The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise: Travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an Account of the Atrocities Committed upon the Indians ThereinHardenburg, W. E. (Walter Ernest)
History
The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise: Travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an Account of the Atrocities Committed upon the Indians Therein
Hardenburg, W. E. (Walter Ernest)
Peru -- Description and travel; Peruvian Amazon Company; Putumayo River; Rubber industry and trade -- Peru
"My conclusions are chiefly based on the direct testimony of Barbados
men in the company's service, who brought their accusations on the spot,
who were prepared to submit them to investigation, and to make them in
the presence of those they accused, and whose testimony, thus given to
me, was accepted without further investigation by Señor Juan Tizon, the
Peruvian Amazon company's representative at La Chorrera, on the ground
that it was sufficient or could not be controverted. It was equally
potent with the members of the Peruvian Amazon Company's commission, who
expressed themselves as fully convinced of the truth of the charges
preferred, they themselves being often present when I interrogated the
British witnesses. There was, moreover, the evidence of our own eyes and
senses, for the Indians almost everywhere bore evidence of being
flogged, in many cases of being brutally flogged, and the marks of the
lash were not confined to men nor adults. Women, and even little
children, were more than once found, their limbs scarred with weals left
by the thong of twisted tapir-hide, which is the chief implement used
for coercing and terrorising the native population of the region
traversed. The crimes charged against many men now in the employ of the
Peruvian Amazon Company are of the most atrocious kind, including
murder, violation, and constant flogging. The condition of things
revealed is entirely disgraceful, and fully warrants the worst charges
brought against the agents of the Peruvian Amazon Company and its
methods of administration on the Putumayo. I append to my Report a list
of those agents of the company against whom the worst charges were
preferred and against whom the evidence in my possession is
overwhelmingly strong. The prefect of Loreto again and again assured me
that his Government was determined to deal with the criminals and
protect the Indians. The charges brought by the Barbados men were of the
most atrocious kind, and, added to the accumulating weight of evidence
that we had gathered from station to station, and the condition of the
Indian population as we had opportunity to observe it in passing, they
left no doubt in our minds that the worst charges against the company's
agents were true. Many of the acts charged against agents whom we met
were of the most revolting description, and the Barbados men bringing
these charges did not omit, in several cases, to also accuse themselves
of shocking crimes, committed, they averred, under compulsion."
"_Names of some of the worst Criminals on the
Putumayo, all of them charged with atrocious
Offences against the Indians._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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