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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7499-8.txt b/7499-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ef5182 --- /dev/null +++ b/7499-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8545 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Through Five Republics on Horseback, by G. Whitfield Ray + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through Five Republics on Horseback + +Author: G. Whitfield Ray + +Posting Date: August 24, 2012 [EBook #7499] +Release Date: February, 2005 +First Posted: May 11, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THRU 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. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through Five Republics on Horseback + +Author: G. Whitfield Ray + +Posting Date: August 24, 2012 [EBook #7499] +Release Date: February, 2005 +First Posted: May 11, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THRU 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--_manana_. + +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 _mate_ 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 _mate_, 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 +_mate_. About this herb I picked up, from various sources, some +interesting information. The _mate_ 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 mate_ 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 mate. 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 mate 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 +mate 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. + +Mate 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 mate 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 _Senorita 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 mate 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 _ombu_, 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 _chiripa_, 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 olvidae"_ (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 +Yguasu. 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 Reta, 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 foetid 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 _jaracucu_, 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-a-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 a 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 deg. 47' 35", and the longitude, west of Greenwich, 57 deg. 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 +Senora 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 Senor 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 cafes. 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 mate 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 o 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 Curupaita 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 +mate 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 Pai 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 _tupoi_, 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: + +"Dona 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 +Dona 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 _chipa_, 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,_irundu_. 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-"_Ba-eh-pico! +Ba-eh-pico!_" + +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, Cunacarai [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 mate 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 +_chipa_, 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 _nanduti_ +(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 _moralite_ 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 _manana_ +(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 Caacupe; +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 carai in?" I asked. +"No," I was answered, "he has gone to Caacupe 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 Caacupe is about forty miles from Asuncion. "The Bishop +of Paraguay formally inaugurated the worship of the Virgin of Caacupe, +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 Pai 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 Pai 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 Pai before starting. I was +fortunate, however, in securing the companionship of an excellent man +who bore the suggestive name of "Old Stabbed Arm"; and Dona Dolores +(Mrs. Sorrows), true to her name, whom I engaged to make me about +twenty pounds of chipa, said she would intercede with her saint for me. +Loading the pack-horse with chipa, 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 Pai 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 Pai 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 Pai, 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 "_Che 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 chipa, +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 mate 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 Ipane, 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 chipa, 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 Rocanandiva (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. Mate 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 mate +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 _ca-ha he-he_ (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, +"_Eguapu_" ("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 _hoga_. 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 hoga, 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 +hoga, 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 _hoga_ 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 _caraguatai_ 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 foetid 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 Ha ha ha ha ha! u u u u u! o o o oo! +au au au au au! 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: Ha +ha! u u! o o! au au! 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 'Mataimang' 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 nata abwathwuk enthlit God; hingyahamok +hiknata 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 e 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. Para, +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 Cuyaba, 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 Parana, 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 Corumba, 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 Corumba, 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 Corumba, an +intensely sultry spot. Corumba 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. "Jose Maria +Jesus Joao 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. + +Corumba 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 Corumba 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? + +Corumba 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 Corumba, 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 a 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. + +Corumba 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 Cuyaba, the +most central city of South America, and larger than Corumba, 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 Corumba 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 +Corumba 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 Corumba +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 Cuyaba, 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 mate 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 Jose 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. 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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: ASCII + +*** 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--_manana_. + +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 _mate_ 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 _mate_, 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 _mate_. About this herb I picked up, from various sources, +some interesting information. The _mate_ 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 mate_ 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 mate. 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 mate 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 mate 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. + +Mate 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 mate 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 _Senorita 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 mate 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 _ombu_, 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 +_chiripa_, 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 olvidae"_ (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 +Yguasu. 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 Reta, 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 fotid 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 _jaracucu_, 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-a-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 a 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 Senora 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 Senor 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 cafes. 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 mate 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 o +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 Curupaita 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 +mate 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 +Pai 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 +_tupoi_, 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: + +"Dona 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 Dona 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 _chipa_, 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,_irundu_. 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-"_Ba-eh-pico! +Ba-eh-pico!_" + +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, Cunacarai [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 mate 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 _chipa_, 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 _nanduti_ (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 _moralite_ 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 _manana_ (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 Caacupe; +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 +carai in?" I asked. "No," I was answered, "he has gone to Caacupe 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 Caacupe is about forty miles from Asuncion. "The +Bishop of Paraguay formally inaugurated the worship of the Virgin of +Caacupe, 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 Pai 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 Pai 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 Pai before starting. I was fortunate, however, in securing the +companionship of an excellent man who bore the suggestive name of +"Old Stabbed Arm"; and Dona Dolores (Mrs. Sorrows), true to her name, +whom I engaged to make me about twenty pounds of chipa, said she +would intercede with her saint for me. Loading the pack-horse with +chipa, 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 Pai 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 Pai 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 Pai, 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 "_Che 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 chipa, 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 mate 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 Ipane, +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 chipa, 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 Rocanandiva (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. Mate 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 mate 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 _ca-ha he-he_ (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, "_Eguapu_" ("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 _hoga_. 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 hoga, 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 +hoga, 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 _hoga_ 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 _caraguatai_ +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 fotid 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 Ha ha ha ha ha! u u u u u! o o o +oo! au au au au au! 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: Ha ha! u u! o o! au au! 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 'Mataimang' 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 nata abwathwuk enthlit God; +hingyahamok hiknata 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 e 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. Para, +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 Cuyaba, 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 Parana, +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 Corumba, 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 Corumba, 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 Corumba, +an intensely sultry spot. Corumba 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. "Jose Maria +Jesus Joao 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. + +Corumba 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 Corumba 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? + +Corumba 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 Corumba, 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 a 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. + +Corumba 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 +Cuyaba, the most central city of South America, and larger than +Corumba, 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 Corumba 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 +Corumba 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 Corumba 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 Cuyaba, 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 mate +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 +Jose 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. 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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. 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