This is not strange, seeing that the people who live in Central and
Southern Argentina are mainly European, and British people have
an enormous commercial and financial interest in that land; but
nevertheless we cannot get away from the fact that this Land of the
Silver River lacks in many places the streams of Living Water which God
is so patiently waiting to flood through human channels to hundreds of
girls and boys who do not know Him. We should really, therefore, take a
very great interest in Argentina for more than one reason.
From Paraguay we will make a journey into Northern Argentina.
Travelling through the sugar plantations, we finally reach San Pedro,
where the sugar-crushing mills are at work, for it is harvest time and
hundreds of Indians are employed cutting the cane.
Everything is in full swing, and dusky forms are flitting here, there,
and everywhere, some cutting the cane with long knives, while the
Indian women carry it away and lay it in heaps. Here, after the leaves
and top ends are cut off, the cane is thrown into trucks, which are
taken to the factory by a small engine drawing twelve or thirteen
trucks. We will go and see how the cane goes in at one end and nice
white sugar comes out at the other end. The sugar, after being sewn up
in bags, is taken away in big, heavy carts, with high broad wheels.
At another sugar plantation 3000 Indians are employed. They come from
Southern Bolivia and the Gran Chaco to work from three to five months
among the sugar cane, and then return to their own country. There are
several tribes, the most civilized being the Chiriguards from Bolivia,
who are cleaner and more intelligent than the rest. There are the
Tobas, another warlike tribe, who go about almost naked. They are dirty
and savage looking. Also the Matacos, who are sadder looking than the
rest.
The South American Missionary Society is endeavouring to reach these
people in San Pedro and San Antonio. Mr R. J. Hunt says, of his second
visit amongst the Indians in the Argentine Chaco:--
“A day or two after my arrival I went to the village seeking my
assistant, Sixto, and found the house deserted and the household goods
removed. Glancing in and out among the trees, I found all the huts
likewise vacated, but presently I espied two solitary little girls
of six or seven years of age playing near one of the huts; and on
approaching, instead of scampering away like frightened animals, they
remained quite still, and shyly but very clearly explained to me, with
many gestures, that the man whom I sought had built another house on
the other side of the road. Only those who have attempted to tame one,
know the wild, shy nature of a little Indian girl!
“The other day I went to visit the Mataco Camp at Mira Flores, and at
the sound of my voice a young fellow came forward with a broad smile on
his face and saluted me. A little girl instantly sidled up to me, and
immediately from several huts came the women to smile recognition of me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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