No. 7. DErARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. • 285 



Their ancestors, the "Conquistadorcs/' who ruthlessly drove the In- 

 dians under the lash into the mines and forests to wrest from ore 

 and tree the fortunes craved by them. 



One example only can be given. Some years ago a number of men 

 of high estate in one of the Andean countries devised a scheme to 

 increase their fortunes without expense to themselves. Their plan 

 was to have the government enact a law whereby the nation should 

 pay the passage of several hundred immigrants from Europe, pro- 

 vide funds for their maintenance until they became self-supporting, 

 and supply them gratis with the equipment necessary to establish 

 them on virgin land and convert it into tilled farms. The immi- 

 grants were to be colonized on the lands of such citizens as might 

 make provision to conform to certain conditions specified in the act. 



Several of the schemers crossed the Atlantic to act as agents for 

 the co7iihhie among the peasants and small farmers of Central Eu- 

 rope. The offers and promises made by the agents were so liberal, 

 and their claims to be acting for their government seemed so con- 

 vincing, that would-be emigrants Avere eager to go to the El Dorado 

 pointed out to them. The agents reported their success to their fel- 

 low schemers, and the bill was presented to Congress and speedily 

 became law. In the meantime the agents in Europe selected the 

 several score families provided for in the measure, and laid their 

 plans so that within a few weeks after they received word from their 

 confederates at home that the law was on the statute book they 

 embarked with their colonists. 



On arriving at their destination in South America each immigrant 

 family was placed on a tract of land varying in size from fifty to 

 two hundred acres, according to the number of persons in the family, 

 the understanding on the part of the settlers being that the land 

 was sold to them subject to payment in a number of annual instal- 

 ments out of the proceeds of their toil. For several years all went 

 well with the colonists; there were no taxes, as the agents had 

 promised; the land was brought under cultivation; buildings, some 

 of them good brick dwellings, were erected, and tobacco, cotton, 

 sugar cane, the vine, coffee, and other crops and fruits were planted. 

 Prosperity seemed to smile benignly on the immigrauts, and they 

 '^blessed the lucky star" which led tiiem to this eden. 



But about the time the vines and coffee trees began to bear well 

 and the land was giving assurance of bountiful crops, clouds rose 

 rapidly aboA^e the horizon on all sides. One or two of the boys of 

 each family was conscripted into the army. Several of these were 

 only sixteen years old. Next, a poll tax of several dollars Avas laid 

 on each member of every one of the immigrant families. Then, a 

 number of the girls Avere forcibly taken as servants in certain of the 

 families of high government officials, receiving no wages, and being 

 })laced on the IcA^el of concubines. When the period came to a close 

 during which the colonists were making yearly payments towards 

 the purchase of their farms, as they supposed, and they asked for 

 their titles, they were informed that the payments had been made 

 as rent, not as purchase money. Furthermore, the farmers Avere 

 notified that a material increase in the yearly payments Avould be 

 required of them thereafter, otherAvise they Avould have to vacate the 

 properties held by them. Naturally, the colonists Avere alarmed 

 and indignant at this turn of affairs, but they soon discovered that 



