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
"It was a boy. He left the child and the head in the same place,
everything there, on the path. He went on then; he take the two women
with him, but the woman was crying for her child. Well, sir, we got a
little ways more inside the wood; walking, we met an Indian man--a
strong young fellow he was, too. That is, after we gets over to near
the Caguetá. Jiménez say he wanted to go to the next side--the other
side--of the Caquetá, but he do not know where he would get a boat, a
canoe, to go over. So this time he tell his woman, his wife, to ax the
Indian to tell where the boat is. Well, sir, the Indian say he do not
know where it is. By that time Jiménez say the Indian lie--he was a
liar, and he got a rope and he tie the Indian's hands like that behind
his back. It was in the same way with the post across between two trees.
He made the Indians tie a post across between two trees, and he haul the
Indian, like that, up to the post. His feet could not touch the ground,
and he call for some dry leaves, and tell the boys to bring some dry
leaves, same as the old woman. He put the leaves under his feet, and he
take a box of matches out of his pocket. The man was there shouting out,
greeting. Jiménez draw a match and light the leaves, and this time, sir,
the Indian start to burn, big bladders going out from his skin. The
Indian was there burning, with his head hanging like that--moaning, he
was. Jiménez say: 'Well, you will not tell me where the canoe, where the
boat is,' he says, 'so you must bear with that.' Well, the Indian was
not quite dead, but was there with his head hanging, and Jiménez he tell
the _capitán_, by name José Maria, a Boras Indian [he is chief _capitán_
of the Abisinia _muchachos_]; he says, 'Give him a ball!' he says, and
the Indian took his carbine and give him a ball here, shooting him in
the chest. Well, sir, after I saw how the blood started, I ran. It was
awful to see, and he left the Indian hanging up there with the rope and
everything on him."
"Was the Indian dead?"
"Yes, sir, he was dead with the ball, and we left him there in the same
place. That's all."
"Sealey states that he had reported these things to his
fellow-countryman, John Brown, who when he had reached Chorrera had
become the servant of a Captain Whiffen, an English officer who had
arrived there. He hoped that Captain Whiffen, hearing of it, might be
able to do something and so told John Brown.[127] Sealey states that
Chase was with him on the expedition."
Another Barbados man's (Westerman Leavine's) examination includes the
following:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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