could in the hope
of stirring up the Boras Indians.
His Majesty's Government do not doubt that the Peruvian Government are animated by a desire to investigate fully the proceedings
of all those mentioned in my telegram above referred to as being the
worst offenders, but they would be glad to learn at an early date what
action the Peruvian Government propose to take with a view to their
arrest in order to be able to satisfy Parliament that the Peruvian
Government are resolutely determined to put a stop to the excesses
committed against the natives and to prevent their recurrence.

[No. 14. Telegraphic]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, April 27, 1911.

(Received April 27.)
I communicated tor minister for foreign affairs substance of your
telegram of the 21st instant.
I believe I have succeeded in convincing Peruvian Government of
the friendly but also earnest desire of His Majesty's Government that
iNo. 8.

415

SLAVERY I N PERU.

the Peruvian Government should take the necessary steps in Putumayo. Under secretary of state for foreign affairs has communicated
to me ensuing telegrams from perfect at Iquitos, which are as follows:
IQUITOS, February

lJ^.

A r a n a firm h a s dismissed 11 employees accused, who have gone to Brazil*
Commission will find few criminals. Normand a n d Velarde a r e not in Iquitos.
Rodriguez will be arrested.
M A R C H 8.

English commission, composed of Messrs. Barnes, Fox, Bell, Gielgud, ap*
pointed by Peruvian Amazon Co. have arrived here after six m a n t h s in t h e
Putumayo, sent to inquire into t h e accusations against their agents. This
company h a s taken t h e following steps to reform conditions: Rubber gatherers
to have a fixed salary instead of a percentage commission, principal cause of
ill-treatment of Indians. Manager tells m e measures have been taken t o protect natives. T h e presence of Peruvian judicial commission in t h e P u t u m a y o
will be highly beneficial from every point of view.
M A R C H 11.

T h e judicial investigation commission leave for P u t u m a y o March 15, presided over by Paredes, on a gunboat. Court h a s given instructions. Expenses
defrayed by prefecture. Investigation will t a k e three months.
A P R I L 13.

Received yesterday from P u t u m a y o indictment by J u d g e Paredes of Fonseca*
Agüero a n d Flores, who have fled to Manaos on r a f t s t a k i n g with them some
dozens of Huitotos Indians of both sexes to sell them on River Acre for £50
each. I h a v e ordered P a r e d e s to accelerate proceedings so as to issue w r i t s
against above a n d will endeavor to obtain their extradition from Brazil, a s
well a s r e t u r n to their own home of enslaved Huitotos. Paredes said he
would, t h e object of taking a w a y these I n d i a n s being to prevent them from
giving evidence a s to crimes. Huitotos village destroyed.
APRIL 13 (second t e l e g r a m ) .
Before leaving for P u t u m a y o P a r e d e s took evidence from manager a n d exmanager of Peruvian Amazon Co., also A. Rodriguez, under prosecution, admitted to bail for £2,000. Fonseca a n d Montt fled 10 days' march into bush of
Rio N a p o ; police sent t o capture them. A w a r e of necessity of p u n i s h m e n t ;
will endeavor to overcome all difficulties nothwithstanding forest and distance.

[No. 15. Telegraphic]

Sir Edward

Grey to Mr. Jerome,
FOREIGN OFFICE, April 0S,1911.

Your telegram of yesterday.
I am glad that your representations have so far been successful,
and entirely approve.
You may inform Peruvian Government that His Majesty's Government are much gratified at the determination of the Peruvian
Government to alter state of affairs in Putumayo.
They will have the sympathy and moral support of His Majesty's
Government in this humanitarian object, the achievement of which
will greatly redound to their credit.
His Majesty's Government earnestly trust that nothing will be
left undone to secure extradition from Brazil of Fonseca and the
others, and return of natives to their homes.

416

S L A V E R Y INT P E E U .
[No. 16.]

Sir Edioard Grey to Mr.

Bryce.

FOREIGN OFFICE, May

13,

1911.

SIR : With reference to my dispatch of the 30th March last, I
transmit herewith copies of two further reports from Mr. Casement
on his recent investigations in the Putumayo. 1
I request that your excellency will communicate these reports confidentially to the United States Government.
I am, etc.,

E. GREY.

[No. 17.]

Mr. Jerome to Sir E. Grey.
L I M A , May

1911.

(Received June 13.)
S I R : With reference to previous correspondence on this subject» I
have the honor to report that I had an interview with the minister
for foreign affairs on the 2d of May in regard to the Putumayo affair.
His excellency said that certain criminals, taking with them a number of Indians, had been stopped at Manaos, that the Brazilian Government had promised to return the Indians to Peruvian territory,
but that they had refused to grant the extradition of the criminals
on the ground that the laws of Brazil did not permit of extradition
of accused persons to countries that had no extradition treaty with
Brazil, which was the case of Peru; he also told me that his Government had given instructions to the Peruvian representative at Eio
de Janeiro to commence negotiations for the conclusion of such treaty
without delay.
Public opinion in Peru, his excellency hoped, largely through the
influence of the asociación Pro-Indigena, was being educated up to
a better treatment of the Indians, and he requested me to assure
His Majesty's Government that in so far as his Government were
able, they would do all they could to secure the punishment of the
criminals.
I have, etc.,
LTJCIEN J . JEROME.
[No. 18.]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, June 20,1911.
S I R : With reference to my dispatch of the 30th of March last on
the subject of the Putumayo atrocities, I transmit herewith three copies of Mr. Casement's two final reports, together with a Spanish
translation of the same for communication to the Peruvian Government. 1
1

Nos. 9 and 10.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

417

When forwarding these documents to their destination you should
say that His Majesty's Government do not doubt that the Peruvian
Government, after perusal of these reports, which contain more detailed information than that previously communicated to them, will
realize the necessity for prompt and energetic action.
His Majesty's Government have hitherto refused the demand for
publication of Mr. Casement's reports, being, as they were, in a position to inform Parliament that the Peruvian Government have expressed their determination to deal effectively with the evil and that
the Peruvian Amazon Co. are engaged in drawing up a scheme of
reform. His Majesty's Government earnestly hope that when further
questions are put to them in Parliament they will be able to give more
definite assurances with regard to the steps actually being taken to
put an end to the present state of affairs, which dates from a period
before the concern became a British company and for which it is
clear that the Arana Bros, are responsible.
I am, etc.,

E. GREY.

[No. 19.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July #,1911.
Inform Peruvian minister for foreign affairs that I have read the
report of your conversation with his excellency contained in your dispatch of 4th of May, and impress upon him that His Majesty's Government attach the greatest importance to Peru giving visible proof
without further delay that she is determined to eradicate the present
abuses in the Putumayo, and to arrest and bring before, a proper court
the criminals implicated. Failing such proof, they will have no alternative but to publish Sir E. Casement's reports (Spanish translations
of which are now on their way to you for communication to the
Peruvian Government).

[No. 20.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryee.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July 6, 1911.
See my telegram of to-day to His Majesty's representative at Lima.
Please communicate substance to United States Government and
say we should greatly appreciate any support they can give at Lima
in this matter. I t is public knowledge that very great crimes have
occurred, and that His Majesty's Government are in possession of the
facts. His Majesty's Government must confine their action to the
protection of British subjects, and this they have done; but unless
they are in a position to say that criminals have been punished and
measures taken to prevent a recurrence of such cruelties, they will
have no choice but to publish what they know, as publicity will then
be the only chance of remedy.
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

-27

418

SLAVERY IK PERU.
[No. 21.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

July 13,1911.
(Received July 13.)
I n view of the great importance attached by His Majesty's Government to the adoption of immediate measures by the Peruvian Government for the suppression of the abuses in the Putumayo, and in
order to prevent any delay which might result from the changes
which I heard were contemplated in the cabinet, I asked yesterday
for a private audience of the President. His Excellency received me
late last night and I handed him a memorandum giving the substance
of my conversation with the minister for foreign affairs on 2d of
May last, as reported in my dispatch of the 4th, and the tenor of the
instructions conveyed to me in your telegram of the 6th instant.
I told His Excellency that I was afraid I had not succeeded in impressing the minister for foreign affairs with the seriousness of the
view taken by His Majesty's Government in this matter and that he
had not realized either the full meaning or the value of the moral
support they had offered. I took upon myself to renew the offer on
the condition that the Peruvian Government took immediate steps
in the desired direction.
The President was greatly impressed by my memorandum and said
that he would lose no time in going into the matter himself with the
minister for foreign affairs. I t was arranged, however, to consider
the memorandum as a private and unofficial communication.
His Excellency begged me to let His Majesty's Government know at
once by telegraph that he is ready to take such steps as they may
consider most likely to prove effective. I said that, in addition to
punishing the criminals whose names have already been communicated to the Peruvian Government, it was desirable to legislate with
a view to making slavery a criminal offense, and I reminded His
Excellency of Peru's treaty obligations to Great Britain in this respect.
I trust that my action may meet with your approval.
LIMA,

[No. 22.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July 21, 1911.
Your telegram of 13th of July.
I entirely approve your action and am much gratified to learn of
the reception given to your representations.
I n view of the President's assurance that he will take any action
His Majesty's Government may consider most effective, you should
urge that, first of all, immediate steps be taken to compel the local
authorities to arrest and punish the criminals whose names we have
already communicated. This must still be possible, though it would,
of course, have been easier had prompt action been taken in the
beginning.

419

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I n the second place. His Majesty's Government are of opinion that
considerable good might be derived from the establishment of a
religious mission in the Putumayo district, with headquarters at
Iquitos or some other convenient center. They trust that the Peruvian Government would not only afford every facility to such a
mission but would give an earnest of their good intentions by granting it a substantial annual subsidy.
You should press the Peruvian Government for an early answer on
these points.
[No. 23.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Bryce to Sir Edward

Grey.
July #1,1911.
(Eeceived July 22.)

SEAL HARBOR,

Your telegram of 6th of July.
I have received to-day reply from the United States Government
to representations made stating that the United States Government
heartily sympathize with His Majesty's Government and have sent
instructions to the United States minister at Lima to express informally at a favorable opportunity pleasure of United States Government at steps already taken by Peruvian Government to end
excesses and hopes that further vigorous measures will follow to
prevent renewal of cruelties toward the natives.
[No. 24.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

July 25,1911.
(Eeceived July 26.)
Have received following from Peruvian Government:
LIMA,

Telegrams from prefect of Iquitos to the ministry of foreign affairs:
No. 72 of 19th July:
" Dr. Paredes returned here on the 15th. He visited all the 26 sections separately, has issued 215 apprehension warrants, and confirms crimes and horrors
committed. He is communicating to me the names of culprits for their immediate arrest. Many have escaped to Brazil. Only accessories remain in
Peruvian territory. Dr. Paredes's work is to be commended."
Telegram No. 73 of 22d July:
" I have to-day arrested Homero and Aurelio Rodriguez, Alpino Lopez,
Zuniaeta."
[No. 25.

Telegraphic!

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Jerome.
FOREIGN OFFICE, July 27,1911.
Your telegram of 25th July.
Express satisfaction at measures taken. Ask Peruvian Government to communicate to Brazilian Government names of criminals
who have escaped to Brazil and to ask latter to keep an eye on them
if possible and report if they leave Brazilian territory.

420

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 26.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, July' 27,1911.
(Received July 28.)
Following from the prefect of Iquitos to the minister for foreign
affairs:
Telegram No. 102 of 24th J u l y :
Confirms previous telegrams of crimes in P u t u m a y o ; cases now in h a n d s of
•criminal judge Valcarcel, who is proceeding against criminals. Arrests cont i n u e to be made of persons accused by Paredes, whose report consists of
1,300 pages.
Majority of crimes, such a s reputed acts of cruelty, and also b a r b a r o u s massacres, committed prior to 1907, more especially in 1901 and 1905, by Colombians
a n d Peruvians. Among criminals a r e Barbados negroes, who a r e in their own
c o u n t r y or Brazil. Principal offenders—Montt, O'Donnell, Fonseca, Agüero,
Velarde—are in Brazil. Martinengui is a t Callao.
Prisoners a r e arriving in n e x t steamboat from Putumayo.
T h e r e a r e so many w a r r a n t s out jail too small.
Acts of savage ferocity a r e fully proven against employees of the firm A r a n a
*ip to year 1907.

[No. 27.]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, August 28,1911.
(Received October 3.)
S I R : I have the honor to report that early in the present month I
Ibeard rumors that Judge Valcarcel, in whose hands the case against
the criminals of the Peruvian Amazon Co. had been placed on the
return of Vacation Judge Paredes to Iquitos, had left for Lima. I t
mras alleged at the foreign office that no news to this effect had been
received. However, this morning's Prensa contains a telegram confirming that Judge Valcarcel is not in Iquitos and that a more convenient magistrate has been appointed.
T h e Lima Comercio, also of this morning, publishes another teleg r a m from Iquitos, giving details of the culpability of Zumaeta, the
Iquitos manager of the Peruvian Amazon Co., and which also states
t h a t he has been permitted to escape.
I am writing this with the bag already prepared to be sent down
4 o the Panama steamer, and therefore must of necessity be brief. I
propose to see the minister for foreign affairs to-morrow and to say
t h a t I have sent to His Majesty's Government copies of both telegrams, and that these can not fail to cause a most unfavorable
impression.
I shall also draw the attention of the United States minister to
this new phase and ask him—as the news has come through a public
•channel—to mention to the Peruvian Government the bad effect this
news can not fail to produce.
I have, etc.,
LTJOIEN J . JEROME.

421

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 28.

Sir Edward

Telegraphic]

Grey to Mr.

Jerome.

FOREIGN OFFICE, October H, 1911*.
Your dispatch of August 28.
Inquire of Peruvian Government, unless you see strong objection,
whether reports that Zumaeta has been allowed to escape and J u d g e
Valcarcel to throw up his -appointment are correct, as they have come
as a most painful surprise to His Majesty's Government at a time*
when they thought the Peruvian authorities had awakened to a senseof their responsibilities and were acting in a manner that could n o t
fail to evoke the approval of all civilized nations.
Urge that a competent and unbiased judge be appointed at once in?
Valcarcel's place to try the criminals already arrested, and that fresh
efforts be made to capture those that have escaped. I n addition to
those whose whereabouts we have already communicated there i s
reason to believe that Armando Normand is at Mendoza in theArgentine, Victor Macedo at Lima, and Elias Martinengui at Callao.
Apart from their crimes against the Indians, most of the criminals
have ill treated Barbadian British subjects formerly under their
charge, and His Majesty's Government hope the Peruvian Government will shortly communicate to them a list of those convicted and
the sentences inflicted.
Telegraph result of interview with the minister for foreign affairs
which you were about to have.

[No. 29.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.
FOREIGN OFFICE, October 14, 1911..
My telegram of to-day to His Majesty's representative at Lima.
Please inform United States Government and say His Majesty's
Government would be very glad if United States minister at Lima
could be instructed to support His Majesty's charge d'affaires.

[No. 30.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Jerome to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, October 19, 1911.

(Eeceived October 20.)
Your telegram of the 14th instant.
Minister for foreign affairs gave assurances that Judge Valcarcel
had not left Iquitos. He promised to make inquiries about Zumaeta,
but has not yet communicated to me the result. From other sources
his escape is confirmed.

422

SLAVERY I N PEEU.

A private letter from Casement enabled me to ask for steps to be
taken to extradite Normand from the Argentine and arrest Macedo.
I t is now rumored that Prefect Paz Sftldan has resigned.
United States minister is supporting us.

[No. 31.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Bryce to Sir Edward

Grey.
October
<B3,1911.
(Eeceived October 23.)

WASHINGTON,

Your telegram of 14th of October.
Instructions have been sent to United States minister at Lima to
support his majesty's representative.
Dispatch by next mail.
[No. 32.

Sir Edward

Telegraphic]

Grey to Mr. des Graz.
FOREIGN OFFICE, November %9, 1911.

Mr. Jerome's telegram of 19th of October.
I t appears from dispatch from Sir R. Casement that Fonseca and
Montt were still at large on 23d of October, and that Zumaeta was
in hiding, though his whereabouts were probably known to the
Iquitos authorities. You should inquire of Peruvian Government
what steps have been taken to secure the arrest of these men and of
the other criminals mentioned in telegram referred to, and urge them
to bring to trial the prisoners at Iquitos without further delay.

[No. 33.

Telegraphic]

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, December 3, 1911.

(Eeceived December 4.)
I n reply to inquiries which I made on receiving your telegram of
the 29th ultimo, minister for foreign affairs informs me that the
orders to endeavor to arrest Fonseca and Montt, if still on Peruvian
soil, will now be repeated by telegraph. They were dispatched
originally by post toward the end of September.
The prefect of Callao was instructed to search for and arrest
Martinengui, but the latter was not found, and the police who were
told to watch for Jiménez and Macedo say that they have not come to
Lima.
Orders will be dispatched to the court of Iquitos to send here the
papers necessary before application can be made to the Argentine
Government for the extradition of Normand.
The Peruvian Government have no cognizance of Dr. Paredes's
report. Such a thing would be contrary to judicial procedure.

423

SLAVERY I N PERU.

# The minister for foreign affairs said there had been no interruption of the judicial proceedings at Iquitos, and he reiterated his
assurance that both the Government and he personally were anxious
to see the criminals suitably punished, and he promised to do what
he could to expedite matters. He alluded to the strong local opposition with which the Government had to contend, but maintained
that the numerous arrests were a guarantee of their sincerity.

[No. 34. Telegraphic]

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, December IS, 1911.

(Received December 14.)
My telegram of 3d of December.
President telegraphed to prefect last night as follows:
Slowness of proceedings against Putumayo criminals and failure
to capture them yet, including Fonseca and Montt, are cause of great
harm to country in England, where it is imagined that my Government has not done everything possible to capture delinquents. I t is
my desire, in the interest of the country and my own, that you should
make every possible effort to capture refugees in Brazil and all the
others; also that trial should be pressed on and terminate in severe
punishment of guilty.
[No. 35.]

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, November 17, 1911.

(Received December 27.)
SIR : I have the honor to report that I availed myself of the opportunity of being received by President Leguia on my return from
leave to speak of the Putumayo to his excellency and to reaffirm the
interest taken by His Majesty's Government in the trial and punishment of the men guilty of atrocities against the Indians in that region. I said that I felt sure, from his language to me in the early
part of the year, as well as to Mr. Jerome in July last, that the
Peruvian Government were pursuing the same objects of humanity
and justice as His Majesty's Government, and that his excellency was
personally determined that the ends of justice should not be defeated.
I had had an opportunity of assuring myself in conversation with
you of your deep interest in the question and of the feeling produced
upon you by the revelation of the terrible state of things which had
existed in the Putumayo, as shown by Sir Roger Casement's report
giving the results of his personal investigations. On my asking his
excellency if he had read those reports, he replied " every line of
them," and acquiescing with the sentiments which I had attributed to
him, expressed the horror with which he had read the details and the
necessity that the parties found guilty should receive due punishment.

424

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I went on to say that, being without recent news from Iquitos, I
was very anxious to be assured that the trial was proceeding. I had
regretted to learn on my return that the judge appointed, Señor Valcarcel, had left Iquitos, and I trusted that another judge had been
appointed at once to take his place. I begged to be excused for asking him these questions, which should more properly, perhaps, be
addressed to the minister for foreign affairs. That I proposed to
do on the first opportunity.
President Leguia answered that, as I no doubt was aware, a great
number of orders of arrest—from 200 to 300—had been made, and
that steps were being taken to secure the persons of those men who
had fled to Brazil; that he was convinced the court of Iquitos was
proceeding with the case, and that, in fact, he recollected having seen
recently a report to that effect. His Excellency incidentally mentioned that the affairs of the Peruvian Amazon Co. were being wound
up privately, and I understood him to say that the Peruvian Government had lost £20,000 in drafts on the company which had not
been met.
On the following day I saw the minister for foreign affairs, Don
German Leguia y Martinez, and spoke in the same sense. His excellency told me that, according to the latest news from Iquitos
(dated August 26), the trial was proceeding, and that Judge Valcarcel's departure had been due to his requiring immediate treatment
in Europe for beriberi, with which malady Col. Benavides, the
Peruvian leader in the recent engagement with the Colombians on
the Caqueta, had also been attacked. A " con-juez," or acting judge,
had taken Señor Calcarcel's place. I repeated what I had said to
the president, that I could not doubt that the two Governments had
the same humanitarian view in regard to the cruelties reported to
have taken place and the necessity of bringing to justice and adequately punishing their perpetrators. I had learned with regret
that several of those implicated were said to have effected their
escape before arrest, one even from Callao.
His excellency assured me the Peruvian Government were trying
to obtain the delivery of the refugees in Brazil, and showed me
what I understood to be a draft treaty of extradition with that
country, whereupon I ventured to express the hope that the delivery
of the men in question would not have to await the conclusion of
the treaty.
Don German Leguia dwelt at some length on the difficulties caused
by distance, delay of communication, and the lack of means possessed
by the Government for enforcing their authority in the Putumayo
region. They had officials at one place only, La Chorrera, and their
authority was practically limited to that place and a few military
posts.
Like the president, he expressed the conviction that the case was
proceeding. As soon, however, as Mr. Jerome had called his attention to certain statements in the press of October 28, he had at
once communicated with the minister of justice, from whom he had
not yet received a reply. His excellency said that an average of 13
days was usually reckoned on for a telegram to reach Iquitos, and
that there had been no time for a reply, even if an answer should
have been sent at once.

425

SLAVERY I K PERU.

I asked his excellency not to fail to remind the minister of justice
again, and at the same time begged him to communicate to me any
information he received from the prefect of Loreto on the subject
of the prisoners or their trial.
Í have learned to-day that my conversation with Don German
Leguia y Martinez has resulted in the dispatch of a telegram direct
to the prefect of Loreto enjoining on the latter to keep the minister
informed of the progress of the proceedings at Iquitos.
I have, etc.,
C. D E S GRAZ.
[No. 36.

Telegraphic]

Mr. Bryce to Sir Edward

Grey.

January 19,1912.
(Received January 19.)
Casement left for England on Saturday. Secretary of State proposes to send following telegram to United States representative at
Lima:
WASHINGTON,

Casement, British consul general a t Rio, h a s informed department t h a t h e
h a s been convinced by his visit of observation to Iquitos t h a t no really serious
efforts a r e now being made for prosecuting parties responsible for atrocities
in P u t u m a y o region. He states t h a t officials committed with judicial investigation, though in possession of conclusive and sufficient evidence against wellknown rubber gatherers, have been forced to drop action by corrupt local
influence, a n d entire case t h r e a t e n s to terminate, to great discredit of t h e good
name of Peru, with perfunctory punishment of a few underlings detained at
Iquitos, while those responsible for iniquitous system a r e seen daily on streets
and remain unpunished. Cooperating with British minister when he is appropriately instructed by his Government, you win bring foregoing unofficially
a n d informally to the attention of the minister of foreign affairs, and add t h a t
unless drastic and effective action demanded by t h e circumstances is taken by
P e r u it would appear certain t h a t general publication of details of the decimation of the natives of t h e upper Amazon will be greedily exploited by t h e press.
Such an exposition of the situation as may be foreseen might induce the public
opinion of the world to believe t h a t P e r u h a d shown herself unable properly to
.exercise sovereign rights over disputed regions. You a r e further instructed
to request from t h e Peruvian Government for transmission to t h e department
copy of Dr. Paredes's political report to prefect of Loreto relative to P u t u m a y o
question.

Secretary of State thinks that this last chance should be given to
the Peruvian Government, and that if it fails to rouse them to a full
sense of their responsibility publication should follow. If you wish
to defer reply till you have discussed the matter with Casement he
will defer sending telegram until we hear from you. He has been
told that you may possibly have already given an undertaking to lay
report before Parliament.
[Na. 37.1

Mr. Bryce to Sir E.

Grey.

BRITISH EMBASSY,

'Washington, January 12, 1912,
(Eeceived January 22.)
S I R : Having heard from Sir Eoger Casement that he would be
passing through New York this week on his way home from his mis-

426

SLAVERY I N PERU.

sion to the Putumayo district, I asked him to be good enough to come
and discuss the situation there with me, with special reference to the
relations of the United States Government to the matter.
I gather that as the matter now stands it is most probable that
His Majesty's Government will decide to publish the report of Sir
Roger Casement. I n view of the painful impression both in the
United Kingdom and in the United States that is likely to be
caused by publication" of the report, it seems to me of importance to
secure in the first place that the United States Government should
have the facts more fully brought home to them by the opportunity
of hearing about them directly from Sir Roger Casement, and
should duly realize what were the aims and intentions of His
Majesty's Government in publishing the report, if they publish it.
The simplest and direct.est way of effecting this seemed to be to
bring Sir Roger Casement into personal contact with those officials
here who would be responsible for United States policy in the matter. And this seems of sufficient importance to justify my requesting Sir Roger Casement to remain here until the next sailing,
which allowed him three days in Washington, most of which he has
spent in talking with various officials and President Taft.
He will
be able himself to give you a full report of the results of these conversations, which seem to have been of considerable interest and importance. His report had, of course, been communicated to the
United States Government, and was before the competent department where it had been carefully studied; but he was able to
create a personal interest in the matter among the higher authorities
which gives strong grounds for believing that publication of the
report will be welcomed by the United States Government.
I t is my belief that this would be a good moment for His Majesty's
Government to suggest to the United States some definite line
of action which the two Governments might take in unison, in
order to secure once for all the stopping of the cruelties and oppression which have so long existed on the Putumayo.
Sir Rogers thinks, and I concur in this view, that much good
might be expected from the appointment of a United States consul
at Iquitos, if clear and 'strong instructions were given him to exert
himself to secure the stoppage of these outrages, acting in conjunction with the consular official recently appointed by His Majesty's
Government there. There is reason to think that the United States
Government would be disposed to do this. Sir Roger conceives that
were it done it might be advantageous that such instructions should
be made public, and adds that it is essential to supply any consular
officers with the means of such transport up the rivers through the
regions where these atrocities are committed, there being no other
means of traveling.
Pressure applied upon the Peruvian Government by Great Britain
and the United States would probably have the effect of inducing
the Peruvian Government, not only to regularize its title to the district by negotiation or by arbitration with Colombia, but also to
establish a proper administration over such part as may be deemed
or declared Peruvian.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYOE.

427

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 38.]

Sir E. Grey to Mr.

Bryce.

January 23¡ 191%.
SIR : I told the United States charge d'affaires to-day how pleased
I was that Mr. Knox was ready to take the action at Lima which he
proposed, as recorded in your telegram of the 19th instant.
Mr. Phillips said it was a question of humanity, and I observed
that indeed this was our only motive in the matter. I t was most
gratifying and encouraging to hear of the action which Mr. Knox
proposed to take.
Sir E . Casement also had told me of the sympathy with which he
had been received at Washington, and how whole-heartedly Mr.
Huntington Wilson had spoken to him. I was telegraphing to your
excellency to say that our minister would be instructed to cooperate
with his United States colleague at Lima. I should meanwhile suspend any decision as to publication of papers. I thought publication would eventually be necessary to prevent the recurrence of this
deplorable state of anairs, but I should not take the decision to publish without consulting Mr. Knox again. I told Mr. Phillips t h a t
Sir R. Casement had heard that Arana, the man who had got up the
British company here, was saying that as soon as what he called
" this fuss " was over, the natives would be set to work again, which
meant that the remnant left would be exterminated.
I thought it would be of great practical advantage if the United
States would appoint a consul at Iquitos, who would be able to report
on what went on in the district. Mr. Phillips said that he would
report what I had told him to his Government.
FOREIGN OFFICE,

I am, etc.,

E. GREY.
[No. 30.

Sir Edward

Telegraphic]

Grey to Mr.

Bryce.

FOREIGN OFFICE, January 2J±, 1911.
Your telegram of 19th of January.
I am exceedingly glad that the Secretary of State will take the
action proposed. British minister at Lima is being instructed to
cooperate with his United States colleague. Meanwhile I suspend
any decision as to publication. I think publication will probably
be necessary at some stage to insure that deplorable state of things
does not recur, but I shall not take any decision to publish without
first consulting Secretary of State. I t would, I am sure, be of very
great advantage if United States Government would appoint a consul
at Iquitos.
[No. 40.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. des Graz.
FOREIGN OFFICE, January %h 1911Mr. Bryce's telegram of 19th of January, and my telegram to Mr.
Bryce of 24th of January.
You should concert with your United States colleague with the
view of taking joint action with him so soon as he has received his

428

SLAVERY I N PERU.

instructions, and should also ask for a copy of the general report
which I understand Dr. Paredes has addressed to his Government
and which has nothing to do with his judicial report.

[No. 41.]

Consul General Sir R. Casement to Sir Edward
LONDON, February

Grey.
5, 191%.

(Keceived February 9.)
SIR : I have the honor to report my return from Iquitos on the 20th
ultimo, and would beg to place before you the results of my observations upon the actual state of things in connection with the promised
reforms on the Putumayo itself, and the punishment of the agents
of the Peruvian Amazon Co. guilty of the long series of crimes upon
the Indians of that region.
K At the beginning of August last we were informed by telegraph of
the return to Iquitos of Dr. Paredes, the head of the judicial commission dispatched by the Peruvian Government to the Putumayo,
and that his report fully confirmed the conclusions I had arrived at
as to the crimes committed by the agents of the firm of J. C. Arana
Bros., and of its later London embodiment, the Peruvian Amazon Co.
We were given to understand that many of the criminals had been
or were being arrested by the local authorities, and that the number
of warrants issued by the judge threatened to fill the gaol to overflowing. At the same time it was hoped that the Peruvian Amazon
Co., at length convinced of the deplorable state of things existing
and of the crimes done in its name on the Putumayo, would take
active steps in the region it, controlled to end the criminal exploitation of the Indian inhabitants conducted by its agents, and substitute
for it a legitimate method of trade dealings.
It was in this hope that, with your sanction, I left England on the
16th of August last, in order to note on the spot how far these anticipated changes were being carried out. I reached Iquitos on the 16th
of October, having traveled up the Amazon from Para by a small Brazilian vessel, in order to touch at certain places en route, where information that might be useful was to be expected.
Two of the worst of the murderers who fled from the Putumayo after
my visit in 1910, Peruvians named José Inocente Fonseca and Alfredo
Montt, were said to be engaged in rubber gathering by means of
enslaved Indians they had carried away from the Putumayo into
Brazilian territory at a spot quite close to the Peruvian frontier.
Efforts were made, at ni}^ instance, by the Brazilan authorities to
arrest these men and expel them from Brazilian soil, but, unfortunately, owing to the remote region in which they had established
themselves, and to other causes, the well-meant efforts of the Brazilian Government failed in execution on the spot.
I became aware, in the course of these endeavors, of the growing
interest taken in Brazil in the protection of the tribes of wild or uncizilized Indians still dwelling within the forest region of the interior
of that Eepublic, and of the organized steps being taken by the Federal Government to develop executive control of matters affecting

SLAVERY I N PERU.

429

the well-being of these scattered communities of very primitive people. An active propaganda, supported by State funds, growing out
of the newly created department for the protection of the Indians,
is already affecting public opinion in Brazil, and I feel assured that
the kindly sentiments thus stimulated to activity should provoke useful administrative results in those remote forest regions so rarely
visited hitherto, save by not very careful men in search of india
rubber. The warm-hearted temperament of the Brazilian people,
if it finds systematic expression through the medium of a State department established with most unselfish intent, should do much to
create a better state of things in the whole basin of the Amazon,
where the needs of the Indian inhabitants have been overlooked by
Governments, no less than by individuals, in the rapid growth of the
india-rubber industry.
On arrival at Iquitos I learned from the prefect of the Department of Loreto that, although a total of 237 warrants had been issued
by the investigating judge, only 9 arrests of those charged had been
actually effected.
These men were the following: Aurelio Eodriguez, Homero Rodriguez, Alpino Lopez, Visitación Melendez, Manuel Vargas, Juan
Quevedo, Augustin Pena, and Juan Sifuentes. With the exception
of Aurelio Eodriguez, who had been one of the chiefs of section or
principals of the Peruvian Amazon Co., these men were inferior
agents, who had merely carried out the orders of their superiors, and
bad derived no direct profit from the crimes with which they were
charged.
The managing director of the company at Iquitos, Señor Pablo
Zumaeta, against whom the judge of first instance, Dr. Valcarcel, had
issued a warrant of arrest on the 5th of August, had not been arrested, I found, but, with the connivance of the police, had merely
remained in his,private residence at Iquitos during the hearing of an
appeal he was permitted to lodge. This appeal being considered by
the superior court of Iquitos during my stay there, resulted in the
court annulling the warrant issued by the criminal court below and
the return to public life of the accused man without trial or public
investigation of the charges against him.
The superior court, while annulling the order of preliminary detention against Zumaeta, issued an order of dismissal from his public
functions of the judge, Dr. Valcarcel, on the ground that he had
abandoned his post, and at the same time and on the same day took
cognizance of a criminal action brought by the accused, Zumaeta,
against the judge, whom he charged with " revealing public documents."
The superior court, I gathered, had intimated that the preliminary
proceedings against the nine men in gacfl could only enter on the
' ' p l e n a r i o " or second stage—in other words, these men could only
be actually brought to trial—when certain men charged by Dr. Paredes in his judicial investigations on the Putumayo were also arrested. This would imply that even in the case of those actually in
gaol the charges could not come to trial unless others, equally implicated, were also brought to judgment—an implication that I understand does not rest upon the law. Criminal procedings in Peru consist of the " sumario" (preliminary inquiry) and the " plenario,''
or trial.

430

SLAVERY I N PERU.

The object of the " s u m a r i o " is to discover the existence of the
crime and the person of the criminal, and proceedings under it are
secret. If in a criminal case still in this initial stage some of the
accused are absent and some are present, at the termination of the
<¿
sumario " the proceedings continue as regards those present, and
the judge passes to the " plenario " with regard to them, and sentence is pronounced. I n the case of the Putumayo crimes the judicial
proceedings have remained, so far, in the " sumario " stage, with only
9 men out of some 240 indicted actually arrested.
Dr. Paredes, as I have already pointed out, had issued 237 warrants
of arrest while on the Putumayo, to which Dr. Valcarcel, the criminal
judge at Iquitos, had added, on the return of the judicial commission, warrants against Zumaeta, the director, Victor Macedo, the late
general manager at La Chorrera, and, I believe, certain others as
accessories to the crimes denounced. Many of those named in the
237 warrants of Dr. Paredes had already left the region before he
arrived on the Putumayo. Some of them were the Barbados men,
negroes of that island who had left the Putumayo at the date of my
return in the end of 1910. Others, and these the far larger number,
were Peruvians (sometimes Colombians), who had gone away following on my visit and that of the commission dispatched from London
by the Peruvian Amazon Co. A considerable number of the men
included in the warrants issued by Dr. Paredes, and among them
several charged with the most atrocious acts, had continued, however,
to dwell on the Putumayo and to follow their ordinary avocation of
forcing the Indians to bring in rubber at stated intervals.
The date of Dr. Paredes's return to Iquitos with this large batch
of warrants had been the 15th of July last, when, I understand, the
police were intrusted with their execution on all such of the accused
as were known to be still within Peruvian jurisdiction. I received
no explanation during my stay at Iquitos as to why so many of the
individuals incriminated had been left undisturbed on the Putumayo'
for a period of some months, while others were even quite well known
to be in Lima itself, at Callao, and places easily reached from
Iquitos.
Following my return to Iquitos on the 16th of October, an effort
was apparently made to arrest some 20 of those still employed by the
company on the Putumayo toward the very end of October and in
the early days of November. Although the localities where all of
them were at work were well known, the "comisario" or commissioner of the Putumayo, one Amadeo Burga, a paid employee of the
company and a brother-in-law of its managing director, in each case
took action just too late, so that all those incriminated were either
absent in the forest or saidio have gone away only a few hours before
the officer's arrival. The vessel reporting this unsatisfactory ending
to this the latest attempt to bring to justice the authors of so many
crimes, returned to Iquitos on the 25th of November, bringing only
one man in custody, a subordinate named Portocarrero, who was
among those implicated. All the rest of the accused were stated to
have " escaped," in some cases, it was reported, taking with them
large numbers of captive Indians, either for sale or for continued
forced labor in other regions of the rubber-bearing forests.
Séome of those wanted, however, I learned subsequently, had returned to their stations when the officer, who had failed to find them.

SLAVERY I N PERU.

431

had left the neighborhood and were at work again in the service of
the company at the date of my departure from the Amazon. Others
of the individuals charged by the judge I found were or had been
actually in Iquitos at the time the police there held warrants for
their arrest, and no attempt had been made to put these warrants into
execution.
The evidence that I obtained during my stay in Iquitos, coming as
it did from many quarters and much of it from the Putumayo itself,
induced in me the conviction that the punishment of the wrongdoers
was a thing not to be expected, and, from a variety of causes I need
not dwell upon here, possibly a matter beyond the ability of the
local executive to insure. Suffice it to say I saw no reason to modify
the opinion expressed in my report of the 17th of March last, that
" custom sanctioned by long tradition and an evil usage whose maxim
is t h a t ' the Indian has no r i g h t s ' are far stronger that a distant law
that rarely emerges into practice."
I did not personally revisit the Putumayo, for I feared that my
visit could be productive of no useful result, and I had already
learned from the prefect that the report of Dr. Paredes entirely confirmed my own.
Of Dr. Paredes's work on the Putumayo the prefect gave me the
most satisfactory assurances. The judge had visited every section
of the district controlled by the agents of the company, and, in addition to conducting an exhaustive examination into the acts of the incriminated employees by means of testimony furnished by civilized
witnesses, he had also interrogated, through competent interpreters,
numbers of native Indians belonging to the various tribes of the
region. Of the rigorous nature of the judge's inquiry and the efficiency he had displayed in an investigation of great difficulty conducted under very trying conditions of climate, travel, and health, I
could have no doubt. His labors had resulted in an enormous volume of testimony, running to something like 3,000 pages of written
matter, and involving well-nigh incredible charges of cruelty and
massacre. This dossier, I wTas informed, the judge of first instance,
wTho had replaced Dr. Valcarcel, was studying in order to determine
the degree of guilt attaching to the 10 men actually in custody out of
the very much larger number incriminated. Dr. Paredes had gone
to the Putumayo on the 15th of March, and had returned to Iquitos
on the 15th of July, 1911, his position in the judiciary of the Department of Loreto at the time being that of assistant judge of first instance, charged with the preliminary prosecution of the Putumayo
judicial inquiry. On his return to Iquitos I gathered he had ceased
to fill judicial functions and was not any longer officially connected
with the tribunal of first instance. H e had, however, furnished the
prefect and the Peruvian Government with a report drawn up, I
understood, in September, and while it clearly confirmed the worst
charges-brought against the criminal system of rubber getting on the
Putumayo, it also outlined a project of judicial and magisterial ad-,
ministration for that region which, if put into execution by the
Peruvian Government, should do much, I believe, to end the organized enslavement and ill treatment of the Indian inhabitants. This
special report of Dr. Paredes, the prefect informed me, he was then
(October 17 last) on the point of dispatching to the Government in

432

SLAVERY m

PERU.

Lima, and I assume that a copy of it will, in due course, be furnished
to His Majesty's representative in Peru.
The prefect assured me that his Government would so act on the
Putumayo as to carry out the measures of reform the visit of the
commissioners of the company and the findings of Dr. Paredes in
his report showed to be essential for the protection of the Indians of
the region. The prefect pointed out that he had been hampered in
his good intentions by the frontier conflict with Colombia; but despite these assurances I could not learn that any effective steps had
been actually taken by the executive to insure the Indians that modicum of protection they were entitled to at the hands of a civilized
administration. The only change so far made had been the substitution of the " comisario " Burga (who throughout his tenure of that
office had been the company's salaried rubber collector and chief of
their station of Puerto Argelia) by an officer of the same category,
whose instructions were of a similar character. The only other public office that exists on the Putumayo, that of " juez de paz " or magistrate, is an unsalaried post, and one that has been always filled by
an agent of the company. The official who held this empty title at
the date of my visit in 1910 had been the company's agent at the
section styled " Sur-Este." Both this man and the " comisario"
Burga were quite incapable of acting impartially, by reason of their
close and profitable association with the company and the primary
duty of rubber getting that service involved. This man was replaced as " m a g i s t r a t e " in November last by another agent of the
company, who, when I passed through the region, was a subordinate
employee at the station of Occidente—itself the theater of innumerable crimes against the Indians. From him no more than from
his predecessor could any public service be expected.
On the other hand, I learned that the work of planting rubber
trees and of substituting more humane methods whereby cultivation
should partly take the place of individual exploitation of the Indian
had been arrested by order of the local management of the company,
and the gathering of wild rubber reestablished as the sole task of the
various Indian communities of the Putumayo. These were openly
spoken of as having been "demoralized" by the visit of the company's commission and myself, and their return to the immediately
profitable labor of collecting wild rubber, under practically the old
conditions, was announced as the first step of the local management
to restore the Putumayo to its normal condition of healthy and profitable exploitation.
I t was abundantly clear that the company, or those who locally
controlled the Putumayo in its name, having recovered from the
shock of exposure and fear that followed the visit of the commissioners and myself in 1910, had determined to retain forcible exploitation of the Indians as their right by conquest and their surest
means of speedy gain.
That the Indians under this ruthless system were now admitted to
have fallen from 50,000 (the figure given by the Peruvian consul
general at Manaos in his official reports of 1906) to not more than
8,000 in 1911 seems of no account to those exploiting them—although
in that interval the output of Putumayo rubber has also fallen from
645,000 kilograms in the former year to some 236,000 kilograms in
1911. There are still enough Indians " to go round." The disap-

SLAVERY I N PERU.

433

pearance of the London company as an active factor restricts the
necessities of profit finding to a narrower field. While it needed a
heavy output of hundreds of tons of rubber in 1906 upon which to
found an appeal to British investors or speculators in 1907 for a
hoped-for capital of £1,000,000, a diminished yield of only 200 tons
will still maintain many families and individuals on the spot.
The fate of the Indian supporter of this fabric of civilized society
is of no account. The short-sighted policy which ends in working
him to death, and denuding whole regions of their entire population,
is only what has been the settled custom and practice of well-nigh
400 years of Iberian occupation of that part of the world.
I t was not ever a fact, and is not now a fact, that the presence of
the Peruvian or Amazonian Indian is incompatible with the existence or civilization of the white man. I t was not ever, and is not
now, a Avar of plow against tomahawk, of colonists and cultivator
against barbarism and warrior hunter.
On the contrary, the Peruvian Indian is a being of extreme docility
of mind, gentleness of temper, and strength of body, a hardy and
excellent worker, needing only to be dealt with justly and fairly to
prove the most valuable asset the country possesses. Instead of this
he has been from the first enslaved, bent by extortion, and varying
methods of forced labor to toil, not for his own advantage or the
advancement of his country, but for the sole gain and personal profit
of individuals who have ever placed their own desires above the
common welfare.
I n the Amazon territories of Peru—the great region termed the
montaña—the entire population, it may be said, consists of native
Indians, some brought into close touch, as at Iquitos and in the settled mission centers of the Ucayali, with white civilization, but a
great proportion of them, like those on the Putumayo, still dwelling
in the forest, a rude and extremely primitive existence. To these
remote people civilization has'come, not in the guise of settled occupation by men of European ^descent, accompanied by executive control to assert the supremacy of law, but b}^ individuals in search of
Indian labor—a thing to be mercilessly used, and driven to the most
profitable tasks—rubber getting—by terror and oppression. That
the Indian has disappeared and is disappearing rapidly under this
process is nothing to these individuals. Enough Indians may remain
to constitute, in the end, the nucleus of what is euphemistically
termed a civilized center.
The entire absence of government, which has not kept pace with
the extension of revenue-yielding communities, has left the weaker
members of those communities exposed to the ruthless greed of the
stronger. The crimes of the Putumayo, horrible as they are, have
their counterpart, I am assured, in other remote regions of the same
lawless forest—although possibly not to the same terrifying extent.
I n this instance the force of circumstance has brought to light
what was being done under British auspices—that is to say, through
an enterprise with headquarters in London and employing both
British capital and British labor—to ravage and depopulate the
wilderness. The fact that this British- company should possibly
cease to direct the original families of Peruvian origin who first
brought theif forest wares (50,000 slaves) to the English market
77234—H. Doc. 1366, 62-3

434

SLAVERY I N PERU.
i

will not, I apprehend, materially afiect the situation on the Putumayo. The Arana Syndicate still termed itself the Peruvian Amazon Co. (Ltd.) up to the date of my leaving Iquitos on the 7th of
December last. The whole of the rubber output of the region, it
should be borne in mind, is placed upon the English market and is
conveyed from Iquitos in British bottoms. Some few of the employees in its service are, or were when I left the Amazon, still British
subjects, and the commercial future of the Putumayo (if any commercial future be possible to a region so wasted and mishandled)
must largely depend on the amount of foreign, chiefly British, support those exploiting the remnant of the Indians may be able to
secure.
I t may be, perhaps, of interest here to show at a glance what has
been the quantity of india rubber derived from the labor of the
Putumayo Indians since those tribes came to be actively exploited
by Señor J . C. Arana and his partners, and later by the Peruvian
Amazon Co. (Ltd.).
The following table is compiled from official sources (the Iquitos
customhouse) up to the 30th of June last, while the figures in the last
six months of 1911 (up to the beginning of December) are derived
from private sources that I know to be reliable:
Yield of india rubber from the Putumayo Indians, shipped
the Iquitos
customhouse.

to England

through

Quantity of rubber in kilos.

1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907 *
1908 __—
1909
1910
-

15, 863
54,180
123. 210
201, 656
343, 499
470, 592
644, 897
627, 661
489, 016
398, 723
316, 913

£
Kilos.

1911 ( u p to the 30th of J u n e )
95, 448
From the 1st of J u l y to the 1st of December, shipped from
the P u t u m a y o to Iquitos
141, 000

'
236,448

Total output of slave labor in 12 years

3,922,710

The value of these, roughly speaking, 4,000 tons of rubber it would
be impossible for me to give here—they might be computed by an
expert—but from a written statement made by one of the directors
of the Peruvian Amazon Co. in the spring of last year I find that the
returns of Putumayo rubber for the 6 years ended the 31st of December, 1910, gave £966,000 on the London market. Those 6 years yielded
2,947,802 kilograms of rubber, so that the monetary yield of the
Putumayo Indians to those raiding them during the first 12 years of
the present century must have considerably exceeded £1,000,000, and
possibly may not have fallen very far short of £1,500,000.
The number of Indians killed either by starvation—often purposely
brought about by destruction of crops over whole districts or inflicted
as a form of death penalty on individuals who failed to Jbring in their
1

The Peruvian Amazon Co. formed J u n e 30, 1907.

SLAVERY I H PERU.

435

quota of rubber—or by deliberate murder by bullet, fire, beheading*
or flogging to death, and accompanied by a variety of atrocious tortures, during the course of these 12 years, in order to extort these
4,000 tons of rubber, can not have been less than 30,000, and possibly
came to many more.
A population officially put at 50,000 should in 10 years have grown
by natural increase to certainly 52,000 or 53,000 souls, seeing that
every fhdian marries—a bachelor or spinster Indian is unknown—and that respect for marriage is ingrained in uncivilized Indian?
nature and love of children probably the strongest affection these
people display. By computations made last year and the year before
by officials and by those interested in the prosperity of the Peruvian
Amazon Co., the existing population of the entire region is now
put at from 7,000 Indians, the lowest calculation, to 10,000, t h e
highest. Around some of the sections or rubber centers whence thia
drain of rubber has been forced, the,human sacrifices attained smclk
proportions that human bones, the remains of lost tribes of Indians,,
are so scattered through the forests that, as one informant stated:,,
these spots " resemble battlefields." A Peruvian officer, who had been
through the Putumayo since the date of my visit in 1910, said that
the neighborhood of one particular section he had visited recalled to>
him the battlefield of Miraflores—the bloodiest battle of the Chilean
War. Moreover, these unarmed and defenseless people, termed, indeed, in the language of prospectuses, the "laborers" of this particular company, were killed for no crime or offense, and were mui>
dered by the men who drew the highest profits from that company.
They comprised women and children—very often babies in arms—as
well as men and boys. Neither age nor sex was spared, all had t a
work rubber, to perform impossible tasks, to abandon home and cul-v
tivation of their forest clearings, and to search week by week and
month by month for the juice of rubber-yielding trees, until death
came as sudden penalty for failing strength and noncompliance, or
more gently overtook them by the way in the form of starvation or
disease. With all that it has given to the Amazon Valley of prosperity, of flourishing steamship communications, of port works, of
growing towns and centers of civilization with electric light and
tramways, of well-kept hospitals and drainage schemes, it may well
be asked whether the rubber tree has not, perhaps, taken more away.
However this be, it is certainly in the best interests of commercial
civilization itself and of the vital needs of the trading communities
upon the Amazon River that the system of ruthless and destructive
human exploition which has been permitted to grow up on the P u t u mayo should be sternly repressed. Peru herself can only greatly
benefit from the establishment of a civilized and humane administration—a task of no great magnitude—in those regions hitherto abandoned to the " cauchero " and the vegetable filibuster. The healthy
development of the Amazon rubber industry, one of the foremost of
Brazilian needs, calls for that humanity of intercourse civilization
seeks to spread by commerce, not for its degradation by the most
cruel forms of slavery and greed.
All that is sensible of this among those interested in the rubber
industry, whether of Europe, the United States, or Brazil, should
heartily unite in assisting the best elements of Peruvian life t a
strengthen the arm of justice, and to establish upon the Putumayo

436

SLAVERY IJST PERU.

and throughout the Montana, wherever the rubber seeker seeks his
profits, a rule of right dealing and legality. I t may be long before
a demoralization drawing its sanction from so many centuries of indifference and oppression can be uprooted, but Christianity owns
schools and missions as well as dreadnaughts and dividends. I n
bringing to that neglected region and to those terrorized people
something of the suavity of life, the gentleness of mindj th§ equity
of intercourse between man and man that Christianity seeks to extend,
the former implements of her authority should be more potent than
the latter.
I have, etc.,
ROGER CASEMENT.
[No. 42.

Telegraphic]

Mr. des Graz to Sir Edward

Grey.

LIMA, February 17, 1912.
:

(Received February 18.)
Your telegram of 24th of January.
United States minister and I have seen President as well a$ minister
for foreign affairs, explaining situation and joint action unofficially
and informally in accordance with instructions of United States
minister.
President reiterated his interest in the question and desire for
punishment of criminals and purification of Putumayo. H e mentioned steps taken by Peruvian Government (subsequent to Casement's departure from Iquitos), Case was now proceeding against
prisoners, and would remain open against other criminals, and in
spite of difficult nature of country every effort was being made to
capture fugitives. I said that I had reported all the steps as communicated to me.
President alluded to the judicial authorities being independent of
the executive, and said that liberation of Zumaeta on appeal was
stated to be due to lack of evidence against him. Peruvian Government was desirous of doing all in its power, and the President asked
for our suggestions. We said that we had no instructions to make
suggestions, but that we agreed in thinking, as regards judicial proceedings, that sustained interest of the Central Government should
be reaffirmed to court at Iquitos and to the perfect. His excellency
volunteered promise that minister of justice should again telegraph
to court to accelerate procedure as far as possible, and specially
mentioning that evidence or certified copies should be sent to Supreme Court here as soon as proceedings ceased to be secret.
As regards the future and the project of reform said t o b e included
in report of Paredes, we strongly urged importance of his testimony
and knowledge. I n present virulent state of party politics it is most
unfortunate that he should be said to be head of anti-Government
party at Iquitos. President, however, promised us to receive him
and to hear his views. Paredes should arrive soon. Copy of report
promised.
United States minister has seen this telegram.

437

SLAVERY I N PERU.
[No. 43. Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.
FOREIGN OFFICE, February &?,1912. •

Mr. des Graz's telegram of 17th of February.
We have carefully considered the President's reply to the representations made by the British and United States ministers. I t contains nothing that we have not been told before, and the request for
suggestions can not be regarded seriously, as we have not ceased to
make suggestions ever since the receipt of Sir R. Casement's report,
all of which have been disregarded.
We feel that nothing will be done by the present Government, and
that no progress will be made without publication of Sir R. Casement's report.
Please inform the United States Government, and ask whether they
do not share this view.
[No. 44.]

Foreign office to Consul

Michell.

FOREIGN OFFICE, February

26,1912.

SIR : With reference to the letter from this office of 4th of August,
1911, appointing you to be his majesty's consul at Iquitos, I am directed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to instruct you
to study and report upon the conditions of the rubber industry on
the affluents of the upper Amazon and the labor conditions under
which it is being developed, with special reference to those regions
where British capital and British subjects are or have been recently
employed.
I n pursuance of this direction, you should visit, personally, from
time to time, the various centers of rubber production in your district, such as the Putumayo, Javarí, Ucayali and other rivers, and
should report upon all matters of interest that may tend to throw
light upon the character of the industry and the conditions under
which india rubber or other products of the region are placed upon
the British market.
I am, etc.,
Louis MALLET.
[No. 45.3

Foreign office to Consul General Sir R.

Casement.

FOREIGN OFFICE, March 7\ 1912.

SIR : I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to inform you that he
has received, and read with interest, your report of the 5th of February, summarizing the results of your observations, during your recent
sojourn in Iquitos and its vicinity, upon the actual state of affairs in
connection with the promised reforms on the Putumayo itself and
with the punishment of the agents of the Peruvian Amazon Co.
guilty of crimes against the Indians of that region.

438

SLAVERY I N PERU.

I am to take this opportunity of informing you that your proceedings throughout your visit to the district in question are entirely approved by Sir E. Grey.
I am, etc.,
Louis MALLET.
[No. 46.

Telegraphic.]

Mr. Bryce to Sir Edward

Grey.

WASHINGTON, March 28,191%.
(Eeceived March 28.)
Your telegram of the 23d ultimo.
Note received from Acting Secretary of State, which, while palliating to a certain extent attitude and action of Peruvian Government,
^defers to judgment of his majesty's Government as to date of pub*
lication of report. Such publication, he considers, is recommended
fc>y professed interest of Peruvian Government in establishing mission to labor among Indians, and should be regarded as additional
^effort to support policies repeatedly traced by President of Peru to
British and United States ministers at Lima.

[No. 47.

Telegraphic]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.
FOREIGN OFFICE, March 30,

1912.

Your telegram of 28th of March.
You may thank the State Department, inform them that I shall
now proceed with publication, and that I agree with their view that
i t should assist Peruvian Government.

[No. 48.]

Mr. Bryce to Sir Edward

Grey.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 1912.

(Eeceived April 9.)
S I R : T. have received the reply of the State Department to my note
msking for an expression of opinion as respects the proposed publication of Sir Roger Casement's reports on the Putumayo atrocities.
1 to-day reported by telegraph the substance of it, and now inclose
a copy.
I have, etc.,
JAMES BRYCE.
[Inclosure in No. 48.]
MR. WILSON TO MR. BRYCE.

WASHINGTON, March 26,1912.
: I take pleasure in acknowledging the
receipt of your note of the 23d ultimo, regarding the failure of the
M Y DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR

SLAVESY I N PERU.

439

Peruvian authorities to punish those responsible for the atrocities
in the rubber forests of the Putumayo, and the report received from
the British minister concerning the recent unsatisfactory interview
of the representative of the United States and Great Britain at Lima
with the President of Peru in this matter. You state that your
Government is convinced that no progress can be made in the efforts
of those interested in the welfare of the native inhabitants of the
upper Amazon until Sir Eoger Casement's reports have been given
publicity. You add that it appears to you that the Peruvian Government is merely temporizing, while the persons chargeable with
the crimes are guaranteed impunity by the inefficiency of the Peruvian local administration, and horrors which are a disgrace to civilization are permitted to continue. You inquire, upon instructions
from your Government, regarding the views of the United States on
the present status of the matter in which this Government has been
so keenly desirous of cooperating with the British Government in
order to secure a permanent amelioration of the shocking conditions
attending the gathering of rubber by native labor in the Peruvian
montaña.
I feel, my dear Mr. Ambassador, the strongest regret that the
Peruvian, Government has not been able to put into effect the reforms to safeguard the interests of the native population, but I can
not altogether doubt the sincerity of the Central Government at
Lima in expressing its desire and purpose of carrying out these reforms. The difficulties presented by the remoteness of the Provinces,
the dearth of citizens on the frontier available for judicial and civil
functions, and the attenuated form in which, whatever pressure the
Central Government can bring to bear, necessarily reaches the local
authorities, particularly owing to the inadequate means of communication between Iquitos and the Peruvian capital, reveal the fact that
the task of radical reform which the Peruvian Government has before
it is no easy one.
As to your observations regarding the advisability of the immediate publication of the reports of Sir Roger Casement of his personal
investigation of the situation of the indigenes of the Putumayo, I
am frankly inclined to defer to the judgment of the British Government, in view of all the circumstances attending the case> as to
the date on which this publication may be deemed necessary and
opportune. This course is undoubtedly recommended by the professed interest of the Peruvian Government in the establishing of
missions to labor among the Indians of the region, and so should
properly be regarded as an additional effort to support the policies
which návp been repeatedly traced by the President of Peru to the
British and American representatives at Lima, and in the prosecutdonof which the Peruvian Government has, up to the present, emphasized the almost insurmountable obstacles that confront the
central administration in the peculiar character of local conditions
at Iquitos.
I have, etc.'
HUNTINGTON WILSON,
Acting' Secretary of State.

440

SLAVERY I N

PERU.

[No. 49.]

Mr. Mitchell Innes to Sir Edward

Grey.

WASHINGTON, May

25,

1912.

(Received June 4.)
SIR : In accordance with your instructions, I communicated to the
State Department a proof of the papers which you propose to lay
before Parliament respecting the charges brought against the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. in the Putumayo.
I have the honor to inclose herewith copy of Mr. Knox's reply.
I have, etc.,
A. MITCHELL I N N E S .
| Inclosure 1 in No. 49.]
MR. K N O X TO MR. M I T C H E L L I N N E S .

WASHINGTON, May

1912,

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
the 10th instant, in which you transmit a proof of papers which it
is proposed to lay before Parliament respecting the charges brought
against the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Co. of the Putumayo.
and in which you inquire whether the Government of the United
States has any objections to the inclusion among the papers of the
telegrams and dispatches relating to its attitude in the matter. I
hasten to inform you that the department sees no objection to the
inclusion of these communications in the contemplated publication.
I n connection with this subject, the department is in recent receipt
of dispatches from the American minister in Lima regarding the
efforts of the central government of Peru to formulate needed reforms
for the Putumayo and inclosing copies in Spanish of the Paredes
report on conditions in that region and of an important presidential
decree looking to a general reorganization of administration on the
Putumayo, concerning which your Government has undoubtedly
already obtained full information. The department has read with
great interest the Paredes report, which places before the Peruvian
Government indisputable evidence of the atrocities committed in the
Putumayo and full corroboration of the statement of conditions
made in the reports of Sir Roger Casement, of which copies were
so courteously furnished this Government through the embassy. The
presidential degree of 22d April, 1912, to which reference is above
made, is understood by the department to be the result of conferences between the President of Peru, the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and Dr. Paredes, and establishes a commission " t o formulate a
general plan of reform, of an administrative as well as political and
judicial nature, which, put into effect in the Putumayo and similar
regions, may lead to application of the law in a rapid and efficacious
manner." The commission thus constituted is directed to conclude
its labors before the 28th of July next, in order that its project of
reform may be submitted to the consideration and approval of the
Peruvian Congress.
I am sure that His British Majesty's Government has been glad
to learn of this action of the Peruvian Government, which seems
to indicate that there will now be no delay in framing comprehensive

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441

PERU.

legislation imposing the restraints of law upon the hitherto unbridled
excesses of this wild frontier region of the upper Amazon and throwing about the natives of the rubber forests the protection which the
natural humanitarian impulses of a civilized community should
guarantee to them.
I n view of this positive manifestation of the purposes of the Government of Peru, I have the honor to inquire whether His British
Majesty's Government might not be of the opinion that it would be
most conducive to the attainment of the ends desired to postpone
for the present the publication of the correspondence transmitted
with your note under acknowledgment.
I n the event, however, that it should be deemed advisable to proceed to the publication of these papers, this Government would request that this present communication also be included. A copy of
the translation of the decree of the President of Peru of April 22,
191a, is inclosed for the information of the embassy.
Accept, etc.,
P . C. KNOX.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 49*]
DECREE OF P R E S I D E N T OF P E R U , DATED A P R I L 2 2 , 1 9 1 2 .

Augusto B. Leguia, President of the Republic, in view of the confidential report transmitted to this office by the prefecture of Loreto,
and referring to the crimes which, before the year 1907, were committed iii the Putumayo region, as well as to the measures which
it is deemed best to adopt to avoid their repetition, and considering
the necessity of establishing on the said frontier and similar regions
a regime which, while affirming the sovereignty and interests of
Peru therin, assures the rights of its inhabitants, especially of the
natives, the proper authorities not ceasing to efficaciously cooperate with the action initiated by the judicial power for the discovery and imprisonment of the guilty parties, decreed:
1. A commission is created-composed of Dr. J . Salvador Cavero,
fiscal of the supreme court and prosecutor of the crimes of the
Putumayo; Dr. Javier Prado y Ugarteche, ex-president of the cabinet
and éx-miñister of foreign relations; Dr. Felipe de Osma, president
of the tribunal, mayor de Cuentas, and ex-minister of foreign relations; Dr. Julio Ego-Aguirre, senator; and JüÜo Abel Baigada,
deputy.
2. This commission will have for its object the formation of a
general plan of reform, administrative as Well as political and judicial, which put into effect in the Putumayo and similar regions may
lead to application of the law in a rapid and efficacious manner.
3. T h e plan of reform announced will be presented before the 28th
of July of the present year, to be duly submitted for the study and
approval of the national Congress in the next legislature.
4. The minister of foreign affairs will give the commission such
data and information as may be necessary for the following out of
the plan alluded to and will summon for that purpose such persons
as he may deem it expedient to hear.
Given in the Government House, Lima, April 22, 1912.
A. B. LEGUIA.
G. LEGUIA Y MARTINEZ.

442

SLAVERY I K PERU.
[No. 50.]

Sir Edward Grey to Mr, Mitchell

Innes.

FOREIGN OFFICE, June 27, 1912.
S I R : I duly received your dispatch of May 25 last, forwarding a
copy of a note from the United States Secretary of State in reply to
the inquiry which you were instructed to make in regard to the
inclusion of certain correspondence with the United States Government among the papers which I propose to lay before Parliament
concerning the charges brought against the employees of the
Peruvian Amazon Co. formerly engaged in the rubber industry on
the Putumayo.
Mr. Knox states that the State Department have no objection to
the inclusion of the correspondence in question, but in the course of
his note he suggests that it might be advisable to postpone publication
of the papers in view of the recent appointment by the Peruvian
Government of a commission to formulate a general scheme of reform,
a step which he anticipates will shortly lead to comprehensive legislation to meet the needs of the case.
While fully appreciating the spirit with which the Peruvian Government are animated, I am unable to fall in with Mr. Knox's view
that publication might with advantage be deferred, as I am convinced
that an authoritative account of the facts of the case can not but assist
the Peruvian Government in their reforming efforts and direct them
to the proper channels. My information leads me to the belief that
fresh legislation is not so much required as a more rigid application
of existing laws which should be perfectly adequate for the suppression of the state of affairs revealed by Sir E. Casement's investigations and subsequently confirmed by Dr. Paredes, the Peruvian
judicial commissioner, and that the most satisfactory course in the
first instance would lie in the immediate adoption of the program
of reforms suggested by the latter in the general report of his mission
as communicated by the Peruvian Government.
Moreover, I have since learned that the decree of which a translation was inclosed in Mr. Knox's note and which provided that the
commission should terminate its labors by the end of next month
has been superseded by a decree of the 30th ultimo creating an auxiliary commission, in addition to the commission at Lima, and charging Dr. Paredes to return to the Putumayo to prepare a plan of
reform, while the presentation of a definitive scheme is deferred till
January 1, 1913. Such delay even if not exceeded is greatly to be
deprecated, especially in the light of the facts, which have recently
come to my knowledge, that over 75 tons of rubber were shipped from
Iquitos in April last, as the result of one of the largest single consignments derived from the Putumayo during the past few years,
and that the amount exported from January 1 up to the end of April
this year equaled three-quarters of the total output for 1911, figures
which can only have been rendered possible by a continuance of the
old system of forced labor.
Further, I have always been of opinion that one of the principal
sources of reform is to be looked for in private enterprise in the shape
of the establishment of missions in the regions of the Putumayo.
The successful organization of such missions and the collection of

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443

the requisite funds can only follow publication of the facts which I
believe for this reason to be in the best interests of the Peruvian
Government, a view which I gather from Mr. Huntington Wilson's
note to Mr. Bryce of March 26 last, is shared by the United States
Government.
In these circumstances I propose, when this dispatch shall have
reached the United States Government, whom JOVL are authorized to
furnish with a copy of it, to lose no further time in laying before
Parliament the papers already communicated to the United States
Government, with the addition of Mr. Knox's note of May 24, in
compliance with the request expressed therein and of this present
dispatch.
I am, etc.,
E. GREY.