Festival of St. John the Baptist—Water-throwing—Morning
mass—Church of La Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz—“Macheteros,”
or Soldiers of the Cross—Decrease of the Indians of the
Beni—Suggestions for the re-population of the department—A crew
for Trinidad obtained with difficulty—Desertion of an Indian
lad—Landslip and dangers of the port of Exaltacion—Changes
in the courses of the rivers—Richness of the soil—Prices of
provisions.
While I was staying in Exaltacion the Festival of St. John the Baptist
occurred, on the 24th of June, and the village was in fiesta, and no
work of any kind was done by the Indians. The chief duty on this day
appears to be to throw as much water over each other as possible, this
being a custom that has been introduced by the Bolivian patrons or
masters who are of Spanish origin. The great object is to wet thoroughly
the best-dressed man or woman who shows on the street or at a window;
and possibly this is meant for a kind of baptism, for as one cannot be
made to go to the river as St. John and his followers did, the river is
brought, in buckets and other vessels, to the unbeliever, who must suffer
the infliction of a good wetting with the best grace he may; and thus he
is at all events made to practise the Christian virtues of patience and
long-suffering, for there is no escape from the devout followers of the
saint, the best plan being to put on an old suit of clothing and provide
one’s self also with a bucket and squirt and set forth baptizing on one’s
own account.
Morning mass was held with great beating of drums and blowing of horns,
the water play being abandoned for the nonce. The church is a very old
edifice built of adobes, and was constructed by the Jesuits more than
200 years ago, the “cura” of the town informing me that there were
ecclesiastical records belonging to it which vouched for its age. The
façade facing on the central square of the village is highly ornamented
with figures in cement handsomely painted; the columns are made in a
twisted pattern, and there are, on either side of the principal door,
images of a Christ and a Virgin, about eight feet in height, elaborately
moulded and painted. The interior has been highly decorated with relievo
ornamentation in mud cement, but has now become much decayed, all the
pictures, of which there were a great many, having fallen out of their
frames.
The service of the mass was of most barbarous character, and has
evidently been adapted to the customs of the aborigines of these parts
by the Jesuits. There were two Indians with head-dresses of macaw’s
feathers arranged so as to form a circle at the back of the head, and
attached thereto is a long appendage, reaching to the ground and made
of the breast feathers of the toucan, terminating with a real tiger’s
tail. These men have a species of bell-anklets to their feet, and a
large wooden machete, or cutlass, in their right hands. Thus accoutred
they execute dances in front of the altar and the church door. These
fellows are called “macheteros,” and are intended to typify, I presume,
the soldiers of the Church fighting and conquering its enemies. The
interior of the church during mass presents a good effect from the bright
colours of the “tipoys” of the Indian women, the two plaits of whose
long glossy black hair are finished off with bright-coloured ribbons
called “ariches.” The “tipoy” is made of white or bright-coloured calico
or print, and is a long and straight garment which hangs in graceful
folds to the feet of the wearer, whose arms are always bare from the
shoulder. The bright colours of these dresses made an effective contrast
to the dark and sombre look of the church. The singing is of a squally
character, the aim seeming to be to sing through the nose as much as
possible; but every one seems to be thoroughly in earnest, and all cross
themselves in proper fashion.
[Illustration: INDIAN GIRL OF EXALTACION.]
Most of these Indian women are, in their youth, comely and well featured,
many of them being of very fair complexion, the darkest having skins of
a burnished coppery hue. Some of them, however, adopt the barbarian’s
practice of filing or chipping their front teeth into sharp points, and
this gives them a horrid look and reminds one of the dental arrangements
of the alligators. This barbarous custom is also practised slightly, in
some of the larger towns of the interior of Bolivia, and it strikes one
as particularly painful to meet a señorita, blessed perhaps with pretty
features and dressed in fashionable attire, and to observe when she opens
her lips to smile that she discloses a set of teeth as sharp as any
rattlesnake’s.
The Indians of the Beni are, I fear, decreasing rapidly in numbers, and
the deserted houses and lines of old streets now in ruins give a sad and
desolate look to Exaltacion. The present population cannot be more than
1500, and I should judge that less than fifty years ago there must have
been nearly 4000 Indians at the mission of “La Exaltacion de la Santa
Cruz,” or “The Raising of the Holy Cross.”
The climate of Exaltacion is, I should judge, a very good one, except at
times when the river overflows its banks, an occurrence which appears to
occur with rather a remarkable regularity about once in seven years. The
lands of Exaltacion are then flooded to a depth of perhaps six inches,
and after the retirement of the waters, ague fever is epidemic, but at
other times the air is pure and healthy. The reason for the decline of
the Indian population is to be found, without doubt, in the baneful
effects to Bolivia of the rubber-collecting trade of the Madeira and
Purus rivers. This trade is the real cause that is rapidly depopulating,
not only Exaltacion, but all the towns of the department of the Beni.
To take the year 1873 as an example of the working of the emigration
from Bolivia to the rubber districts of Northern Brazil. In that year
forty-three canoes descended the rapids from Bolivia, with merchants on
their way to Europe with ventures of “cascarilla” (cinchona bark), or
with speculators in the rubber estradas of the Madeira River, while in
the same year thirteen canoes only ascended to Bolivia. We may average
the Indians that leave Bolivia with these canoes at ten per canoe, and
thus we have an exodus of 430 Indians from their country in twelve
months, while only 130 return in the same period; we thus have 300
Indians lost to Bolivia in 1873, and as the rubber-collecting fever has
been decidedly on the decrease for the last four or five years, the year
1873 does not give a fifth of the number of Indians that have left in
previous years. We may, I venture to think, estimate the drain of human
life that the department of the Beni has suffered from the Northern
Brazilian rubber trade at 1000 men per annum during the decade of 1862 to
1872. The worst feature of this emigration is, perhaps, the fact that
rubber speculators and merchants descending the rapids will not allow
the Indians to take any of the females of their families with them. This
is done on account of avarice in some cases and necessity in others,
which prompt the “patron” or owner of the descending craft to load his
canoes as fully as he can with his merchandise, reserving as small a
space as possible for provisions, which, on account of the quantity of
farinha consumed, occupy so much space, that every mouth that requires to
be filled, without its owner being able to assist in the propulsion of
the craft, becomes a very serious consideration. Thus it arises that in
every town of the Beni the females are in a majority of perhaps five to
one over the males, and the populations are decreasing. According to the
data given by a Portuguese exploring expedition, which travelled in 1749
from Pará to Matto Grosso _viâ_ the river Madeira, an account of which
has been published in a compilation, by Colonel George Earl Church, of
the explorations that have been made in the valley of the river Madeira,
there was then in the fifteen missions of the Beni, a total population
of 26,000 Indians; while at the present day, if all the Indians were
collected together in these towns, it is probable that not more than 8000
would be found.
The only plan that is likely to succeed in restoring to these villages
the Indian population, which is probably that which is best suited to the
locality and climate, is that a treaty should be made by Bolivia with
Brazil for the redemption of these Indians from the slavery in which
they are held by their patrons the seringueiros, or rubber collectors.
It is true that the old form of slavery was abolished in Bolivia when
the Republic gained its independence; and in Brazil, in later years,
every child of a slave is born free, so that in the due course of events
slavery will be altogether abolished in the empire; but on the Amazon,
Madeira, and Purus rivers a far worse form of slavery exists, for both
Brazilian and Bolivian patrons keep their Indians in their power by
means of debt and drink. At most of the barracas on the Madeira River
where the seringueiros live, the Sundays are passed in perfect orgies of
drunkenness, for it is on that day that the peon delivers over to the
patron the rubber that he has collected during the week. The patron is
also a shopkeeper, and therefore treats his peon liberally to white rum
(called “cachaça” on the river), and, when under the influence of this
liquor, the poor peon is induced to buy trinkets, calicoes, ribbons, and
other articles that he could do very well without. These are charged to
him at enormous prices, whilst his rubber is credited to him at inversely
corresponding low ones, and thus he is kept under a heavy load of debt,
and cannot, under the Brazilian laws, leave his patron until it is
worked off, which happy event the patron takes care shall not happen.
A Bolivian authority, aided by Brazilian officials, should visit these
unhappy exiles, and settle between patron and peon the just state of the
accounts; thus a thousand Bolivian peons could with ease be gathered
together on the banks of the Madeira River. They could be put to work
on the railway of the rapids for two or three years with advantage to
themselves and to their country, and return to their native villages at
the expiration of their agreements, with a small fund in hand. This would
be the most expeditious method of repopulating the now half-deserted
villages of the department of the Beni.
It was with difficulty that I obtained a crew of Indians in Exaltacion
for the journey to Trinidad, for all the able-bodied men of the place
were either at their plantations on the river or had gone with traders
to the villages on the affluents of the Itenez. However, by overbidding
one of the traders for a crew of Trinitarios, who, besides getting better
pay from me, preferred to return to their own town rather than go with
the trader to Reyes and other outlying towns, I was able to arrange for
recommencing my journey on the 28th of June. On which day, after having
taken my farewell of the principal men of the place, and having seen
the last lot of baggage taken down to the puerto, I was ready to start
by about 9 a.m., when, to my disgust, I found that my servant-boy named
Trinidad, a young Indian that had been in my service for more than twelve
months, and had accompanied me up over the rapids, had absconded and
was missing. I sent back to the village for him, and lost several hours
waiting in hopes that he would turn up, but without success. This is one
of the most disagreeable features of travelling on the upper waters of
the Mamoré, that at each successive village one is exposed to the loss
of men; for the struggle for hands is very great amongst the traders,
and the Bolivian Indian is easily tempted, besides being cunning enough
to take advance money from two or three patrons at the same time, if he
can get the chance of doing so. I tired of waiting for the runaway, and
was fearful of losing some of the other men, who might, during the delay,
change their minds as to going further up the river, and give me the slip
also, so I started with nine paddlers and a captain—a fair crew, but one
seat empty, which looked ugly.
The port of the town of Exaltacion must, if the town is ever to be served
by steamer traffic, be moved higher up the river. While I was there an
enormous mass of the bank at the port gave way and fell into the river,
causing the loss of one man and a large canoe. This landslip measured
more than 100 feet in length, the breadth of earth that fell being more
than thirty feet at top, which was upwards of forty feet above the then
water level. It is therefore evident that a more secure situation must
be sought for the port, when any navigation of the Mamoré commences.
On this part of the river, boats are much exposed to danger from the
falling banks, which are called “tierras disbarrancandas.” The Mamoré,
and indeed all the rivers of the Beni valley, are for ever shifting
their courses in many parts of the forests through which they flow. They
undermine the banks on one side, which, falling away, form the numerous
curves on the convex side of which the mud and sand brought down by the
current is deposited, and playas and banks are formed, on which a forest
grows in course of time. The river on the concave side of the curve is
continually causing the trees of the _terra firma_ to fall and obstruct
the waterway, a barricade or “pausada” is formed, the river then returns
in exceptionally high floods to its old course on the convex shore,
bursting through the playas and sandbanks, and so the ever recurring
changes of the river course continue. In illustration of this, I saw on
the river Chapari a place where the current was breaking down a bank
that was apparently _terra firma_, and had trees growing on it that were
of great age. At the foot of this bank, and under some fifteen feet of
earth, was a deposit of timber, blackened and, in fact, almost carbonized
by time and pressure of the super-incumbent earth. From the manner in
which these logs of timber were deposited, one above the other, it was
evident that they formed part of a huge collection of driftwood, such as
may often be seen collected together in many parts of the rivers. On the
Mamoré all “chacos,” “barracas,” and “pueblos” are placed some distance
from the river, generally from half a mile to a mile, so that they may
not be exposed to danger from the frequent changes of the river’s course.
In the cachuelas this feature of the river does not appear to exist, as
there the formation of the country is of a more rocky nature.
At Exaltacion food-stuffs grown in the country are very cheap, the supply
from the chacos being far greater than the wants of the sparse and
scattered population. Cultivation, as is usual in all tropical countries,
is carried on with a very small amount of labour, the rich soil requiring
no digging or ploughing—sowing, only, being sufficient to give rich crops
of maize, rice, yucas, yams, pumpkins, plantains, melons, tobacco, and
all other kinds of tropical vegetation. The following are some of the
prices of provisions in the Beni: “farinha de yuca,” or mandioca flour,
twelve reales (4_s._ 10_d._) per Bolivian arroba of twenty-five pounds;
rice, six reales the arroba in the husk—this only produces about fifteen
pounds when husked, thus the dressed rice may be put at 2_d._ per pound.
Sugar, brown, in cakes, called “empanisadas,” half a reale, say 2½_d._
per pound; when partially refined and of a small and white grain, it
sells at one reale per pound. Ordinary aguadiente, called cachaça below
the rapids, and white rum in English colonies, fetches eight reales
(3_s._ 2½_d._) per frasqueira of three bottles, a stronger and better
sort of spirit, called “re-sacada,” being worth eight reales per bottle.
Fresh meat sells at one peso of eight reales (3_s._ 2½_d._) per arroba
of twenty-five pounds; when preserved, by being salted and dried in the
sun, it is called “charqui,” and sells at three pesos (9_s._ 7½_d._) per
arroba, say 4⅗_d._ per pound. Wheaten bread is very scarce, and when
obtainable costs half a reale, say 2½_d._, for a small cake that may
perhaps weigh a couple of ounces; the reason for such a high price being
that the flour has to be brought all the way from Cochabamba, a town in
the interior of Bolivia that will be described hereafter. The tobacco
grown in the Beni is of rough appearance in the dried leaf. It is all
used up in the manufacture of very badly shaped cigars called “puros,”
which sell for six reales, say 2_s._ 8_d._, per 100. In the absence
of Havannahs or good smoking mixture, a traveller will find them very
acceptable.