Robuchon and Whiffen In July 1903,
Eugène Robuchon met Julio Cesar Arana in Iquitos, who hired Robuchon to map out his rubber territories in the Putumayo. Eugène was a French professional explorer who travelled to South America with the hopes of producing
ethnographic,
zoological, and
botanical documents, including photographs. In a letter to his father, Eugène wrote that Arana had "shown great kindness" to him and his family. During his time mapping the territory, Robuchon collected a number of artefacts and took many photographs. In August 1905, Robuchon sent his wife and family back to France while he continued his work. Around 14 November, Robuchon descended on a long overland journey to the
Caqueta river. From there, he planned to take a canoe to another tributary. It was on this part of the journey, near El Retiro, that Eugène Robuchon disappeared; he had recently turned thirty-three years old. It took thirty-seven days before a search party reached Eugène's last known location, however, the explorer was nowhere to be found. Rumors emerged that Robuchon was murdered and disappeared because he had witnessed and photographed atrocities within the Putumayo. Representatives of the Peruvian Amazon Company claimed he was killed by the local natives and possibly eaten. The two native guides who were apparently with Eugène also disappeared and were not heard from again. Robuchon's notes and manuscript appeared in 1907 under the name
En el Putumayo y sus afluentes, edited and published by
Carlos Rey de Castro, a friend of Julio C. Arana. Rey de Castro's editing process aimed to portray the newly founded company as a "civilizing force". Several paragraphs were removed from the Spanish copy of the book that would be used as the Peruvian Amazon Company's prospectus. One paragraph removed from Robuchon's original manuscript referred to the natives' feelings regarding their exploitation. "The Indians care nothing for the preservation of their rubber trees, and rather desire their destruction ... they think that the whites who have come into their dominions in quest of this valuable plant will go away when it has disappeared ... With this idea, they regard with favor the disappearance of the rubber trees, which have been the cause of their reduction to slavery." Some of the photographs Robuchon took circulated around in Iquitos, generating rumours. Eventually, the photographs would be used in a newspaper as evidence of crime in the Putumayo. These images provided visual testimony to the abuses and atrocities occurring during the Putumayo genocide. Captain
Thomas William Whiffen ventured to the Putumayo region in April 1908, with one of the main intentions of his trip being to solve the disappearance of Robuchon. Whiffen was a British military officer who had been wounded during the
Boer War. This injury allowed Whiffen to travel to the Putumayo while still in service. Near the end of October 1908, Whiffen and his expedition found the remains of a deserted shelter, which John Brown confirmed as Robuchon's last camp. John Brown originally accompanied Robuchon on his trip as well but left Eugène to find help for the French explorer. Eight "broken photograph plates" were unearthed along with an
eyepiece of a sextant. A wrecked raft was also found that Brown confirmed to be Robuchon's, but the raft had no clues. Whiffen and his group returned to La Chorrera on 22 February 1909, with the disappearance of Robuchon still unsolved. Whiffen concluded that Eugène probably died in March or April 1906. Whiffen was tracked down by the British Foreign Office in 1909, who requested the captain to send a report of his experiences. Thomas Whiffen explained that he had passed through the Putumayo region twice in the previous year. The first time, the company knew about his movements in advance, and Whiffen believed that the company removed any evidence of abuses. He thought "prisoners were liberated, floggings ceased, and outwardly affairs assumed a peaceful and humane aspect." On the second journey through the region, he discovered "Hidden in the forest beyond the houses, stocks and whipping posts." In the same report, Whiffen included a first-hand account from John Brown. In one incident, Brown relayed when two plantation managers had a
tribal chief in custody at Morelia. The managers had a shooting competition, where they tried to shoot the chief's genitals. Afterwards, the native was "despatched according to the ordinary method". Referring to the rubber collecting system in the region, Whiffen stated it was "absolutely that of forced labor with its necessary and attendant evils". Whiffen also provided some information about the political situation in the region. He believed that the company was in control of the region, with "no effective administration or occupation by the Peruvian Government". Whiffen also stated his belief that the commissario of the Central Government at Lima, as well as the few Peruvian soldiers in the region were "secretly the paid servants of the company". Another revelation provided in his report was that many of the atrocities were committed by natives, against the natives under the command of company employees. According to Whiffen, the company 'took on' and armed native youths of a tribe, who would then be used against another rival tribe, "thus putting them perhaps at the mercy of their hereditary enemies". These young natives who were forced to act as the enforcers of the company were at risk of losing their own lives if they were not obedient and did not carry out instructions. Whiffen was later accused by the company of blackmail.
Saldaña Before he founded his newspaper publications, at the age of 43, Benjamin Saldaña Rocca petitioned a judge to proceed with criminal charges against 18 employees of J.C. Arana y Hermanos. The petition contained excerpts and details of the horrible acts of violence committed against the natives who collect rubber for the company. Saldaña urged the judge "as the bones of thousands of Indians who have been murdered lie scattered round the houses of the sections such as
Matanzas,
Ultimo Retiro,
La Sabana, Santa Catalina, San Victor and all the other dependencies of El Encanto and
La Chorrera. ... a visit of inspection [should] be undertaken as soon as possible, before the bones of the victims can be made to disappear." Saldaña Rocca only received silence from the courts. Two weeks later, on 22 August 1907, he published the first issue of his newspaper
La Sancion publicly attacking Arana. The paper had a variety of articles, covering local news, court reports, port movements, and in nearly every issue of the paper Saldaña published new revelations about Julio César Arana. He published the contents of the petition the courts ignored: and to corroborate, from the very beginning Saldaña included eyewitness accounts. These were firsthand accounts coming from ex-employees of Arana's company, detailing the coercive and abusive system: describing the torture, maiming, and killing of the enslaved natives. In the first issue of
La Sancion, Saldaña included a letter and firsthand account from
Julio Muriedas, detailing crimes at La Chorrera: and crimes committed at Matanzas by the manager
Armando Normand. Muriedas relayed that Normand applies 200 lashes or more when the enslaved natives don't arrive with the correct weight of rubber. When the natives flee, Normand suspends them by their hands and feet before applying fire. This torture is induced so that the children will tell where their fathers are hiding.
La Sancion was intended to run twice a week but soon became a daily publication. By that time, Saldaña Rocca founded a second publication named
La Felpa, which was four pages long and contained a political cartoon to make its point. The very first issue of La Felpa contained four different pictures titled "The Crimes of the Putumayo:
Flagellations, Mutilations, Tortures, and Target Practice," to describe how the natives were being treated. The last issue of Saldaña Rocca's newspaper came out on 22 February 1908, just three weeks after Hardenburg arrived in Iquitos. The local authorities at Iquitos raided Saldaña's printing store and destroyed some of the equipment before escorting Saldaña out of the city.
Hardenburg Walter Ernest Hardenburg and
Walter Perkins were two American engineers who journeyed to the Putumayo region between 1907 and 1908. They previously worked on the
Colombian Pacific Railroad, and were on their way to Bolivia to work on the
Madeira-Mamoré Railroad which was designed to connect northern Bolivia to Brazil. They decided to cross the Andes and descend into Amazonia as part of their journey. They met Colombian General
Pablo Monroy, stationed in
Pasto, who had information about the Putumayo river. He warned them it was dangerous, informing them that Colombia and Peru had recently entered a
modus vivendi to pull back garrisons and military authorities from the region. The General believed that the Peruvians were not adhering to the agreement. Monroy also told them that they could travel on a launch from
El Encanto, 500 miles down river, to Iquitos. From there he could continue on his journey as well as save weeks of effort. They loaded up on supplies and travelled 150 miles over rough terrain before reaching a navigable point in the Putumayo river. On 22 December 1907, they met Jesús López, a Colombian rubber tapper who provided further insight into the political situation. He informed the pair that the Peruvians were harassing and violently expelling Colombian settlers. He added that these actions were being carried out by the Peruvian military, under the command of the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company. López believed that the company's goal was to acquire all Colombian concessions by any means necessary. Years ago, there were dozens of Colombian rubber stations along the Putumayo, but by the time of Hardenburg's journey, only three remained. The rest had been absorbed or taken by force. López warned them not to take the boat from El Encanto and instead aim for
Remolino, a Colombian settlement five days further down the river. From Remolino, they proceeded to another Colombian settlement named La Reserva.
David Serrano owned La Reserva and agreed to help Walter sell his boat and buy anything he was willing to sell. While waiting for Perkins to arrive, Serrano told Walter about his experience with the Peruvian Amazon Company. A month earlier, employees of the company showed up at his establishment. He owed money to the branch manager at El Encanto,
Miguel S. Loayza, who used the debt as an excuse to send a 'commission' to rob Serrano. They chained David to a tree and raped his wife in front of him. After the employees ransacked the house and stole his rubber, they returned to the boat carrying away his wife as well as their small son. David later learned that his wife was forced to become a concubine to Miguel Loayza while their son was used as a personal servant for Miguel. The abuse against Serrano caught the attention of the Colombian government, which sent a police inspector named
Jesús Orjuela to investigate. Hardenburg decided to go with Orjuela to El Dorado, where Loayza was invited to take part in a diplomatic conference. El Dorado was the last Colombian rubber station downriver. On 12 January, a Peruvian gunboat named the
Iquitos and the
Liberal steamship docked at La Reserva with an unknown number of Peruvian soldiers. The
Liberal was a Peruvian Amazon Company steamship. The party was looking for David Serrano, who fled into the forest. They looted the place, taking away goods from the storehouse and almost two thousand kilos of rubber. La Reserva was the second stop on this excursion: previously, the soldiers attacked La Unión and massacred the Colombians there. La Reserva was burned to the ground and all the rubber brought aboard the ships. , owned by the Peruvian Amazon Company. In W. E. Hardenburg's book, he mentions that natives are frequently brought aboard the company's steamships to be sold as slaves in Iquitos. The two boats travelled downriver to El Encanto, and on the same day, 12 January, they intercepted the boat Orjuela and Hardenburg were on. The two had made several attempts to contact Miguel Loayza who never showed up to the meeting in El Dorado. Orjuela and Hardenburg were thrown onto the "Liberal" as captives, where Hardenburg was surprised to be reunited with Perkins. The ship continued on towards El Dorado, which they also destroyed. Upon arrival at El Encanto, Hardenburg protested his arrest, before being informed he would be allowed to leave to Iquitos when the "Liberal" was ready to sail. Due to their treatment, Hardenburg believed they were going to be murdered by the Peruvians. For their safety, Hardenburg and Perkins lied, stating that they worked for a large American company, so hurting them would have diplomatic consequences. Later, Hardenburg was sent on to Iquitos without Perkins and there he spent three months with no news about his companion. They were reunited on 22 April, with Perkins still wearing the same clothes he had on from their last encounter. Perkins recounted that he was held as a house prisoner by Loayza, who coerced him into signing a document stating he was being well treated. He also disclosed that the Peruvians later caught up with David Serrano when they returned to La Reserva again and torched the buildings. The soldiers bound the hands of David Serrano and 28 other men behind their backs before shooting them to death. "They not only shot them to death, but horribly mutilated their bodies with their machetes and threw them into the river." One day, four months into Hardenburg's stay in Iquitos, he was approached by
Miguel Galvez, whom he had never seen before. Galvez revealed that he was the son of
Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, a courageous newspaper owner who had recently fled from Iquitos and was now working in
Lima. Before departing the city, Saldaña had gathered all of his documents, which he entrusted to the mother of his son. At his father's urging, Miguel Galvez delivered them to Walter Hardenburg, believing that Hardenburg would continue to challenge Arana's actions. Hardenburg began gathering corroborating evidence to accompany the package of documents from Saldaña. He corresponded by letter, investigating the operations of the Peruvian Amazon Company. Hardenburg collected twenty testimonials from various individuals, all of whom swore to their authenticity before a notary in Iquitos. Recognizing the danger of remaining in Iquitos, he departed the city in 1909, carrying with him his book manuscript, the testimonials, and Saldaña Rocca's documents. Hardenburg travelled by boat from the Booth Steamship Company to Pará and eventually reached Liverpool. Despite their intentions, Hardenburg and Perkins never reached their original destination in Bolivia to work on the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. On 22 September 1909, a small London-based watchdog magazine named
Truth ran an article with the headline "The Devil's Paradise": A British-owned Congo," which detailed Hardenburg's experiences and the atrocities perpetrated in the Putumayo. The article sparked public outrage in England, revealing that a British-based company was profiting from a slave trade and appeared to be responsible for atrocities. In response to Hardenburg's allegations, the Peruvian Amazon Company ordered a five-man commission to investigate the region's "commercial prospects." The British Foreign Office seized this opportunity to send their own representative on the commission, selecting Roger Casement, who served as Consul-General for Britain in Brazil. Casement had previously investigated atrocities in the
Congo Free State, where
rubber was also harvested by forced labour. Years later, in 1912, Hardenburg released his book ''The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise''. He drew from his own personal experience in the Putumayo and other firsthand accounts to shed light on the company's operations. Among other atrocities, Hardenburg revealed that with every ship that left the Putumayo with rubber, five to fifteen native boys and girls were also transported to Iquitos. There, in the capital of the
Department of Loreto. Hardenburg concluded his book with the following statement: "to relate all the crimes and infamies committed in this tragic region by this company and its employees in its almost incredible persecution and exploitation of the Indians, would prove an interminable task, so many are the crimes committed in this devil's paradise." Among other cruelties, Hardenburg, Saldaña, and the ex-employees of the company, implicated the company with crimes such as: kidnapping and engaging in slave trade, forced concubinage, the murder of native men, women, and children, as well as Colombians, burning people alive, dismemberment, torture, cruel and unusual punishments, starving the natives to death, as well as other illegal acts. Hardenburg compared the company's actions to the Congo atrocities, mentioning a similar system of terror. Outlining the actions of the Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putumayo, he states: ==Casement Report==