Now that I have mentioned drink, I will say that in La Chorrera, as well as in the other sections, the vice that dominates the employees of this company is drunkenness, which, added to their criminal instincts, turns them into regular human panthers and the Putumayo into a veritable hell. With regard to the pay they give the Indians for the rubber that these poor wretches extract, this is the most shameless system that can be imagined. In La Chorrera, which is the principal branch of this company in the Putumayo, I saw them give some Indians a few caps, matches, mirrors, and other trifles, the value of which did not amount to five _soles_, in return for a large quantity of rubber that they had delivered. The Indians, humble and resigned, took this trash and disappeared into the forest, seeing, reflected in the mirrors they received in exchange for their labour, the scars that the infamous hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company's employees had made all over their weak bodies. The Indians of the Putumayo are more than slaves of the "civilising" company, as this syndicate of crime has the barefacedness to call itself, for it exploits them in all ways, and the poor Indians can reckon neither with their lives, their women, nor their children: the company is the absolute owner of life and property. My belief is that the slavery of these Indians will terminate only when the rubber is exhausted here, which will not be very distant; for even now the Indians, in their desire to collect all the rubber demanded by their owners, and not finding it near, mix the juices of other trees with it, and it is for this reason that the rubber extracted in the Putumayo at present is of such a poor quality. When the rubber gives out, the detestable slavery of the Indians will end. But which will be exterminated first, the Indians or the rubber-trees, it is hard to say. In conclusion, I will state that if there were no Indians in the region of the Putumayo to work free, the company would have nothing to deal in, and consequently would fall to the ground, for its assets are acquired by pillage. Trusting that this will help you somewhat in the task you have undertaken of unmasking these wolves. CELESTINO LÓPEZ. (_Sworn before_) FEDERICO M. PIZARRO, _Notary Public_. IQUITOS, _May 17, 1909_. SR. W. E. HARDENBURG,--In reply to your letter of the 16th inst., I give you the following exact and reliable information of what I have witnessed during my stay on the River Putumayo, to be used for any purpose that you deem proper:-- [Illustration: RIVER ITAYA, NEAR IQUITOS. To face p. 250.]