Think of nine-year-old girls torn from their homes, ravished, and afterwards tortured or flogged to death; of sucking infants snatched from their mothers’ arms and their heads smashed against a tree; of a wife having her legs cut off merely for refusing to become one of the concubines of these bandits; of men flogged until ...[102] or of old fathers shot to death before their sons’ eyes merely because they were old and could work no longer!
The poor Indian, in spite of the diabolical “civilisation” of the Peruvians, has never been taught to read or write, has no friends to protect him, and, notwithstanding his thirteen years of contact with this “civilising company” of Arana, has never even heard of the existence of God, and his untutored mind is seared and benumbed by the long years of cruel suffering at the hands of these monsters. Heathen and Indian they are, but they are human, just as we are; they have souls; they have affections and love and cherish their dear ones just as we do ours; they are our brothers. And if they are stupid, heathen, ignorant, whose fault is it? Is it not the fault of these fiends who for years have taken advantage of their ignorance and helplessness, exploited their meekness and humility, and fastened upon them the iron chains of the shocking slavery in which they are now held? And when we see that they are ignorant, heathen, and helpless and cannot protest against their horrible fate, is it not our duty, for that very reason, to defend them the more energetically?
The origin and history of the Peruvian Amazon Company are as follows:—
In the latter eighties of the last century Julio César Arana arrived at Iquitos barefooted, hawking Panama hats; but soon, by good luck and a certain low cunning with which he is endowed, he succeeded in building up a small business in peddling along the rivers. This business, confined at first only to hats, &c., he afterwards extended to a variety of articles and did fairly well at it.
Learning of the rich rubber forests of the Putumayo, which were then being exploited by several small Colombian companies established there, he entered the Putumayo in 1896, and soon afterwards formed a partnership with Benjamin and Rafael Larrañaga,[103] owners of the establishments of La Chorrera. Subsequently he also associated himself with other Colombian companies there, and these enterprises proving profitable, in 1898 he opened a house in Iquitos, and in 1903, together with his brother Lizardo,[B] and his brothers-in-law, Pablo Zumaeta[B] and Abel Alarco,[104] founded the celebrated J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company, with a branch house in Manaos, Brazil.
In 1904 this company bought out the Larrañagas’ holdings at La Chorrera, taking advantage of their ignorance and stupidity to rob them scandalously. Thus they remained sole masters of the whole Igaraparaná. A little later they also acquired the establishments of Calderón Hermanos at Encanto and that of Hipólito Pérez at Argelia, robbing them also, according to their custom. They were now the principal company in the whole Putumayo.
Not content with this, however, and urged on by the rapacity of Julio César Arana and his accomplices, they forced José Cabrera, owner of Nueva Granada, to sell out to them at an insignificant price by threats of killing him, by shooting at him from ambush, by forcibly taking away his Indians, and by the other methods for which this company is known.[105]
The next step in the progress of the syndicate was the beginning of a systematic persecution of the three remaining Colombian establishments of Ordoñez, Serrano, and Gonzalez, with the object of making them abandon the region and then taking possession of their properties. This persecution took the form of robberies of their merchandise, rubber, and Indians, murders of their employees, refusals to sell them supplies, and all other vile expedients that cunning could suggest. The Colombians held on, however, in spite of these persecutions, and it was not until 1908 that the black flag of this criminal company, planted over their dead bodies, finally waved over the whole of this unfortunate region.
In 1905 Julio César went to England and succeeded in interesting some London gentlemen in the “possessions” of the J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company in this region. An accountant was sent out to examine the books, which were apparently found to be satisfactory, and on October 1, 1907, the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company, Ltd., was formed, with a capital of £1,000,000 sterling, divided, according to the prospectus, into 300,000 7 per cent. participating preference shares at £1 each and 700,000 ordinary shares, also at £1 each. In 1908 the word “Rubber” was stricken out, and this syndicate of crime is now known as the Peruvian Amazon Company, Ltd.
Having failed in their attempt to foist upon the public their worthless shares, they decided to increase the assets of the company. This was done in 1908[106] by the simple process of collecting a small army of their assassins and murdering the already mentioned Colombians and their employees and taking possession of their establishments. Serrano, Gonzalez, and their employees were murdered in cold blood, their women were added to the harems of the employees of the company, their Indians were enslaved, their rubber and merchandise stolen, and their establishments taken possession of. Ordoñez succeeded in escaping with his life, but had to abandon everything else—his rubber, his house, his Indians—to the agents of the company, who are now in full possession of everything and are exploiting the properties of their unfortunate victims.