Arthur O. Friel

“ Every woman was put to work at once in making cassava. Every man made the necessary preparations for the journey. And three days later, with everything worth carrying packed in the canoes and everything else destroyed—except the house itself—we pushed away up the Cunucunuma. Behind us the big paragua stood empty of all life, never again to be used by the men of Yaracuma. Yet, though the house itself would tell nothing to those who should come later, it held a message for the Butcher.
One of the Indians had killed a big red areguato the day before we went. ”

“ It was quite likely, indeed, that those killers would start even before the crews should reach San Fernando; for if the mestizos should meet Paco, the Butcher—which was not at all improbable—they would tell him all they knew, and Paco probably would come up the Orinoco at once. It would be just such work as he and his gang would like: a chance to kill me for pay, to butcher the Indian men for sport, and to enslave the maidens for pleasure. ”

“ I smoked awhile after hearing this, and I saw something which, I knew, must be also in the mind of Yaracuma. The two crews—mine and that of Rodriguez—would travel fast down the river to San Fernando, and there they would tell of what the Indians had done. And Rivero and all his friends would be enraged—not at Rodriguez, but at the Maquiritares.
To most men of the wild Territorio de Amazonas an Indian is a dog, to be beaten or shot or outraged at will; he has no rights and no protection, and he is a creature made only for the use and abuse of the "white man." ”

“ We have lived too long on the Cunucunuma. It is no longer a good place for us."
"The Ventuari is a good river," I suggested. "It has much game and fish. There are other Maquiritares on the Ventuari. The people of Yaracuma are too much alone here. And now there will be no more balata work on the Cunucunuma. If the men of Yaracuma would like to bleed the balata another year and have new knives and machetes, beads and cloth, matches and fish-hooks and other things, they can get them all on the Ventuari. ”

“ So, telling the Maquiritares that we would leave a monkey to plague our enemies, I had them stuff the skin with leaves, sew it up, and fasten one of its hands in a position which, in our country, is a mortal insult from man to man. ”

“ And for him to defend himself and avenge his wrongs is a crime calling for death—and not always a quick death. So now, with the town full of men who delighted in murder, it would be odd if an armed gang did not soon appear on the Cunucunuma to teach the "Indian dogs" a lesson. ”