The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-22
Rat going through the rapids Of The HuaIaga.

THE jungle Is A great mother to the
Indians. out of 1t they get everything,
their food. clothing and homes. 1t Is
difficult to think of anything they do
not get. A coarse fibre gives them
their cloth. a fine silken fibre gives them
their thread. They have tho Wild ba-
their cloth. "a fine silken fibre gives them
food. Their houses are built and rooted
with the cane. They get their bows
aud arrows and spears from them. Tho
rivers give them fish
"The jungle Indian Is "A great fruit
eater and one of his principal dishes Is
the wild banana. green by preference.
The Indian never eats raw banana.
1t produces stomach disorders, he says,
but he will take green banana and
stew II until 1t is soft. This he Will
serve with dried hsh or meat and be
perfectly satisfied.
"The Indian, by the way, is IN a very
bad condition. lie is coca victim.
Cocaine IL made from coca and the
Indian gets this In "a raw state. a lump
OF white Waxy stuff which no chews
until he is stupehed He will go for
days without food If he can get his
coca and he is worthless to all whites.
OF considerable importance At the
mouth of the lIuallaga because NO got
traces there of the white men we had
been asked to seek. An Indian girl
had a letter from Seljan which told her
that he was then to go into tho jungle
at a point to the nortlrward of US on
another river. This letter stated they
had guides and an Indian girl named
Molldenado to cook for them.
I'VE started and at another village
we found Indians who had been guides
for tho two men. They said they had
quit because Seljan and Patrick O'fIig-
gins. the white men, would not feed
them right. They knew about where
they had left them. Little was known
Of O'Higgins except that he was an
American known as Patricio. who had
worked as a miner over in Peru.
an our talks with Indians who spoke
Spanish We first heard that there were
tribes In the jungle who ate white men.
They would not cat each other. the In
dians told us, but they liked gringo meat.
These Indians professed to know abso-
lutely OF some cases of cannibalism,
although they protested they had never
INDUCED themselves in tho practice.
They told us this oil our way up
through the Jungle to where the white
men had been last seen.
"There was little difficulty in striking
tho trail at the river, and We continued
until one day our dogs worming
through the jungle began barking. We
went over to them by cutting our way
and In a little clearing We came upon
the bones OF two human beings They
were not entire skeletons. only thigh
and leg bones, ribs and hands. The
bones were white.
''The Indians stopped and after con-
ferrlng for some time they told us these
were the bones of Seljan and O'IIiggins.
We made a very close search but there
was not Q shred OF clothing, a weapon,
"a scrap of paper or anything else to aid
| In identification. Whoever they were we
buried them and placed a rude cross
above their grave. after which we re-
turned. struck the river and RATED
down.
"a little later We heard at Iqutos
that some other Indians had appeared
| with the guns and clothes Of the two
men. Asked where they got them they
said they had bought them from the
white men. There was no further in
vestigation.
"Then the girl Molldenado appeared
In Il settlement. She had stuck to the
men, she declared. after the Indians had
quit. One evening she was freed by a
bear just outside the camp and while
she was In the tree she heard two shots
fired and the tumult of fight. She
had never investigated, but when the
bear fed In the alarm she had run To
the trail, never stopping until she found
her way back to civilization. There was
no Investigation OF her story. The
jungle In SO big, the white men 20 few