4 
INLAND SOUTH AMERICA 
That part of the population which 
is of Spanish and Portuguese descent 
is nominally Roman Catholic. The 
men, however, though still more or 
less under the influence of the priests 
have generally become indifferent to 
religion, and, in the very limited edu- 
cated class materialism has, within 
recent years, become fashionable. 
South America has been called 
Christian for four hundred years, but 
truly the latter state is worse than 
the first. 
Striking Facts About South America 
The total population of South 
America is estimated at upwards of 
45,000,000. 
The pure Indian population is vari- 
ously estimated at 6,000,000 to 15,- 
000. 000. 
The number of Negroes in Brazil 
is given at about 4,000,000. 
South America is twice the size of 
Europe, three times the size of China, 
sixty times the size of the British 
Isles. 
In Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and 
Paraguay, the population is illiterate 
to the extent of 50, 80, 80, and 90 per 
cent, respectively. 
Fifty years ago Japan was a pagan 
nation, but today there are three 
times as many teachers, and three 
times as many pupils in the schools 
of Japan as in the schools of South 
America. 
In Brazil, Uruguay, Ecquador, 
Venezuela, and Paraguay, the popula- 
tion is illegitimate to the extent of 
18, 27, 50, 58 and 90 per cent, respec- 
tively. 
Not more than 10 per cent of the 
priests are living pure lives. 
Speaking generallv, there are no 
doctors outside of the larger towns. 
There is an appalling prevalence of 
disease. 
A doctor in Paraguay estimates that 
70 per cent of the people of that coun- 
try are affected with venereal disease. 
Leprosy is very common. 
One per cent of the people of Para- 
guay are lepers and the number is in- 
creasing. Nothing whatever is done 
for them, and thev mix freely with 
the rest of the people. 
In 1926. the number of foreign mis- 
sionaries in Brazil, Paraguay and Bo- 
livia was given as 244, 22, and 16, re- 
spectively. 
Within a radius of 100 miles of the 
1. S. A. M. U. station at Villarrica, 
there is no other mission work being 
carried on except at Asuncion and 
Arequa. 
Within a radius of 200 miles of the 
I. S. A. M. U. station at Bananal, In- 
land Brazil, there are few other mis- 
sions. 
Brazil has been longer worked by 
missions, and has more missionaries 
than any of the other republics, ^ r et 
even in Brazil, the number of mission- 
aries is terribly inadequate. "The to- 
tal number of workers, missionary 
and native (in Brazil) is estimated at 
298. Distributing Brazil's 20,000,000 
of population among these workers, 
we have these astonishing figures: 
Each worker, native and missionary, 
has a parish in Brazil of 70,000 souls. 
In China, each missionary worker has 
100,000 as his part; in India he has 
65,000; in Brazil, each missionarv (ex- 
clusive of native workers) has 112,000. 
Brazil is almost twice as destitute as 
India. 
"But this is not the most striking 
contrast. In China each missionary 
has a parish of about 1100 square miles. 
The missionary worker in India must 
cover an area of only 350 square 
miles, about a third the size of that 
of his brother in China. The mission- 
ary worker in Brazil, however, has a 
parish of 15,000 square miles, or about 
the size of Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island and Connecticut combined," or 
equal to half the size of Scotland. If 
we consider Inland South America, 
the area of which is over 3,000,000 
square miles, we find that each of the 
40 missionaries on the field has a par- 
ish of about 70,000 square miles. 
A New Factor 
In the INLAND SOUTH AMER- 
ICA MISSIONARY UNION a new 
factor with inestimable possibilities has 
entered into the religious development 
of South America. The organization 
of the Union began in 1902 after al- 
readv existing societies had been 
asked, and had intimated their^ inabil- 
ity to undertake the work which the 
Union is now doing. The I. S. A. M. 
U. is interdenominational. Its aim is 
(a) at home — to interest Christians of 
all evangelical denominations in In- 
land South America as a mission field, 
and to secure their co-operation: (b) 
on the field — to evangelize the Indians 
of Inland South America, and to carry 
on evangelistic, colportage, educa- 
tional and medical work among the 
civilized and semi-civilized peoples of 
the same regions. 
INLAND SOUTH AMERICA 
5 
The Word of God commands us, 
A land in need entreats us, 
The love of Christ constrains us. 
The following is taken from Mr. 
Hay's diary describing his initial tour 
to Inland South America in 1908: 
"When we entered the dense for- 
ests the Indian tracks soon became 
impassable for men on horseback. 
We could no longer ride, and in some 
places we were obliged to travel bare- 
foot in deep mud, leading our horses 
as best we could, while we stumbled 
on over the roots of trees and inter- 
lacing bamboo creepers. 
"Led by a native guide we found 
the Indians hidden away behind the 
shelter of almost impassable swamps, 
across which we could not take our 
horses, amid the most savage condi- 
tions and in great poverty. Some of 
them had a little maize, but for the 
most part they appeared to live on 
wild fruits, roots, reptiles, caterpillars, 
or anything procurable by hunting and 
fishing. For clothing, they wore only 
loin cloths, and bands of women's 
hair twisted around the legs below the 
knees and around the wrists. Their 
faces were painted in curious patterns 
with some black pigment, and in some 
cases were mutilated by a hole in the 
lower lip, through which a long ap- 
pendage of resinous gum protruded, 
hanging down in front of the chin. 
They were armed with long, powerful 
bows, from which they can discharge, 
with deadly effect, arrows pointed 
with long, hard wood barbs. _ Some of 
these arrows measure over six feet in 
length, and they speak with forcible, 
if silent eloquence, for the muscular 
build of the people who use them, 
especially when we consider that the 
men are only of average height. In- 
deed, in spite of their miserable con- 
dition, they showed many evidences 
of intelligence and capacity." 
We take the following froni another 
missionary who pioneered into the 
Inland; to show how the missionary 
first of all seeks to win the confidence 
of the peoples amongst whom he 
goes, and how patiently he has to 
work for this in the case of these In- 
dians who have been pursued by the 
white man for centuries and who have 
lost confidence in them altogether, if 
they had any reason to have confi- 
dence in them: 
'The confidence of the Indians in 
us has been greatly strengthened. 
. . . We have had many opportunities 
of helping them, and by kindlv treat- 
ment we have shown them that we 
are here to do them good, both spir- 
Chiquitana Indian Children 
(The little girl standing is a member of a sav- 
age tribe living near Santiago, Bolivia.) 
itually and temporally. At the begin- 
ning of the year their supply of man- 
dioca and maize had failed, and they 
were reduced to eating rats and such 
wild animals as they could find in the 
forest, and quite a number of them 
visited the station seeking work. They 
knew that if they worked for us we 
would give them food. We managed 
to give them something to do and for 
weeks thev remained on the station. 
At first, they were very shy, especially 
the women, but as they p"ot to know 
us their shyness wore off, and even 
the little children began to feel at 
home with us. 
"One dav the Indian in charge of 
the work complained of sickness and 
asked for medicine. We treated him, 
and next day he was better. This was 
the first time that any of the Indians 
had trusted us so far as to ask for 
medicine and to take what we gave, 
and his speedy recovery went far to 
increase their confidence in us. 
Although we were much han- 
dicapped in not having proper reme- 
dies, every person that we treated was 
healed. Within a week we had quite 
a number coming to us for medicine, 
and since then we have treated many 
more. We always find them willing 
to take and to do what we tell them. 
They no longer fear us, and when 
they come to visit us they feel auite 
at home and are very friendly. They 
even bring their belongings to us. and 
leave them in our care when they eo 
fishino- or hunting. When we visit 
their village, they no longer hide their 
things in fear that we will take them. 
They seem always to welcome us, and 
we can go in and out of their ranches 
with perfect freedom. . . . This per- 
sonal touch with the Indians affords 
us many opportunities to explain to 
them the purpose of our stay among 
them, and opens a door for the Gos- 
pel, which would have remained 
