The farmer and mechanic., 1915-10-26

r., BotocudOs and Their Enormous
lin Plugs-AmOng the Savage
Mupduruc,s. Head Hunters Who
Vsc Poisoned Arrows. Cannibs,ls
Of the AmazOn-Taming the Miami
bjcares and the kainganys-In-
dian Farms and Schools.
copyright. 1915. by Frank G.. Car
penter)
Rio De Janeiro
have spent q part of this week
g. tho National Museum Of Brazil.
talking with the director and others
about the strange Indians OF this
country. The government here has
bcen paying great attention to the
collection of chronological relics and
| II has now one of the finest exhibits
known of the Indians of this part of
the world. There is much~yct to be
discovered and the scientists of the
country are collecting material and
preparing reports that will give new
| information regarding the Indians. Of
| the South American continent.
We look upon North America as
the home of the red man and upon
,he territory occupied by the United
states. as about the only home of the
urical Indian. The truth is the In
dams of our country have never num-
bered more than a few hundred thou
sand. The great bulk of the red race
ha- always lived on the platea u
south Of the Rio Grande River and
on the South American continent The
Indians Of South America numbered
millions at the time the new world
was discovered. Amcricus Vespuo us
and other found Indians along the
north and east coast of Brazil anG
later they were found in great mum
berS on the Orinoco and the Amazon
11Zrro, when he went south to co1
q9Cr the Indians. found millions O
these scmi-civiliZed people living OF
the high plateaus Of the Andes. ant
We now know that there was great
population running along the west
eru half of the continent all the wa,
from Panama to Patagonia.
Just how many Indiers there wer
lu Brazil at that TIM we cannot esti
mate. They probably numbered sew
eral millions. They were found alOn
the whole coast and in the gr at al
iuyial basin. The white men enslave
them. They killed them by thou
sands and, Notwithstanding tn
Jesuits obtained a decree from tn
Portuguese government freeing tn
indian slaves, they were kept i
servitude here and there throughor
the country for more than two hun
dred years. AS late as 1907 A. +
keane, the geographer, estimate
that there were 100000 Indians sti
in Brazil. 1 am told that this is a
underestimate and that the populs
ton Is probably q million or NOR
There are vast tracts in Brazil tn;
have never been explored. The cOul
try all told, has an area as large
the United States proper and it h;
three stateS-namely, AmaZona
Goyaz and Matto G.. .osso-which col
tain more land than one-half of OI
country, with an aggregate pOpul
ton not greater than that OF the ci
Of Baltimore. In some of tho
states the people number not mo
than one to every ten square mile
and in many districts the Indians a
50 savage that it would be unsafe
take a census except under arms.
There Is no doubt that the large
number OF wild Indians to be -four
anywhere is here in Brazil. They a
of many tribes and of all stages
savagery and barbarism, with We
little civilization. When the Port
guese came they classed the India
into four great families and all
these were found in Brazil. The Tul
Guaranis occupied one-fourth
Brazil. They were to be found &
in Paraguay and Uruguay. and tn
covered much of Bolivia and
Argentine. / saw many Of these
dians during my travels In Paragu;
They are mild people. good looki
and intelligent. The Tupi India
have one language with ma
dialects. The Jesuits. who have dc
most of their work umong them, hs
ing reduced their language to a gra
matical and literary form, and it
now spoken throughout central Sol
America 1t is understood from
Amazon TO the Rio de la Plata.
The second family of these origi
Indians was the Botocudos. These
dams lived some dis ance back Ir
the coast, and remnants OF them
still to be found in MiIaS Geraes,
pirito Santos and Sac PaulO. III
are about the most degraded OF
Brazilian savages. They wear gr
plugs of wood, bones and peebtas