CHAPTER IXPEARLS OF PERU
Last, but not least, we come to the most historical and romantic Republic of the whole continent, Peru. This country was discovered by an adventurer named Pizarro. He was a zealous Roman Catholic, but his spirit of greediness over-balanced his religion, and the story of his conquest of the Inca Indians of Peru, as related by Prescott, is one of the darkest in history.
Before the invasion of Pizarro and his fellow-countrymen, over four hundred years ago, there lived a very highly-civilized race of Indians who called themselves the “Children of the Sun.” They were a most enlightened and industrious people, having their own king, as well as their own laws and religion.
Since the days of Pizarro and his followers everything has changed. The king was slain with hundreds of his loyal subjects, and the Spaniards took possession of the land. There you will see the Indians to-day, living in spiritual darkness and superstition, scarcely able to call their souls their own, a crushed and conquered remnant of a once splendid race; and to-day “the children’s souls which God is calling sunward, spin on blindly in the dark.”
On the lonely mountain side we will find them, tiny mites of three and four years of age, tending the sheep, and often very scantily protected from the severe and biting winds. But the mountain children have an easy time of it compared to the children of the city, for slavery and starvation are the common lot of these little ones.
We will visit Cuzco, the romantic and religious city of the Inca race; but we must not forget to sprinkle our handkerchiefs withperfume, for we have now got back to the hot climate, and the streets we are walking through are long and narrow and have an open drain running down the centre, a common thing in these cities. But if we would be missionaries some day, we must not mind the smells now, especially as we want to become acquainted with some of the “Pearls of Peru.”
For a minute or two we pause and watch the children, who seem to swarm everywhere. Some are playing at the nasty drain; no wonder these little ones droop and die, for there is no friendly policeman to warn them that this is a death trap!
Where do they all come from? Does no one look after them? For they are everywhere, in the road, on doorsteps, in the shops, round the booths in the market-place, under the shadow of the Roman Catholic Cathedral; scores of them, playing, sleeping, picking up scraps and eating them, uncared for, and untaught.
See! Who is this coming down the cobbly street, with a big, fat baby on his back? Only an Indian boy, and not very much bigger than his baby mistress. What a sad face he has; it does not attract us, for there is a shade of bitterness about the mouth. His is a hard life—driven to and fro by the whim of the baby’s mother; no thanks and no pay; only beatings if he does not please her. An Indian slave! You look surprised! But this is quite a common thing in Peru and other parts of this continent.
“Only an Indian slave!A prey to his mistress’s whim,Beaten, battered, and starved,What does she care for him?‘A soul, did you say, he possessed?’She laughs: ‘Why, he’s worse than a dog!I purchased him, body and soul,To scold, and to starve, and to flog.’Only an Indian slave!He may be in their esteem,But his soul, with the price of blood,Christ Jesus came down to redeem.”May the children of God go forth to proclaimThe loosening power of His wonderful Name.
“Only an Indian slave!A prey to his mistress’s whim,Beaten, battered, and starved,What does she care for him?‘A soul, did you say, he possessed?’She laughs: ‘Why, he’s worse than a dog!I purchased him, body and soul,To scold, and to starve, and to flog.’Only an Indian slave!He may be in their esteem,But his soul, with the price of blood,Christ Jesus came down to redeem.”May the children of God go forth to proclaimThe loosening power of His wonderful Name.
“Only an Indian slave!A prey to his mistress’s whim,Beaten, battered, and starved,What does she care for him?
“Only an Indian slave!
A prey to his mistress’s whim,
Beaten, battered, and starved,
What does she care for him?
‘A soul, did you say, he possessed?’She laughs: ‘Why, he’s worse than a dog!I purchased him, body and soul,To scold, and to starve, and to flog.’
‘A soul, did you say, he possessed?’
She laughs: ‘Why, he’s worse than a dog!
I purchased him, body and soul,
To scold, and to starve, and to flog.’
Only an Indian slave!He may be in their esteem,But his soul, with the price of blood,Christ Jesus came down to redeem.”
Only an Indian slave!
He may be in their esteem,
But his soul, with the price of blood,
Christ Jesus came down to redeem.”
May the children of God go forth to proclaimThe loosening power of His wonderful Name.
May the children of God go forth to proclaim
The loosening power of His wonderful Name.
INDIAN SLAVE AND HIS BABY MISTRESS
In her fascinating book on “Peru,” Miss Geraldine Guinness says: “In Arequipa there are three thousand of these little Indian slaves, four-fifths of whom are cruelly treated, while the good treatment of the remaining one-fifth, with rare exceptions, consists in the fact of their not being brutally beaten, and not suffering much hunger.
“I have heard the screams of child-servants not more than seven years old, who were daily beaten by a bad-tempered mistress. I have seen children ill and dying, for whom no one cared. I know a little girl of seven, who, a few months ago, saw her mother’s dead body taken away to the cemetery. Since that day she has minded the shop all alone, and kept house for her father, who only comes home atnights, and who is often away for weeks at a time.”
Some years ago, when the maize crop failed, and there was a terrible famine in the land, starvation stared the Indian mothers in the face. What were they to do under such circumstances? They could not feed their little ones, so the children were brought to the cities in thousands, and sold for a few shillings or given away, to save the mothers and other little ones in the mountain huts from starvation and death. To-day it is not an uncommon thing to be accosted in the street by an Indian woman, and to be asked to purchase her little girl or boy for a few coins.
The only British Missionary Society working in this vast republic of Peru is the Evangelical Union of South America. Try and realize it; a country half the size of China, and only a handful of missionaries to proclaim the Gospel to these people. Take your pen and underline “Lima, Cuzco, Huanuco, Arequipa, andUrco” (twenty-four miles out of Cuzco), and you have the only centres of British missionary enterprise at the present time. Let us visit these mission-stations and see for ourselves what is being done for the children.
Of all the cities in Peru, Lima is the most cosmopolitan. Visiting one part of the town on the outskirts one might almost fancy we were in China; at another spot everything is entirely negro, and some other part appears to be under Turkish supervision. Here we jostle against Peruvian priests, who do not attract us, American, English, and Italian merchants, and people from almost every land under the sun. What a medley!
“The houses in Lima have no chimneys, they are one storey high, and what windows there are facing into the street are barred, making the houses look like prisons. The poorer parts of Lima consist largely of ‘conventillos’ similar to these in Argentina. They are often large, sunny, open courtyards,and sometimes narrow alleys, always entered by doors in the walls of the main streets, and surrounded by cell-like rooms.
“Every aspect of life may be seen in the central yard. There the dinner is cooked, the baby bathed, the clothes washed, and the Virgin worshipped. At every step one comes upon a child, and all appear equally contented and uncared for.
“Lima is in the centre of a region, not only free from rain, but where earthquakes frequently occur, so that mud, cane, and plaster are used for house-building purposes instead of stone.
“Although it never rains in Lima, yet during the dry season, Peru’s winter—June to September—the capital is enveloped in mist, which is exceedingly disagreeable. For days and weeks the sun is invisible, and a drizzle, not unlike a Scotch mist, makes the side-walks slippery, and so permeates the air that the sheets on one’s bed are chill and sticky.”
Lima is the city where the Society’s printing-press is at work. Month by month, the little silent messenger of the Gospel,El Heraldo, is sent forth by post throughout Peru; and as postage is quite free, you will see that every postman is thus a “colporteur.” Many other things besides are printed, butEl Heraldois the foremost message proclaiming “pardon, peace, and power to hundreds whom the voice of the preacher cannot reach.”
Once more we find ourselves in Cuzco. Here several ladies of the E.U.S.A. are to be seen at work. Miss Elder, Miss Pinn, Miss Found, and Miss Trumper, are doing splendid service.
Miss Elder reports that “many of the mothers, having gained confidence in us, come again for advice and medicine for themselves and their children.” Speaking of a case she visited, she says: “I had prepared a nice basin of warm water, and was just ready to put ‘baby’ in for his first bath, when two womenrushed up, one on either side. Baby’s bath was, to their way of thinking, not yet complete. One poured in alcohol, and the other a large cupful of greasy soup.
“On asking the reason of this, I was told it was to make baby strong! So, with a smile and the remark that I had not heard of the custom, I proceeded with my work. This took place in the house of one of the upper-class people.
“But I want to give you a peep into some of the poorer ‘homes.’ We were conducted to a little shop where our patient lay on sheep-skins. Baby’s wardrobe consisted only of a strawberry-coloured knitted vest and a bonnet of royal blue! On another occasion, to reach my patient I passed through two courtyards, and stepped down into a dark room.
“There was no window. The light entered only through the doorway, and the round hole in the wall through which the smoke was expected to escape. The floor was alive with guinea-pigs running to and fro. A fewfowls were roosting in one corner, on sticks placed there for the purpose, while a mother hen sheltered her brood of healthy chicks in another. This patient had a bedstead, but it was composed of rough irregular boards placed together like a raft.
“In addition to the work in Cuzco we have to hold ourselves ready for outside calls. I was summoned one day to Urco Farm, because of an accident to Domingo, a little Chuncho Indian boy from the forests. I left Cuzco at ten at night, on horseback.
“Darkness and the roughness of the road hindered our progress, but we arrived early in the morning. The boy had fallen from his horse, cutting his face badly, while one eye was completely lost. We gave him chloroform and put in five stitches, and the little chap soon got well again.
“Urco Farm is about five hundred miles from the coast. For the first one hundred miles it is desert, and the rest of the waybeautiful valleys. The climate is grand. The farm is so large that it would take many days to see over it all. There is abundance of fruit, with large quantities of vegetables such as we have here at home. There are horses for riding, oxen for work, and mules, donkeys and llamas for carrying goods. There are cattle for meat, and sheep also; for milk and butter there are goats.”
There are no roads here, but just mountain trails. Everything is carried on llamas and mules, while you would ride on a horse.
There are over two hundred Indians on the farm, and the Mission is hoping to establish an Orphanage here, like the one at Sao Paulo in Brazil, only much larger. Mr Ganton says:—
“Down this valley to the Amazon, and thence to the Atlantic, over three thousand miles, we know of no missionary! Within our reach are possibly ten tribes of Indians untouched even by Romanism. In our ownvalley there are probably forty thousand people.
“We have some fine boys, and the Indians are very interesting. Mrs Stockwell is glad to have her little school. The boys are quite apt at learning texts. Almost any night we can hear them spelling out passages from the New Testament by candle-light in their little rooms.
“Our farm work is very interesting, also our people. One soon learns to have a real love for them. It is hard for the Indian to understand why anyone should treat him kindly without a selfish motive.”
For the school work the Indian children are gathered together in the evenings and taught. They attend willingly and gladly. “The scholars are all ages and sizes, from the ragged little Indian of six upwards. There are some very promising children in the school, and we hope that some day they will become messengers of the Gospel to their own peoplein the remote villages. Every day we see more the need of the Orphanage, where the children will be under our direct influence. We have four already living in the house, and what a difference we see compared to those outside!
“Mrs Stockwell is just in her glory with the children, and is completely devoted to her school. She is at work from early morning until bedtime, and always making clothing for the children.
“Day-school work among native children in Lima is a very special feature. This was begun in 1913, and a Scripture lesson was always included in the day’s teaching. It is being proved here, as in Argentina and elsewhere, that not only does the day-school deliver the Sunday-school scholars from annoyance, persecution, and priestly instruction, but it is also an excellent feeder for the Sunday-school, at which the attendance marked a great improvement in numbers and steadiness.
“Under the very able superintendence and help of Mrs Millham, there are two native mistresses, who have been associated with the Church for some long time.”
This school work amongst the native children of Lima has been laid upon the workers of the Evangelical Union of South America as a sacred burden. It is their privilege—not only in Peru but in the other Republics in which they work—to lift the child out of its ignorance, and to teach it to know Christ the Friend of little children, to know the world and all that pertains to it, and to know its own heart.
We will not proceed any further in our wanderings, for in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama the same sad condition of things prevails.
We have heard, not unmoved I trust, the wail of the Indian children in the forests of Peru and Brazil, and have seen them in the Amazon valley. We have watched them withpainful interest and concern in the streets of the various cities, children of all colours and nationalities, and yet all of one blood with us, who call for our sympathies, our prayers, our gifts, and above all, our love. They call to us out of their deep need from the Land of Opportunity.