File:The Putumayo - the devil's paradise, travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein (1913) (14779056441).jpg

Identifier: putumayodevilspa00hard (find matches)
Title: The Putumayo : the devil's paradise, travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Hardenburg, W. E. (Walter Ernest), 1886-1942
Subjects: Casement, Roger, Sir, 1864-1916 Peruvian Amazon Company, Ltd Rubber
Publisher: London : Fischer Unwin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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cautiously. Talesof savagery have been told in which the whiteman has been the sufferer ; and there has alwaysexisted an animus against the Indian, althoughless acute than that which the white settler inNorth America displayed against the redskin inearlier times, and without the same cause. In the Peruvian Montana, in its upper regions,Nature has been lavish of her products and oppor-tunities. The rancher who should take up hisabode there, with a small amount of capital, canrapidh^ acquire estates and wealth. Abundantharvests of almost every known product can beraised in a minimum of time. It is sufficient tocut down and burn the brush and scratch the soiland sow with any seed, to recover returns of a^ hundred for one. Sugar-cane, vines, maize, cocoa,coffee, and a host of products can be raised. Thesugar-cane, once planted, yields perpetually, someexisting plantations being more than a hundredyears old. The cane frequently measures thirtyfeet in height, and is cut seven to nine months
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INTRODUCTION 37 after sprouting. The whole Amazon Valley, whenit shall have been opened up, will prove to beone of the most valuable parts of the earthssurface. Apart from topographical considerations, thesinister occurrences on the Putumayo are, to someextent, the result of a sinister human element—theSpanish and Portuguese character. The remark-able trait of callousness to human suffering whichthe Iberian people of Portugal and Spain—them-selves a mixture of Moor, Goth, Semite, Vandal,and other peoples —introduced into the LatinAmerican race is here shown in its intensity, andis augmented by a further Spanish quality. TheSpaniard often regards the Indians as animals.Other European people may have abused theIndians of America, but none have that peculiarSpanish attitude towards them of frankly consider-ing them as non-human. To-day the Indians arecommonly referred to among Spaniards andMestizos as animales. The present writer, inhis travels in Peru and Mexico, has constantly be

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