Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-12-16
IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Indians In the Rubber District Receive
Harsh Treatment.

| Baron E. NordenSkjold, the we'll
known explorer and writer on ethnolog-
ical and other subjects connected with
South America, has made an important
report to the Anti-Slavery and Aborig-
ines Protection society on the treat
ment Of native Indians in Peru and
Bolivia.
while l was travelling in Peru and
| Bolivia in 1904-5, and in Bolivia in
| 19OS-9," he writes, Il heard a great
! deal about the harsh treatment to
which Indians are subjected in the
rubber districts. 1 made it a point,
| therefore, to endeavor to find out the
terms upon which the Indians stand to
the white population. On the one hand,
there occur occasional acts of cruelty
perpetrated on individual members of
| the Indian tribes, and on the other a
Indian race as such.
Acts of cruelty done to single In
dams are to be regarded as isolated
manifestations of ill-breedng and fer
tions to protest against and put stop
to the systematic enslavement Of In
dams. whether actual physical cruelty
is attendant upon it or nor.
Thus, to take one instance, all the
Indians living in the rubber plantation
barracks on the Rio Itenes, the bound
ary river between Brazil and BOLIVIA,
are in their employers debt to the ex-
tent of several hundred or couple Of
thousand pesos. The wages they earn
are so scanty that they are unable to
pay off their debts, their expenses for
the year always exceeding their in
come. That state of affairs prevails In
the whole of Bolivia and throughout
Peru where rubber is found. A prac-
tical result of it is that, If you want to
engage an Indian as a man servant in
any of those districts, you have first to
buy him free, that is to say, pay off
his debts to his employer, whereupon
he becomes your slave. This system is
in force with all the owners of rubber
plantations, exceptions being exceed
ingly rare.
"The most remorseless of the planta-
ton owners even go to the length OF
purposely reducing the Indians to still
worse straits financially by trading on
| their weakness for gin and other spir-
it's, and even by falsifying the accounts
| with their masters Of such Of the In
dians as are trying their best by the
| utmost economy to clear themselves
of debt and purchase their liberty.
| The most villainous Of the planters
| make the children responsible for their
| fathers debts, and consequently con-
denim them to beginning life saddled
| with burdens which render them to all
| intents and purposes slaves from the
start.
"The rubber industry is highly de-
structive of human life. The numbers
of those who succumb to fever and to
deprivations of various kinds are very
| large, and consequently it has become
| increasingly difficult to procure work.
>e&SS
ern Bolivia, for instance, there are
scarcely any Indians left in the dis
trict of Mojos and Chiquitos, where
| formerly, under the Jesuits, extensive
and wealthy missions flourished. The
consequence of that has been that In
dams from other parts have had to be
| induced to come and carry out the tap
ping of the rubber, and SO more and
more tribes have been drawn in under
the devastating influences Of the rub
Der plantations.
THE most dastardly instance Of evil
| treatment meted out to Indians that
has come under my personal notice
| was on the forests of the upper reaches
| Of the Rio Manuripi and of the Rio
| Tahumanu. 1 know of man there
| who has earned livelihood by enclos-
ing the villages of the so-called savage
| Indians. He and his underlings put
| the adult Indians to death and sold
their children to the rubber compounds
at about four hundred pesos apiece.
His example has, moreover, been fol-
lowed by others.
"The Chiriguano Indians, in the re-
sion south of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
| in Bolivia have been enticed to Santa
Cruz and have been transported down
the Rio Mamore to the rubber districts.
I am personally acquainted with the
parents of numbers Of Indians who
have been sold; have also traced out
carefully the route by which they are
conducted, and know that Chiriguano
| Indians arrive at Quatro Ojos, the
place where they are put on board riv-
er crafts to be guarded like prisoners
by men armed with Winchester rifles.
| The Chiriguano Indians know that no
Indian ever returns from the rubber
districts to parents and friends. The
| sale of Indians above described as TAX
| ing place from Santa Cruz has been
and is probably still by no means in
considerable. The Bolivian govern
ment has tried, and to some extent
| with success. to check the sale Of In
dams as slaves. Neither it, however,
nor the Peruvian government has been
| able TO interfere to put a stop to the
systematic enslavement of Indians by
forcing them to run into debt. 1t must
be remembered that both Peru and
Bolivia are very vast countries, very
sparsely populated and consequently
the governments are seriously hand
icapped in their efforts at repressing
evil practices in the wilds. London
Daily News.
SOME ABNORMAL EATERS.