MISSIONARY WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 117, 20 May 1941, Page 9

MISSIONARY WORK

ALONG THE AMAZON

MANY RISKS TAKEN

HOSTILE INDIANS

Many risks have to be taken by missionaries who enter the jungle in the Amazon Valley in Brazil, according to Mr. Robert Story, who has returned to New Zealand after spending over six years with the Unevangelised Fields Mission in the Amazon basin. Three missionaries who were murdered by hostile Indians in 1936 included two of his personal friends, but the In- ! dians concerned had since been taught that the missionaries were their friends, and five men were now doing good work at a station in the territory. Mr. Story is now the general secretary of the Mission in Australia and New Zealand, and after he has completed a lecture tour of the Dominion will go to Australia, where he will/be mainly concerned with the mission work being done along the Fly River in New Guinea. This work, he said, was similar to that in Brazil, but the natives were more responsive to civilising influences than the South American Indians. In the Amazon Valley the population was divided into sections, Mr. Story said. Near the coast there was the civilised white population; further inland there was a population that was mainly Indian but was intermixed with Portugese and negro blood. This part of the population was civilised but lived largely by gathering rubber and nuts from the Amazon'forests. Behind this belt again the Indians lived their natural life in the jungle. Their life was largely communal, but they tended to break up in family groups rather than to congregate in large tribes. There were several basic languages and many dialects of each, and the missionary's first problem was to learn the language spoken by the people he wished to teach. INDIAN HUNTERS. The Indians were hunters and were fine physical specimens who went naked in the forests. They carried bows six foot long and were splendid shots up to 200 yards, but most of their game was killed at short range as they could get close to their kill in the jungle. They were definitely allied to the North American Indians, having similar characteristics. The few whites, apart from the missionaries, who entered the Indian country _ believed in shooting Indians on sight, and the proud Indians not unnaturally retaliated. That was the reason why his friends had been killed; they had been mistaken for rubber hunters, but later when the Indians who had killed them learned that the missionaries had come to help and not harm them they became quite friendly. The Indians secured fish from the rivers and did a certain amount of cultivating. They could make and cure food in a.remarkable way but did not keep large stores. When a district was stripped of food they moved to another area. Their standards were low according to European values, but they had many good qualities. They had definite tribal laws and these were rigidly adhered to by the jungle Indians. It was only when they came in contact with the coastal civilisation that their own laws were disregarded and* too often, replaced by degradation. THE THREE FREDS. The missionaries who were murdered while exploring one of the tributaries of the Amazon were Messrs. Fred Roberts, Fred Wright, and Fred Dawson. They were known by the Brazilian missionaries as "the three Freds." The remains of their. motor launch were found and the search party sent out to find them discovered a Portuguese woman captive among the Indians. She had been captured eleven years before and had been shamefully treated by her captors. She had learned the language and was able to help the missionaries make contact with the tribe, members of which later said they had killed the three men because they thought they were rubber hunters who would shoot them. The killing of Europeans by the Indians appeared to be generally a form of retaliation, Mr. Story said. They did not always kill the Europeans discovered in their country andj there were many cases of men who had been taken captive. Several workers on the telegraph lines through the jungle had been captured in that way. NO ORGANISED RELIGION. The Indians had no organised religion. They believed in spirits and when they were shown a photograph of the three men they had killed they thought it was their spirits; They held organised social dances. These were generally illustrative of incidents in the life of the tribe but there were also war dances. They also held meetings on -moonlit nights when they beat drums and sang songs to the spirits of birds, animals, and of inanimate things. This belief in spirits helped the missionaries to teach them that a Great Spirit was above all the other spirits actuating the life of the jungle. The dangers of the jungle were not confined to the Indians who had been harmed by hunters. The rivers swarmed with alligators and man-eating fish and the jungle was alive with reptiles and stinging insects. In general it was a most unhealthy country for Europeans and the mortality rate was also high among the Indians. Every missionary had to be a doctor of sorts and a large part of their time was, occupied in tending the sick Indians. Although the results of their work were slow to show, good progress was beginning to be made and tribes were being persuaded to lead a better life.