THE RUBBER FORESTS 27 



food and shelter and clothing are of the most primitive kind, but 

 they are the best in the world for him because they are the only 

 kind he has known. So where money and finery fail the lash comes 

 in. The rubber man says that the Indian is lazy and must be 

 made to work; that there is a great deal of work to be done and 

 the Indian is the only laborer who can be found; that if rubber 

 and chocolate are produced the Indian must be made to produce 

 them; and that if he will not produce them for pay he must be 

 enslaved. 



It is a law of the rubber country that when an Indian falls into 

 debt to a white man he must work for the latter until the debt is 

 discharged. If he runs away before the debt is canceled or if he 

 refuses to work or does too little work he may be flogged. Under 

 special conditions such laws are wise. In the hands of the rubber 

 men they are the basis of slavery. For, once the rubber interests 

 begin to suffer, the promoters look around for a chance to capture 

 free Indians. An expedition is fitted out that spends weeks ex- 

 ploring this river or that in getting on the track of unattached In- 

 dians. "When a settlement is found the men are enslaved and taken 

 long distances from home finally to reach a rubber property. 

 There they are given a corner of a hut to sleep in, a few cheap 

 clothes, a rubber-picking outfit, and a name. In return for these 

 articles the unwilling Indian is charged any fanciful price that 

 comes into the mind of his "owner," and he must thereupon work 

 at a per diem wage also fixed by the owner. Since his obligations 

 increase with time, the Indian may die over two thousand dollars 

 in debt ! 



Peonage has left frightful scars upon the country. In some 

 places the Indians are fugitives, cultivating little farms in se- 

 creted places but visiting them only at night or after carefully re- 

 connoitering the spot. They change their camps frequently and 

 make their way from place to place by secret trails, now spending 

 a night or two under the shelter of a few palm leaves on a sand- 

 bar, again concealing themselves in almost impenetrable jungle. 

 If the hunter sometimes discovers a beaten track he follows it only 

 to find it ending on a cliff face or on the edge of a lagoon where 



