initial commit of ebook 7499HEADmain

1 files changed, 8720 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/85rep10.txt b/old/85rep10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e6dc23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/85rep10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8720 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Through Five Republics on Horseback, by G. Whitfield Ray
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Through Five Republics on Horseback
+
+Author: G. Whitfield Ray
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7499]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 11, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE REPUBLICS ON HORSEBACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE AUTHOR AND HIS GUIDES THREE FAITHFUL MEN]
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH FIVE REPUBLICS ON HORSEBACK
+
+BEING AN ACCOUNT OF MANY WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA
+
+
+BY
+
+
+G. WHITFIELD RAY, F. R. G. S.
+Pioneer Missionary and Government Explorer
+
+
+With an Introduction by the Rev. J. G. Brown, D. D.
+Secretary for the Foreign Missions of the Canadian Baptist Church
+
+
+TWELFTH EDITION--REVISED
+
+EVANGELICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE
+C. HAUSER, Agent
+CLEVELAND, OHIO, U. S. A.
+1915
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH AMERICA]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The _Missionary Review of the World_ has described South America as
+THE DARKEST LAND. That I have been able to penetrate into part of its
+unexplored interior, and visit tribes of people hitherto untouched
+and unknown, was urged as sufficient reason for the publishing of
+this work. In perils oft, through hunger and thirst and fever,
+consequent on the many wanderings in unhealthy climes herein
+recorded, the writer wishes publicly to record his deep thankfulness
+to Almighty God for His unfailing help. If the accounts are used to
+stimulate missionary enterprise, and if they give the reader a
+clearer conception of and fuller sympathy with the conditions and
+needs of those South American countries, those years of travel will
+not have been in vain.
+
+"Of the making of books there is no end," so when one is acceptably
+received, and commands a ready sale, the author is satisfied that his
+labor is well repaid. The 4th edition was scarcely dry when the
+Consul-General of the Argentine Republic at Ottawa ordered a large
+number of copies to send to the members of his Government. Much of it
+has been translated into German, and I know not what other languages.
+Even the _Catholic Register_ of Toronto has boosted its sale by
+printing much in abuse of it, at the same time telling its readers
+that the book "sold like hot cakes." A wiser editor would have been
+discreet enough not to refer to "Through Five Republics on
+Horseback." His readers bought it, and--had their eyes opened, for
+the statements made in this work, and the authorities quoted, are
+unanswerable.
+
+Seeing that there is such an alarming ignorance regarding Latin
+America, I have, for this edition, written an Introductory Chapter on
+South America, and also a short Foreword especially relating to each
+of the Five Republics here treated. As my portrayal of Romanism there
+has caused some discussion, I have, in those pages, sought to
+incorporate the words of other authorities on South American life and
+religion.
+
+That the following narratives, now again revised, and sent forth in
+new garb, may be increasingly helpful in promoting knowledge, is the
+earnest wish of the author.
+
+G. W. R.
+
+Toronto, Ont.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+"Through Five Republics on Horseback" has all the elements of a great
+missionary book. It is written by an author who is an eye-witness of
+practically all that he records, and one who by his explorations and
+travels has won for himself the title of the "Livingstone of South
+America." The scenes depicted by the writer and the glimpses into the
+social, political and religious conditions prevailing in the
+Republics in the great Southern continent are of thrilling interest
+to all lovers of mankind. We doubt if there is another book in print
+that within the compass of three hundred pages begins to give as much
+valuable information as is contained in Mr. Ray's volume. The writer
+wields a facile pen, and every page glows with the passion of a man
+on fire with zeal for the evangelization of the great "Neglected
+Continent." We are sure that no one can read this book and be
+indifferent to the claims of South America upon the Christian Church
+of this generation.
+
+To those who desire to learn just what the fruits of Romanism as a
+system are, when left to itself and uninfluenced by Protestantism,
+this book will prove a real eye-opener. We doubt if any Christian
+man, after reading "Through Five Republics on Horseback," will any
+longer conclude that Romanism is good enough for Romanists and that
+Missions to Roman Catholic countries are an impertinence. We trust
+the book will awaken a great interest in the evangelization of the
+Latin Republics of South America.
+
+Of course, this volume will have interest for others besides
+missionary enthusiasts. Apart from the religious and missionary
+purpose of the book, it contains very much in the way of
+geographical, historical and scientific information, and that, too,
+in regard to a field of which as yet comparatively little is known.
+The writer has kept an open mind in his extensive travels, and his
+record abounds in facts of great scientific value.
+
+We have known Mr. Ray for several years and delight to bear testimony
+to his ability and faithfulness as a preacher and pastor. As a
+lecturer on his experiences in South America he is unexcelled. We
+commend "Through Five Republics on Horseback" especially to parents
+who are anxious to put into the hands of their children inspiring and
+character-forming reading. A copy of the book ought to be in every
+Sunday School Library.
+
+J. G. Brown.
+
+626 Confederation Life Building, Toronto.
+
+
+
+
+A PRELIMINARY WORD ON SOUTH AMERICA
+
+The Continent of South America was discovered by Spanish navigators
+towards the end of the fifteenth century. When the tidings of a new
+world beyond the seas reached Europe, Spanish and Portuguese
+expeditions vied with each other in exploring its coasts and sailing
+up its mighty rivers.
+
+In 1494 the Pope decided that these new lands, which were nearly
+twice the size of Europe, should become the possession of the
+monarchs of Spain and Portugal. Thus by right of conquest and gift
+South America with its seven and a half million miles of territory
+and its millions of Indian inhabitants was divided between Spain and
+Portugal. The eastern northern half, now called Brazil, became the
+possession of the Portuguese crown and the rest of the continent went
+to the crown of Spain. South America is 4,600 miles from north to
+south, and its greatest breadth from east to west is 3,500 miles. It
+is a country of plains and mountains and rivers. The Andean range of
+mountains is 4,400 miles long. Twelve peaks tower three miles or more
+above ocean level, and some reach into the sky for more than four
+miles. Many of these are burning mountains; the volcano of Cotopaxi
+is three miles higher than Vesuvius. Its rivers are among the longest
+in the world. The Amazon, Orinoco and La Plata systems drain an area
+of 3,686,400 square miles. Its plains are almost boundless and its
+forests limitless. There are deserts where no rain ever falls, and
+there are stretches of coast line where no day ever passes without
+rain. It is a country where all climates can be found. As the
+northern part of the continent is equatorial the greatest degree of
+heat is there experienced, while the south stretches its length
+toward the Pole Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is on the equator, and
+Punta Arenas, in Chile, is the southernmost town in the world.
+
+For hundreds of years Spain and Portugal exploited and ruled with an
+iron hand their new and vast possessions. Their coffers were enriched
+by fabulous sums of gold and treasure, for the wildest dream of
+riches indulged in by its discoverers fell infinitely short of the
+actual reality. Large numbers of colonists left the Iberian peninsula
+for the newer and richer lands. Priests, monks and nuns went in every
+vessel, and the Roman Catholicism of the Dark Ages was soon firmly
+established as the only religion. The aborigines were compelled to
+bow before the crucifix and worship Mary until, in a peculiar sense,
+South America became the Pope's favorite parish. For the benefit of
+any, native or colonist, who thought that a purer religion should be,
+at any rate, permitted, the Inquisition was established at Lima, and
+later on at Cartagena, where, Colombian history informs us, 400,000
+were condemned to death. Free thought was soon stamped out when
+death became the penalty.
+
+Such was the wild state of the country and the power vested in the
+priests that abuses were tolerated which, even in Rome, had not been
+dreamed of. The priests, as anxious for spiritual conquest as the
+rest were for physical, joined hands with the heathenism of the
+Indians, accepted their gods of wood and stone as saints, set up the
+crucifix side by side with the images of the sun and moon, formerly
+worshipped; and while in Europe the sun of the Reformation arose and
+dispelled the terrible night of religious error and superstition,
+South America sank from bad to worse. Thus the anomaly presented
+itself of the old, effete lands throwing off the yoke of religious
+domination while the younger ones were for centuries to be content
+with sinking lower and lower. [Footnote: History is repeating itself,
+for here in Canada we see Quebec more Catholic and intolerant than
+Italy. The Mayor of Rome dared to criticize the Pope in 1910, but in
+the same year at the Eucharistic Congress at Montreal his emissaries
+receive reverent "homage" from those in authority. No wonder,
+therefore, that, while the Romans are being more enlightened every
+year, a Quebec young man, who is now a theological student in
+McMaster University, Toronto, declared, while staying in the writer's
+home, that, as a child he was always taught that Protestants grew
+horns on their heads, and that he attained the age of 15 before ever
+he discovered that such was not the case. Even backward Portugal has
+had its eyes opened to see that Rome and progress cannot walk
+together, but the President of Brazil is so "faithful" that the Pope,
+in 1910, made him a "Knight of the Golden Spur."]
+
+If the religious emancipation of the old world did not find its echo
+in South America, ideas of freedom from kingly oppression began to
+take root in the hearts of the people, and before the year 1825 the
+Spanish colonies had risen against the mother country and had formed
+themselves into several independent republics, while three years
+before that the independence of Brazil from Portugal had been
+declared. At the present day no part of the vast continent is ruled
+by either Spain or Portugal, but ten independent republics have their
+different flags and governments.
+
+Since its early discovery South America has been pre-eminently a
+country of bloodshed. Revolution has succeeded revolution and
+hundreds of thousands of the bravest have been slain, but, phoenix-
+like, the country rises from its ashes.
+
+Fifty millions of people now dwell beneath the Southern Cross and
+speak the Portuguese and Spanish languages, and it is estimated that,
+with the present rate of increase, 180 millions of people will speak
+these languages by 1920.
+
+South America is, pre-eminently, the coming continent. It is more
+thinly settled than any other part of the world. At least six million
+miles of its territory are suitable for immigrants--double the
+available territory of the United States. "No other tract of good
+land exists that is so large and so unoccupied as South America."
+[Footnote: Dr. Wood, Lima, Peru, in "Protestant Missions in South
+America."] "One of the most marvellous of activities in the
+development of virgin lands is in progress. It is greater than that
+of Siberia, of Australia, or the Canadian North-West." [Footnote:
+The Outlook, March, 1908.] Emigrants are pouring into the continent
+from crowded Europe, the old order of things is quickly passing away,
+and docks and railroads are being built. Bolivia is spending more
+than fifty million dollars in new work. Argentina and Chile are
+pushing lines in all directions. Brazil is preparing to penetrate her
+vast jungles, and all this means enormous expense, for the highest
+points and most difficult construction that have ever been
+encountered are found in Peru, and between Chile and Argentina there
+has been constructed the longest tunnel in the world. [Footnote: One
+railway ascends to the height of 12,800 feet.]
+
+Most important of all, the old medieval Romanism of the Dark Ages is
+losing its grip upon the masses, and slowly, but surely, the leaven
+is working which will, before another decade, bring South America to
+the forefront of the nations.
+
+The economic possibilities of South America cannot be overestimated.
+It is a continent of vast and varied possibilities. There are still
+districts as large as the German Empire entirely unexplored, and
+tribes of Indians who do not yet know that America has been
+"discovered."
+
+This is a continent of spiritual need. The Roman Catholic Church has
+been a miserable failure. "Nearly 7,000,000 of people in South
+America still adhere, more or less openly, to the fetishisms of their
+ancestors, while perhaps double that number live altogether beyond
+the reach of Christian influence, even if we take the word Christian
+in its widest meaning." [Footnote: Report of Senor F. de Castello]
+The Rev. W. B. Grubb, a missionary in Paraguay, says: "The greatest
+unexplored region at present known on earth is there. It contains, as
+far as we know, 300 distinct Indian nations, speaking 300 distinct
+languages, and numbering some millions, all in the darkest
+heathenism." H. W. Brown, in "Latin America," says, "There is a pagan
+population of four to five millions." Then, with respect to the Roman
+Catholic population, Rev. T. B. Wood, LL.D., in "Protestant Missions
+in South America," says, "South America is a pagan field, properly
+speaking. Its image-worship is idolatry. Abominations are grosser and
+more universal than among Roman Catholics in Europe and the United
+States, where Protestantism has greatly modified Catholicism. But it
+is _worse_ off than any other great _pagan_ field in that it is
+dominated by a single mighty hierarchy--the mightiest known in
+history. For centuries priestcraft has had everything its own way all
+over the continent, and is now at last yielding to outside pressure,
+but with desperate resistance."
+
+"South America has been for nearly four hundred years part of the
+parish of the Pope. In contrast with it the north of the New World--
+Puritan, prosperous, powerful, progressive--presents probably the
+most remarkable evidence earth affords of the blessings of
+Protestantism, while the results of Roman Catholicism _left to
+itself_ are writ large in letters of gloom across the priest-ridden,
+lax and superstitious South. Her cities, among the gayest and
+grossest in the world, her ecclesiastics enormously wealthy and
+strenuously opposed to progress and liberty, South America groans
+under the tyranny of a priesthood which, in its highest forms, is
+unillumined by, and incompetent to preach, the gospel of God's free
+gift; and in its lowest is proverbially and habitually drunken,
+extortionate and ignorant. The fires of her unspeakable Inquisition
+still burn in the hearts of her ruling clerics, and although the
+spirit of the age has in our nineteenth century transformed all her
+monarchies into free Republics, religious intolerance all but
+universally prevails." [Footnote: Guiness's "Romanism and
+Reformation."]
+
+Prelates and priests, monks and nuns exert an influence that is all-
+pervading. William E. Curtis, United States Commissioner to South
+America, wrote: "One-fourth of all the property belongs to the
+bishop. There is a Catholic church for every 150 inhabitants. Ten per
+cent. of the population are priests, monks or nuns, and 272 out of
+the 365 days of the year are observed as fast or feast days. The
+priests control the government and rule the country as absolutely as
+if the Pope were its king. As a result, 75 per cent. of the children
+born are illegitimate, and the social and political condition
+presents a picture of the dark ages." It is said that, in one town,
+every fourth person you meet is a priest or a nun, or an ecclesiastic
+of some sort.
+
+Yet, with all this to battle against, the Christian missionary is
+making his influence felt.
+
+_La Razon_, an important newspaper of Trujillo, in a recent issue
+says: "In homage to truth, we make known with pleasure that the
+ministers of Protestantism have benefited this town more in one year
+than all the priests and friars of the Papal sect have done in three
+centuries."
+
+"Last year," writes Mr. Milne, of the American Bible Society, "one of
+our colporteurs in Ayacucho had to make his escape by the roof of a
+house where he was staying, from a mob of half-castes, led on by a
+friar. Finding their prey had escaped, they took his clothes and
+several boxes of Bibles to the plaza of the city and burnt them."
+
+It was not such a going-back as the outside world thought, but, oh,
+it was a deeply significant one, when recently the leading men of the
+Republic of Guatemala met together and solemnly threw over the
+religion of their fathers, which, during 400 years of practice, had
+failed to uplift, and re-established the old paganism of cultured
+Rome. So serious was this step that the _Palace of Minerva_, the
+goddess of trade, is engraved on the latest issue of Guatemalan
+postage stamps. Believing that the few Protestants in the Republic
+are responsible for the reaction, the Archbishop of Guatemala has
+promised to grant one hundred days' indulgence to those who will pray
+for the overthrow of Protestantism in that country.
+
+"Romanism is not Christianity," so the few Christian workers are
+fighting against tremendous odds. What shall the harvest be?
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
+
+The country to which the author first went as a self-supporting
+missionary in the year 1889.
+
+     And Nature, the old nurse, took
+     The child upon her knee,
+     Saying, "Here is a story book
+     Thy Father hath written for thee."
+
+     "Come, wander with me," she said,
+     "Into regions yet untrod,
+     And read what is still unread
+     In the manuscripts of God."
+
+     And he wandered away and away
+     With Nature, the dear old nurse,
+     Who sung to him night and day
+     The rhymes of the universe.
+
+          --_Longfellow._
+
+
+THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
+
+The Argentine Republic has an area of one and a quarter million
+square miles. It is 2,600 miles from north to south, and 500 miles at
+its widest part. It is twelve times the size of Great Britain.
+Although the population of the country is about seven millions, only
+one per cent, of its cultivable area is now occupied, yet Argentina
+has an incomparable climate.
+
+It is essentially a cattle country. She is said to surpass any other
+nation in her numbers of live stock. The Bovril Co. alone kills
+100,000 a year. On its broad plains there are _estandas_, or cattle
+ranches, of fifty and one hundred thousand acres in extent, and on
+these cattle, horses and sheep are herded in millions. Argentina has
+over twenty-nine million cattle, seventy-seven million sheep, seven
+and a half million horses, five and a half million mules, a quarter-
+million of donkeys, and nearly three million swine and three million
+goats. Four billion dollars of British capital are invested in the
+country.
+
+Argentina has sixteen thousand miles of railway. This has been
+comparatively cheap to build. On the flat prairie lands the rails are
+laid, and there is a length of one hundred and seventy-five miles
+without a single curve.
+
+Three hundred and fifty thousand square miles of this prairie is
+specially adapted to the growing of grain. In 1908-9 the yield of
+wheat was 4,920,000 tons. Argentina has exported over three million
+tons of wheat, over three million tons of corn, and one million tons
+of linseed, in one year, while "her flour mills can turn out 700,000
+tons of flour a year." [Footnote: Hirst's Argentina, 1910.]
+
+"It is a delight often met with there to look on a field of twenty
+square miles, with the golden ears standing even and close together,
+and not a weed nor a stump of a tree nor a stone as big as a man's
+fist to be seen or found in the whole area."
+
+"To plant and harvest this immense yield the tillers of the ground
+bought nine million dollars of farm implements in 1908. Argentina's
+record in material progress rivals Japan's. Argentina astonished the
+world by conducting, in 1906, a trade valued at five hundred and
+sixty million dollars, buying and selling more in the markets of
+foreign nations than Japan, with a population of forty millions, and
+China, with three hundred millions." [Footnote: John Barrett, in
+Munsey's Magazine]
+
+To this Land of Promise there is a large immigration. Nearly three
+hundred thousand have entered in one single year. About two hundred
+thousand have been going to Buenos Ayres, the capital, alone, but in
+1908 nearly five hundred thousand landed there. [Footnote: "Despite
+the Government's efforts, emigration from Spain to South America
+takes alarming proportions. In some districts the men of the working
+classes have departed in a body. In certain villages in the
+neighborhood of Cadiz there arc whole streets of deserted houses."-
+Spanish Press.] In Belgium 220 people are crowded into the territory
+occupied by one person in Argentina, so yet there is room. Albert
+Hale says: "It is undeniable that Argentina can give lodgment to
+100,000,000 people, and can furnish nourishment, at a remarkably
+cheap rate, for as many more, when her whole area is utilized."
+
+Argentina's schools and universities are the best in the Spanish-
+speaking world. In Buenos Ayres you will find some of the finest
+school buildings in the world, while 4,000 students attend one
+university.
+
+Buenos Ayres, founded in 1580, is to-day the largest city in the
+world south of the equator, and is "one of the richest and most
+beautiful places of the world." The broad prairies around the city
+have made the people "the richest on earth."
+
+Kev. John F. Thompson, for forty-five years a resident of that
+country, summarizes its characteristics in the following paragraph:
+"Argentina is a _land of plenty_; plenty of room and plenty of food.
+If the actual population were divided into families of ten persons,
+each would have a farm of eight square miles, with ten horses, fifty-
+four cows, and one hundred and eighty-six sheep, and after they had
+eaten their fill of bread they would have half a ton of wheat and
+corn to sell or send to the hungry nations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+BUENOS AYRES IN 1889.
+
+
+In the year 1889, after five weeks of ocean tossing, the steamer on
+which I was a passenger anchored in the River Plate, off Buenos
+Ayres. Nothing but water and sky was to be seen, for the coast was
+yet twenty miles away, but the river was too shallow for the steamer
+to get nearer. Large tugboats came out to us, and passengers and
+baggage were transhipped into them, and we steamed ten miles nearer
+the still invisible city. There smaller tugs awaited us and we were
+again transhipped. Sailing once more toward the land, we soon caught
+sight of the Argentine capital, but before we could sail nearer the
+tugs grounded. There we were crowded into flat-bottomed, lug-sailed
+boats for a third stage of our landward journey. These boats conveyed
+us to within a mile of the city, when carts, drawn by five horses,
+met us in the surf and drew us on to the wet, shingly beach. There
+about twenty men stood, ready to carry the females on their backs on
+to the dry, sandy shore, where was the customs house. The population
+of the city we then entered was about six hundred thousand souls.
+
+After changing the little gold I carried for the greasy paper
+currency of the country, I started out in search of something to eat.
+Eventually I found myself before a substantial meal. At a table in
+front of me sat a Scotsman from the same vessel. He had arrived
+before me (Scotsmen say they are always before the Englishmen) and
+was devouring part of a leg of mutton. This, he told me, he had
+procured, to the great amusement of Boniface, by going down on all
+fours and _baa-ing_ like the sheep of his native hills. Had he waited
+until I arrived he might have feasted on lamb, for my voice was not
+so gruff as his. He had unconsciously asked for an old sheep. I think
+the Highlander in that instance regretted that he had preceded the
+Englishman.
+
+How shall I describe the metropolis of the Argentine, with its one-
+storied, flat-roofed houses, each with grated windows and centre
+_patio_? Some of the poorer inhabitants raise fowls on the roof,
+which gives the house a barnyard appearance, while the iron-barred
+windows below strongly suggest a prison. Strange yet attractive
+dwellings they are, lime-washed in various colors, the favorite
+shades seeming to be pink and bottle green. Fires are not used except
+for cooking purposes, and the little smoke they give out is quickly
+dispersed by the breezes from the sixty-mile-wide river on which the
+city stands.
+
+The Buenos Ayres of 1889 was a strange place, with its long, narrow
+streets, its peculiar stores and many-tongued inhabitants. There is
+the dark-skinned policeman at the corner of each block sitting
+silently on his horse, or galloping down the cobbled street at the
+sound of some revolver, which generally tells of a life gone out.
+Arriving on the scene he often finds the culprit flown. If he
+succeeds in riding him down (an action he scruples not to do), he,
+with great show, and at the sword's point, conducts him to the
+nearest police station. Unfortunately he often chooses the quiet side
+streets, where his prisoner may have a chance to buy his freedom. If
+he pays a few dollars, the poor _vigilante_ is perfectly willing to
+lose him, after making sometimes the pretence of a struggle to blind
+the lookers-on, if there be any curious enough to interest
+themselves. This man in khaki is often "the terror of the innocent,
+the laughing-stock of the guilty." The poor man or the foreign
+sailor, if he stagger ever so little, is sure to be "run in." The
+Argentine law-keeper (?) is provided with both sword and revolver,
+but receives small remuneration, and as his salary is often tardily
+paid him, he augments it in this way when he cannot see a good
+opportunity of turning burglar or something worse on his own account.
+When he is low in funds he will accost the stranger, begging a
+ cigarette, or inviting himself at your expense to the nearest
+_cafe_, as "the day is so unusually hot." After all, we must not
+blame him too much--his superiors are far from guiltless, and he
+knows it. When Minister Toso took charge of the Provincial portfolio
+of Finance, he exclaimed, "_C-o! Todos van robando menos yo!_"
+("Everybody is robbing here except I.") It is public news that
+President Celman carried away to his private residence in the country
+a most beautiful and expensive bronze fountain presented by the
+inhabitants of the city to adorn the principal _plaza_. [Footnote:
+Public square.] The president is elected by the people for a term of
+three years, and invariably retires a rich man, however poor he may
+have been when entering on his office. The laws of the country may be
+described as model and Christian, but the carrying out of them is a
+very different matter.
+
+Some of the laws are excellent and worthy of our imitation, such as,
+for example, the one which decrees that _bachelors shall be taxed_.
+Civil elections are held on Sundays, the voting places being Roman
+Catholic churches.
+
+Both postmen and telegraph boys deliver on horseback, but such is the
+lax custom that everything will do to-morrow. That fatal word is the
+first the stranger learns--_mañana_.
+
+Comparatively few people walk the streets. "No city in the world of
+equal size and population can compare with Buenos Ayres for the
+number and extent of its tramways." [Footnote: Turner's "Argentina."]
+A writer in the _Financial News_ says: "The proportion of the
+population who daily use street-cars is _sixty-six times greater in
+Buenos Ayres than in the United Kingdom_."
+
+This _Modern Athens_, as the Argentines love to term their city, has
+a beautiful climate. For perhaps three hundred days out of every year
+there is a sky above as blue as was ever seen in Naples.
+
+The natives eat only twice a day--at 10.30 a.m., and at 7 p.m.--the
+common edibles costing but little. I could write much of Buenos
+Ayres, with its _carnicerias_, where a leg of mutton may be bought
+for 20 cts., or a brace of turkeys for 40 cts.; its _almacenes_,
+where one may buy a pound of sugar or a yard of cotton, a measure of
+charcoal (coal is there unknown) or a large _sombrero_, a package of
+tobacco (leaves over two feet long) or a pair of white hemp-soled
+shoes for your feet--all at the same counter. The customer may
+further obtain a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer (the latter
+costing four times the price of the former) from the same assistant,
+who sells at different prices to different customers.
+
+There the value of money is constantly changing, and almost every day
+prices vary. What to-day costs $20 to-morrow may be $15, or, more
+likely, $30. Although one hundred and seventy tons of sugar are
+annually grown in the country, that luxury is decidedly expensive. I
+have paid from 12 cts. to 30 cts. a pound. Oatmeal, the Scotsman's
+dish, has cost me up to 50 cts. a pound.
+
+Coming again on to the street you hear the deafening noises of the
+cow horns blown by the streetcar drivers, or the _pescador_ shrilly
+inviting housekeepers to buy the repulsive-looking red fish, carried
+over his shoulder, slung on a thick bamboo. Perhaps you meet a beggar
+on horseback (for there wishes _are_ horses, and beggars _do_ ride),
+who piteously whines for help. This steed-riding fraternity all use
+invariably the same words: _"Por el amor de Dios dame un centavo!"_
+("For the love of God give me a cent.") If you bestow it, he will
+call on his patron saint to bless you. If you fail to assist him, the
+curses of all the saints in heaven will fall on your impious head.
+This often causes such a shudder in the recipient that I have known
+him to turn back to appease the wrath of the mendicant, and receive
+instead--a blessing.
+
+It is not an uncommon sight to see a black-robed priest with his hand
+on a boy's head giving him a benediction that he may be enabled to
+sell his newspapers or lottery tickets with more celerity.
+
+The National Lottery is a great institution, and hundreds keep
+themselves poor buying tickets. In one year the lottery has realized
+the sum of $3,409,143.57. The Government takes forty per cent. of
+this, and divides the rest between a number of charitable and
+religious organizations, all, needless to say, being Roman Catholic.
+Amongst the names appear the following: Poor Sisters of St. Joseph,
+Workshop of Our Lady, Sisters of St. Anthony, etc.
+
+Little booths for the sale of lottery tickets are erected in the
+vestibules of some of the churches, and the Government, in this way,
+repays the church.
+
+The gambling passion is one of Argentina's greatest curses. Tickets
+are bought by all, from the Senator down to the newsboy who ventures
+his only dollar.
+
+You meet the water-seller passing down the street with his barrel
+cart, drawn by three or four horses with tinkling bells, dispensing
+water to customers at five cents a pail. The poorer classes have no
+other means of procuring this precious liquid. The water is kept in a
+corner of the house in large sun-baked jars. A peculiarity of these
+pots is that they are not made to stand alone, but have to be held up
+by something.
+
+At early morning and evening the milkman goes his rounds on
+horseback. The milk he carries in six long, narrow cans, like
+inverted sugar-loaves, three on each side of his raw-hide saddle, he
+himself being perched between them on a sheepskin. In some cans he
+carries pure cream, which the jolting of his horse soon converts into
+butter. This he lifts out with his hands to any who care to buy.
+After the addition of a little salt, and the subtraction of a little
+buttermilk, this _manteca_ is excellent. After serving you he will
+again mount his horse, but not until his hands have been well wiped
+on its tail, which almost touches the ground. The other cans of the
+_lechero_ contain a mixture known to him alone. I never analyzed it,
+but have remarked a chalky substance in the bottom of my glass. He
+does not profess to sell pure milk; that you can buy, but, of course,
+at a higher price, from the pure milk seller. In the cool of the
+afternoon he will bring round his cows, with bells on their necks and
+calves dragging behind. The calves are tied to the mothers' tails,
+and wear a muzzle. At a _sh-h_ from the sidewalk he stops them, and,
+stooping down, fills your pitcher according to your money. The cows,
+through being born and bred to a life in the streets, are generally
+miserable-looking beasts. Strange to add, the one milkman shoes his
+cows and the other leaves his horse unshod. It is not customary in
+this country for man's noble friend to wear more than his own natural
+hoof. A visit to the blacksmith is entertaining. The smith, by means
+of a short lasso, deftly trips up the animal, and, with its legs
+securely lashed, the cow must lie on its back while he shoes its
+upturned hoofs.
+
+Many and varied are the scenes. One is struck by the number of
+horses, seven and eight often being yoked to one cart, which even
+then they sometimes find difficult to draw. Some of the streets are
+very bad, worse than our country lanes, and filled with deep ruts and
+drains, into which the horses often fall. There the driver will
+sometimes cruelly leave them, when, after his arm aches in using the
+whip, he finds the animal cannot rise. For the veriest trifle I have
+known men to smash the poor dumb brute's eyes out with the stock of
+the whip, and I have been very near the Police Station more than once
+when my righteous blood compelled me to interfere. Where, oh, where
+is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals? Surely no
+suffering creatures under the sun cry out louder for mercy than those
+in Argentina?
+
+As I have said, horses are left to die in the public streets. It has
+been my painful duty to pass moaning creatures lying helplessly in
+the road, with broken limbs, under a burning sun, suffering hunger
+and thirst, for three consecutive days, before kind death, the
+sufferer's friend, released them. Looking on such sights, seeing
+every street urchin with coarse laugh and brutal jest jump on such an
+animal's quivering body, stuff its parched mouth with mud, or poke
+sticks into its staring eyes, I have cried aloud at the injustice.
+The policeman and the passers-by have only laughed at me for my
+pains.
+
+In my experiences in South America I found cruelty to be a marked
+feature of the people. If the father thrusts his dagger into his
+enemy, and the mother, in her fits of rage, sticks her hairpin into
+her maid's body, can it be wondered at if the children inherit cruel
+natures? How often have I seen a poor horse fall between the shafts
+of some loaded cart of bricks or sand! Never once have I seen his
+harness undone and willing hands help him up, as in other civilized
+lands. No, the lashing of the cruel whip or the knife's point is his
+only help. If, as some religious writers have said, the horse will be
+a sharer of Paradise along with man, his master, then those from
+Buenos Ayres will feed in stalls of silver and have their wounds
+healed by the clover of eternal kindness. "God is Love."
+
+I have said the streets are full of holes. In justice to the
+authorities I must mention the fact that sometimes, especially at the
+crossings, these are filled up. To carry truthfulness still further,
+however, I must state that more than once I have known them bridged
+over with the putrefying remains of a horse in the last stages of
+decomposition. I have seen delicate ladies, attired in Parisian
+furbelows, lift their dainty skirts, attempt the crossing--and sink
+in a mass of corruption, full of maggots.
+
+In my description of Buenos Ayres I must not omit to mention the
+large square, black, open hearses so often seen rapidly drawn through
+the streets, the driver seeming to travel as quickly as he can. In
+the centre of the coach is the coffin, made of white wood and covered
+with black material, fastened on with brass nails. Around this
+gruesome object sit the relatives and friends of the departed one on
+their journey to the _chacarita_, or cemetery, some six miles out
+from the centre of the city. Cemeteries in Spanish America are
+divided into three enclosures. There is the "cemetery of heaven,"
+"the cemetery of purgatory," and "the cemetery of hell." The location
+of the soul in the future is thus seen to be dependent on its
+location by the priests here. The dead are buried on the day of their
+death, when possible, or, if not, then early on the following
+morning; but never, I believe, on feast days. Those periods are set
+apart for pleasure, and on important saint days banners and flags of
+all nations are hung across the streets, or adorn the roofs of the
+flat-topped houses, where the washing is at other times dried.
+
+After attending mass in the early morning on these days, the people
+give themselves up to revelry and sin at home, or crowd the street-
+cars running to the parks and suburbs. Many with departed relatives
+(and who has none?) go to the _chacarita_, and for a few _pesos_
+bargain with the black-robed priest waiting there, to deliver their
+precious dead out of Purgatory. If he sings the prayer the cost is
+double, but supposed to be also doubly efficacious. Mothers do not
+always inspire filial respect in their offspring, for one young man
+declared that he "wanted to get his mother out of Purgatory before he
+went in."
+
+A Buenos Ayres missionary writes "There are two large cemeteries
+here. From early morn until late at night the people crowd into them,
+and I am told there were 100,000 at one time in one of them. November
+1 is a special day for releasing thousands of souls out of Purgatory.
+We printed thousands of tracts and the workers started out to
+distribute them. By ten o'clock six of them were in jail, having been
+given into custody by a 'holy father.' They were detained until six
+in the evening without food, and then were released through the
+efforts of a Methodist minister."
+
+The catechisn reads: "Attend mass all Sundays and Feast days. Confess
+at least once a year, or oftener, if there is any fear of death. Take
+Sacrament at Easter time. Pay a tenth of first-fruits to God's
+Church." The fourth commandment is condensed into the words:
+"Sanctify the Feast days." From this it will be seen that there is
+great need for mission work. Of course Romanism in this and other
+cities is losing its old grip upon the people, and because of this
+the priest is putting forth superhuman effort to retain what he has.
+_La Voz de la Iglesia_ ("The Voice of the Church"), the organ of the
+Bishop of Buenos Ayres, has lately published some of the strongest
+articles we have ever read. A late article concludes: "One thing
+only, one thing: OBEY; OBEY BLINDLY. Comply with her (the Church's)
+commands with faithful loyalty. If we do this, it is impossible for
+Protestantism to invade the flowery camp of the Church, Holy,
+Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."
+
+Articles such as this, however, and the circulation of a tract by one
+of the leading church presses, are not calculated to help forward a
+losing cause. The tract referred to is entitled, "Letter of Jesus
+about the Drops of Blood which He shed whilst He went to Calvary."
+"You know that the soldiers numbered 150, twenty-five of whom
+conducted me bound. I received fifty blows on the head and 108 on the
+breast. I was pulled by the hair 23 times, and 30 persons spat in my
+face. Those who struck me on the upper part of the body were 6,666,
+and 100 Jews struck me on the head. I sighed 125 times. The wounds on
+the head numbered 20; from the crown of thorns, 72; points of thorns
+on the forehead, 100. The wounds on the body were 100. There came out
+of my body 28,430 drops of blood." This letter, the tract states, was
+found in the Holy Sepulchre and is preserved by his holiness the
+Pope. Intelligent, thinking men can only smile at such an utter
+absurdity.
+
+An "Echoes from Argentina" extract reads: "Not many months ago,
+Argentina was blessed by the Pope. Note what has happened since:--The
+Archbishop, who was the bearer of the blessing and brought it from
+Rome, has since died very suddenly; we have had a terrible visitation
+of heat suffocation, hundreds being attacked and very many dying; we
+have had the bubonic pest in our midst; a bloody provincial
+revolution in Entre Rios; and now at the time of writing there is an
+outbreak of a serious cattle disease, and England has closed her
+ports against Argentine live stock. Of course, we do not say that
+these calamities are the _result_ of the Pope's blessing, but we
+would that Catholics would open their eyes and see that it is a fact
+that whereas Protestant countries, _anathematized_ by the Pope,
+prosper, Catholic countries which have been blessed by him are in a
+lamentable condition."
+
+BUENOS AYRES AT THE PRESENT TIME.
+
+Perhaps no city of the world has grown and progressed more during
+this last decade than the city of Buenos Ayres. To-day passengers
+land in the centre of the city and step on "the most expensive system
+of artificial docks in all America, representing an expenditure of
+seventy million dollars."
+
+To this city there is a large emigration. It has grown at the rate of
+4,000 adults a week, with a birthrate of 1,000 a week added. The
+population is now fast climbing up to 1 1-2 millions of inhabitants.
+There are 300,000 Italians, 100,000 Spaniards, a colony of 20,000
+Britishers, and, of course, Jews and other foreigners in proportion.
+"Buenos Ayres is one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world.
+There are 189 newspapers, printed in almost every language of the
+globe. Probably the only Syrian newspaper in America, _The Assudk_,
+is issued in this city." To keep pace with the rush of newcomers has
+necessitated the building of 30,000 houses every year. There is here
+"the finest and costliest structure ever built, used exclusively by
+one newspaper, the home of _La Prensa_; the most magnificent opera
+house of the western hemisphere, erected by the government at the
+cost of ten million dollars; one of the largest banks in the world,
+and the handsomest and largest clubhouse in the world." [Footnote:
+John Barrett, In Munsey's Magazine.] The entrance fee to this club is
+$1,500. The Y.M.C.A. is now erecting a commodious building, for which
+$200,000 has already been raised, and there is a Y.W.C.A., with a
+membership of five hundred. Dr. Clark, in "The Continent of
+Opportunity," says, "More millionaires live in Buenos Ayres than in
+any other city of the world of its size. The proportion of well-
+clothed, well-fed people is greater than in American cities, the
+slums are smaller, and the submerged classes less in proportion. The
+constant movement of carriages and automobiles here quite surpasses
+that of Fifth Avenue." The street cars are of the latest and most
+improved electric types, equal to any seen in New York or London, and
+seat one hundred people, inside and out. Besides these there is an
+excellent service of motor cabs, and _tubes_ are being commenced.
+Level crossings for the steam roads are not permitted in the city
+limits, so all trains run over or under the streets.
+
+"The Post Office handles 40,000,000 pieces of mail and 125,000 parcel
+post packages a month. The city has 1,209 automobiles, 27 theatres
+and 50 moving picture shows. Five thousand vessels enter the port of
+Buenos Ayres every year, and the export of meat in 1910 was valued at
+$31,000,000. No other section of the world shows such growth."
+[Footnote: C. H. Furlong, in The World's Work.]
+
+The city, once so unhealthy, is now, through proper drainage, "the
+second healthiest large city of the world." The streets, as I first
+saw them, were roughly cobbled, now they are asphalt paved, and made
+into beautiful avenues, such as would grace any capital of the world.
+Avenida de Mayo, cut right through the old city, is famed as being
+one of the most costly and beautiful avenues of the world.
+
+On those streets the equestrian milkman is no longer seen. Beautiful
+sanitary white-tiled _tambos_, where pure milk and butter are sold,
+have taken his place. The old has been transformed and PROGRESS is
+written everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_REVOLUTION._
+
+
+South America, of all lands, has been most torn asunder by war.
+Revolutions may be numbered by hundreds, and the slaughter has been
+incredible. Even since the opening of the year 1900, thirty thousand
+Colombians have been slain and there have been dozens of revolutions.
+Darwin relates the fact that in 1832 Argentina underwent fifteen
+changes of government in nine months, owing to internal strife, and
+since then Argentina has had its full share.
+
+During my residence in Buenos Ayres there occurred one of those
+disastrous revolutions which have from time to time shaken the whole
+Republic. The President, Don Juarez Celman, had long been unpopular,
+and, the mass of the people being against him, as well as nearly half
+of the standing army, and all the fleet then anchored in the river,
+the time was considered ripe to strike a blow.
+
+On the morning of July 26, 1890, the sun rose upon thousands of
+stern-looking men bivouacking in the streets and public squares of
+the city. The revolution had commenced, and was led by one of the
+most distinguished Argentine citizens, General Joseph Mary Campos.
+The battle-cry of these men was "_Sangre! Sangre!_" [Footnote:
+"Blood! Blood!"] The war fiend stalked forth. Trenches were dug in
+the streets. Guns were placed at every point of vantage. Men mounted
+their steeds with a careless laugh, while the rising sun shone on
+their burnished arms, so soon to be stained with blood. Battalions of
+men marched up and down the streets to the sound of martial music,
+and the low, flat-roofed housetops were quickly filled with
+sharpshooters.
+
+The Government House and residence of the President was guarded in
+all directions by the 2nd Battalion of the Line, the firemen and a
+detachment of police, but on the river side were four gunboats of the
+revolutionary party.
+
+The average South American is a man of quick impulses and little
+thought. The first shot fired by the Government troops was the signal
+for a fusilade that literally shook the city. Rifle shots cracked,
+big guns roared, and shells screaming overhead descended in all
+directions, carrying death and destruction. Street-cars, wagons and
+cabs were overturned to form barricades. In the narrow, straight
+streets the carnage was fearful, and blood soon trickled down the
+watercourses and dyed the pavements. That morning the sun had risen
+for the last time upon six hundred strong men; it set upon their
+mangled remains. Six hundred souls! The Argentine soldier knows
+little of the science of "hide and seek" warfare. When he goes forth
+to battle, it is to fight--or die. Of the future life he
+unfortunately thinks little, and of Christ, the world's Redeemer, he
+seldom or never hears. The Roman Catholic chaplain mumbles a few
+Latin prayers to them at times, but as the knowledge of these _resos_
+does not seem to improve the priest's life, the men prefer to remain
+in ignorance.
+
+The average Argentine soldier is a man of little intelligence. The
+regiments are composed of Patagonian Indians or semi-civilized
+Guaranis, mixed with all classes of criminals from the state prisons.
+Nature has imprinted upon them the unmistakable marks of the savage--
+sullen, stupid ferocity, indifference to pain, bestial instincts. As
+for his fighting qualities, they more resemble those of the tiger
+than of the cool, brave and trained soldier. When his blood is
+roused, fighting is with him a matter of blind and indiscriminate
+carnage of friend or foe. A more villainous-looking horde it would be
+difficult to find in any army. The splendid accoutrements of the
+generals and superior officers, and the glittering equipments of
+their chargers, offer a vivid contrast to the mean and dirty uniforms
+of the troops.
+
+During the day the whole territory of the Republic was declared to be
+in a state of siege. Business was at a complete standstill. The
+stores were all closed, and many of them fortified with the first
+means that came to hand. Mattresses, doors, furniture, everything was
+requisitioned, and the greatest excitement prevailed in commercial
+circles generally. All the gun-makers' shops had soon been cleared of
+their contents, which were in the hands of the adherents of the
+revolution.
+
+That evening the news of the insurrection was flashed by "Reuter's"
+to all parts of the civilized world. The following appeared in one of
+the largest British dailies:
+
+"BUENOS AYRES, July 27, 5.40 p.m.
+
+"The fighting in the streets between the Government troops and the
+insurgents has been of the most desperate character.
+
+"The forces of the Government have been defeated.
+
+"The losses in killed and wounded are estimated at 1,000.
+
+"The fleet is in favor of the Revolutionists.
+
+"Government house and the barracks occupied by the Government troops
+have been bombarded by the insurgent artillery."
+
+That night as I went in and out of the squads of men on the
+revolutionary side, seeking to do some acts of mercy, I saw many
+strange and awful sights. There were wounded men who refused to leave
+the field, although the rain poured. Others were employed in cooking
+or ravenously eating the dead horses which strewed the streets. Some
+were lying down to drink the water flowing in the gutters, which
+water was often tinged with human blood, for the rain was by this
+time washing away many of the dark spots in the streets. Others lay
+coiled up in heaps under their soaking _ponchos_, trying to sleep a
+little, their arms stacked close at hand. There were men to all
+appearances fast asleep, standing with their arms in the reins of the
+horses which had borne them safely through the leaden hail of that
+day of terror. Numerous were the jokes and loud was the coarse
+laughter of many who next day would be lying stiff in death, but
+little thought seemed to be expended on that possibility.
+
+Men looted the stores and feasted, or wantonly destroyed valuables
+they had no use for. None stopped this havoc, for the officers were
+quartered in the adjacent houses, themselves holding high revelry.
+Lawless hordes visited the police offices, threw their furniture into
+the streets, tore to shreds all the books, papers and records found,
+and created general havoc. They gorged and cursed, using swords for
+knives, and lay down in the soaking streets or leaned against the
+guns to smoke the inevitable _cigarillo_. A few looked up at the
+gilded keys of St. Peter adorning the front of the cathedral, perhaps
+wondering if they would be used to admit them to a better world.
+
+Next day, as I sallied forth to the dismal duty of caring for the
+dead and dying, the guns of the Argentine fleet [Footnote: British-
+built vessels of the latest and most approved types.] in the river
+opposite the city blazed forth upon the quarter held by the
+Government's loyal troops. One hundred and fifty-four shots were
+fired, two of the largest gunboats firing three-hundred and six-
+hundred pounders. Soon every square was a shambles, and the mud oozed
+with blood. The Buenos Ayres _Standard_, describing that day of
+fierce warfare, stated:
+
+"At dawn, the National troops, quartered in the Plaza Libertad, made
+another desperate attack on the Revolutionary positions in the Plaza
+Lavalle. The Krupp guns, mitrailleuses and gatlings went off at a
+terrible rate, and volleys succeeded each other, second for second,
+from five in the morning till half-past nine. The work of death was
+fearful, and hundreds of spectators were shot down as they watched
+from their balconies or housetops. Cannon balls riddled all the
+houses near the Cinco Esquinas. In the attack on the Plaza Lavalle,
+three hundred men must have fallen."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"At ten a.m. the white flag of truce was hoisted on both sides, and
+the dismal work of collecting the dead and wounded began. The
+ambulances of the Asistencia Publica, the cars of the tram companies
+and the wagons of the Red Cross were busily engaged all day in
+carrying away the dead. It is estimated that in the Plaza Lavalle
+above 600 men were wounded and 300 killed. Considering that the
+Revolutionists defended an entrenched position, whilst the National
+troops attacked, we may imagine that the losses of the latter were
+enormous."
+
+"General Lavalle, commander-in-chief of the National forces, gave
+orders for a large number of coffins, which were not delivered, as
+the undertaker wished to be paid cash. It is to be supposed that
+these coffins were for the dead officers."
+
+"When the white flags were run up, Dr. Del Valle, Senator of the
+Nation, sent, in the name of the Revolutionary Committee, an
+ultimatum to the National Government, demanding the immediate
+dismissal of the President of the Republic and dissolution of
+Congress. Later on it was known that both parties had agreed on an
+armistice, to last till mid-day on Monday."
+
+Of the third day's sanguinary fighting, the _Standard_ wrote:
+
+"The Plaza Libertad was taken by General Lavalle at the head of the
+National troops under the most terrible fire, but the regiments held
+well together and carried the position in a most gallant manner,
+confirming the reputation of indomitable valor that the Argentine
+troops won at the trenches of Curupayti. Our readers may imagine the
+fire they suffered in the straight streets swept by Krupp guns,
+gatlings and mitrailleuses, while every housetop was a fortress
+whence a deadly fire was poured on the heads of the soldiers. Let
+anybody take the trouble to visit the Calles [Footnote: Streets]
+Cerrito, Libertad and Talcahuano, the vicinity of the Plazas Parque
+and Lavalle, and he will be staggered to see how all the houses have
+been riddled by mitrailleuses and rifle bullets. The passage of
+cannon balls is marked on the iron frames of windows, smashed frames
+and demolished balconies of the houses.
+
+"The Miro Palace, in the Plaza Parque, is a sorry picture of
+wreckage: the 'mirador' is knocked to pieces by balls and shells; the
+walls are riddled on every side, and nearly all the beautiful Italian
+balconies and buttresses have been demolished. The firing around the
+palace must have been fearful, to judge by the utter ruin about, and
+all the telephone wires dangling over the street in meshes from every
+house. Ruin and wreckage everywhere.
+
+"By this time the hospitals of the city, the churches and public
+buildings were filled with the wounded and dying, borne there on
+stretchers made often of splintered and shattered doors. Nearly a
+hundred men were taken into the San Francisco convent alone." Yet
+with all this the lust for blood was not quenched. It could still be
+written of the fourth day:
+
+"At about half-past two, a sharp attack was made by the Government
+troops on the Plaza Parque, and a fearful fire was kept up. Hundreds
+and hundreds fell on both sides, but the Government troops were
+finally repulsed. People standing at the corners of the streets
+cheering for the Revolutionists were fired on and many were killed.
+Bodies of Government troops were stationed at the corners of the
+streets leading to the Plaza, Large bales of hay had been heaped up
+to protect them from the deadly fire of the Revolutionists.
+
+"It was at times difficult to remember that heavy slaughter was going
+on around. In many parts of the city people were chatting, joking and
+laughing at their doors. The attitude of the foreign population was
+more serious; they seemed to foresee the heavy responsibilities of
+the position and to accurately forecast the result of the
+insurrection.
+
+"The bulletins of the various newspapers during the revolution were
+purchased by the thousand and perused with the utmost avidity; fancy
+prices were often paid for them. The Sunday edition of _The Standard_
+was sold by enterprising newsboys in the suburbs as high as $3.00 per
+copy, whilst fifty cents was the regulation price for a momentary
+peep at our first column."
+
+Towards the close of that memorable 29th of July the hail of bullets
+ceased, but the insurgent fleet still kept up its destructive
+bombardment of the Government houses for four hours.
+
+The Revolutionists were defeated, or, as was seriously affirmed, had
+been sold for the sum of one million Argentine dollars.
+
+_"Estamos vendidos!" "Estamos vendidos!"_ (We are sold! We are sold!)
+was heard on every hand. Because of this surrender officers broke
+their swords and men threw away their rifles as they wept with rage.
+A sergeant exclaimed: "And for this they called us out--to surrender
+without a struggle! Cowards! Poltroons!" And then with a stern glance
+around he placed his rifle to his breast and shot himself through the
+heart. After the cessation of hostilities both sides collected their
+dead, and the wounded were placed under the care of surgeons, civil
+as well as military.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that the insurgents were said to be
+defeated, the President, Dr. Celman, fled from the city, and the
+amusing spectacle was seen of men and youths patrolling the streets
+wearing cards in their hats which read: _"Ya se fue el burro"_ (At
+last the donkey has gone). A more serious sight, however, was when
+the effigy of the fleeing President was crucified.
+
+Thus ended the insurrection of 1890, a rising which sent three
+thousand brave men into eternity.
+
+What changes had taken place in four short days! At the Plaza
+Libertad the wreckage was most complete. The beautiful partierres
+were trodden down by horses; the trees had been partially cut down
+for fuel; pools of blood, remnants of slaughtered animals, offal,
+refuse everywhere.
+
+Since the glorious days of the British invasion--glorious from an
+Argentine point of view--Buenos Ayres had never seen its streets
+turned into barricades and its housetops into fortresses. In times of
+electoral excitement we had seen electors attack each other in bands
+many years, but never was organized warfare carried on as during this
+revolution. The Plaza Parque was occupied by four or five thousand
+Revolutionary troops; all access to the Plaza was defended by armed
+groups on the house-tops and barricades in the streets, Krupp guns
+and that most infernal of modern inventions, the mitrailleuse, swept
+all the streets, north, south, east and west. The deadly grape swept
+the streets down to the very river, and not twenty thousand men could
+have taken the Revolutionary position by storm, except by gutting the
+houses and piercing the blocks, as Colonel Garmendia proposed, to
+avoid the awful loss of life suffered in the taking of the Plaza
+Libertad on Saturday morning.
+
+At the close of the revolution the great city found itself suffering
+from a quasi-famine. High prices were asked for everything. In some
+districts provisions could not be obtained even at famine prices. The
+writer for the first time in his life had to go here and there to beg
+a loaf of bread for his family's needs.
+
+A reporter of the _Argentine News_, July 31st of that same year,
+wrote:
+
+"There is a revolution going on in Rosario. It began on Saturday,
+when the Revolutionists surprised the Government party, and by one on
+Sunday most of the Government buildings were in their hands. It is
+now eight in the morning and the firing is terrible. Volunteers are
+coming into the town from all parts, so the rebels are bound to win
+the stronghold shortly. News has just come that the Government troops
+have surrendered. Four p.m.--I have been out to see the dead and
+wounded gathered up by the ambulance wagons. I should think the dead
+are less than a hundred, and the wounded about four times that
+number. The surprise was so sudden that the victory has been easy and
+with little loss of life. The Revolutionists are behaving well and
+not destroying property as they might have done. The whole town is
+rejoicing; flags of all nations are flying everywhere. The saddest
+thing about the affair is that some fifty murderers have escaped from
+the prison. I saw many of them running away when I got upon the spot.
+The order has been given to recapture them. I trust they may be
+caught, for we have too many of that class at liberty already. * * *
+* It is estimated that over 100,000 rounds of ammunition were fired
+in the two days. * * * The insurgents fed on horse-meat and beef, the
+former being obtained by killing the horses belonging to the police,
+the latter from the various dairies, from which the cows were
+seized."
+
+In 1911 the two largest Dreadnoughts of the world, the _Rivadavia_
+and the _Moreno_, were launched for the Argentine Government. These
+two battleships are _half as powerful again_ as the largest British
+Dreadnought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_THE CRIOLLO VILLAGE_.
+
+
+The different centres of trade and commerce in the Argentine can
+easily be reached by train or river steamer. Rosario, with its
+140,000 inhabitants, in the north; Bahia Blanca, where there is the
+largest wheat elevator in the world, in the south, and Mendoza, at
+the foot of the Andes, several times destroyed by earthquake, five
+hundred miles west--all these are more or less like the capital.
+
+To arrive at an isolated village of the interior the traveller must
+be content to ride, as I did, on horseback, or be willing to jolt
+along for weeks in a wagon without springs. These carts are drawn by
+eight, ten, or more bullocks, as the weight warrants, and are
+provided with two very strong wheels, without tires, and often
+standing eight and ten feet high. The patient animals, by means of a
+yoke fastened to their horns with raw-hide, draw these carts through
+long prairie grass or sinking morass, through swollen rivers or
+oozing mud, over which malaria hangs in visible forms.
+
+The _voyager_ must be prepared to suffer a little hunger and thirst
+on the way. He must sleep amongst the baggage in the cart, or on the
+broader bed of the ground, where snakes and tarantulas creep and the
+heavy dew saturates one through and through.
+
+As is well known, the bullock is a slow animal, and these never
+travel more than two or three miles an hour.
+
+Time with the native is no object. The words, "With patience we win
+heaven," are ever on his lips.
+
+The Argentine countryman is decidedly lazy.
+
+Darwin relates that he asked two men the question: "Why don't you
+work?" One said: "The days are too long!" Another answered: "I am too
+poor."
+
+With these people nothing can succeed unless it is begun when the
+moon is on the increase. The result is that little is accomplished.
+
+You cannot make the driver understand your haste, and the bullocks
+understand and care still less.
+
+The mosquitoes do their best to eat you up alive, unless your body
+has already had all the blood sucked out of it, a humiliating,
+painful and disfiguring process. You must carry with you sufficient
+food for the journey, or it may happen that, like me, you are only
+able to shoot a small ring dove, and with its entrails fish out of
+the muddy stream a monster turtle for the evening meal.
+
+If, on the other hand, you pass a solitary house, they will with
+pleasure give you a sheep. If you killed one without permission your
+punishment would perhaps be greater than if you had killed a man.
+
+If a bullock becomes ill on the road, the driver will, with his
+knife, cut all around the sod where the animal has left its
+footprint. Lifting this out, he will cut a cross on it and replace it
+the other side uppermost. This cure is most implicitly believed in
+and practised.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The making of the cross is supposed to do great wonders, which your
+guide is never tired of recounting while he drinks his _máte_ in the
+unbroken stillness of the evening. Alas! the many bleaching bones on
+the road testify that this, and a hundred other such remedies, are
+not always effectual, but the mind of the native is so full of
+superstitious faith that the testimony of his own eyes will not
+convince him of the absurdity of his belief. As he stoops over the
+fire you will notice on his breast some trinket or relic--anything
+will do if blessed by the priest--and that, he assures you, will save
+him from every unknown and unseen danger in his land voyage. The
+priest has said it, and he rests satisfied that no lightning stroke
+will fell him, no lurking panther pounce upon him, nor will he die of
+thirst or any other evil. I have remarked men of the most cruel,
+cutthroat description wearing these treasures with zealous care,
+especially one, of whom it was said that he had killed two wives.
+
+When your driver is young and amorously inclined you will notice that
+he never starts for the regions beyond without first providing
+himself with an owl's skin. This tied on his breast, he tells you,
+will ensure him favor in the eyes of the females he may meet on the
+road, and on arrival at his destination.
+
+I once witnessed what at first sight appeared to be a heavy fall of
+snow coming up with the wind from the south. Strange to relate, this
+phenomenon turned out to be millions of white butterflies of large
+size. Some of these, when measured, I found to be four and five
+inches across the wings. Darwin relates his having, in 1832, seen the
+same sight, when his men exclaimed that it was "snowing butterflies."
+
+The inhabitants of these trackless wilds are very, very few, but in
+all directions I saw numbers of ostriches, which run at the least
+sign of man, their enemy. The fastest horse could not outstrip this
+bird as with wings outstretched he speeds before the hunter. As Job,
+perhaps the oldest historian of the world, truly says: "What time she
+lifteth herself up on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider."
+The male bird joins his spouse in hatching the eggs, sitting on them
+perhaps longer turns than the female, but the weather is so hot that
+little brooding is required. I have had them on the shelf of my
+cupboard for a week, when the little ones have forced their way out
+Forty days is the time of incubation, so, naturally, those must have
+been already sat on for thirty-three days. With open wings these
+giant birds often manage to cover from twenty-five to forty-five
+eggs, although, I think, they seldom bring out more than twenty. The
+rest they roll out of the nest, where, soon rotting, they breed
+innumerable insects, and provide tender food for the coming young.
+The latter, on arrival, are always reared by the male ostrich, who,
+not being a model husband, ignominiously drives away the partner of
+his joys. It might seem that he has some reason for doing this, for
+the old historian before referred to says: "She is hardened against
+her young ones as though they were not hers."
+
+As the longest road leads somewhere, the glare of the whitewashed
+church at last meets your longing gaze on the far horizon. The
+village churches are always whitewashed, and an old man is frequently
+employed to strike the hours on the tower bell by guess.
+
+I was much struck by the sameness of the many different interior
+towns and villages I visited. Each wore the same aspect of indolent
+repose, and each was built in exact imitation of the other. Each town
+possesses its plaza, where palms and other semi-tropical plants wave
+their leaves and send out their perfume.
+
+From the principal city to the meanest village, the streets all bear
+the same names. In every town you may find a _Holy Faith street_, a
+_St. John street_ and a _Holy Ghost street_, and these streets are
+shaded by orange, lemon, pomegranate, fig and other trees, the fruit
+of which is free to all who choose to gather. All streets are in all
+parts in a most disgraceful condition, and at night beneath the heavy
+foliage of the trees Egyptian darkness reigns. Except in daylight, it
+is difficult to walk those wretched roads, where a goat often finds
+progress a difficulty. Rotten fruit, branches of trees, ashes, etc.,
+all go on the streets. A hole is often bridged over by a putrefying
+animal, over which run half-naked urchins, pelting each other with
+oranges or lemons--common as stones. When the highways are left in
+such a state, is it to be wondered at that, while standing on my own
+door-step, I have been able to count eleven houses where smallpox was
+doing its deadly work, all within a radius of one hundred yards?
+
+Even in the city of La Plata, the second of importance in Argentina,
+I once had the misfortune to fall into an open drain while passing
+down one of the principal streets. The night was intensely dark, and
+yet there was no light left there to warn either pedestrian or
+vehicle-driver, and _this sewer was seven feet deep_.
+
+Simple rusticity and ignorance are the chief characteristics of the
+country people. They used to follow and stare at me as though I were
+a visitor from Mars or some other planet. When I spoke to them in
+their language they were delighted, and respectfully hung on my words
+with bared heads. When, however, I told them of electric cars and
+underground railways, they turned away in incredulity, thinking that
+such marvels as these could not possibly be.
+
+Old World towns they seem to be. The houses are built of sun-baked
+mud bricks, kneaded by mares that splash and trample through the oozy
+substance for hours to mix it well. The poorer people build ranches
+of long, slender canes or Indian cornstalks tied together by grass
+and coated with mud. These are all erected around and about the most
+imposing edifice in the place--the whitewashed adobe church.
+
+All houses are hollow squares. The _patio_, with its well, is inside
+this enclosure. Each house is lime-washed in various colors, and all
+are flat-roofed and provided with grated windows, giving them a
+prison-like appearance. The window-panes are sometimes made of mica.
+Over the front doors of some of the better houses are pictures of the
+Virgin. The nurse's house is designated by having over the doorway a
+signboard, on which is painted a full-blooming rose, out of the
+petals of which is peeping a little babe.
+
+If you wish to enter a house, you do not knock at the door (an act
+that would be considered great rudeness), but clap your hands, and
+you are most courteously invited to enter. The good woman at once
+sets to work to serve you with _máté_, and quickly rolls a cigar,
+which she hands to you from her mouth, where she has already lighted
+it by a live ember of charcoal taken from the fire with a spoon.
+Matches can be bought, but they cost about ten cents a hundred. If
+you tell the housewife you do not smoke she will stare at you in
+gaping wonder. Their children use the weed, and I have seen a mother
+urge her three-year-old boy to whiff at a cigarette.
+
+Bound each dwelling is a _ramada_, where grapes in their season hang
+in luxuriant clusters; and each has its own garden, where palms,
+peaches, figs, oranges, limes, sweet potatoes, tobacco, nuts, garlic,
+etc., grow luxuriantly. The garden is surrounded by a hedge of cacti
+or other kindred plants. The prickly pear tree of that family is one
+of the strangest I have seen. On the leaves, which are an inch or
+more in thickness, grows the fruit, and I have counted as many as
+thirteen pears growing on a single leaf. When ripe they are a deep
+red color, and very sweet to the taste. The skin is thick, and
+covered with innumerable minute prickles. It is, I believe, a most
+refreshing and healthful food.
+
+Meat is very cheap. A fine leg of mutton may be bought for the
+equivalent of twelve cents, and good beef at four cents a pound.
+Their favorite wine, _Lagrimas de San Juan_ (Tears of Holy John), can
+be bought for ten cents a quart.
+
+All cooking is done on braziers--a species of three-legged iron
+bucket in which the charcoal fire is kindled. On this the little
+kettle, filled from the well in the _patio_, is boiled for the
+inevitable _máté_. About this herb I picked up, from various sources,
+some interesting information. The _máté_ plant grows chiefly In
+Paraguay, and is sent down the river in bags made of hides. From the
+village of Tacurti Pucu in that country comes a strange account of
+the origin of the _yerba máté_ plant, which runs thus: "God,
+accompanied by St. John and St. Peter, came down to the earth and
+commenced to journey. One day, after most difficult travel, they
+arrived at the house of an old man, father to a virgin young and
+beautiful. The old man cared so much for this girl, and was so
+anxious to keep her ever pure and innocent, that they had gone to
+live in the depths of a forest. The man was very, very poor, but
+willingly gave his heavenly visitors the best he could, killing in
+their honor the only hen he possessed, which served for supper.
+Noting this action, God asked St. Peter and St. John, when they were
+alone, what they would do if they were Him. They both answered Him
+that they would largely reward such an unselfish host. Bringing him
+to their presence, God addressed him in these words: 'Thou who art
+poor hast been generous, and I will reward thee for it. Thou hast a
+daughter who is pure and innocent, and whom thou greatly lovest. I
+will make her immortal, and she shall never disappear from earth.'
+Then God transformed her into the plant of the yerba máté. Since then
+the herb exists, and although it is cut down it springs up again."
+Other stories run that the maiden still lives; for God, instead of
+turning her into the máté plant, made her mistress of it, and she
+lives to help all those who make a compact with her, Many men during
+"Holy week," if near a town, visit the churches of Paraguay and
+formally promise to dedicate themselves to her worship, to live in
+the woods and have no other woman. After this vow they go to the
+forest, taking a paper on which the priest has written their name.
+This they pin with a thorn on the máté plant, and leave it for her to
+read. Thus she secures her devotees.
+
+Roman Catholicism is not "_Semper Idem_," but adapts itself to its
+surroundings.
+
+Máté is drunk by all, from the babe to the centenarian; by the rich
+cattle-owner, who drinks it from a chased silver cup through a golden
+_bombilla_, to his servant, who is content with a small gourd, which
+everywhere grows wild, and a tin tube. Tea, as we know it, is only to
+be bought at the chemist's as a remedy for _nerves_. In other
+countries it is said to be bad for nerves.
+
+Each house possesses its private altar, where the saints are kept.
+That sacred spot is veiled off when possible--if only by hanging in
+front of it a cow's hide--from the rest of the dwelling. It consists,
+according to the wealth or piety of the housewife, in expensive
+crosses, beads, and pictures of saints decked out with costly care;
+or, it may be, but one soiled lithograph surrounded by paper flowers
+or cheap baubles of the poorer classes; but all are alike sacred.
+Everything of value or beauty is collected and put as an offering to
+these deities--pieces of colored paper, birds' eggs, a rosy tomato or
+pomegranate, or any colored picture or bright tin. Descending from
+the ridiculous to the gruesome, I have known a mother scrape and
+clean the bones of her dead daughter in order that _they_ might be
+given a place on the altar. Round this venerated spot the goodwife,
+with her palm-leaf broom, sweeps with assiduous care, and afterwards
+carefully dusts her crucifix and other devotional objects with her
+brush of ostrich feathers. Here she kneels in prayer to the different
+saints. God Himself is never invoked. Saint Anthony interests himself
+in finding her lost ring, and Saint Roque is a wonderful physician in
+case of sickness. If she be a maiden Saint Carmen will find her a
+suitable husband; if a widow, Saint John will be a husband to her;
+and if an orphan, the sacred heart of the Virgin of Carmen gives
+balsam to the forlorn one. Saint Joseph protects the artisan, and if
+a candle is burnt in front of Saint Ramon, he will most obligingly
+turn away the tempest or the lightning stroke. In all cases one
+candle at least must be promised these mysterious benefactors, and
+rash indeed would be the man or woman who failed to burn the candle;
+some most terrible vengeance would surely overtake him or his family.
+
+God, as I have said, is never invoked. Perhaps He is supposed to sit
+in solitary grandeur while the saints administer His affairs? These
+latter are innumerable, and whatever may be their position in the
+minds of Romanists in other lands, in South America they are distinct
+and separate gods, and their graven image, picture or carving is
+worshipped as such.
+
+When religious questions have not arisen, life in those remote
+villages has passed very pleasantly. The people live in great
+simplicity, knowing scarcely anything of the outside world and its
+progress.
+
+At the Feast of St. John the women take sheep and lambs, gaily
+decorated with colored ribbons, to church with them. That is an act
+of worship, for the priest puts his hand on each lamb and blesses it.
+A _velorio_ for the dead, or a dance at a child's death, are
+generally the only meetings beside the church; but, as the poet says:
+
+    "'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout
+     All countries of the Catholic persuasion,
+    Some weeks before Shrove Tuiesiday comes about,
+     The people take their fill of recreation,
+    And buy repentance ere they grow devout,
+     However high their rank or low their station,
+    With fiddlling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masking,
+    And other things which may be had for asking."
+
+Carnival is a joyous time, and if for only once in the year the quiet
+town then resounds with mirth. Pails of water are carried up to the
+flat roofs of the houses, and each unwary pedestrian is in turn
+deluged. At other times flour is substituted, and on the last day of
+the feast ashes are thrown on all sides. At other seasons of the year
+the streets are quiet, and after the rural pursuits of the day are
+over, the guitar is brought out, and the evening breeze wafts waves
+of music to each listening ear. The guitar is in all South America
+what the bag-pipes are to Scotland-the national musical instrument of
+the people. The Criollo plays mostly plaintive, broken airs--now so
+low as to be almost inaudible, then high and shrill. Here and there
+he accompanies the music with snatches of song, telling of an exploit
+or describing the dark eyes of some lovely maiden. The airs strike
+one as being very strange, and decidedly unlike the rolling songs of
+British music.
+
+In those interior towns a very quiet life may be passed, far away
+from the whistle of the railway engine. Everything is simplicity
+itself, and it might almost be said of some that _time itself seems
+at a standstill_. During the heat of the day the streets are entirely
+deserted; shops are closed, and all the world is asleep, for that is
+the _siesta_ time. "They eat their dinners and go to sleep--and could
+they do better?"
+
+After this the barber draws his chair out to the causeway and shaves
+or cuts his customer's hair. Women and children sit at their doors
+drinking máté and watching the slowly drawn bullock-carts go up and
+down the uneven, unmade roads, bordered, not by the familiar maple,
+but with huge dust-covered cactus plants, The bullocks all draw with
+their horns, and the indolent driver sits on the yoke, urging forward
+his sleepy animals with a poke of his cane, on the end of which he
+has fastened a sharp nail. The _buey_ is very thick-skinned and would
+not heed a whip. The wheels of the cart are often cut from a solid
+piece of wood, and are fastened on with great hardwood pins in a most
+primitive style. Soon after sunset all retire to their trestle beds.
+
+In early morning the women hurry to mass. The Criollo does not break
+his fast until nearly mid-day, so they have no early meal to prepare.
+Even before it is quite light it is difficult to pass along the
+streets owing to the custom they have of carrying their praying-
+chairs with them to mass. The rich lady will be followed by her dark-
+skinned maid bearing a sumptuously upholstered chair on her head. The
+middle classes carry their own, and the very poor take with them a
+palm-leaf mat of their own manufacture. When mass is over religion is
+over for the day. After service they make their way down to the river
+or pond, carrying on their heads the soiled linen. Standing waist-
+high in the water, they wash out the stains with black soap of their
+own manufacture, beating each article with hardwood boards made
+somewhat like a cricketer's bat. The cloths are then laid on the sand
+or stones of the shore. The women gossip and smoke until these are
+dry and ready to carry home again ere the heat becomes too intense.
+
+In a description of Argentine village life, I could not possibly omit
+the priest, the "all in all" to the native, the temporal and
+spiritual king, who bears in his hands the destinies of the living
+and the dead. These men are the potentates of the people, who refer
+everything to them, from the most trivial matter to the weightier one
+of the saving of their souls after death. Bigotry and superstition
+are extreme.
+
+Renous, the naturalist, tells us that he visited one of these towns
+and left some caterpillars with a girl. These she was to feed until
+his return, that they might change to butterflies. When this was
+rumored through the village, priest and governor consulted together
+and agreed that it must be black heresy. When poor Renous returned
+some time afterwards he was arrested.
+
+The Argentine village priest is a dangerous enemy to the Protestant.
+Many is the time he has insulted me to my face, or, more cowardly,
+charged the school-boys to pelt and annoy me. In the larger towns the
+priest has defamed me through the press, and when I have answered him
+also by that means, he has heaped insult upon injury, excluded me
+from society, and made me a pariah and a byword to the superstitious
+people. I have been stoned and spat upon, hurled to the ground, had
+half-wild dogs set on me, and my horse frightened that he might throw
+me. I have been refused police help, or been called to the office to
+give an account of myself, all because I was a Protestant, or
+infidel, as they prefer to term it. At those times great patience was
+needed, for at the least sign of resistance on my part I should have
+been attacked by the whole village in one mass. The policeman on the
+street has looked expectantly on, eager to see me do this, and on one
+occasion he escorted me to the station for snatching a bottle from
+the hand of a boy who was in the act of throwing it at my head.
+Arriving there I was most severely reprimanded, although,
+fortunately, not imprisoned.
+
+Women have crossed themselves and run from me in terror to seek the
+holy water bottle blessed by the father. Doors have been shut in my
+face, and angry voices bade me begone, at the instigation of this
+black-robed believer in the Virgin. Congregations of worshippers in
+the dark-aisled church have listened to a fabulous description of my
+mission and character, until the barber would not cut my hair or the
+butcher sell me his meat! Many a mother has hurriedly called her
+children in and precipitately shut the door, that my shadow in
+passing might not enter and pollute her home. Perhaps a senorita,
+more venturesome, with her black hair hanging in two long plaits
+behind each shoulder, has run to her iron-barred window to smile at
+me, and then penitently fallen before her patron saint imploring
+forgiveness, or hurried to confess her sin to the wily _padre_. If
+the confession was accompanied by a gift, she has been absolved by
+him; if she were poor, her tear-stained face, perhaps resembling that
+of the suffering Madonna over the confessional, has moved his heart
+to tenderness, for well he knows that
+
+     "Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,
+     And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair."
+
+The punishment imposed has only been that she repeat fifty or a
+hundred _Ave Marias_ or _Paternosters_. Poor deluded creature! Her
+sin only consisted in permitting her black eyes to gaze on me as I
+passed down the street.
+
+"These poor creatures often go to confession, not to be forgiven the
+wretched past, but to get a new license to commit sin. One woman, to
+whom we offered a tract, refused it, and, showing us an indulgence of
+three hundred days, said: 'These are the papers I like.'"
+
+A young university man in the capital confessed that he had never
+read the New Testament and never would read it, because he knew it
+was against the Church of Rome. The mass of the people have not the
+slightest notion of goodness, as we count piety, and lying is not
+considered wrong. A native will often entreat the help of his
+favorite saint to commit a theft.
+
+"To the Protestant the idea of religion without morals is
+inconceivable; but in South America Romanism divorces morals and
+religion. It is quite possible to break every command of the
+Decalogue and yet be a devoted, faithful Romanist." [Footnote: Rev.
+J. H. La Fetra, in "Protestant Missions in South America"]
+
+I can only describe Roman Catholicism on the South American continent
+as a species of heathenism. The Church, to gain proselytes, accepted
+the old gods of the Indians as saints, and we find idolatrous
+superstition and Catholic display blended together. The most ignorant
+are invariably the most pious. The more civilized the Criollo
+becomes, the less he believes in the Church, and the priest in return
+condemns him to eternal perdition.
+
+"It is not necessary to detail the multitude of pagan superstitions
+with which the religion of South America is encumbered. It is enough
+to point out that it does not preach Christ crucified and risen
+again. It preaches Mary, whom it proclaims from the lips of thousands
+of lecherous priests to be of perpetual virginity. And it is by its
+deliberate falsehood and deceit, as well as by its misrepresentation,
+that the Roman Catholic Church in South America has not only not
+taught Christianity, but has directly fostered deception and untruth
+of character." [Footnote: Missions in South America. Robert E.
+Speer.]
+
+When I desired respectfully to enter a church with bared head and
+deferential mien, they have followed me to see that I did not steal
+the trinkets from the saints or desecrate the altar. If I have
+touched the font of holy water, instead of it purifying me, I have
+defiled it for their use; and when I have looked at the images of the
+saints the people have seen them frown at me. After my exit the
+priest would sprinkle holy water on the spots where I had stood, to
+drive away "the evil influence."
+
+In those churches one may see an image, with inscription beneath,
+stating that those who kiss it receive an indulgence for sin and a
+promise of heaven. When preaching in Parana I inadvertently dropped a
+word in disparagement of the worship of the Virgin, when, quick as
+thought, a man dashed towards me with gleaming steel. The Criollo's
+knife never errs, and one sharp lunge too well completes his task;
+but an old Paraguayan friend then with me sprang upon him and dashed
+the knife to the ground, thus leaving my heart's blood warm within
+me, and not on the pavement. I admired my antagonist for the strength
+of his convictions--true loyalty he displayed for his goddess, who,
+however, does not, I am sure, teach her devotees to assassinate those
+who prefer to put their faith rather in her Divine Son. Had I been
+killed the priest would on no account have buried me, and would most
+willingly have absolved the assassin and kept him from the "arm of
+justice." That arm in those places is very short indeed, for I have
+myself met dozens of murderers rejoicing in their freedom. Hell is
+only for Protestants.
+
+On the door of my lodging I found one morning a written paper, well
+pasted on, which read:
+
+MUERA! VIVA LA VIRGEN CON TODOS LOS SANTOS!
+
+"_Die! Live the Virgin and all the Saints!_" That paper I took from
+the door and keep as a souvenir of fanaticism.
+
+The Bible is an utterly unknown book, except to the priests, who
+forbid its entrance to the houses. It, however, could do little good
+or harm, for the masses of the people are utterly unlettered. All
+Protestant literature stolen into the town is invariably gathered and
+burned by the priest, who would not hesitate also to burn the bringer
+if he could without fear of some after-enquiry into the matter.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WORLD'S LARGFST ROCKING STONE, TANDIL, ARGENTINA.
+This immense stone is so evenly poised that the wind or the slightest
+touch of the hand sets it in motion but the storms of the centuries
+have failed to dislodge it.]
+
+
+Rome is to-day just what she always was. Her own claim and motto is:
+_Semper idem_ (Always the same). But for this age of enlightenment
+her inquisitorial fires would still burn. "Rome's contention is, not
+that she does not persecute, but only that she does not persecute
+_saints_. She punishes heretics--a very different thing. In the
+Rhemish New Testament there is a note on the words, 'drunken with the
+blood of saints,' which runs as follows: 'Protestants foolishly
+expound this of Rome _because heretics are there put to death_. But
+_their_ blood is not called _the blood of saints_, any more than the
+blood of thieves or man-killers, or other malefactors; and for the
+shedding of it no commonwealth shall give account.'"
+
+During my residence in Argentina a Jesuit priest in Cordoba publicly
+stated that if he had his way he would burn to death every Protestant
+in the country.
+
+The following statements are from authorized documents, laws and
+decrees of the Papacy:
+
+"The papacy teaches all her adherents that it is a sacred duty to
+exterminate heresy.
+
+"Urban II. issued a decree that the murder of heretics was excusable.
+'We do not count them murderers who, burning with the zeal of their
+Catholic mother against the excommunicate, may happen to have slain
+some of them.'" [Footnote: "Romanism and Reformation."]
+
+In Argentine life the almanac plays an important part; in that each
+day is dedicated to the commemoration of some saint, and the child
+born must of necessity be named after the saint on whose day he or
+she arrives into the world. The first question is, "What name does it
+bring?" The baby may have chosen to come at a time when the calendar
+shows an undesirable name, still the parents grumble not, for a saint
+is a saint, and whatever names they bear must be good. The child is,
+therefore, christened "Caraciollo," or "John Baptist," when, instead
+of growing up to be a forerunner of Christ, he or she may, with more
+likelihood, be a forerunner of the devil. Whatever name a child
+brings, however, has Mary tacked on to it.
+
+All names serve equally well for male or female children, as a
+concluding "o" or "a" serves to distinguish the sex. Many men bear
+the name of Joseph Mary. Numbers, also, both male and female, have
+been baptized by the name of "Jesus," "Saviour," or "Redeemer." If I
+were asked the old question, "What's in a name?" I should answer,
+"Very little," for in South America the most insolent thief will
+often boast in the appellation of _Don Justice_, and the lowest girl
+in the village may be _Señorita Celestial_. _Don Jesus_ may be found
+incarcerated for riotous conduct, and I have known _Don Saviour_
+throw his unfortunate wife and children down a well; _Don Destroyer_
+would have been a more appropriate name for him. _Mrs. Angel_ her
+husband sometimes finds not such an angel after all, when she puts
+poison into his máté cup, a not infrequent occurrence. Let none be
+deceived in thinking that the appellation is any index to a man's
+character.
+
+Dark, needy people--Rome's true children!
+
+The school-books read: Which is the greatest country? _Ans._, Spain.
+Who is the greatest man? _Ans._, The Pope. Why? Because he is
+infallible.
+
+It is his wish, and the priest's duty, to keep them in this darkness.
+Yet,--One came from God, "a light to lighten the Gentiles," and He
+said, "I am the Light of the world." Some day they may hear of Him
+and themselves see the Light.
+
+Already the day is breaking, and superstition must prepare to hide
+itself. The uneducated native no longer pursues the railway train at
+thundering pace to lasso it because the priest raved against its
+being built. He even in some cases doubts if it is "an invention of
+hell," as he was taught.
+
+The educated native, Alberdi, a publicist and an advocate of freedom,
+in the discussion over religious rights of foreigners in the
+Argentine, wrote: "Spanish America reduced to Catholicism, with the
+exclusion of any other cult, represents a solitary and silent convent
+of monks. The dilemma is fatal,--either Catholics and unpopulated, or
+populated and prosperous and tolerant in the matter of religion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TEE PRAIRIE AND ITS INHABITANTS.
+
+
+The Pampas, or prairie lands of the Argentine, stretch to the south
+and west of Buenos Ayres, and cover some 800,000 square miles. On
+this vast level plain, watered by sluggish streams or shallow lakes,
+boundless as the ocean, seemingly limitless in extent, there is an
+exhilarating air and a rich herbage on which browse countless herds
+of cattle, horses, and flocks of sheep. The grass grows tall, and
+miles upon miles of rich scarlet, white, or yellow flowers mingle
+with or overtop it. Beds of thistles, in which the cattle completely
+hide themselves, stretch away for leagues and leagues, and present an
+almost unbroken sheet of purple flowers. So vast are these thistle-
+beds that a day's ride through them only leaves the traveller with
+the same purple forest stretching away to the horizon. The florist
+would be enchanted to see whole tracts of land covered by the
+_Verbena Melindres_, which appears, even long before you reach it, to
+be of a bright scarlet. There are also acres and acres of the many-
+flowered camomile and numberless other plants; while large tracts of
+low-lying land are covered with coarse pampa grass, affording shelter
+for numberless deer, and many varieties of ducks, cranes, flamingoes,
+swans and turkeys. Wood there is none, with the exception of a
+solitary tree here and there at great distances, generally marking
+the site of some cattle establishment OP _estancia_. An _ombú_, or
+cluster of blue gums, is certain to be planted there.
+
+On this prairie, man, notwithstanding the fact that he is the "lord
+of creation," is decidedly in the minority. Millions of four-footed
+animals roam the plains, but he may be counted by hundreds. Let us
+turn to him, however, in his isolated home, for the _Gaucho_ has been
+described as one of the most interesting races on the face of the
+earth. A descendant of the old conquerors, who, leaving their fair
+ones in the Spanish peninsula, took unto them as wives the unclothed
+women of the new world, he inherits the color and habits of the one
+with the vices and dignity of the other. Living the wild, free life
+of the Indian, and retaining the language of Spain; the finest
+horseman of the world, and perhaps the worst assassin; the most open-
+handed and hospitable, yet the accomplished purloiner of his
+neighbor's cattle; imitating the Spaniard in the beautifully-chased
+silver trappings of his horse, and the untutored Indian in his
+miserable adobe hovel; spending his whole wealth in heavy gold or
+silver bell-shaped stirrups, bridle, or spurs (the rowel of the
+latter sometimes having a diameter of six inches), and leaving his
+home destitute of the veriest necessities of life--such is the
+Gaucho. A horn or shell from the river's bed makes his spoon, gourds
+provide him with his plates and dishes; but his knife, with gold or
+silver handle and sheath, is almost a little fortune in itself.
+Content in his dwelling to sit on a bullock's skull, on horseback his
+saddle must be mounted in silver. His own beard and hair he seldom
+trims, but his horse's mane and tail must be assiduously tended. The
+baked-mud floor of his abode is littered with filth and dirt, while
+he raves at a speck of mud on his embroidered silk saddle-cloth.
+
+The Gaucho is a strange contradiction. He has blushed at my good but
+plain-looking saddle, yet courteously asked me to take a skull seat.
+He may possess five hundred horses, but you search his kitchen in
+vain for a plate. If you please him he will present you with his best
+horse, waving away your thanks. If you displease him, his long knife
+will just as readily find its way to your heart, for he kills his
+enemies with as little compunction as he kills the ostrich. "The
+Gaucho, with his proud and dissolute air, is the most unique of all
+South American characters. He is courageous and cruel, active and
+tireless. Never more at ease than when on the wildest horse; on the
+ground, out of his element. His politeness is excessive, his nature
+fierce." The children do not, like ours, play with toys, but delight
+the parents' hearts by teasing a cat or dog. These they will stick
+with a thorn or pointed bone to hear them yell, or, later on, lasso
+and half choke them. "They will put out their eyes, and such like
+childish games, innocent little darlings that they are." Cold-blooded
+torture is their delight, and they will cheer at the sight of blood.
+
+To describe the dress of this descendant of Adam I feel myself
+incapable. A shirt and a big slouch hat seem to be the only articles
+of attire like ours. Coat, trousers or shoes he does not wear.
+Instead of the first mentioned, he uses the _poncho_, a long, broad
+blanket, with a slit in the centre to admit his head. For trousers he
+wears very wide white drawers, richly embroidered with broad
+needlework and stiffly starched. Over these he puts a black
+_chiripá_, which really I cannot describe other than as similar to
+the napkins the mother provides for her child. Below this black and
+white leg covering come the long boots, made from one piece of
+seamless hide. These boots are nothing more than the skin from the
+hind legs of an animal--generally a full-grown horse. The bend of the
+horse's leg makes the boot's heel. Naturally the toes protrude, and
+this is not sewn up, for the Gaucho never puts more than his big toe
+in the stirrup, which, like the bit in his horse's mouth, must be of
+solid silver. A dandy will beautifully scallop these rawhide boots
+around the tops and toes, and keep them soft with an occasional
+application of grease. No heel is ever attached. Around the man's
+waist, holding up his drawers and chiripa, is wound a long colored
+belt, with tasseled ends left hanging over his boot, down the right
+side; and over that he invariably wears a broad skin belt, clasped at
+the front with silver and adorned all around with gold or silver
+coins. In this the long knife is carried.
+
+What shall I say of the domestic life of these people? Unfortunately,
+marriage is practically unknown among them. The father gives his son
+a few cattle, and the young man, after building himself a house,
+conducts thither his chosen one. Unhappily, constancy in either man
+or woman is a rare virtue.
+
+Of the superstitious side of the Gancho race I might speak much. In
+the saints the female especially implicitly believes. These, her
+deities, are all-powerful, and to them she appeals for the
+satisfaction of her every desire. Saint Clementina's help is sought
+by the girl when her lover betrays her. Another saint will aid her in
+poisoning him. If the wife thinks her husband long in bringing the
+evening meal, she has informed me, a word with Saint Anthony is
+sufficient, and she hears the sound of his horse's hoofs. Saint
+Anthony seems to be useful on many occasions of distress. One evening
+I called at a _rancho_ made of dry thistle-stalks bound together with
+hide and thatched with reeds, Finding the inmates very hospitable, I
+stayed there two or three hours to rest. Coming out of the house
+again, I found to my dismay that during our animated gossip my horse
+had broken loose and left me. Now the loss of a horse is too trivial
+a matter to interest Anthony the saint, but a horse having saddle and
+bridle attached to him makes it quite a different matter, for these
+often cost ten times the price of the horse. One of the saint's
+especial duties is to find a lost saddled horse, if the owner or
+interested one only promises to burn a candle in his honor. The night
+was very dark, and no sign of the animal was to be seen. Mine host
+laid his ear to the ground and listened, then, leaping on his horse,
+he galloped into the darkness, from whence he brought my lost animal.
+I did not learn until afterwards that Mrs. Jesus, for such was the
+woman's name, had sought the help of Saint Anthony on my behalf. I am
+sure she lost her previous good opinion of me when I thanked her
+husband but did not offer a special colored candle to her saint.
+
+Among these strange people I commenced a school, and had the joy of
+teaching numbers of them to read the Spanish Bible. Boys and girls
+came long distances on horseback, and, although some of them had
+perhaps never seen a book before, I found them exceedingly quick to
+learn. In four or five months the older ones were able to read any
+ordinary chapter. In arithmetic they were inconceivably dull, and
+after three months' tuition some of them could not count ten.
+
+I have said the saints are greatly honored among these people. My
+Christmas cards generally found their way to adorn their altars.
+Every house has its favorite, and some of these are regarded as
+especially clever in curing sickness. It being a very unhealthful,
+low-lying district where my school was, I contracted malarial fever,
+and went to bed very sick. Every day some of the children would come
+to enquire after me, but Celestino, one of the larger boys, came one
+morning with a very special message from his mother. This
+communication was to the effect that they did not wish the school-
+teacher to die, he being "rather a nice kind of a man and well
+liked." Because of this she would be pleased to let me have her
+favorite saint. This image I could stand at the head of my bed, and
+its very presence would cure me. When I refused this offer and smiled
+at its absurdity, the boy thought me very strange. To be so wise in
+some respects, and yet so ignorant as to refuse such a chance, was to
+him incomprehensible. The saints, I found, are there often lent out
+to friends that they may exercise their healing powers, or rented out
+to strangers at so much a day, When they are not thus on duty, but in
+a quiet corner of the hut, they get lonely. The woman will then go
+for a visit, taking her saint with her, either in her arms or tied to
+the saddle. This image she will place with the saint her host owns,
+and _they will talk together and teach one another_. A saint is
+supposed to know only its own particular work, although one named
+Santa Rita is said to be a worker of impossibilities. Some of them
+are only very rudely carved images, dressed in tawdry finery. I have
+sometimes thought that a Parisian doll of modern make, able to open
+and close its eyes, etc., would in their esteem be even competent to
+raise the dead! [Footnote: Writing of Spanish American Romanism,
+Everybody's Magazine says: "To the student of human nature, which
+means the study of evil as well as good, this religious body is of
+absorbing interest. One would look to find these enthusiasts
+righteous and virtuous in their daily life; but, apart from the
+annual week of penance, their religion influences them not at all,
+and on the whole the members of the Brotherhood constitute a
+desperate class, dangerous to society."]
+
+In cases of sickness very simple remedies are used, and not a few
+utterly nonsensical. To cure pains in the stomach they tie around
+them the skin of the _comadreka_, a small, vile-smelling animal. This
+they told me was a sovereign remedy. If the sufferer be a babe, a
+cross made on its stomach is sufficient to perfectly cure it. I have
+seen seven pieces of the root of the white lily, which there grows
+wild, tied around the neck of an infant in order that its teeth might
+come with greater promptitude and less pain. A string of dog's teeth
+serves the same purpose. To cure a bad wound, the priest will be
+called in that he may write around the sore some Latin prayer
+backwards. Headache is easily cured by tying around the head the
+cast-off skin of a snake. Two puppies are killed and bound one on
+each side of a broken limb. If a charm is worn around the neck no
+poison can be harmful. For a sore throat it is sufficient to
+expectorate in the fire three times, making a cross. Lockjaw is
+effectually stopped by tying around the sufferer's jaws the strings
+from a virgin's skirt; and they say also that powdered excrement of a
+dog, taken in a glass of water, cures the smallpox patient,
+
+As Mrs. Jesus sent her boy to my school, so Mrs. Flower sent her
+girl. The latter was perhaps the most deluded woman I have met. Her
+every act was bad in itself or characterized by superstitious
+devotion. She was one of the Church's favorite worshippers, and while
+I was in the neighborhood she sold her cows and horses and presented
+the priest at the nearest town with a large and expensive silver
+cross--the emblem of suffering purity. Near her lived a person for
+whom she had an especial aversion, but that enemy she got rid of in
+surely the strangest of ways, which she described to me. Catching a
+snake, and holding it so that its poison might not reach her, she
+passed a threaded needle through both its eyes. When this was done
+she let it go again, alive, and, carefully guarding the needle,
+approached the person from behind and made a cross with the thread.
+The undesired one disappeared, having probably heard of the
+enchantment, and being equally superstitious, or--the charm worked!
+
+Mrs. Flower was a most repulsive-looking creature. Her skin was
+exactly the color of an old copper coin. She did not resemble any
+_flower_ I have seen in either hemisphere. Far was she from being a
+rose, but she certainly possessed the thorn. Her love for the saints
+was most marked, and I have known her promise St. Roque that she
+would walk six miles carrying his image if he would only grant her a
+certain prayer. This petition he granted, and off she trudged with
+her divine (?) load. Those acquainted with dwellers on the prairie
+know that this was indeed a great task, horses being so cheap and
+riding so universal. Mrs. Flower was unaccustomed to walk even the
+shortest distance. I myself can bear witness to the fact that even
+strong men find it hard to walk a mile after spending years in
+equestrian travel. The native tells you that God formed your legs so
+that you might be able to sit on a horse rather than to walk with
+them. A favorite expression with them is, "I was born on horseback."
+
+Stone not being found on the pampas, these people generally build
+their houses of square sods, with a roof of plaited grasses--
+sometimes I have observed these beautifully woven together. Two or
+more holes, according to the size of the house, are left to serve for
+door and window. Wood cannot be obtained, glass has not been
+introduced, so the holes are left as open spaces, across which, when
+the pampa wind blows, a hide is stretched. No hole is left in the
+roof for the smoke of the fire to escape, for this to the native is
+no inconvenience whatever. When I have been compelled to fly with
+racking cough and splitting head, he has calmly asked the reason.
+Never could I bear the blinding smoke that issues from his fire of
+sheep or cow dung burning on the earthen floor, though he heeds it
+not as, sitting on a bullock's skull, he ravenously eats his evening
+meal.
+
+If entertaining a stranger, he will press uncut joint after joint of
+his _asado_ upon him. This asado is meat roasted over the fire on a
+spit; if beef, with the skin and hair still attached. Meat cooked in
+this way is a real delicacy. A favorite dish with them (I held a
+different opinion) is a half-formed calf, taken before its proper
+time of birth. The meat is often dipped in the ashes in lieu of salt.
+I have said the Gaucho has no chair. I might add that neither has he
+a table, for with his fingers and knife he eats the meat off the
+fire. Forks he is without, and a horn or shell spoon conveys the soup
+to his mouth direct from the copper pan. So universal is the use of
+the shell for this service that the native does not speak of it as
+_caracol_, the real word for shell, but calls it _cuchara del agua_,
+or water spoon. Of knives he possesses more than enough, and heavy,
+long, sharp-pointed ones they are. When his hunger is appeased the
+knife goes, not to the kitchen, but to his belt, where, when not in
+his hand, you may always see it. With that weapon he kills a sheep,
+cuts off the head of a serpent--seemingly, however, not doing it much
+harm, for it still wriggles--sticks his horse when in anger, and,
+alas, as I have said, sometimes stabs his fellow-man. Being so far
+isolated from the coast, he is necessarily entirely uneducated. The
+forward march of the outer world concerns him not; indeed he imagines
+that his native prairie stretches away to the end of the world. He
+will gaze with wonder on your watch, for his only mode of
+ascertaining the time is by the shadow the sun casts. As that
+luminary rises and sets, so he sleeps and wakes. His only bed is the
+sheepskin, which when riding he fastens over his saddle, and the
+latter article forms his pillow. His coverlet is the firmament of
+heaven, the Southern Cross and other constellations, unseen by
+dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere, seeming to keep watch over him;
+or in the colder season his poncho, which I have already described.
+Around his couch flit the fireflies, resembling so many stars of
+earth with their strangely radiant lights. The brightness of one,
+when held near the face of my watch, made light enough to enable me
+to ascertain the hour, even on the darkest night.
+
+The Gaucho with his horse is at home anywhere. When on a journey he
+will stop for the evening meal beside the dry bones of some dead
+animal. With these and grass he will make a fire and cook the meat he
+carries hanging behind him on the saddle. I have known an animal
+killed and the meat cooked with its own bones, but this is not usual.
+Dry bones burn better, and thistle-stalks better still. He will then
+lie down on mother earth with the horse-cloth under him and the
+saddle for a pillow. When travelling with these men I have known
+them, without any comment, stretch themselves on the ground, even
+though the rain was falling, and soon be in dreamland. After having
+passed a wretched night myself, I have asked them, "How did you
+sleep?" _"Muy Bien, Senor"_ (Very good, sir), has been the invariable
+answer. They would often growl much, however, over the wet saddle-
+cloths, for these soon cause a horse's back to become sore.
+
+Here and there, but sometimes at long distances apart, there is a
+_pulperia_ on the road. This is always designated by having a white
+flag flying on the end of a long bamboo. At these places cheap
+spirits of wine and very bad rum can be bought, along with tobacco,
+hard ship-biscuits (very often full of maggots, as I know only too
+well), and a few other more necessary things. I have observed in some
+of these wayside inns counters made of turf, built in blocks as
+bricks would be. Here the natives stop to drink long and deep, and
+stew their meagre brains in bad spirits. These draughts result in
+quarrels and sometimes in murder.
+
+The Gaucho, like the Indian, cannot drink liquor without becoming
+maddened by it. He will then do things which in his sober moments he
+would not dream of. I was acquainted with a man who owned a horse of
+which he was very fond This animal bore him one evening to a pulperia
+some miles distant, and was left tied outside while he imbibed his
+fill inside. Coming out at length beastly intoxicated, he mounted his
+horse and proceeded homeward. Arriving at a fork in the path, the
+faithful horse took the one leading home, but the rider, thinking in
+his stupor that the other way was the right one, turned the horse's
+head. As the poor creature wanted to get home and have the saddle
+taken off, it turned again. This affront was too much for the Gaucho,
+who is a man of volcanic passions, so drawing his knife, he stabbed
+it in the neck, and they dropped to the ground together. When he
+realized that he had killed his favorite horse he cried like a child.
+I passed this dead animal several times afterwards and saw the
+vultures clean its bones. It served me as a witness to the results of
+ungoverned passion.
+
+The Gaucho does not, and would not under any consideration, ride a
+mare; consequently, for work she is practically valueless. Strain,
+who rode across the pampas, says: "In a single year ten million hides
+were exported." For one or two dollars each the buyer may purchase
+any number; indeed, of such little worth are the mares that they are
+very often killed for their hide, or to serve as food for swine. At
+one estancia I visited I was informed that one was killed each day
+for pig feed. The mare can be driven long distances, even a hundred
+miles a day, for several successive days, The Argentine army must
+surely be the most mobile of any in the world, for its soldiers, when
+on the march, get nothing but mare's flesh and the custom gives them
+great facility of movement. The horse has, more or less, its standard
+value, and costs four or five times the price of the mare.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE AUTHOR IN GAUCHO DRESS.]
+
+
+Sometimes it happens that the native finds a colt which is positively
+untamable. On the cheek of such an animal the Gaucho will burn a
+cross and then allow it to go free, like the scape-goat mentioned in
+the book of Leviticus.
+
+The native horse is rather small, but very wiry and wild. I was once
+compelled, through sickness, to make a journey of ninety-seven miles,
+being in the saddle for seventeen consecutive hours, and yet my poor
+horse was unable to get one mouthful of food on the journey, and the
+saddle was not taken off his back for a moment. He was very wild, yet
+one evening between five and eight o'clock, he bore me safely a
+distance of thirty-six miles, and returned the same distance with me
+on the following morning. He had not eaten or drunk anything during
+the night, for the locusts had devoured all pasturage and no rain had
+fallen for a space of five months.
+
+The horse is not indigenous to America, although Darwin tells us that
+South America had a native horse, which lived and disappeared ages
+ago. Spanish history informs us that they were first landed in Buenos
+Ayres in 1537. We are further told that the Indians flew away in
+terror at the sight of a man on horseback, which they took to be one
+animal of a strange, two-headed shape. When the colony was for a time
+deserted these horses were suffered to run wild. Those animals so
+multiplied and spread over such a vast area that they were found,
+forty-three years later, even down to the Straits of Magellan, a
+distance of eleven hundred miles. With good pasture and a limitless
+expanse to roam over, they soon turned from the dozens to thousands,
+and may now be counted by millions. The Patagonian "foot" Indians
+quickly turned into "horse" Indians, for on those wide prairie lands
+a man without a horse is almost comparable to a man without legs. In
+former years, thousands of wild horses roamed over these extensive
+plains, but the struggle of mankind in the battle of life turned
+men's attention to them, and they were captured and branded by
+whomsoever had the power and cared to take the trouble. In the more
+isolated districts, there may still be found numbers which are born
+and die without ever feeling the touch of saddle or bridle. Far away
+from the crowded busses and perpetually moving hansoms of the city,
+they feel not the driver's whip nor the strain of the wagon, as, with
+tail trailing on the ground and head erect, they gallop in freedom of
+life. Happy they!
+
+In all directions on the prairie ostriches are found. The natives
+catch them with _boliadoras_, an old Indian weapon, which is simply
+three round stones, incased in bags of hide, tied together by twisted
+ropes, also of hide. When the hunters have, by galloping from
+different directions, baffled the bird in his flight, they thunder
+down upon him, and, throwing the _boliadoras_ round his legs, where
+they entangle, effectually stop his flight. I have seen this weapon
+thrown a distance of about eighty yards.
+
+The ostrich is a bird with wonderful digestive powers, which I often
+have envied him; he eats grass or pebbles, insects or bones, as suits
+his varying fancy. If you drop your knife or any other article, he
+will stop to examine it, being most inquisitive, and, if possible, he
+will swallow it. The flesh of the ostrich is dry and tough, and its
+feathers are not to be compared in beauty with those of the African
+specimen. Generally a very harmless bird, he is truly formidable
+during breeding time. If one of the eggs is so much as touched he
+will break the whole number to shivers. Woe to the man whom he
+savagely attacks at such times; one kick of his great foot, with its
+sharp claws, is sufficient to open the body of man or horse. The
+Gaucho uses the skin from the neck of this bird as a tobacco pouch,
+and the eggs are considered a great delicacy. One is equal to about
+sixteen hen's eggs.
+
+As all creation has its enemy, the ostrich finds his in the _iguana_,
+or lizard--an unsightly, scaly, long-tailed species of land
+crocodile. This animal, when full-grown, attains the length of five
+feet, and is of a dark green color. He, when he can procure them,
+feeds on the ostrich eggs, which I believe must be a very
+strengthening diet. The lizard, after fattening himself upon them
+during the six hotter months of the year, is enabled to retire to the
+recesses of his cave, where he tranquilly sleeps through the
+remaining six. The shell of the ostrich's egg is about the thickness
+of an antique china cup, but the iguana finds no difficulty in
+breaking it open with a slash of his tail This wily animal is more
+astute than the bird, which lays its eggs in the open spaces, for the
+lizard, with her claws, digs a hole in the ground, in which hers are
+dropped to the number of dozens. The lizard does not provide shells
+for her eggs, but only covers them with a thick, soft skin, and they,
+buried in the soil, eventually hatch themselves.
+
+When the Gaucho cannot obtain a better meal, the tail of the lizard
+is not considered such a despicable dish by him, for he is no
+epicure. When he has nothing he is also contented. His philosophy is:
+_"Nunca tenga hambre cuando no hay que comer"_ (Never be hungry when
+no food is to be had).
+
+The estancia, or catile ranch, is a feature of the Argentine prairie.
+Some of these establishments are very large, even up to one hundred
+square miles in extent. On them hundreds of thousands of cattle,
+sheep and horses are herded. "It is not improbable that there are
+more cattle in the pampas and llanos of South America than in all the
+rest of the world." [Footnote: Dr. Hartwig in "Argentina," 1910] An
+estancia is almost invariably called by the name of some saint, as
+are the different fields belonging to it. "Holy Mary field" and
+"Saint Joseph field" are common names. Notwithstanding the fact that
+there may be thousands of cows on a ranch, the visitor may be unable
+to get a drop of milk to drink. "Cows are not made to milk, but to
+eat," they say. Life on these establishments is rough and the fare
+generally very coarse. Even among the wealthy people I have visited
+you may sit down to dinner with nothing but meat put before you,
+without a bite of bread or any vegetables. All drink water out of an
+earthenware pitcher of peculiar shape, which is the centrepiece of
+the table.
+
+Around the ranches of the people are many mice, which must be of a
+ferocious nature, for if one is caught in a trap it will be found
+next morning half, if not almost wholly, eaten by its own comrades.
+Well is it called "the cannibal mouse."
+
+In times of drought the heat of the sun dries up all vegetation. The
+least spark of fire then suffices to create a mighty blaze,
+especially if accompanied by the _pampero_ wind, which blows with
+irresistible force in its sweep over hundreds of miles of level
+ground. The fire, gathering strength as it goes, drives all before
+it, or wraps everything in its devouring flames. Casting a lurid
+light in the heavens, towards which rise volumes of smoke, it
+attracts the attention of the native, who lifts his starting eyes
+towards heaven in a speechless prayer to the Holy Virgin. Madly
+leaping on his fleetest horse, without saddle, and often without
+bridle, he wildly gallops down the wind, as the roaring, crackling
+fire gains upon him. In this mad race for life, men, horses,
+ostriches, deer, bullocks, etc., join, striving to excel each other
+in speed. Strange to say, the horse the native rides, cheered on by
+the touch of his master, is often the first to gain the lake or
+river, where, beneath its waters at least, refuge may be found. In
+their wild stampede, vast herds of cattle trample and fall on one
+another and are drowned. A more complete destruction could not
+overtake the unfortunate traveller than to be caught by this
+remorseless foe, for not even his ashes could be found by mourning
+friends. The ground thus burnt retains its heat for days. I have had
+occasion to cross blackened wastes a week after this most destructive
+force in nature had done its work, and my horse has frequently reared
+in the air at the touch of the hot soil on his hoofs.
+
+The Gaucho has a strange method of fighting these fires. Several
+mares are killed and opened, and they, by means of lassos, are
+dragged over the burning grass.
+
+The immensity of the pampas is so great that one may travel many
+miles without sighting a single tree or human habitation. The weary
+traveller finds his only shade from the sun's pitiless rays under the
+broad brim of his sombrero. At times, with ears forward and extended
+nostrils, the horse gazes intently at the rippling blue waters of the
+_mirage_, that most tantalizingly deceptive phenomenon of nature. May
+it never be the lot of my reader to be misled by the illusive mirage
+as I have been. How could I mistake vapor for clear, gurgling water?
+Yet, how many times was I here deceived! Visions of great lakes and
+broad rivers rose up before me, lapping emerald green shores, where I
+could cool my parched tongue and lave in their crystal depths; yet
+to-day those waters are as far off as ever, and exist only in my
+hopes of Paradise. Not until I stand by the "River of Life" shall I
+behold the reality.
+
+The inhabitant of these treeless, trackless solitudes, which, with
+their waving grass, remind one of the bosom of the ocean, develops a
+keen sight Where the stranger, after intently gazing, descries
+nothing, he will not only inform him that animals are in sight, but
+will, moreover, tell him what they are. I am blest with a very clear
+vision, but even when, after standing on my horse's back, I have made
+out nothing, the Gaucho could tell me that over there was a drove of
+cattle, a herd of deer, a troop of horses, or a house.
+
+It is estimated that there are two hundred and forty millions of
+acres of wheat land in the Argentine, and of late years the prairie
+has developed into one of the largest wheat-producing countries in
+the world, and yet only one per cent, of its cultivable area is so
+far occupied.
+
+The Gaucho is no farmer, and all his land is given up to cattle
+grazing, so _chacras_ are worked generally by foreign settlers. The
+province of Entre Rios has been settled largely by Swiss and Italian
+farmers from the Piedmont Hills. Baron Hirsch has also planted a
+colony of Russian Jews there, and provided them with farm implements.
+Wheat, corn, and linseed are the principal crops, but sweet potatoes,
+tobacco, and fruit trees do well in this virgin ground, fertilized by
+the dead animals of centuries. The soil is rich, and two or three
+crops can often be harvested in a year.
+
+No other part of the world has in recent years suffered from such a
+plague of locusts as the agricultural districts of Argentina. They
+come from the north in clouds that sometimes darken the sun. Some of
+the swarms have been estimated to be sixty miles long and from twelve
+to fifteen miles wide. Fields which in the morning stand high with
+waving corn, are by evening only comparable to ploughed or burnt
+lands. Even the roots are eaten up.
+
+In 1907 the Argentine Government organized a bureau for the
+destruction of locusts, and in 1908 $4,500,000 was placed by Congress
+at the disposal of this commission. An organized service, embracing
+thousands of men, is in readiness at any moment to send a force to
+any place where danger is reported. Railway trains have been
+repeatedly stopped, and literally many tons of them have had to be
+taken off the track. A fine of $100 is imposed upon any settler
+failing to report the presence of locust swarms or hopper eggs on his
+land. Various means are adopted by the land-owner to save what he can
+from the voracious insects. Men, women and children mount their
+horses and drive flocks of sheep to and fro over the ground to kill
+them. A squatter with whom I stayed got his laborers to gallop a
+troop of mares furiously around his garden to keep them from settling
+there. All, however, seemed useless. About midsummer the locust lays
+its eggs under an inch or two of soil. Each female will drop from
+thirty to fifty eggs, all at the same time, in a mass resembling a
+head of wheat. As many as 50,000 eggs have been counted in a space
+less than three and a half feet square.
+
+During my sojourn in Entre Rios, the province where this insect seems
+to come in greatest numbers, a law was passed that every man over the
+age of fourteen years, whether native or foreigner, rich or poor, was
+compelled to dig out and carry to Government depots, four pounds
+weight of locusts' eggs. It was supposed that this energetic measure
+would lessen their numbers. Many tons were collected and burnt, but,
+I assure the reader, no appreciable difference whatever was made in
+their legions. The young _jumpers_ came, eating all before them, and
+their numbers seemed infinite. Men dug trenches, kindled fires, and
+burned millions of them. Ditches two yards wide and deep and two
+hundred feet long were completely filled up by these living waves.
+But all efforts were unavailing--the earth remained covered. A
+Waldensian acquaintance suffered for several years from this fearful
+plague. Some seasons he was not even able to get back so much as the
+seed he planted. If the locusts passed him, it so happened that the
+_pampero_ wind blew with such terrific force that we have looked in
+vain even for the straw. The latter was actually torn up by the roots
+and whirled away, none knew whither. At other times large hailstones,
+for which the country is noted, have destroyed everything, or tens of
+thousands of green paroquets have done their destructive work. When a
+five-months' drought was parching everything, I have heard him
+reverently pray that God would spare him wheat sufficient to feed his
+family. This food God gave him, and he thankfully invited me to share
+it. I rejoice in being able to say that he afterwards became rich,
+and had his favorite saying, _"Dios no me olvidaé"_ (God will not
+forget me), abundantly verified.
+
+Notwithstanding natural drawbacks, which every country has, Argentina
+can claim to have gone forward as no other country has during the
+last ten years. There are many estates worth more than a million
+dollars. Dr. W. A. Hirot, in "Argentina," says: "Argentina has more
+live stock than any other country of the world. Ten million hides
+have been exported in one year, and it is not improbable that there
+are more cattle in South America than there are in all the rest of
+the world combined." Belgium has 220 people occupying the space one
+person has in Argentina, so who can prophesy as to its future?
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+BOLIVIA
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+   Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing
+    else to gaze on,
+   Set pieces and drop curtain scenes galore,
+   Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets
+    blazon,
+   Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
+
+          --_Robert W. Service._
+
+
+
+
+BOLIVIA
+
+Bolivia, having no sea-coast, has been termed the Hermit Republic of
+South America. Its territory is over 600,000 square miles in extent,
+and within its bounds Nature displays almost every possible panorama,
+and all climates. There are burning plains, the home of the emu,
+armadillos, and ants; sandy deserts, where the wind drifts the sand
+like snow, piling it up in ever-shifting hills about thirty feet in
+height. Bolivia, shut in geographically and politically, is a world
+in itself--a world of variety, in scenery, climate, products and
+people. Its capital city, La Paz, has a population of 70,000, but the
+vast interior is almost uninhabited. In the number of inhabitants to
+the square mile, Bolivia ranks the lowest of all the nations of the
+earth.
+
+Perhaps no country of the world has been, and is, so rich in precious
+metals as Bolivia. "The mines of Potosi alone have furnished the
+world over $1,500,000,000 worth of silver since the Spaniards first
+took possession of them." [Footnote: "Protestant Missions in South
+America."]
+
+Bolivia can lay claim to the most wonderful body of water in the
+world--Lake Titicaca. This lake, nearly two and a half miles high in
+the air, is literally in the clouds. "Its lonely waters have no
+outlet to the sea, but are guarded on their southern shores by
+gigantic ruins of a prehistoric empire--palaces, temples, and
+fortresses--silent, mysterious monuments of a long-lost golden age."
+Some of the largest and most remarkable ruins of the world are found
+on the shores of Lake Titicaca, and as this was the centre of the
+great Incan Dynasty, that remarkable people have also left wonderful
+remains, to build which stones thirty-eight feet long, eighteen feet
+wide, and six feet thick, were quarried, carried and elevated. The
+Temple of the Sun. the most sacred edifice of the Incas, was one of
+the richest buildings the sun has ever shone upon, and it was itself
+a mine of wealth. From this one temple, Pizarro, the Spanish
+conqueror, took 24,000 pounds of gold and 82,000 pounds of silver.
+"Ninety million dollars' worth of precious metals was torn from Inca
+temples alone." The old monarch of the country, Atahuallpa, gave
+Pizarro twenty-two million dollars in gold to buy back his country
+and his liberty from the Spaniards, but their first act on receiving
+the vast ransom was to march him after a crucifix at the head of a
+procession, and, because he refused to become a Roman Catholic, put
+him to death. Perhaps never in the world's history was there a baser
+act of perfidy, but this was urged by the soldier-priest of the
+conquerors, Father Valverde, who himself signed the King's death-
+warrant. This priest was afterwards made Bishop of Atahuallpa's
+capital.
+
+Surely no country of the world has had a darker or a sadder history
+than this land of the Incas. The Spaniards arrived when the "Children
+of the Sun" were at the height of their prosperity. "The affair of
+reducing the country was committed to the hands of irresponsible
+individuals, soldiers of fortune, desperate adventurers who entered
+on conquest as a game which they had to play in the most unscrupulous
+manner, with little care but to win it. The lands, and the persons as
+well, of the conquered races were parcelled out and appropriated by
+the victors as the legitimate spoils of victory. Every day outrages
+were perpetrated, at the contemplation of which humanity shudders.
+They suffered the provident arrangements of the Incas to fall into
+decay. The poor Indian, without food, now wandered half-starved and
+naked over the plateau. Even those who aided the Spaniards fared no
+better, and many an Inca noble roamed a mendicant over the fields
+where he once held rule; and if driven, perchance, by his necessities
+to purloin something from the superfluity of his conquerors, he
+expiated it by a miserable death."  [Footnote: Prescott's "Conquest
+of Peru."]
+
+Charles Kingsley says there were "cruelties and miseries unexampled
+in the history of Christendom, or perhaps on earth, save in the
+conquests of Sennacherib and Zinghis-Khan." Millions perished at the
+forced labor of the mines, The Incan Empire had, it is calculated, a
+population of twenty millions at the arrival of the Spaniards, In two
+centuries the population fell to four millions.
+
+When the groans of these beasts of burden reached the ears of the
+good (?) Queen Isabel of Spain, she enacted a law that throughout her
+new dominions no Indian, man or woman, should be compelled to carry
+more than three hundred pounds' weight at one load! Is it cause for
+wonder that the poor, down-trodden natives, seeing the flaunting flag
+of Spain, with its stripe of yellow between stripes of red, should
+regard it as representing a river of gold between two rivers of
+blood?
+
+"Not infrequently," said a reliable witness, "I have seen the
+Spaniards, long after the Conquest, amuse themselves by hunting down
+the natives with blood hounds, for mere sport, or in order to train
+their dogs to the game. The most unbounded scope was given to
+licentiousness. The young maiden was torn remorselessly from the arms
+of her family to gratify the passion of her brutal conqueror. The
+sacred houses of the Virgins of the Sun were broken open and
+violated, and the cavalier swelled his harem with a troop of Indian
+girls, making it seem that the crescent would have been a more
+fitting emblem for his banner than the immaculate cross."
+
+With the inexorable conqueror came the more inexorable priest.
+"Attendance at Roman Catholic worship was made compulsory. Men and
+women with small children were compelled to journey as much as
+thirty-six miles to attend mass. Absentees were punished, therefore
+the Indian feared to disobey." [Footnote: Neely, "Spanish America."]
+
+As is well known, the ancient inhabitants worshipped the sun and the
+moon. The Spanish priest, in order to gain proselytes with greater
+facility, did not forbid this worship, but placed the crucifix
+between the two. Where the Inca suns and moons were of solid gold and
+silver, they were soon replaced by painted wooden ones. The crucifix,
+with sun and moon images on each side, is common all over Bolivia
+to-day.
+
+Now, four hundred years later, see the Indian under priestly rule.
+The following is taken from an official report of the Governor of
+Chimborazo: "The religious festivals that the Indians celebrate--not
+of their own will, but by the inexorable will of the priest--are,
+through the manner in which they are kept, worse than those described
+to us of the times of Paganism, and of monstrous consequences to
+morality and the national welfare ... they may be reckoned as a
+barbarous mixture of idolatry and superstition, sustained by infamous
+avarice. The Indian who is chosen to make a feast either has to use
+up in it his little savings, leaving his family submerged in misery,
+or he has to rob in order to invest the products of his crime in
+paying the fees to the priest and for church ceremonies. These are
+simply brutal orgies that last many days, with a numerous attendance,
+and in which all manner of crimes and vices have free license."
+
+"For the idols of the aborigines were substituted the images of the
+Virgin Mary and the Roman saints. The Indians gave up their old
+idols, but they went on with their image-worship. Image-worship is
+idolatry, whether in India, Africa, or anywhere else, and the worship
+of Roman images is essentially idolatry as much as the worship of any
+other kind of images. Romanism substituted for one set of idols
+another set. So the Indians who were idolaters continued to be
+idolaters, only the new idols had other names and, possibly, were a
+little better-looking." [Footnote: Neely, "South America."]
+
+What has Romanism done for the Indians of Bolivia in its four hundred
+years of rule? Compare the people of that peaceful, law-keeping
+dynasty which the Spaniards found with the Bolivian Indian of to-day!
+Now the traveller can report: "The Indians are killing the whites
+wherever they find them, and practising great cruelties, having bored
+holes in the heads of their victims and sucked the brains out while
+they were yet alive. Sixteen whites are said to have been killed in
+this way! These same Indians are those who have been Christianized by
+the Roman priests for the past three centuries, but such cruelties as
+they have been practising show that as yet not a ray of Christ's love
+has entered their darkened minds." How can the priest teach what he
+is himself ignorant of?
+
+Where the Indian has been civilized, as well as Romanized, Mr. Milne,
+of the American Bible Society, could write:
+
+"Since the Spanish conquest the progress of the Indians has been in
+the line of deterioration and moral degradation. They are oppressed
+by the Romish clergy, who can never drain contributions enough out of
+them, and who make the children render service to pay for masses for
+deceased parents and relatives. Tears came to our eyes as Mr.
+Penzotti and I watched them practising their heathen rites in the
+streets of La Paz, the chief city of Bolivia. They differ from the
+other Indians in that they are domesticated, but _they know no more
+of the Gospel than they did under the rule of the Incas."_
+
+What is to be the future of these natives? Shall they disappear from
+the stage of the world's history like so many other aborigines,
+victims of civilization, or will a hand yet be stretched out to help
+them? Civilization, after all, is not entirely made up of greed and
+lust, but in it there is righteousness and truth. May the day soon
+dawn when some of the latter may be extended to them ere they take
+the long, dark trail after their fathers, and have hurled the last
+malediction at their cursed white oppressors!
+
+  "We suffer yet a little space
+   Until we pass away,
+  The relics of an ancient race
+   That ne'er has had its day."
+
+For four hundred years Bolivia has thus been held in chains by Romish
+priestcraft. Since its Incan rulers were massacred, its civilization
+has been of the lowest. Buildings, irrigation dams, etc., were
+suffered to fall into disrepair, and the country went back to
+pre-Incan days.
+
+The first Christian missionaries to enter the country were imprisoned
+and murdered. Now "the morning light is breaking." A law has been
+passed granting liberty of worship.
+
+Bolivia, with its vast natural riches, must come to the forefront,
+and already strides are being taken forward. She can export over five
+million dollars' worth of rubber in one year, and is now spending
+more than fifty million dollars on railways. So Bolivia is a country
+of the past and the future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+JOURNEY TO "THE UNEXPLORED LAKE."
+
+
+Since the days when Pizarro's adventurers discovered the hitherto
+undreamed-of splendor of the Inca Dynasty, Bolivia has been a land of
+surprises and romantic discovery. Strange to say, even yet much of
+the eastern portion of this great republic remains practically
+unexplored. The following account of exploration in those regions,
+left for men of the twentieth century, may not, I am persuaded, be
+without interest to the general reader. Bolivia has for many years
+been seriously handicapped through having no adequate water outlet to
+the sea, and the immense resources of wealth she undoubtedly
+possesses have, for this reason, been suffered to go, in a measure,
+unworked. Now, however, in the onward progress of nations, Bolivia
+has stepped forward. In the year 1900, the Government of that country
+despatched an expedition to locate and explore Lake Gaiba, a large
+sheet of water said to exist in the far interior of Bolivia and
+Brazil, on the line dividing the two republics. The expedition staff
+consisted of Captain Bolland, an Englishman; M. Barbiere, a
+Frenchman; Dr. Perez, Bolivian; M. Gerard D'Avezsac, French artist
+and hunter, and the writer of these pages. The crew of ten men was
+made up of Paraguayans and Argentines, white men and colored, one
+Bolivian, one Italian, and one Brazilian. Strange to relate, there
+was no Scotchman, even the ship's engineer being French. Perhaps the
+missing Scotch engineer was on his way to the Pole, in order to be
+found sitting there on its discovery by----(?)
+
+The object of this costly journey was to ascend the rivers La Plata,
+Paraguay and Alto Paraguay, and see if it were possible to establish
+a port and town in Bolivian territory on the shores of the lake.
+After some months of untiring energy and perseverance, there was
+discovered for Bolivia a fine port, with depth of water for any
+ordinary river steamer, which will now be known to the world as
+_Puerto Quijarro_. A direct fluvial route, therefore, exists between
+the Atlantic and this far inland point.
+
+The expedition left Buenos Ayres, the capital of the Argentine
+Republic. Sailing up the western bank of the River of Silver, we
+entered the Parana River, and after an uneventful voyage of six days,
+passed the mouth of the River of Gold, and turned into the Paraguay.
+
+Three hundred miles up the Higher Parana, a mighty stream flowing
+from the northeast, which we here left to our right, are the Falls of
+Yguasú. These falls have been seen by few white men. The land on each
+side of the river is infested by the Bugres Indians, a tribe of
+cannibals, of excessively ferocious nature. The Falls of Big Water
+must be the largest in the world--and the writer is well acquainted
+with Niagara.
+
+The river, over two and a half miles wide, containing almost as much
+water as all the rivers of Europe together, rushes between
+perpendicular cliffs. With a current of forty miles an hour, and a
+volume of water that cannot be less than a million tons a minute, the
+mighty torrent rushes with indescribable fury against a rocky island,
+which separates it into two branches, so that the total width is
+about two miles and a half. The Brazilian arm of the river forms a
+tremendous horseshoe here, and plunges with a deafening roar into the
+abyss two hundred and thirteen feet below. The Argentine branch
+spreads out in a sort of amphitheatre form, and finishes with one
+grand leap into the jagged rocks, more than two hundred and twenty-
+nine feet below, making the very earth vibrate, while spray, rising
+in columns, is visible several miles distant.
+
+"Below the island the two arms unite and flow on into the Parana
+River. From the Brazilian bank the spectator, at a height of two
+hundred and eighty feet, gazes out over two and a half miles of some
+of the wildest and most fantastic water scenery he can ever hope to
+see. Waters stream, seethe, leap, bound, froth and foam, 'throwing
+the sweat of their agony high in the air, and, writhing, twisting,
+screaming and moaning, bear off to the Parana.' Under the blue vault
+of the sky, this sea of foam, of pearls, of iridescent dust, bathes
+the great background in a shower of beauty that all the more adds to
+the riot of tropical hues already there. When a high wind is blowing,
+the roar of the cataract can be heard nearly twenty miles away. A
+rough estimate of the horse-power represented by the falls is
+fourteen million."
+
+Proceeding up the Paraguay River, we arrived at Asuncion, the capital
+of Paraguay, and anchored in a beautiful bay of the river, opposite
+the city. As many necessary preparations had still to be made, the
+expedition was detained in Asuncion for fifteen days, after which we
+boarded the S.S. _Leda_, for the second stage of our journey.
+
+Steaming up the Alto Paraguay, we passed the orange groves of that
+sunny land on the right bank of the river, and on the left saw the
+encampments of the Tobas Indians, The dwellings of these people are
+only a few branches of trees stuck in the ground. Further on, we saw
+the Chamococos Indians, a fine muscular race of men and women, who
+cover their bronze-colored bodies with the oil of the alligator, and
+think a covering half the size of a pocket-handkerchief quite
+sufficient to hide their nakedness. As we stayed to take in wood, I
+tried to photograph some of these, our brothers and sisters, but the
+camera was nothing but an object of dread to them. One old woman,
+with her long, black, oily hair streaming in the breeze, almost
+withered me with her flashing eyes and barbarous language, until I
+blushed as does a schoolboy when caught in the act of stealing
+apples. Nevertheless, I got her photo.
+
+The Pilcomayo, which empties its waters into the Paraguay, is one of
+the most mysterious of rivers. Rising in Bolivia, its course can be
+traced down for some considerable distance, when it loses itself in
+the arid wastes, or, as some maintain, flows underground. Its source
+and mouth are known, but for many miles of its passage it is
+invisible. Numerous attempts to solve its secrets have been made.
+They have almost invariably ended disastrously. The Spanish
+traveller, Ibarete, set out with high hopes to travel along its
+banks, but he and seventeen men perished in the attempt. Two half-
+famished, prematurely-old, broken men were all that returned from the
+unknown wilds. The Pilcomayo, which has proved itself the river of
+death to so many brave men, remains to this day unexplored. The
+Indians inhabiting these regions are savage in the extreme, and the
+French explorer, Creveaux, found them inhuman enough to leave him and
+most of his party to die of hunger. The Tobas and the Angaitaes
+tribes are personally known to me, and I speak from experience when I
+say that more cruel men I have never met. The Argentine Government,
+after twenty years of warfare with them, was compelled, in 1900, to
+withdraw the troops from their outposts and leave the savages in
+undisputed possession. If the following was the type of civilization
+offered them, then they are better left to themselves: "Two hundred
+Indians who have been made prisoners are _compelled to be baptized_.
+The ceremony takes place in the presence of the Governor and
+officials of the district, and a great crowd of spectators. The
+Indians kneel between two rows of soldiers, an officer with drawn
+sword compels each in turn to open his mouth, into which a second
+officer throws a handful of salt, amid general laughter at the wry
+faces of the Indians. Then a Franciscan padre comes with a pail of
+water and besprinkles the prisoners. They are then commanded to rise,
+and each receives a piece of paper inscribed with his new name, a
+scapulary, and--_a glass of rum_" [Footnote: Report of British and
+Foreign Bible Society, 1900.] What countries these for missionary
+enterprise!
+
+After sailing for eighteen days up the river, we transhipped into a
+smaller steamer going to Bolivia. Sailing up the bay, you pass, on
+the south shore, a small Brazilian customs house, which consists of a
+square roof of zinc, without walls, supported on four posts, standing
+about two meters from the ground. A Brazilian, clothed only in his
+black skin, came down the house ladder and stared at us as we passed.
+The compliment was returned, although we had become somewhat
+accustomed to that style of dress--or undress. A little farther up
+the bay, a white stone shone out in the sunlight, marking the
+Bolivian boundary, and giving the name of Piedra Blanca to the
+village. This landmark is shaded by a giant tamarind tree, and
+numerous barrel trees, or _palo boracho_, grow in the vicinity. In my
+many wanderings in tropical America, I have seen numerous strange
+trees, but these are extraordinarily so. The trunk comes out of the
+ground with a small circumference, then gradually widens out to the
+proportions of an enormous barrel, and at the top closes up to the
+two-foot circumference again. Two branches, like giant arms spread
+themselves out in a most weird-looking manner on the top of all.
+About five leaves grow on each bough, and, instinctively, you
+consider them the fingers of the arms.
+
+It was only three leagues to the Bolivian town of Piedra Blanca, but
+the "Bahia do Marengo" took three hours to steam the short distance,
+for five times we had to stop on the way, owing to the bearings
+becoming heated. These the Brazilian engineer cooled with pails of
+water.
+
+In the beautiful Bay of Caceres, much of which was grown over with
+lotus and Victoria Regia, we finally anchored. This Bolivian village
+is about eighteen days' sail up the river from Montevideo on the
+seacoast.
+
+Chartering the "General Pando," a steamer of 25 h.p. and 70 ft. long,
+we there completed our preparations, and finally steamed away up the
+Alto Paraguay, proudly flying the Bolivian flag of red, yellow, and
+green. As a correct plan of the river had to be drawn, the steamer
+only travelled by day, when we were able to admire the grandeur of
+the scenery, which daily grew wilder as the mountains vied with each
+other in lifting their rugged peaks toward heaven. From time to time
+we passed one of the numerous islands the Paraguay is noted for.
+These are clothed with such luxuriant vegetation that nothing less
+than an army of men with axes could penetrate them. The land is one
+great, wild, untidy, luxuriant hot-house, "built by nature for
+herself." The puma, jaguar and wildcat are here at home, besides the
+anaconda and boa constrictor, which grow to enormous lengths. The
+Yaci Retá, or Island of the Moon, is the ideal haunt of the jaguar,
+and as we passed it a pair of those royal beasts were playing on the
+shore like two enormous cats. As they caught sight of us, one leapt
+into the mangrove swamp, out of sight, and the other took a plunge
+into the river, only to rise a few yards distant and receive an
+explosive bullet in his head. The mangrove tree, with its twisting
+limbs and bright green foliage, grows in the warm water and fœtid mud
+of tropical countries. It is a type of death, for pestilence hangs
+round it like a cloud. At early morning this cloud is a very visible
+one. The peculiarity of the tree is that its hanging branches
+themselves take root, and, nourished by such putrid exhalations, it
+quickly spreads.
+
+There were also many floating islands of fantastic shape, on which
+birds rested in graceful pose. We saw the _garza blanca_, the aigrets
+of which are esteemed by royalty and commoner alike, along with other
+birds new and strange. To several on board who had looked for years
+on nothing but the flat Argentine pampas, this change of scenery was
+most exhilarating, and when one morning the sun rose behind the
+"Golden Mountains," and illuminated peak after peak, the effect was
+glorious. So startlingly grand were some of the colors that our
+artist more than once said he dare not paint them, as the world would
+think that his coloring was not true to nature.
+
+Many were the strange sights we saw on the shore. Once we were amused
+at the ludicrous spectacle of a large bird of the stork family, which
+had built its nest in a tree almost overhanging the river. The nest
+was a collection of reeds and feathers, having two holes in the
+bottom, through which the legs of the bird were hanging. The feet,
+suspended quite a yard below the nest, made one wonder how the bird
+could rise from its sitting position.
+
+Every sight the traveller sees, however, is not so amusing. As
+darkness creeps over earth and sky, and the pale moonbeams shed a
+fitful light, it is most pathetic to see on the shore the dead trunk
+and limbs of a tree, in the branches of which has been constructed a
+rude platform, on which some dark-minded Indian has reverently lifted
+the dead body of his comrade. The night wind, stirring the dry bones
+and whistling through the empty skull, makes weird music!
+
+The banks of the stream had gradually come nearer and nearer to us,
+and the great river, stretching one hundred and fifty miles in width
+where it pours its volume of millions of tons of water into the sea
+at Montevideo, was here a silver ribbon, not half a mile across.
+
+Far be it from me to convey the idea that life in those latitudes is
+Eden. The mosquitos and other insects almost drive one mad. The
+country may truly be called a naturalists' paradise, for butterflies,
+beetles, and creeping things are multitudinous, but the climate, with
+its damp, sickly heat, is wholly unsuited to the Anglo-Saxon. Day
+after day the sun in all his remorseless strength blazes upon the
+earth, is if desirous of setting the whole world on fire. The
+thermometer in the shade registered 110, 112 and 114 degrees
+Fahrenheit, and on one or two memorable days 118 degrees. The heat in
+our little saloon at times rose as high as 130 degrees, and the
+perspiration poured down in streams on our almost naked bodies. We
+seemed to be running right into the brazen sun itself.
+
+One morning the man on the look-out descried deer on the starboard
+bow, and arms were quickly brought out, ready for use. Our French
+hunter was just taking aim when it struck me that the deer moved in a
+strange way. I immediately asked him to desist. Those dark forms in
+the long grass seemed, to my somewhat trained eyes, naked Indians,
+and as we drew nearer to them so it proved, and the man was thankful
+he had withheld his fire.
+
+After steaming for some distance up the river several dug-outs,
+filled with Guatos Indians, paddled alongside us. An early traveller
+in those head-waters wrotes of these: "Some of the smaller tribes
+were but a little removed from the wild brutes of their own jungles.
+The lowest in the scale, perhaps, were the Guatos, who dwell to the
+north of the Rio Apa. This tribe consisted of less than one hundred
+persons, and they were as unapproachable as wild beasts. No other
+person, Indian or foreigner, could ever come near but they would fly
+and hide in impenetrable jungles. They had no written language of
+their own, and lived like unreasoning animals, without laws or
+religion."
+
+The Guato Indian seems now to be a tame and inoffensive creature, but
+well able to strike a bargain in the sale of his dug-out canoes,
+home-made guitars and other curios. In the wrobbling canoe they are
+very dexterous, as also in the use of their long bows and arrows; the
+latter have points of sharpened bone. When hungry, they hunt or fish.
+When thirsty, they drink from the river; and if they wish clothing,
+wild cotton grows in abundance.
+
+These Indians, living, as they do, along the banks of the river and
+streams, have recently been frequently visited by the white man on
+his passage along those natural highways. It is, therefore
+superfluous for me to add that they are now correspondingly
+demoralized. It is a most humiliating fact that just in proportion as
+the paleface advances into lands hitherto given up to the Indian so
+those races sink. This degeneration showed itself strikingly among
+the Guatos in their inordinate desire for _cachaca_, or "firewater."
+Although extremely cautious and wary in their exchanges to us,
+refusing to barter a bow and arrows for a shirt, yet, for a bottle of
+cachaca, they would gladly have given even one of their canoes. These
+_ketchiveyos_, twenty or twenty-five feet long by about twenty inches
+wide, they hollow from the trunk of the cedar, or _lapacho_ tree.
+This is done with great labor and skill; yet, as I have said, they
+were boisterously eager to exchange this week's work for that which
+they knew would lead them to fight and kill one another.
+
+As a mark of special favor, the chief invited me to their little
+village, a few miles distant. Stepping into one of their canoes--a
+large, very narrow boat, made of one tree-trunk hollowed out by fire--
+I was quickly paddled by three naked Indians up a narrow creek,
+which was almost covered with lotus. The savages, standing in the
+canoe, worked the paddles with a grace and elegance which the
+civilized man would fail to acquire, and the narrow craft shot
+through the water at great speed. The chief sat in silence at the
+stern. I occupied a palm-fibre mat spread for me amidships. The very
+few words of Portuguese my companions spoke or understood rendered
+conversation difficult, so the stillness was broken only by the
+gentle splash of the paddles. On each side the dense forest seemed
+absolutely impenetrable, but we at last arrived at an opening. As we
+drew ashore I noticed that an Indian path led directly inland.
+
+Leaving our dug-out moored with a fibre rope to a large mangrove
+tree, we started to thread our way through the forest, and finally
+reached a clearing. Here we came upon a crowd of almost naked and
+extremely dejected-looking women. Many of these, catching sight of
+me, sped into the jungle like frightened deer. The chief's wife,
+however, at a word from him, received me kindly, and after accepting
+a brass necklace with evident pleasure, showed herself very affable.
+Poor lost Guatos! Their dejected countenances, miserable grass huts,
+alive with vermin, and their extreme poverty, were most touching.
+Inhabiting, as they do, one of the hottest and dampest places on the
+earth's surface, where mosquitos are numberless, the wonder is that
+they exist at all. Truly, man is a strange being, who can adapt
+himself to equatorial heat or polar frigidity. The Guatos' chief
+business in life seemed to consist in sitting on fibre mats spread on
+the ground, and driving away the bloodthirsty mosquitos from their
+bare backs. For this they use a fan of their own manufacture, made
+from wild cotton, which there seems to abound. Writing of mosquitos,
+let me say these Indian specimens were a terror to us all. What
+numbers we killed! I could write this account in their blood. It was
+_my_ blood, though--before they got it! Men who hunt the tiger in
+cool bravery boiled with indignation before these awful pests, which
+stabbed and stung with marvellous persistency, and disturbed
+ the solitude of nature with their incessant humming. I write the
+word _incessant_ advisedly, for I learned that there are several
+kinds of mosquitos. Some work by day and others by night. Naturalists
+tell us that only the female mosquito bites. Did they take a
+particular liking to us because we were all males?
+
+Some of the Indians paint their naked bodies in squares, generally
+with red and black pigment. Their huts were in some cases large, but
+very poorly constructed. When any members of the tribe are taken sick
+they are supposed to be "possessed" by a stronger evil power, and the
+sickness is "starved out." When the malady flies away the life
+generally accompanies it. The dead are buried under the earth inside
+the huts, and in some of the dwellings graves are quite numerous.
+This custom of interior burial has probably been adopted because the
+wild animals of the forest would otherwise eat the corpse. Horrible
+to relate, their own half-wild dogs sometimes devour the dead, though
+an older member of the tribe is generally left home to mount guard.
+
+Seeing by the numerous gourds scattered around that they were
+drinking _chicha_, I solicited some, being anxious to taste the
+beverage which had been used so many centuries before by the old
+Incas. The wife of the chief immediately tore off a branch of the
+feather palm growing beside her, and, certainly within a minute, made
+a basket, into which she placed a small gourd. Going to the other
+side of the clearing, she commenced, with the agility of a monkey, to
+ascend a long sapling which had been laid in a slanting position
+against a tall palm tree. The long, graceful leaves of this cabbage
+palm had been torn open, and the heart thus left to ferment. From the
+hollow cabbage the woman filled the gourd, and lowered it to me by a
+fibre rope. The liquid I found to be thick and milky, and the taste
+not unlike cider.
+
+Prescott tells us that Atahuallpa, the Peruvian monarch, came to see
+the conqueror, Pizarro, "quaffing chicha from golden goblets borne by
+his attendants." [Footnote: Este Embajador traia servicio de Senor, i
+cinco o seis Vasos de Oro fino, con que bebia, i con ellos daba a
+beber a los Espanoles de la chicha que traia."--Xerez.] Golden
+goblets did not mean much to King Atahuallpa, however, for his palace
+of five hundred different apartments is said to have been tiled with
+beaten gold.
+
+In these Guato Indians I observed a marked difference to any others I
+had visited, in that they permitted the hair to grow on their faces.
+The chief was of quite patriarchal aspect, with full beard and mild,
+intelligent-looking eyes. The savages inhabiting the Chaco consider
+this custom extremely "dirty."
+
+Before leaving these people I procured some of their bows and arrows,
+and also several cleverly woven palm mats and cotton fans.
+
+Some liquor our cook gave away had been taken out by the braves to
+their women in another encampment. These spirits had so inflamed the
+otherwise retiring, modest females that they, with the men, returned
+to the steamer, clamoring for more. All the stores, along with some
+liquors we carried, were under my care, and I kept them securely
+locked up, but in my absence at the Indian camp the store-room had
+been broken open, and our men and the Indians--men and women--had
+drunk long and deep. A scene like Bedlam, or Dante's "Inferno," was
+taking place when I returned. Willing as they were to listen to my
+counsel and admit that I was certainly a great white teacher, with
+superior wisdom, on this love for liquor and its debasing
+consequences they would hear no words. The women and girls, like the
+men, would clamor for the raw alcohol, and gulp it down in long
+draughts. When ardent spirits are more sought after by women and
+girls than are beads and looking-glasses it surely shows a terribly
+depraved taste. Even the chattering monkeys in the trees overhead
+would spurn the poison and eagerly clutch the bright trinket. Perhaps
+the looking-glasses I gave the poor females would, after the orgies
+were over, serve to show them that their beauty was not increased by
+this beastly carousal, and thus be a means of blessing. It may be
+asked, Can the savage be possessed of pride and of self-esteem? I
+unhesitatingly answer yes, as I have had abundant opportunity of
+seeing. They will strut with peacock pride when wearing a specially
+gaudy-colored headdress, although that may be their only article of
+attire.
+
+Having on board far more salt than we ourselves needed, I was enabled
+to generously distribute much of that invaluable commodity among
+them. That also, working in a different way, might be a means of
+restoring them to a normal soundness of mind after we left.
+
+Poor lost creatures! For this draught of the white man's poison, far
+more terrible to them than the deadly nightshade of their forests,
+more dangerous than the venom of the loathsome serpent gliding across
+their path, they are willing to sell body or soul. Soul, did I say?
+They have never heard of that. To them, so far as I could ascertain,
+a future life is unknown. The explorer has penetrated some little way
+into their dark forests in search of rubber, or anything else which
+it would pay to exploit, but the missionary of the Cross has never
+sought to illumine their darker minds. They live their little day and
+go out into the unknown unconscious of the fact that One called
+Jesus, who was the Incarnate God, died to redeem them. As a
+traveller, I have often wondered why men should be willing to pay me
+hundreds of dollars to explore those regions for ultimate worldly
+gain, and none should ever offer to employ me in proclaiming the
+greatest wonder of all the ages--the story of Calvary--for eternal
+gain. After all, are the Indians more blind to the future than we
+are? Yet, strange to say, we profess to believe in the teachings of
+that One who inculcated the practice of laying up treasure in heaven,
+while they have not even heard His name. For love of gain men have
+been willing to accompany me through the most deadly fever-breeding
+morass, or to brave the poisoned arrows of the lynx-eyed Indian, but
+few have ever offered to go and tell of Him whom they profess to
+serve.
+
+The suffocating atmosphere quite precluded the idea of writing, for a
+pen, dipped in ink, would dry before reaching the paper, and the
+latter be saturated with perspiration in a few seconds; so these
+observations were penned later. So far as I could ascertain, the
+Romish Church has never touched the Guatos, and, notwithstanding all
+I have said about them, I unhesitatingly affirm that it is better so.
+Geo. R. Witte, missionary to Brazil, says: "With one exception, all
+the priests with whom I came in contact (when on a journey through
+Northern Brazil) were immoral, drunken, and ignorant. The tribes who
+have come under priestly care are decidedly inferior in morals,
+industry, and order to the tribes who refuse to have anything to do
+with the whites. The Charentes and Apinages have been, for years,
+under the care of Catholic friars--this is the way I found them: both
+men and women walk about naked."
+
+"We heard not one contradiction of the general testimony that the
+people who were not under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church
+as it is in S. America were better morally than those who were."
+[Footnote: Robert E. Speer, "Missions in South America."]
+
+In Christendom organs peal out the anthems of Divine love, and well-
+dressed worshippers chant in harmonious unison, "Lord, incline our
+hearts to keep Thy law." That law says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor
+as thyself." To the question: "Who is my neighbor?" the Divine voice
+answers: "A certain man." May he not be one of these neglected
+Indians?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ARRIVAL AT THE LAKE.
+
+  "It sleeps among a hundred hills
+   Where no man ever trod,
+  And only Nature's music fills
+   The silences of God."
+
+
+After going about two thousand three hundred miles up this serpentine
+river, we discovered the entrance to the lake. Many had been the
+conjectures and counsels of would-be advisers when we started. Some
+said that there was no entrance to the lake from the river; others,
+that there was not sufficient depth of water for the steamer to pass
+through. On our port bow rose frowning rocks of forbidding aspect.
+Drawing nearer, we noticed, with mingled feelings of curiosity and
+wonder, that the face of these rocks was rudely carved by unmistakably
+Indian art. There were portrayed a rising sun, tigers' feet, birds'
+feet, etc. Why were they thus carved? Are those rocks the everlasting
+recorders of some old history--some deed of Indian daring in days of
+old? What these hieroglyphics signify we may never know; the workman
+is gone, and his stone hammer is buried with him. To twentieth century
+civilization his carving tells nothing. No Indians inhabit the shores
+of the lake now, perhaps because of this "writing on the wall."
+
+With the leadsman in his place we slowly and cautiously entered the
+unexplored lake, and thus for the first time in the world's history
+its waters were ploughed by a steamer's keel.
+
+Soon after our arrival the different guards were told off for the
+silent watches. Night shut in upon the lake, and all nature slept.
+The only lights on shore were those of the fire-flies as they danced
+through the myrtle boughs. The stars in the heavens twinkled above
+us. Now and again an alligator thrust his huge, ugly nose out of the
+water and yawned, thus disturbing for the moment its placid surface,
+which the pale moon illuminated with an ethereal light; otherwise
+stillness reigned, or, rather, a calm mysterious peace which was deep
+and profound. Somehow, the feeling crept upon us that we had become
+detached from the world, though yet we lived. Afterwards, when the
+tigers [Footnote: Jaguars are invariably called tigers in South
+America.] on shore had scented our presence, sleep was often broken
+by angry roars coming from the beach, near which we lay at anchor;
+but before dawn our noisy visitors always departed, leaving only
+their footprints. Early next morning, while the green moon was still
+shining (the color of this heavenly orb perplexed us, it was a pure
+bottle green), each one arose to his work. This was no pleasure
+excursion, and duties, many and arduous, lay before the explorers.
+The hunter sallied forth with his gun, and returned laden with
+pheasant and mountain hen, and over his shoulder a fine duck, which,
+unfortunately, however, had already begun to smell--the heat was so
+intense. In his wanderings he had come upon a huge tapir, half eaten
+by a tiger, and saw footprints of that lord of the forest in all
+directions.
+
+Let me here say, that to our hunter we were indebted for many a good
+dish, and when not after game he lured from the depths of the lake
+many a fine perch or turbot. Fishing is an art in which I am not very
+skilled, but one evening I borrowed his line. After a few moments'
+waiting I had a "bite," and commenced to haul in my catch, which
+struggled, kicked, and pulled until I shouted for help. My fish was
+one of our Paraguayan sailors, who for sport had slipped down into
+the water on the other side of the steamer, and, diving to my cord,
+had grasped it with both hands. Not every fisher catches a man!
+
+Lake Gaiba is a stretch of water ten miles long, with a narrow mouth
+opening into the River Paraguay. The lake is surrounded by mountains,
+clad in luxuriant verdure on the Bolivian side, and standing out in
+bare, rugged lines on the Brazilian side. The boundary of the two
+countries cuts the water into two unequal halves. The most prominent
+of the mountains are now marked upon the exhaustive chart drawn out.
+Their christening has been a tardy one, for who can tell what ages
+have passed since they first came into being? Looking at Mount Ray,
+the highest of these peaks, at sunset, the eye is startled by the
+strange hues and rich tints there reflected. Frequently we asked
+ourselves: "Is that the sun's radiance, or are those rocks the fabled
+'Cliffs of Opal' men have searched for in vain?" We often sat in a
+wonder of delight gazing at the scene, until the sun sank out of
+sight, taking the "opal cliffs" with it, and leaving us only with the
+dream.
+
+On the shores of the lake the beach is covered with golden sand and
+studded with innumerable little stones, clear as crystal, which
+scintillate with all the colors of the rainbow. Among these pebbles I
+found several arrowheads of jasper. In other parts the primeval
+forest creeps down to the very margin, and the tree-roots bathe in
+the warm waters. Looking across the quivering heat-haze, the eye
+rests upon palms of many varieties, and giant trees covered with
+orchids and parasites, the sight of which would completely intoxicate
+the horticulturist. Butterflies, gorgeous in all the colors of the
+rainbow, flit from flower to flower; and monkeys, with curiously
+human faces, stare at the stranger from the tree-tops. White cotton
+trees, tamarinds, and strangely shaped fruits grow everywhere, and
+round about all are entwined festoons of trailing creepers, or the
+loveliest of _scarlet_ mistletoe, in which humming-birds build their
+nests. Blue macaws, parrots, and a thousand other birds fly to and
+fro, and the black fire-bird darts across the sky, making lightning
+with every flutter of his wings, which, underneath, are painted a
+bright, vivid red. Serpents of all colors and sizes creep silently in
+the undergrowth, or hang from the branches of the trees, their
+emerald eyes ever on the alert; and the broad-winged eagle soars
+above all, conscious of his majesty.
+
+Here and there the coast is broken by silent streams flowing into the
+lake from the unexplored regions beyond. These _riachos_ are covered
+with lotus leaves and flowers, and also the Victoria Regia in all its
+gorgeous beauty. Papyrusa, reeds and aquatic plants of all
+descriptions grow on the banks of the streams, making a home for the
+white stork or whiter _garza_. Looking into the clear warm waters you
+see little golden and red fishes, and on the bed of the stream shells
+of pearl.
+
+On the south side of the Gaiba, at the foot of the mountains, the
+beach slopes gently down, and is covered with golden sand, in which
+crystals sparkle as though set in fine gold by some cunning workman.
+A Workman, yes--but not of earth, for nature is here untouched,
+unspoilt as yet by man, and the traveller can look right away from it
+to its Creator.
+
+During our stay in these regions the courses of several of the larger
+streams were traced for some distance. On the Brazilian side there
+was a river up which we steamed. Not being acquainted with the
+channel, we had the misfortune to stick for two days on a tosca reef,
+which extended a distance of sixty-five feet. [Footnote: The finding
+of tosca at this point confirms the extent inland of the ancient
+Pampean sea.--Colonel Church, in "Proceedings of the Royal
+Geographical Society," January, 1902.] During this time, a curious
+phenomenon presented itself to our notice. In one day we clearly saw
+the river flow for six hours to the north-west, and for another six
+hours to the south-east. This, of course, proved to us that the
+river's course depends on the wind.
+
+On the bank, right in front of where we lay, was a gnarled old tree,
+which seemed to be the home, or parliament house, of all the
+paroquets in the neighborhood. Scores of them kept up an incessant
+chatter the whole time. In the tree were two or three hanging nests,
+looking like large sacks suspended from the boughs. Ten or twenty
+birds lay in the same nest, and you might find in them, at the one
+time, eggs just laid, birds recently hatched, and others ready to
+fly. Sitting and rearing go on concurrently. I procured a tame pair
+of this lovely breed of paroquets from the Guatos. Their prevailing
+color was emerald green, while the wings and tail were made up of
+tints of orange, scarlet, and blue, and around the back of the bird
+was a golden sheen rarely found even in equatorial specimens. Whether
+the bird is known to ornithologists or not I cannot tell. One night
+our camp was pitched near an anthill, inhabited by innumerable
+millions of those insects. None of us slept well, for, although our
+hammocks were slung, as we thought, away from them, they troubled us
+much. What was my horror next morning when the sun, instead of
+lighting up the rainbow tints of my birds, showed only a black moving
+mass of ants! My parrots had literally been eaten alive by them!
+
+But I am wandering on and the ship is still aground on the reef!
+After much hauling and pulling and breaking of cables, she at last
+was got off into deep water. We had not proceeded far, however, when
+another shock made the vessel quiver. Were we aground again? No, the
+steamer had simply pushed a lazy alligator out of its way, and he
+resented the insult by a diabolical scowl at us.
+
+Continuing on our way, we entered another body of hitherto unexplored
+water, a fairy spot, covered with floating islands of lotus, anchored
+with aquatic cables and surrounded by palm groves. On the shallow,
+pebbly shore might be seen, here and there, scarlet flamingoes. These
+beautiful birds stood on one leg, knee deep, dreaming of their
+enchanted home. Truly it is a perfect paradise, but it is almost as
+inaccessible as the Paradise which we all seek. What long-lost
+civilizations have ruled these now deserted solitudes? Penetrate into
+the dark, dank forest, as I have done, and ask the question. The only
+answer is the howling of the monkeys and the screaming of the
+cockatoos. You may start when you distinctly hear a bell tolling, but
+it is no call to worship in some stately old Inca temple with its
+golden sun and silver moon as deities. It is the wonderful bell-bird,
+which can make itself heard three miles away, but it is found only
+where man is not. Ruins of the old Incan and older pre-Incan
+civilizations are come across, covered now with dense jungle, but
+their builders have disappeared. To have left behind them until this
+day ruins which rank with the pyramids for extent, and Karnak for
+grandeur, proves their intelligence.
+
+The peculiar rasping noise you now hear in the undergrowth has
+nothing to do with busy civilization--'tis only the rattlesnake
+drawing his slimy length among the dead leaves or tangled reeds. No,
+all that is past, and this is an old new world indeed, and romance
+must not rob you of self possession, for the rattle means that in the
+encounter either he dies--or you.
+
+Meanwhile the work on shore progressed. Paths were cut in different
+directions and the wonders of nature laid bare. The ring of the axe
+and the sound of falling trees marked the commencement of
+civilization in those far-off regions. Ever and anon a loud report
+rang out from the woods, for it might almost be said that the men
+worked with the axe in one hand and a rifle in the other. Once they
+started a giant tapir taking his afternoon snooze. The beast lazily
+got up and made off, but not before he had turned his piercing eyes
+on the intruders, as though wondering what new animals they were.
+Surely this was his first sight of the "lords of creation," and
+probably his last, for a bullet quickly whizzed after him. Another
+day the men shot a puma searching for its prey, and numerous were the
+birds, beasts and reptiles that fell before our arms. The very
+venomous _jaracucú_, a snake eight to twelve feet long, having a
+double row of teeth in each jaw, is quite common here.
+
+The forests are full of birds and beasts in infinite variety, as also
+of those creatures which seem neither bird nor beast. There are large
+black howling monkeys, and little black-faced ones with prehensile
+tails, by means of which they swing in mid-air or jump from tree to
+tree in sheer lightness of heart. There is also the sloth, which, as
+its name implies, is painfully deliberate in its motions. Were I a
+Scotchman I should say that "I dinna think that in a' nature there is
+a mair curiouser cratur." Sidney Smith's summary of this strange
+animal is that it moves suspended, rests suspended, sleeps suspended,
+and passes its whole life in suspense. This latter state may also
+aptly describe the condition of the traveller in those regions; for
+man, brave though he may be, does not relish a _vis-á-vis_ with the
+enormous anaconda, also to be seen there at most inconvenient times.
+I was able to procure the skins of two of these giant serpents.
+
+The leader of the "forest gang," a Paraguayan, wore round his neck a
+cotton scapular bought from the priest before he started on the
+expedition. This was supposed to save him from all dangers, seen and
+unseen. Poor man, he was a good Roman Catholic, and often counted his
+beads, but he was an inveterate liar and thief.
+
+Taking into consideration the wild country, and the adventurous
+mission which had brought us together, our men were not at all a bad
+class. One of them, however, a black Brazilian, used to boast at
+times that _he had killed his father while he slept._ In the quiet of
+the evening hour he would relate the story with unnatural gusto.
+
+We generally slept on the deck of the steamer, each under a thin
+netting, while the millions of mosquitos buzzed outside--and inside
+when they could steal a march. Mosquitos? Why _"mosquitos á la
+Paris"_ was one of the items on our menu one day. The course was not
+altogether an imaginary one either. Having the good fortune to
+possess candles, I used sometimes to read under my gauzy canopy. This
+would soon become so black with insects of all descriptions as to
+shut out from my sight the outside world.
+
+After carefully surveying the Bolivian shore, we fixed upon a site
+for the future port and town. [Footnote: The latitude of Port
+Quijarro is 17° 47' 35", and the longitude, west of Greenwich, 57°
+44' 38". Height above the sea, 558 feet.] Planting a hugh palm in the
+ground, with a long bamboo nailed to the crown, we then solemnly
+unfurled the Bolivian flag. This had been made expressly for the
+expedition by the hands of Señora Quijarro, wife of the Bolivian
+minister residing in Buenos Ayres. As the sun for the first time
+shone upon the brilliant colors of the flag, nature's stillness was
+broken by a good old English hurrah, while the hunter and several
+others discharged their arms in the air, until the parrots and
+monkeys in the neighborhood must have wondered (or is wondering only
+reserved for civilized man?) what new thing had come to pass. There
+we, a small company of men in nature's solitudes, each signed his
+name to the _Act of Foundation_ of a town, which in all probability
+will mean a new era for Bolivia. We fully demonstrated the fact that
+Puerto Quijarro will be an ideal port, through which the whole
+commerce of south-eastern Bolivia can to advantage pass.
+
+Next day the Secretary drew out four copies of this _Act_. One was
+for His Excellency General Pando, President of the Bolivian Republic;
+another for the Mayor of Holy Cross, the nearest Bolivian town, 350
+miles distant; a third for Señor Quijarro; while the fourth was
+enclosed in a stone bottle and buried at the foot of the flagstaff,
+there to await the erection of the first building. Thus a
+commencement has been made; the lake and shores are now explored. The
+work has been thoroughly done, and the sweat of the brow was not
+stinted, for the birds of the air hovered around the theodolite, even
+on the top of the highest adjacent mountain. [Footnote: The opening
+of the country must, from its geographical situation, be productive
+of political consequences of the first magnitude to South America.--
+Report of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1902.]
+
+At last, this work over and an exhaustive chart of the lake drawn up,
+tools and tents collected, specimens of soil, stones, iron, etc.,
+packed and labelled, we prepared for departure.
+
+The weather had been exceptionally warm and we had all suffered much
+from the sun's vertical rays, but towards the end of our stay the
+heat was sweltering--killing! The sun was not confined to one spot in
+the heavens, as in more temperate climes; here he filled all the sky,
+and he scorched us pitilessly! Only at early morning, when the
+eastern sky blushed with warm gold and rose tints, or at even, when
+the great liquid ball of fire dropped behind the distant violet-
+colored hills, could you locate him. Does the Indian worship this
+awful majesty out of fear, as the Chinaman worships the devil?
+
+Next morning dawned still and portentous. Not a zephyr breeze stirred
+the leaves of the trees. The sweltering heat turned to a suffocating
+one. As the morning dragged on we found it more and more difficult to
+breathe; there seemed to be nothing to inflate our lungs. By
+afternoon we stared helplessly at each other and gasped as we lay
+simmering on the deck. Were we to be asphyxiated there after all? I
+had known as many as two hundred a day to die in one South American
+city from this cause. Surely mortal men never went through such
+awful, airless heat as this and lived. We had been permitted to
+discover the lake, and if the world heard of our death, would that
+flippant remark be used again, as with previous explorers, "To make
+omelettes eggs must be broken"?
+
+However, we were not to _melt_. Towards evening the barometer, which
+had been falling all day, went lower and lower. All creation was
+still. Not a sound broke the awful quiet; only in our ears there
+seemed to be an unnatural singing which was painful, and we closed
+our eyes in weariness, for the sun seemed to have blistered the very
+eyeballs. When we mustered up sufficient energy to turn our aching
+eyes to the heavens, we saw black storm-clouds piling themselves one
+above another, and hope, which "springs eternal in the human breast,"
+saw in them our hope, our salvation.
+
+The fall of the barometer, and the howling of the monkeys on shore
+also, warned us of the approaching tempest, so we prepared for
+emergencies by securing the vessel fore and aft under the lee of a
+rugged _sierra_ before the storm broke--and break it did in all its
+might.
+
+Suddenly the wind swept down upon us with irresistible fury, and we
+breathed--we lived again. So terrific was the sweep that giant trees,
+which had braved a century's storms, fell to the earth with a crash.
+The hurricane was truly fearful. Soon the waters of the lake were
+lashed into foam. Great drops of rain fell in blinding torrents, and
+every fresh roll of thunder seemed to make the mountains tremble,
+while the lightning cleft asunder giant trees at one mighty stroke.
+
+
+[Illustration: VICTORIA REGIA, THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLOWER]
+
+
+In the old legends of the Inca, read on the "Quipus," we find that
+Pachacamac and Viracocha, the highest gods, placed in the heavens
+"Nusta," a royal princess, armed with a pitcher of water, which she
+was to pour over the earth whenever it was needed. When the rain was
+accompanied by thunder, lightning, and wind, the Indians believed
+that the maiden's royal brother was teasing her, and trying to wrest
+the pitcher from her hand. Nusta must indeed have been fearfully
+teased that night, for the lightning of her eyes shot athwart the
+heavens and the sky was rent in flame.
+
+Often in those latitudes no rain falls for long months, but when once
+the clouds open the earth is deluged! Weeks pass, and the zephyr
+breezes scarcely move the leaves of the trees, but in those days of
+calm the wind stores up his forces for a mighty storm. On this dark,
+fearful night he blew his fiercest blasts. The wild beast was
+affrighted from his lair and rushed down with a moan, or the mountain
+eagle screamed out a wail, indistinctly heard through the moaning
+sounds. During the whole night, which was black as wickedness, the
+wind howled in mournful cadence, or went sobbing along the sand. As
+the hours wore on we seemed to hear, in every shriek of the blast,
+the strange tongue of some long-departed Indian brave, wailing for
+his happy hunting-grounds, now invaded by the paleface. Coats and
+rugs, that had not for many months been unpacked, were brought out,
+only in some cases to be blown from us, for the wind seemed to try
+his hardest to impede our departure. The rain soaked us through and
+through. Mists rose from the earth, and mists came down from above.
+Next morning the whole face of nature was changed.
+
+After the violence of the tempest abated we cast off the ropes and
+turned the prow of our little vessel civilizationward. When we
+entered the lake the great golden sun gave us a warm welcome, now, at
+our farewell, he refused to shine. The rainy season had commenced,
+but, fortunately for us, after the work of exploration was done. This
+weather continued--day after day clouds and rain. Down the rugged,
+time-worn face of the mountains foaming streams rushed and poured,
+and this was our last view--a good-bye of copious tears! Thus we saw
+the lake in sunshine and storm, in light and darkness. It had been
+our aim and ambition to reach it, and we rejoiced in its discovery.
+Remembering that "we were the first who ever burst into that silent
+sea," we seemed to form part of it, and its varying moods only
+endeared it to us the more. In mining parlance, we had staked out our
+claims there, for--
+
+  "O'er no sweeter lake shall morning break,
+   Or noon cloud sail;
+  No fairer face than this shall take
+   The sunset's golden veil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_PIEDRA BLANCA_.
+
+
+In due time we again reached Piedra Blanca, and, notwithstanding our
+ragged, thorn-torn garments, felt we were once more joined on to the
+world.
+
+The bubonic plague had broken out farther down the country,
+steamboats were at a standstill, so we had to wait a passage down the
+river. Piedra Blanca is an interesting little spot. One evening a
+tired mule brought in the postman from the next town, Holy Joseph. He
+had been eight days on the journey. Another evening a string of dusty
+mules arrived, bringing loads of rubber and cocoa. They had been five
+months on the way.
+
+When the Chiquitana women go down to the bay for water, with their
+pitchers poised on their heads, the sight is very picturesque.
+Sometimes a little boy will step into one of the giant, traylike
+leaves of the Victoria Regia, which, thus transformed into a fairy
+boat, he will paddle about the quiet bay.
+
+The village is built on the edge of the virgin forest, where the red
+man, with his stone hatchet, wanders in wild freedom. It contains,
+perhaps, a hundred inhabitants, chiefly civilized Chiquitanos
+Indians. There is here a customs house, and a regular trade in
+rubber, which is brought in from the interior on mule-back, a journey
+which often takes from three to four months.
+
+One evening during our stay two men were forcibly brought into the
+village, having been caught in the act of killing a cow which they
+had stolen. These men were immediately thrown into the prison, a
+small, dark, palm-built hut. Next morning, ere the sun arose, their
+feet were thrust into the stocks, and a man armed with a long hide
+whip thrashed them until the blood flowed in streamlets down their
+bare backs! What struck us as being delicately thoughtful was that
+while the whipping proceeded another official tried his best to drown
+their piercing shrieks by blowing an old trumpet at its highest
+pitch!
+
+The women, although boasting only one loose white garment, walk with
+the air and grace of queens, or as though pure Inca blood ran in
+their veins. Their only adornment is a necklace of red corals and a
+few inches of red or blue ribbon entwined in their long raven-black
+hair, which hangs down to the waist in two plaits. Their houses are
+palm-walled, with a roof of palm-leaves, through which the rain pours
+and the sun shines. Their chairs are logs of wood, and their beds are
+string hammocks. Their wants are few, as there are no electric-
+lighted store windows to tempt them. Let us leave them in their
+primitive simplicity. Their little, delicately-shaped feet are
+prettier without shoes and stockings, and their plaited hair without
+Parisian hats and European tinsel. They neither read nor write, and
+therefore cannot discuss politics. Women's rights they have never
+heard of. Their bright-eyed, naked little children play in the mud or
+dust round the house, and the sun turns their already bronze-colored
+bodies into a darker tint; but the Chiquitana woman has never seen a
+white baby, and knows nothing of its beauty, so is more than
+satisfied with her own. The Indian child does not suffer from
+teething, for all have a small wooden image tied round the neck, and
+the little one, because of this, is supposed to be saved from all
+baby ailments! Their husbands and sons leave them for months while
+they go into the interior for rubber or cocoa, and when one comes
+back, riding on his bullock or mule, he is affectionately but
+silently received. The Chiquitano seldom speaks, and in this respect
+he is utterly unlike the Brazilian. The women differ from our mothers
+and sisters and wives, for they (the Chiquitanas) have nothing to
+say. After all, ours are best, and a headache is often preferable to
+companioning with the dumb. I unhesitatingly say, give me the music,
+even if I have to suffer the consequences.
+
+The waiting-time was employed by our hunter in his favorite sport.
+One day he shot a huge alligator which was disporting itself in the
+water some five hundred yards from the shore. Taking a strong rope,
+we went out in an Indian dug-out to tow it to land. As my friend was
+the more dexterous in the use of the paddle, he managed the canoe,
+and I, with much difficulty, fixed the rope by a noose to the
+monster's tail. When the towing, however, commenced, the beast seemed
+to regain his life. He dived and struggled for freedom until the
+water was lashed into foam. He thrust his mighty head out of the
+water and opened his jaws as though warning us he could crush the
+frail dug-out with one snap. Being anxious to obtain his hide, and
+momentarily expecting his death, for he was mortally wounded, I held
+on to the rope with grim persistency. He dived under the boat and
+lifted it high, but as his ugly nose came out on the other side the
+canoe regained its position in the water. He then commenced to tow
+us, but, refusing to obey the helm, took us to all points of the
+compass. After an exciting cruise the alligator gave a deep dive and
+the rope broke, giving him his liberty again. On leaving us he gave
+what Waterton describes as "a long-suppressed, shuddering sigh, so
+loud and so peculiar that it can be heard a mile." The bullet had
+entered the alligator's head, but next morning we saw he was still
+alive and able to "paddle his own canoe." The reader may be surprised
+to learn that these repulsive reptiles lay an egg with a pure white
+shell, fair to look upon, and that the egg is no larger than a hen's.
+
+One day I was called to see a dead man for whom a kind of wake was
+being held. He was lying in state in a grass-built hovel, and raised
+up from the mud floor on two packing-cases of suspiciously British
+origin. His hard Indian face was softened in death, but the observant
+eye could trace a stoical resignation in the features. Several men
+and women were sitting around the corpse counting their beads and
+drinking native spirits, with a dim, hazy belief that that was the
+right thing to do. They had given up their own heathen customs, and,
+being civilized, must, of course, be Roman Catholics. They were
+"reduced," as Holy Mother Church calls it, long ago, and, of course,
+believe that civilization and Roman Catholicism are synonymous terms.
+Poor souls! How they stared and wondered when they that morning heard
+for the first time the story of Jesus, who tasted death for us that
+we might live. To those in the home lands this is an old story, but
+do they who preach it or listen to it realize that to millions it is
+still the newest thing under the sun?
+
+Next day the man was quietly carried away to the little forest
+clearing reserved for the departed, where a few wooden crosses lift
+their heads among the tangled growth. Some of these crosses have four
+rudely carved letters on them, which you decipher as I. N. R. I. The
+Indian cannot tell you their meaning, but he knows they have
+something to do with his new religion.
+
+As far as I could ascertain, the departed had no relatives. One after
+another had been taken from him, and now he had gone, for "when he is
+forsaken, withered and shaken, what can an old man do but die?"--it
+is the end of all flesh. Poor man! Had he been able to retain even a
+spark of life until Holy Week, he might then have been saved from
+purgatory. Rome teaches that on two days in the year--Holy Thursday
+and Corpus Christi--the gates of heaven are unguarded, because, they
+say, _God is dead_. All people who die on those days go straight to
+heaven, however bad they may have been! At no other time is that gate
+open, and every soul must pass through the torments of purgatory.
+
+A missionary in Oruru wrote: "The Thursday and Friday of so-called
+Holy Week, when Christ's image lay in a coffin and was carried
+through the streets, _God being dead_, was the time for robberies,
+and some one came to steal from us, but only got about fifty dollars'
+worth of building material. Holy Week terminates with the 'Saturday
+of Glory,' when spirits are drunk till there is not a dram left in
+the drink-shops, which frequently bear such names as 'The Saviour of
+the World,' 'The Grace of God,' 'The Fountain of Our Lady,' etc. The
+poor deluded Romanists have a holiday on that day over the tragic end
+of Judas. A life-size representation of the betrayer is suspended
+high in the air in front of the cafés. At ten a.m. the church bells
+begin to ring, and this is the signal for lighting the fuse. Then,
+with a flash and a bang, every vestige of the effigy has disappeared!
+At night, if the town is large enough to afford a theatre, the crowds
+wend their way thither. This place of very questionable amusement
+will often bear the high-sounding name, _Theatre of the Holy Ghost!_"
+
+There is no church or priest in the village of Piedra Blanca. Down on
+the beach there is a church bell, which the visitor concludes is a
+start in that direction, but he is told that it is destined for the
+town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, three hundred miles inland. The bell
+was a present to the church by some pious devotee, but the money
+donated did not provide for its removal inland. This cost the priests
+refuse to pay, and the Chiquitanos equally refuse to transport it
+free. There is no resident priest to make them, so there it stays. In
+the meantime the bell is slung up on three poles. It was solemnly
+beaten with a stick on Christmas Eve to commemorate the time when the
+"Mother of Heaven" gave birth to her child Jesus. In one of the
+principal houses of the village the scene was most vividly
+reproduced. A small arbor was screened off by palm leaves, in which
+were hung little colored candles. Angels of paper were suspended from
+the roof, that they might appear to be bending over the Virgin, which
+was a highly-colored fashion-plate cut from a Parisian journal that
+somehow had found its way there. The child Jesus appeared to be a
+Mellin's Food-fed infant. Round this fairy scene the youth and beauty
+of the place danced and drank liberal potations of chicha, the
+Bolivian spirits, until far on into morning, when all retired to
+their hammocks to dream of their goddess and her lovely babe.
+
+After this paper Virgin the next most prominent object of worship I
+saw in Piedra Blanca was a saint with a dress of vegetable fibre,
+long hair that had once adorned a horse's tail, and eyes of pieces of
+clamshell.
+
+Poor, dark Bolivia! It would be almost an impossible thing to
+exaggerate the low state of religion there. A communication from
+Sucre reads: "The owners of images of Jesus as a child have been
+getting masses said for their figures. A band of music is employed,
+and from the church to the house a procession is formed. A scene of
+intoxication follows, which only ends when a good number lie drunk
+before the image--the greater the number the greater the honor to the
+image?" The peddler of chicha carries around a large stone jar, about
+a yard in depth. The payment for every drink sold is dropped into the
+jar of liquor, so the last customers get the most "tasty" decoction.
+
+Naturally the masses like a religion of license, and are as eager as
+the priests to uphold it. Read a tale of the persecution of a
+nineteenth century missionary there. Mr. Payne in graphic language
+tells the story:
+
+"Excommunication was issued. To attend a meeting was special sin, and
+only pardoned by going on the knees to the bishop. Sermons against us
+were preached in all the churches. I was accused before the Criminal
+Court. It was said I carried with me the 'special presence' of the
+devil, and had blasphemed the Blessed Virgin, and everyone passing
+should say: 'Maria, Joseph.' One day a crowd collected, and
+sacristans mixed with the multitude, urging them on to 'vengeance on
+the Protestants.' About two p.m. we heard the roar of furious
+thousands, and like a river let loose they rushed down on our house.
+Paving-stones were quickly torn up, and before the police arrived
+windows and doors were smashed, and about a thousand voices were
+crying for blood. We cried to the Lord, not expecting to live much
+longer. The Chief of Police and his men were swept away before the
+mob, and now the door burst in before the huge stones and force used.
+There were two parties, one for murder and one for robbery. I was
+beaten and dragged about, while the cry went up, 'Death to the
+Protestant!' The fire was blazing outside, as they had lots of
+kerosene, and with all the forms, chairs, texts, clothes and books
+the street was a veritable bonfire. Everything they could lay hands
+on was taken. At this moment the cry arose that the soldiers were
+coming, and a cavalry regiment charged down the street, carrying fear
+into the hearts of the people. A second charge cleared the street,
+and several soldiers rode into the _patio_ slashing with their
+swords."
+
+In this riot the missionary had goods to the value of one thousand
+dollars burnt, and was himself hauled before the magistrates and,
+after a lengthy trial, condemned to _die_ for heresy!
+
+Baronius, a Roman Catholic writer, says: "The ministry of Peter is
+twofold--to feed and to kill; for the Lord said, 'Feed My sheep,' and
+he also heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Kill and eat.'" Bellarmine
+argues for the necessity of _burning_ heretics. He says: "Experience
+teaches that there is no other remedy, for the Church has proceeded
+by slow steps, and tried all remedies. First, she only
+excommunicated. Then she added a fine of money, and afterwards exile.
+Lastly she was compelled to come to the punishment of death. If you
+threaten a fine of money, they neither fear God nor regard men,
+knowing that fools will not be wanting to believe in them, and by
+whom they may be sustained. If you shut them in prison, or send them
+into exile, they corrupt those near to them with their words, and
+those at a distance with their books. Therefore, the only remedy is
+to send them betimes into their own place."
+
+As this mediaeval sentence against Mr. Payne could hardly be carried
+out in the nineteenth century, he was liberated, but had to leave the
+country. He settled in another part of the Republic. In a letter from
+him now before me as I write he says: "The priests are circulating
+all manner of lies, telling the people that we keep images of the
+Virgin in order to scourge them every night. At Colquechaca we were
+threatened with burning, as it was rumored that our object was to do
+away with the Roman Catholic religion, which would mean a falling off
+in the opportunities for drunkenness." So we see he is still
+persecuted.
+
+The Rev. A. G. Baker, of the Canadian Baptist Mission, wrote: "The
+Bishop of La Paz has sent a letter to the Minister of Public Worship
+of which the following is the substance: 'It is necessary for me to
+call attention to the Protestant meetings being held in this city,
+which cause scandal and alarm throughout the whole district, and
+which are contrary to the law of Bolivia. Moreover, it is
+indispensable that we prevent the sad results which must follow such
+teachings, so contrary to the true religion. On the other hand, if
+this is not stopped, _we shall see a repetition of the scenes that
+recently took place in Cochabamba_.'" [Footnote: Referring to the
+sacking and burning of Mr. Payne's possessions previously referred
+to.]
+
+Bolivia was one of the last of the Republics to hold out against
+"liberty of worship," but in 1907 this was at last declared. Great
+efforts were made that this law should not be passed.
+
+In my lectures on this continent I have invariably stated that in
+South America the priest is the real ruler of the country. I append a
+recent despatch from Washington, which is an account of a massacre of
+revolutionary soldiers, under most revolting circumstances, committed
+at the instigation of the ecclesiastical authorities: "The Department
+of State has been informed by the United States Minister at La Paz,
+Bolivia, that Col. Pando sent 120 men to Ayopaya. On arriving at the
+town of Mohoza, the commander demanded a loan of two hundred dollars
+from the priest of the town, and one hundred dollars from the mayor.
+These demands being refused, the priest and the mayor were
+imprisoned. Meanwhile, however, the priest had despatched couriers to
+the Indian village, asking that the natives attack Pando's men. A
+large crowd of Indians came, and, in spite of all measures taken to
+pacify them, the arms of the soldiers were taken away, the men
+subjected to revolting treatment, and finally locked inside the
+church for the night. In the morning the priest, after celebrating
+the so-called 'mass of agony,' allowed the Indians to take out the
+unfortunate victims, two by two, and 103 were deliberately murdered,
+each pair by different tortures. Seventeen escaped death by having
+departed the day previous on another mission."
+
+After Gen. Pando was elected President of the Republic of Bolivia,
+priestly rule remained as strong as ever. To enter on and retain his
+office he must perforce submit to Church authority. When in his
+employ, however, I openly declared myself a Protestant missionary;
+and, because of exploration work, was made a Bolivian citizen.
+
+In 1897 it was my great joy to preach the gospel in Ensenada. Many
+and attentive were the listeners as for the first time in their lives
+they were told of the Man of Calvary who died that they might live.
+With exclamations of wonder they sometimes said: "What fortunate
+people we are to have heard such words!" Four men and five women were
+born again. Ensenada, built on a malarial swamp, was reeking with
+miasma, and the houses were raised on posts about a yard above the
+slime. I was in consequence stricken with malarial fever. One day a
+man who had attended the meetings came into my room, and, kneeling
+down, asked the Lord not to let me suffer, but to take me quickly.
+After long weeks of illness, God, however, raised me up again, and
+the meetings were resumed, when the reason of the priest's non-
+interference was made known to me. He had been away on a long
+vacation, and, on his return, hearing of my services, he ordered the
+church bells rung furiously. On my making enquiries why the bells
+clanged so, I was informed that a special service was called in the
+church. At that service a special text was certainly taken, for I was
+the text. During the course of the sermon, the preacher in his fervid
+eloquence even forbade the people to look at me. After that my
+residence in the town was most difficult. The barber would not cut my
+hair, nor would the butcher sell me his meat, and I have gone into
+stores with the money ostentatiously showing in my hand only to hear
+the word, "_Afuera_!" (Get out!) When I appeared on the street I was
+pelted with stones by the men, while the women ran away from me with
+covered faces! It was now a sin to look at me!
+
+I reopened the little hall, however, for public services. It had been
+badly used and was splashed with mud and filth. The first night men
+came to the meetings in crowds just to disturb, and one of these shot
+at me, but the bullet only pierced the wall behind. A policeman
+marched in and bade me accompany him to the police station, and on
+the way thither I was severely hurt by missiles which were thrown at
+me. An official there severely reprimanded me for thus disturbing the
+quiet town, and I was ushered in before the judge. That dignified
+gentleman questioned me as to the object of my meetings. Respectfully
+answering, I said: "To tell the people how they can be saved from
+sin." Then, as briefly as possible, I unfolded my mission. The man's
+countenance changed. Surely my words were to him an idle tale--he
+knew them not. After cautioning me not to repeat the offence, he gave
+me my liberty, but requested me to leave the town. Rev. F. Penzotti,
+of the B. & F. B. Society, was imprisoned in a dungeon for eight long
+months, so I was grateful for deliverance.
+
+An acquaintance who was eye-witness to the scene, though himself not
+a Christian, tells the following sad story:
+
+"Away near the foot of the great Andes, nestling quietly in a fertile
+valley, shut away, one would think, from all the world beyond, lay
+the village of E---. The inhabitants were a quiet, home-loving
+people, who took life as they found it, and as long as they had food
+for their mouths and clothes for their backs, cared little for
+anything else. One matter, however, had for some little time been
+troubling them, viz., the confession of their sins to a priest. After
+due consideration, it was decided to ask Father A., living some
+seventeen leagues distant, to state the lowest sum for which he would
+come to receive their confessions. 'One hundred dollars,' he replied,
+'is the lowest I can accept, and as soon as you send it I will come.'
+
+"After a great effort, for they were very poor, forty dollars was
+raised amongst them, and word was sent to Father A. that they could
+not possibly collect any more. Would he take pity on them and accept
+that sum? 'What! only forty dollars in the whole of E---,' was his
+reply, 'and you dare to offer me that! No! I will not come, and,
+furthermore, from this day I pronounce a curse on your village, and
+every living person and thing there. Your children will all sicken
+and die, your cattle all become covered with disease, and you will
+know no comfort nor happiness henceforth. I, Father A., have said it,
+and it will come to pass.'
+
+"Where was the quiet, peaceful scene of a few weeks before? Gone, and
+in its place all terror and confusion. These ignorant people,
+believing the words of the priest, gathered together their belongings
+and fled. As I saw those poor, simple people leaving the homes which
+had sheltered them for years, as well as their ancestors before them,
+and with feverish haste hurrying down the valley--every few minutes
+looking back, with intense sorrow and regret stamped on their faces--
+I thought surely these people need some one to tell them of Jesus,
+for, little as I know about Him, I am convinced that He does not wish
+them to be treated thus."
+
+The priest is satisfied with nothing less than the most complete
+submission of the mind and body of his flock. A woman must often give
+her last money for masses, and a man toil for months on the well-
+stocked land of the divine father to save his soul. If he fail to do
+this, or any other sentence the priest may impose, he is condemned to
+eternal perdition.
+
+Mr. Patrick, of the R. B. M. U., has described to me how, soon after
+he landed in Trujilla, he attended service at a Jesuit church. He had
+introduced some gospels into the city, and a special sermon was
+preached against the Bible. During the service the priest produced
+one of the gospels, and, holding it by the covers, solemnly put the
+leaves into the burning candle by his side, and then stamped on the
+ashes on the pulpit floor. The same priest, however, Ricardo Gonzales
+by name, thought it no wrong to have seventeen children to various
+mothers, and his daughters were leaders in society. "Men love
+darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." In
+Trujilla, right opposite my friend's house, there lived, at the same
+time, a highly respected priest, who had, with his own hands, lit the
+fire that burnt alive a young woman who had embraced Christianity
+through missionary preaching. Bear in mind, reader, I am not writing
+of the dark ages, but of what occurred just outside Trujilla during
+my residence in the country. Even in 1910, Missionary Chapman writes
+of a convert having his feet put in the stocks for daring to
+distribute God's Word. [Footnote: I never saw greater darkness
+excepting in Central Africa. I visited 70 of the largest cathedrals,
+and, after diligent enquiry, found only one Bible, and that a
+Protestant Bible about to be burned--Dr. Robert E. Speer, in
+"Missionary Review of the World," August, 1911.]
+
+Up to four years ago, the statute was in force that "Every one who
+directly or through any act conspires to establish in Bolivia any
+other religion than that which the republic professes, namely, that
+of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, is a traitor, and shall
+suffer the penalty of death."
+
+After a week's stay in Piedra Blanca, during which I had ample time
+for such comparisons as these I have penned, quarantine lifted, and
+the expedition staff separated. I departed on horseback to inspect a
+tract of land on another frontier of Bolivia 1,300 miles distant.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+PARAGUAY
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN AND HIS GOD NANDEYARA]
+
+
+  "I need not follow the beaten path;
+  I do not hunt for any path;
+  I will go where there is no path,
+  And leave a trail."
+
+
+
+
+PARAGUAY
+
+Paraguay, though one of the most isolated republics of South America,
+is one of the oldest. A hundred years before the "Mayflower" sailed
+from old Plymouth there was a permanent settlement of Spaniards near
+the present capital. The country has 98,000 square miles of
+territory, but a population of only 800,000. Paraguay may almost be
+called an Indian republic, for the traveller hears nothing but the
+soft Guarani language spoken all over the country. It is in this
+republic that the yerba máté grows. That is the chief article of
+commerce, for at least fifteen millions of South Americans drink this
+tea, already frequently referred to. Thousands of tons of the best
+oranges are grown, and its orange groves are world-famed.
+
+The old capital, founded in 1537, was built without regularity of
+plan, but the present city, owing to the despotic sway of Francia, is
+most symmetrical. That South American Nero issued orders for all
+houses that were out of his lines to be demolished by their owners.
+"One poor man applied to know what remuneration he was to have, and
+the dictator's answer was: 'A lodgment gratis in the public prison.'
+Another asked where he was to go, and the answer was, 'To a state
+dungeon.' Both culprits were forthwith lodged in their respective new
+residences, and their houses were levelled to the ground."
+
+"Such was the terror inspired by the man that the news that he was
+out would clear the streets. A white Paraguayan dared not utter his
+name. During his lifetime he was 'El Supremo,' and after he was dead
+for generations he was referred to simply as 'El Difunto.'"
+[Footnote: Robertson's "Reign of Terror."]
+
+Paraguay, of all countries, has been most under the teaching of the
+Jesuit priest, and the people in consequence are found to be the most
+superstitious. Being an inland republic, its nearest point a thousand
+miles from the sea-coast, it has been held in undisputed possession.
+
+Here was waged between 1862 and 1870 what history describes as the
+most annihilating war since Carthage fell. The little republic,
+standing out for five and a half years against five other republics,
+fought with true Indian bravery and recklessness, until for every man
+in the country there could be numbered nine women (some authorities
+say eleven); and this notwithstanding the fact that the women in
+thousands carried arms and fought side by side with the men. The
+dictator Lopez, who had with such determination of purpose held out
+so long, was finally killed, and his last words, "_Muero con la
+patria_" (I die with the country) were truly prophetic, for the
+country has never risen since.
+
+Travellers agree in affirming that of all South Americans the
+Paraguayans are the most mild-mannered and lethargic; yet when these
+people are once aroused they fight with tigerish pertinacity. The
+pages of history may be searched in vain for examples of warfare
+waged at such odds; but the result is invariably the same, the weaker
+nation, whether right or wrong, goes under. Although the national
+mottoes vary with the different flags, yet the Chilian is the most
+universally followed in South America, as elsewhere: "_Por la razon ó
+la fuerza_" (By right or by might). The Paraguayans contended
+heroically for what they considered their rights, and such bloody
+battles were fought that at Curupaitá alone 5,000 dead and dying were
+left on the field! Added to the carnage of battle was disease on
+every hand. The worst epidemic of smallpox ever known in the annals
+of history was when the Brazilians lost 43,000 men, while this war
+was being waged against Paraguay. One hundred thousand bodies were
+left unburied, and on them the wild animals and vultures gorged
+themselves. The saying now is a household word, that the jaguar of
+those lands is the most to be dreaded, through having tasted so much
+human blood.
+
+"Lopez, the cause of all this sacrifice and misery, has gone to his
+final account, his soul stained with the blood of seven hundred
+thousand of his people, the victims of his ambition and cruelty."
+
+Towns which flourished before the outbreak of hostilities were sacked
+by the emboldened Indians from the Chaco and wiped off the map, San
+Salvador (Holy Saviour) being a striking example. I visited the ruins
+of this town, where formerly dwelt about 8,000 souls. Now the streets
+are grass-grown, and the forest is creeping around church and
+barracks, threatening to bury them. I rode my horse through the high
+portal of the cannon-battered church, while the stillness of the
+scene reminded me of a city of the dead. City of the dead, truly--men
+and women and children who have passed on! My horse nibbled the grass
+growing among the broken tiles of the floor, while I, in imagination,
+listened to the "passing bell" in the tower above me, and under whose
+shade I sought repose. A traveller, describing this site, says: "It
+is a place of which the atmosphere is one great mass of malaria, and
+the heat suffocating--where the surrounding country is an
+uninterrupted marsh--where venomous insects and reptiles abound." San
+Salvador as a busy mart has ceased to exist, and the nearest approach
+to "the human form divine," found occasionally within its walls, is
+the howling monkey. Such are the consequences of war! During the last
+ten years Paraguay has been slowly recovering from the terrible
+effects of this war, but a republic composed mostly of women is
+severely handicapped. [Footnote: Would the suffragettes disagree with
+the writer here?]
+
+Paraguay is a poor land; the value of its paper currency, like that
+of most South American countries, fluctuates almost daily. In 1899
+the dollar was worth only twelve cents, and for five gold dollars I
+have received in exchange as many as forty-six of theirs. Yet there
+is a great future for Paraguay. It has been called the Paradise of
+South America, and although the writer has visited sixteen different
+countries of the world, he thinks of Paraguay with tender longing. It
+is perhaps the richest land on earth naturally, and produces so much
+máte that one year's production would make a cup of tea for every
+man, woman and child on the globe. Oranges and bananas can be bought
+at six cents a hundred, two millions of cattle fatten on its rich
+pasture lands; but, of all the countries the writer has travelled in,
+Mexico comes first as a land of beggars, and poor Paraguay comes
+second.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ASUNCION.
+
+
+Being in England in 1900 for change and rest, I was introduced to an
+eccentric old gentleman of miserly tendencies, but possessed of
+$5,000,000. Hearing of my wanderings in South America, he told me
+that he owned a tract of land thirteen miles square in Paraguay, and
+would like to know something of its value. The outcome of this visit
+was that I was commissioned by him to go to that country and explore
+his possession, so I proceeded once more to my old field of labor.
+Arriving at the mouth of the River Plate, after five weeks of sea-
+tossing, I was, with the rest, looking forward to our arrival in
+Buenos Ayres, when a steam tug came puffing alongside, and we were
+informed that as the ship had touched at the infected port of Bahia,
+all passengers must be fumigated, and that we must submit to three
+weeks' quarantine on Flores Island. The Port doctor has sent a whole
+ship-load to the island for so trifling a cause as that a sailor had
+a broken collar-bone, so we knew that for us there was nothing but
+submission. Disembarking from the ocean steamer on to lighters, we
+gave a last look at the coveted land, "so near and yet so far," and
+were towed away to three small islands in the centre of the river,
+about fifty miles distant. One island is set apart as a burial
+ground, one is for infected patients, and the other, at which we were
+landed, is for suspects. On that desert island, with no other land in
+sight than the sister isles, we were given time to chew the cud of
+bitter reflection. They gave us little else to chew! The food served
+up to us consisted of strings of dried beef, called _charqui_, which
+was brought from the mainland in dirty canvas bags. This was often
+supplemented by boiled seaweed. Being accustomed to self-
+preservation, I was able to augment this diet with fish caught while
+sitting on the barren rocks of our sea-girt prison. Prison it
+certainly was, for sentries, armed with Remingtons, herded us like
+sheep.
+
+The three weeks' detention came to an end, as everything earthly
+does, and then an open barge, towed by a steam-launch, conveyed us to
+Montevideo. Quite a fresh breeze was blowing, and during our eleven
+hours' journey we were repeatedly drenched with spray. Delicate
+ladies lay down in the bottom of the boat in the throes of
+seasickness, and were literally washed to and fro, and saturated, as
+they said, to the heart. We landed, however, and I took passage up to
+Asuncion in the "Olympo."
+
+The "Olympo" is a palatial steamer, fitted up like the best Atlantic
+liners with every luxury and convenience. On the ship there were
+perhaps one hundred cabin passengers, and in the steerage were six
+hundred Russian emigrants bound for Corrientes, three days' sail
+north. Two of these women were very sick, so the chief steward, to
+whom I was known, hurried me to them, and I was thankful to be able
+to help the poor females.
+
+The majestic river is broad, and in some parts so thickly studded
+with islands that it appears more like a chain of lakes than a
+flowing stream. As we proceeded up the river the weather grew warmer,
+and the native clothing of sheepskins the Russians had used was cast
+aside. The men, rough and bearded, soon had only their under garments
+on, and the women wore simply that three-quarter length loose garment
+well known to all females, yet they sweltered in the unaccustomed
+heat.
+
+At midnight of the third day we landed them at Corrientes, and the
+women, in their white (?) garments, with their babies and ikons, and
+bundles--and husbands--trod on terra firma for the first time in
+seven weeks.
+
+After about twelve days' sail we came to Bella Vista, at which point
+the river is eighteen miles wide. Sixteen days after leaving the
+mouth of the river, we sighted the red-tiled roofs of the houses at
+Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, built on the bank of the river,
+which is there only a mile wide, but thirty feet deep. The river
+boats land their passengers at a rickety wooden wharf, and Indians
+carry the baggage on their heads into the dingy customs house. After
+this has been inspected by the cigarette-smoking officials, the dark-
+skinned porters are clamorously eager to again bend themselves under
+the burden and take your trunks to an hotel, where you follow,
+walking over the exceedingly rough cobbled streets. There is not a
+cab for hire in the whole city. The two or three hotels are fifth-
+rate, but charge only about thirty cents a day.
+
+Asuncion is a city of some 30,000 inhabitants Owing to its isolated
+position, a thousand miles from the sea-coast, it is perhaps the most
+backward of all the South American capitals. Although under Spanish
+rule for three hundred years, the natives still retain the old Indian
+language and the Guarani idiom is spoken by all.
+
+The city is lit up at night with small lamps burning oil, and these
+lights shed fitful gleams here and there. The oil burned bears the
+high-sounding trade-mark, "Light of the World," and that is the only
+"light of the world" the native knows of. The lamps are of so little
+use that females never dream of going out at night without carrying
+with them a little tin farol, with a tallow dip burning inside.
+
+I have said the street lamps give little light. I must make exception
+of one week of the year, when there is great improvement. That week
+they are carefully cleaned and trimmed, for it is given up as a feast
+to the Virgin, and the lights are to shed radiance on gaudy little
+images of that august lady which are inside of each lamp. The Pal, or
+father priest, sees that these images are properly honored by the
+people. He is here as elsewhere, the moving spirit.
+
+San Bias is the patron saint of the country, It is said he won for
+the Paraguayans a great victory in an early war. St. Cristobel
+receives much homage also because he helped the Virgin Mary to carry
+the infant Jesus across a river on the way to Egypt.
+
+Asuncion was for many years the recluse headquarters of the Jesuits,
+so of all enslaved Spanish-Americans probably the Guaranis are the
+worst. During Lent they will inflict stripes on their bodies, or
+almost starve themselves to death; and their abject humility to the
+Paî is sad to witness. On special church celebrations large
+processions will walk the streets, headed by the priests, chanting in
+Latin. The people sometimes fall over one another in their eager
+endeavors to kiss the priest's garments, They prostrate themselves,
+count their beads, confess their sins, and seek the coveted blessing
+of this demi-god, "who shuts the kingdom of heaven, and keeps the key
+in his own pocket."
+
+A noticeable feature of the place is that all the inhabitants go
+barefooted. Ladies (?) will pass you with their stiffly-starched
+white dresses, and raven-black hair neatly done up with colored
+ribbons, but with feet innocent of shoes. Soldiers and policemen
+tramp the streets, but neither are provided with footwear, and their
+clothes are often in tatters. The Jesuits taught the Indians to
+_make_ shoes, but they alone _wore_ them, exporting the surplus.
+Shoes are not for common people, and when one of them dares to cover
+his feet he is considered presumptuous. Hats they never wear, but
+they have the beautiful custom of weaving flowers in their hair. When
+flowers are not worn the head is covered by a white sheet called the
+_tupoî_, and in some cases this garment is richly embroidered. These
+females are devoted Romanists, as will be seen from the following
+description of a feast held to St. John:
+
+"Doña Juana's first care was to decorate with uncommon splendor a
+large image of St. John, which, in a costly crystal box, she
+preserved as the chief ornament of her principal drawing-room. He was
+painted anew and re-gilded. He had a black velvet robe purchased for
+him, and trimmed with deep gold lace. Hovering over him was a cherub.
+Every friend of Doña Juana had lent some part of her jewellery for
+the decoration of the holy man. Rings sparkled on his fingers;
+collars hung around his neck; a tiara graced his venerable brow. The
+lacings of his sandals were studded with pearls; a precious girdle
+bound his slender waist, and six large wax candles were lighted up at
+the shrine. There, embosomed in fragrant evergreens--the orange, the
+lime, the acacia--stood the favorite saint, destined to receive the
+first homage of every guest that should arrive. These all solemnly
+took off their hats to the image."
+
+Such religious mummery as this is painful to witness, and to see the
+saint borne round in procession, with men carrying candles, and
+white-clad girls with large birds' wings fastened to their shoulders,
+dispels the idea of its being Christianity at all.
+
+The people are gentle and mild-spoken. White-robed women lead strings
+of donkeys along the streets, bearing huge panniers full of
+vegetables, among which frequently play the women's babies. The
+panniers are about a yard deep, and may often be seen full to the
+brim with live fowls pinioned by the legs. Other women go around with
+large wicker trays on their heads, selling _chipá_, the native bread,
+made from Indian corn, or _mandioca_ root, the staple food of the
+country. Wheat is not grown in Paraguay, and any flour used is
+imported. These daughters of Eve often wear nothing more than a robe-
+de-chambre, and invariably smoke cigars six or eight inches long.
+Their figure is erect and stately, and the laughing eyes full of
+mischief and merriment; but they fade into old age at forty. Until
+then they seem proud as children of their brass jewellery and red
+coral beads. The Paraguayans are the happiest race of people I have
+met; care seems undreamed of by them.
+
+In the post-office of the capital I have sometimes been unable to
+procure stamps, and "_Dypore_" (We have none) has been the civil
+answer of the clerk. When they _had_ stamps they were not provided
+with mucilage, but a brush and pot of paste were handed the buyer. If
+you ask for a one cent stamp the clerk will cut a two cent stamp and
+give you a half. They have, however, stamps the tenth part of a cent
+in value, and a bank note in circulation whose face value is less
+than a cent. There are only four numerals in the Guarani language: 1,
+_petei_; 2,_moncoi_; 3,_bohapy_; 4,_irundú_. It is not possible to
+express five or six. No wonder, therefore, that when I bought five
+40-cent stamps, I found the clerk was unable to count the sum, and I
+had to come to the rescue and tell him it was $2.00. At least eighty
+per cent. of the people are unable to read. When they do, it is of
+course in Spanish, A young man to whom I gave the Gospel of John
+carefully looked at it, and then, turning to me, said: "Is this a
+history of that wonderful lawyer we have been hearing about?" To
+those interested in the dissemination of Scriptures, let me state
+that no single Gospel has as yet been translated into Guarani.
+
+A tentative edition of the "Sermon on the Mount" has recently been
+issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society, a copy of which I
+had the honor to be the first to present to the head executive.
+
+Gentle simplicity is the chief characteristic of the people. If the
+traveller relates the most ordinary events that pass in the outside
+world, they will join in the exclamation of surprise-"_Bá-eh-picó!
+Bá-eh-picó!_"
+
+Information that tends to their lowering is not always accepted thus,
+however, for a colonel in the army, when told that Asuncion could be
+put into a large city graveyard, hastily got up from the dinner table
+and went away in wounded pride and incredulity. The one who is
+supposed to "know a little" likes to keep his position, and the
+Spanish proverb is exemplified: _"En tierra de los ciegos, el tuerto
+es rey"_ (In the blind country the one-eyed are kings). The native is
+most guileless and ignorant, as can well be understood when his
+language is an unwritten one.
+
+Paraguay is essentially a land of fruit, 200 oranges may be bought
+for the equivalent of six cents. Small mountains of oranges may
+always be seen piled up on the banks ready to be shipped down the
+river. Women are employed to load the vessels with this fruit, which
+they carry in baskets on their heads. Everything is carried on their
+heads, even to a glass bottle. My laundress, Cuñacarai [Footnote: The
+Guarani idiom can boast of but few words, and Mr., Mrs. and Miss are
+simply rendered "carai" (man), "cuna-carai" (woman) and "cunatai"
+(young woman); "mita cuna" is girl, "mita cuimbai" is boy, and "mita
+mishi"--baby.] Jesus, although an old woman, could bear almost
+incredible weights on her hard skull.
+
+As the climate is hot, a favorite occupation for men and women is to
+sit half-submerged in the river, smoking vigorously "The Paraguayans
+are an amphibious race, neither wholly seamen nor wholly landsmen,
+but partaking of both." All sleep in cotton hammocks,--beds are
+almost unknown. The hammocks are slung on the verandah of the house
+in the hotter season and all sleep outside, taking off their garments
+with real _sang froid_. In the cooler season the visitor is invited
+to hang his hammock along with the rest inside the house, and in the
+early morning naked little children bring máté to each one. If the
+family is wealthy this will be served in a heavy silver cup and
+_bombilla_, or sucking tube, of the same metal. After this drink and
+a bite of _chipá_, a strangely shaped, thin-necked bottle, made of
+sun-baked clay, is brought, and from it water is poured on the hands.
+The towels are spotlessly white and of the finest texture. They are
+hand-made, and are so delicately woven and embroidered that I found
+it difficult to accustom myself to use them. The beautifully fine
+lace called _nandutî_ (literally spider's web) is also here made by
+the Indian women, who have long been civilized. Some of the
+handkerchiefs they make are worth $50 each in the fashionable cities
+of America and Europe. A month's work may easily be expended on such
+a dainty fabric.
+
+The women seem exceptionally fond of pets. Monkeys and birds are
+common in a house, and the housewife will show you her parrot and
+say, "In this bird dwells the spirit of my departed mother." An
+enemy, somehow, has always turned into an alligator--a reptile much
+loathed by them.
+
+In even the poorest houses there is a shrine and a "Saint." These
+deities can answer all prayers if they choose to. Sometimes, however,
+they are not "in the humor," and at one house the saint had refused,
+so he was laid flat on the floor, face downwards. The woman swore
+that until he answered her petition she would not lift him up again.
+He laid thus all night; whether longer or not I do not know.
+
+Having heard much concerning the _moralité_ of the people, I asked
+the maid at a respectable private house where I was staying: "Have
+you a father?" "No, sir," she answered, "we Paraguayans are not
+accustomed to have a father." Children of five or six, when asked
+about that parent, will often answer, "Father died in the war." The
+war ended thirty-nine years ago, but they have been taught to say
+this by the mother.
+
+As in Argentina the first word the stranger learns is _mañana_ (to-
+morrow), so here the first is _dy-qui_ (I don't know). Whatever
+question you ask the Guarani, he will almost invariably answer, "_Dy-
+qui_." Ask him his age, he answers "_Dy-qui_" To your question: "Are
+you twenty or one hundred and twenty?" he will reply "_Dy-qui_."
+Through the long rule of the Jesuits the natives stopped thinking;
+they had it all done for them. "At the same time that they enslaved
+them, they tortured them into the profession of the religion they had
+imported; and as they had seen that in the old land the love of this
+world and the deceitfulness of riches were ever in the way of
+conversion to the true faith, they piously relieved the Indians of
+these snares of the soul, even going so far in the discharge of this
+painful duty as to relieve them of life at the same time, if
+necessary to get their possessions into their own hands," [Footnote:
+Robertson's "Letters on Paraguay."]
+
+"The stories of their hardness, and perfidy, and immorality beggar
+description. The children of the priests have become so numerous that
+the shame is no longer considered." [Footnote: Service.]
+
+As the Mahometans have their Mecca, so the Paraguayans have Caacupé;
+and the image of the Virgin in that village is the great wonder-
+worker. Prayers are directed to her that she will raise the sick,
+etc., and promises are made her if she will do this. One morning I
+had business with a storekeeper, and went to his office. "Is the
+caraî in?" I asked. "No," I was answered, "he has gone to Caacupé to
+pay a promise." That promise was to burn so many candles before the
+Virgin, and further adorn her bejewelled robes. She had, as he
+believed, healed him of a sickness.
+
+The village of Caacupé is about forty miles from Asuncion. "The
+Bishop of Paraguay formally inaugurated the worship of the Virgin of
+Caacupé, sending forth an episcopal letter accrediting the practice,
+and promising indulgences to the pilgrims who should visit the
+shrine. Thus the worship became legal and orthodox. Multitudes of
+people visit her, carrying offerings of valuable jewels. There are
+several _well-authenticated_ cases of persons, whose offerings were
+of inferior quality, being overtaken with some terrible calamity."
+[Footnote: Washburn's "History of Paraguay."]
+
+Funds must be secured somehow, for the present Bishop's sons, to whom
+I was introduced as among the aristocrats of the capital, certainly
+need a large income from the lavish manner I noticed them "treat" all
+and sundry in the hotel. "It is admitted by all, that in South
+America the church is decadent and corrupt. The immorality of the
+priests is taken for granted. Priests' sons and daughters, of course
+not born in wedlock, abound everywhere, and no stigma attaches to
+them or to their fathers and mothers." [Footnote: "The Continent of
+Opportunity." Dr. Clark.] Hon. S. H. Blake, in the _Neglected
+Continent_, writes: "I was especially struck by the statement of a
+Roman Catholic--a Consular agent with a large amount of information
+as to the land and its inhabitants. He stopped me in speaking of the
+priests by saying, 'I know all that. You cannot exaggerate their
+immorality. Everybody knows it--but the Latin race is a degenerate
+race. Nothing can be done with it. The Roman Church has had four
+centuries of trial and has made a failure of it.'"
+
+When a person is dying, the Paî is hurriedly sent for. To this call
+he will readily respond. A procession will be formed, and, preceded
+by a boy ringing a bell, the _Host_, or, to use an everyday
+expression, _God_, will be carried from the church down the street to
+the sick one. All passers-by must kneel as this goes along, and the
+police will arrest you if you do not at least take off your hat.
+"Liberty of conscience is a most diabolical thing, to be stamped out
+at any cost," is the maxim of Rome, and the Guarani has learned his
+lesson well. "In Inquisition Square men were burned for daring to
+think, therefore men stopped thinking when death was the penalty."
+
+Wakes for the dead are always held, and in the case of a child the
+little one lies in state adorned with gilded wings and tinselled
+finery. All in the neighborhood are invited to the dance which takes
+place that evening around the corpse. At a funeral the Paî walks
+first, followed by a crowd of men, women and children bearing
+candles, some of which are four and five feet long. The dead are
+carried through the streets in a very shallow coffin, and the head is
+much elevated. An old woman generally walks by the side, bearing the
+coffin lid on her head. The dead are always buried respectfully, for
+an old law reads: "No person shall ride in the dead cart except the
+corpse that is carried, and, therefore, nobody shall get up and ride
+behind. It is against Christian piety to bury people with irreverent
+actions, or drag them in hides, or throw them into the grave without
+consideration, or in a position contrary to the practice of the
+Church."
+
+All Saints Day is a special time for releasing departed ones out of
+purgatory. Hundreds of people visit the cemeteries then, and pay the
+waiting priests so much a prayer, If that "liberator of souls" sings
+the prayer the price is doubled, but it is considered doubly
+efficacious.
+
+A good feature of Romanism in Paraguay is that the people have been
+taught something of Christ, but there seems to be an utter want of
+reverence toward His person, for one may see a red flag on the public
+streets announcing that there are the "Auction Rooms of the child
+God." In his "Letters on Paraguay," Robertson relates the following
+graphic account of the celebration of His death: "I found great
+preparations making at the cathedral for the sermon of 'the agony on
+the cross.' A wooden figure of our Saviour crucified was affixed
+against the wall, opposite the pulpit; a large bier was placed in the
+centre of the cathedral, and the great altar at the eastern extremity
+was hung with black; while around were disposed lighted candles and
+other insignia of a great funeral. When the sermon commenced, the
+cathedral was crowded to suffocation, a great proportion of the
+audience being females. The discourse was interrupted alternately by
+the low moans and sobbings of the congregation. These became more
+audible as the preacher warmed with his discourse, which was partly
+addressed to his auditory and partly to the figure before him; and
+when at length he exclaimed, 'Behold! Behold! He gives up the ghost!'
+the head of the figure was slowly depressed by a spring towards the
+breast, and one simultaneous shriek--loud, piercing, almost
+appalling--was uttered by the whole congregation. The women now all
+struggled for a superiority in giving unbounded vent to apparently
+the most distracting grief. Some raved like maniacs, others beat
+their breasts and tore their hair. Exclamations, cries, sobs and
+shrieks mingled, and united in forming one mighty tide of clamor,
+uproar, noise and confusion. In the midst of the raging tempest could
+be heard, ever and anon, the stentorian voice of the preacher,
+reproaching in terms of indignation and wrath the apathy of his
+hearers! 'Can you, oh, insensate crowd!' he would cry, 'Can you sit
+in silence?'--but here his voice was drowned in an overwhelming cry
+of loudest woe, from every part of the church; and for five minutes
+all further effort to make himself heard was unavailing. This
+singular scene continued for nearly half an hour; then, by degrees,
+the vehement grief of the congregation abated, and when I left the
+cathedral it had subsided once more into low sobs and silent tears.
+
+"I now took my way, with many others, to the Church of San Francisco,
+where, in an open space in front of the church, I found that the duty
+of the day had advanced to the funeral service, which was about being
+celebrated. There a scaffolding was erected, and the crucifixion
+exactly represented by wooden figures, not only of our Lord, but of
+the two thieves. A pulpit was erected in front of the scaffold; and
+the whole square was covered by the devout inhabitants of the city.
+The same kind of scene was being enacted here as at the cathedral,
+with the difference, however, of the circumstantial funeral in place
+of the death. The orator's discourse when I arrived was only here and
+there interrupted by a suppressed moan, or a struggling sigh, to be
+heard in the crowd. But when he commenced giving directions for the
+taking down of the body from the cross, the impatience of grief began
+to manifest itself on all sides, 'Mount up,' he cried, 'ye holy
+ministers, mount up, and prepare for the sad duty which ye have to
+perform!' Here six or eight persons, covered from head to foot with
+ample black cloaks, ascended the scaffold. Now the groans of the
+people became more audible; and when at length directions were given
+to strike out the first nail, the cathedral scene of confusion, which
+I have just described, began, and all the rest of the preacher's
+oratory was dumb show. The body was at length deposited in the
+coffin, and the groaning and shrieking of the assembled multitude
+ceased. A solemn funeral ceremony took place: every respectable
+person received a great wax taper to carry in the procession: the
+coffin after being carried all round was deposited in the church: the
+people dispersed; and the great day of Passion Week was brought to a
+close."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EXPEDITION TO THE SUN-WORSHIPPERS. [Footnote: An account of this
+expedition was requested by and sent to the Royal Geographical
+Society of London, Eng.]
+
+
+I took passage on the "Urano," a steamer of 1,500 tons, for
+Concepcion, 200 miles north of Asuncion.
+
+On the second day of our journey the people on board celebrated a
+church feast, and the pilot, in his anxiety to do it well, got
+helplessly drunk. The result was that during that night I was thrown
+out of the top berth I occupied by a terrific thud. The steamer had
+run on the sandbank of an uninhabited island, and there she stuck
+fast--immovable. We were landed on the shore, and there had further
+time for reflection on the mutability of things. In the white sand
+there were distinct footprints of a large jaguar and cub, probably
+come to prey on the lazy alligators that were lying on the beach; and
+I caught sight of a large spotted serpent, which glided into the low
+jungle where the tiger also doubtless was in hiding.
+
+After three days' detention here, a Brazilian packet took us off. On
+stepping aboard, I saw what I thought to be two black pigs lying on
+the deck. I assure the reader that it was some seconds before I
+discovered that one was not a pig, but a man!
+
+At sunset it is the custom on these river boats for all to have a
+bath. The females go to one side of the ship, and the males to the
+other; buckets are lowered, and in turn they throw water over each
+other. After supper, in the stillness of the evening, dancing is the
+order, and bare feet keep time to the twang of the guitar.
+
+We occasionally caught sight of savages on the west bank of the
+river, and the captain informed me that he had once brought up a bag
+of beans to give them. The beans had been _poisoned_, in order that
+the miserable creatures might be _swept off the earth!_
+
+We landed at Concepcion, and I walked ashore. I found the only
+British subject living there was a university graduate, but--a
+prodigal son Owing to his habit of constant drinking, the authorities
+of the town compelled him to work. As I passed up the street I saw
+him mending a road of the "far country" There I procured five horses,
+a stock of beads, knives, etc, for barter, and made ready for my land
+journey into the far interior. The storekeeper, hearing of my plans,
+strongly urged me not to attempt the journey, and soon all the
+village talked. Vague rumors of the unknown savages of the interior
+had been heard, and it was said the expedition could only end in
+disaster, especially as I was not even going to get the blessing of
+the Paî before starting. I was fortunate, however, in securing the
+companionship of an excellent man who bore the suggestive name of
+"Old Stabbed Arm"; and Doña Dolores (Mrs. Sorrows), true to her name,
+whom I engaged to make me about twenty pounds of chipá, said she
+would intercede with her saint for me. Loading the pack-horse with
+chipá, beads, looking-glasses, knives, etc., Old Stabbed Arm and I
+mounted our horses, and, each taking a spare one by the halter, drove
+the pack-saddle mare in front, leaving the tenderhearted Mrs. Sorrows
+weeping behind. The roads are simply paths through deep red sand,
+into which the horses sank up to their knees; and they are so uneven
+that one side is frequently two feet higher than the other, so we
+could travel only very slowly. From time to time we had to push our
+way into the dense forest on either side, in order to give space for
+a string of bullock carts to go past. These vehicles are eighteen or
+twenty feet long, but have only two wheels. They are drawn by ten or
+twelve oxen, which are urged on by goads fastened to a bamboo, twenty
+feet long, suspended from the roof of the cart, which is thatched
+with reeds. The goads are artistically trimmed with feathers of
+parrots and macaws, or with bright ribbons. These are of all colors,
+but those around the sharp nail at the end are further painted with
+red blood every time the goad is used.
+
+The carts, rolling and straining like ships in foul weather, can be
+heard a mile off, owing to the humming screech of the wheels, which
+are never greased, but on the contrary have powdered charcoal put in
+them to _increase_ the noise. Without this music (?) the bullocks do
+not work so well. How the poor animals could manage to draw the load
+was often a mystery to me, Sections of the road were partly destroyed
+by landslides and heavy rains, but down the slippery banks of rivers,
+through the beds of torrents or up the steep inclines they somehow
+managed to haul the unwieldy vehicle. Strings of loaded donkeys or
+mules, with jingling bells, also crawled past, and I noticed with a
+smile that even the animals in this idolatrous land cannot get on
+without the Virgin, for they have tiny statuettes of her standing
+between their ears to keep them from danger. Near the town the rivers
+and streams are bridged over with tree trunks placed longitudinally,
+and the crevices are filled in with boughs and sods. Some of them are
+so unsafe and have such gaping holes that I frequently dismounted and
+led my horse over.
+
+The tropical scenery was superb. Thousands of orange trees growing by
+the roadside, filled with luscious fruit on the lower branches, and
+on the top with the incomparable orange blossoms, afforded delight to
+the eye, and notwithstanding the heat, kept us cool, for as we rode
+we could pluck and eat. Tree ferns twenty and thirty feet high waved
+their feathery fronds in the gentle breeze, and wild pineapples
+growing at our feet loaded the air with fragrance.
+
+There was the graceful pepper tree, luxuriant hanging lichens, or
+bamboos forty feet high, which riveted the attention and made one
+think what a beautiful world God has made. Many of the shrubs and
+plants afford dyes of the richest hues, Azara found four hundred new
+species of the feathered tribe in the gorgeous woods and coppices of
+Paraguay, and all, with the melancholy _caw_, _caw_ of the toucans
+overhead, spoke of a tropical land. Parrots chattered in the trees,
+and sometimes a serpent glided across the red sand road.
+Unfortunately, flies were so numerous and so tormenting that, even
+with the help of a green branch, we could not keep off the swarms,
+and around the horses' eyes were dozens of them. Several menacing
+hornets also troubled us. They are there so fierce that they can
+easily sting a man or a horse to death!
+
+As night fell we came to an open glade, and there beside a clear,
+gurgling brook staked out our horses and camped for the night.
+Building a large fire of brushwood, we ate our supper, and then lay
+down on our saddlecloths, the firmament of God with its galaxy of
+stars as our covering overhead.
+
+By next evening we reached the village of Pegwaomi. On the way we had
+passed a house here and there, and had seen children ten or twelve
+years of age sucking sticks of sugar-cane, but content with no other
+clothing than their rosary, or an image of the Virgin round their
+necks, like those the mules wear. Pegwaomi, I saw, was quite a
+village, its pretty houses nestling among orange and lime trees, with
+luscious bananas in the background. There was no Paî in Pegwaomi, so
+I was able to hold a service in an open shed, with a roof but no
+walls. The chief man of the village gave me permission to use this
+novel building, and twenty-three people came to hear the stranger
+speak. After the service a poor woman was very desirous of confessing
+her sins to me, and she thought I was a strange preacher when I told
+her of One in heaven to whom she should confess.
+
+"Paraguay, from its first settlement, never departed from 'the age of
+faith' Neither doubt nor free-thinking in regard to spiritual affairs
+ever perplexed the people, but in all religious matters they accepted
+the words of the fathers as the unquestionable truth. Unfortunately,
+the priests were, with scarcely an exception, lazy and profligate;
+yet the people were so superstitious and credulous that they feared
+to disobey them, or reserve anything which they might be required to
+confess." [Footnote: Washburn's "History of Paraguay."]
+
+In the front gardens of many of the rustic houses I noticed a wooden
+cross draped with broad white lace. The dead are always interred in
+the family garden, and these marked the site of the graves. When the
+people can afford it, a priest is brought to perform the sad rite of
+burial, but the Paraguayan Paî is proverbially drunken and lazy. Once
+after a church feast, which was largely given up to drinking, the
+priest fell over on the floor in a state of intoxication. "While he
+thus lay drunk, a boy crawled through the door to ask his blessing,
+whereupon the priest swore horribly and waved him off, 'Not to-day,
+not to-day those farces! I am drunk, very drunk!'" Such an one has
+been described by Pollock: "He was a man who stole the livery of the
+court of heaven to serve the devil in; in holy guise transacted
+villainies that ordinary mortals durst not meddle with."
+
+Lest it might be thought that I am strongly prejudiced, I give this
+extract from a responsible historian of that unhappy land: "The
+simple-minded and superstitious Paraguayans reverenced a Paî, or
+father, as the immediate representative of God. They blindly and
+implicitly followed the instructions given to them, and did whatever
+was required at his hands. Many of the licentious brotherhood took
+advantage of this superstitious confidence placed in them by the
+people to an extent which, in a moral country, would not only shock
+every feeling of our nature to relate, but would, in the individual
+instances, appear to be incredible, and, in the aggregate, be counted
+as slanderous on humanity."
+
+During my stay in Pagwaomi, a dance was held on the sward outside one
+of the houses, and the national whirl, the _sarandiy_, gave pleasure
+to all. The females wove flowers in their hair, and made garlands of
+them to adorn their waists. Others had caught fire-flies, which
+nestled in the wavy tresses and lit up the semi-darkness with a soft
+light, like so many green stars. Love whisperings, in the musical
+Guarani, were heard by willing ears, and eyelight was thus added to
+starlight. As the dancers flitted here and there in their white
+garments, or came out from the shade of the orange trees, they looked
+ethereal, like the inhabitants of another world one sees at times in
+romantic dreams, for this village is surely a hundred years behind
+the moon.
+
+From this scene of innocent happiness I was taken to more than one
+sick-bed, for it soon became known that I carried medicines.
+
+Will the reader accompany me? Enter then--a windowless mud hut See,
+lying on sheepskins and burning with fever, a young woman-almost a
+girl-wailing "_Ché raciy!>_" (I am sick!) Notice the intense
+eagerness of her eyes as she gazes into mine when I commence to
+minister to her. Watch her submit to my necessarily painful treatment
+with child-like faith. Then, before we quietly steal out again,
+listen to her low-breathed "_Acuerame_" (Already I feel better).
+
+In a larger house, a hundred yards away, an earthenware lamp, with
+cotton wick dipping in raw castor oil, sheds fitful gleams on a dying
+woman. The trail of sin is only too evident, even in thoughtless
+Pegwaomi. The tinselled saints are on the altar at the foot of the
+bed, and on the woman's breast, tightly clutched, is a crucifix, but
+Mrs. Encarnacion has never heard of the Incarnate One whom she is
+soon to meet. Perhaps, if Christians are awake by that time, her
+grandchildren may hear the "story."
+
+In that rustic cottage, half covered with jasmine, and shaded by a
+royal palm, a child lies very sick. Listen to its low, weak moaning
+as we cross the threshold. The mother has procured a piece of tape,
+the length of which, she says, is the exact measure of the head of
+Saint Blas. This she has repeatedly put around her babe's head as an
+unfailing cure. Somehow the charm does not work and the woman is
+sorely perplexed. While we helplessly look on the infant dies!
+Outside, the moon soared high, throwing a silver veil over the grim
+pathos of it all; but in the breast of the writer was a surging
+dissatisfaction and--anger, at his fellow--Christians in the
+homeland, who in their thoughtless selfishness will not reach out a
+helping hand to the perishing of other lands.
+
+Would the ever-present Spirit, who wrote "Be ye angry" not
+understand? Would the Master of patience and forbearance, who Himself
+showed righteous anger, enter into it? Is the Great God, who sees
+these sheep left without a shepherd, Himself angry? Surely it is well
+to ask?
+
+"Oh, heavy lies the weight of ill on many hearts, And comforters are
+needed sore of Christlike touch."
+
+In this village I made inquiries for another servant and guide, and
+was directed to "Timoteo, the very man." Liking his looks, and being
+able to come to satisfactory terms, I engaged him as my second
+helper. Timoteo had a sister called Salvadora (Saviour). She pounded
+corn in a mortar with a hardwood pestle, and made me another baking
+of chipá, with which we further burdened the pack-horse, and away we
+started again, with affectionate farewells and tears, towards the
+unknown.
+
+Next day we were joined by a traveller who was escaping to the
+interior. He plainly declared himself as a murderer, and told us he
+had shot one of the doctors in Asuncion. Through being well
+connected, he had, after three weeks' detention in prison, been
+liberated, as he boasted to us, _con todo buen nombre y fama (with
+good name and report). The relatives of the murdered man, however,
+did not agree with this verdict, and sought his life. During the day
+we shot an iguana, and after a meal from its fat tail our new
+acquaintance, finding the pace too slow for his hasty flight, left
+us, and I was not sorry. We met a string of bullock carts, each drawn
+by six animals and having a spare one behind. The lumbering wagons
+were on their way from the Paraguayan máté fields, and had a load of
+over two thousand pounds each. Jolting over huge tree-trunks, or anon
+sinking in a swamp, followed by swarms of gad-flies, the patient
+animals wended their way.
+
+Here and there one may see by the roadside a large wooden cross, with
+a rudely carved wooden rooster on the top, while below it are the
+nails, scourge, hammer, pincers and spear of gruesome crucifixion
+memory. At other places there are smaller shrines with a statuette of
+the Virgin inside, and candles invariably burning, provided by the
+generous wayfarers. It is interesting to note that the old Indians
+had, at the advent of the Spaniards, cairns of stones along their
+paths, and the pious Indian would contribute a stone when he passed
+as an offering to Pachacamac, who would keep away the evil spirits.
+That custom is still kept up by the Christian (?) Paraguayan, with
+the difference that _now_ it is given to the Virgin. My guide would
+get down from his horse when we arrived at these altars, and
+contribute a stone to the ever-growing heap. If a specially bright
+one is offered, he told me it was more gratifying to the goddess.
+Feeling that we were very likely to meet with many _evil spirits_,
+Timoteo carefully sought for bright stones. The people are _very_
+religious, yet with it all are terribly depraved! The truth is seldom
+spoken, and my guide was, unfortunately, no exception to the rule. As
+we left the haunts of men, and difficulties thickened, he would often
+entreat the help of Holy Mary, but in the same breath would lie and
+curse!
+
+Sighting a miserable hut, we called to inquire for meat. The master
+of the house, I discovered, was a leper, and I further learned, on
+asking if I might water my horses, that the nearest water was three
+miles away. The man and wife and their large family certainly looked
+as though water was a luxury too costly to use on the skin. The leper
+was most hospitable, however; he killed a sheep for us, and we sat
+down to a feast of mutton. After this we pushed on to water the
+horses. By sunset we arrived at a cattle ranch near the river Ipané,
+and there we stayed for the night. At supper all dipped in the same
+stew-pan, and afterwards rinsed out the mouth with large draughts of
+water, which they squirted back on the brick floor of the dining-
+room. The men then smoked cigarettes of tobacco rolled in corn
+leaves, and the women smoked their six-inch-long cigars. Finding that
+two of the men understood Spanish, I read some simple parts of
+scripture to them by the light of a dripping grease lamp. They
+listened in silence, and wondered at the strange new story. The
+mosquitoes were so troublesome that a large platform, twenty feet
+high, had been erected, and after reading all the inmates of the
+house, with us, ascended the ladder leading to the top. There the
+mosquitoes did not disturb us, so we slept peacefully on our aerial
+roost between the fire-flies of the earth and the stars of heaven.
+
+Next day we came to a solitary house, where I noticed strings of meat
+hung in the sun to dry. This is left, like so many stockings and
+handkerchiefs, hanging there until it is hard as wood; it will then
+keep for an indefinite time. There we got a good dinner of fresh
+beef, and about ten pounds of the dried meat (_charqui_) to take away
+with us. At this place I bought two more horses, and we each got a
+large bullock's horn in which to carry water, swinging from the
+saddle-tree. I was not sorry to leave this house, for, tearing up the
+offal around the building, I counted as many as sixty black vultures.
+Their king, a dirty white bird with crimson neck covered with gore
+and filth, had already gorged himself with all the blood he could
+get. "All his sooty subjects stand apart at a respectful distance,
+whetting their appetites and regaling their nostrils, but never
+dreaming of an approach to the carcass till their master has sunk
+into a state of repletion. When the kingly bird, by falling on his
+side, closing his eyes, and stretching on the ground his unclenched
+talons, gives notice to his surrounding and expectant subjects that
+their lord and master has gone to rest, up they hop to the carcass,
+which in a few minutes is stripped of everything eatable." Here we
+left the high-road, which is cut through to Punta Pona on the
+Brazilian frontier, and struck off to the west. Over the grassy
+plains we made good progress, and by evening were thirty miles
+farther on our journey. But when we had to cut the path before us
+through the forest, ten or twelve miles was a good day's work. When
+the growth was very dense, the morning and evening camps were perhaps
+only separated by a league. Anon we struggled through a swamp, or the
+horses stuck fast in a bog, and the _carapatas_ feasted on our blood.
+"What are carapatas?" you ask. They are leeches, bugs, mosquitos,
+gad-flies, etc., all compounded into one venomous insect! These
+voracious green ticks, the size of a bug, are indeed a terrible
+scourge. They fasten on the body in scores, and when pulled away,
+either the piece of flesh comes with them or the head of the carapata
+is torn off. _It was easy to pick a hundred of these bugs off the
+body at night_, but it was _not_ easy to sleep after the ordeal! The
+poor horses, brushing through the branches on which the ticks wait
+for their prey, were sometimes _half covered with them!_
+
+As we continued our journey, a house was a rare sight, and soon we
+came to "the end of Christianity," as Timoteo said, and all
+civilization was left behind. The sandy road became a track, and then
+we could no longer follow the path, for there was none to follow.
+Timoteo had traversed those regions before in search of the mate
+plant, however, and with my compass I kept the general direction.
+
+After about ten days' travel, during which time we had many reminders
+that the flesh-pots had been left behind, _"Che cane o"_ (I am tired)
+was frequently heard. Game was exceedingly scarce, and it was
+possible to travel for days without sighting any animal or ostrich.
+We passed no houses, and saw no human beings. For two days we
+subsisted on hard Indian corn. Water was scarce, and for a week we
+were unable to wash. Jiggers got into our feet when sleeping on the
+ground, and these caused great pain and annoyance. Someone has
+described a jigger as "a cross between Satan and a woodtick." The
+little insects lay their eggs between the skin and flesh. When the
+young hatch out, they begin feeding on the blood, and quickly grow
+half an inch long and cause an intense itching. My feet were swollen
+so much that I could not get on my riding-boots, and, consequently,
+my lower limbs were more exposed than ever. If not soon cut out, the
+flesh around them begins to rot, and mortification sometimes ensues.
+
+On some of the savannas we were able to kill deer and ostrich, but
+they generally were very scarce. Our fare was varied; sometimes we
+feaisted on parrot pie or vultures eggs; again we lay down on the
+hard, stony ground supperless. At such times I would be compelled to
+rise from time to time and tighten up my belt, until I must have
+resembled one of the ladies of fashion, so far as the waist was
+concerned. Again we came to marshy ground, filled with royal duck,
+teal, water-hens, snipe, etc, and forgot the pangs of past hunger. At
+such places we would fill our horns and drink the putrid water, or
+take off our shirts and wash them and our bodies. Mud had to serve
+for soap. Our washing, spread out on the reeds, would soon dry, and
+off we would start for another stage.
+
+The unpeopled state of the country was a constant wonder to me;
+generations have disappeared without leaving a trace of their
+existence. Sometimes I stopped to admire the pure white water-lilies
+growing on stagnant black water, or the lovely Victoria Regia, the
+leaf of which is at times so large as to weigh ten pounds. The
+flowers have white petals, tinted with rose, and the centre is a deep
+violet. Their weight is between two and three pounds.
+
+Wherever we camped we lit immense fires of brushwood, and generally
+slept peacefully, but with loaded rifle at arm's length.
+
+A portion of land which I rode over while in that district must have
+been just a thin crust covering a mighty cave. The horses' footfalls
+made hollow sounds, and when the thin roof shook I half expected to
+be precipitated into unknown depths.
+
+After many weeks of varied experiences we arrived at or near the land
+I was seeking. There, on the banks of a river, we struck camp, and
+from there I made short excursions in all directions in order to
+ascertain the approximate value of the old gentleman's estate. On the
+land we came upon an encampment of poor, half or wholly naked Caingwa
+Indians. By them we were kindly received, and found that,
+notwithstanding their extremely sunken condition and abject poverty,
+they seemed to have mandioca and bananas in abundance. In return for
+a few knives and beads, I was able to purchase quite a stock. Seeing
+that all the dishes, plates, and bottles they have grow in the form
+of gourds, they imagine all such things we use also grow. It was
+amusing to hear them ask for _seeds of the glass medicine bottles_ I
+carried with me.
+
+A drum, ingeniously made by stretching a serpent's skin over a large
+calabash, was monotonously beaten as our good-night lullaby when we
+stretched ourselves out on the grass.
+
+The Caingwa men all had their lower lip pierced, and hanging down
+over the breast was a thin stick about ten inches long. Their faces
+were also painted in strange patterns.
+
+Learning from their chief that the royal tribe to which they
+originally belonged lived away in the depths of the forest to the
+east, some moons distant, I became curious. After repeated enquiries
+I was told that a king ruled the people there, and that they daily
+worshipped the sun. Hearing of these sun-worshippers, I determined,
+if possible, to push on thither. The old chief himself offered to
+direct us if, in return, I would give him a shirt, a knife, and a
+number of white beads. The bargain was struck, and arrangements were
+made to start off at sunrise next day, My commission was not only to
+see the old gentleman's land, but to visit the surrounding Indians,
+with a view to missionary work being commenced among them.
+
+The morning dawned clear and propitious, but the chief had decided
+not to go. On enquiring the reason for the change of mind, I
+discovered that his people had been telling him that I only wanted to
+get him into the forest in order to kill him, and that I would not
+give him the promised shirt and beads. I thought that it was much
+more likely for him to kill me than I him, and I set his mind at rest
+about the reward, for on the spot I gave him the coveted articles. On
+receipt of those luxuries his doubts of me fled, and I soon assured
+him that I had no intention whatever of taking his life. Towards noon
+we started off, and, winding our way through the Indian paths in
+single file, we again soon left behind us all signs of man, and saw
+nothing to mark that any had passed that way before.
+
+That night, as we sat under a large silk-cotton tree silently eating
+supper off plates of palm leaves, the old chief suddenly threw down
+his meat, and, with a startled expression, said, "I hear spirits!"
+Never having heard such ethereal visitors myself, I smiled
+incredulously, whereupon the old savage glared at me, and, leaving
+his food upon the ground went away out of the firelight into the
+darkness. Afraid that he might take one of the horses and return to
+his people, I followed to soothe him, but his offended mood did not
+pass until, as he said, the _spirits_ had gone.
+
+On the third day scarcity of water began to be felt. We had been
+slowly ascending the rugged steeps of a mountain, and as the day wore
+on the thirst grew painful. That night both we and the horses had to
+be content with the dew-drops we sucked from the grass, and our dumb
+companions showed signs of great exhaustion. The Indian assured me
+that if we could push on we would, by next evening, come to a
+beautiful lake in the mountains: so, ere the sun rose next morning,
+we were in the saddle on our journey to the coveted water.
+
+All that day we plodded along painfully, silently. Our lips were
+dried together, and our tongues swollen. Thirst hurts! The horses
+hung their heads and ears, and we were compelled to dismount and go
+afoot. The poor creatures were getting so thin that our weight seemed
+to crush them to the earth. The sun again set, darkness fell, and the
+lake was, for all I could see, a dream of the chief, our guide. At
+night, after repeating the sucking of the dew, we ate a little, drank
+the blood of an animal, and tried to sleep. The patient horses stood
+beside us with closed eyes and bowed heads, until the sight was more
+than I could bear. Fortunately, a very heavy dew fell, which greatly
+helped us, and two hours before sunrise next morning the loads were
+equally distributed on the backs of the seven horses and we started
+off once again through the mist for water! water! When the sun
+illuminated the heavens and lit up the rugged peaks of the strangely
+shaped mountains ahead of us, hope was revived. We sucked the fruit
+of the date palm, and in imagination bathed and wallowed in the
+water--beautiful water--we so soon expected to behold. The poor
+horses, however, not buoyed up with sweet hopes as we were, gave out,
+one after the other, and we were compelled to cruelly urge them on up
+the steep. With it all, I had to leave two of the weaker ones behind,
+purposing, if God should in kindness permit us to reach water, to
+return and save them.
+
+That afternoon the Indian chief, who, though an old man, had shown
+wonderful fortitude and endurance, and still led the way, shouted:
+"_Eyoape! Eyoape!_" (Come! Come!) We were near the lake. With new-
+born strength I left all and ran, broke through the brushwood of the
+shore, jumped into the lake, and found--nothing but hard earth! The
+lake was dried up! I dug my heel into the ground to see if below the
+surface there might be soft mud, but failing to find even that, I
+dropped over with the world dancing in distorted visions before my
+eyes. More I cannot relate.
+
+How long I lay there I never knew. The Indian, I learned later,
+exploring a deep gully at the other side, found a putrid pool of
+slime, full of poisonous frogs and alive with insects. Some of this
+liquid he brought to me in his hands, and, after putting it in my
+mouth, had the satisfaction of seeing me revive. I dimly remember
+that my next act was to crawl towards the water-hole he guided me to.
+In this I lay and drank. I suppose it soaked into my system as rain
+in the earth after a drought. That stagnant pool was our salvation.
+The horses were brought up, and we drank, and drank again. Not until
+our thirst was slaked did we fully realize how the water stank! When
+the men were sufficiently refreshed they returned for the abandoned
+horses, which were found still alive. Had they scented water
+somewhere and drank? At the foot of the mountains, on the other side,
+we later discovered much better water, and there we camped, our
+horses revelling in the abundant pasturage.
+
+After this rest we continued our journey, and next day came to the
+edge of a virgin forest. Through that, the chief said, we must cut
+our way, for the royal tribe never came out, and were never visited.
+Close to the edge of the forest was a deep precipice, at the bottom
+of which we could discern a silvery streak of clear water. From there
+we must procure the precious fluid for ourselves and horses. Taking
+our kettle and horns, we sought the best point to descend, and after
+considerable difficulty, clinging to the branches of the overhanging
+trees and the dense undergrowth, we reached the bottom. After slaking
+our thirst we ascended with filled horns and kettle to water the
+horses. As may be supposed, this was a tedious task, and the descent
+had to be made many times before the horses were satisfied. My hat
+served for watering pail.
+
+Next morning the same process was repeated, and then the men, each
+with long _machetes_ I had provided, set to work to cut a path
+through the forest, and Old Stabbed Arm went off in search of game.
+After a two hours' hunt, a fat ostrich fell before his rifle, and he
+returned to camp. We still had a little chipá, which had by this time
+become as hard as stone, but which I jealously guarded to use only in
+case of the greatest emergency. At times we had been very hungry, but
+my order was that it should not be touched.
+
+Only the reader who has seen the virgin forest, with its interlacing
+_lianas_, thick as a man's leg--the thorns six inches long and sharp
+as needles--can form an idea of the task before us. As we penetrated
+farther and farther in the _selva_, the darkness became deeper and
+deeper. Giant trees reared their heads one hundred and fifty feet
+into the heavens, and beautiful palms, with slender trunks and
+delicate, feathery leaves, waved over us. The medicinal plants were
+represented by sarsaparilla and many others equally valuable. There
+was the cocoa palm, the date palm, and the cabbage palm, the latter
+of which furnished us good food, while the wine tree afforded an
+excellent and cooling drink. In parts all was covered with beautiful
+pendant air-flowers, gorgeous with all the colors of the rainbow.
+Monkeys chattered and parrots screamed, but otherwise there was a
+sombre stillness. The exhalations from the depth of rotting leaves
+and the decaying fallen wood rendered the steamy atmosphere most
+poisonous. Truly, the flora was magnificent, and the fauna,
+represented by the spotted jaguar, whose roar at times broke the
+awful quiet of the night, was equally grand.
+
+As the chief, ignorant of hours and miles, could not tell me the
+extent of the forest, I determined to let him and Timoteo make their
+way through as best they could, crawling through the branches, to the
+Sun-Worshippers, and secure their help in cutting a way for the
+horses. After dividing the food I had, we separated. Timoteo and the
+Indian crept into the forest and were soon lost sight of, while Old
+Stabbed Arm and I, with the horses, retraced our steps, and reached
+the open land again. After an earnest conversation my companion
+shouldered his rifle and went off to hunt, and I was left with only
+the companionship of the grazing horses. I remained behind to water
+the animals, and protect our goods from any prowling savage who might
+chance to be in the neighborhood. My saddle-bed was spread under a
+large _burning bush_, or incense tree, and my self-imposed duty was
+to keep a fire burning in the open, that its smoke might be seen by
+day and its light by night.
+
+Going exploring a little, I discovered a much better descent down the
+precipice, and water was more easily brought up. Indeed, I decided
+that, if a certain deep chasm were bridged over, it might be possible
+to get the horses themselves to descend by a winding way. With this
+object in view I felled saplings near the place, and in a few hours
+constructed a rough bridge, strong enough to bear a horse's weight.
+Whether the animals could smell the water flowing at the bottom, or
+were more agile than I had thought, I cannot tell, but they descended
+the almost perpendicular path most wonderfully, and soon were taking
+draughts of the precious liquid with great gusto. Leaving the horses
+to enjoy their drink, I ascended the stream for some distance, in
+order to discover, if possible, where the flow came from. Judge of my
+surprise when I found that the water ran out of a grotto, or cavern,
+in the face of the cliff-out of the unknown darkness into the
+sunlight! Walking up the bed of the stream, I entered the cave, and,
+striking a few matches, found it to be inhabited by hundreds of
+vampire bats, which were hanging from the sides and stalactites of
+the roof, like so many damp, black rags. On my entrance the unearthly
+creatures were disturbed, and many came flying in my face, so I made
+a quick exit. Several which I killed came floating down the stream
+with me; one that I measured proved to be twenty-two inches across
+the wings. My exploration had discovered the secret of the clots of
+blood we had been finding on the horses' necks every morning. The
+vampire-bats, in their nightly flights, had been sucking the life-
+blood of our poor, already starving animals! It is said these
+loathsome creatures--half beast, half bird--fan their victim to sleep
+while they drain out the red blood. Provided with palm torches, I
+again entered the cavern, but could not penetrate its depths; it
+seemed to go right into the bowels of the mountain. Exploring down
+stream was more successful, for large flamingoes and wild ducks and
+geese were found in plenty.
+
+That night I carefully staked out the horses all around the camp-fire
+and lay down to think and sleep and dream. Old Stabbed Arm had not
+returned, and I was alone with nature. Several times I rose to see if
+the horses were securely tied, and to kill any bats I might find
+disturbing them. Rising in the grey dawn, I watered the horses,
+cooked a piece of ostrich meat, and started off on foot for a short
+distance to explore the country to the north, where I saw many
+indications that tapirs were numerous. My first sight of this
+peculiar animal of Paraguay I shall never forget. It resembles no
+other beast I have ever seen, but seems half elephant, with its
+muzzle like a short trunk. In size it is about six feet long and
+three and a half feet high. There were also ant-bears, peculiar
+animals, without teeth, but provided with a rough tongue to lick up
+the ants. The length of this animal is about four feet, but the thick
+tail is longer than the body. Whereas the tapir has a hog-like skin,
+the ant-bear has long, bristly hairs.
+
+Returning to camp, judge of my surprise when I found it in possession
+of two savages of strange appearance. My first thought was that I had
+lost all, but, drawing nearer, I discovered that Timoteo and the
+chief were also there, squatting on the ground, devouring the remains
+of my breakfast. They had returned from the royal tribe, who had
+offered to cut a way from their side, and these two strangers were to
+assist us.
+
+With this additional help we again penetrated the forest. The men cut
+with a will, and I drove the horses after them. Black, howling
+monkeys, with long beards and grave countenances, leapt among the
+trees. Red and blue macaws screeched overhead, and many a large
+serpent received its death-blow from our machetes. Sometimes we were
+fortunate enough to secure a bees' nest full of honey, or find
+luscious fruit. At times I stopped to admire a giant tree, eight or
+ten feet in diameter, or orchids of the most delicate hues, but the
+passage was hard and trying, and the stagnant air most difficult to
+breathe. The fallen tree-trunks, over which we had to step, or go
+around or under, were very numerous, and sometimes we landed in a
+bed, not of roses, but of thorns. Sloths and strange birds' nests
+hung from the trees, while the mosquitos and insects made life almost
+unendurable. We were covered with carapatas, bruised and torn, and
+almost eaten up alive with insects.
+
+
+[Illustration: PARAGUAYAN FOREST INDIAN. These dwarf men use a very
+long bow, while the Patagonian uses a short one]
+
+
+Under the spreading branches of one of the largest trees we came upon
+an abandoned Indian camp. This, I was told, had belonged to the
+"little men of the woods," hairy dwarfs, a few of whom inhabit the
+depths of the forest, and kill their game with blow-pipes. Of course
+we saw none of the poor creatures. Their scent is as keen as an
+animal's; they are agile as monkeys, and make off to hide in the
+hollow trunks of trees, or bury themselves in the decaying vegetation
+until danger is past. Poor pigmy! What place will he occupy in the
+life that is to be?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WE REACH THE SUN-WORSHIPPERS.
+
+
+After some days' journey we heard shouts, and knew that, like
+entombed miners, we were being dug out on the other side! The
+Caingwas soon met us, and I looked into their faces and gravely
+saluted. They stared at me in speechless astonishment, and I as
+curiously regarded them. Each man had his lower lip pierced and wore
+the _barbote_ I have described, with the difference that these were
+made of gum.
+
+With a clear path before us we now made better progress, and before
+long emerged from the living tomb, but the memory of it will ever
+remain a nightmare.
+
+We found a crowd of excited Indians, young and old, awaiting us. Many
+of the females ran like frightened deer on catching sight of me, but
+an old man, whom I afterwards learned was the _High Priest_ of the
+tribe, came and asked my business. Assuring him, through Timoteo,
+that my mission was peaceable, and that I had presents for them, he
+gave me permission to enter into the glade, where I was told
+_Nandeyara_ [Footnote: "Our Owner," the most beautiful word for God I
+have ever heard.] had placed them at the beginning of the world. Had
+I discovered the _Garden of Eden_, the place from which man had been
+wandering for 6,000 years? I was conducted by Rocanandivá (the high
+priest) down a steep path to the valley, where we came in view of
+several large peculiarly shaped houses, built of bamboo. Near these
+dwellings were perhaps a hundred men, women and children, remnants of
+a vanishing nation. Some had a mat around their loins, but many were
+naked. All the males had the _barbote_ in the lip, and had
+exceptionally thick hair, matted with grease and mud. Most of them
+had a repellant look on their pigment-painted faces, and I could very
+distinctly see that I was not a welcome visitor. No, I had not
+reached Eden! Only "beyond the clouds and beyond the tomb" would the
+bowers of Eden be discovered to me. Hearing domestic hens cackling
+around the houses, I bade Timoteo tell the priest that we were very
+hungry, and that if he killed two chickens for us I would give him a
+beautiful gift later on. The priest distinctly informed me, however,
+that I must give first, or no fowl would be killed. From that
+decision I tried to move him, urging that I was tired, the pack was
+hard to undo, and to-morrow, when I was rested, I would well repay
+them the kindness. My words were thrown away; not a bite should we
+eat until the promised knife was given. I was faint with hunger, but
+from the load on the packhorse I procured the knife, which I handed
+to my unwilling host with the promise of other gifts later. On
+receipt of this treasure he gave orders to the boys standing off at a
+distance to catch two chickens. The birds were knocked over by the
+stones thrown at them. Two women now came forward with clay pots on
+their heads and fire-sticks in their hands, and they superintended
+the cooking. Without cutting off either heads or legs, or pulling out
+the birds' feathers, the chickens were placed in the pots with water.
+Lying down near the fire, I, manlike, impatiently waited for supper.
+Perhaps a minute had dragged its weary length along when I picked up
+a stick from the ground and poked one of the fowls out of the water,
+which was not yet warm. Holding the bird in one hand, and pulling
+feathers out of my mouth with the other, I ate as my forefathers did
+ages ago. Years before this I had learned that a hungry man can eat
+what an epicure despises. After this feast I lay down on the ground
+behind one of the tepees, and, with my head resting on my most valued
+possessions, went to sleep.
+
+Having promised to give the priest and his wife another present, I
+was awakened very early next morning. They had come for their gifts.
+Rising from my hard bed, I stretched myself and awoke my servant,
+under whose head were the looking-glasses. I presented one of these
+to the woman, who looked in it with satisfaction and evident
+pleasure. Whether she was pleased with her reflection or with the
+glass I cannot tell, but I feel sure it must have been the latter! A
+necklace to the daughter and a further gift to the old man gained
+their friendship, and food was brought to us. After partaking of this
+I was informed that the king desired to see me, and that I must
+proceed at once to his hut.
+
+His majesty (?) lived on the other side of the river, close at hand.
+This water was of course unbridged, so, in order to cross, I was
+compelled to divest myself of my clothing and walk through it in
+nature's garb. The water came up to my breast, and once I thought the
+clothes I carried on my head would get wet. Dressing on the other
+side, I presented myself at the king's abode. There I was kindly
+received, being invited to take up my quarters with him and his royal
+family. The king was a tall man of somewhat commanding appearance,
+but, save for the loin cloth, he was naked, like the rest. The queen,
+a little woman, was as scantily dressed as her husband. She was very
+shy, and I noticed the rest of the inmates of the hut peeping through
+the crevices of the corn-stalk partition of an inner room. After
+placing around the shapely neck of the queen a specially fine
+necklace I had brought, and giving the king a large hunting-knife, I
+was regaled with roasted yams, and later on with a whole watermelon.
+
+Timoteo, my servant, whose native language was Guarani, could
+understand most of the idiom of the Sun Worshippers, which we found
+to be similar to that spoken by the civilized inhabitants of the
+country. There must therefore have been some connection between the
+two peoples at one time. The questions, "Where have you come from?"
+"Why have you come?" were asked and answered, and I, in return,
+learned much of this strange tribe. Máté was served, but whereas in
+the outside world a rusty tin tube to suck it through is in
+possession of even the poorest, here they used only a reed. I was
+astonished to find the máté sweetened. Knowing that they could not
+possibly have any of the luxuries of civilization, I made enquiries
+regarding this, and was told that they used a herb which grew in the
+valley, to which they gave the name of _cá-ha hé-hé_ (sweet herb).
+This plant, which is not unlike clover, is sweet as sugar, whether
+eaten green or in a dried state.
+
+There was not a seat of any description in the hut, but the king
+said, "_Eguapú_" ("Sit down"), so I squatted on the earthen floor. A
+broom is not to be found in the kingdom, and the house had never been
+swept!
+
+A curiosity I noticed was the calabash which the king carried
+attached to his belt. This relic was regarded with great reverence,
+and at first His Majesty declined to reveal its character; but after
+I had won his confidence by gifts of beads and mirrors, he became
+more communicative. One day, in a burst of pride, he told me that the
+gourd contained the ashes of his ancestors, who were the ancient
+kings. Though the Spaniards sought to carefully rout out and destroy
+all direct descendants of the royal family of the Incas, their
+historians tell us that some remote connections escaped. The Indians
+of Peru have legends to the effect that at the time of the Spanish
+invasion an Inca chieftain led an emigration of his people down the
+mountains. Humboldt, writing in the 18th century, said: "It is
+interesting to inquire whether any other princes of the family of
+Manco Capac have remained in the forests; and if there still exist
+any of the Incas of Peru in other places." Had I discovered some
+descendants of this vanished race? The Montreal _Journal_, commenting
+on my discovery, said: "The question is of extreme interest to the
+scientific enquirer, even if they are not what Mr. Ray thinks them."
+
+The royal family consisted of the parents, a son and his wife, a
+daughter and her husband, and two younger girls. I was invited to
+sleep in the inner room, which the parents occupied, and the two
+married couples remained in the common room. All slept in fibre
+hammocks, made greasy and black by the smoke from the fire burning on
+the floor in the centre of the room. No chimney, window, door, or
+article of furniture graced the house.
+
+"The court of the Incas rivalled that of Rome, Jerusalem, or any of
+the old Oriental countries, in riches and show, the palaces being
+decorated with a great profusion of gold, silver, fine cloth and
+precious stones." [Footnote: Rev. Thomas Wood, LL.D., Lima, Peru, In
+"Protestant Missions in South America."]
+
+An ancient Spanish writer who measured some of the stones of the
+Incan palace at Cuzco tells us there were stones so nicely adjusted
+that it was impossible to introduce even the blade of a knife between
+them, and that some of those stones were thirty-eight feet long, by
+eighteen feet broad, and six feet thick. What a descent for the
+"Children of the Sun"! "How are the mighty fallen!" Thoughts of the
+past and the mean present passed through my mind as I lay down in the
+dust of the earthen floor that first night of my stay with the king.
+
+Owing to the thousands of fleas in the dust of the room it was hard
+for me to rest much, and that night a storm brewing made sleep almost
+impossible. As the thunder pealed forth all the Indians of the houses
+hastily got out of their hammocks and grasped gourd rattles and
+beautifully woven cotton banners. The rattles were shaken
+ and the banners waved, while a droning chant was struck up by the
+high priest, and the louder the thunder rolled the louder their
+voices rose and the more lustily they shook the seeds in their
+calabashes. They were trying to appease the dread deity of Thunder,
+as did their Inca ancestors. The voice of the old priest led the
+worship, and for _four hours_ there was no cessation of the
+monotonous song, except when he performed some mystic ceremony which
+I understood not.
+
+Just as the old priest had awakened me the first morning to ask for
+his present, so the king came tapping me gently the second. In his
+hand he had a large sweet potato, and in my half-dreamy state I heard
+him saying, "Give me your coat. Eat a potato?" The change I thought
+was greatly to his advantage, but I was anxious to please him. I
+possessed two coats, while he was, as he said, a poor old man, and
+had no coat. The barter was concluded; I ate the potato, and he, with
+strange grimaces, donned a coat for the first time in his life. Think
+of this for an alleged descendant of the great Atahuallpa, whose
+robes and jewels were priceless!
+
+I offered to give the queen a feminine garment of white cotton if she
+would wear it, but this I could not prevail upon her to do; it was
+"ugly." As a loin-cloth, she would use it, but put it on--no! In the
+latter savage style the shaped garment was thereafter worn. Women
+have _fashions_ all over the globe.
+
+The few inches of clothing worn by the Caingwa women are never
+washed, and the only attempt at cleansing the body I saw when among
+them was that of a woman who filled her mouth with water and squirted
+it back on her hands, which she then wiped on her loin-cloth!
+
+Prescott, writing of the Incas, says: "They loved to indulge in the
+luxury of their baths, replenished by streams of crystal water which
+were conducted through subterraneous silver channels into basins of
+gold."
+
+The shapely little mouth of the queen was spoilt by the habit she had
+of smoking a _heavy_ pipe made of red clay. I was struck with the
+weight and shape of this, for it exactly resembled those made by the
+old cliff-dwellers, unknown centuries ago. One will weigh at least a
+quarter of a pound. For a mouth-piece they use a bird's quill. The
+tobacco they grow themselves.
+
+Near the royal abode were the kitchen gardens. A tract of forest had
+been fired, and this clearing planted with bananas, mandioca, sweet
+potatoes, etc. The blackened trunks of the trees rose up like so many
+evil spirits above the green foliage. The garden implements used were
+of the most primitive description; a crooked stick served for hoe,
+and long, heavy, sharpened iron-wood clubs were used instead of the
+steel plough of civilization.
+
+As I have already remarked, I found the people were sun-worshippers.
+Each morning, just as the rising sun lit up the eastern sky, young
+and old came out of their houses, the older ones carrying empty
+gourds with the dry seeds inside. At a signal from the high priest, a
+solemn droning chant was struck up, to the monotonous time kept by
+the numerous gourd rattles. As the sun rose higher and higher, the
+chanting grew louder and louder, and the echoes of _"He! he! he! ha!
+ha! ha! laima! laima!"_ were repeated by the distant hills. When the
+altar of incense (described later) was illuminated by the sun-god,
+the chanting ceased.
+
+After this solemn worship of the Orb of Day, the women, with quiet
+demeanor and in single file, went off to their work in the gardens.
+On returning, each carried a basket made of light canes, slung on the
+back and held up by plaited fibres forming a band which came across
+their foreheads. The baskets contained the day's vegetables. Meat was
+seldom eaten by them, but this was probably because of its scarcity,
+for when we killed an ostrich they clamored for a share. Reptiles of
+all kinds, and even caterpillars, are devoured by them when hungry.
+
+The Caingwas are under the average height, but use the longest bows
+and arrows I have ever seen. Some I brought away measure nearly seven
+feet in length. The points are made of sharpened iron-wood, notched
+like the back of a fish-hook, and they are poisoned with serpent
+venom. Besides these weapons, it was certainly strange to find them
+living in the _stone age_, for in the hands of the older members of
+the tribe were to be seen stone axes. The handles of these primitive
+weapons are scraped into shape by flints, as probably our savage
+forefathers in Britain did theirs two thousand years ago.
+
+Entering the low, narrow doorway of one of the bamboo frame houses, I
+saw that it was divided into ten-foot squares by corn-stalk
+partitions a yard high. These places, like so many stalls for horses,
+run down each side of the _hogá_. One family occupies a division,
+sleeping in net hammocks made of long, coarse grass. A "family man"
+usually has bands of human hair twisted around his legs below the
+knees, and also around the wrists. This hair is torn from his wife's
+head. Down the centre are numerous fires for cooking purposes, but
+the house was destitute of chimney. Wood is burned, and the place was
+at times so full of smoke that I could not distinguish one Indian
+from another. Fortunately, the walls of the house, as was also the
+roof, were in bad repair, and some of the smoke escaped through the
+chinks. Sixty people lived in the largest hogá, and I judged the
+number of the whole tribe to be about three hundred.
+
+The doorways of all the houses faced towards the east, as did those
+of the Inca. In the principal one, where the high priest lived, a
+square altar of red clay was erected. I quickly noticed that on this
+elevation, which was about a yard high, there burned a very carefully
+tended fire of holy wood. Enquiring the meaning of this, I was
+informed that, very many moons ago, Nande-yara had come in person to
+visit the tribe, and when with them had lit the fire, which, he said,
+they must not under any circumstances suffer to die out. Ever since
+then the smoke of the incense had ascended to their "Owner" in his
+far-off dwelling.
+
+How forcibly was I reminded of the scripture referring to the Jewish
+altar of long ago, "There the fire shall ever be burning upon the
+altar; it shall never go out." If I had not discovered Eden, I had at
+least found the altar and fire of Edenic origin.
+
+Behind the altar, occupying the stall directly opposite the doorway,
+stood the tribal god. As the Caingwas are sun-worshippers, I was
+surprised to see this, but Rocanandivia, with grave demeanor, told me
+that when Nandeyara departed from them he left behind him his
+representative. In the chapter on Mariolatry, I have traced the
+natural tendency of man to sink from spiritual to image worship, and
+I found that the Caingwas, like all pagans, had reverted to a
+something they could see and feel. Remembering that they had never
+heard the second commandment, written by God because of this failing
+in man, we can excuse them, but what shall be said of the enlightened
+Romanists?
+
+Being exceedingly anxious to procure their "Copy of God," I tried to
+bargain with the priest. I offered him one thing and another, but to
+all my proposals he turned a deaf ear, and finally, glaring at me,
+said that _nothing_ would ever induce him to part with it. The people
+would never allow the image to be taken away, as the life of the
+tribe was bound up with it Seeing that he was not to be moved, I
+desisted, though a covetous look in his eye when I offered a
+beautiful colored rug in exchange gave me hope, Rocanandiva was, like
+most idolatrous priests, very fanatical. When he learned that I
+professed and taught a different religion, his jealousy was most
+marked, and he often told me to go from them, I was not wanted.
+Living with the king, however, saved me from ejection.
+
+One day the priest, ever on the beg, was anxious to obtain some
+article from me, and I determined to give it only on one condition.
+Being anxious to tell the people the story of Jesus, I had repeatedly
+asked permission of him, but had been as often repulsed. They did not
+want _me_, or any new "words," he would reply. Turning to him now, I
+said, "Rocanandiva, if you will allow me to tell 'words' to the
+people you shall have the present." The priest turned on his heel and
+left me. Knowing his cupidity, I was not surprised when, later, he
+came to me and said that I could tell them _words_, and held out his
+hand for the gift.
+
+After sun-worship next morning the king announced that I had
+something new to tell them. When all were seated on the ground in
+wondering silence, I began in simple language to tell "the old, old
+story." My address was somewhat similar to the following: "Many moons
+ago, Nandeyara, looking down from his abode, saw that all the men and
+women and children in the world were bad; that is, they had done
+wrong things, such as . . . Now God has a Son, and to Him He said,
+Look down and see. All are doing wicked things! He looked and saw.
+The Father said that for their sin they should have to die, but that
+Jesus, His Son, could come down and die in their place. The Son came,
+and lived on earth many moons; but was hated, and at last caught, and
+large pieces of iron (like the priest's knife) were put into His
+hands and feet, and He was fastened to a tree. After this a man came,
+and, with a very long knife, brought the blood out of the side of
+Jesus, and He died." Purposing to further explain my story, I was not
+pleased when the priest stopped me, and, stepping forth, told the
+people that my account was not true. He then in eloquent tones
+related to them what he called the _real story_, to which I listened
+in amazed wonder.
+
+"Many moons ago," he began, "we were dying of hunger! One day the
+Sun, our god, changed into a man, and he walked down _that_ road."
+(Here he pointed to the east.) "The chief met him. 'All your people
+are dying of hunger,' said god. 'Yes, they are,' the chief replied.
+'Will you die instead of all the people?' Nandeyara said. 'Yes, I
+will,' the chief answered. He immediately dropped down dead, and god
+came to the village where we all are now. 'Your chief is lying dead
+up the road,' he said, 'go and bury him, and after three days are
+passed visit the grave, when you will find a plant growing out of
+ his mouth; that will be corn, and it will save you!'" Then, turning
+to me, the priest said: "This we did, and behold us alive! That is
+the story!" A strange legend, surely, and yet the reader will be
+struck with the grains of truth intermingled--life, resulting from
+the sacrificial death of another; the substitution of the one for the
+many; the life-giving seed germinating after _three days' burial_,
+reminding one of John 12:24: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the
+ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth
+much fruit." Strange that so many aboriginal people have legends so
+near the truth.
+
+Some days later the chiefs son and I were alone, and I saw that
+something troubled him. He tried to tell me, but I was somewhat
+ignorant of his language, so, after looking in all directions to see
+that we were really alone, he led the way into a dark corner of the
+hogá, where we were. There, from under a pile of garden baskets,
+calabashes, etc., he brought out a peculiarly-shaped gourd, full of
+some red, powdery substance. This, with trembling haste, he put into
+my hand, and seemed greatly relieved when I had it securely. Going
+then to the corner where I kept my goods, he took up a box of matches
+and made signs for me to exchange, which I did. When Timoteo returned
+I learned that the young man was custodian of the devil--the only and
+original one--and that he had palmed him off on me for a box of
+matches! How the superstition of the visible presence of the devil
+originated I have no idea, but there might be some meaning in the
+man's earnest desire to exchange it for matches, or lights, the
+emblem of their fire or sun-worship. Was this simple deal fallen
+man's feeble effort to rid himself of the _Usurper_ and get back the
+_Father_, for it is very significant that the Caingwa word, _ta-ta_
+(light), signifies also father. Do they need light, or are they
+sufficiently illumined for time and eternity? Will the reader
+reverently stand with me, in imagination, beside an Indian grave? A
+girl has died through snake poisoning. A shallow grave has been dug
+for her remains. Into this hole her body has been dropped,
+uncoffined, in a sitting position. Beside the body is placed some
+food and a few paltry trinkets, and the people stand around with that
+disconsolate look which is only seen upon the faces of those who know
+not the Father. As they thus linger, the witch-doctor asks, "Is the
+dog killed?" Someone replies, "Yes, the dog is killed." "Is the head
+cut off?" is then asked. "Yes, the head is off," is the reply. "Put
+it in the grave, then," says the medicine man; and then the dog's
+head is dropped at the girl's feet.
+
+Why do they do this? you ask. Question their _wise man_, and he will
+say: "A dog is a very clever animal. He can always find his way. A
+girl gets lost when alone. For that reason we place a dog's head with
+her, that it may guide her in the spirit life." I ask again, "Do they
+need missionaries?"
+
+My stay with the sun-worshippers, though interesting, was painful.
+Excepting when we cooked our own food, I almost starved. Their habits
+are extremely filthy, indeed more loathsome and disgusting than I
+dare relate.
+
+My horses were by now refreshed with their rest, and appeared able
+for the return journey, so I determined to start back to
+civilization. The priest heard of my decision with unfeigned joy, but
+the king and queen were sorrowful. These pressed me to return again
+some time, but said I must bring with me a _boca_ (gun) like my own
+for the king, with some more strings of white beads for the queen's
+wrists.
+
+While saddling our horses in the grey dawn, the wily priest came to
+me with a bundle, and, quietly drawing me aside, said that Nandeyara
+was inside, and in exchange for the bright rug I could take him away.
+The exchange was made, and I tied their god, along with bows and
+arrows, etc., on the back of a horse, and we said farewell. I had
+strict orders to cover up the idol from the eyes of the people until
+we got away. Even when miles distant, I kept looking back, fearing
+that the duped Indians were following in enraged numbers. Of course,
+the priest would give out that I had _stolen_ the image.
+
+Ah, Rocanandiva, you are not the first who has been willing to sell
+his god for worldly gain! The hand of Judas burned with "thirty
+pieces of silver," the earthly value of the Divine One. Pilate, for
+personal profit, said: "Let Him be crucified." And millions to-day
+sell Him for "a mess of pottage."
+
+The same horse bore away the _devil_ and _god_, so perhaps without
+the one there would be no need of the other.
+
+So prolific is the vegetation that during our few weeks' stay with
+the Indians the creeping thorns and briars had almost covered up the
+path we had cut through the forest, and it was again necessary to use
+our machetes. The larger growth, however, being down, this was not
+difficult, and we entered its sombre stillness once more. What
+strange creatures people its tangled recesses we knew not.
+
+     "For beasts and birds have seen and heard
+     That which man knoweth not."
+
+I hurried through with little wish to penetrate its secret. Mere
+existence was hard enough in its steaming semi-darkness. Our clothes
+were now almost torn to shreds (I had sought to mend mine with horse-
+hair thread, with poor results), and we duly emerged into daylight on
+the other side, ragged, torn and dirty.
+
+Our journey back to civilization was similar to the outward way. We
+selected a slightly different route, but left the old chief safe and
+well with his people.
+
+One night our horses were startled by a bounding jaguar, and were so
+terrified that they broke away and scattered in all directions.
+Searching for them detained us a whole day, but fortunately we were
+able to round them all up again. Two were found in a wood of
+strangely-shaped bushes, whose large, tough leaves rustled like
+parchment.
+
+One afternoon a heavy rain came on, and we stopped to construct a
+shelter of green branches, into which we crept. The downpour became
+so heavy that it dripped through our hastily-constructed arbor, and
+we were soon soaking wet. Owing to the dampness of the fuel, it was
+only after much patient work that we were able to light a fire and
+dry our clothes. There we remained for three days, Timoteo sighing
+for Pegwaomi, and the wind sighing still louder, to our discomfort.
+Everything we had was saturated. Sleeping on the soaking ground, the
+poisonous tarantula spiders crept over us. These loathsome creatures,
+second only to the serpent, are frequently so large as to spread
+their thick, hairy legs over a six-inch diameter.
+
+The storm passed, and we started off towards the river Ipane, which
+was now considerably swollen. Three times on the expedition we had
+halted to build rough bridges over chasms or mountain streams with
+perpendicular banks, but this was broad and had to be crossed through
+the water. As I rode the largest and strongest horse, it was my place
+to venture first into the rushing stream. The animal bravely stemmed
+the current, as did the rest, but Old Stabbed Arm, riding a weaker
+horse, nearly lost his life. The animal was washed down by the strong
+current, and but for the man's previous long experience in swimming
+rivers he would never have reached the bank. The pony also somehow
+struggled through to the side, landing half-drowned, and Old Stabbed
+Arm received a few hearty pats on the back. The load on the mare was
+further soaked, but most of our possessions had been ruined long ago.
+My cartridges I had slung around my neck, and I held the photographic
+plates in my teeth, while the left hand carried my gun, so these were
+preserved. To my care on that occasion the reader is indebted for
+some of the illustrations in this volume. Nandeyara got another wash,
+but he had been wet before, and never complained!
+
+On the farther side of the river was a deserted house, and we could
+distinctly trace the heavy footprints of a tapir leading up the path
+and through the open doorway. We entered with caution. Was the beast
+in then? No. He had gone out by a back way, probably made by himself,
+through the wattled wall. We could see the place was frequented very
+often by wild pigs, which had left hundreds of footprints in the
+three-inch depth of dust on the floor. There we lit a fire to again
+dry our clothes, and prepared to pass the night, expecting a visit
+from the hogs. Had they appeared when we were ready for them, the
+visit would not have been unwelcome. Food was hard to procure, and
+animals did not come very often to be shot. Had they found us asleep,
+however, the waking would have been terrible indeed, for they will
+eat human flesh just as ravenously as roots. After spreading our
+saddle-cloths on the dust and filth, Old Stabbed Arm and I were
+chatting about the Caingwas and their dirty habits, when Timoteo,
+heaving a sigh of relief, said: "Thank God, we are clean at last!" He
+was satisfied with the pigpen as he recalled the _hogá_ of the Sun-
+Worshippers.
+
+ At last the village of Pegwaomi was reached, and, oh, we were not
+sorry, for the havoc of the jiggers in our feet was getting terrible!
+The keen-eyed inhabitants caught sight of us while we were still
+distant, and when we reined up, Timoteo's aged mother tremblingly
+said, "_Yoape_" ("Come here") to him, and she wept as she embraced
+her boy. Truly, there was no sight so sweet to "mother" as that of
+her ragged, travel-stained son; and Timoteo, the strong man, wept.
+The fatted calf was then killed a few yards from the doorstep, by
+having its throat cut. Offal littered up the doorway, and the
+children in their glee danced in the red blood. The dogs' tails and
+the women's tongues wagged merrily, making us feel that we were
+joined on to the world again. I was surprised to find that we were
+days out of reckoning; I had been keeping Sunday on Thursday!
+
+During this stay at Pegwaomi I nearly lost Old Stabbed Arm. The day
+after we returned our hostess very seriously asked me if he might
+marry her daughter. Thinking he had sent her to ask, I consented. It
+was a surprise to learn afterwards that he knew nothing at all of the
+matter.
+
+Although Pegwaomi gained no new inhabitant, I secured what proved to
+be one of the truest and most faithful friends of my life--a little
+monkey. His name was Mr. Pancho. With him it was love at first sight,
+and from that time onward, I believe, he had only two things in his
+mind--his food and his master. He would cry when I left him, and hug
+and kiss me on my return. Pancho rode the pack-mare into the village
+of Concepcion, and busied himself on the way catching butterflies and
+trying to grasp the multi-colored humming-birds hovering over the
+equally beautiful passion-flowers growing in the bushes on each side
+of the path.
+
+Surely a stranger sight was never seen on the streets of Concepcion
+than that of a tired, dusty pack-horse bearing a live monkey, a dead
+god, and an equally dead devil on his back! Mrs. Sorrows was
+overjoyed to see me return, and earnestly told me that my first duty
+was to hurry down to the store and buy two colored candles to burn
+before her saint, who had brought me back, even though I was a
+heretic, which fact she greatly lamented. We had been given up as
+lost months before, for word came down that I had been killed by
+Indians. Here I was, however, safe and fairly well, saving that the
+ends of two of my toes had rotted off with jiggers, and fever burned
+in my veins! Mrs. Dolores doctored my feet with tobacco ashes as I
+reclined in a hammock under the lime trees surrounding her hut. I did
+not buy the candles, but she did; and while I silently thanked a
+Higher Power, and the _ta-tas_ burned to _her_ deity, she informed me
+that my countryman, the prodigal, had been carried to the "potters'
+field." Not all prodigals reach home again; some are buried by the
+swine-troughs.
+
+For some time I was unable to put my feet to the ground; but Pancho,
+ever active, tied in a fig tree, helped himself to ripe fruit, and
+took life merrily. Pancho and I were eventually able to bid good-bye
+to Mrs. Sorrows, and, thousands of miles down life's pathway, this
+little friend and I journeyed together, he ever loving and true. I
+took him across the ocean, away from his tropical home, and--he died.
+I am not sentimental--nay, I have been accused of hardness--but I
+make this reference to Pancho in loving memory. Unlike some friends
+of my life, _he_ was constant and true. [Footnote: From letters
+awaiting me at the post-office, I learned, with intense sorrow and
+regret, that my strange patron had gone "the way of all flesh" The
+land I had been to explore, along-with a bequest of $250,000, passed
+into the hands of the Baptist Missionary Society, to the Secretary of
+which Society all my reports were given.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+CHACO SAVAGES.
+
+
+The Gran Chaco, an immense region in the interior of the continent,
+said to be 2,500,000 square miles in extent, is, without doubt, the
+darkest part of "The Darkest Land." From time immemorial this has
+been given up to the Indians; or, rather, they have proved so warlike
+that the white man has not dared to enter the vast plain. The Chaco
+contains a population of perhaps 3,000,000 of aborigines. These are
+divided into many tribes, and speak numerous languages. From the
+military outposts of Argentina at the south, to the Fort of Olimpo,
+450 miles north, the country is left entirely to the savage. The
+former are built to keep back the Tobas from venturing south, and the
+latter is a Paraguayan fort on the Brazilian frontier. Here about one
+hundred soldiers are quartered and some fifty women banished, for the
+Paraguayan Government sends its female convicts there. [Footnote: The
+women are not provided with even the barest necessities of life. Here
+they are landed and, perforce, fasten themselves like leeches on the
+licentious soldiery. I speak from personal knowledge, for I have
+visited the "hell" of Paraguay.] Between these forts and Bolivia, on
+the west, I have been privileged to visit eight different tribes of
+Indians, all of them alike degraded and sunken in the extreme; savage
+and wild as man, though originally made in the image of God, can be.
+
+The Chaco is a great unknown land. The north, described by Mr.
+Minchin, Bolivian Government Explorer, as "a barren zone--an almost
+uninterrupted extent of low, thorny scrub, with great scarcity of
+water," and the centre and south, as I have seen in exploring
+journeys, great plains covered with millions of palm trees, through
+which the astonished traveller can ride for weeks without seeing any
+limit. In the dry season the land is baked by the intense heat of the
+tropical sun, and cracked into deep fissures. In the rainy season it
+is an endless marsh--a veritable dead man's land. During a 200-mile
+ride, 180 lay through water with the sun almost vertical. All this
+country in past ages must have been the bed of a great salt sea.
+
+As I have said, the Chaco is peculiarly Indian territory, into which
+the white man steps at his peril. I accepted a commission, however,
+to examine and report on certain parts of it, so I left the civilized
+haunts of men and set foot on the forbidden ground.
+
+My first introduction to the savages in Chaco territory was at their
+village of Teepmuckthlawhykethy (The Place Where the Cows Arrived).
+They were busy devouring a dead cow and a newly-born calf, and I saw
+their naked bodies through such dense clouds of mosquitos that in one
+clap of the hands I could kill twenty or thirty. This Indian _toldo_
+consists of three large wigwams, in which live about eighty of the
+most degraded aborigines to be found on earth. When they learned I
+was not one of the _Christians_ from across the river, and that I
+came well introduced, they asked: Did I come across the _big water_
+in a dug-out? Was it a day's journey? Would I give them some of "the
+stuff that resembles the eggs of the ant?" (their name for rice).
+
+I was permitted to occupy a palm hut without a roof, but I slept
+under a tiger's skin, and that kept off dew and rain. They reserved
+the right to come and go in it as they pleased. The women, with naked
+babies astride their hips, the usual way of carrying them, were
+particularly annoying. A little girl, however, perhaps ten years old,
+named Supupnik (Sawdust), made friends with me, and that friendship
+lasted during all my stay with them. Her face was always grotesquely
+painted, but she was a sweet child.
+
+These Indians are of normal stature, and are always erect and
+stately, perhaps because all burdens are borne by straps on the
+forehead. The expression of the savage is peculiar, for he pulls out
+all the hair on his face, even the eyelashes and eyebrows, and seems
+to think the omission of that act would be a terrible breach of
+cleanliness. These same individuals will, however, frequently be seen
+with their whole body so coated with dirt that it could easily be
+scraped off with a knife in cakes, as the housewife would scrape a
+burnt loaf! The first use to which the women put the little round tin
+looking-glasses, which I used for barter, was to admire their pretty
+(?) faces; but the men, with a sober look, would search for the
+detested hair on lip or chin. That I was so lost to decency as to
+suffer a moustache to cover my lip was to them a constant puzzle and
+wonder, for in every other respect the universal opinion was that I
+was a civilized kind of "thing." I write _thing_ advisedly, for the
+white man is to them an inferior creation--not a _person_.
+
+In place of a beard or moustache, the inhabitant of the Chaco prefers
+to paint his face, and sometimes he makes quite an artistic design.
+
+These wild inhabitants of Central South America generally wear a skin
+around the loins, or a string of ostrich feathers. Some tribes, as,
+for example, the Chamacocos, dispense with either. The height of
+fashion is to wear strings of tigers' teeth, deer's hoofs, birds'
+bills, etc., around the neck. Strings of feathers or wool are twisted
+around ankles and wrists, while the thickly matted hair is adorned
+with plumes, standing upright.
+
+The men insert round pieces of wood in the lobe of the ear. Boys of
+tender age have a sharp thorn pushed through the ear, where more
+civilized nations wear earrings. This hole is gradually enlarged
+until manhood, when a round piece, two inches in diameter and one and
+a half inches thick, can be worn, not depending from the ear, but in
+the gristle of it. The cartilage is thus so distended that only a
+narrow rim remains around the ornament, and this may often be seen
+broken out. Sometimes three or four rattles from the tail of the
+rattlesnake also hang from the ear on to the shoulder.
+
+These tribes of the Chaco were all vassals of the Inca at the advent
+of the Spaniards. They had been by them reclaimed from savagery, and
+taught many useful arts, one or two of which, such as the making of
+blankets and string, they still retain. The Inca used the ear
+ornaments of solid gold, but made in the form of a wheel. The nearest
+approach to this old custom is when the wooden ear-plug is painted
+thus, as are some in the author's possession.
+
+I was fortunate in gaining the favor of the tribe living near the
+river, and because of certain favors conferred upon them, was adopted
+into the family. My face was painted, my head adorned with ostrich
+plumes, and I was given the name of Wanampangapthling ithma (Big
+Cactus Red Mouth). Because of this formal initiation, I was
+privileged to travel where I chose, but to the native Paraguayan or
+Argentine the Chaco is a forbidden land. The Indian describes himself
+as a _man_; monkeys are _little men_; I was a _thing_; but the
+Paraguayans are _Christians_, and that is the lowest degree of all.
+The priests they see on the other side of the river are _Yankilwana_
+(neither man nor woman); and a _Yankilwana_, in his distinctive garb,
+could never tread this Indian soil. So abhorrent to them is the name
+of Christian, that the missionaries have been compelled to use
+another word to describe their converts, and they are called
+"Followers of Jesus." All the members of some large expeditions have
+been massacred just because they were _Christians_. Surely this is
+convincing corroboration of my remarks regarding the state of Roman
+Catholicism in those dark lands.
+
+A few miserable-looking, diminutive sheep are kept by some tribes,
+and the blankets referred to are made from the wool, which is torn
+off the sheep with a sharp shell, or, if near the coast, with a
+knife. The blankets are woven by hand across two straight branches of
+tree, and they are sometimes colored in various shades. A bulbous
+root they know of dyes brown, the cochineal insect red, and the bark
+of a tree yellow. String is made from the fibre of the _caraguataî_
+plant, and snail shells are used to extract the fibre. This work is,
+of course, done by the women, as is also the making of the clay pots
+they use for cooking. The men only hunt.
+
+All sleep on the ground, men, women, children and dogs,
+promiscuously. The wigwams are nothing more than a few branches stuck
+in the ground and tied at the top. The sides are left open. Very
+often even this most primitive of dwellings is dispensed with, and
+the degraded beings crawl under the shelter of the bushes. Furniture
+of any kind they are, of course, wit-out, and their destitution is
+only equalled by the African pigmy or the Australian black.
+
+The Chaco is essentially a barren land, and the Indians' time seems
+almost fully taken up in procuring food. The men, with bows and
+arrows, hunt the deer, ostrich, fox, or wolf, while the women forage
+for roots and wild fruit.
+
+One tribe in the north of the Chaco are cannibals, and they
+occasionally make war on their neighbors just to obtain food.
+
+A good vegetable diet is the cabbage, which grows in the heart of
+certain palms, and weighs three or four pounds. To secure this the
+tree has perforce to be cut down. To the Indian without an axe this
+is no light task. The palm, as is well known, differs from other
+trees by its having the seat of life in the head, and not in the
+roots; so when the cabbage is taken out the tree dies.
+
+Anything, everything, is eaten for food, and a roasted serpent or
+boiled fox is equally relished. During my stay among them I ceased to
+ask of what the mess was composed; each dish was worse than the
+former. Among the first dishes I had were mandioca root, a black
+carrion bird, goat's meat, and fox's head. The puma, otter, ant-bear,
+deer, armadillo, and ostrich are alike eaten, as is also the jaguar,
+a ferocious beast of immense size. I brought away from those regions
+some beautiful skins of this animal, the largest of which measures
+nearly nine feet from nose to tail.
+
+In the sluggish, almost salt, streams, fish are numerous, and these
+are shot by the Indian with arrows, to which is attached a string of
+gut. Lakes and rivers are also filled with hideous-looking alligators
+of all sizes. These grow to the length of twelve or fifteen feet in
+these warm waters, and the tail is considered quite a delicacy.
+Besides these varied dishes, there is the electric eel; and, sunk in
+a yard depth of mud, is the _lollock_, of such interest to
+naturalists The lollock is a fish peculiar to the Chaco. Though
+growing to the length of three and four feet, it has only rudimentary
+eyes, and is, in consequence, quite blind; it is also unable to swim.
+The savage prods in the mud with a long notched lance, sometimes for
+hours, until he sticks the appetizing fish.
+
+The steamy waters are so covered with aquatic plants that in some
+places I have been able to walk across a living bridge. Once, when
+out hunting, I came upon a beautiful forest glade, covered with a
+carpet of green. Thinking it a likely place for deer, I entered, when
+lo, I sank in a fœtid lake of slime. Throwing my gun on to the bank,
+I had quite a difficulty to regain dry land.
+
+In my journeyings here and there I employed one or another of the
+braves to accompany me. All they could eat and some little present
+was the pay. No sooner was the gift in their hand, however, after
+supper, than they would put it back in mine and say, "Give me some
+more food?" I was at first accompanied by Yantiwau (The Wolf Rider).
+Armed with a bow and arrows, he was a good hunter for me, and a
+faithful servant, but his custom of spitting on my knife and spoon to
+clean them I did not like. When my supplies were getting low, and I
+went to the river for a wash, he would say: "There's no
+_kiltanithliacack_ (soap)--only _clupup_ (sand)." Yantiwau was
+interested in pictures; he would gaze with wondering eyes at photos,
+or views of other lands, but he looked at them _the wrong side up_,
+as they all invariably do. While possessed of a profound respect for
+me in some ways, he thought me very lacking in common knowledge.
+While I was unable to procure game, through not seeing any, he could
+call the bird to him in a "ducky, ducky, come and be killed" kind of
+way; and my tongue was parched when he would scent water. This was
+sometimes very easy to smell, however, for it was almost impossible
+to drink out of a waterhole without holding the nose and straining
+the liquid through my closed teeth. Chaco water at best is very
+brackish, and on drying off the ground a white coat of salt is left.
+
+My Indian's first and last thought was of his stomach. While capable
+of passing two or three days without eating, and feeling no pangs of
+hunger, yet, when food was to hand, he gorged himself, and could put
+away an incredible amount. Truly, his make-up was a constant wonder
+to me. Riding through the "hungry belt" I would be famishing, but to
+my question: "Are you hungry?" he would answer, "No." After a
+toilsome journey, and no supper at the end: "Would you like to eat?"
+"No." But let an ostrich or a deer come in sight, and he could not
+live another minute without food! Another proof to Yantiwau of my
+incapacity was the fact that when my matches were all used I could
+not light the fire. He, by rubbing a blunt-pointed hard stick in a
+groove of soft wood, could cause such a friction that the dust would
+speedily ignite, and set fire to the dry twigs which he was so clever
+in collecting. Although such a simple process to the Indian, I never
+met a white man who could use the firesticks with effect.
+
+Sitting by the camp-fire in the stillness of evening, my guide would
+draw attention to a shooting star. "Look! That is a bad witch
+doctor," he would say. "Did you notice he went to the west? Well, the
+Toothlis live there. He has gone for vengeance!"
+
+The wide palm plains are almost uninhabited; I have journeyed eighty
+miles without sighting human being or wigwam. In the rainy season the
+trees stand out of a sea-like expanse of steaming water, and one may
+wade through this for twenty miles without finding a dry place for
+bivouac. Ant hills, ten and fifteen feet high, with dome-shaped
+roofs, dot the wild waste like pigmy houses, and sometimes they are
+the only dry land found to rest on. The horses flounder through the
+mire, or sink up to the belly in slime, while clouds of flies make
+the life of man and beast a living death. Keys rust in the pocket,
+and boots mildew in a day. At other seasons, as I know by painful
+experience, the hard-baked ground is cracked up into fissures, and
+not a drop of water is to be found in a three days' journey. The
+miserable savages either sit in utter dejection on logs of wood or
+tree roots, viewing the watery expanse, or roam the country in search
+of _yingmin_ (water).
+
+Whereas the Caingwas may be described as inoffensive Indians, the
+inhabitants of the Chaco are _savages_, hostile to the white man, who
+only here and there, with their permission, has settled on the river
+bank. Generally a people of fine physique and iron constitution, free
+from disease of any kind, they are swept into eternity in an
+incredibly short space of time if _civilized_ diseases are
+introduced. Even the milder ones, such as measles, decimate a whole
+tribe; and I have known communities swept away as autumn leaves in a
+strong breeze with the _grippe_. I was informed that the hospital
+authorities at Asuncion gave them the cast-off fever clothing of
+their patients during an epidemic to sweep them off the face of the
+earth!
+
+The Indians have been ill-treated from the beginning. Darwin relates
+that, in their eagerness to exterminate the red men, the Argentine
+troops have pursued them for three days without food. On the frontier
+they are killed in hundreds; by submitting to the white man they die
+in thousands. Latin civilization is more terrible to them than war.
+Sad to state, their only hope is to fight, and this the savage
+affirms he will do for ever and ever.
+
+Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, ordered every Indian found--man,
+woman or child--to be put to death! Lopez, a later ruler, took sport
+in hunting Indians like deer. We are told that on one occasion he was
+so successful as to kill forty-eight! The children he captured and
+sold into slavery at fifteen and twenty dollars each. The white
+settler considers himself very brave if he kills the savage with a
+rifle sighted at five hundred yards, while well out of range of the
+Indians' arrows, and I have known them shot just "for fun"! The
+Indians retaliate by _cutting off the heels_ of their white captives,
+or leaving them, _in statu naturae_, bound with thongs on an
+anthill; and a more terrible death could not be devised by even the
+inquisitor, Torquemada, of everlasting execration. The Indian is hard
+and cruel, indifferent to pain in himself or others. A serpent may
+sting a comrade, and he takes no notice; but let one find food and
+there is a general scamper to the spot. The Chaco savage is barbarous
+in the extreme. The slain enemies are often eaten, and the bones
+burnt and scattered over their food. The children of enemies are
+traded off to other tribes for more food.
+
+The Chaco Indian is a born warrior. Sad to say, his only hope is to
+fight against the Latin paleface.
+
+Most of us have at times been able to detect a peculiar aroma in the
+negro. The keen-scented savage detects that something in us, and we
+"smell" to them. Even I, _Big Cactus Red Mouth_, was not declared
+free from a subtle odor, although I washed so often that they
+wondered my skin did not come off. _They never wash_, and in damp
+weather the dirt peels from them in cakes. Of course they _don't_
+smell!
+
+When a man or woman is, through age, no longer capable of looking
+after the needs of the body, a shallow grave is dug, the aged one
+doubled up until the knees are pressed into the hollow cheeks, and
+the back is broken. This terrible work done, the undesired one is
+dragged by one leg to the open tomb. Sometimes the face and whole
+body is so mangled, by being pulled through thorns and over uneven
+ground, that it is not recognizable, and the nose has at times been
+actually torn off. While sometimes still alive, the body is covered
+up with mother earth. Frequently the grave is so shallow that the
+matted hair may be seen coming out at the top. The burial is
+generally made near a wood, and, if passible, under the _holy wood
+tree_, which, in their judgment, has great influence with evil
+spirits. Wild beasts, attracted by the odor of the corpse, soon dig
+up the remains, and before next day it is frequently devoured.
+
+An _ordinary_ burial service may be thus described: A deep cut is
+first made in the stomach of the departed one. Into this incision a
+stone, some bone ash, and a bird's claw are introduced. The body is
+then placed over the grave on two sticks, a muttering incantation is
+said by the witch doctor, and the sticks are roughly knocked from
+under the body, so as to permit it to fall in a sitting posture. A
+bow and arrows, and some food and cooking utensils, are dropped into
+the grave. All shooting stars, according to the Indian belief, are
+flying stones; hence the custom of placing a stone in the stomach of
+the dead. It is supposed to be able to mount heavenward, and,
+assuming its true character, become the avenging adversary, and
+destroy the one who caused the death--always a bad witch doctor. The
+bird's claw scratches out the enemy's heart, and the ashes annihilate
+the spirit. One of the missionaries in the Lengua tribe stated that
+he assisted at the burial of a woman where the corpse fell head
+foremost into the grave, the feet remaining up. Four times the
+attempt to drop her in right was made, with similar results, and
+finally the husband deliberately broke his dead wife's neck, and bent
+the head on to the back; then he broke her limbs across his knee, and
+so the ghastly burial was at last completed! Truly, "the dark places
+of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." Let the one
+whose idea is to "leave the pagan in his innocency" visit these
+savages, and, if he lives to tell it, his ideas will have undergone a
+great change. They are _lost!_ and millions have not yet heard of the
+"Son of Man," who "came to seek and to save that which was lost."
+
+At the death of any member, the _toldo_ in which he lived is burnt,
+all his possessions are destroyed, and the people go into mourning.
+The hair of both sexes is cut short or pulled out, and each one has
+the face blackened with a vegetable dye, which, from experience, I
+know hardly ever wears off again. As I have said, everything the man
+owned in life is burnt and the village is deserted; all move right
+away to get out of the presence of the death-giving spirit. To me the
+_toldo_ would not only seem abandoned, but the people gone without
+leaving a trace of their path; but not so to Wolf Rider, my guide. By
+the position of the half-burnt wood of the fire, he could tell the
+direction they had taken, and the number gone--although each steps in
+the other's footprints--whether they were stopping to hunt on the
+way, and much more he would never tell me. Some of the missionaries
+have spent ten years in the Chaco, but cannot get the savage to teach
+them this lesson of signs.
+
+In some tribes the aged ones are just _"left to die"_ sitting under a
+palm-leaf mat. All the members of the tribe move away and leave them
+thus. Many are the terrible things my eyes have witnessed, but surely
+the most pathetic was the sight of an old woman sitting under the
+mat. I was one day riding alone, but had with me two horses, when I
+caught sight of the palm-leaf erection and the solitary figure
+sitting under it. Getting down from my horse, I approached the woman
+and offered to take her to a place of safety, promising to feed her
+and permit her to live as long as she chose. Would she come with me?
+I begged and entreated, but the poor woman would not so much as lift
+her eyes to mine. The law of her tribe had said she must die, and the
+laws are to them unalterable. Most reluctantly, I left her to be
+eaten later on by the wild beasts.
+
+Terrible as this custom is, other tribes kill and eat their aged
+parents "as a mark of respect." Another tribe will not permit one
+member to go into the spirit world alone, so they hang another one,
+in order that there may be two to enter together.
+
+Whereas the Caingwas are a religious people, even attributing their
+custom of piercing the lip to divine commandment, the Chaco
+aborigines have no god and no religion. Missionaries in the solitary
+station I have referred to, after ten years' probing, have been
+unable to find any approach to worship in their darkened minda. "The
+miserable wretches who inhabit that vast wilderness are so low in the
+scale of reasoning beings that one might doubt whether or not they
+have human souls." [Footnote: Washburn's "History of Paraguay."]
+These "lost sheep" have no word to express God, and have no idols.
+"The poverty of the Indian dialects of the Chaco is scarcely
+surpassed by that of the dumb brutes."
+
+These wretched tribes have perfect community of goods; what is
+secured by one belongs equally to all. A piece of cloth is either
+torn up and distributed, or worn in turns by each one. The shirt
+which I gave my guide, Yantiwau, for much arduous toil, was worn by
+one and another alternately. Much as the savage at first desires to
+possess some garment, it does not take long for him to tire of it.
+All agree with Mark Twain, that "the human skin is the most
+comfortable of all costumes," and, clothed in the sunlight, the human
+form divine is not unlovely.
+
+Sometimes the Indians of the interior take skins, etc., to the
+Paraguayan towns across the river. Not knowing the use of money,
+their little trading is done by barter. Their knowledge of value is
+so crude that on one occasion they refused a two-dollar axe for an
+article, but gladly accepted a ten-cent knife. The Chaco Indian,
+however, is seldom seen in civilization. His home is in the interior
+of an unknown country, which he wanders over in wild freedom. While
+the Caingwas are homekeeping, these savages are nomadic, and could
+not settle down. The land is either burnt up or inundated, so they do
+not plant, but live only by the chase. So bold and daring are they
+that a man, armed only with a lance, will attack a savage jaguar; or,
+diving under an alligator, he will stab it with a sharpened bone. The
+same man will run in abject terror if he thinks he hears _spirits_.
+
+Though not religious, the savages are exceedingly superstitious,
+afraid of ghosts and evil spirits, and the fear of these spectral
+visitants pursues them through life. During a storm they vigorously
+shake their blankets and mutter incantations to keep away
+supernatural visitors.
+
+All diseases are caused by evil spirits, or the moon; and a comet
+brings the measles. The help of the witch doctor has to be sought on
+all occasions, for his special work is to drive away the evil spirit
+that has taken possession of a sick one. This he does by rattling a
+hollow calabash containing stones. That important person will perform
+his mystic _hocus pocus_ over the sick or dying, and charm away the
+spirits from a neighborhood. I have known an Indian, when in great
+pain through having eaten too much, send for the old fakir, who,
+after examination of the patient and great show of learning, declared
+that the suffering one _had two tigers in his stomach_. A very common
+remedy is the somewhat scientific operation of bleeding a patient,
+but the manner is certainly uncommon--the witch doctor sucks out the
+blood. One I was acquainted with, among the Lengua tribe, professed
+to suck three cats out of a man's stomach. His professional name was
+thereafter "Father of Kittens." The doctor's position is not one to
+be envied, however, for if three consecutive patients die, he must
+follow them _down the dark trail!_
+
+These medicine-men are experts in poisons, and their enemies have a
+way of dying suddenly. It cannot be denied that the Indians have a
+very real knowledge of the healing virtues of many plants. The writer
+has marvelled at the cures he has seen, and was not slow to add some
+of their methods to his medical knowledge. Not a few who have been
+healed, since the writer's return to civilization, owe their new life
+to the knowledge there learned.
+
+Infanticide is practised in every tribe, and in my extensive
+wanderings among eight _toldos_, I never met a family with more than
+two children. The rest are killed! A child is born, and the mother
+immediately knocks it on the head with a club! After covering the
+baby with a layer of earth, the woman goes about as if nothing had
+occurred. One chief of the Lengua tribe, that I met, had himself
+killed nineteen children. An ironwood club is kept in each _toldo_
+for this gruesome work. Frequently a live child is buried with a dead
+parent; but I had better leave much of their doings in the inkpot.
+
+When a girl enters the matrimonial market, at about the age of twelve
+or thirteen, her face is specially colored with a yellow paint, made
+from the flower of the date palm, and the aspirant to her hand brings
+a bundle of firewood, neatly tied up, which he places beside her
+earthen bed at early morning. As the rising sun gilds the eastern
+sky, the girl awakes out of her sleep, rubs her eyes,--and sees the
+sticks. Well does she know the meaning of it, and a glad light
+flashes in her dark eyes as she cries out, "Who brought the sticks?"
+All men, women and children, take up the cry, and soon the whole
+encampment resounds with, "Who brought the sticks?" The medicine-man,
+who sleeps apart from the "common herd" under an incense-tree, hears
+the din, and, quickly donning his head-dress, hurries down to the
+scene. With an authoritative voice, which even the chief himself does
+not use, he demands, "Who brought the sticks?" until a young brave
+steps forward in front of him and replies, "Father of Kittens, I
+brought the sticks." This young man is then commanded to stand apart,
+the girl is hunted out, and together they wait while the witch-doctor
+X-rays them through and through. After this close scrutiny, they are
+asked: "Do you want this man?" "Do you want this girl?" To which they
+reply, "Yes, Father of Kittens, I do." Then, with great show of
+power, the medicine-man says, "Go!" and off the newly-married pair
+start, to live together until death (in the form of burial) does them
+part.
+
+It may be a great surprise to the reader to learn that these savages
+are exceedingly moral. Infidelity between man and wife is punished
+with death, but in all my travels I only heard of one such case. A
+man marries only one wife, and although any expression of love
+between them is never seen, they yet seem to think of one another in
+a tender way, and it is especially noticeable that the parents are
+kind to their children.
+
+One evening I rode into an encampment of savages who were celebrating
+a feast. About fifty specially-decked-out Indians were standing in a
+circle, and one of the number had a large and very noisy rattle, with
+which he kept time to the chant of Há há há há há! ú ú ú ú ú! ó ó ó
+óó! aú aú aú aú aú! The lurid lights of the fires burning all around
+lit up this truly savage scene. The witch-doctor, the old fakir named
+"Father of Kittens," came to me and looked me through and through
+with his piercing eyes. I was given the rattle, and, although very
+tired, had to keep up a constant din, while my wild companions bent
+their bodies in strange contortions. In the centre of the ring was a
+woman with a lighted pipe in her hand. She passed this from one to
+another and pushed it into the mouth of each one, who had "a draw."
+My turn came, and lo! the pipe was thrust between my teeth, and the
+din went on: Há há! ú ú! ó ó! aú aú! This feast lasted three nights
+and two days, but the music was not varied, and neither man nor woman
+seemed to sleep or rest. Food was cooking at the different fires,
+attended by the women, but my share was only a _roasted fox's head!_
+The animal was laid on the wood, with skin, head and legs still
+attached, and the whole was burnt black. I was very hungry, and ate
+my portion thankfully. Christopher North said: "There's a deal of
+fine confused feeding about a sheep's head," and so I found with the
+fox's. Truly, as the Indian says, "hunger is a very big man."
+
+At these feasts a drum, made by stretching a serpent's skin over one
+of their clay pots, is loudly beaten, and the thigh-bone of an
+ostrich, with key-holes burned in, is a common musical instrument.
+From the _algarroba_ bean an intoxicating drink is made, called _ang-
+min_, and then yells, hellish sounds and murderous blows inspire
+terror in the paleface guest. "It is impossible to conceive anything
+more wild and savage than the scene of their bivouac. Some drink till
+they are intoxicated, others swallow the steaming blood of
+slaughtered animals for their supper, and then, sick from
+drunkenness, they cast it up again, and are besmeared with gore and
+filth."
+
+After the feast was over I held a service, and told how sin was
+_injected_ into us by the evil spirit, but that all are invited to
+the heavenly feast. My address was listened to in perfect silence,
+and the nodding heads showed that some, at least, understood it. When
+I finished speaking, a poor woman, thinking she must offer something,
+gave me her baby--a naked little creature that had never been washed
+in its life. I took it up and kissed it, and the poor woman smiled.
+Yes, a savage woman can smile.
+
+As already stated, many different tribes of Indians dwell in the
+Chaco, and each have their different customs. In the Suhin tribe the
+rite of burial may be thus described. "The digger of the grave and
+the performer of the ceremony was the chief, who is also a witch-
+doctor, and I was told that he was about to destroy the witch-doctor
+who had caused the man's death. A fire was lit, and whilst the
+digging was in progress a stone and two pieces of iron were being
+heated. Two bones of a horse, a large bird's nest built of sticks,
+and various twigs were collected. The skin of a jaguar's head, a
+tooth, and the pads of the same animal were laid out. A piece of wax
+and a stone were also heated; and in a heap lay a hide, some skins
+for bedding, and a quantity of sheep's wool. The grave being
+finished, the ceremony began by a wooden arrow being notched in the
+middle and waxed, then plunged into the right breast of the corpse,
+when it was snapped in two at the notch, and the remaining half was
+flung into the air, accompanied with a vengeful cry, in the direction
+of the Toothli tribe, one of whose doctors, it was supposed, had
+caused the man's death. Short pointed sticks, apparently to represent
+arrows, were also daubed with wax, two being plunged into the throat
+and one into the left breast, the cry again accompanying each
+insertion. One of the jaguar's pads was next taken, and the head of
+the corpse torn by the claws, the growl of the animal being imitated
+during the process. An incision was next made in the cheek, and the
+tooth inserted; then the head and face were daubed with the heated
+wax. The use of the wax is evidently to signify the desire that both
+arrows and animal may stick to the man if he be attacked by either.
+The arrows were plunged, one into the right breast downwards, and
+another below the ribs, on the same side, but in an upward direction,
+a third being driven into the right thigh. They also spoke about
+breaking one of the arms, but did not do so. An incision being made
+in the abdomen, the heated stone was then placed within the body.
+They place most reliance upon the work of the stone. The ceremony is
+known by the name of 'Mátaimáng' stone, and all the other things are
+said to assist it. Meteorites, when seen to pass along the sky, are
+regarded with awe; they are believed to be these stones in passage.
+The body was placed in the grave with the head to the west, the
+jaguar's head and pads being first placed under it. A bunch of grass,
+tied together, was placed upon the body; then the bird's nest was
+burned upon it. The bones were next thrown in, and over all the
+various articles before mentioned were placed. These were to
+accompany the soul in its passage to the west. In this act the idea
+of a future state is more distinctly seen than ever it has been seen
+amongst the Lenguas, who burn all a man's possessions at his death.
+The ceremony finished, the grave was covered in, logs and twigs being
+carelessly thrown on the top, apparently simply to indicate the
+existence of a grave. The thing which struck me most was the intense
+spirit of vengeance shown."
+
+Notwithstanding such terrible savagery, however, the Indian has ideas
+of right and wrong that put Christian civilization to shame. The
+people are perfectly _honest_ and _truthful_. I believe they _cannot
+lie_, and stealing is entirely unknown among them.
+
+Many are the experiences I have had in the Chaco. Some of them haunt
+me still like ghostly shadows. The evening camp-fire, the glare of
+ which lit up and made more hideous still my savage followers,
+gorging themselves until covered with filth and gore. The times when,
+from sheer hunger, I have, like them, torn up bird or beast and eaten
+it raw. The draughts of water from the Indian hole containing the
+putrefying remains of some dead animal; my shirt dropping off in rags
+and no wash for three weeks. The journeys through miles of malarial
+swamps and pathless wilderness. The revolting food, and the want of
+food. Ah! the memory is a bad dream from which I must awake.
+
+The other side, you say? Yes, there is another. A cloudless blue sky
+overhead. The gorgeous air-flowers, delicate and fragrant. Trees
+covered with a drapery of orchidaceae. The loveliest of flowers and
+shrubs. Birds of rainbow beauty, painted by the hand of God, as only
+He can. Flamingoes, parrots, humming-birds, butterflies of every size
+and hue. Arborescent ferns; cacti, thirty feet high, like huge
+candelabra. Creeping plants growing a hundred feet, and then passing
+from the top of one ever-vernal tree to another, forming a canopy for
+one from the sun's rays. Chattering monkeys. Deer, with more
+beautiful eyes than ever woman had since Eve fell. The balmy air
+wafting incense from the burning bush; and last, but oh, not least,
+the joy in seeing the degraded aborigine learning to love the "Light
+of the World"! Yes, there are delights; but "life is real, life is
+earnest," and a meal of _algarroba_ beans (the husks of the prodigal
+son of Luke XV.) is not any more tempting if eaten under the shade of
+a waving palm of surpassing beauty.
+
+The mission station previously referred to lies one hundred miles in
+from the river bank, three hundred miles north of Asuncion, among the
+Lengua Indians. As far as I am aware, no Paraguayan has ever visited
+there. The missionaries wish their influence to be the only one in
+training the Indian mind. The village bears the strange name of
+Waikthlatemialwa (The Place Where the Toads Arrived). At the
+invitation of the missionaries, I was privileged to go there and see
+their work. A trail leads in from the river bank, but it is so bad
+that bullock carts taking in provisions occupy ten and twelve days on
+the journey. Tamaswa (The Locust Eater), my guide, led me all during
+the first day out through a palm forest, and at night we slept on the
+hard ground. The Indian was a convert of the mission, and although
+painted, feathered and almost naked, seemed really an exemplary
+Christian. The missionaries labored for eleven years without gaining
+a single convert, but Tamaswa is not the only "follower of Jesus"
+now. During the day we shot a deer, and that evening, being very
+hungry, I ate perhaps two pounds of meat. Tamaswa finished the rest!
+True, it was only a small deer, but as I wish to retain my character
+for veracity, I dare not say how much it weighed. This meal
+concluded, we knelt on the ground. I read out of the old Book: "I go
+to prepare a place for you," and Locust Eater offered a simple prayer
+for protection, help and safety to the God who understands all
+languages.
+
+My blanket was wet through and through with the green slime through
+which we had waded and splashed for hours, but we curled ourselves up
+under a beer barrel tree and tried to sleep. The howling jaguars and
+other beasts of prey in the jungle made this almost impossible.
+Several times I was awakened by my guide rising, and, by the light of
+a palm torch, searching for wood to replenish the dying fire, in the
+smoke of which we slept, as a help against the millions of mosquitos
+buzzing around. Towards morning a large beast of some kind leaped
+right over me, and I rose to rekindle the fire, which my guide had
+suffered to die out, and then I watched until day dawned. As all the
+deer was consumed, we started off without breakfast, but were
+fortunate later on in being able to shoot two wild turkeys.
+
+That day we rode on through the endless forest of palms, and waded
+through a quagmire at least eight miles in extent, where the green
+slime reached up to the saddle-flaps. On that day we came to a
+sluggish stream, bearing the name of
+"Aptikpangmakthlaingwainkyapaimpangkya" (The Place Where the Pots
+Were Struck When They Were About to Feast). There a punt was moored,
+into which we placed our saddles, etc., and paddled across, while the
+horses swam the almost stagnant water. Saddling up on the other side,
+we had a journey of thirty miles to make before arriving at a
+waterhole, where we camped for the second night. I don't know what
+real nectar is, but that water was nectar to me, although the horses
+sniffed and at first refused to drink it.
+
+At sunset on the third day we emerged from the palm forest and
+endless marshes, and by the evening of the fourth day the church,
+built of palm logs, loomed up on the horizon. Many of the Indians
+came out to meet us, and my arrival was the talk of the village. The
+people seemed happy, and the missionaries made me at home in their
+roughly-built log shanties. Next morning I found a gift had been
+brought me by the Indians. It was a beautiful feather headdress, but
+it had just been left on the step, the usual way they have of making
+presents. The Indian expects no thanks, and he gives none. The women
+received any present I handed them courteously but silently. The men
+would accept a looking-glass from me and immediately commence to
+search their face for any trace of "dirty hairs," probably brought to
+their mind by the sight of mine, but not even a grunt of satisfaction
+would be given. No Chaco language has a word for "thanks."
+
+
+[Illustration: TAMASWA (THE LOCUST EATER) PROCURING FOOD. This young
+man could put the point of his arrow into a deer's eye a hundred
+yards distant]
+
+[Illustration: FASHIONS OF THE CHACO.]
+
+
+There is, among the Lenguas, an old tradition to the effect that for
+generations they have been expecting the arrival of some strangers
+who would live among them and teach them about the spirit-world.
+These long-looked-for teachers were called _The Imlah_. The tradition
+says that when the Imlah arrive, all the Indians must obey their
+teaching, and take care that the said Imlah do not again leave their
+country, for if so they, the Indians, would disappear from the land.
+When Mr. Grubb and his helpers first landed, they were immediately
+asked, "Are you the Imlah?" and to this question they, of course,
+answered yes. Was it not because of this tradition that the Indian
+who later shot Mr. Grubb with a poisoned arrow was himself put to
+death by the tribe?
+
+About twenty boys attend the school established at Waikthlatemialwa,
+and strange names some of them bear; let Haikuk (Little Dead One)
+serve as an example. It is truly a cheering sight to see this sign of
+a brighter day. When these boys return to their distant _toldos_ to
+tell "the news" to their dark-minded parents, the most wonderful of
+all to relate is "Liklamo ithnik ñata abwathwuk enthlit God;
+hingyahamok hikñata apkyapasa apkyitka abwanthlabanko.
+Aptakmilkischik sat ankuk appaiwa ingyitsipe sata netin thlamokthloho
+abyiam." [Footnote: John 3:16]
+
+Well might the wondering mother of "Dark Cloud" call her next-born
+"Samai" (The Dawn of Day).
+
+The Indian counts by his hands and feet. Five would be one hand, two
+hands ten, two hands and a foot fifteen, and a specially clever
+savage could even count "my two hands and my two feet." Now Mr. Hunt
+is changing that: five is _thalmemik_, ten _sohok-emek_, fifteen
+_sohokthlama-eminik_, and twenty _sohok-emankuk_.
+
+When a boy in school desires to say eighteen, he must first of all
+take a good deep breath, for _sohok-emek-wakthla-mok-eminick-
+antanthlama_ is no short word. This literally means: "finished my
+hands--pass to my other foot three."
+
+At the school I saw the skin of a water-snake twenty-six feet nine
+inches long, but a book of pictures I had interested the boys far
+more.
+
+The mission workers have each a name given to them by the Indians,
+and some of them are more than strange. Apkilwankakme (The Man Who
+Forgot His Face) used to be called Nason when he moved in high
+English circles; now he is ragged and torn-looking; but the old Book
+my mother used to read says: "He that loseth his life for My sake
+shall find it." Some of us have yet to learn that if we would
+remember _His face_ it is necessary for us to forget our own. If the
+unbeliever in mission work were to go to Waik-thlatemialwa, he would
+come away a converted man. The former witch-doctor, who for long made
+"havoc," but has since been born again, would tell him that during a
+recent famine he talked to the Unseen Spirit, and said: "Give us
+food, God!" and that, when only away a very short while, his arrows
+killed three ostriches and a deer. He would see Mrs. Mopilinkilana
+walking about, clothed and in her right mind. Who is she? The
+murderess of her four children--the woman who could see the skull of
+her own boy kicking about the _toldo_ for days, and watch it finally
+cracked up and eaten by the dogs. Can such as she be changed? The
+Scripture says: "Every one that believeth."
+
+The Lengua language contains no word for God, worship, praise,
+sacrifice, sin, holiness, reward, punishment or duty, but their
+meanings are now being made clear.
+
+The church at Waikthlatemialwa has no colored glass windows--old
+canvas bags take their place. The reverent worshippers assemble
+morning and evening, in all the pride of their paint and feathers,
+but there is no hideous idol inside; nay! they worship the invisible
+One, whom they can see even with closely shut eyes. To watch the men
+and women, with erect bearing, and each walking in the other's
+footsteps, enter the church, is a sight well worth the seeing. They
+bow themselves, not before some fetish, as one might suppose, but to
+the One whom, having not seen, some of them are learning to love.
+
+One of the missionaries translated my simple address to the dusky
+congregation, who listened with wondering awe to the ever-new story
+of Jesus. As the Lengua language contains no word for God, the
+Indians have adopted our English word, and both that name and Jesus
+came out in striking distinctness during the service, and in the
+fervent prayer of the old ex-witch-doctor which followed. With the
+familiar hymn, "There is a green hill far away," the meeting
+concluded. The women with nervous air silently retired, but the men
+saluted me, and some even went so far as to shake hands--with the
+left hand. Would that similar stations were established all over this
+neglected land! While churches and mission buildings crowd each other
+in the home lands, the Chaco, with an estimated population of three
+millions, must be content with this one ray of light in the dense
+night.
+
+On that far-off "green hill" we shall meet some even from the Lengua
+tribe. Christ said: "I am the door; by Me if _any_ man enter in, he
+shall be saved." But oh, "Painted Face," you spoke truth; the white
+"thing" _is_ selfish, and keeps this wondrous knowledge to himself.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+BRAZIL
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+"There can be no more fascinating field of labor than Brazil,
+notwithstanding the difficulty of the soil and the immense tracts of
+country which have to be traversed. It covers half a continent, and
+is _three times the size of British India_. Far away in the interior
+there exist numerous Indian tribes with, as yet, no written language,
+and consequently no Bible. Thrust back by the white man from their
+original homes, these children of the forest and the river are,
+perhaps, the most needy of the tribes of the earth. For all that
+these millions know, the Gospel is non-existent and Jesus Christ has
+never visited and redeemed the world." [Footnote: The Neglected
+Continent]
+
+
+BRAZIL
+
+The Republic of Brazil has an area of 3,350,000 square miles. From
+north to south the country measures 2,600 miles, and from east to
+west 2,500 miles. While the Republic of Bolivia has no sea coast,
+Brazil has 3,700 miles washed by ocean waves. The population of this
+great empire is twenty-two millions. Out of this perhaps twenty
+millions speak the Portuguese language.
+
+"If Brazil was populated in the same proportion as Belgium is per
+square mile, Brazil would have a population of 1,939,571,699. That is
+to say, Brazil, a single country in South America, could hold and
+support the entire population of the world, and hundreds of millions
+more, the estimate of the earth's population at the beginning of the
+twentieth century being 1,600,000,000." [Footnote: Bishop Neely's
+"South America."]
+
+Besides the millions of mules, horses and other animals, there are,
+in the republic, twenty-five millions of cattle.
+
+Brazil is rich in having 50,000 miles of navigable waterways. Three
+of the largest rivers of the world flow through its territory. The
+Orinoco attains a width of four miles, and is navigable for 1,400
+miles. The Amazon alone drains a basin of 2,500,000 square miles.
+
+Out of this mighty stream there flows every day three times the
+volume of water that flows from the Mississippi. Many a sea-captain
+has thought himself in the ocean while riding its stormy bosom. That
+most majestic of all rivers, with its estuary 180 miles wide, is the
+great highway of Brazil. Steamboats frequently leave the sea and sail
+up its winding channels into the far interior of Ecuador--a distance
+of nearly 4,000 miles. All the world knows that both British and
+American men-of-war have visited the city of Iquitos in Peru, 2,400
+miles up the Amazon River. The sailor on taking soundings has found a
+depth of 170 feet of water at 2,000 miles from the mouth. Stretches
+of water and impenetrable forest as far as the eye can reach are all
+the traveller sees.
+
+Prof. Orton says: "The valley of the Amazon is probably the most
+sparsely populated region on the globe," and yet Agassiz predicted
+that "the future centre of civilization of the world will be in the
+Amazon Valley." I doubt if there are now 500 acres of tilled land in
+the millions of square miles the mighty river drains. Where
+cultivated, coffee, tobacco, rubber, sugar, cocoa, rice, beans, etc.,
+freely grow, and the farmer gets from 500 to 800-fold for every
+bushel of corn he plants. Humboldt estimated that 4,000 pounds of
+bananas can be produced in the same area as 33 pounds of wheat or 99
+pounds of potatoes.
+
+The natural wealth of the country is almost fabulous. Its mountain
+chains contain coal, gold, silver, tin, zinc, mercury and whole
+mountains of the very best iron ore, while in forty years five
+million carats of diamonds have been sent to Europe. In 1907 Brazil
+exported ten million dollars' worth of cocoa, seventy million
+dollars' worth of rubber; and from the splendid stone docks of
+Santos, which put to shame anything seen on this northern continent,
+either in New York or Boston, there was shipped one hundred and
+forty-two million dollars' worth of coffee. Around Rio Janeiro alone
+there are a hundred million coffee trees, and the grower gets two
+crops a year.
+
+Yet this great republic has only had its borders touched. It is
+estimated that there are over a million Indians in the interior, who
+hold undisputed possession of four-fifths of the country. Three and a
+quarter million square miles of the republic thus remains to a great
+extent an unknown, unexplored wilderness. In this area there are over
+a million square miles of virgin forest, "the largest and densest on
+earth." The forest region of the Amazon is twelve hundred miles east
+to west, and eight hundred miles north to south, and this sombre,
+primeval woodland has not yet been crossed. [Footnote: Just as this
+goes to press the newspapers announce that the Brazilian Government
+has appropriated $10,000 towards the expenses of an expedition into
+the interior, under the leadership of Henry Savage Landor, the English
+explorer.]
+
+Brazil's federal capital, Rio de Janeiro, stands on the finest harbor
+of the world, in which float ships from all nations. Proudest among
+these crafts are the large Brazilian gunboats. "It is a curious
+anomaly," says the _Scientific American_, "that the most powerful
+Dreadnought afloat should belong to a South American republic, but it
+cannot be denied that the _Minas Geraes_ is entitled to that
+distinction." This is one of the vessels that mutinied in 1910.
+
+Brazil is a strange republic. Fanatical, where the Bible is burned in
+the public plaza whenever introduced, yet, where the most obscene
+prints are publicly offered for sale in the stores. Where it is a
+"mortal sin" to listen to the Protestant missionary, and _not_ a sin
+to break the whole Decalogue. Backward--where the villagers are tied
+to a post and whipped by the priest when they do not please him.
+Progressive--in the cities where religion has been relegated to women
+and children and priests.
+
+Did I write the word religion? Senhor Ruy Barbosa, the most
+conspicuous representative of South America at the last Hague
+Conference, and a candidate for the Presidency of Brazil, wrote of
+it: "_Romanism is not a religion, but a political organization, the
+most vicious, the most unscrupulous, and the most destructive of all
+political systems. The monks are the propagators of fanaticism, the
+debasers of Christian morals. The history of papal influence has been
+nothing more nor less than the story of the dissemination of a new
+paganism, as full of superstition and of all unrighteousness as the
+mythology of the ancients--a new paganism organized at the expense of
+evangelical traditions, shamelessly falsified and travestied by the
+Romanists. The Romish Church in all ages has been a power, religious
+scarcely in name, but always inherently, essentially and untiringly a
+political power_." As Bishop Neely of the M. E. Church was leaving
+Rio, Dr. Alexander, one of Brazil's most influential gentlemen, said
+to him: "_It is sad to see my people so miserable when they might be
+so happy. Their ills, physical and moral, spring from lack of
+religion. They call themselves Catholics, but the heathen are
+scarcely less Christian_!" Is it surprising that the Italian paper
+_L'Asino_ (The Ass), which exists only to ridicule Romanism, has
+recently been publishing much in praise of what it calls authentic
+Christianity?
+
+"Rio Janeiro, the beautiful," is an imperial city of imposing
+grandeur. It is the largest Portuguese city of the world--greater
+than Lisbon and Oporto together. It has been called "the finest city
+on the continents of America,--perhaps in the world, with
+unqualifiedly the most beautiful street in all the world, the Avenida
+Central." [Footnote: Clark. "Continent of Opportunity."] That
+magnificent avenue, over a mile long and one hundred and ten feet
+wide, asphalt paved and superbly illuminated, is lined with costly
+modern buildings, some of them truly imposing. Ten people can walk
+abreast on its beautiful black and white mosaic sidewalks. The
+buildings which had to be demolished in order to build this superb
+avenue cost the government seven and a half millions of dollars, and
+they were bought at their _taxed_ value, which, it was estimated, was
+only a third of the actual. [Footnote: "But as a wonderful city, the
+crowning glory of Brazil--yes of the world, I believe--is Rio de
+Janeiro."--C. W. Furlong, in "The World's Work."]
+
+Some years ago I knew a thousand people a day to die in Rio Janeiro
+of yellow fever. It is now one of the healthiest of cities, with a
+death-rate far less than that of New York.
+
+Rio Janeiro, as I first knew it, was far behind. Oil lamps shed
+fitful gleams here and there on half-naked people. Electric lights
+now dispel the darkness of the streets, and electric streetcars
+thread in and out of the "Ruas." There is progress everywhere and in
+everything.
+
+To-day the native of Rio truthfully boasts that his city has "the
+finest street-car system of any city of the world."
+
+A man is not permitted to ride in these cars unless he wears a tie,
+which seems to be the badge of respectability. To a visitor these
+exactions are amusing. A friend of mine visited the city, and we rode
+together on the cars until it was discovered that he wore no tie. The
+day was hot, and my friend (a gentleman of private means) had thought
+that a white silk shirt with turn-down collar was enough. We felt
+somewhat humiliated when he was ignominiously turned off the car,
+while the black ex-slaves on board smiled aristocratically. If you
+visit Rio Janeiro, by all means wear a tie. If you forget your shirt,
+or coat, or boots, it will matter little, but the absence of a tie
+will give the negro cause to insult you.
+
+Some large, box-like cars have the words "_Descalcos é Bagagem_"
+(literally, "For the Shoeless and Baggage") printed across them. In
+these the poorer classes and the tieless can ride for half-price. And
+to make room for the constantly inflowing people from Europe, two
+great hills are being removed and "cast into the sea."
+
+
+Rio Janeiro may be earth's coming city. It somewhat disturbs our
+self-complacency to learn that they have spent more for public
+improvements than has any city of the United States, with the
+exception of New York. Municipal works, involving an expenditure of
+$40,000,000, have contributed to this.
+
+Rio Janeiro, however, is not the only large and growing city Brazil
+can boast of. Sao Paulo, with its population of 300,000 and its two-
+million-dollar opera house, which fills the space of three New York
+blocks, is worthy of mention. Bahia, founded in 1549, has 270,000
+inhabitants, and is the centre of the diamond market of Brazil. Pará,
+with its population of 200,000, who export one hundred million
+dollars' worth of rubber yearly and keep up a theatre better than
+anything of the kind in New York, is no mean city. Pernambuco, also,
+has 200,000 inhabitants, large buildings, and as much as eight
+million dollars have recently been devoted to harbor improvements
+there.
+
+Outside of these cities there are estates, quite a few of which are
+worth more than a million dollars; one coffee plantation has five
+million trees and employs five thousand people.
+
+With its Amazon River, six hundred miles longer than the journey from
+New York to Liverpool, England, with its eight branches, each of
+which is navigable for more than a thousand miles, Brazil's future
+must be very great.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_A JOURNEY FROM RIO JANEIRO TO THE INLAND TOWN OF CORUMBA_.
+
+
+Brazil has over 10,000 miles of railway, but as it is a country
+larger than the whole of Europe, the reader can easily understand
+that many parts must be still remote from the iron road and almost
+inaccessible. The town of Cuyabá, as the crow flies, is not one
+thousand miles from Rio, but, in the absence of any kind of roads,
+the traveller from Rio must sail down the one thousand miles of sea-
+coast, and, entering the River Plate, proceed up the Paraná,
+Paraguay, and San Lorenzo rivers to reach it, making it a journey of
+3,600 miles.
+
+"In the time demanded for a Brazilian to reach points in the
+interior, setting out from the national capital and going either by
+way of the Amazon or Rio de la Plata systems of waterways, he might
+journey to Europe and back two or three times over." [Footnote:
+Sylvester Baxter, in The Outlook, March, 1908.]
+
+The writer on one occasion was in Rio when a certain mission called
+him to the town of Corumbá, distant perhaps 1,300 miles from the
+capital. Does the reader wish to journey to that inland town with
+him?
+
+Boarding an ocean steamer at Rio, we sail down the stormy sea-coast
+for one thousand miles to Montevideo. There we tranship into the
+Buenos Ayres boat, and proceed one hundred and fifty miles up the
+river to that city. Almost every day steamers leave that great centre
+for far interior points. The "Rapido" was ready to sail for Asuncion,
+so we breasted the stream one thousand miles more, when that city was
+reached. There another steamer waited to carry us to Corumbá, another
+thousand miles further north.
+
+The climate and scenery of the upper reaches of the Paraguay are
+superb, but our spirits were damped one morning when we discovered
+that a man of our party had mysteriously disappeared during the
+night. We had all sat down to dinner the previous evening in health
+and spirits, and now one was missing. The All-seeing One only knows
+his fate. To us he disappeared forever.
+
+Higher up the country--or lower, I cannot tell which, for the river
+winds in all directions, and the compass, from pointing our course as
+due north, glides over to northwest, west, southwest, and on one or
+two occasions, I believe, pointed due south--we came to the first
+Brazilian town, Puerto Martinho, where we were obliged to stay a
+short time. A boat put off from the shore, in which were some well-
+dressed natives. Before she reached us and made fast, a loud report
+of a Winchester rang out from the midst of those assembled on the
+deck of our steamer, and a man in the boat threw up his arms and
+dropped; the spark of life had gone out. So quickly did this happen
+that before we had time to look around the unfortunate man was
+weltering in his own blood in the bottom of the boat! The assassin,
+an elderly Brazilian, who had eaten at our table and scarcely spoken
+to anyone, stepped forward quietly, confessing that he had shot one
+of his old enemies. He was then taken ashore in the ship's boat,
+there to await Brazilian justice, and later on, to appear before a
+higher tribunal, where the accounts of all men will be balanced.
+
+Such rottenness obtains in Brazilian law that not long since a judge
+sued in court a man who had bribed him and sought to evade paying the
+bribe. Knowing this laxity, we did not anticipate that our murderous
+fellow-traveller would have to suffer much for his crime. The _News_,
+of Rio Janeiro, recently said: "The punishment of a criminal who has
+any influence whatever is becoming one of the forgotten things."
+
+After leaving Puerto Martinho, the uniform flatness of the river
+banks changes to wild, mountainous country. On either hand rise high
+mountains, whose blue tops at times almost frowned over our heads,
+and the luxuriant tropical vegetation, with creeping lianas,
+threatened to bar our progress. Huge alligators sunned themselves on
+the banks, and birds of brilliant plumage flew from branch to branch.
+_Carpinchos_, with heavy, pig-like tread, walked among the rushes of
+the shore, and made more than one good dish for our table. This
+water-hog, the largest gnawing animal in the world, is here very
+common. Their length, from end of snout to tail, is between three and
+four feet, while they frequently weigh up to one hundred pounds. The
+girth of their body will often exceed the length by a foot. For food,
+they eat the many aquatic plants of the river banks, and the puma, in
+turn, finds them as delicious a morsel as we did. The head of this
+amphibious hog presents quite a ludicrous aspect, owing to the great
+depth of the jaw, and to see them sitting on their haunches, like
+huge rabbits, is an amusing sight. The young cling on to the mother's
+back when she swims.
+
+Farther on we stopped to take in wood at a large Brazilian cattle
+establishment, and a man there assured us that "there were no
+venomous insects except tigers," but these killed at least fifteen
+per cent. of his animals. Not long previously a tiger had, in one
+night, killed five men and a dog. The heat every day grew more
+oppressive. On the eighth day we passed the Brazilian fort and
+arsenal of Cuimbre, with its brass cannon shining in a sun of brass,
+and its sleepy inhabitants lolling in the shade.
+
+Five weeks after leaving Rio Janeiro we finally anchored in Corumbá,
+an intensely sultry spot. Corumbá is a town of 5,000 inhabitants, and
+often said to be one of the hottest in the world. It is an unhealthy
+place, as are most towns without drainage and water supply. In the
+hotter season of the year the ratio on a six months' average may be
+two deaths to one birth. It is a place where dogs at times seem more
+numerous than people, a town where justice is administered in ways
+new and strange. Does the reader wish an instance? An assassin of the
+deepest dye was given over by the judge to the tender mercies of the
+crowd. The man was thereupon attacked by the whole population in one
+mass. He was shot and stabbed, stoned and beaten until he became
+almost a shapeless heap, and was then hurried away in a mule cart,
+and, without coffin, priest or mourners, was buried like a dog.
+
+Perhaps the populace felt they had to take the law into their own
+hands, for I was told that the Governor had taken upon himself the
+responsibility of leaving the prison gates open to thirty-two men,
+who had quietly walked out. These men had been incarcerated for
+various reasons, murder, etc., for even in this state of Matto Grosso
+an assassin who cannot pay or escape suffers a little imprisonment.
+The excuse was, "We cannot afford to keep so many idle men--we are
+poor." What a confession for a Brazilian! I do not vouch for the
+story, for I was not an eye-witness to the act, but it is quite in
+the range of Brazilian possibilities. The only discrepancy may be the
+strange way of Portuguese counting. A man buys three horses, but his
+account is that he has bought twelve feet of horses. He embarks a
+hundred cows, but the manifest describes the transaction as four
+hundred feet. The Brazilian is in this respect almost a Yankee--
+little sums do not content him. Why should they, when he can
+truthfully boast that his territory is larger than that of the United
+States? His mile is longer than that of any other nation, and the
+_bocadinho_, or extra "mouthful," which generally accompanies it, is
+endless. Instead of having one hundred cents to the dollar, he has
+two thousand, and each cent is called a "king." The sound is big, but
+alas, the value of his money is insignificantly small!
+
+The child is not content with being called John Smith. "José Maria
+Jesus Joáo dois Sanctos Sylva da Costa da Cunha" is his name; and he
+recites it, as I, in my boyhood's days, used to "say a piece" while
+standing on a chair. There is no school in the town. In Brazil, 84
+per cent. of the entire population are illiterate.
+
+Corumbá contains a few stores of all descriptions, but it would seem
+that the stock in trade of the chemist is very low, for I overheard a
+conversation between two women one day, who said they could not get
+this or that--in fact, "he only keeps cures for stabs and such like
+things." In the _armazems_ liquors are sold, and rice, salt and beans
+despatched to the customer by the pint. Why wine and milk are not
+sold by the pound I did not enquire.
+
+One is not to ask too much in Brazil, or offence is given. When
+seated at table one day with a comrade, who had the misfortune to
+swallow a bone, I quietly "swallowed" the remedy a Brazilian told us
+of. He said their custom was for all to turn away their heads, while
+the unfortunate one revolved his plate around three times to the
+left, and presto! the bone disappeared. My friend did not believe in
+the cure; consequently, he suffered for several days.
+
+I have said that dogs are numerous. These animals roam the streets by
+day and night in packs and fight and tear at anyone or anything. Some
+days before we arrived there were even more, but a few pounds of
+poison had been scattered about the streets--which, by the way, are
+the worst of any town I have ever entered--and the dog population of
+the world decreased nine hundred. This is the Corumbá version.
+Perhaps the truth is, nine hundred feet, or, as we count, two hundred
+and twenty-five dogs. In the interests of humanity, I hope the number
+was nine hundred heads. Five carts then patrolled the streets and
+carried away to the outskirts those dead dogs, which were there
+burnt. I, the writer, find the latter part of the story hardest to
+believe. Why should a freeborn Brazilian lift dogs out of the street?
+In what better place could they be? They would fill up the holes and
+ruts, and, in such intense heat, why do needless work?
+
+Corumbá is a typical Brazilian town. Little carts, drawn by a string
+of goats or rams, thread their way through the streets. Any animal
+but the human must do the work. As the majority of the people go
+barefooted, the patriarchal custom prevails of having water offered
+on entering a house to wash the feet. At all hours of the day men,
+women and children seek to cool themselves in the river, which is
+here a mile wide, and with a depth of 20 feet in the channel. While
+on the subject of bathing, I might mention that a wooden image of the
+patron saint of the town is, with great pomp, brought down at the
+head of a long procession, once every year, to receive his annual
+"duck" in the water. This is supposed to benefit him much. After his
+immersion, all the inhabitants, men, women and children, make a rush
+to be the first to dip in the "blessed water," for, by doing this,
+all their sins are forgiven them for a year to come. The sick are
+careful to see that they are not left in the position of the
+unfortunate one mentioned in the Gospel by John, who "had no one to
+put him into the pool."
+
+I have also known the Virgin solemnly carried down to the water's
+edge, that she might command it to rise or fall, as suited the
+convenience of the people. While she exercised her power the natives
+knelt around her on the shingly beach in rapturous devotion. At such
+times the "Mother of Heaven" is clothed in her best, and the jewels
+in her costume sparkle in the tropical sun.
+
+What the Nile is to Egypt, the Paraguay River is to these interior
+lands, and what Isis was to the Egyptians, so is the Virgin to these
+people. Once, when the waters were low, it is related the Virgin came
+down from heaven and stood upon some rocks in the river bed. To this
+day the pilot tells you how her footprints are to be clearly seen,
+impressed in the stone, when the water is shallow. Strange that
+Mahomet does not rise from his tomb and protest, for that miracle we
+must concede to him, because his footprints have been on the sacred
+rocks at Mecca for a thousand years. Does he pass it over, believing,
+with many, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?
+
+Whatever Roman Catholicism is in other parts of the world, in South
+America it is pure Mariolatry. The creed, as we have seen, reads:
+"Mary must be our first object of worship, Saint Joseph the second."
+Along with these, saints, living and dead, are numberless.
+
+A traveller in South Brazil thus writes of a famous monk: "There, in
+a shed at the back of a small farm, half sitting, half reclining on a
+mat and a skin of some wild animal, was a man of about seventy years
+of age, in a state of nudity. A small piece of red blanket was thrown
+over his shoulders, barely covering them. His whole body was
+encrusted with filth, and his nails had grown like claws. His vacant
+look showed him to be a poor, helpless idiot. Beside him a large wood
+fire was kept burning. The ashes of this fire, strewn around him for
+the sake of cleanliness, are carried away for medicinal purposes by
+the thousands of pilgrims who visit him. Men and women come from long
+distances to see him, in the full persuasion that he is a holy man
+and has miraculous powers." [Footnote: "The Neglected Continent"]
+Romanism is thus seen to be in a double sense "a moral pestilence."
+
+The church is, of course, very much in evidence in Corumbá, for it is
+a very religious place. A _missa cantata_ is often held there, when a
+noisy brass band will render dance music, often at the moat solemn
+parts. The drums frequently beat until the worshippers are almost
+deafened.
+
+In the town of Bom Fim, a little further north, the priest runs a
+"show" opposite his church, and over it are printed the words,
+"Theatre of the Holy Ghost."
+
+Think, O intelligent reader, how dense must be the darkness of Papal
+America when a church notice, which anyone may see affixed to the
+door, reads:
+
+RAFFLE FOB SOULS.
+
+A raffle for souls will be held at this Church on January 1st, at
+which four bleeding and tortured souls will be released from
+purgatory to heaven, according to the four highest tickets in this
+most holy lottery. Tickets, $1.00. To be had of the father in charge.
+Will you, for the poor sum of one dollar, leave your loved ones to
+burn in purgatory for ages?
+
+At the last raffle for souls, the following numbers obtained the
+prize, and the lucky holders may be assured that their loved ones are
+forever released from the flames of purgatory: Ticket 4l.--The soul
+of Madame Coldern is made happy for ever. Ticket 762.--The soul of
+the aged widow, Francesca de Parson, is forever released from the
+flames of purgatory. Ticket 84l.--The soul of Lawyer Vasquez is
+released from purgatory and ushered into heavenly joys. [Footnote:
+"Gospel Message."]
+
+But, my reader asks, "Do the people implicitly believe all the priest
+says?" No, sometimes they say, "Show us a sign." This was especially
+true of the people living on the Chili-Bolivian border. The wily, yet
+progressive, priest there made a number of little balloons, which on
+a certain day of the year were sent up into the sky, bearing away the
+sins of the people. Of course, when the villagers saw their sins
+float away before their own eyes, enclosed in little crystal spheres,
+such as _could not be earthly_, they believed and rejoiced. Yes,
+reader, the South American priest is alive to his position after all,
+and even "patents" are requisitioned. In some of the larger churches
+there is the "slot" machine, which, when a coin is inserted, gives
+out _"The Pope's blessing."_ This is simply a picture representing
+his Holiness with uplifted hands.
+
+The following is a literal translation, from the Portuguese, of a
+"notice" in a Rio Janeiro newspaper:
+
+FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF THE LADY OF NAZARETH.
+
+"The day will be ushered in with majestic and deafening fireworks,
+and the 'Hail Mary' rendered by the beautiful band of the----Infantry
+regiment. There will be an intentional mass, grand vocal and
+instrumental music, solemn vespers, the Gospel preached, and ribbons,
+which have been placed round the neck of the image of St. Broz,
+distributed.
+
+"The square, tastefully decorated and pompously illuminated, will
+afford the devotees, after their supplications to the Lord of the
+Universe, the following means of amusement,-----the Chinese Pavilion,
+etc.,-----. Evening service concluded, there will be danced in the
+Flora Pavilion the _fandango à pandereta_. In the same pavilion a
+comic company will act several pieces. On Sunday, upon the conclusion
+of the Te Deum, the comic company will perform," etc.
+
+The spiritual darkness is appalling. If the following can be written
+of Pernambuco, a large city of 180,000 inhabitants, on the sea coast,
+the reader can, in a measure, understand the priestly thraldom of
+these isolated towns. A Pernambuco newspaper, in its issue of March
+1st, 1903, contains an article headed, "Burning of Bibles," which
+says:
+
+"As has been announced, there was realized in the square of the
+Church of Penha, on the 22nd ult., at nine o'clock in the morning, in
+the presence of more than two thousand people, the burning of two
+hundred and fourteen volumes of the Protestant Bible, amidst
+enthusiastic cheers for the Catholic religion, the immaculate Virgin
+Mary, and the High Priest Leo XIII.--cheers raised spontaneously by
+the Catholic people." [Footnote: Literal translation from the
+Portuguese.]
+
+A colporteur, known to me, when engaged selling Bibles in a Brazilian
+town, reports that the fanatical populace got his books and carried
+them, fastened and burning, at the end of blazing torches, while they
+tramped the streets, yelling: "Away with all false books!" "Away with
+the religion of the devils!" A recent Papal bull reads: "Bible
+burnings are most Catholic demonstrations."
+
+Is it cause for wonder that the Spanish-American Republics have been
+so backward?
+
+I have seen a notice headed "SAVIOUR OF SOULS," making known the fact
+that at a certain address a _Most Holy Reverend Father_ would be in
+attendance during certain hours, willing to save the soul of any and
+every applicant on payment of so much. That revelation which tells of
+a Saviour without money or price is denied them.
+
+Corumbá is a strange, lawless place, where the ragged, barefooted
+night policeman inspires more terror in the law-abiding than the
+professional prowler. The former has a sharp sword, which glitters as
+he threatens, and the latter has often a kind heart, and only asks
+"mil reis" (about thirty cents).
+
+How can a town be governed properly when its capital is three
+thousand miles distant, and the only open route thither is, by river
+and sea, a month's journey? Perhaps the day is not far distant when
+Cuyabá, the most central city of South America, and larger than
+Corumbá, lying hundreds of miles further up the river, will set up a
+head of its own to rule, or misrule, the province. Brazil is too big,
+much too big, or the Government is too little, much too little.
+
+The large states are subdivided into districts, or parishes, each
+under an ecclesiastical head, as may be inferred from the peculiar
+names many of them bear. There are the parishes of:
+
+"Our Lady, Mother of God of Porridge."
+
+"The Three Hearts of Jesus."
+
+"Our Lady of the Rosary of the Pepper Tree."
+
+"The Souls of the Sand Bank of the River of Old Women."
+
+"The Holy Ghost of the Cocoanut Tree."
+
+"Our Lady Mother of the Men of Mud."
+
+"The Sand Bank of the Holy Ghost."
+
+"The Holy Spirit of the Pitchfork."
+
+The Brazilian army, very materially aided by the saints, is able to
+keep this great country, with its many districts, in tolerable
+quietness. Saint Anthony, who, when young, was _privileged to carry
+the toys of the child Jesus_, is, in this respect, of great service
+to the Brazilians. The military standing of Saint Anthony in the
+Brazilian army is one of considerable importance and diversified
+service. According to a statement of Deputy Spinola, made on the 13th
+of June, the eminent saint's feast day, his career in the military
+service of Brazil has been the following: By a royal letter of the
+7th of April, 1707, the commission of captain was conferred upon the
+image of Saint Anthony, of Bahia. This image was promoted to be a
+major of infantry by a decree of September 13th, 1819. In July, 1859,
+his pay was placed upon the regular pay-roll of the Department of
+War.
+
+The image of St. Anthony in Rio de Janeiro, however, outranks his
+counterpart of Bahia, and seems to have had a more brilliant military
+record. His commission as captain dates from a royal letter of March
+21st, 1711. He was promoted to be major of infantry in July, 1810,
+and to be lieutenant-colonel in 1814. He was decorated with the Grand
+Cross of the Order of Christ also, in 1814, and his pay as
+lieutenant-colonel was made a permanent charge on the military list
+in 1833.
+
+The image of St. Anthony of Ouro Preto attained the rank and pay of
+captain in 1799. His career has been an uneventful one, and has been
+confined principally to the not unpleasant task of drawing $480 a
+month from the public treasury. The salaries of all these soldiery
+images are drawn by duly constituted attorneys. [Footnote: Rio News]
+
+Owing to bubonic plague, my stay in Corumbá was prolonged. I have
+been in the city of Bahia when an average of 200 died every day from
+this terrible disease, so Brazil is beginning to be more careful.
+
+Though steamers were not running, perspiration was. Oh, the heat! In
+my excursions in and around the town I found that even the mule I had
+hired, acclimatized as it was to heat and thirst and hunger, began to
+show signs of fatigue. Can man or beast be expected to work when the
+temperature stands at 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade?
+
+As the natives find bullocks bear the heat better than mules, I
+procured one of these saddle animals, but it could only travel at a
+snail's pace. I was indeed thankful to quit the oven of a town when
+at last quarantine was raised and a Brazilian steamboat called.
+
+Rats were so exceedingly numerous on this packet that they would
+scamper over our bodies at night. So bold were they that we were
+compelled to take a cudgel into our berths! A Brazilian passenger
+declared one morning that he had counted three hundred rats on the
+cabin floor at one time! I have already referred to Brazilian
+numbering; perhaps he meant three hundred feet, or seventy-five rats.
+
+With the heat and the rats, supplemented by millions of mosquitos, my
+Corumbá journey was not exactly a picnic.
+
+In due time we arrived again at Puerto Martinio, only to hear that
+our former fellow-passenger, the assassin, had regained his freedom
+and could be seen walking about the town. But then--well, he was
+rich, and money does all in Brazil--yea, the priest will even tell
+you it purchases an entrance into heaven! In worldly matters the
+people _see_ its power, and in spiritual matters they _believe_ it.
+If the priest has heard of Peter's answer to Simon--"Thy money perish
+with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be
+purchased with money"--he keeps it to himself. How can he live if he
+deceives not? Strange indeed is the thought that, three hundred years
+before the caravels of Portuguese conquerors ever sailed these
+waters, the law of the Indian ruler of that very part of the country
+read: "Judges who receive bribes from their clients are to be considered
+as thieves meriting death." And a clause in the Sacred Book read:
+"He who kills another condemns his own self." Has the interior of
+South America gone forward or backward since then? Was the adoration
+of the Sun more civilizing than the worship of the Virgin?
+
+When we got down into Argentine waters I began to feel cold, and
+donned an overcoat. Thinking it strange that I should feel thus in
+the latitude which had in former times been so agreeable, I
+investigated, and found the thermometer 85 degrees Fah. in the shade.
+After Corumbá that was _cold_.
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+URUGUAY
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE LONE TRAIL.
+
+
+  And sometimes it leads to the desert and the tongue swells
+    out of the mouth,
+  And you stagger blind to the mirage, to die in the mocking
+    drouth.
+  And sometimes it leads to the mountain, to the light of the
+    lone camp-fire,
+  And you gnaw your belt in the anguish of the hunger-goaded
+    desire.
+
+          --_Robert W. Service._
+
+
+
+The Republic of Uruguay has 72,210 square miles of territory, and is
+the smallest of the ten countries of South America. Its population is
+only 1,103,000, but the Liebig Company, "which manufactures beef tea
+for the world, owns nearly a million acres of land in Uruguay. On its
+enormous ranches over 6,000,000 head of cattle have passed through
+its hands in the fifty years of its existence." [Footnote: Clark.
+"Continent of Opportunity."]
+
+The republic seems well governed, but, as in all Spanish-American
+countries, the ideas of right and wrong are strange. While taking
+part in a religious procession, President Borda was assassinated in
+1897. A man was seen to deliberately walk up and shoot him. The Chief
+Executive fell mortally wounded. This cool murderer was condemned to
+two years' imprisonment for _insulting_ the President.
+
+In 1900, President Arredondo was assassinated, but the murderer was
+acquitted on the ground that "he was interpreting the feelings of the
+people."
+
+Uruguay is a progressive republic, with more than a thousand miles of
+railway. On these lines the coaches are very palatial. The larger
+part of the coach, made to seat fifty-two passengers, is for smokers,
+the smaller compartment, accommodating sixteen, is for non-smokers,
+thus reversing our own practice. Outside the harbor of the capital a
+great sea-wall is being erected, at tremendous cost, to facilitate
+shipping, and Uruguay is certainly a country with a great future.
+
+The capital city occupies a commanding position at the mouth of the
+great estuary of the Rio de la Plata; its docks are large and modern,
+and palatial steamers of the very finest types bring it in daily
+communication with Buenos Ayres. The Legislative Palace is one of the
+finest government buildings in the world. The great Solis Theatre,
+where Patti and Bernhardt have both appeared, covers nearly two acres
+of ground, seats three thousand people and cost three million dollars
+to build. The sanitary conditions and water supply are so perfect
+that fewer people die in this city, in proportion to its size, than
+in any other large city of the world.
+
+The Parliament of Uruguay has recently voted that all privileges
+hitherto granted to particular religious bodies shall be abrogated,
+that the army shall not take part in religious ceremonies, that army
+chaplains shall be dismissed, that the national flag shall not be
+lowered before any priest or religious symbol. So another state cuts
+loose from Rome!
+
+The climate of the country is such that grapes, apricots, peaches,
+and many other fruits grow to perfection. Its currency is on a more
+stable basis than that of any other Spanish republic, and its dollar
+is actually worth 102 cents. The immigrants pouring into Uruguay have
+run up to over 20,000 a year; the population has increased more than
+100 per cent in 12 years; so we shall hear from Uruguay in coming
+years more than we have done in the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+SKETCHES OF A HORSEBACK RIDE THROUGH THE REPUBLIC.
+
+
+I CROSS THE SILVER RIVER.
+
+I left Buenos Ayres for Uruguay in an Italian _polacca_. We weighed
+anchor one Sunday afternoon, and as the breeze was favorable, the
+white sails, held up by strong ropes of rawhide, soon wafted us away
+from the land. We sailed through a fleet of ships from all parts of
+the world, anchored in the stream, discharging and loading cargoes.
+There, just arrived, was an Italian emigrant ship with a thousand
+people on board, who had come to start life afresh. There was the
+large British steamer, with her clattering windlass, hoisting on
+board live bullocks from barges moored alongside. The animals are
+raised up by means of a strong rope tied around their horns, and as
+the ship rocks on the swell they dangle in mid-air. When a favorable
+moment arrives they are quickly dropped on to the deck, completely
+stupefied by their aerial flight.
+
+As darkness fell, the wind dropped, and we lay rocking on the bosom
+of the river, with only the twinkling lights of the Argentine coast
+to remind us of the solid world. The shoreless river was, however,
+populous with craft of all rigs, for this is the highway to the great
+interior, and some of them were bound to Cuyabá, 2,600 miles in the
+heart of the continent. During the night a ship on fire in the offing
+lit up with great vividness the silent waste of waters, and as the
+flames leaped up the rigging, the sight was very grand. Owing to
+calms and light winds, our passage was a slow one, and I was not
+sorry when at last I could say good-bye to the Italians and their
+oily food. Three nights and two days is a long time to spend in
+crossing a river.
+
+MONTEVIDEO.
+
+Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is "one of the handsomest cities
+in all America, north or south." Its population is over 350,000. It
+is one of the cleanest and best laid-out cities on the continent; it
+has broad, airy streets and a general look of prosperity. What
+impresses the newcomer most is the military display everywhere seen.
+Sentry boxes, in front of which dark-skinned soldiers strut, seem to
+be at almost every corner. Although Uruguay has a standing army of
+under 3,500 men, yet gold-braided officers are to be met with on
+every street. There are twenty-one generals on active service, and
+many more living on pension. More important personages than these men
+assume to be could not be met with in any part of the world.
+
+The armies of most of these republics are divided into sections
+bearing such blasphemous titles as "Division of the Son of God,"
+"Division of the Good Shepherd," "Division of the Holy Lancers of
+Death" and "Soldiers of the Blessed Heart of Mary." These are often
+placed under the sceptre of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the national
+emblem.
+
+Boys of seven and old men of seventy stand on the sidewalks selling
+lottery tickets; and the priest, with black beaver hat, the brim of
+which has a diameter of two feet, is always to be seen. One of these
+priests met a late devotee, but now a follower of Christ through
+missionary effort, and said: "Good morning, _Daughter of the Evil
+One_!" "Good morning, _Father_," she replied.
+
+The cemetery is one of the finest on the continent, and is well worth
+a visit. Very few of Montevideo's dead are _buried_. The coffins of
+the rich are zinc-lined, and provided with a glass in the lid. All
+caskets are placed in niches in the high wall which surrounds the
+cemetery. These mural niches are six or eight feet deep in the wall,
+and each one has a marble tablet for the name of the deposited one.
+By means of a large portable ladder and elevator combined, the
+coffins are raised from the ground. At anniversaries of the death the
+tomb is filled with flowers, and candles are lit inside, while a
+wreath is hung on the door. A favorite custom is to attend mass on
+Sunday morning, then visit the cemetery, and spend the afternoon at
+the bull-fights.
+
+NATIVE HOUSES AND HABITS.
+
+Uruguay is essentially a pastoral country, and the finest animals of
+South America are there raised. It is said that "Uruguay's pasture
+lands could feed all the cattle of the world, and sheep grow fat at
+50 to the acre." In 1889, when I first went there, there were thirty-
+two millions of horned cattle grazing on a thousand hills. Liebig's
+famous establishments at Fray Bentos, two hundred miles north of
+Montevideo, employs six hundred men, and kills one thousand bullocks
+a day.
+
+Uruguay has some good roads, and the land is wire-fenced in all
+directions. The rivers are crossed on large flat-bottomed boats
+called _balsas_. These are warped across by a chain, and carry as
+many as ten men and horses in one trip. The roads are in many places
+thickly strewn with bones of dead animals, dropped by the way, and
+these are picked clean by the vultures. No sooner does an animal lie
+down to die than, streaming out of the infinite space, which a moment
+before has been a lifeless world of blue ether, there come lines of
+vultures, and soon white bones are all that are left.
+
+On the fence-posts one sees many nests of the _casera_ (housebuilder)
+bird, made of mud. These have a dome-shaped roof, and are divided by
+a partition inside into chamber and ante-chamber. By the roadside are
+hovels of the natives not a twentieth part so well-built or rain-
+tight. Fleas are so numerous in these huts that sometimes, after
+spending a night in one, it would have been impossible to place a
+five-cent piece on any part of my body that had not been bitten by
+them. Scorpions come out of the wood they burn on the earthen floor,
+and monster cockroaches nibble your toes at night. The thick, hot
+grass roofs of the ranches harbor centipedes, which drop on your face
+as you sleep, and bite alarmingly. These many-legged creatures grow
+to the length of eight or nine inches, and run to and fro with great
+speed. Well might the little girl, on seeing a centipede for the
+first time, ask: "What is that queer-looking thing, with about a
+million legs?" Johnny wisely replied: "That's a millennium. It's
+something like a centennial, only its has more legs."
+
+After vain attempts to sleep, you rise, and may see the good wife
+cleaning her only plate for you by rubbing it on her greasy hair and
+wiping it with the bottom of her chemise. Ugh! Proceeding on the
+journey, it is a common sight to see three or four little birds
+sitting on the backs of the horned cattle getting their breakfast,
+which I hope they relish better than I often did.
+
+A WAKE, AND HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN.
+
+During my journey I was asked: Would I like to go to the wake held
+that night at the next house, three miles away? After supper, horses
+were saddled up and away we galloped. Quite a number had already
+gathered there. We found the dead man lying on a couple of
+sheepskins, in the centre of a mud-walled and mud-floored room. "No
+useless coffin enclosed his breast," nor was he wound in either sheet
+or shroud. There he lay, fully attired, even to his shoes. Four
+tallow candles lighted up the gloom, and these were placed at his
+head and feet. His clammy hands were reverently folded over his
+breast, whilst entwined in his fingers was a bronze cross and rosary,
+that St. Peter, seeing his devotion, might, without questioning,
+admit him to a better world. The scene was weird beyond description.
+Outside, the wind moaned a sad dirge; great bats and black moths, the
+size of birds, flitted about in the midnight darkness. These, ever
+and anon, made their way inside and extinguished the candles, which
+flickered and dripped as they fitfully shone on the shrunken features
+of the corpse. He had been a reprobate and an assassin, but, luckily
+for him, a pious woman, not wishing to see him die "in his sins," had
+sprinkled _Holy Water_ on him. The said "Elixir of Life" had been
+brought eighty miles, and was kept in her house to use only in
+extreme cases. The poor woman had paid the price of a cow for the
+bottle of water, but the priest had declared that it was an effectual
+soul-saver, and they never doubted its efficacy. Around the corpse
+was a throng of women, and they all chattered as women are apt to do.
+The men, standing around the door, talked of their horse-races,
+fights or anything else. For some hours I heard no allusion to the
+dead, but as the night wore on the prophetess of the people came
+forth.
+
+If my advent among them had caused a stir, the entrance of this old
+woman caused a bustle; even the dead man seemed to salute her, or was
+it only my imagination--for I was in a strangely sensitive mood--that
+pictured it? As she slowly approached, leaning heavily on a rough,
+thick staff, all the females present bent their knees. Now prayers
+were going to be offered up for the dead, and the visible woman was
+to act as interceder with the invisible one in heaven. After being
+assisted to her knees, the old woman, in a cracked, yet loud, voice,
+began. "_Santa Maria, ruega por nosotros, ahora, y en la hora de
+nuestra muerte!_" (Holy Mary pray for us now, and in the hour of our
+death!) This was responded to with many gesticulations and making of
+crosses by the numerous females around her. The prayers were many and
+long, and must have lasted perhaps an hour; then all arose, and máté
+and cigars were served. Men and women, even boys and girls, smoked
+the whole night through, until around the Departed was nothing but
+bluish clouds.
+
+The natives are so fond of wakes that when deaths do not occur with
+great frequency, the bones of "grandma" are dug up, and she is prayed
+and smoked over once more. The digging up of the dead is often a
+simple matter, for the corpse is frequently just carried into the
+bush, and there covered with prickly branches.
+
+THE SNAKE'S HISTORY.
+
+I met with a snake, of a whitish color, that appeared to have two
+heads. Never being able to closely examine this strange reptile, I
+cannot positively affirm that it possesses the two heads, but the
+natives repeatedly affirmed to me that it does, and certainly both
+ends are, or seem to be, exactly alike. In the Book of Genesis the
+serpent is described as "a beast," but for its temptation of Eve it
+was condemned to crawl on its belly and become a reptile. A strange
+belief obtains among the people that all serpents must not only be
+killed, but _put into a fire_. If there is none lit, they will kindle
+one on purpose, for it must be burned. As the outer skin comes off,
+it is declared, the four legs, now under it, can be distinctly seen.
+
+A GIRL'S NEW BIRTH AND TRANSLATION.
+
+At Rincon I held a series of meetings in a mud hut. Men and women,
+with numerous children, used to gather on horseback an hour before
+the time for opening. A little girl always brought her three-legged
+stool and squatted in front of me. The rest appropriated tree-trunks
+and bullocks' skulls. The girl referred to listened to the Gospel
+story as though her life depended upon it, as indeed it did! When at
+Rincon only a short time, the child desired me to teach her how to
+pray, and she clasped her hands reverently. "Would Jesus save _me_?"
+she asked. "Did He die for me--_me_? Will He save me now?" The girl
+_believed_, and entered at once into the family of God.
+
+One day a man on horseback, tears streaming down his cheeks, galloped
+up to my hut. It was her father. His girl was dead. She had gone into
+the forest, and, feeling hungry, had eaten some berries; they were
+poisonous, and she had come home to die. Would I bury her? Shortly
+afterwards I rode over to the hovel where she had lived. Awaiting me
+were the broken-hearted parents. A grocery box had been secured, and
+this rude coffin was covered with pink cotton. Four horses were yoked
+in a two-wheeled cart, the parents sat on the casket, and I followed
+on horseback to the nearest cemetery, sixteen miles away. There, in a
+little enclosure, we lowered the girl into her last earthly resting-
+place, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. She
+had lived in a house where a cow's hide served for a door, but she
+had now entered the "pearly gates." The floor of her late home was
+mother earth; what a change to be walking the "streets of gold!" Some
+day, "after life's fitful fever," I shall meet her again, not a poor,
+ragged half-breed girl, but glorified, and clothed in His
+righteousness.
+
+HOW I DID NOT LOSE MY EYES.
+
+One day I was crossing a river, kneeling on my horse's back, when he
+gave a lurch and threw me into the water. Gaining the bank, and being
+quite alone, I stripped off my wet clothes and waited for the sun to
+dry them. The day was hot and sultry, and, feeling tired, I covered
+myself up with the long grass and went to sleep. How long I lay I
+cannot tell, but suddenly waking up, I found to my alarm that several
+large vultures, having thought me dead, were contemplating me as
+their next meal! Had my sleep continued a few moments longer, the
+rapacious birds would have picked my eyes out, as they invariably do
+before tearing up their victim. All over the country these birds
+abound, and I have counted thirty and forty tearing up a living,
+quivering animal. Sometimes, for mercy's sake, I have alighted and
+put the suffering beast out of further pain. Before I got away they
+have been fighting over it again in their haste to suck the heart's
+blood.
+
+A BACHELOR RABBIT.
+
+The pest of Australia is the rabbit, but, strange to say, I never
+found one in South America. In their place is the equally destructive
+_viscacha_ or prairie dog--a much larger animal, probably three or
+four times the size, having very low, broad head, little ears, and
+thick, bristling whiskers. His coat is gray and white, with a mixture
+of black. To all appearance this is a ferocious beast, with his two
+front tusk-like teeth, about four inches long, but he is perfectly
+harmless. The viscacha makes his home, like the rabbit, by burrowing
+in the ground, where he remains during daylight. The faculty of
+acquisition in these animals must be large, for in their nightly
+trips they gather and bring to the mouth of their burrow anything and
+everything they can possibly move. Bones, manure, stones and feathers
+are here collected, and if the traveller accidentally dropped his
+watch, knife or handkerchief, it would be found and carried to adorn
+the viscacha's doorway, if those animals were anywhere near.
+
+The lady reader will be shocked to learn that the head of the
+viscacha family, probably copying a bad example from the ostrich, his
+neighbor, is also very unamiable with his "better half," and inhabits
+bachelor's quarters, which he keeps all to himself, away from his
+family. The food of this strange dog-rabbit is roots, and his
+powerful teeth are well fitted to root them up. At the mouth of their
+burrows may often be seen little owls, which have ejected the
+original owners and themselves taken possession. They have a
+strikingly saucy look, and possess the advantage of being able to
+turn their heads right around while the body remains immovable. Being
+of an inquisitive nature, they stare at every passer-by, and if the
+traveller quietly walks around them he will smile at the grotesque
+power they have of turning their head. When a young horse is
+especially slow in learning the use of the reins, I have known the
+cowboy smear the bridle with the brains of this clever bird, that the
+owl's facility in turning might thus be imparted to it.
+
+Another peculiar animal is the _comadreka_, which resembles the
+kangaroo in that it is provided with a bag or pouch in which to carry
+its young ones. I have surprised these little animals (for they are
+only of rabbit size) with their young playing around them, and have
+seen the mother gather them into her pouch and scamper away.
+
+DRINKING WATER, SAINTS AND THE VIRGIN.
+
+In Uruguay it is the custom for all, on approaching a house, to call
+out, "Holy Mary the Pure!" and until the inmate answers: "Conceived
+without sin!" not a step farther must be made by the visitor. At a
+hut where I called there was a baby hanging from the wattle roof in a
+cow's hide, and flies covered the little one's eyes. On going to the
+well for a drink I saw that there was a cat and a rat in the water,
+but the people were drinking it! When smallpox breaks out because of
+such unsanitary conditions, I have known them to carry around the
+image of St. Sebastian, that its divine presence might chase away the
+sickness. The dress of the Virgin is often borrowed from the church,
+and worn by the women, that they may profit by its healing virtues. A
+crucifix hung in the house keeps away evil spirits.
+
+The people were very _religious_, and no rain having fallen for five
+months, had concluded to carry around a large image of the Virgin
+they had, and show her the dry crops. I rode on, but did not get wet!
+
+NO NEED OF THE DOCTOR OR VET.
+
+"A poor girl got very severely burnt, and the remedy applied was a
+poultice of mashed ears of _viscacha_. The burn did not heal, and so
+a poultice of pig's dung was put on. When we went to visit the girl,
+the people said it was because they had come to our meetings that the
+girl did not get better. A liberal cleansing, followed by the use of
+boracic acid, has healed the wound. Another case came under our
+notice of a woman who suffered from a gathering in the ear, and the
+remedy applied was a negro's curl fried in fat."
+
+To cure animals of disease there are many ways. Mrs. Nieve boasted
+that, by just saying a few cabalistic words over a sick cow, she
+could heal it. A charm put on the top of the enclosure where the
+animals are herded will keep away sickness. To cure a bucking horse
+all that is necessary is to pull out its eyebrows and spit in its
+face. Let a lame horse step on a sheepskin, cut out the piece, and
+carry it in your pocket; if this can't be done, make a cross with
+tufts of grass, and the leg will heal. For ordinary sickness tie a
+dog's head around the horse's neck. If a horse has pains in the
+stomach, let him smell your shirt.
+
+A RACE FOR INFORMATION.
+
+Uruguay is said to have averaged a revolution every two years for
+nearly a century, so in times of revolutionary disturbance the
+younger children are often set to watch the roads and give timely
+warning, that the father or elder brother may effect an escape. The
+said persons may then mount their fleetest horse and be out of sight
+ere the recruiting sergeant arrives. Being one day perplexed, and in
+doubt whether I was on my right road, I made towards a boy I had
+descried some distance away, to ask him. No sooner did the youth
+catch sight of me than he set off at a long gallop away from me; why,
+I could not tell, as they are generally so interested at the sight of
+a stranger. Determined not to be outdone, and feeling sure that
+without directions I could not safely continue the journey, I put
+spurs to my horse and tried to overtake him. As I quickened my pace
+he looked back, and, seeing me gain upon him, urged his horse to its
+utmost speed. Down hill and up hill, through grass and mud and water,
+the race continued. A sheepskin fell from his saddle, but he heeded
+it not as he went plunging forward. Human beings in those latitudes
+were very few, and if I did not catch him I might be totally lost for
+days; so I went clattering on over his sheepskin, and then over his
+wooden saddle, the fall of which only made his horse give a fresh
+plunge forward as he lay on its neck. Thus we raced for at least
+three miles, until, tired out and breathless, I gave up in despair.
+
+Concluding that my fleet-footed but unamiable young friend had
+undoubtedly some place in view, I continued in the same direction,
+but at a more respectable pace. Shortly afterwards I arrived at a
+very small hut, built of woven grass and reeds, which I presumed was
+his home. Making for the open door, I clapped my hands, but received
+no answer. The hut was certainly inhabited--of that I saw abundant
+signs--but where were the people? I dare not get down from my horse;
+that is an insult no native would forgive; so I slowly walked around
+the house, clapping my hands and shouting at the top of my voice.
+Just as I was making the circuit for the third time, I descried
+another and a larger house, hidden in the trees some distance away,
+and thither I forthwith bent my steps. There I learned that I had
+been taken for a recruiting sergeant, and the inhabitants had hidden
+themselves when the boy galloped up with the message of my approach.
+
+I FIND DIAMONDS.
+
+  "For one shall grasp and one resign.
+  One drink life's rue, and one its wine;
+  And God shall make the balance good."
+
+Encamped on the banks of the Black River, idly turning up the soil
+with the stock of my riding-whip, I was startled to find what I
+believed to be real diamonds! Beautifully white, transparent stones
+they were, and, rising to examine them closely in the sunlight, I was
+more than ever convinced of the richness of my find. Was it possible
+that I had unwittingly discovered a diamond field? Could it be true
+that, after years of hardship, I had found a fortune? I was a rich
+man--oh, the enchanting thought! No need now to toil through
+scorching suns. I could live at ease. As I sat with the stones
+glistening in the light before my eyes, my brain grew fevered.
+Leaving my hat and coat on the ground, I ran towards my horse, and,
+vaulting on his bare back, wildly galloped to and fro, that the
+breezes might cool my fevered head. Rich? Oh, how I had worked and
+striven! Life had hitherto been a hard fight. When I had gathered
+together a few dollars, I had been prostrated with malarial or some
+other fever, and they had flown. After two or three months of
+enforced idleness I had had to start the battle of life afresh with
+diminished funds. Now the past was dead; I could rest from strife.
+Rest! How sweet it sounded as I repeated aloud the precious word, and
+the distant echoes brought back the word, Rest!
+
+I was awakened from my day dreams by being thrown from my horse! Hope
+for the future had so taken possession of me that the present was
+forgotten. I had not seen the caves of the prairie dog, but my horse
+had given a sudden start aside to avoid them, and I found myself
+licking the dust. Bather a humiliating position for a man to be in
+who had just found unlimited wealth; Somewhat subdued, I made my way
+back to my solitary encampment.
+
+Well, how shall I conclude this short but pregnant chapter of my
+life? Suffice it to say that my idol was shattered! The stones were
+found to be of little worth.
+
+  "The flower that smiles to-day,
+   To-morrow dies;
+  All that we wish to stay
+   Tempts, and then flies."
+
+A MAN WITH TWO NOSES AND TWO MOUTHS.
+
+I was lost one day, and had been sitting in the grass for an hour or
+more wondering what I should do, when the sound of galloping hoofs
+broke the silence. On looking around, to my horror, I saw a
+_something_ seated on a fiery horse tearing towards me! What could it
+be? Was it human? Could the strange-looking being who suddenly reined
+up his horse before me be a man? A man surely, but possessing two
+noses, two mouths, and two hare-lips. A hideous sight! I shuddered as
+I looked at him. His left eye was in the temple, and he turned it
+full upon me, while with the other he seemed to glance toward the
+knife in his belt. When he rode up I had saluted him, but he did not
+return the recognition. Feeling sure that the country must be well
+known to him, I offered to reward him if he would act as my guide.
+The man kept his gleaming eye fixed upon me, but answered not a word.
+Beginning to look at the matter in rather a serious light, I mounted
+my horse, when he grunted at me in an unintelligible way, which
+showed me plainly that he was without the power of speech. He turned
+in the direction I had asked him to take, and we started off at a
+breakneck speed, which his fiery horse kept up. I cannot say he
+followed his nose, or the reader might ask me which nose, but he led
+me in a straight line to an eminence, from whence he pointed out the
+estancia I was seeking. The house was still distant, yet I was not
+sorry to part with my strange guide, who seemed disinclined to
+conduct me further. I gave him his fee, and he grunted his thanks and
+left me to pursue my journey more leisurely. A hut I came to had been
+struck by lightning, and a woman and her child had been buried in the
+debris. Inquiring the particulars, I was informed that the woman was
+herself to blame for the disaster. The saints, they told me, have a
+particular aversion to the _ombu_ tree, and this daring Eve had built
+her house near one. The saints had taken _spite_ at this act of
+bravado, and destroyed both mother and daughter. Moral: Heed the
+saints.
+
+A FLEET-FOOTED DEER.
+
+One day an old man seriously informed me that in those parts there
+was a deer which neither he nor any other one had been able to catch.
+Like the Siamese twins, it was two live specimens in one. When I
+asked why it was impossible to catch the animal, he informed me that
+it had eight legs with which to run. Four of the legs came out of the
+back, and, when tired with using the four lower ones, it just turned
+over and ran with the upper set. I did not see this freak, so add the
+salt to your taste, O reader.
+
+I SLEEP WITH THE RATS.
+
+Hospitality is a marked and beautiful feature of the Uruguayan
+people. At whatever time I arrived at a house, although a stranger
+and a foreigner, I was most heartily received by the inmates. On only
+one occasion, which I will here relate, was I grudgingly
+accommodated, and that was by a Brazilian living on the frontier. The
+hot sun had ruthlessly shone on me all day as I waded through the
+long arrow grass that reached up to my saddle. The scorching rays,
+pitiless in their intensity, seemed to take the energy from
+everything living. All animate creation was paralyzed. The relentless
+ball of fire in the heavens, pouring down like molten brass, appeared
+to be trying to set the world on fire; and I lay utterly exhausted on
+my horse's neck, half expecting to see all kindled in one mighty
+blaze! I had drunk the hot, putrid water of the hollows, which did
+not seem to quench my thirst any, but perhaps did help to keep me
+from drying up and blowing away. My tongue was parched and my lips
+dried together. Fortunately, I had a very quiet horse, and when I
+could no longer bear the sun's burning rays I got down for a few
+moments and crept under him.
+
+Shelter there was none. The copious draughts of evil-smelling water I
+had drunk in my raging thirst brought on nausea, and it was only by
+force of will that I kept myself from falling, when on an eminence I
+joyfully sighted the Brazilian estancia. Hope then revived in me. My
+knowing horse had seen the house before me, and without any guidance
+made straight towards it at a quicker pace. Well he knew that houses
+in those desolate wastes were too far apart to be passed unheeded by,
+and I thoroughly concurred in his wisdom. As I drew up before the
+lonely place my tongue refused to shout "Ave Maria," but I clapped my
+perspiring hands, and soon had the satisfaction of hearing footsteps
+within. Visions of shade and of meat and drink and rest floated
+before my eyes when I saw the door opened. A coal-black face peeped
+out, which, in a cracked, broken voice, I addressed, asking the
+privilege to dismount. Horror of horrors, I had not even been
+answered ere the door was shut again in my face! Get down without
+permission I dare not. The house was a large edifice, built of rough,
+undressed stones, and had a thick, high wall of the same material all
+around.
+
+Were the inmates fiends that they let me sit there, knowing well that
+there was no other habitation within miles? As the minutes slowly
+lengthened out, and the door remained closed, my spirits sank lower
+and lower. After a silence of thirty-five minutes, the man again made
+his appearance, and, coming right out this time, stared me through
+and through. After this close scrutiny, which seemed to satisfy him,
+but elicited no response to a further appeal from me, he went to an
+outlying building, and, bringing a strong hide lasso, tied it around
+my horse's neck. Not until that was securely fastened did he invite
+me to dismount. Presuming the lasso was lent me to tie out my horse,
+I led him to the back of the house. When I returned, my strange,
+unwilling host was again gone, so I lay down on a pile of hides in
+the shade of the wall, and, utterly tired out, with visions of
+banquets floating before my eyes, I dropped off to sleep.
+
+Perhaps an hour afterwards, I awoke to find a woman, black as night,
+bending over me. Not seeing a visitor once in three months, her
+feminine curiosity had impelled her to come and examine me. Seemingly
+more amiable than her husband, she spoke to me, but in a strange,
+unmusical language, which I could not understand; and then she, too,
+left me. As evening approached, another inmate of the house made his
+appearance. He was, I could see, of a different race, and, to my joy,
+I found that he spoke fluently in Spanish. Conducting me to the
+aforementioned outhouse, a place built of canes and mud, he told me
+that later on a piece of meat would be given me, and that I could
+sleep on the sheepskins. I got the meat, and I slept on the skins.
+Fatigued as I was, I passed a wretched night, for dozens of huge rats
+ran over my body, bit my hands, and scratched my face, the whole
+night long. Morning at last dawned, and, with the first streaks of
+coming day, I saddled my horse, and, shaking the dust of the
+Brazilian estancia off my feet, resumed my journey.
+
+THE BURSTING OF A MAN.
+
+A friend of mine came upon an ostrich's nest. The bird was not near,
+so, dismounting, he picked up an egg and placed it in an inside
+pocket of his coat. Continuing the journey, the egg was forgotten,
+and the horse, galloping along, suddenly tripped and fell. The rider
+was thrown to the ground, where he lay stunned. Three hours
+afterwards consciousness returned. As his weary eyes wandered, he
+noticed, with horror, that his chest and side were thickly besmeared.
+With a cry of despair, he lay back, groaning, "I have burst!" The
+presence of the egg he had put in his pocket had quite passed from
+his mind!
+
+I FIND A LONE SCOTSMAN.
+
+One evening after a long day's journey, I reached a house, away near
+the Brazilian frontier, and was surprised indeed to see that the
+owner was a real live Scotsman. Great was my astonishment and
+pleasure at receiving such a warm Scotch welcome. He was eighty miles
+away from any village--alone in the mountains--and at the sight of me
+he wept like a child. Never can I forget his anguish as he told me
+that his beloved wife had died just a few days before, and that he
+had buried her--"there in the glen." At the sight of a British face
+he had completely broken down; but, pulling himself together, he
+conducted me through into the courtyard, and the difficulty of my
+journey was forgotten as we sat down to the evening meal.
+ Being anxious to hear the story of her who had presided at his
+board, I bade him recount to me the sad circumstances.
+
+She was a "bonnie lassie," and he had "lo'ed her muckle." There they
+had lived for twelve years, shut out from the rest of the world, yet
+content. Hand in hand they had toiled in joy and sorrow, when no rain
+fell for eight long months, and their cattle died; or when increase
+was good, and flocks and herds fat. Side by side they had stood alone
+in the wild tangle of the wilderness. And now, when riches had been
+gathered and comfort could be had, his "lassie" had left him, and
+"Oh! he grudged her sair to the land o' the leal!" Being so far
+removed from his fellows, he had been compelled to perform the sacred
+offices of burial himself. Surrounded by kind hearts and loving
+sympathizers, it is sad indeed to lose our loved ones. But how
+inexpressibly more sad it is when, away in loneliness, a man digs the
+cold clay tomb for all that is left of his only joy! When our dear
+ones sleep in "God's acre" surrounded by others it is sad. But how
+much more heartbreaking is it to bury the darling wife in the depths
+of the mountains alone, where a strong stone wall must be built
+around the grave to keey the wild beasts from tearing out the
+remains! Only those who have been so situated can picture the
+solemnity of such a scene.
+
+At his urgent request, I promised I would accompany him to the spot--
+sanctified by his sorrow and watered by his tears--where he had laid
+his dear one. Early the following morning a native servant saddled
+two horses, and we rode in silence towards the hallowed ground. In
+about thirty minutes we came in view of the quiet tomb. Encircling
+the grave he had built a high stone wall. When he silently opened the
+gate, I saw that, although all the pasture outside was dry and
+withered, that on the mound was beautifully green and fresh. Had he
+brought water from his house, for there was none nearer, or was it
+watered by his tears? His greatest longing was, as he had explained
+to me the previous night, that she should have a Christian burial,
+and if I would read some chapter over her grave he would feel more
+content, he said. As with bared heads we reverently knelt on the
+mound, I now complied with his request. Then, for the first time in
+the world's history, the trees that surrounded us listened to the
+Christian doctrine of a resurrection from the dead. "It is sown in
+corruption, it is raised in incorruption." And the leaves whispered
+to the mountains beyond, which gave back the words: "It is sown a
+natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
+
+Never have I seen a man so broken with grief as was that lone
+Scotsman. There were no paid mourners or idle sightseers. There was
+no show of sorrow while the heart remained indifferent and untouched.
+It was the spectacle of a lone man who had buried his all and was
+left--
+
+  "To linger when the sun of life,
+   The beam that gilds its path, is gone--
+  To feel the aching bosom's strife,
+   When Hope is dead and Love lives on."
+
+As we knelt there, I spoke to the man about salvation from sin, and
+unfolded God's plan of inheritance and reunions in the future life.
+The Lord gave His blessing, and I left him next day rejoicing in the
+Christ who said: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that
+believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
+
+As the world moves forward, and man pushes his way into the waste
+places of the earth, that lonely grave will be forgotten. Populous
+cities will be built; but the doctrine the mountains then heard shall
+live when the gloomy youth of Uruguay is forgotten.
+
+THE WORD OF GOD CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE R. C. CHURCH.
+
+"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
+serve."--The Christ.
+
+"Mary must be the first object of our worship, St. Joseph the
+second."--Roman Catholic Catechism.
+
+"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of
+anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
+that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
+to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."
+
+"I most firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the mother of
+God, ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and
+retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be given to
+them."--Creed of Pope Pius IV.
+
+"My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven
+images."--Jehovah.
+
+"The saints reigning together with Christ are to be honored and
+invocated; ... they offer prayers to God for us... their relics are
+to be venerated."--Creed of Pope Pius IV.
+
+"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men--the man
+Christ Jesus."--Paul.
+
+"Mary is everything in heaven and earth, and we should adore her."--
+The South American Priest.
+
+"Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served
+the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever."--Paul
+
+"All power was given to her."--Peter Damian, Cardinal of Rome.
+
+"Search the Scriptures."--The Christ.
+
+"All who read the Bible should be stoned to death."--Pope Innocent
+III.
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+MARIOLATRY AND IMAGE WORSHIP.
+
+
+[Illustration: OUR LADY OF GUADALOUPE. Many legacies are left to this
+image.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MARIOLATRY AND IMAGE WORSHIP.
+
+
+Before the light of Christianity dawned on ancient Rome, the Pantheon
+contained goddesses many and gods many. Chief of these deities to
+receive the worship of the people seems to have been Diana of the
+Ephesians, a goddess whose image fell down from Jupiter; the
+celestial Venus of Corinth, and Isis, sister to Osiris, the god of
+Egypt. These popular images, so universally worshipped, were
+naturally the aversion of the early followers of Christ. "The
+primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance
+to the use and abuse of images. The Jewish disciples were especially
+bitter against any but the triune God receiving homage, but, by a
+slow, though inevitable, progression, the honors of the original were
+transferred to the copy, the devout Christian prayed before the image
+of a saint, and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and
+incense stole into the Christian Church." [Footnote: Gibbons'
+"Rome."]
+
+Having Paul's masterly epistle to the Romans, in the first chapter of
+which he so distinctly portrays man's tendency to change "the glory
+of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,"
+and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is
+blessed forever, they were careful to remember that "God is a
+spirit," and to be worshipped only in spirit. Peter, in his epistle
+to them, also wrote of the One "whom having not seen ye love." As
+time wore on, however, the original inclination of man to worship a
+god he could see and feel (a trait seen all down the pages of
+history) asserted itself, and Mary, the mother of Christ, took the
+place in the eye and the heart previously occupied by her
+predecessors. [Footnote: Just as this work goes to press, the dally
+papers of the world announce that the oldest idol ever discovered has
+just been unearthed. The idol is a goddess, who is holding an infant
+in her arms.] Being in possession of the Acts of the Apostles, which
+plainly declares that Mary herself met with the rest of the disciples
+"for prayer and supplication," and, knowing from the four Gospels
+that no worship had been at first given to her, the innovation was
+slow to find favor; but, in the year 431, the Council of Ephesus
+decided that Mary was equal with God.
+
+"After the ruin of paganism they were no longer restrained by the
+apprehension of an odious parallel" in the idol worship. Symptoms of
+degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations which
+adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation. "The worship of
+images had stolen into the Church by insensible degrees, and each
+petty step was pleasing to the superstitious mind, as productive of
+comfort and innocent of sin. But, in the beginning of the eighth
+century, in the full magnitude of the abuse, the more timorous Greeks
+were awakened by an apprehension that, under the mask of
+Christianity, they had restored the religion of their fathers. They
+heard with grief and impatience the name of 'idolaters,' the
+incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, who derived from the Law
+and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and all the
+relative worship." [Footnote: Gibbons' "Rome."]
+
+It should be a most humiliating fact to the Romanists to have it
+recorded as authentic history that "the great miracle-working Madonna
+of Rome, worshipped in the Church of St. Augustina, is only a pagan
+statue of the wicked Agrippina with her infant Nero in her arms.
+Covered with jewels and votive offerings, her foot encased in gold,
+because the constant kissing has worn away the stone, this haughty
+and evil-minded Roman matron bears no possible resemblance to the
+pure Virgin Mary; yet crowds are always at her feet, worshipping her.
+The celebrated bronze statue of St. Peter, which is adored in the
+great Church, and whose feet are entirely kissed away by the lips of
+devotees, is but an antique statue of Jupiter, an idol of paganism.
+All that was necessary to make the pagan god a Christian saint was to
+turn the thunderbolt in his uplifted right hand to two keys, and put
+a gilded halo around his head. Yet, on any Church holiday, you will
+see thousands passing solemnly before this image (arrayed in gorgeous
+robes, with the Pope's mitre on its head), and after bowing before
+it, rise on their toes and repeatedly kiss its feet." [Footnote:
+Vickers' "Rome"]
+
+This method of receiving heathen deities as saints has been common
+all over South America, and many Indian idols may be seen in the
+churches, now adored as Roman Catholic saints, while the worship of
+Mary has grown to an alarming extent. In Lima's largest church,
+printed right over the chancel, is the motto, "Glory to Mary."
+
+In Cordoba, the Argentine seat of learning--a city so old that
+university degrees were being given there when the Pilgrim Fathers
+landed on the shores of New England--charms, amulets and miniature
+images of the Virgin are manufactured in large numbers. These are
+worn around the neck, and are supposed to work great wonders. As may
+be understood, the workers in these crafts stand up for Romanism, and
+are willing to cry themselves hoarse for Mary, just as the people of
+old cried for Diana of the Ephesians.
+
+It is often told of the Protestant worker that he keeps behind his
+door an image of the Blessed Virgin, and, when entering or leaving
+the house, he spits in her face. No pains are spared to stamp out any
+dissenting work, and the missionary is made a by-word of opprobrium.
+I have repeatedly had the doors and windows of my preaching places
+broken and wrecked. The priests have incited the vulgar crowd to hoot
+and yell at me, and on these occasions I have been both shot at and
+stoned.
+
+In Cordoba, there is a very costly image of Mary. Once every year it
+is brought out into the public square, while all the criminals from
+the state prison stand in line. By a move of her head she is supposed
+to point out the one whom she thinks should be given his liberty.
+
+From Goldsmith's "Rome" we learn that the _vestal virgins_ possessed
+the power to pardon any criminal whom they met on the road to
+execution. Thus does Romanism follow paganism. With the Virgin is
+often the image of St. Peter. The followers of this saint affirm that
+they are always warned, three days before they die, to prepare for
+death. St. Peter comes in person and knocks on the wall beside their
+bed.
+
+As the virgin, Diana, was the guardian of Ephesus, so the Virgin Mary
+protects Argentina.
+
+The Bishop of Tucuman, in a recent speech, said: "Argentina is now
+safe against possible invasion. The newly-crowned _Lady of the
+Miracles_ defends the north, and the _Lady of Lujan_ guards the
+south."
+
+A writer in _The Times of Argentina_ naively asks: "If these can
+safely defy and defeat all comers, is there any further necessity for
+public expenditure in military matters?"
+
+South America groans under the weight of a mediaeval religion which
+has little to do with spiritual life. In Spain and Portugal, perhaps
+the two most deluded of European lands, I have seen great darkness,
+but even there the priest is often good, and at least puts on a
+veneer of piety. In South America this is not generally considered
+necessary. Frequently he is found to be the worst man in the village.
+If you speak to him of his dissolute life, he may tell you that he,
+being a priest, may do things you, a layman, must not. In Spain,
+Portugal and Italy, next door to highly enlightened countries, the
+priest cannot, for very shame, act as he is free to do in South
+America. That great continent has been ruled and governed only by
+Roman Catholics, without outside interference, and Romanists in other
+lands do not, and would not, believe the practices there sanctioned.
+
+_"You ask about this nation and the Roman Catholic Church," said the
+American Minister in one South American capital. "Well, the nation is
+rotten, thanks to the Church and to Spain. The Church has taught lies
+and uncleanness, and been the bulwark of injustice and wrong for 300
+years. How could you expect anything else?" "Lies," said a priest to
+a friend, who told the remark to us, "what do lies have to do with
+religion." [Footnote: "Missions In South America," Robt. E. Speer.]
+
+A missionary writes: "Recently the Roman bishop and several other
+priests visited the various towns. It was a business trip, for they
+charged a good price for baptisms, confirmations, etc., and carried
+away thousands of dollars. In Santa Cruz a disgraceful scene was
+publicly enacted in the church by the resident priest and one of the
+visitors. Both saw a woman drop a twenty-five cent piece into the
+pan; each grabbed for it, and then they fought before the people! The
+village priest wanted me to take his photo, but he was so drunk I had
+to help him put on his official robes. He was taken standing in the
+doorway of the church beside an image of the Virgin."
+
+"There wan a feast in honor of the image of the Holy Spirit in the
+church. This is a figure of a man with a beard; beside it sits a
+figure of Christ, and between them a dove. Great crowds of people
+attend these feasts to buy, sell and drink. On a common in the town a
+large altar was erected, and another image of the Holy Spirit placed,
+and before it danced Indians fantastically dressed to represent
+monkeys, tigers, lions and deer. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were
+days of debauchery. Men, women and children were intoxicated; the
+jails were full, and extravagances of all kinds were practised by
+masked Indians. The vessels in the church are of gold and silver, and
+the images each have a man to care for them. The patron saint is a
+large image of the Virgin, dressed in clothing that cost $2,500."
+
+Since returning to more civilized lands, I have been asked: But do
+they really worship the Virgin, or God, through her? I answer that in
+enlightened countries where Roman Catholicism prevails, the latter
+may be true, but that in South America, discovered and governed by
+Romanists from the earliest times, millions of people worship the
+Virgin without any reference to God. She is the great goddess of the
+people, and while one may see her image in every church, it is seldom
+indeed that God is honored with a place--then He may be seen as an
+old man with a long white beard. What kind of God they think He is
+may be seen from the words of Missionary F. Glass: "I found a 'festa'
+in full swing, called the 'Feast of the Divine Eternal Father,' and a
+drunken crowd were marching round, with trumpets, drums and a sacred
+banner, collecting alms professedly on His behalf." [Footnote:
+"Through the Heart of Brazil"]
+
+Mary is the one to whom the vast majority of people pray. They have
+been taught to address supplications to her, and, being a woman, her
+heart is considered more tender than a man's could be. During a
+drought their earnest prayer for rain was answered in an unexpected
+way, for not only did she send it, but with such accompanying
+violence that it washed away the church!
+
+In some churches the mail-box stands in a corner, and _"Letters to
+the Virgin"_ is printed over it. There are always many young women to
+be seen before the image of St. Anthony, for he is the patron of
+marriages, and many a timid confession of love is dropped into the
+letter-box, and it often happens that a marriage is arranged as a
+result. The superstitious maiden believes that her letter goes
+directly to the Virgin or to the saint in his heavenly mansion, and
+she has no suspicion that it is read by the parish priest.
+
+Saints are innumerable and their powers extraordinary. When
+travelling in Entre Rios, I learned that St. Ramon was an adept in
+guiding the path of the thunderbolt. A terrific storm swept across
+the country, and a woman, afraid for her house, placed his image
+leaning against the outside wall, that he might be able to see and
+direct the elements. The tempest raged, and as though to show the
+saint's utter helplessness, the end of the house was struck by
+lightning and set on fire. Little damage was done, but I smiled when
+the indignant woman, after the storm ceased, soundly thrashed the
+image for not attending to its duty.
+
+While preaching in the town of Quilmes, a poor deluded worshipper of
+Rome "turned from idols to serve the living and true God." He had
+been a sincere believer in St. Nicolas, and implicitly believed the
+absurd account of that saint having raised to life three children who
+had been brutally murdered by their father and secreted in a barrel.
+He brought me a picture of this wonder-worker tapping the barrel, and
+the little ones in the act of coming out alive and well.
+
+One familiar with Romanism in South America has said: "It is amazing
+to hear men who have access to the Word of God and the facts of
+history and of the actual state of the Romish world attempt to
+apologize for or even defend Romanism. Romanism is not Christianity."
+
+_The Church deliberately lies about the Ten Commandments, entirely
+omitting the second and dividing the tenth in order to make the
+requisite number. Can a Church which deceives the people teach them
+true religion? Is the preaching of Mary the preaching of Christ?_
+[Footnote: "Mission In South America," Robert B. Speer.]
+
+_"There is not an essential truth which is not distorted, covered up,
+neutralized, poisoned,_ and completely nullified by the doctrines of
+the Romish system." [Footnote: Bishop Neely's "South America."]
+
+A missionary in Cartago writes: "I must tell you about the annual
+procession of the wonderful miracle-working image called 'Our Lady
+Queen of the Angels,' through the principal streets of the town.
+Picture to yourselves, if you can, hundreds of people praying,
+worshipping, and doing homage to this little stone idol, for which a
+special church has been built. To this image many people come with
+their diseases, for she is supposed to have power to cure all. On a
+special day of the procession, people receive pardon for particular
+sins if they only carry out the bidding of 'Our Lady,' She seems to
+order some extraordinary things, such as crawling in the streets with
+big rocks on the head after the procession, or painting one's self
+all the colors of the rainbow. One man was painted black, while
+others wore wigs and beards of a long parasitic grass which grows
+from the trees. Some were dressed in sackcloth, and all were doing
+penance for some sin or crime. This little image was carried by
+priests, incense was burned before her, and at intervals in the
+journey she was put on lovely altars, on which sat little girls
+dressed in blue and green, with wings of white, representing angels.
+Some weeks ago 'Our Lady' was carried through the streets to collect
+money for the bull-fights got up in her honor. She is said to be very
+fond of these fights, which are immoral and full of bloody cruelty.
+This year the bulls were to kill the men, or the men the bulls, and
+the awful drunkenness I cannot describe. After this collection the
+bishop came over here, and is said to have taken away some of the
+money. Soon after he died, and the people here say that 'Our Lady'
+was angry with him."
+
+From a recent list of prayers used in the Church of Rome I select the
+following expressions:
+
+ "Queen of heaven and earth, Mother of God,
+  my Sovereign Mistress, I present myself before
+  you as a poor mendicant before a mighty Queen.
+
+ "All is subject to Mary's empire, even God
+  Himself. Jesus has rendered Mary omnipotent:
+  the one is omnipotent by nature, the other
+  omnipotent by grace.
+
+ "You, O Holy Virgin, have over God the authority
+  of a mother.
+
+ "It is impossible that a true servant of Mary
+  should be damned.
+
+ "My soul is in the hands of Mary, so that if
+  the Judge wishes to condemn me the sentence
+  must pass through this clement Queen, and she
+  knows how to prevent its execution.
+
+ "We, Holy Virgin, hope for grace and salvation
+  from you.
+
+ "Dispensatrix of Divine Grace."
+
+How history repeats itself! How hard paganism is to kill! The ancient
+Egyptians worshipped the "Queen of Heaven." Jeremiah, as far back as
+587 B.C., prophesied desolation to Judah for having "burned incense
+to the Queen of Heaven," and poured out "drink offerings" unto her,
+and "made cakes to worship her."--Jer. xliv. 17-19.
+
+Of the _wise_ men (Matthew ii.) we read: "And when they were come
+into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, His mother, and
+fell down and worshipped _Him_."
+
+The South American version of Matthew 11:28, as may be seen carved on
+a stone of the Jesuit Church in Cuzco, is: "Come to MARY, all you who
+are laden with works, and weary beneath the weight of your sins, and
+_she_ will alleviate you," A literal translation of one of the
+prayers offered to her reads: "Yes, beloved Mother! of thee I
+supplicate all that is necessary for the salvation of my soul. Of
+whom should I ask this grace but of Thee? To whom should a loving son
+go but to his beloved Mother? To whom the weak sheep cry but to its
+divine shepherdess? Whom seek the sick, but the celestial doctor?
+Whom invoke those in affliction but the mother of consolation? Hear
+me then, Holy Queen!"
+
+The statues of the "Queen of Heaven" are often of great magnificence,
+the dress of one which I know having cost $2,000. In the poor Indian
+churches a bag of maize leaves, tied near the top to make a neck, and
+above that an Indian physiognomy, painted with some vegetable dye,
+serves the same purpose. The Bishop of La Serena, in Chili, has
+received as much as $40,000 a year for keeping up the revered image
+in that church, and these images _are worshipped_. Bequests are often
+left to them, and a popular one will receive many legacies annually.
+
+To be just, I must mention that in the arms of this "Mother of God"
+there is, almost invariably, the child Jesus, but I must also state
+that to tens of thousands this baby never grew to manhood, but went
+up to heaven in His mother's arms. What a caricature of Christianity!
+Paul said: "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
+your faith is also vain." "Make Jesus a perpetual child, and
+Mariolatry becomes lower than Chinese ancestral worship." If He, as a
+child, was translated to heaven, then He never died and rose again.
+Mary is, to them, the Saviour. The child Jesus happened to be her
+son, and, as she was the great divine one, He, through her, partook
+of divinity. _La Cruz_, a weekly paper, published in Tucuman,
+Argentina, in its issue of September 3rd, 1899, had the following
+article:
+
+THE BIRTH OF MARY.
+
+"Chroniclers say that such was the fury that possessed the devils in
+hell, at the moment of the birth of the Most Blessed Virgin, that
+they nearly broke loose.
+
+"There was sounded in heaven the first cannon shot in salutation of
+such a happy event. Lucifer gave such a jump that he got his horns
+caught in the moon, and there, it is said, he remained hanging all
+the day, like the insignificant fellow he is, to the great amusement
+of the blessed ones above, who laughed to see such an uncommon sight.
+
+"The other devils, who could not jump so high, remained below
+screaming and kicking!, and tearing their apology for beards, when
+not otherwise occupied in scratching and biting and burning the
+unfortunate condemned ones.
+
+"And all this because... it had been foretold that... a woman, yes, a
+woman, should one day bruise their heads... and, according to all
+appearances, this was the woman... and that she was that bright and
+morning star that announces the appearance of the Sun.
+
+"Why should we not therefore rejoice, as the angels in heaven
+rejoiced, over that moat happy event--the birth of Mary."
+
+From this it is clear that in Tucuman, at any rate--and this, by the
+way, is an important city, of at least 75,000 inhabitants--they
+believe that Mary, not Christ, came to bruise the serpent's head. The
+Roman Catholic translation of Gen. 3:15 is: "_She_ shall bruise the
+serpent's head." Thus, the reader sees, at the very commencement of
+God's Word, and in the very first promise of a Saviour for fallen
+men, the eyes of seeking souls are turned by Romanists from the
+Creator to the creature.
+
+How these words are understood by Romanists is plainly seen by the
+pictures of Mary trampling on the serpent, which are found everywhere
+in Romish lands.
+
+Under pictures of the Virgin, circulated everywhere, are the words:
+"We have seen the star and are come to adore her." The prayers of
+adoration run, "To the holiest birth of Mary, that in death it may
+bring about our birth to eternal glory. Ave Maria!" "To the anguish
+of Mary, that we may be made predestined children of her sorrows. Ave
+Maria!"
+
+The veneration with which the Virgin Mary is regarded, and the power
+with which she is invested, are thus told by many a priest: "Once God
+was so angry with the world that He determined to destroy it, and was
+about to execute His design when Mary said to Him: 'Give me back
+first the milk with which I fed you, and then you can do so!' In this
+way she averted the impending destruction."
+
+"Millions in Brazil look upon the Virgin Mary as their Saviour. A
+book widely circulated throughout northern Brazil says that Mary,
+when still a mere child, went bodily to heaven and begged God to send
+Christ, through her, into the world. Further on it says that Mary
+went again to heaven to plead for sinners; and at the close Mary's
+will is given, disposing of the whole world, and God the Father, Son,
+and Holy Spirit--the Trinity--act as the three witnesses to the will.
+How many good Christians at home think Brazil is a Christian
+country?" [Footnote: W. C. Porter.]
+
+If the Bible were in circulation throughout South America, the
+populace would be enabled to see that Christ is not the remorseless
+Judge but the loving Saviour, and that it was He who purchased
+redemption for us. Mary, according to Luke 1:47, was herself in need
+of a Saviour, and her only recorded command was to do as He, the
+Christ, enjoined (See John 2:5). Not only Protestants, but not even
+Roman Catholics born in Protestant countries, can understand what
+Romanism is in South America.
+
+Christ said: "Search the Scriptures." Rome has done her best to
+destroy the sacred volume. Papal bulls, said to have been _dictated
+by the Holy Ghost_, have been issued by several Popes. Rome sometimes
+burned the martyrs with a Bible hanging around their necks. Romanists
+showed their hatred against Wycliffe, the first translator of the New
+Testament into English, by unearthing his crumbling remains and
+burning them to ashes. I have often seen the same spirit shown in
+South America.
+
+A colporteur, writing of Scripture circulation in the Argentine,
+says: "Many of the people are trying to get us ejected from the city.
+One, to whom a Bible was offered, became so infuriated that he said:
+'If it were not such a public place? I would drown you in the
+river.'" A missionary writes: "A young fellow called out after me, 'I
+renounce you, Satan,' but as that is not my name, I did not turn
+back. During the meeting on Sunday evening, the priest came riding up
+to the window, and shouted that he would soon put a stop to us.
+Today he has had a number of bills printed, warning his parishioners
+to have nothing to do with us. To-night one of the bills was pasted on
+the door. Br. Arena took it off, and no sooner had he the door shut
+than two shots were fired, but they did no more harm than to pierce
+the door--thank God! I have been informed that a number of young men
+will either beat or shoot me, and that as I am the only one left they
+are going to make me leave, too, by foul or by fair means. The
+following is a translation of the priest's warning:
+
+  "To the faithful of Candelaria. Beware.
+  This parish has been invaded by one of the
+  wicked sects of Protestantism, and, having the
+  sacred duty of warning my parishioners, I give
+  them to understand that should any one of
+  them attend, even from mere curiosity, to hear
+  the false and pernicious propaganda, or accept
+  tracts or books that come from the propagators
+  of Protestantism, he will be excommunicated
+  from the true and only Church of Jesus Christ,
+  Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, wherein resides
+  the infallible authority. Beware, then, oh, ye
+  faithful, and listen to your parish priest, who
+  advises you of the danger of your souls."
+
+Yet with all this darkness and error, the majority are well
+contented, and quite willing to obey "warnings" like this and the
+following, published in _Los Principios_, of Cordoba:
+
+  "It has come to our knowledge that there are
+  amongst us various Protestant ministers, that
+  distribute with profusion leaflets containing their
+  erroneous doctrines and calumnies against the
+  Catholic Church. Some of these leaflets and booklets
+  have fallen into our hands, and in them we
+  have found confirmation of what we say above.
+  In one of these leaflets, for example, they treat
+  as idolatry the worship that we Catholics tribute
+  to the Mother of God. They treat as superstition
+  the veneration they have in Rome for the holy
+  staircase by which our Lord Jesus Christ went
+  up to the judgment hall of Pilate. They combat
+  the worship of images, relics, and things of that
+  description.
+
+  "Catholics ought to know that it is not lawful
+  for them to read these leaflets, nor the Sacred
+  Bible distributed by the Protestants, because it
+  has been falsified by them, accommodating its
+  texts to their errors. The Church has prohibited
+  its children many times these pernicious readings.
+  Let us reject, according to the counsel
+  of St. Paul, these ravenous wolves that come in
+  sheep's clothing, for they come to kill and to
+  destroy souls, thrusting them into the ways of
+  error, being separated from the true Church of
+  Jesus Christ, from which Luther, Calvin,
+  Zuinglio, Henry VIII, and others separated
+  themselves, of whom Cobbell, the Protestant
+  historian, himself has said: 'Never has the
+  world seem gathered into one century so many
+  perverse men as Luther, Zuiniglio, Calvin,' etc."
+
+
+One acquainted with Spanish-American Romanism will smile at the
+reference in the above article to the Bible having been falsified by
+us. If the text of any version extant is compared with those which
+are painted on the walls of the church in Celaya, there surely will
+be found a great discrepancy. The following are translations:
+
+"MARY, my mother, in thee I hope; save me from those that persecute
+me."--Psalm vii. 1.
+
+"Be thou exalted, O MARY, above the heavens, and thy glory above all
+the earth."--Psalm lvii. 5.
+
+'I will sing to MARY while I live."--Psalm civ. 33.
+
+"Serve MARY with love, and rejoice in her with trembling."--Psalm ii.
+11.
+
+"Offer sacrifices of righteousness and trust in MARY."--Psalm iv. 5.
+
+"Let everything that hath breath praise OUR LADY," etc., etc.
+
+Protestant Christians pay almost all the entire cost of circulating
+Roman Catholic translations of the Scriptures over the world. In the
+versions of De Saci (French), Martini (Italian), Scio (Spanish),
+Pereira (Portuguese), and Wuyka (Polish), we find in Matthew 3: 2,
+and thirty-four other places, instead of "repent ye" the words, "do
+penance," while in Matthew 3: 8, and some twenty other places, the
+word that should be translated "repentance," is rendered _penance._
+In the following light way "penance" can be done, while "repentance"
+is not thought of.
+
+For sins against the Church the priest will often condemn the culprit
+to wear a hideous garment for hours, or days, according to the
+gravity of the offence, but this punishment can be worn by proxy.
+There are always those who, for a consideration, will don the badge
+of disgrace.
+
+What is called "Holy Week" gives proofs of the shallowness of Rome's
+piety. Priests and people alike can weep, fast and faint, because
+their God is suffering and dying; all traffic can stop because, they
+say, "God has died"; but as soon as the death of Judas is announced,
+at noon on Saturday, the noise of guns, pistols, squibs, etc., takes
+the place of the death-like quiet that had reigned. After an hour or
+two silence again prevails till Sunday morning, when all restraint is
+removed, and people seem to make up for lost time. Drinking and
+kindred evils run riot, and it is no uncommon thing on the Sunday
+night to see the people drinking and dancing by the light of the
+candles they were burning to their favorite virgin or saint.
+
+In the large city of Lima, for centuries a very stronghold of image
+worship, the interest in the Church has of late years been waning.
+Perhaps one reason for this is the changing nature of the native
+population of the city, for the deaths there exceed the births.
+Seeing this falling away from the Church, the priests announced that
+they had decided to send for the _Sacred Heart of the Virgin_, and
+trusted that the presence of this holy relic would promote the more
+faithful attendance of the flock. The _heart_ arrived and was with
+great solemnity hung from the roof of the cathedral as the incentive
+to piety. Thousands flocked into the sacred building with reverent
+awe. The women gazed upon the heart with tearful eyes, and as they
+thought of Mary's sufferings and goodness they were emulated to
+deeper acts of love and piety. One day the wind blew very strongly
+through the open doorway, and the _Sacred Heart_ began to sway to and
+fro. Getting more and more momentum with every oscillation, the heart
+finally struck against a sharp cornice, when lo--_all the sawdust
+fell out_ of the canvas bag they had worshipped as the heart of flesh
+of their goddess. How they reconciled the existence of the heart of
+the Virgin with their belief that she ascended to heaven in a bodily
+form I do not pretend to imagine. It may be remarked that this is
+surely Romanism corrupted. Nay, it is rather Romanism developed.
+
+"Andacilli is a hamlet, at which there is an image of the Virgin.
+Every year pilgrims resort thither, and a great feast to the Virgin
+is celebrated, the most important day being December 26th. During the
+last few years there has been a falling off in the number of
+pilgrims, especially those of the better class, but this last year
+the clerical authorities have left no stone unturned in order to get
+together more people than ever. Six bishops were advertised to come,
+and they were to crown the Virgin with a crown which cost thousands
+of dollars. These proceedings rouse an incredible enthusiasm in the
+people." [Footnote: "Regions Beyond."]
+
+Sometimes Mary's image is baptized in the river, while men and women
+line the bank, ready to leap into the _holy water_ when she is lifted
+out. Afterwards the water in which she was immersed is sold as a cure
+for bodily ills. Sometimes the earth from under the building where
+she is kept is also sold for the same purpose.
+
+Imagine a church like that in Tucuru! "It consists of a palm-leaf
+hut, with a bare floor and no furniture whatever. Round the sides
+stand twelve life-size figures, made of canvas and stuffed with husks
+of corn, which some one of the Indian worshippers has painted with
+the features and dress of his own race. When I went in two women lay
+prostrate on the floor, and one of them screamed in agonizing tones,
+'My Lords, send the rod of your power to heal him!'--evidently
+praying to these apostles on behalf of some sick relative. Here, once
+a year, a priest celebrates mass, and when he last came he stuck a
+paper over the entrance, which read: _Hoec est Domus Del et Porta
+Coeli_ (' This is the House of God and the Gate of Heaven.') In San
+José we have the four walls of a new church, consecrated to the
+'Virgin,' where, recently, a raffle was held on behalf of the
+projected edifice. As we enter, the first thing seen is an
+inscription, professing to be a message to each visitor from the
+Virgin, which says, 'My son, behold me without a temple. Come, help
+in building it, and I shall reward thee with Eternal Life."
+[Footnote: Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.]
+
+Christ said: "I give unto My sheep eternal life"; but the record of
+that saying is jealously kept from them.
+
+When the early colonists left Spain for the New World, they took with
+them the Creed of Pius IV. That creed expressly states that the Bible
+is not for the people. "Whoever will be saved must _renounce_ it. It
+is a forbidden book."
+
+"In 1850, when the Christian world was first being roused to the
+darkness of South America, and philanthropic men were desirous of
+sending Bibles there, Pope Pius IX. wrote an Encyclical letter in
+which he spoke of Bible study as 'poisonous reading,' and urged all
+his venerable brethren with vigilance and solicitude to put a stop to
+it. Thus has South America been denied the revelation of God. The
+priest has, because of this ignorance, been able to 'lord it over
+God's heritage.'" [Footnote: Guiness's "Romanism and the
+Reformation."]
+
+With an open Bible, Spanish America would have progressed as North
+America has done. Without the enlightening influences of that Word,
+behold the darkness! Could anything be more eloquent than the
+prosperity of the land of the Pilgrim Fathers in proclaiming the
+value of the open Bible?
+
+Mr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, speaking on a recent
+occasion, said: "I always pray for South America. It is a most needy
+part of the world, and wants your prayers as well as mine. The
+workers there have great difficulties to contend with, and of the
+same sort as we have in China, from Roman Catholicism--the most God-
+dishonoring system in the world. The heathen need your prayers, but
+the Roman Catholic needs them ten times more. He is ten times as much
+in the dark as the heathen themselves are."
+
+The _Missionary Review of the World_ describes South America as
+"Earth's darkest land." Do you not think, O reader, the words are
+most truly applied?
+
+"There are in South America eight hundred missionaries, men and
+women, from Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, Canada and the
+United States. In Canada and the United States there is on an average
+one Protestant minister for every 514 persons. In South America each
+missionary has a constituency of about fifty thousand, indicating a
+need in proportion of population one hundred times as great as in the
+Protestant countries of North America." [Footnote: Bishop Neely's
+"South America."]
+
+Yet, One called Jesus, whom we say we love, said: "Go ye into all the
+world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through Five Republics on Horseback
+by G. Whitfield Ray
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE REPUBLICS ON HORSEBACK ***
+
+This file should be named 85rep10.txt or 85rep10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 85rep11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 85rep10a.txt
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+