In making these exposures I have obeyed only the dictates of my conscience and my own sense of outraged justice; and now that I have made them and the civilised world is aware of what occurs in the vast and tragic selvas of the River Putumayo, I feel that, as an honest man, I have done my duty before God and before society and trust that others, who are in a position to do so, will take up the defence of these unfortunates and the prosecution and punishment of the human hyenas responsible for these crimes.
As will be shown, over the whole length and breadth of this vast region reigns one perpetual and devilish carnival of crime; in short, words are unable to convey any idea of this gruesome field of blood and crime and bleached skeletons, rotting under the falling leaves of the forest trees. It is a living hell. No wonder that the vegetation is so luxuriant here, for the soil has been deluged with the blood of so many innocent victims of the bestial greed and rapacity of these vile monsters that it should be the richest on earth!
Tribe after tribe of the peaceful and hospitable Indians of these forests has disappeared before the onslaughts of Peruvian “civilisation.” Colombian after Colombian has been foully murdered by these miserable criminals, until at last they were exterminated and their establishments, so long coveted by the syndicate of crime, passed into its unclean hands.
As we shall see in the subsequent pages of this catalogue of horrors, the Peruvian authorities of the Department of Loreto, thanks to an unparalleled system of wholesale bribery—for in this way only can we explain their conduct—do absolutely nothing to put a stop to this state of affairs. We observe a type of the comisarios[100] of this region; and also the attitude of the Prefect[101] in regard to these horrors; and we are aware that the denunciations of Saldaña were neglected, passed over and finally pigeon-holed by the judicial authorities of Iquitos. From this it is evident that justice cannot be looked for from that quarter.
I venture to state that within four or five years more—if this awful butchery is allowed to continue (which I do not believe)—these immense forests, formerly occupied by tens of thousands of peaceful, industrious Indians, quite capable of civilisation and Christianity, will be but huge and silent sepulchres, sown with the unburied bones of the unfortunate victims of an exploitation without parallel in history.
But is this to be permitted? Although we are too late to save the larger part of these victims, who have already passed out of existence, let us rescue the few we can and mete out punishment to the fiends who are filling their pockets with the gold produced by the very life-blood, the sweat, the tears, the agony of these unfortunates. Let us do what we can, at this late hour, to release the helpless Indians of the Putumayo from the cruel and inquisitorial yoke that these human hyenas have riveted upon them.