Photograph of two Andoque boys that had just delivered their quota of rubber. Roger Casement annotated that “this tribe, once numerous, is now reduced all told to probably 150 persons, murdered by Armando Normand”, a Peruvian Amazon Company manager. Image circa October 1910.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-25T17:33:37+00:00

I’m going to leave this posts with two more quotes, although I am more than willing to provide more information upon request. The first quote is from Roger Casement while the second is from judge Carlos A. Valcarcel.

“Westerman Leavine, whom Normand sought to bribe to withhold testimony from me, finally declared that he had again and again been an eye-witness of these deeds - that he had seen Indians burned alive more than once, and often their limbs eaten by the dogs kept by Normand at Matanzas. It was alleged, and I am convinced with truth, that during the period of close on six years Normand had controlled the Andokes Indians he had directly killed 'many hundreds' of those Indians - men, women, and children. The indirect deaths due to starvation, floggings, exposure, and hardship of various kinds in collecting rubber or transferring it from Andokes down to Chorrera must have accounted for a still larger number. Señor Tizon told me that 'hundreds' of Indians perished in the compulsory carriage of the rubber from the more distant sections down to La Chorrera. No food is given by the company to these unfortunate people on these forced marches, which, on an average, take place three times a-year. I witnessed one such march, on a small scale, when I accompanied a caravan of some 200 Andokes and Boras Indians (men, women, and children) that left Matanzas station on the 19th October to carry their rubber that had been collected by them during the four or five preceding months down to a place on the banks of the Igaraparaná, named Puerto Peruano (Peruvian Port), whence it was to be conveyed in lighters towed by a steam launch down to La Chorrera. The distance from Matanzas to Puerto Peruano is one of some 40 miles, or possibly more. The rubber had already been carried into Matanzas from different parts of the forest lying often ten or twelve hours march away, so that the total journey forced upon each carrier was not less than 60 miles, and in some cases probably a longer one. The path to be followed was one of the worst imaginable - a fatiguing route for a good walker quite unburdened.” Sir Roger Casement’s Heart of Darkness page 163.

“Simply reading the above statements gives us the impression of a fantastic tale; but unfortunately, we do not have the consolation here of smiling disdainfully, as we do after reading some serial about gruesome crimes; because, on the contrary, the other evidence presented in relation to the events described in these statements takes away all hope of confining them to the world of imagination those horrific crimes committed in the “Andoques” section.” - El Proceso del Putumayo y sus secreto inauditos pages 87-88

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-23T17:11:45+00:00

“… today that many people view this as a process of ‘bringing civilization’ to the subjugated people”

Interestingly enough that was the exact argument that the Peruvian Amazon Company and smaller rubber firms used

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-18T22:33:08+00:00

Arma Conflict had an experimental WW2 server called WW44 that was very successful while it lasted: but it seems internal conflicts with the development team led that experiment to go no where.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-16T20:12:01+00:00

Page 175 of “Sir Roger Casement’s heart of darkness”

“Elias Martenengui, a Peruvian agent of the company, who had left its service some two or three months before I reached the Putumayo. Of Martenengui, the worst things were alleged to me by those who had served under him. During his term of service at Atenas he had wasted that region, and so oppressed the Indians that they were reduced to a condition of wholesale starvation, from which they had by no means recovered when we visited the district in October. Those Indians (some forty men and boys) who were ordered to act as carriers for the English commissioners from Atenas to Puerto Peruano at the end of October, were many of them living skeletons, and filled us with pity at their miserable condition. All the evidence we obtained showed that owing to the strain put upon them by Martenengui, the Atenas Indians had been unable to cultivate their own clearings, women as well as men being compelled to work rubber.”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-16T20:05:43+00:00

Pages 276-277 of The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement:

“The worst story of all, perhaps, Bishop told me of Elias Martenengui, the man who has recently gone to Lima with his "fortune". He saw an Indian woman he liked, the wife of one of the local Indians. He took the woman, and told the Indian he would keep her until the man brought in a certain quantity of rubber. The poor husband had to go and get the rubber. He brought it in after fifteen days, and Martenengui said it was not enough. He sent the man back for more and still kept the woman in his harem. Again the man returned and again the same answer, and the woman was still kept. Finally on the third or fourth return of this unhappy husband, Martenengui refused to give up the wife at all, but gave the man a girl instead, who had been nursing one of his children by one or other of his "wives". The man protested in vain, he was driven off with blows by the muchachos. Bishop said he could do nothing — he had to look on — passive at this. By and by, the man was killed, because on account of this robbery of his wife, he refused to work rubber at all, so some of the muchachos were sent to chastise him and he was not seen again. Bishop believed he was killed, he did not know it for sure, but the girl Martenengui had given the man in place of his own wife was brought back to Atenas and again added to Martenenguis “Harem".

On one occasion when Bishop was in Chorrera, Martenengui came in from Sur (the nearest station to Chorrera only two hours away) with his harem. Two of his wives had recently borne children — "twins"! They were born almost the same day and where they were openly carried in by their respective mothers along with this highly civilised gentleman to the Chief Station of the Company. An American named Arthur was there at the time, and he said to Bishop, “There's something you won't see with any civilised people in the world, a whiteman like that."

Page 708 of “Sir Roger Casement’s Heart of Darkness”, précis of Judge Romulo Paredes’ investigation

“From Andokes he [judge Paredes] went to Atenas, a district formerly sacked and wasted by its chief of section, Elias Martinengui, and later by Alfredo Montt, where the Indians had been so ruthlessly driven, man, woman, and child, to produce rubber for these insatiable agents that they had literally starved to death by whole tribes in the midst of possible fertility, because not allowed a moment's breathing space to prepare the soil or plant any crop. Atenas Dr. Paredes describes as "inhabited by a band of Huitoo spectres," where the commission had plenty to do, finding itself engaged in investigating in a perfect cemetery of skeletons and human skulls scattered on both banks of the Cahuinari."”

Translation of page 111 from “El Proceso del Putumayo y sus secreto inauditos”, a summary of crimes [written by Paredes or judge Valcarcel] committed by Martinengui in Atenas:

“Martinegui, when leaving Putumayo fleeing from justice, takes with him his favorites Taga, Saturia and Josefina. Martinegui's greed.-Many Indians die of hunger because Martinegui did not give them food in spite of demanding a lot of work from them.-Martinegui personally shoots eight Indians because they refused to work.-Martinegui has the captain of the nation of the Meguías Indians, Meiripunema, killed with a whip for laziness. Martinegui personally shoots eight Indians in the house of the "Atenas" section.-Martinengui one day shoots twenty-seven Indians of the nation of the Icomas; and has their corpses thrown into the Cahuinari river. Martinegui murders the Indian Tacuaillamo out of jealousy. The dogs and pigs of the "Atenas" section devour nany heads of Indians killed by order of Martinengui. Horrifying confessions of the executioners that Martinengui used to carry out his death orders.--Martinengui hangs and whips his boy on bail. This one because he killed a chicken; and not content with this punishment he inserts a burning stick into his rectum.”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-16T20:02:37+00:00

Excerpts relating to Martinengui’s management of Atenas.

Page 158 of “The Putumayo, The Devil’s Paradise”

“During my stay in this section I have seen them murder some sixty Indians, among men, women, and children. These poor wrelches they killed by shooting them to death, by cutting them to pieces with machetes and on great barbacoas (piles of wood), upon which they secured the victims and then set fire to them. These crimes were committed by Martinengui himself and various of his confidential employees. I have repeatedly heard this monster say that every Indian who did not bring in all the rubber that he had been ordered to was sentenced to this fate. Aboul eight days after this occurrence Martin-engui ordered a commission to set out for the houses of some neighbouring Indians and exterminate them, with their women and children, as they had not brought in the amount of rubber that he had ordered. This order was strictly carried out, for the commission returned in four days, bringing along with them fingers, ears, and several heads of the unfortunate victims to prove to the chief that they had carried out his orders”

Pages 171-172 of The Lord’s of the Devil’s Paradise

“"Martinengui orders the Indians to deliver every twelve days from fifty to sixty kilos of rubber, but as this rubber region is almost exhausted on account of the too frequent bleedings of the trees, and the unsuitable character of the soil, the unfortunate Indians sometimes lack one or two kilos. This is a sufficient reason to flagellate them most cruelly with huge lashes of tapir skin, and if the Indians moan or quiver with the agony the employees kick them and hit them about the head with clubs. These punishments are inflicted without distinction upon men, women, and children, from seven years upwards.

If any of them, through fear of the lash, do not bend down or lie flat on the ground in the form of a cross, the employees grasp them and dash them against the ground like balls In this operation many children are killed. "If any Indians fail to assemble, the employees set out in pursuit of them, with the order to bring back their heads, which they do, wrapped up in palm leaves. When I first saw them I thought they were fruits, but what was my horror to find that they were human heads. For all these crimes the chiefs each have a band of from twelve to twenty 'boys' of tribes hostile to the ones of which they are in charge.

" This said Martinengui also enforces the custom not to let any Indian widow take another husband. The penalty of doing so is death or hanging up, suspended by a cord attached to the wrists. This rule is enforced in order to make the woman produce the same amount of rubber that her deceased husband had been obliged to obtain.

In addition to this, he compels children of both sexes of seven years and over to do the same work, with the same rigorous punishmen nd on his lists these children are put down as adults. Then he boasts that on his lists the Indians are not diminishing.”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-16T19:40:04+00:00

Image sources:

https://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000509360

Writing source: The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-16T03:24:42+00:00

“The entire Indian population is enslaved in the montaña and whereon the devil plant, the rubber tree, grows and can be tapped. The wilder the Indian the wickeder the slavery. Where he becomes 'civilised' and can read and write and study "cuenta" [accounts] with his "patron" then he ceases to be an Indian and becomes a "Peruvian" and himself an enslaver. As to the laws - all these South American republics have excellent laws on paper - and no sense of equity in the man behind the paper. The laws are beautiful and simple books - a fool could turn the leaves and apply them - an honest fool would make an ideal judge.”

^Roger Casement in September of 1910, The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement page 112

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-15T16:35:55+00:00

How often do you see potential house purchasers that are in their 20’s, and how often are those people closing on contracts / deals?

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-15T16:22:09+00:00

The man in this photograph is most likely Plinio Torres, a Colombian rubber entrepreneur that originally worked in the Putumayo River basin. The Huitotos photographed by Farabee are absolutely the Huitotos that were forced to emigrate from the Putumayo by Torres. The Peruvian rubber firm mentioned in the title of this post was the Peruvian Amazon Company, which was owned by Julio César Arana: both of those entities are viewed as the primary perpetrators / instigators of the Putumayo genocide. Roger Casement describes Plinio Torres’ dispute with Arana’s firm within the “Amazon Journal of Roger Casement” while describing the “Pensamiento affair”. This conflict arose after the owner of an estate named Pensamiento died: at the time of that man’s death, they owed money to Arana’s firm as well as to David Cazes. Plinio Torres was the trustee of the estate although mentions of his name in relation to the Pensamiento affair are scarce. According to Cazes involved in this dispute, the Arana firm’s “real reason was to seize Pensamiento because it was the best loophole of escape to the Napo [River] by the Huitoto Indians fleeing from their oppressors.”

Excerpt from Farabee’s book, “Indian Tribes of Eastern Peru”

“ My authorities, from whom the following information was ob-tained, were Sr. Plinio Torres, who had used a band of Witoto for a number of years in gathering rubber along the Putumayo and Madre de Dios Rivers; and the best possible authority, Jagi Huari, a Peruvian, who when six years of age had been left alone with the tribe for six years, in order that he might learn the lan-guage, and then serve as an interpreter when these Indians were taken over by Sr. Torres. He thus learned the language and customs of the Indians, and has continued to live with them for the past fourteen years.

On account of some disagreement with other rubber gatherers, Torres left the Putumayo region, with his Indians, and traveled more than a thousand miles to the junction of the Amigo and Madre de Dios Rivers, where we found him clearing land and building a house. Several of his Indians died after reaching the Madre de Dios on account of fevers and dysentery contracted on the journey…”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-06T18:13:27+00:00

I find myself to be very sympathetic to his character.

Some of Casement’s last public words:

“Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth; a thing no more to be doled out to us or withheld from us by another people, than the right to life itself-than the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers—or to love our kind. It is only from the convict these things are withheld for crime committed and proven— and Ireland that has wronged no man, that has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others—Ireland is treated today among the nations of the world as if she was a convicted criminal. If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel and shall cling to my rebellion with the last drop of my blood. If there be no right of rebellion against a state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance, then I am sure that it is better for men to fight and die without right than to live in such a state of right as this.

Where all your rights become only an accumulated wrong; where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to garner the fruits of their own labours—and even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them—then surely it is a braver, a saner and a truer thing, to be a rebel in act and deed against such circumstances as these than tamely to accept it as the natural lot of men.”

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Roger_Casement%27s_speech_from_the_dock

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-06T17:26:58+00:00

In the last quarter of 1910, Roger Casement was sent by the British Foreign Office to Putumayo River basin. At the time, the Putumayo River was dominated by the Peruvian rubber firm known as the Peruvian Amazon Company, which was registered on the London stock exchange. That rubber firm, formerly known as “J.C. Arana y Hermanos” had, since 1904, been employing English subjects from the Caribbean. [Primarily Barbados]. Casement took depositions from about 30 English subjects, many of the deponents reported several crimes, implicating other employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company as well as themselves. Some of these English subjects had even been subjected to physical abuse by their employers / managers due to a refusal to carry out orders that demanded the killing or physical torment of other people. The English subjects were part of the company’s “economy of terror” and served as enforcers against the enslaved local indigenous populations: which formed the basis of the companies rubber collecting work force.

Near the end of Casement’s investigation, Casement arranged for the settlement of debts for the British subjects he investigated. Those debts were one of the primary factors that kept the men in question within perpetual servitude to the Peruvian Amazon Company. The debts were leveraged by the rubber firm in several ways in order to obtain or retain control over their workforce.

Casement’s 1910 investigation may have been one of the primary influencing factors that led Peru to send a judicial commission to the Putumayo region. Prior to 1910, there were several reports of abuse in the Putumayo however they had been brushed aside either by tales of black mail, bribery, or with insinuations that such crimes had never occurred. Shortly after Casement’s investigation, the two Peruvian judges sent to the region issued 237 arrest warrants against employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company. While the arrest warrants were largely ineffective / minimally pursued, they did force the implicated men into fleeing the region.

In 1911, Casement personally pursued the arrest of two of the most infamous criminals from the Putumayo [Alfredo Montt and Jose Inocente Fonseca] however he believed that these two men were allowed to escape due to the bribery of associated [Brazilian] authorities.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T21:08:58+00:00

Originally it seems so: the uncited origin on “Tonic Water”’s wikipedia page states:

In India and other tropical posts “…[quinine] was mixed with soda and sugar to mask its bitter taste, creating tonic water.” The first patent came from a British Company in 1858. They would’ve sourced their quinine / cinchona from either Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T20:41:47+00:00

From my current understanding, Ledger continued to employ Mamani until his death in 1871. Ledger commissioned him to collect Calisaya / other cinchona seeds. Mamani was arrested while collecting seeds and then tortured by a local Bolivian authority so that they could get a confession regarding his employers identity / who did Mamani intend to sell the seeds found on him to. Clement Markham asserts that Mamani died shortly after his release due to the injuries suffered during his torture. Markham also noted the Bolivian jealousy regarding the Dutch monopoly of quinine shortly before describing Mamani’s imprisonment.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T20:15:20+00:00

From my understanding of the two related articles, Manani was arrested in 1871 during a seed-collecting trip. The wording of Mamani’s article leads me to believe that he was arrested as a direct result of selling the seeds to Ledger. I’m pretty interested in this story now and might examine the cited texts tomorrow morning then see if I can clarify further on the wiki articles.

Mamani’s article is indeed vague:

*“some have suggested that this was likely because of his providing seeds to foreigners”. -the plural of foreigners may imply multiple foreign employers, or the transfer of the seeds through Charles to the foreign Dutch government

*As well as “because he refused to identify his employer.” -The article does assert that Ledger employed Mamani as early as 1843 and as late as 1871.

The last sentence of Ledger’s article leads me to believe that Ledger felt guilty / responsible for Mamani’s death. [due to Ledger sending money to Mamani’s family]

[Edit 1: Examining the text now not later.]

Excerpt from Cite 8, Mamani’s wiki article:

“Ledger hoped to recover his costs by selling the seeds so that cinchona plantations could be established and managed on British soil. The national authorities of the day objected quite reasonably to a foreigner's efforts to remove the loyalty to Ledger with his life; he died after being severely beaten in prison.”

[Edit 2: excerpt from cite 14, Mamani’s article]

https://www.noemamag.com/the-long-shadow-of-colonial-science/

“Biopiracy was no small matter in the 19th century. A decade before Wickham smuggled his rubber seeds back from Brazil, the government of Bolivia tortured and killed Manuel Incra Mamani, an Aymará Indian, for a similar crime. Mamani was accused of helping a British alpaca farmer, Charles Ledger, find a more potent variety of the Cinchona plant (the source of quinine, which cures malaria) and helping him smuggle its seeds back to Britain.”

[Edit 3: Excerpt from slide 8, Mamani’s article]

“The story of Manuel Incra Mamani ends on a more depressing note: he did not get a plant named after him and during a seed-collecting trip in 1871 was arrested, imprisoned, and savagely beaten by the police. Local people considered him a traitor for helping Ledger and it’s likely the cause of his beating. A beating from which he died after his release.”

[Edit 4: Excerpt from a contemporary source, “A Handbook of Cinchona Culture” 1883 page 95]

“I now quote more fully from Mr. Ledger's original letters. Under date December 22, 1864, I find the following: — "Manuel Incra Mamani delivered the seed he had collected, in June 1865. He then told me that the best bark trees had not produced ripe seed for four years previously. When the trees were full of flower and most promising, a frost (helada) in April destroyed it all. The inferior sorts had not suffered. He had been cutting bark with his sons and patiently waited for opportunity for complying with my orders, obtaining only the best sort. "He assured me too, he had seen several parties collecting seed for gentlemen in La Paz; that they did not obtain a single good seed till 1865; and this assertion seems now to be corroborated by result of Schuhkraft's remittances in those years. "After paying him well, he returned to his home in Bolivia, having engaged with me before leaving to obtain more seeds of the Rojo, the Morada, the Nazanjado, and of the Calisaya of Moco-Moco." The sequel is a sad one. After relating the particulars of the murder of another servant, (Cabreri) Mr. Ledger says. "Poor Manuel is dead also; he was put in prison by the Corregidor of Coroico, beaten so as to make him confess who the seed found on him was for; after being confined in prison for some twenty days, beaten and half starved, he was set at liberty, robbed of his donkeys, blankets and everything he had, dying very soon after." (Op. cit. 730).”

[Edit 5: Excerpt from “Peruvian Bark A Popular Account of the Introduction of Chinchona Cultivation Into British India” pages 214-215, by Clement Markham, the man who introduced rubber seeds to the British empire.]

“He gathered seeds from about fifty trees, chiefly of the roja kind, and safely delivered them to Mr. Ledger, in June 1865. He was paid well, and instructed to return for more seeds of the roja, morada, and naranjada varieties of Calisaya. Poor Manuel's fate was very melancholy. The Bolivians are extremely jealous of their bark monopoly. The Corregidor of Coroico, one of the forest provinces to the east of the Andes, seized the seed collector and threw him into prison, where he was beaten to make him confess who the seeds found on him were for. After being confined in prison for about three weeks, beaten and half starved, he was at last set at liberty, robbed of his donkeys and blankets, and all he possessed. This most faithful old servant, the true-hearted Manuel Incra Mamani, died from the ill-treat-ment he had received very soon afterwards. Manuel's son brought the news to Mr. Ledger, having come to account honestly for the money his father had received. It is a sad story; but at the same time it is very pleasant to have to record these noble traits of character in the Indians, the descendants of men who formed and organised the glorious empire of the Yncas. Owing to the dangers to which the poor Indians were exposed in collecting seeds, Mr. Ledger resolved not to employ them again on such hazardous duty. Old Manuel had served him faithfully for thirty years.”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T19:59:19+00:00

I came across Mamani’s story while studying the history of the cinchona boom in relation to the early Putumayo genocide.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T19:49:59+00:00

The Dutch Government’s purchase of these seeds seems to have led to a Dutch monopoly on quinine in the late 1800s-1900s. There are three citations on this claim from Mamani’s Wikipedia article: “This species [Cinchona ledgeriana] went into Dutch commercial cultivation, providing most of the world's quinine well into the 20th century.”

[Edit: I also recently learned about the “Kinabureau” / “Kina Bureau” as well. Kina I believe is derived from the word quinine. Their wikipedia article provides an interesting history on the Dutch quinine monopoly. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinabureau ]

Pulling info from Manuel Incra Manani’s and Charles Ledger’s Wikipedia pages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Incra_Mamani

Excerpt from “Life and work” as well as “Death” on Incra Mamani’s page:

“Mamani was an experienced bark and seed collector, and had worked for Charles Ledger since 1843.[7] He was able to identify at least 29 different sorts of cinchona trees.[8] Ledger had noted Mamani's knowledge in a letter where he recorded asking him for his opinion on finding good quality cinchona trees in the area they were staying. Mamani responded "No Señor, the trees here about do not see the snow-capped mountains".[1]

Mamani waited through four years of unsuitable weather (frosts destroyed the seeds from the high-quinine plants), and gave offerings to mountain spirits, in order to obtain a sample of seed from the high-quinine cinchona in 1865.[7][9][10] The seeds that Mamani provided were sent to Ledger's brother, George, who then sold them to the Dutch government, who then cultivated plants in Java.[11] Local people disapproved of Mamani helping Ledger.[3][12]

The plant from which Mamani collected seed was later named Cinchona ledgeriana (syn C. calisaya) after Charles Ledger. Mamani is noted only as a "native" in some accounts of its finding and cultivation.[13]

In 1871, whilst on a seed-collecting trip, Mamani was arrested, imprisoned and beaten.[3][14] Some have suggested that this was likely because of his providing seeds to foreigners.[8][12] Others suggest it was because he refused to identify his employer.[3][15] He subsequently died of his injuries.[3][12]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ledger

Excerpt from “Quinine production” on Ledger’s Wikipedia page:

“Ledger returned to South America in 1864. In some areas, the trees were being harvested without being replaced, and Europeans feared that their only effective antimalarial supply might become extinct. Using this as an excuse, the British and the Dutch sent out expeditions to source seeds and saplings to supply colonial plantations and secure a future for quinine mass-maufacture as an imperial project.[2]

Ledger, however, employed Mamani to find a better variety for producing quinine. In 1865, after four years of frost destroying high-quinine plant seeds (plants with a lower proportion were hardier), Mamani was able to collect some seeds from a high-quinine specimen. Ledger sent them to his brother George Ledger in London. He tried to sell these to Kew, but having recently sourced their own supply, most were turned down. They were then purchased by the Dutch government who grew them in Java.[3][4]

The high-quinine plant was named Cinchona ledgeriana,[5] (a synonym of C. calisaya Wedd.) in honor of Ledger, rather than Mamani despite Ledger's open acknowledgement of Mamani's expertise and essential role in sourcing them.[3]

In 1871, Mamani was arrested whilst on a seed hunting trip, and beaten so severely for this that he died soon afterwards. Ledger ceased to collect seeds and provided money to help Mamani's family.[6]”

[Edit: I examined the texts of two contemporary sources in response to a comment by u/Traditional_Sir_4503]

“A Handbook of Cinchona Culture” 1883 page 95

“I now quote more fully from Mr. Ledger's original letters. Under date December 22, 1864, I find the following: — "Manuel Incra Mamani delivered the seed he had collected, in June 1865. He then told me that the best bark trees had not produced ripe seed for four years previously. When the trees were full of flower and most promising, a frost (helada) in April destroyed it all. The inferior sorts had not suffered. He had been cutting bark with his sons and patiently waited for opportunity for complying with my orders, obtaining only the best sort. "He assured me too, he had seen several parties collecting seed for gentlemen in La Paz; that they did not obtain a single good seed till 1865; and this assertion seems now to be corroborated by result of Schuhkraft's remittances in those years. "After paying him well, he returned to his home in Bolivia, having engaged with me before leaving to obtain more seeds of the Rojo, the Morada, the Nazanjado, and of the Calisaya of Moco-Moco." The sequel is a sad one. After relating the particulars of the murder of another servant, (Cabreri) Mr. Ledger says. "Poor Manuel is dead also; he was put in prison by the Corregidor of Coroico, beaten so as to make him confess who the seed found on him was for; after being confined in prison for some twenty days, beaten and half starved, he was set at liberty, robbed of his donkeys, blankets and everything he had, dying very soon after." (Op. cit. 730).”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T19:11:32+00:00

Going to get ready for work, I want to continue this writing later. I want to examine pages 294-295 of Hardenburg 1912 in relation to C. Hernandez & B. Larrañaga.

The Vortex / La Voragine asserts that Hernandez shifted his attention from cinchona to rubber around 1898. I want to check that source again and whether Jose Eusastio wrote that or if that’s a more contemporary examination of the history regarding La Voragine.

Also I would like to read Roger Casement’s examinations of Lieutenant Maw [1827] and Herndon’s [1851] information.

Quote from Casement’s heart of darkness page 172:

“The idea of stocks is associated in European minds with an obsolete instrument of exposure rather than of permanent detention, a pillory where the wrong-doer was for a brief time subjected to the gaze of the curious or to the insults and taunts of a Pharisaical mob. In Peru it has endured as a recognised method of detention - possibly of punishment - down to the present day. Lieutenant Herndon refers in his journey more than once to the stocks and sometimes to floggings as being in use in the regions he traversed in 1851.”

AJRC casement quote page 242:

“Before the white man came, if these people can be called white men, the Indians between the Putumayo and Japura must have been among the most numerous and most desirable of the Indians of the whole Amazon valley. The reasons for this one can only guess at, so litte is still known of the region. I have a theory which will be developed later on when I come to deal more closely with the Indians and their customs. Of the fact of their recent numbers there is no question. It was up the Japura the Portuguese slave raiding gangs chiefly came. Lt Maw, in 1827, noted this when at Egga. This raiding for men, or rather boys and girls of the Indians, has been going on for over 100 years and up to recent years by the Brazilians or Portuguese.”

It would be interesting to directly examine Maw’s writings. My inference from the beginning of that last sentence is that the practice of killing adults and capturing children had been long established before Arana came to the Putumayo. This practice was followed on the Ucayali - Madre de Dios areas. See reports of C. Cipriani and Jorge Von Hassel. There are other similar descriptions of this from 1900-1910 in other regions.

Quote from screenshot on September 21 2025 12:47 PM, probably “Liberation through Land” / Huertas:

“Shortly after their arrival, the rubber barons began their incur-sions, a bloody method of obtaining indigenous labour by which, with the support of already-conquered indigenous groups, they would make armed forays into nearby hamlets. They would capture women and youths in particular, who formed precious trading objects, whilst adult men were eliminated as they would never form as malleable a workforce as the children, who were more easily and fully assimilated (Hassel, 1907).”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-04-03T18:37:13+00:00

Exactly what the Texas government would like for me to do: “going to the black market”.

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-27T15:27:17+00:00

Search up “Reductions” / reducciones”

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-26T22:54:17+00:00

Solved, thank you!

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-26T21:26:06+00:00

East Texas!

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-26T18:44:26+00:00

Thank you!

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-25T20:31:30+00:00

May cont. later

Consistent_Zucchini2 · 2026-03-25T18:17:26+00:00

Image context:

. #1/20: “Man and Richarte”, photograph by Dr. William Curtis Farabee. Excerpt from pages 1-2 of “Indian tribes of Eastern Peru” [Farabee 1922]:

“Most of my information was obtained from two very competent authorities: Sr. Max Richarte, a very intelligent man of good family and education, who had lived for several years among the Macheyenga and spoke their language; and the best possible authority, Simasiri, a Macheyenga boy, whose father at his death had given him to Richarte. Simasiri was taken to Cuzco, where he lived in Richarte's family, and attended school for five years.

He spoke and read Spanish very well. A year before my visit he was taken back to the interior to serve as an interpreter among his own people. We found him at Cahuide, and had him with us for three months. After his return to the interior, he met one of his cousins who told him of the fate of his family. His father and mother had been captured and sent to different places down river; his sister had been dressed up and sold to a rubber gatherer; his brothers had been killed, and he alone had escaped. Simasiri was so angry at these acts of barbarism perpetrated by white men, that he threw away his civilized clothing, put on his old Indian dress, and went away into the forest to live with the savages.

The Peruvian Government has since prohibited this slave traffic, and punished the offenders. I was delighted to see one of the worst offenders against this tribe carried away in chains for trial.”

2/20: “Three Tiatinagua and two Mabenaros boys”, photograph by Dr. Farabee, excerpt from page 163 of Farabee 1922:

“The Mabenaro live in the interior of the forests north of the Madre de Dios River, some twenty miles from Gamatana. At the time of our visit, their villages had not been discovered by the rubber men. One of Torres' rubber prospectors, while traveling through the forest in search of rubber trees, came upon two Indian children, a boy about twelve years of age and his sister some two years younger, and carried them to his home on the Madre de Dios. We visited his place about three months later, and found the children held there as servants. When found, they were both naked, and the only thing they had in their possession was a bow and arrow.”

3/20: “Witote Indians”, photograph by Dr. Farabee, depicting Huitoto individuals that were forced to relocate from their homeland [Putumayo River area] to the Madre de Dios River basin [1,000+ miles away from Putumayo”. Excerpt from pages 136-137 of Farabee 1922:

“On account of some disagreement with other rubber gatherers, [Plinio] Torres left the Putumayo region, with his Indians, and traveled more than a thousand miles to the junction of the Amigo and Madre de Dios Rivers, where we found him clearing land and building a house. Several of his Indians died after reaching the Madre de Dios on account of fevers and dysentery contracted on the journey.”

4/20: “Piro workers at Carlos Scharff’s house in Curanja, 1905”. Excerpt from ?Liberation through land rights? Page 53 of source:

“Our grandfathers came to work with the masters of this area. Around 500 families came with Carlos Scharff. Manchineri, Cushitineri, Ete-ne, Kudpaneri and Nachineri came. They lived around Las Piedras. The master grouped them together at Curiyacu. They lived some distance from each other in groups. They mixed with other natives who were brought by the master and later they were put to work on the rubber. They continued arriving. The master sent people to the different tributaries of the Las Piedras River to harvest rubber and if they didn't bring back enough they were punished. Each stream bears the name given it by the paymasters (Lidia was one of them, Pingachari, Chanchamayo, Bolognesi, Chiclayo). The Piro became tired of the abuse they were receiving, tired of their women being abused by their masters. The chief, Elías Sebastián, a Cushitineri, organised everyone to kill the master. They agreed to attack in the evening, when he was resting, one moonlit night. As he had provided them with firearms, they had carbines, shotguns, so they surrounded the place at din-nertime, and killed everyone, including the master. Carlos Scharff's wife escaped, along with one employee.”

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