One day I witnessed an excessively atrocious scene, the barbarous flogging of three unfortunate Indians, who, for the mere fact of not having brought in all the rubber that Agüero had required, were scourged with such fury that their backs and hips were completely cut to pieces, the blood rushing from their wounds. Upon seeing this barbarity, I withdrew, for I could not endure it nor the diabolical jokes and laughter of those fiends upon seeing the desperate agony of their victims.
I also saw the two unfortunates, Paz Cutierrez and one Cabrera, who were prisoners, shut up in a small, dirty room under sentinels; to these unhappy wretches they gave almost no food at all, and abused and insulted them vilely and cowardly. One of them at last succeeded in escaping, but the other still remained in the hands of his jailers at my departure from Abisinia.
In May of the same year I went to Morelia. I arrived there also after a very tedious journey, and had hardly reached this section when I witnessed the cruel flogging of seven Indians for the usual crime—that of not delivering enough rubber to satisfy the ambitions of the company’s agents. Two of these victims were mere boys, and I heard their cries of agony and saw the lash cutting into their flesh. All this I saw, but could not defend them from their murderers, as I knew that if I tried to do so they would kill me in an instant.
After a stay of eight days in Morelia I returned to Abisinia, in accordance with orders. A few days afterwards the syphilitic Bartolomé Zumaeta, the brother-in-law of Julio C. Arana, and notorious among the criminals of the Putumayo, arrived, together with the famous Augusto Jiménez, the author of various violations, arsons, floggings, and homicides. The arrival of these two men was the occasion for a drinking-bout, comparable only to the orgy of a horde of savages.
The day after this debauch Agüero ordered one of his concubines to be flogged for having held a conversation with one Alberto Urdinibia. They suspended the poor woman from a rafter of the roof and lashed her for two hours without compunction, and then, regardless of her sex, they removed her garment and exhibited her naked body, bruised and cut to pieces by the lash. When this unfortunate woman fainted, they shut her up in a dirty room without treating her wounds! Urdinibia also had to receive his punishment; they put him in stocks, where he remained two days, practically without food.
Seeing that an honest man neither could nor should remain here, I resolved to escape in company with Urdinibia; but as those fiends noticed our absence, they sent in pursuit and took us back to Abisinia.
Impatient at my continual complaints, Agüero at last gave me permission to go to Santa Julia. On this journey I suffered greatly, as I made it alone and without food, for they gave me no food whatever for my trip. After considerable suffering I arrived at Santa Julia, where the chief, Manuel Aponte, in spite of seeing me sick and in a state of complete misery, began to annoy me, in accordance with the instructions he had received from Agüero, making me labour from early morning until late at night—all this in spite of the fact that the company had promised me food and medicines gratis when ill. Unfortunate is the poor wretch who lets himself be deceived by the smooth words of the “civilising” company!
During the fifteen days that I stayed in Santa Julia I saw three Indian women flogged most barbarously, without the slightest reason, by order of this notorious Manuel Aponte. Here a negro who served as cook played the rôle of executioner, and this miserable wretch, whose conscience was as black as his skin, seemed to take pleasure in his disgusting task, for a devilish smile distorted his blubber lips at seeing the blood spurt out at each blow of the lash. This flogging, like all the rest I have seen in this awful region, was excessively inhuman; but, not content with this, these fiends, after flogging the poor women, put salt and vinegar into their wounds so as to increase the pain.
At last I embarked in the launch for La Chorrera, where I found that Agüero had deceived me; for instead of paying 80 soles per month, as had been promised me, they paid me at the rate of only 50 soles, and deducted from this sum the food and the few medicines they had supplied, so that after three months of hard work and sufferings I had only 71 soles to the good.
I was badly received in La Chorrera, above all by one Delgado, who was the accountant, for Agüero had written him a letter discrediting me slanderously. As I was not able to continue on to Iquitos, I secured employment in the so-called apothecary-shop from Dr. Rodríguez, where I remained some months. Here I had the opportunity to observe that the free medicines that this company so generously offers to its employees are reduced to a little Epsom salt. They also occasionally dole out a few grains of quinine.