A colporteur, known to me, when engaged selling Bibles in a Brazilian
town, reports that the fanatical populace got his books and carried
them, fastened and burning, at the end of blazing torches, while they
tramped the streets, yelling: "Away with all false books!" "Away with
the religion of the devils!" A recent Papal bull reads: "Bible
burnings are most Catholic demonstrations."
Is it cause for wonder that the Spanish-American Republics have been
so backward?
I have seen a notice headed "SAVIOUR OF SOULS," making known the fact
that at a certain address a Most Holy Reverend Father would be in
attendance during certain hours, willing to save the soul of any and
every applicant on payment of so much. That revelation which tells of
a Saviour without money or price is denied them.
Corumba is a strange, lawless place, where the ragged, barefooted
night policeman inspires more terror in the law-abiding than the
professional prowler. The former has a sharp sword, which glitters as
he threatens, and the latter has often a kind heart, and only asks
"mil reis" (about thirty cents).
How can a town be governed properly when its capital is three
thousand miles distant, and the only open route thither is, by river
and sea, a month's journey? Perhaps the day is not far distant when
Cuyaba, the most central city of South America, and larger than
Corumba, lying hundreds of miles further up the river, will set up a
head of its own to rule, or misrule, the province.
![Through Five Republics On Horseback Being An Account Of Many Wanderings In South America By G. Whitfield Ray
- - Cheers raised spontaneously by
the Catholic people. [Footnote: Literal translation from the
Portuguese.]
A colporteur, known to me, when engaged - Page 259](../images/travel.jpg)
