Afterwards, Señor Saldaña, I served in Matanzas, under the orders of Norman, for the space of one month and five days. In this time I saw ten Indians killed and burnt and three hundred were flogged who died slowly, for their wounds are not treated, and when they are full of maggots they kill them with bullets and machetes and afterwards burn some of them. Others are thrown aside and, as they rot, emit an insupportable stench. This section stinks so that at times it is impossible to remain here on account of the rotting flesh of the dead and dying Indians.
Here in Matanzas, Armando Norman ordered me to kill a little Indian about eight or ten years old who had been cruelly flogged for running away, and who, in consequence of this barbarous punishment, was full of maggots and dying, his back being completely torn to pieces from the lashes he had received. I refused, Señor Saldaña, to kill the boy, but Norman, enraged beyond all bounds, grasped his carbine and aimed at me to kill me, and, as I had seen him kill so many people and had nobody to appeal to, I had to kill the little Indian.
In Ultimo Retiro I served nearly a year, and the chief was José Inocente Fonseca. During my stay here they killed about two hundred Indians, among men, women, and children. The bones of the victims are scattered about over the ranches and everywhere else.
Here they made me commit one crime more. There was in this place an Indian woman called Simona, whose lover was a boy named Simón; Argaluza, the sub-chief, said that I had had relations with her, and for this reason they gave Simona twenty-five lashes, which were applied by the Barbados negroes Stanley S. Lewis and Ernest Siobers. The Indian woman was left with her back literally torn to pieces, and in four days, when she began to stink and had maggots in her rotten flesh, Fonseca came and ordered me to kill her. Upon my refusal he put me in the stocks and threatened to kill me. Then, terrified and helpless, I had to kill Simona.
I was also in Porvenir six months, the chief being Bartolomé Guevara. Here I saw only about ten Indians flogged.
I also wish to inform you, Señor Rocca, that they take away from the Indians their women and children.
Every Indian is obliged to deliver to the company every three months 60 kilos of rubber, and in payment they are given a knife or a small mirror, worth 20 centavos, or a harmonium or a string of beads, weighing one ounce. To all who deliver 5 pagos—each pago being composed of 100 kilos—or, in other words, to those who deliver 500 kilos or bind themselves to do so, they give a shot-gun of the value of S.15. The Indians are never given food; they themselves furnish it. To those who do not deliver the 60 kilos every three months—a part of which must be ready every ten days—and to those who lack even half a kilo five or ten lashes are applied.
The Indian is so humble, that as soon as he sees that the needle of the scale does not mark the ten kilos, he himself stretches out his hands and throws himself on the ground to receive the punishment. Then the chief or a subordinate advances, bends down, takes the Indian by his hair, strikes him, raises his head, drops it face downwards on the ground, and, after the face is beaten and kicked and covered with blood, the Indian is scourged. This is when they are treated best, for often they cut them to pieces with machetes.
In Matanzas I have seen Indians tied to a tree, their feet about half a yard above the ground. Fuel is then placed below, and they are burnt alive. This is done to pass the time.
When Señor Castaños was in Porvenir, Fonseca ordered him to kill two Indians with the Boras, Remigio and Buchico, and to bring, tied up, three Indian women that Fonseca wanted as his concubines: these were Josefa, with her little child by Carlos Lemus, A—— and Z——. As Castaños would not obey this order, he was taken to Ultimo Retiro, and there they wished to kill him, but when Fonseca pulled out his revolver, Castaños defended himself in an energetic attitude with his carbine. Castaños took the Indian women to La Chorrera and Fonseca had the Indians killed in the forest, and, to take revenge on Castaños, had his Indians taken away, also his woman, Isabel, who was pregnant and about to give birth, and a boy named Adolfo. I heard afterwards that Fonseca ordered Isabel to be killed, when she was with her tribe, the Noruegas.