The Clio messenger., 1918-03-29

I NINtORMED persons often
ask why 1t Is necessary to send
missionaries to South Ameri-
ca, where all the countries are
Christian. Replying to this query, in
the Missionary Review Of the World,
Rev., DIR. Gerhard j. Schilling of
Buenos Aires says there are millions
of souls in that continent who have
never yet heard of the Christian faith,
and other millions who have a very
wrong idea of 1t.
Few American Christians, he con-
tinues, have any definite idea of the
number and condition of these un-
evangelized multitudes. Their num-
bers are not known. In the United
States 1t is estimated that there are
100000 Indians and many mission
boards In North America which carry
on work among the various tribes.
Contrast the conditions in the southern
continent. In Ecuador, for instance,
out of a population of l,250,0OO, the In
dians number $4,000. These are very
low in the scale of civilization, and
the majority of them are absolutely
unevangelized. Moreover, 100000 of
the Indians in that republic have new
er as yet been politically subdued.
They still roam in the forests, killing
game with their poisoned arrows and
bringing down birds with their long
blowpipes. Any approach to them is
unsafe, and no one seems willing to
expose his life In an effort to win them
to Christ.
Half the People Indians.
Look at Peru. The last census re-
veals the fact that 57.6 per cent of its
population Of 2,592,OOO are Indians.
Some of these have heard Of the Chris
tian faith and some will even salute
a church when they pass, but 2,0O0,-
600 Of them could not give a reason
for the faith that is within them.
In Bolivia we find 500 per cent of
the people Indians, or 92O.S64; Of the
4S601S of ''mixed population" returned
in the last census, almost all have lit
tie of Spanish and much of Indian
blood in their veins. So we can safely
add 100000 Indians as the Bolivian
contingent.
No man living can tell how many
Indians live in Brazil. Baron de San
ta-Anna Merry, authority on the ques-
tion of Indians in the Amazon valley,
actually gives the names Of 373 tribes
in that region. venture to say that
there are from 100000 to 100000 Of
Indians I'm Brazil.
In addition to these millions there
are the unnumbered Guarantees and
Lenguas, 25,000, as Rev. w. b. Grubb
estimates, In Paraguay and the Gran
Chaco Of Argentine. There are the
Patagonians of the South and the Au-
racanians Of Chile. One could fill
pages with only an enumeration of
their tribal names and guess at their
numbers.
The manner Of living among these
Indians Is as varied as the area in
which they dwell. Begin with the
southernmost, the Onas of TERRA del
Fuego. Although they are exposed for
months during the rains to frost and
snow, they go about almost naked, and
entirely so In their poor habitations,
which often take the form Of caves
dug into the side of hill. Many Of
them are polygamists, and all show
very little respect for the government.
Not long ago a Chilean army officer
stationed among them was found
pierced by 25 arrows pointed with
splinters Of glass.
A much sturdier race are the Arau-
canians. Among all the aborigines Of
the region now called Chile, they only
have never been conquered, neither
by the Incas who extended once their
empire as far as Maule, or by the
Spaniards who had to withdraw from
them. 1t has been my privilege to
preach to them in 1907, and found
among the family of Mapuchs. near
Carahue, a very kind reception. They
live in large huts, called rucas, the
sides of which are made of branches,
straw and occasionally of hides. Some
of these rucas are large enough tn
shelter all the members of one of the
smaller tribes.
XIII the Babes and Aged.
The Indians of the Gran Chaco, the
northwestern reserves of Argentine,
and the Guarantees are first cousins.
Rev. w. b. Grubb, who knows most
about them, says: although canni-