The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1879-03-07


perhaps, threw handful of earth over
them, but for the most part each as too
busy with his own safety to care for Others.
So our human brothers died.
ONE HUNDRED AND Fl srs THOUSAND VIC
The greatest mortality from hunger was
probably in March; from February |. to
May l, when the exodus was taking place.
l can hardly calculate the number of fam
inc deaths at less than one hundred thousand,
and during tho whole drought probably
one hundred and fifty thousand died Of
hunger. should nad thaS my calculations
are much lower than those of other persons
some place the entire number as high as
three hundred thousand. In Aracaty the
death rate Huctuatcd between ninety and
one hundred aud ten day; in Fortalcza it
was less at this time, but eighty per day
was bad enough. havo notices of ten,
twenty or more daily deaths in small villa
ges, and everywhere along the roadsides
nameless crosses still tell the story of uncat-
alogued victims. Dark. tales of caunibal-
ism begiu to appear From a letter writ.
ten at Quicxeramobim / translate as fol.
lows:
II write in haste. Have no tune to
traDscr;be the scene of horror about me-
1t is enough to give you as a specimen one
nameless crime A father, whose nature
was so overcome by hunger that he killed
and cooked in Il pot his little child, two
years old. This took place in California, a
settlement near Quixada. The father died
sooE after his horrible feast. have three
or four similar stories, very well authcnti-
Gated. believe that these and other
cases of cannibalism were caused by insani
ty-a common result of hunger"
Iquote also, letter from Jaguarbe-
Mirim, one ofmany that tell the same story {:
This villgec is full OF abandoned children;
the despairing fathers would no longer sec
them torn by the moster hunger. This very
day, while | was eating dinner, my house
was invaded by crowd of these wretched
children, very skeletons, who could hardly
speak. Some of them were so weak that
they would take only soup, obstiuately re.
tusing more solit food. The road from
here to Aracaty is fullo bodies You can
count the crosses BY hundreds, :. The other
ss !ss,a i se sss;'a y s.; ss;issss sn'
and one old woman. BY the bbdiSSs there
were three strips of leather in the kettle
over the ashes Of an extnguished fire.
A dog, the faithful friend OF the family,
was still watching them. Near Lcttrado
three young girls and an old man were
found eating the flesh Of dead horse
which lay by the roadside. This was
family from Loaras. Even in the villages
these poor wretches no longer ask for man.
dioca meal they ask for cats and dogs to
eat. (Ihis is no exaggeration. One
shopkeeper told ne of a refugee who asked
permission to kill the rats about his place
Three days ago made journey of six
leagues by the road from leo, aud what |
saw was lndescribable. l found eleven
dead bodies by the roadside and a. least
forty who were dying. Happily there is no
pestileuce here tho deaths ere from hun
ger"
From the first, both public and private
charity made the terrible mistake of giving
food without returns, leaving tho people in
idleness. The result was inevitable. Af.
ter few weeks the peasants settled into
condition Of easy mendicancy and idleness
would not work when they could. They
lay all day in their filthy huts, drew their
rations and cooked them, grew fat but not
healthy, for their laziness made them fit
food for disease.
THE FILTHY REFUGEES EMIGRATE.
/ For those that wished to emigrate the
government paid deck passage. in the
early part Of 1873 especially the number
Of these emigrants was very great-as
many as 900 on one steamer. They took
passage generally to Para, sometimes to
Maranham, Pernambuco or Rio. Packed
in dirty crowds on the vessel, offensive,
even to the sailors, by their flthiness, and
often poorly supplied with food. they Jared
badly enough. In more than one instance
tho smallpox appeared among them on the
voyage, aud then they died like vermin and
were thrown into the sea. Probably fifty
thousand emigrants left CeaSa. They were
received kindly enough in the other prov.
inces, though their needs were not always
promptly met. But for the most part they
would not work their mendicaut habits
were now SO confirmed that they would
only beg or starve. So they nursed their
misery long after people had ceased to pity
them. The neat Para peasants Gespised
them. At best they were untitled for Q
forest lite; so they begged and starved and
sickened and died. just rs as they had il