Children of South America

By Katharine A. Hodge

This book was written based on the experiences of Christian missionaries who visited various parts of South American countries from the coastlines of Peru to the rainforests of Brazil. The author, Katharine A. Hodge, specifically focused on highlighting the cultures and daily habits of children in the region.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sharp Ink
• Release date: Jun 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9788028207915

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Katharine A. Hodge

Children of South America

Sharp Ink Publishing

2022

Contact: [e-mail]

ISBN 978-80-282-0791-5

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD

CHAPTER I A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT

CHAPTER II BRAZILIAN BROWNIES

CHAPTER III BLOSSOM BABIES

CHAPTER IV PARAGUAYAN PICCANINNIES

CHAPTER V ARGENTINE ALL-SORTS

CHAPTER VI DIMINUTIVE DWELLERS IN THE LAND OF FIRE

CHAPTER VII CHILIAN CHILDREN

CHAPTER VIII BOLIVIAN BAIRNS

CHAPTER IX PEARLS OF PERU

INTRODUCTION

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By the Rev. Alan Ewbank

Secretary of the South American Missionary Society

I have

read through with great interest the manuscript of this little book, and can say of those parts of South America which it has been my privilege to visit that Mrs Hodge writes as one who has personal knowledge of the various mission stations. I trust that her words will not only reach the children, but also all who love children, that what little is being done to make their lot brighter may be strengthened, and much more undertaken, so that where now there are superstition and darkness there may be knowledge and light.

For the natural world, God said: "Let there be light, and there was light."

For the spiritual world, Jesus said: I am the Light; and because He meant to work through us, He also said: "

Ye

are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

November 1915

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FOREWORD

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My dear Young Friends

,

This little book has been written expressly for you, to whom South America is an entirely new field. On this account I feel it is necessary to devote Chapter I. to the continent itself before proceeding to acquaint you with its youthful inhabitants.

I tender my grateful thanks to the South American Missionary Society, the Evangelical Union of South America, the Inland-South America Missionary Union, and the Bolivian Indian Mission for the help their publications have afforded me in trying to place before you something of the sorrows and intense need of South American childhood.

Yours, for South America,

(

Mrs

) KATHARINE A. HODGE

November 1915

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CHILDREN OF

SOUTH AMERICA

CHAPTER I

A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT

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South America

is a tremendous continent in the Western Hemisphere, and occupies one-eighth of the land surface of the world.

By looking at this chart you will get some little idea as to the size of it, by comparing it with other countries. South America, you will therefore see, is twice the size of Europe, three times the size of China, four times the size of India, and sixty times the size of our British Isles.

From Panama, at the extreme north, to the furthest southern point of Tierra-del-Fuego (the Land of Fire), it is about 4700 miles in length, and it is 3000 miles from east to west.

South America (leaving out the three northern Guianas) is divided up into eleven countries, or rather republics, each republic being under its own president.

The names of the republics are:—

Everything in South America is on a large scale—rivers, forests, mountains, and plains. There is the mighty River Amazon, with its many tributaries, flowing through Northern Peru and Brazil; the Orinoco, in Venezuela; the Araguaya, in Brazil; and the River Plate, which runs through the Republic of Argentina.

AN AMAZONIAN CREEK

I hope you will study a map as we go along. If you look on the western side of the continent you will see a long range of mountains, called the Andes, tipped with sleeping volcanic fires on some, and capped by perpetual snow on others. Nestling away up among these rugged peaks is the highest body of water in the world, called Lake Titicaca, on which float the rush-boats of the Inca Indians, the silent and down-trodden Children of the Sun.

How vast China seems; and India, too, how big! Africa we feel we know very little about as yet, in spite of Livingstone and all the books that have been written; but here is South America—so neglected, and so large, that there is more unexplored territory there than in any other part of the world.

Not only so, but the continent is teeming with treasure. Diamonds and gold are hidden away in the earth in Brazil and Peru. Bolivia is a vast storehouse of silver and tin and coal. Petroleum and fertilizing nitrates for cleansing the soil are to be found in Chili. The forests of Peru and Brazil spell rubber—black gold it is called by the natives. Chinchona trees flourish in abundance in Peru; also cocaine, which the Indians chew from morning till night, to deaden their sufferings, and their hunger.

Although South America is so large, there are, roughly speaking, only about fifty million people living in it, but the population increases every year through immigrants of all nations pouring into the continent.

Five hundred years ago, South America was the Indian’s land. In the heart of the continent dwelt the savages, but Peru was the home of the highly-civilized Inca race. To the north lived an Indian people called the Chibchas, who came next in culture; and south, in Chili and Argentina, were the Araucanian Indians, who were not so cultured as the Incas or Chibchas, but who, notwithstanding, were a powerful people.

About five hundred years ago the Pope, in his arrogance, gave South America to the two Roman Catholic countries of Spain and Portugal. It was a dark day for that land when the Portuguese adventurers and their priests went to Brazil, and Pizarro and his Spanish followers to Peru, the home of the cruel Inquisition.

From that day onward slavery, ill-treatment, and cruel deaths have been the lot of the Indians. La Casas, a Roman Catholic official, more humane than his brethren, was so concerned at the lot of the Indians in Brazil that he suggested that Africans should be brought to help the Indians in the gold mines, and they too suffered from the hands of the merciless Portuguese. Hence, to-day, we see in Brazil the negroes (of whom there are said to be some four millions), the Indians, and the Portuguese-speaking people of many nations, comprising about twenty millions.

In Central and Southern Argentina the population is chiefly European. Buenos Aires, the capital, is largely Italian, though a very large number of British folk are living there. In Peru nearly three-fourths of the people are pure Indian, and Bolivia is mostly Indian as well.

For five long centuries this has indeed been the Land of Darkness and of the Christless Cross. Two thousand years ago, nearly, Christ said to the Apostle Peter: Feed My lambs. What have the so-called followers of Peter done for the Lambs of South America? Let us see.

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CHAPTER II

BRAZILIAN BROWNIES

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