CHILDREN OF SOUTH AMERICA
_Oliphant’s Other Lands Series_
CHILDREN OF CHINA
By C. CAMPBELL BROWN
CHILDREN OF INDIA
By JANET HARVEY KELMAN
CHILDREN OF AFRICA
By JAMES B. BAIRD
CHILDREN OF ARABIA
By JOHN CAMERON YOUNG
CHILDREN OF JAMAICA
By ISABEL C. MACLEAN
CHILDREN OF JAPAN
By JANET HARVEY KELMAN
CHILDREN OF EGYPT
By L. CROWTHER
CHILDREN OF CEYLON
By THOMAS MOSCROP
CHILDREN OF PERSIA
By MRS NAPIER MALCOLM
CHILDREN OF BORNEO
By EDWIN H. GOMES
CHILDREN OF LABRADOR
By MARY LANE DWIGHT
CHILDREN OF SOUTH AMERICA
By KATHARINE A. HODGE
[Illustration: A MAPUCHE INDIAN MOTHER AND HER BABY]
CHILDREN OF
SOUTH AMERICA
BY
KATHARINE A. HODGE
[Illustration]
WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
OLIPHANTS LD.
100 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH
21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.
[Illustration]
Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh
Bound by Anderson & Ferrier, St Marys, Edinburgh
INTRODUCTION
BY THE REV. ALAN EWBANK
_Secretary of the South American Missionary Society_
I have read through with great interest the manuscript of this little
book, and can say of those parts of South America which it has been
my privilege to visit that Mrs Hodge writes as one who has personal
knowledge of the various mission stations. I trust that her words will
not only reach the children, but also all who love children, that what
little is being done to make their lot brighter may be strengthened,
and much more undertaken, so that where now there are superstition and
darkness there may be knowledge and light.
For the natural world, God said: “Let there be light, and there _was_
light.”
For the spiritual world, Jesus said: “I am the Light”; and because
He meant to work through us, He also said: “YE are the light of the
world.... Let your light so shine before men that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
_November 1915_
FOREWORD
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,
This little book has been written expressly for you, to whom South
America is an entirely new field. On this account I feel it is
necessary to devote Chapter I. to the continent itself before
proceeding to acquaint you with its youthful inhabitants.
I tender my grateful thanks to the South American Missionary Society,
the Evangelical Union of South America, the Inland-South America
Missionary Union, and the Bolivian Indian Mission for the help their
publications have afforded me in trying to place before you something
of the sorrows and intense need of South American childhood.
Yours, for South America,
(MRS) KATHARINE A. HODGE
_November 1915_
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 5
FOREWARD 7
CHAP.
I. A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT 11
II. BRAZILIAN BROWNIES 17
III. BLOSSOM BABIES 30
IV. PARAGUAYAN PICCANINNIES 37
V. ARGENTINE ALL-SORTS 57
VI. DIMINUTIVE DWELLERS IN THE LAND OF FIRE 74
VII. CHILIAN CHILDREN 86
VIII. BOLIVIAN BAIRNS 95
IX. PEARLS OF PERU 113
CHILDREN OF SOUTH AMERICA
CHAPTER I
A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT
South America is a tremendous continent in the Western Hemisphere, and
occupies one-eighth of the land surface of the world.
By looking at this chart you will get some little idea as to the size
of it, by comparing it with other countries. South America, you will
therefore see, is twice the size of Europe, three times the size of
China, four times the size of India, and sixty times the size of our
British Isles.
From Panama, at the extreme north, to the furthest southern point of
Tierra-del-Fuego (“the Land of Fire”), it is about 4700 miles in
length, and it is 3000 miles from east to west.
South America (leaving out the three northern Guianas) is divided up
into eleven countries, or rather republics, each republic being under
its own president.
The names of the republics are:--
Brazil
Argentina
Peru
Bolivia
Ecuador
Venezuela
Chili
Colombia
Paraguay
Uruguay and Panama
Everything in South America is on a large scale--rivers, forests,
mountains, and plains. There is the mighty River Amazon, with its many
tributaries, flowing through Northern Peru and Brazil; the Orinoco, in
Venezuela; the Araguaya, in Brazil; and the River Plate, which runs
through the Republic of Argentina.
[Illustration: AN AMAZONIAN CREEK]
I hope you will study a map as we go along. If you look on the western
side of the continent you will see a long range of mountains, called
the Andes, tipped with sleeping volcanic fires on some, and capped by
perpetual snow on others. Nestling away up among these rugged peaks is
the highest body of water in the world, called Lake Titicaca, on which
float the rush-boats of the Inca Indians, the silent and down-trodden
“Children of the Sun.”
How vast China seems; and India, too, how big! Africa we feel we know
very little about as yet, in spite of Livingstone and all the books
that have been written; but here is South America--so neglected, and so
large, that there is more unexplored territory there than in any other
part of the world.
Not only so, but the continent is teeming with treasure. Diamonds and
gold are hidden away in the earth in Brazil and Peru. Bolivia is a
vast storehouse of silver and tin and coal. Petroleum and fertilizing
nitrates for cleansing the soil are to be found in Chili. The forests
of Peru and Brazil spell rubber--“black gold” it is called by the
natives. Chinchona trees flourish in abundance in Peru; also cocaine,
which the Indians chew from morning till night, to deaden their
sufferings, and their hunger.
Although South America is so large, there are, roughly speaking, only
about fifty million people living in it, but the population increases
every year through immigrants of all nations pouring into the continent.
Five hundred years ago, South America was the Indian’s land. In the
heart of the continent dwelt the savages, but Peru was the home of
the highly-civilized Inca race. To the north lived an Indian people
called the Chibchas, who came next in culture; and south, in Chili and
Argentina, were the Araucanian Indians, who were not so cultured as the
Incas or Chibchas, but who, notwithstanding, were a powerful people.
About five hundred years ago the Pope, in his arrogance, “gave” South
America to the two Roman Catholic countries of Spain and Portugal. It
was a dark day for that land when the Portuguese adventurers and their
priests went to Brazil, and Pizarro and his Spanish followers to Peru,
the home of the cruel Inquisition.
From that day onward slavery, ill-treatment, and cruel deaths have
been the lot of the Indians. La Casas, a Roman Catholic official, more
humane than his brethren, was so concerned at the lot of the Indians in
Brazil that he suggested that Africans should be brought to help the
Indians in the gold mines, and they too suffered from the hands of the
merciless Portuguese. Hence, to-day, we see in Brazil the negroes (of
whom there are said to be some four millions), the Indians, and the
Portuguese-speaking people of many nations, comprising about twenty
millions.
In Central and Southern Argentina the population is chiefly European.
Buenos Aires, the capital, is largely Italian, though a very large
number of British folk are living there. In Peru nearly three-fourths
of the people are pure Indian, and Bolivia is mostly Indian as well.
For five long centuries this has indeed been the Land of Darkness and
of the “Christless Cross.” Two thousand years ago, nearly, Christ
said to the Apostle Peter: “Feed My lambs.” What have the so-called
followers of Peter done for the Lambs of South America? Let us see.