Library of The Theological Seminary PRINCETON - NEW JERSEY Cb PRESENTED BY The Estate of Philip H. Waddell Smith BY 255. “WS3 19267 ¢ 21 Wheeler, W. Reginald 1889- BS To Modern missions in Chile ane Rrra a | me if . zt fe 3 In the same series: MODERN MISSIONS IN MEXICO W. REGINALD WHEELER, Dwicut H. Day, James B. RopceErs, published in May, 1925. MODERN MISSIONS ON THE SPANISH MAIN Impressions of Protestant Work in Colombia and Venezuela W. REGINALD WHEELER, WessTER EK. Browninc, published in June, 1925. Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/modernmissionsinOOwhee ‘(7Le ‘d) . poyuesatdat o10M suoTyezIURS.10 pur SUOIPVUILIOUIP OE PUB SUOTJeU gT ,, “ROLLOULY YNOG UL YOM UPIYSLIY) UO SsotBU0) VY} JY SALOPISTA pUR Sa}VSII[ep ETE ay} JO oulog SSOUO NUYAHLOAOS AHL UAACNOA SSHYDNOO IVLNGANILNOO Y MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE AND BRAZIL BY W. REGINALD ‘WHEELER ROBERT GARDNER McGREGOR MARIA McILVAINE GILLMORE ANN TOWNSEND REID Members of a Commission Appointed to Visit Chile and Brazil by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. AND ROBERT E. SPEER Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Chairman of the Committee on Codp- eration in Latin America ILLUSTRATED PHILADELPHIA THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 1926 Copyricut, 1926, By W. REGINALD WHEELER PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . .W. R. Wheeler Part I CHILE CHAPTER I. Down tHe West Coast or SoutrH AMERICA R. G. McGregor II. Across ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES TO CHILE W. R. Wheeler III. First Impressions or Cuite W. R. Wheeler IV. Tue Gospet In THE Nitrate MINES AND ON THE Pampas oF NorRTHERN CHILE R. G. McGregor V. Curico anp THE CENTRAL VALLEY R. G. McGregor, M. MclI. Gillmore VI. Tue Cuurcu In CHILE AND A CHILEAN NIco- DEMUS . R. G. McGregor VII. Some Cuitean Memories . . Ann T. Reid VIII. Vauparaiso, THE “ VALE oF PARADISE ” W. R. Wheeler IX. A Sunpay 1n Santiago . . R. E. Speer X. Tue Work or a Protestant MIssion IN THE CAPITAL OF CHILE . . W. R. Wheeler XI. Tue Work or a Protestant Mission IN THE CapiTaL oF CHILE (Continued) W. R. Wheeler XII. Aw Ovrurne History or Cute. J. H. McLean XIII. Some Sieniricant AsPrects oF THE History oF . F. E. Smith THE CHILE MISSION . Vv PAGE xl 84 100 112 CONTENTS vi CHAPTER PAGE XIV. Some Sianiricant ASPECTS OF THE HiIsTorRY oF THE CuiLE Mission (Continued) F. E. Smith 132 XV. Epvucation IN CHILE . . W. E. Browning 152 XVI. Tue Apvance Program AND NEEDS OF THE Cute Mission . W. R. Wheeler 168 Part II BRAZIL I. Roxiiing Down To Rio . . W. R. Wheeler 173 Ii. First Impressions or Braziu W. R. Wheeler 181 III. Some Guimpses or THE PrrsBYTERIAN CHURCH in Rio anp Sao Pauto . . W. R. Wheeler 188 IV. On tue Roap to Cuyasa . R. G. McGregor 198 V. Own tHE Roapv to Cuyasa (Continued) R. G. McGregor 211 VI. Cuyasa, a Mission Station 1n Marto Grosso, THE “ Great WILDERNESS ” R. G. McGregor 222 VII. Curitrysa anp Ponta Grossa M. MclI. Gillmore 230 VIII. Guimpses or Goyaz . . M. Mel. Gillmore 236 IX. Macxenziz Couuece . . W. R. Wheeler 246 X. Up rue Lapper or Laritupe From BueENos Arres To Bania . . W. R. Wheeler 258 XI. From Banta to Ponte Nova By STEAMER, Ratt, Motor, anp Mute . W. R. Wheeler 266 XII. Muues, Mounrains, anp MIrAc ies M. Mel. Gillmore 288 XIII. Ponte Nova anp tHE Work oF A PROTESTANT Mission IN TROPICAL BRAZIL W.R. Wheeler 298 XIV. Bauza, Rio, anp New York . W. R. Wheeler 311 XV. An Ovruine History or Braziv W. A. Waddell 322 CONTENTS Vii CHAPTER PAGE XVI. Husrory or THE Brazit Missions W. A. Waddell 835 XVII. Epucation In Brazin... . W. 01/2" 0000 2, INTRODUCTION HIS volume is an outgrowth of a seven months’ visit to Presbyterian and Protestant Missions in Chile and Brazil, and of attendance at the Congress on Christian Work in South America, held in Montevideo, Uruguay, March 29 to April 9, 1925. The Commission, or Deputation, which made this visit and prepared this book was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., and was composed of Rev. Robert Gardner McGregor, D.D., Pastor of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church, New Ro- chelle, New York, a member of the Foreign Board; Mrs. Henry v. K. Gillmore, President of the Missionary Society of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, also a mem- ber of the Foreign Board; Miss Ann T. Reid, Candidate Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; and Rev. W. Reginald Whee- ler, Executive Secretary for the Latin American Missions of the Foreign Board. Dr. Robert E. Speer, Secretary of the Presbyterian Foreign Board, and Chairman of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, who had acted also as Chairman of the Committee on Arrangements for the Congress on Christian Work in South America, was present at the Congress and the re- Xl xii INTRODUCTION gional conferences in Brazil and Chile, and has written the concluding chapters of this book which deal with the Congress and with some general mis- sionary problems in South America. The presence of Mrs. D. J. Fleming, a member of the Foreign Board, of Mrs. Robert E. Speer, and of Mrs. James 8S. Cushman, who attended the Montevideo Congress and the regional conferences, added much to the value of these meetings and to the happiness of the members and delegates of the Presbyterian Church present at these gatherings. Three members of the Commission, Dr. Mc- Gregor, Mrs. Gillmore, and Miss Reid, sailed from New York, November 13, 1924, on the S.S. Santa Teresa of the Grace Line, and reached Antofa- gasta, Chile, on December 1, and Valparaiso on December 3. Dr. McGregor disembarked at the former port and spent a week traveling through the nitrate section of northern Chile. During December the Commission visited the work of the Mission in the cities of Valparaiso, Santiago, Concepcion, and Curico, and the Central Valley; met with the Mission in its Annual Meeting, January 7-16, and with the Presbytery of Chile, January 12-17, and left for Brazil, via the Andes, on January 16. ‘They went from Buenos Aires up the east coast and attended the meeting of the South Brazil Mission held at Castro from January 27 to February 6. After the meeting the deputation separated, Dr. McGregor making the long trip inland to Cuyaba, near the headwaters of the “‘ River of Doubt,” now named Rio Teodoro INTRODUCTION xiii Roosevelt in honor of President Roosevelt, in Matto Grosso, where he spent eight days, the entire expedition consuming more than a month; Mrs. Gilmore going to Goyaz, also in the interior, east of Cuyaba; and Miss Reid visiting various Stations in South Brazil. Dr. McGregor is the first and only representa- tive of the Board and of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, excepting the missionaries themselves, to visit Cuyaba; similarly, Mrs. Gill- more is the first North American Presbyterian, except the resident missionaries, to visit Goyaz. Mrs. Gillmore is also the only woman from New York who has ever taken the overland route by mule to Ponte Nova. The delegation thus saw more of interior Brazil than any other representa- tives of the Foreign Board have done, and the missionaries appreciated their willingness to endure the hardships and discomforts of travel through the Brazilian hinterland. The Commission went to Rio for the Regional Conference there, held March 13-15, and then via Sao Paulo to Montevideo to attend the Congress on Christian Work in South America held there March 29 to April 8. In company with a number of delegates bound for the Montevideo Congress, Dr. Speer and Mr. Wheeler sailed from New York on the S.S. Southern Cross of the Munson Line, February 28, attended the Regional Conference in Rio, March 13-15, had three days in Sao Paulo, March 18-21, and reached Montevideo, March 24. xiv INTRODUCTION After the Congress adjourned on April 8, Dr. McGregor and Miss Reid sailed for New York City on the S.S. American Legion, arriving in New York on April 27. Dr. Speer and Mr. Wheeler went to Buenos Aires to attend the Regional Con- ference held there. Mr. Wheeler left Buenos Aires, April 12, by the Transandean Railway, for Chile, Dr. Speer following him on April 15. They met with the Chile Mission at a Special Meeting, April 17-21. Dr. Speer attended the Regional Conference in Santiago, held April 21-26, and sailed from Valparaiso on the S.S. Santa Elisa of the Grace Line on April 29, arriving in New York, May 18. Mr. Wheeler left Chile, April 21, recrossed the Andes and Argentina, sailed from Buenos Aires on the twenty-third, and went up the east coast on the 8.S. Pan America of the Munson Line, and the S8.S. Zeelandia of the Royal Holland Lloyd, arriving in Bahia, May 1, where Mrs. Gill- more had preceded him, having reached that port from Montevideo on April 16. In company with the Bahia missionaries, Mrs. Gillmore made the trip by train and mule to Ponte Nova, where she arrived April 29. Mr. Wheeler reached Ponte Nova, May 8. Mrs. Gillmore and he attended the Special Meeting of the Central Brazil Mission, May 11-15, and then left Ponte Nova, May 16, for the overland trip to Bahia, where they arrived on the twenty-first. They sailed from Bahia for Rio on May 28, on the S.S. Orania of the Royal Holland Lloyd, reached Rio, May 30, and sailed for New York, June 10, INTRODUCTION XV on the $.S. American Legion of the Munson Line, arriving again in the United States on June 22. The cost to the Foreign Board of the deputa- tion’s trip’ was lessened by the payment of Miss Reid’s travel expenses by the Sage Legacy Com- mittee, and through Mrs. Gillmore’s generously meeting a large proportion of her own expenses. Much of the material in this book was prepared on the field, the chapters written in South America having been left practically unchanged. The authorship of the various chapters is indicated by the initials of the writers. This volume is the third in a series dealing with the Latin American Missions of the Presbyterian Church, the other two books being entitled Modern Missions in Mexico and Modern Missions on the Spanish Main. Where property and equipment are mentioned, with suggestions as to additional items needed, the fact should be kept clear that the views presented are those of the Commission, and do not necessarily represent the most recent actions of Missions and Board. ‘These latter are, of course, the only actions that are “ official,’ and they should be secured by individuals who are interested in such matters. The Commission desires to thank the members of the Missions in Chile and Brazil for their help and guidance in the preparation of this book; especially are they indebted to Rev. J. H. McLean, of Chile, for Chapter XII, “ An Outline History of Chile”; to Miss Florence EK. Smith of Chile, Xvi INTRODUCTION for writing Chapters XIII and XIV, on “ Some Significant Aspects of the History of the Chile Mission,” which include translations of material never before published; to Rev. Webster EK. Brown- ing, Litt. D., of Montevideo, for preparing Chap- ter XV on “ Education in Chile”; to W. A. Waddell, D.D., of Brazil, for the preparation of Chapters XV, XVI and XVII in Part II, “An Outline History of Brazil,’ “ History of the Brazil Missions,” and “ Education in Brazil,” which contain original material of value; and to Miss Augustine Schafer and Miss Mabel V. Schluter, of New York, for their services in pre- paring the manuscript for the publisher and for helping to see the volume through the press. This book is published by 'The Westminster Press for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- sions, and the Commission desire to thank the Press for their many courtesies in its production, and also the generous friends whose financial help has made possible its publication at reduced cost both to the Press and to the Foreign Board. The Commission returned to the United States with the clear and abiding impression of the mirac- ulous accomplishments of the churches in Chile and in Brazil, of the vast needs still to be met, and of the brave and true spirit of the missionaries in both these lands. In Brazil, the Presbyterian communicants total over 30,000; the Brazilian Presbyterian Church is two thirds the size of the Presbyterian Church in China, and second in size only to the Presbyterian INTRODUCTION Xvii Churches in China, Korea and Africa. But in no land is the Church more firmly rooted and strong in its spirit of self-direction and self-support. ‘The Presbyterian Church of the United States invests approximately $60,000 annually in the support of its missionaries and contributes less than $10,000 a year toward the work of the Brazilian Churches; the Presbyterian Churches of Brazil in 1923 con- tributed more than $240,000 toward their own work. In Brazil, there is a “ self-supporting, self- governing, and _ self-propagating Church,” and there are individuals now living who have seen the beginning of its life, and have watched its growth in prestige and in power. Despite the progress made, there is yet a vast unoccupied area on the continent and there are certain classes and groups not yet reached. The Protestant movement has followed in general the coast line; there is a vast region, equaling four fifths of the area of South America and totaling about 6,000,000 square miles, in which there are “wide ranges untouched vitally by Christian agencies.” “'This continent within a continent equals more than a third of all Asia, more than a half of all Africa. This constitutes for evangelical Christianity the largest geographical expanse of unworked territory to be found on the face of the earth.” Our Missions share responsibility for a part of this unworked territory. ‘The interior of the great states of Matto Grosso and Goyaz, the Taboleiro in Bahia, the Central Valley of Chile, all call for occupation and evangelization, and this xviii ‘INTRODUCTION generation will not see the end of the work of the Protestant pathfinder and pioneer. A final impression is that of the courage and consecration, the truly divine spirit of unselfish and loving service, of the missionaries in these southern lands. ‘The work has been built upon nothing less than their living sacrifice, blessed by the Spirit of the living God. They are men and women the latchets of whose shoes the members of the home Church and the secretaries of the Boards are hardly worthy to unloose; in their service and support the Church is offered an opportunity to enter into “ an inheritance uncorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” W. RecinaL>D WHEELER 156 Firra AVENUE New York Criry Aveust 5, 1925 PART I CHILE : | be . be : ; wes t areas - “a ae eb st 8 : Pavan anal tene bees | " id fy \y it r ’ hy , ¥ ‘af ' 4 1 4 wy ih ‘ ‘ uy 3 4 ‘ J . ‘ : : J \" DS, i ' ity AUER, SS Lt | Sasi) sy - a ‘. , ! } .' ’ ¥ | ™“, - . » 2 Ga | ' ¥ . ’ ! f , j A , bi ty Sy tee et , . i y d te i J y ete cee : } i * i, j ur : | Mt th my a st. haa i : , | He Watt Pie a - ’ 4) ania i) rey ce te) i CT pea) Rae } a age 1s iat ay eae Ava a M Ni 4 ak Bile | bf ; f OP i at ale iv | Rh ALESHA ON 8 Va Ai VP, TRA OMY oak CA | Dac tee ie ’ b nthe CHAPTER I DOWN THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA On Boarp S.S. Santa Teresa, Grace LINE, November 29, 1924 HREE members of the Commission of the Foreign Board to Chile and Brazil, Mrs. Gillmore, Miss Reid, and I sailed from New York November 13 on the steamship Santa Teresa of the Grace Line, and our journey has been a most pleasant one. A ship radiogram received on the nineteenth reported: ““ November 17 in New York City was the coldest on record; two persons were frozen to death; shipping having a hard time.” Our weather and experiences have been quite the opposite. The days have been uniformly bright and calm, the only excitement being when we have seen a ship or a porpoise or a flying fish in the distance. This is not a fast boat, only thirteen knots an hour; and it is not a large one, only 5,000 tons. On board are some eighty passengers, most of them business men returning from their vacations spent in England and the States. Since we left Panama we have been sailing down the coast of Ecuador and Peru, and now it is Chile. At noon to-day we shall make our first Chilean port, Arica, where we shall stay some four hours to unload freight, and perhaps we shall have a chance to go ashore, 3 4 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE We have made quite a number of these stops, four of them in Peru, which have added much to the length of the journey; but where shore landing has been permitted, the time has been invested in interesting sight-seeing. By far the largest place at which the boat has stopped is Callao, the seaport for Lima. Here we spent thirty-six hours, discharging some 3,000 tons of freight. ‘Twice we went into Lima, the second time with Mrs. McCornack, wife of Dr. A. E. McCornack, of the British American Hospital at Bellavista, as our guide. ‘This has been, by all means, the most interesting and profitable day we have spent so far. It began by our going direct to the hospital after breakfast. First we went through the hospital, learned of its history, and saw the wonderful work these splendid Christian people are doing. This hospital, which is supported by money given by the English and American resi- dents of Lima and Callao, is directed by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It 1s one of the few screened-in hospitals in South America and accom- modates fifty patients. ‘These good people are do- ing’a wonderful work and it was a joy to your deputation to meet them and see personally their work. Mrs. McCornack was our guide in Laima. There we visited the Cathedral, San Marcos, founded in 1551, the oldest university in this conti- nent, the Art Gallery, the City Market. Of course, on the street, one does not see a city. One must get behind the closed doors and see the family 2] SF i j ® i CARACAS 2 NEZUELAS Neher [ nh a gnosoTa f “{ ) es vo Sade makes \ H ape pea a . ts coLomBra\ \~ ¢ Ay "eron \ — \ meine. : ECUADORN, ; / Manaos ~~ ’ Am a> 2 Ri _——" Tquitos J %e iv $ 8 Aa Ayo" gS 38 Pernambuco | Pom Rope Bi: ER A T L, (Recife) -* = Pe 3 Mw id Jacobina, us Callao \ yt Ponte Nova 4 { : Bahia \ \ rf o Burity an Salvador) \ gtA PAZ Sa Sy Cuyaba Planalting Fae BO TEE Sta aah ha on Vi 5 Tacna yA wer Corumbé ve P iquique Tag ee ae 4 > Q ie] \ “1. ean : — S i ocopitla / & 6 : Ne & Ss 2 (8 Narg > <— sik a Se Cas, Sees Ze. ‘ - ; Pont ace tl - Taltdl Wasuncidn Oe ad cae: y t ot > ! a y C¢piapo Pe oN H/ OF aR 0 “% “Vallenar a 7 if? % & o i Bo Z \ | be ef Nn, Yu : ta del Inca (gee ~~ W od guerrendoza es j : — URUGUAY } = Cy Valparaiso 5 Rage © Sh (_ San Fernanfog ) hag SN La Constitucion ) = Cprico > pee e, 7 S Concepcion ) no a jes) BUE mm v MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA 1 4 INN—-— Strait of SEP SHOWING ROUTE OF THE COMMISSION ou ( : DOWN THE WEST COAST 5 life. Yet the avenue, street and alley give one a pretty good cross section of what the home, school and church are doing for the people. If this is so, with our American life —even the East Side of New York —as a standard, there is much to be done. Just now we are going down the Chilean coast, so near that we can see it very distinctly, and yet far enough out to see the snow-capped Andes towering up in the background. At noon we should arrive in Arica, remain there some four hours, then on to Iquique, then to Antofagasta on Monday, where I leave the boat for the nitrate fields, while the ladies go on to Valparaiso. All have kept wonderfully well, but we are anxious to begin the work to which these ocean days are but the necessary prelude, the doorway through which we are to enter upon what we all hope and pray will be a real contribution to the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. R. G. McG. CHAPTER II ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES TO CHILE HREE members of the Commission reached Chile in November; Dr. Speer and I arrived there in April. Dr. McGregor has written of the approach to Chile by sea from the West; this letter will tell of the journey to Chile from the East across Argentina and the Andes." ‘The trip across South America offers interesting compari- sons with that across North America. In both, a whole continent is crossed; in both, the railway terminals are in important cities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts: in the North, New York and San Francisco, New York being the largest city on that continent; in the South Buenos Aires and Valparaiso, the first named being the chief city of South America. In both, the traveler traverses wide plains and high mountain ranges and looks upon scenery of the most striking and diverse character and beauty. The contrast between the two routes is also in- teresting. I had crossed the United States just two months before, from California to New York, and the experiences of the trip offered a fresh basis for comparison. ‘The northern route is of course 1 Chronologically this chapter belongs in a later part of the sec- tion on Chile, but for logical and geographical reasons it is placed here. 6 ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES 7 much longer, covering nearly 3,000 miles, while the southern journey from ocean to ocean is but 900 miles. ‘The former trip can be made in four days; the latter in two. ‘The plains of the Argentine are much wider and more extensive than those of our own Middle West; and the Andes are higher than the Rockies or the Sierras, the highest transandean point being 10,512 feet above sea level; the highest elevation on the Santa Fe, 7,600 feet. All the northern journey is made by broad-gauge lines, on “adhesion ’’; part of the southern is made on nar- row gauge on “rack and pinion,” the more nervous passengers, as I observed them when we were near the summit and the altitude began to be felt, appar- ently being on the rack and the engine on the pinion. The two most striking portions of the territory covered in the South American trip are the pampas and the Andes. From the time we left the subur- ban districts about Buenos Aires (so called because of a remark of one of the companions of Pedro de Mendoza, when their expedition landed in 1536 on the banks of the River Plate, and felt the fresh air that blew across the plains, so welcome after the foul air and congestion of their ships, “ How good the air is of this country!” “Que buenos aires son los de este suelo!”’), about ten o’clock on the morning of April 12, until we reached Men- doza early next morning, we rode over the vast, level, apparently unending, Argentinian plains. W. H. Hudson and Cunninghame Graham have painted revealing word pictures of them: “ We see 8 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE’ all around us a flat land, its horizon a perfect ring of misty blue colour where the crystal blue dome of the sky rests on the level green world. ... On all this visible earth are no fences, and no trees excepting those which have been planted at the old estancia houses, and these being far apart the groves and plantations look like small islands of trees, or mounds, blue in the distance, on the great pampa or plain.” * “On every side stretched the illimitable pampa, a sea of grass, grass and still more grass —a great green ocean that the wind swept over as it sweeps about the Horn. In it the man who ventured out and lost his way never re- turned, but wandering, till exhausted, he lay down to leave his bones beside some stream, haunted by flamingoes and Magellanic swans. Only on horse- back could it be safely traveled over by Europeans, and even then the risks were great.” * On this limitless green prairie we saw many ostriches (rheas) and countless droves of cattle and sheep and horses. Cunninghame Graham, who lived as a boy and young man in Argentina, has drawn an accurate and amusing picture, reminis- cent of our own frontier, of the “ Gauchos” or cowboys, who for such a long time were the only inhabitants of the pampas, men of mixed Indian and Spanish blood who lived a nomadic existence, following the shifting herd of cattle and wild horses: ‘Their lives were passed on horseback. On foot 1 Far Away and Long Ago, W. H. Hudson, p. 63. 2 The Conquest of the River Plate, R. G. B. Cunninghame Graham, p. 3. ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES 9 they waddled in their gait like alligators ashore, and many of them must have lived their lives, and never walked amile. ... Kew of them could read or write, and yet their address and carriage would have put to shame many of those born with far greater opportunities in towns. ‘Their speech was slow, their voices usually low-pitched, a circum- stance they owed most likely to their Indian blood and to their solitary lives. ... All of them were most hospitable, and gave the traveler all that they had to give, mate and meat, a welcome, and a fresh horse if the guest’s horse was tired. ... In all of them there was a vein of poetry, both in their ordinary speech and the rude rhymes they impro- vised to the guitar. ... “The Gaucho has joined the herds of wild brown cattle and the Baguales (wild horses), it may be in some T'rapacanda or another country where they still pass their lives more or less as they did when on the pampa, for well I know no Gaucho would give a bad ‘ boliviano’ for a heaven where he was forced to go afoot.” * The Gauchos are passing, as are the cowboys of the North, but the pampas and horses remain, and after a few hours crossing these prairies, we could readily understand where the Argentinian polo players had gained the skill and prowess so evident when they met the Meadowbrook Five and com- peted in the International Championships in the North two years ago. 1 The Conquest of the River Plate, Cunninghame Graham, pp. 295, 296. 10 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE Early on the morning of the thirteenth we reached Mendoza, about twenty-four hours from Buenos Aires, and situated at the foot of the east- ern slope of the Andes. ‘There we changed from the Internacional dormitorio and boarded the trans- andean train that was to carry us over the mountain ranges into Chile. Lord Bryce, writing of this line, points out that the tunnel through the Andes is at a greater height than either the Simplon or the Gothard, which pierce the Alps, and says: “ If any other trunk line of railroad in the world traverses a region so extraordinary, it has not yet been de- scribed. Until one is run from Kashmir to Kash- gar, over or under the Karakoram Pass, this An- dean line seems likely to hold the record.” * The story of the building of the railroad is a dramatic recital of continued battle against almost overwhelming odds, that lasted for over twenty years before the victory was won. Mendoza on the Argentinian side of the continental divide and Los Andes on the Chilean, both about 2,500 feet above sea level, are only seventy miles apart in a straight line, but the Andean range rises between to a height of nearly 13,000 feet at the Uspallata Pass, where the mule trail crossed, and the engi- neering problems involved in climbing the slope, tunneling the mountain wall, and protecting the line from avalanches and snow blockades were ex- traordinarily difficult. In the eighties it required four days of the hardest traveling by coach and on 1 South America: Observations and Impressions, Lord Byrce, p. 26170" ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES 11 mule back for travelers to go from Mendoza to Los Andes. In 1887 the Argentine Government began building a railroad from Mendoza; two years later the Chilean Government started its end of the line; in April, 1910, after many delays and inter- ruptions, the complete line was opened to traffic. The railroad between Mendoza and Los Andes is 155 miles in length: it climbs up to 10,512 feet where a tunnel penetrates the summit of the range. The maximum grade on adhesion is two and a half per cent: on the rack and pinion it is eight per cent. The line is narrow gauge, three feet three and three-eighths inches in width. The trip over the mountain requires about twelve hours, about seven hours on the Argentinian side and five on the Chilean, due to the more precipitous western slope of the Andes. ‘The chief problem, after the road was built, was to keep it open and clear of snow; in 1912 the line was blocked for 143 days; in 1919 for 160 days. But the snowsheds and tunnels have been improved and lengthened so that since 1919 there have been no serious interruptions in travel, even in the winter months. The scenery on the trip over the Andes is ex- traordinary because of its harsh and barren bleak- ness, the unusual coloring of the mountain slopes, and the height of the surrounding passes and peaks. When we reached Mendoza, the country looked much like that of Southern California, south of the San Bernardino range, but after an hour’s climbing we sighted the jagged, savage summits of 12 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE the Andes themselves, their blackness thrown into sharp relief by the dazzling snow banks piled high on their crests and drifting down valleys and ravines, and above by the sparkling sunshine and clear blue sky, fleeced by white clouds as if by the daintiest silk. “One felt at a glance that this is one of the great ranges of the world, just as one feels the great musician in the first few chords of a symphony.” * ‘The harshness and severity of the view continued and increased as we climbed, and had its culmination after we had emerged from the tunnel on the Chilean side, which is even more pre- cipitous than the Argentinian slope. At Portillo, 9,466 feet above sea level, lies the Lake of the Incas, that reminds one of the Tottenzee and other moun- tain lakes in Switzerland. But even on the Grim- sel the surroundings are not so harsh or forbidding as those near El Lago del Inca, and one agrees with the statement, “A scene more savage in its black desolation would be hard to imagine.” Near Mendoza the mountain slopes are serrated and fluted and are rich in varying tints and colors that change and shade into each other as the sun- light and angle of vision shift, so that the rocky walls appear luminous and lit by a hidden fire, as do the Painted Hills at the head of the Imperial Valley in California. But higher up the rocks and strata are actually of sharply contrasted hues, brown and red and yellow and blue, with black and gray lavas and tufa rock and long slopes of gravel 1 South America: Observations and Impressions, Lord Bryce, p. 253. THE LAKE OF THE INCAS IN THE ANDES OF CHILE THE ARGENTINIAN ANDES “One felt at a glance that this is one of the great ranges of the world, just as one feels the great musician in the first few chords of a symphony” (p. /2). ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES 13 and sand stretching down from the “ banded poly- chrome cliffs.” Not only is the transandean line the highest of the main trunk lines of the world, but it traverses mountain ranges and runs near mountains which are the highest on the American continent. As we mounted the valley of the Rio de los Cuevas through the Cordillera Principal, we saw on the left the snow-crowned crater of the volcano Tu- pungato, 21,450 feet in height, and just beyond Puente del Inca, 8,822 feet above sea level, where passengers stop over for the trip to the Christ of the Andes, we saw, revealed by a sharp-cut valley, the massive shoulder of Aconcagua, the highest peak in the western hemisphere, towering 23,300 feet above the sea. From the train window Acon- cagua looked much like the Jungfrau, a snow- covered wall rather than a peak, the shadow of the valleys contrasting with the white freshness of its crest and bolder promontories; clouds drifted about it and gave it an unreal and ethereal aspect; then the base of an intervening mountain blocked it from our view. Later we saw Aconcagua from near Valparaiso, when it rose, cone-shaped like Shasta or Fujiyama, on the far horizon; but from the valley of the Puente del Inca we had had a nearer and more intimate view. ‘That valley is about 9,000 feet above the sea, and Lord Bryce has emphasized the uniqueness of the sight of such a towering summit so near at hand: “ Only in the Himalayas and the Andes can one see a peak close at hand soar into air nearly fifteen thousand feet 14 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE above the eye, and I doubt if there be any other peak even in the Andes which rises so near and so grandly above the spectator.” We reached Los Andes at about eight on the evening of the thirteenth, changed to a train of broad gauge, and at eleven-thirty were at Val- paraiso, on the shores of the Pacific, forty hours after we had left the Atlantic at the mouth of the River Plate. At Santiago I parted company with Dr. Speer and other delegates who had come to Chile from Montevideo and started back to retrace my route up the Brazilian coast and to join Mrs. Gillmore in Ponte Nova. On the return trip I left Santiago alone on April 22 at five o’clock, stayed overnight with other trans- andean travelers at Los Andes, and after two days and a night arrived at Buenos Aires at seven o'clock on the twenty-third, having spent eight days in Chile and having made the transcontinental and transandean journey twice in twelve days. On our previous trip across the continent, we had left Buenos Aires on April 12, Easter Sun- day, because there was no other way by which the missionaries from Chile and I could reach Chile in time for our conference there. Sunday afternoon we held a little Easter service in one of our com- partments on the “ dormitorio.” ‘There were eight of us, representing several different Churches; a Methodist read the Scripture; a Presbyterian led in prayer; a Lutheran spoke briefly on Christ’s resurrection and what it should mean to us and to ACROSS ARGENTINA AND THE ANDES 15 the work of the Church in the lands we were trying to serve. The memory of another scene came to me: I thought of a similar service on the Santa Fe railroad in the United States, on Christmas Day, when Mrs. Wheeler and I and our two chil- dren were on our way to California. On that day we wondered if we could hear the words of the New Testament and the prayer because of the roar and distracting motion of the train. But when we began the service, the train came to a halt, our car being apparently in the center of a wide Kansas plain. The ground was white with snow and more snow fell silently as we read together of the coming of the Christ-child and the singing of the angels above the shepherds, and in the sudden silence of the train and the quiet of the snow- covered prairie the sacred words came to us with fresh beauty and force. So on the Internacional, six thousand miles south of the homeland, as we began our service, the train came to a stop and we listened in silence on those illimitable pampas of the Argentine to the record of the Master appearing to His startled and un- believing disciples, of His promise of new power and peace to all those who should follow Him, and of the new and final beatitude, “ Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” The spark of faith and hope and love lighted on that day has blazed ever brighter through the succeeding centuries, sending men and women across the seas and over plains and mountains more difficult and dangerous than the pampas and the Andes, and we 16 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE rejoiced that we could join with those who are seeking to know Him and the power of His resur- rection, and through that knowledge and power are trying to serve their fellow Americans and their fellow men. Wii RaW CHAPTER III FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CHILE HILE is generally approached either by steamer down the west coast of South Amer- ica or by rail across Argentina and the Andes. Dr. McGregor, Mrs. Gillmore, and Miss Reid fol- lowed the former route, first sighting the Chilean shores and mountains on November 29. Dr. Speer and I took the transandean express, as described in Chapter II, and entered Chilean territory in April. But our first impressions of the country, as we approached it from the sea and from the Andean sky line, were much the same, and these impressions will be given briefly in this chapter. The first impression that came to us was that of the diversity and beauty of the natural scenery of Chile. The deputation’s first glimpse of the coun- try was of the tawny, dusty plains of the nitrate section in the north, surmounted in the distance by the snow-covered Andes, the parched drought of the desert contrasting with the cooling snows and ice-fed streams of the far-away mountain range. At three o’clock on the afternoon of April 13 our party was surrounded by the bleak and savage peaks of the Andes: at eleven o’clock that night we were in the fertile, friendly Valley of Val- paraiso, with the curling waves of the Pacific stretching out before us. Waterless desert, snow- 7 18 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE covered mountains, barren rock, fertile fields, ocean shore: here indeed was diversity! And with that diversity was a rare and satisfying beauty of color and of line. We did not have the opportunity to visit the south of Chile, where, in the mountains near the Argentine border, is a series of beautiful lakes, Todos los Santos, Llanquihue, and others, that are said to equal the loveliness of any of the mountain waters of Canada or Switzer- land, but three of our delegation did see the rich Central Valley, the heart of Chile, and they agreed with the description of the region as “ fresh, dewy- bright, with the familiar sweetness of the temperate zones of western Europe, the great garden of South America, one of the most enchantingly lovely, the most frankly friendly regions in all the world.” The picture painted by L. E. Elliott of the bright- ness of the Chilean foliage is not overdone: “Chile is a land of brilliant hues. The dark waters, shouldered by tree-clothed mountains, of the Strait of Magellan, reflect yellow and russet leaf changes as bright as in the maple woods of Canada. Blue glaciers, pure snow heads, and the delicate green of fern brakes are contrasted with the crim- son of wild fuchsias and the mass of glorious bloom of apple, and cherry orchards. Farther north, where poplars stand like tall flames against the background of the hills in the Chilean autumn, and the willows line the rivers with gold, all is soft and glowing; but beyond the northern limits of vege- tation where nothing meets the eye but masses of orange mountains that seem like glowing draperies FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CHILE 19 hung against the unchanging blue sky, there is an extraordinary clarity of line and tint.” The second impression that came to us was of the peculiar formation of the country. Three of our delegation spent several days making the journey by boat and by train from the northern boundary of Chile south to its capital; I crossed the country from east to west, from the crest of the Andes to the shores of the Pacific, in seven hours. With a coast line, a length from north to south, of nearly 3,000 miles, Chile has an average breadth of only 90 miles. It would reach clear across our own continent from California to New York, but its average width would be only about that of the state of ‘Tennessee. Chile has been called the “ Shoe String Republic’; a more poetical description of the topography of the country is given by L. KE. Elliott, in her book, Chile, To-day and To-morrow: “Chile is a ribbon of a country, an emerald and gold strip stretched between the snow-crowned wall of the Andes and the blue waters of the Pacific. “This ribbon is uptilted all along its western edge to form the coastal range defending the long central valley. It is lightly creased transversely where, from east to west, streams fed with snow water drain down from the Andean peaks. Below the fortieth degree of south latitude the ribbon is twisted and ragged, with the tilted edge half sunk in stormy waters. ‘Thirty times as long as it is wide, Chilean territory runs from the seventeenth to the fifty-sixth degree of south latitude. “To the north lie the tawny and burning deserts 20 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE where not so much as a blade of grass grows with- out artificial help, where no rain falls, year after year, where every form of life is an alien thing. In the south are broken, rocky islands and inlets, with matted forests of evergreen trees with their feet in eternal swamps, a land of furious gales and cruel seas, where.turquoise glaciers creep into the dark fiords. Eastward stands the great barriers of the Andes, snow-covered for half the year, with proud peaks rising at least eight thousand feet higher than the head of Mont Blane. To the west, Chile looks out upon a waste of waters, with New Zealand as the nearest great country. “ Between the forbidding lands of the extreme north and far south and the frontiers of mountain and sea, lies fertile Chile — fruitful, gentle, brisk, well-watered.” We were impressed also by the homogeneity of the population. Shut in and isolated as the coun- try is by mountain walls and by the sea, with com- paratively little immigration, the Chileans have developed a uniformity of race and spirit that is rare in South America. The people to-day are mainly descendants of the original Spanish and Araucanian stock. In 1920 it was said there were only four African Negroes in the whole country; of the total population of approximately 4,000,000 (3,754,723) in 1920 only 140,000 were of “ for- eign” blood. It was interesting to find that people of three other countries, American, British, Ger- man, all spoke of the Chileans as having traits dis- tinctively American, British, and German, with FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CHILE 21 whom these other nationals felt peculiarly at home. Chileans are known as the Caucasians of South America, and they have a good name for steadiness, reasonableness, and industry. A final impression is that of the contrast between Chile and other South American lands, especially Brazil. On his first visit to Chile in 1909, Dr. Speer summarized the outstanding points in that contrast. He wrote: “On passing from Brazil to Chile one is im- pressed at once with the contrast which the two countries and peoples present. One les almost wholly within the tropics; the other almost wholly in the Temperate Zone. One is as wide as it is long, and the other is a thin strip one hundred miles or so broad, stretched along the coast for 2,500 miles. The area of Brazil in round numbers is 3,200,000 square miles, and of Chile 300,000, about one eleventh the size of Brazil. The wealth of Brazil is agricultural, while of the 750,000 square kilometers of Chile, only 20,000 are cultivated lands, 100,000 are semiarid, 200.000 forest, and 430,000 sterile. Yet Chile’s wealth is in these sterile lands, embracing 57 per cent of the terri- tory, for there are the great nitrate beds, and the varied mineral veins. In Brazil everything is spread out, expansive; in Chile, drawn in and compacted. Brazil is so large that it does not know itself. Distant provinces are like small inde- pendent governments. Chile is highly centralized, with all its activities focused in the capital and ordered by a small class of men. ‘The Brazilian is 22 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE placid and tranquil; the Chilean, energetic and enduring. ‘By reason or by force’ is the motto stamped on the Chilean coins. ‘ Progress and order’ are the words on the flag of Brazil. In Brazil the population is a composite mixture with a large immigration and a strong African element. In Chile it is largely homogeneous, with a negli- gible immigration and no Negro element whatever. The fundamental problems are closely akin in the two countries, but the contrasts serve to give an edge to facts.” Some of the distinctive facts of the service of our missionaries, as our Commission saw them during their visit to this unique land of Chile, are given in the chapters: that follow. W. R. W. CHAPTER IV THE GOSPEL IN THE NITRATE MINES AND ON THE PAMPAS OF NORTHERN CHILE Rica ADVENTURA, CHILE, December 4, 1924 UNDAY morning, November 30, bright and early, Rev. Robert B. Elmore, delegated the representative by the Chilean Mission to welcome us to Chile, came aboard the Santa Teresa at Iquique. I can and do assure you that he was most welcome because as we neared the end of our journey we were becoming increasingly aware of our short- coming and handicap in not knowing Spanish. But if we devoured him with our questions, he was equally guilty of the same offense — he devoured us. On Monday we made Antofagasta, my place of debarkation. ‘There we were met by Rev. D. R. Edwards and Rev. Irven Paul who had been work- ing their way up north by stages, visiting our churches in the Taltal field. ‘They, too, you may imagine, were most welcome, especially to me, since I was to visit some of our churches in the nitrate mines of North Chile and they were to be my guides and interpreters. | They brought to us on board the news that a twenty-four-hour strike of all kinds of labor had been declared for that day and that not a shop was open or would open. ALI six of us, Mrs. Gillmore 23 24 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE and Miss Reid and we four men, managed to get ashore. We found hundreds of men, well dressed and most quiet and orderly, in the streets and also scores of mounted soldiers and lancers moving up and down to keep the people from congregating. The ladies and Mr. Elmore returned to the ship for luncheon while Mr. Edwards and Mr. Paul and I went to the hotel, where we spent the night prior to getting a train the next morning for nitrate mine number one, Santa Isabel. We left Antofagasta at eight in the morning and arrived at ten-twenty in the evening —the notoriously quick time of fourteen hours and twenty minutes for 155 miles — an average of eleven miles an hour. This part of Chile has our western desert en- tirely surpassed. During all these hours and all these miles — excepting some solitary humans, donkeys, dogs, and goats — not a sign of life did we see — no grass, no trees, no brooks or rivers, no birds, no beasts, no reptiles! Sand and rock; rock and sand! But into this desert men have driven a railroad and established their oficinas because they have found rich deposits of nitrate and the world needs nitrate. And into this barren country has come our Church, the only Protestant Church in this part of Chile, with the gospel of Jesus Christ — and this part like all the rest of the world needs the gospel. Last night I attended and spoke at my first Spanish church service. In addition to Mr. Kd- wards and Mr. Paul there was the native pastor, Senor Rodriguez. ‘There were exactly forty men, THE GOSPEL IN THE NITRATE MINES 25 women and children crowded into the little build- ing supplied by the Nitrate Company free of charge for our work, while on the outside were probably as many more people who either could not or would not come in. It was impressive — every bit of the service. One new member was received into the Church and a little babe was baptized. Mr. Edwards is leaving this field for Valparaiso while Mr. Paul is coming up to take his place. So both of them spoke — one his valedictory and the other his commencement, while I had the privilege of bringing the greetings of the home Church, four thousand miles away, and of telling of the power of the gospel to save the world. This morning we spent in calling upon some of the people in their homes — thus trying to show them that our interest is more than skin-deep. At noon, after a hurried breakfast, we came by freight train to this oficina, seven miles away, to conduct a service to-night. At six to-morrow morning we leave by freight train for Tocopilla, sixty miles away, for a service there and then leave for Valparaiso, where we should arrive on the tenth. S. S. Rio Bueno, December 8, 1924 I came down from the pampas on Friday. ‘The pampas! What are they? They might be called the table-land up and back from the coast. To get to them, we left Antofagasta last Tuesday by rail- road, traveled 155 miles, grassless, treeless, water- 26 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE less miles, reached an elevation of 4300 feet, and got off at Toco-chico. It took us exactly fourteen and a half hours to travel the 155 miles, eleven miles an hour. ‘There we were met by a peculiar mule-drawn vehicle on narrow-gauge tracks, by means of which we reached the Santa Isabel Nitrate Mining Company’s headquarters. This is an English concern, and by its officers we were made most welcome and comfortable. ‘There are quite a number of these mining companies owned either by Englishmen or Germans. We held serv- ices in two, Santa Isabel and Rica Adventura, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The at- tendance at both was about forty persons, a little larger gathering perhaps than usual. ‘Thursday we spent in calling at the homes of some of the members, or in the mines on some of the men. That the work done by the missionaries counts for good was evidenced to me in several ways. In the homes, I seemed to see a little more self-respect, a little more cleanliness; in the mines I noted that a num- ber of the men held positions of responsibility, while Mr. Tomlinson, the manager of the Santa Isabel, told me that a great change for the better had been wrought in the mine since we had begun work there: there was less drunkenness, greater regularity in reporting for work, especially after a holiday or holyday. Formerly it was two or three days after the holyday before the men would re- port. Now they report immediately. Friday we left for Tocopilla where we have a church building, a manse, and an established native THE GOSPEL IN THE NITRATE MINES) 27 pastor. ‘That night we held service there. Again the attendance was about forty. Sunday morning I was invited by the manager of the American Power Plant to hold a service in his house, which I was glad to do; it was attended by people from both the American and English colonies. After dinner we went to the Sunday school of our Mis- sion, bade them good-by, and made for the boat, Rio Bueno, on which we are now bound for Valparaiso, where we should arrive Thursday morning. R. G. McG. CHAPTER V CURICO AND THE CENTRAL VALLEY CONSTITUCION, CHILE, December 23, 1924 URING the past two weeks we have had little or no time to do anything but get from place to place under the able and well-planned leadership of one or another of our missionaries. At times, in spite of the fact that we should think otherwise, we have looked upon these missionaries as enemies instead of friends. It is this way. Take, for ex- ample, Valparaiso. ‘These missionaries had made plans for every morning, afternoon, and evening for a week. This, of course, was all right — just as it should be; but when they had tired us out and no doubt themselves, too, they turned us over to a new and fresh set of missionaries who picked us up at this point, and started us pell-mell into a similar week in Santiago, while the Valparaiso missionaries retired from the scene to recuperate. Of course, we can understand it all, but whether or not we shall be able to stand up under it, is something which only time will tell. If you could see us now, after three most strenuous weeks, you would ask us, “What’s the matter?” and we should have to an- swer, “© Wounded in the house of our friends.” That we might recuperate a bit plans were made for one day’s rest in this beautiful place by the 28 CURICO AND THE CENTRAL VALLEY 29 sea. We arrived this noon from ~Talca and leave for Curico at seven-fifty-five to-morrow morn- ing. Christmas Day we expect to spend with the Hendersons in that place. ‘There will be, however, very little down here to remind us of the day. Santa Claus does not do much business down here in this Fourth of July climate. Yet, I am sure we shall join with all of our far-away friends in the Northland in worshiping the Christ in whose name we have been sent and whose gospel we seek to proclaim. In conclusion for this time, let me say for your deputation that these missionaries are simply wonderful men and women laboring in difficult places with a heroism that seems never to tire, always with a smile on their faces which seems to say: “ I’m glad I’m here and you could not get me to go elsewhere for the world. ‘This is my job and by the grace of God, I will do it to the very best of my ability.” ‘To us they have been the embodi- ment of thoughtfulness and kindness. They have caused our cup to run over at all times with grati- tude to God for their deep and abiding consecra- tion and friendship. R. G. McG. VALPARAISO, CHILE We are back in Valparaiso again after a delight- ful trip through the Central Valley, which is the country lying between the Coast Range and the Andes. ‘The more we see of Chile and its people, 30 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE the more we like it all. If South America does not like North America, certainly the people of Chile give no indication of it. They are cordiality itself. We started on this trip from Santiago, first with Mr. Henderson through his district, and then Mr. Spining took us over to go through his section and brought us back again here, where we have been attending first the Mission meeting and then pres- bytery. It is a continuous performance as you might imagine when these good people have been accumulating thoughts for fifteen years. They reckon time from Dr. Speer’s visit here fifteen years ago. The 1 impression we have of the country south of Santiago is that it is the garden spot of Chile. There is no drought there, so there is plenty of vegetation — wonderful trees and miles of wheat fields and vineyards. The latter are really a blot when one thinks what they mean, for liquor is cer- tainly the curse of Chile. It is a hard matter to fight, too, for we hear that many of the vineyards are owned by the Catholic Church which openly recommends the different kinds of wine. As so much of its revenue comes from liquor it will not do away with this income, even if alcohol does wreck the people. There is much intoxication, many drinking places, bottles being carted from one place to an- other, and consequent poverty. Members of our church are required to be total abstainers. If there is any lapse, they are dropped from the rolls until they can show a change of heart. ‘There is a tem- CURICO AND THE CENTRAL VALLEY . 31 perance society which is doing good work. Mrs. Garvin is an officer and untiring in her efforts. The impression we received of the mission work in the Central Valley is of a gallant staff of mis- sionaries and very inferior equipment. The churches without exception are miserable buildings to which only the very poor people care to go. They are too small, dingy, ugly, and generally un- attractive — not in the least representative of the Presbyterian Church; nothing but grace and a stern sense of duty would ever take anyone into them if there was any other place to go. We could never hope to compete with the big Catholic churches standing conspicuously on the town plaza but the buildings could at least be attractive-look- ing and clean. Of course it is a tribute to the work that so many of them are inadequate. Some had schools attached and more had not, both from lack of proper teachers and from lack of space. We think schools are very necessary both that the chil- ren of the evangelicals, as they are called to avoid the word Protestant, may have week-day religious instruction and because they are discriminated against in the schools where the teachers are Cath- olic. Back of that is the necessity for a larger training school to prepare the teachers and better salaries for them when they become teachers. They are paid an entirely inadequate salary now but we hope that will soon be changed. We spent Christmas morning in the prison in Curico. It was much too warm to seem like Christ- mas, being midsummer here, so going to a prison 32 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE Neen eee eee eee ee ee eee eee ee did not make it any less like Christmas. It is a most antiquated spot. The new warden, however, is a man with many ideas founded upon what he has heard and read of Thomas Mott Osborne. It was the first time a Protestant minister had ever been allowed in the prison. Mrs. Henderson asked per- mission to go with the national pastor and some of the church people to give the prisoners a Christ- mas service, and a meat pie and fruit afterwards. To her surprise the warden consented. ‘Then she told him she was going to have some guests from New York. That sounded very distinguished to him, so he said that in that event he would invite the governor of the province and some of the high dignitaries. The hour was set for ten. We went in soon after that time. The warden received us with much éclat, then escorted us to front seats in the auditorium. In about half an hour the prisoners were marched in; in another half hour the band arrived, and still later the dignitaries — all of which is thoroughly Chilean. The nationals put on a good program of song and recitation, most of which had a religious tone. Dr. McGregor made a stirring speech, looked the officials in the eye and told them what he thought of the liquor question — the warden had told us that most of the prisoners were there because of crimes committed when they were intoxicated. Then the band, which had been discoursing sweet music in the patio, played the national air of Chile, and the service was over. The prisoners were lined up in the patio where they CURICO AND THE CENTRAL VALLEY 88 received the pies and fruit, and then went back to the enclosures. The criminal judge and_ the warden stayed with us to the end, both of them asking many questions about how prisons were managed in the States. The other officials had had a little too much of religion and prohibition — they left soon. We have since put the warden in touch with Mr. Osborne, hoping to encourage him to be the Thomas Mott Osborne of Chile. ‘The cells are beyond words. There is absolutely nothing in them but a strip of burlap on which the prisoner sleeps. The door is solid wood with a small barred transom above. The only bright spot is that the men are not allowed in the cells in the daytime but are kept out in the air in one of the patios. Their heads are not shaved and they do not wear stripes. When we left they all gathered at the bars of their respective enclosures and waved gaily to us, and called adios. ‘They do not work, because the last warden decamped with the funds and there is no money to buy material. All this is not definitely our work but in a way everything is the work of our missionaries that tends to uplift and Christianize the people. And they do seem so grateful and responsive. M. MclI. G. CHAPTER VI THE CHURCH IN CHILE AND A CHILEAN NICODEMUS CHILLAN, December 28, 1924 T’S just four weeks to-morrow since I landed on Chilean soil. What I have seen, heard, thought, and felt I cannot begin to tell you in a letter, though I should write for days. Every day — though we have visited as many as three dis- tant churches some days — has a sameness to it. There are quite the same little unpretentious build- ings, quite the same rude benches, quite the same little squeaky folding organs, quite the same brave, courageous God-fearing, upstanding missionaries, and quite the same kind faces, Chilean, Indian, and Spanish. ‘There is always present the same need and always the same opportunity of preaching the blessed gospel of the redeeming love of God through Jesus Christ. | In every town, regardless of size (and we have visited, I suppose, at least two dozen places and probably some forty or fifty churches), we find a large Roman Catholic church — we would call it a cathedral in our land — preaching and doing those things from which so many of these peoples have turned. I tell you that if you could see what we 34 THE CHURCH IN CHILE 35 are seeing every day you, too, would come to at least three conclusions: 1. That these peoples need the gospel. 2. That they want the gospel. 3. That they will get it only as such as you and I give it to them. To-day, for example, we have been on the train twice and have spoken to three groups. One of them met ina home. ‘The owner is a widow. She was a Roman Catholic. She needed the money she could get from renting (on Sunday) a room to the missionary for a service. She did not believe in the Protestants — we are called Gringoes down here — but she sat Sunday after Sunday behind a partly open door in another room to listen. What she saw and what she heard brought conviction. This was only three months ago. Now she is in the congregation, a member of the Church, and to-day she told Mr. Spining, the missionary in this district, that she wanted to give her house and land to the congregation for a church and a school — she to have the privilege of living in her two little rooms for the rest of her life. What do you think of that? Do you tell me that the days of miracles are past? Do you tell me that you do not believe in foreign missions? And what do you think she calls the room in which she listened behind that half- open door? She calls it her “ Nicodemus room.” Surely she came to Jesus by night and into that very room she brings other friends who are inquir- ing the way but are too timid to come right out in the open. 36 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE I’ve always believed in missions. But now I’m on fire for missions, because, as I have said, I see not only the need, but the readiness to accept the gospel if presented. Before I left home one of our members gave me a check for one hundred dollars to use as I thought best. I brought it with me. Already it’s all gone. And what a joy was mine to give it — here a little and there a little. My regret has been, as you may imagine, that it was not many times that sum or, that it was not, like the widow’s cruse, unfailing. We shall have been here four weeks to-morrow and in twenty days we shall go into Brazil — and I assure you we shall be sorry to go. But, again, we shall probably find the same need and oppor- tunity. R. G. McG. CHAPTER VII SOME CHILEAN MEMORIES Hore, Puenta pet Inca, ARGENTINA, January 19, 1925 ERE we are in the heart of the Andes, taking a three days’ rest between the Chile and the Brazil Missions. Yesterday we went to see the statue, Hl Cristo Redentor, the Christ of the Andes, which the Governments of Argentina and Chile have placed on the border between the two countries as a sign of perpetual peace. ‘The in- scription reads, “Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than the people of Argentina and Chile break the peace which they have sworn to maintain at the feet of Christ the Redeemer.” These words, read in the midst of the tremendous sweep of the Andes, are more than impressive. The railway used to run through the cumbre (ridge) near the statue, but now a tunnel, just ninety yards short of being two miles long, has been built, which brings the train through the mountain on the top of which stands the Christ. This makes it necessary for those who wish to see the statue to stop off and drive up to it. We left the hotel at seven in the morning and returned at three-thirty in the afternoon, after a day spent in the midst of the wonderful splendor of the mountains of every shape and color, from 37 38 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE Aconcagua, 23,300 feet high, and crowned with eternal snow, to the smaller, pink mountains near the Hotel Puente del Inca. As I write I can see, high up on the side of the mountain, the stone called the Inca’s god, which bears a rude resemblance to a man, and from which the hotel takes its name. Almost directly under it, back of the -hotel, the Roman Catholics are building a lovely little stone chapel. As one looks at the stone god and at the stone chapel, one wishes that the hills could look down upon a more vital something to replace the old god. To-day has been spent in letter-writing, in read- ing reports, and in generally clearing the decks for the South Brazil Mission meeting towards which we are now bound. At the end of the visit to Chile, it is impossible not to find oneself going over in memory the days spent there. The first days in Valparaiso we spent in getting adjusted, learning a dozen Spanish words so as to be able to express a little of the friendliness we all felt for the members of the national Church, who were so quick to re- spond to the slightest outgoing on our part. One afternoon particularly stands out in my memory, a joint meeting of the Liga of the three churches in Valparaiso. The Liga is the women’s organiza- tion which corresponds in some ways to the Ladies’ Aid Society, but is much wider in scope. There is a national organization, the president being the widow of one of the Presbyterian pastors, a most gracious and charming woman, who is working in connection with the congregation in Santiago THE CHRIST OF THE ANDES * Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than the people of Argentina and Chile break the peace which they have sworn to maintain at the feet of Christ the Redeemer” (p, 37). SOME CHILEAN MEMORIES 39 which is the mother church of Presbyterianism in Chile. At this meeting, Mrs. Gillmore and I were very graciously welcomed, in English, by one of the women, and we told there a little about the work which women are trying to do in the churches in the United States. After the meeting, a group of the internas (the boarders) in the Normal School took me out in the patio of the church and taught me Spanish words. It is most interesting to have only nouns at one’s command. It makes it a little diffi- cult to express oneself! I remember also the dispensary at Valparaiso, where the mothers were so grateful and some of the babies so pitiful. I wish I could make you really see that roomful; the mothers look so tired and un- happy when they come in, and their faces brighten so after they have been talked to awhile, and while they are bathing the babies. Santiago to the deputation means hurrying to and fro, trying to see all the work in a short time, and never getting to bed till the small hours in the morning because nothing begins till ten o’clock. Dr. McGregor presented a medal the night of the commencement of Santiago College, the Meth- odist school for girls, which was a lovely affair of pretty girls in white and presentation baskets of flowers. The commencement of the Instituto Ingles was held the evening following that of Santiago Col- lege, and Dr. McGregor again presented a medal, this time to the boy who wrote the best essay on temperance. The prize for English declamation 40 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE went to the boy who recited the story of the Prodi- gal Son. One of the most interesting parts of that evening was meeting a group of graduates of the school, some older and some younger, a fine group of young men. Santiago also means the morning spent in visit- ing the homes of our national pastors. The depu- tation has come to look upon them and their wives as real friends and we welcomed this opportunity to know them better. From Santiago we went down through the beautiful Central Valley, and one thinks of the day spent on the farm of one of the outstanding mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church in Chile, where we had the opportunity to see what the real life of the people is like as we drove over the farm and saw the houses of the workmen, and near by a village called Lo dellobo, literally “'That of the Wolf,” so called because the people live mainly by robbery. The man who was with us said: “ The people of that village are very religious. ‘They observe all the requirements of the Church.” ‘This seemed to us rather a startling statement in view of the name of the village. Still farther south through Talca, whose people are so proud of their town that in speaking of the cities of the world they say, “ Talca, Paris, London,” to Curico in time for the Sun- day-school Christmas entertainment on Christmas eve! The church was packed with an interested audience who listened to a well-prepared program and to each of the three “ deputationers.”’ At San Javier we changed missionaries, for it SOME CHILEAN MEMORIES 41 became a joke in Chile that the deputation wore out a missionary in about five days! Sometimes it looked as if it were going to be the other way round! With Mr. Spining we went down to the most southerly part of our field, Concepcion and its outstations. All over Chile one is impressed with the diffi- culty of making an impression on a Roman Cath- olic community. As we watched the procession in Concepcion on New Year’s Day, we realized that to most of the people who took part in it, it was a matter of indifference as one could tell from the expression of most of those who walked in the procession. As this feeling grows on one, and the difference in the faces of the evangelical Christians is studied, one feels that all evangelical work in Chile should be strengthened, and that those work- ing in Chile must be reénforced not only by gifts but by prayer. Acie aR, CHAPTER VIII VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” ALPARAISO means “ Vale of Paradise.” As we first saw the shore line and foliage of its beautiful suburb, Vina del Mar, in the soft light of a late evening in April, and in the clear air of the following morning glimpsed the wide arch of the open harbor and the gleaming white houses of the city, pyramided one upon another above the sapphire-blue Pacific, the name seemed well chosen and appropriate. The city claims a population of 180,000, with 35,000 in Vina del Mar and 320,000 in the province of Valparaiso. In this city and province in 1873, the Presbyterian Church took over the Protestant work first founded by Dr. David Trumbull in 1845, under the Mission for Seamen, codperating with the American and Foreign Christian Union. As is related in Chapter X, Dr. Trumbull landed at Valparaiso on Christmas Day, 1845, and his first service was preached on board the steamer Missis- sippi in Valparaiso Bay on January 4, 1846. Asa result of his indomitable and indefatigable labors and of the services of those who followed in his steps, the Protestant movement, as represented by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, is firmly established in this important city and port. To- 42 VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 483 day there are three Presbyterian Chilean churches and Sunday schools there, with six chapels, five elementary and primary schools with an enrollment of over 750, a normal school for girls, a dispensary, an orphanage, and a union church for English- speaking residents, inspiring fruition and justifica- tion of that pioneer sacrifice and labor. The lower schools established by our Mission, known as escuelas populares or “ people’s schools,” which we visited first, were overflowing with throngs of happy children. The central school has an enrollment of 510. Nearly 200 boys and girls were turned away this past year for lack of room. ‘The four branch schools have an enrollment of 250, so that the total is over 750. ‘The aim of these schools is to provide instruction in the primary and elementary grades at a low cost to children who would not otherwise receive an education. The tuition is between three and five pesos, or thirty- five to fifty-five cents, a month. In Concepcion and Vallenar are other such schools. “In spite of the fact that a compulsory law has been in effect in Chile for more than three years,” says a Mission report, “the statistics show that of the children of school age almost half are not even enrolled and of those who are enrolled we know that many do not attend often enough or regularly enough to learn even to read and write. The in- spector of schools for the Province of Valparaiso frankly said, ‘We cannot enforce the new law because we haven’t school buildings enough, nor could we find the teachers if we had the buildings.’ 4A MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE This applied to the city of Valparaiso, and how much worse the conditions are in the rural distriets can easily be imagined. If such conditions prevail now, it is not to be wondered at that the first mis- sionaries realized the urgent need of helping to educate the people and began the H'scuela Popular, the ‘ School of the People.’ “What Chile needs more than anything else is higher moral and religious ideals. The public schools do little or nothing to inspire them in the pupils, either by precept or practice. A small boy of about ten stood in the Escuela Popular and proudly announced, ‘I am a freethinker.’ He wasn’t, of course, but he wanted to be because he had heard some men use the words. How can we hope that the boys and girls will want to be Chris- tians unless we can give them moral and religious instruction and inspire them by the example of a Christian life? “There is no restriction on the teaching of the Bible in our schools and every day every child has a Bible lesson, either studying some portion or learning by memory selected parts. Every year we sell large numbers of Bibles and Testaments to the pupils. And who can believe that these boys and girls who learn to know the Bible by daily study will believe that it is a bad book or will oppose its-teaching when they grow up? “ Then, too, we have a responsibility to our Prot- estant communities. The boys and girls of our churches should be given a chance to study during the week in an atmosphere that cultivates rather VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 45 than destroys the teachings they have received in the Sunday school and church services. “One of the strongest arguments in favor of such schools is the fact that they cost very little in proportion. No special building is needed because the room where evangelistic services are held can be used. A very simple, but at the same time efficient, style of furniture has been evolved and with very little equipment a school can be con- ducted without any disturbance of the other serv- ices. 'The teacher becomes an effective aid in the evangelistic work by interesting the children in attending the meetings. If she has learned to play the organ her cooperation is invaluable. “We look forward to the time when we can establish many of these schools, making the com- bination of school and chapel a center that shall win the people to the acceptance of the gospel. The supervision of the work would not be difficult, for the same course of study and the same plans of work prepared in the Model School in Valparaiso could be used in all the other schools and the teach- ers could be kept in touch with the central school by means of correspondence. A great many of the missionaries have had educational experience and they could help in the supervision.” Just across the street from the Model Escuela Popular, is the new building of the Normal School, a gift from the Sage Legacy of Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage. Our Mission has worked out a comity agreement with the Methodist Mission through which this school will train teachers for 46 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE both Missions and churches, and a Methodist school at Santiago will train nurses and deaconesses. Provision is made for reciprocal representation on the board of directors, and it is hoped eventually on the faculties of both schools. ‘There are eighty students in the Normal School, thirty-two being boarders, with six Chilean teachers and two Amer- icans. ‘This is the only Protestant normal school on the west coast of South America. Miss Cora M. Smith is the principal of the Nor- mal School, Miss Estella F. Daniel of the Model School, with Miss Ethel M. Jones, who has just reached the field, taking Miss Smith’s place during the latter’s furlough. Rev. Robert B. Elmore, in addition to his manifold duties as chairman of the executive committee of the Mission, is superintend- ent of schools in the Valparaiso district, and assists in many direct ways both in teaching and in secur- ing funds locally for the work. Mr, Elmore and I visited the Normal School and all five of the escuelas populares, met the teachers of all the schools, and attended a Bible class in the Model School where the children sang in appealing Spanish cadences a hymn with the air of “ Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,” and we read together the Twenty-third Psalm. These children need the guidance and the loving kindness of the Good Shepherd — “ much they need His tender care ” — and it was a joy to be with them and to see what the schools are doing for them. A baby dispensary represents another outstand- ing service being rendered by the Valparaiso Sta- ‘(gf -d) aBeg vIAYC yourBaeyy ‘say JO AovSoy] oy} Wodz BLT wv ST Surpyimg SL OSIVUVdAIVA NI IOOHOS IVNUON STHID AHL VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 47 tion. ‘The reasons for beginning this service were well stated in a paper prepared for our Commission by Mrs. Jesse S. Smith: ‘“ Medical work is a new departure in this field. The Chile Mission for some years has felt the great need for doing something along this line. We have found it impossible entirely to ignore the call to share in the responsibility of saving the children and of relieving the suffering mothers. Up to the present time we have not appealed to the Board for help but have made a small beginning with funds provided by friends on the field. ive years ago a baby clinic was opened in Valparaiso in con- nection with the local church. ‘Three years ago another was begun, in conjunction with the Meth- odist Episcopal missionaries in Concepcion, and two years ago the Santiago Station opened a third in a thickly populated district. The question may arise in some minds as to the advisability of our taking up medical work. The medical course pro- vided by the University of Chile is recognized as thorough, up-to-date, and efficient. This being true, the physicians are well prepared to attend to the medical needs of the country. But with all this we are convinced, for the following reasons, that we cannot longer stand aside and do nothing more to relieve the appalling condition of those who live round about us. While Chile has the highest birth rate in the world, she has also, by far, the highest child mortality. According to statistics only four out of every ten children born live to be two years old. This terrible child mortality is not due to 48 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE climate but to other conditions which can _ be changed. Some of the causes are: ‘1. Ignorance on the part of mothers. North Americans exclaim with horror at the food given by the Chilean mother to her baby. She knows no better and does the best she can with what she has until the child is dangerously ill, when she takes it to a doctor, if one is accessible, and if not, it prob- ably lives but a short time. Eiven when the doctor has seen the child, she knows very little about carrying out instructions given. In the majority of cases she does not know how to read and must get some one to interpret what she has received. Then many times, these women have a fear of the doctor and will not go to him, since he might order them to some hospital where they would be sepa- rated from their children. As a natural conse- quence, ignorance is one of the chief causes of mortality. “2. Malnutrition is another cause of infant mortality. The children of the poorer classes are usually undernourished, and we wonder, not at the high mortality, but that more do not succumb. A sick child nine months old is brought to a doctor. He asks the mother, ‘ What is given the baby?’ “A: little bread,’ she answers, ‘but mostly milk.’ ‘What more?’ It is soon evident to the doctor that vegetables, meat, beans, and a little bit of everything has been given to the child. The proper food in the right quantities has not been furnished. “3. Poverty and environment contribute also VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 49 to the present deplorable condition. ‘Tenement houses abound in the small towns as well as in the large cities. A building with from twenty to sixty rooms has a family in each one. Each family num- bers from three to ten members. ‘The mother is often the wage earner and has to leave the small children locked up in this room for hours at a time. Neither strength nor time are left for the proper care of the children. “4, Milk. ‘This most important factor in child nourishment is almost never obtained pure. Not until recently has it been possible to obtain steril- ized milk. But that is far beyond the means of the poor people. “5. Sanitation. The meaning of this word is not comprehended in the poorer districts, whether in a large city or a small town. Open sewers still abound. Germ-laden dust rises in clouds from every street. Horses and cows are stabled in all parts of the city of Santiago without the least atten- tion to cleanliness. Public markets, where fruit, vegetables, and meats are sold, have no protection against flies. “ We can only mention the most serious causes of infant mortality, such as drunkenness and the im- moral lives of parents. Anemia, rickets, tuber- culosis, venereal diseases are the children’s heritage from such parents. Granting the efficiency of the Chilean doctors, the several organizations at work in the interests of child welfare, and established dispensaries, yet all of these factors combined can- not cope with the present state. The public hos- 50 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE pitals are full to overflowing all the time. They are greatly in need of funds and resort to lotteries and public collections in the streets to defray run- ning expenses. ‘The combined efforts of all agen- cies in the country are inadequate to meet the situation. ‘Still another reason for our entering this field is better care for our Evangelical mothers. It is difficult for the poor people to obtain entrance to any hospital and this is particularly true in the case of our Church members. Even when admitted, they often suffer real persecution from the nuns and priests. ‘The demand for beds is so great that the patient often leaves the hospital too soon and in a short time the mother is in need of medical atten- tion. ‘The door is open to us to render loving, sympathetic, Christian service. “'The Valparaiso dispensary was opened for the purpose of bringing relief to babies and instruction to mothers in the care of their children. It is located in a slum district. Though begun on a small scale and carried on with a limited staff in a little room, the last report shows over 3,000 pa- tients treated within the year at an expense of about 8,000 pesos, or about $900. Doctors, nurses, and friends have contributed time and skilled labor to save as many babies as possible. ‘The dispen- sary 1s open two afternoons a week and disap- pointed mothers are constantly being turned away. A nurse is very greatly needed to direct this work.” Mrs. Garvin further describes the dispensary in action: VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 51 “Year by year our dispensary is becoming more efficient and more of a necessity for the babies of one of the poorest and most thickly populated dis- tricts of Valparaiso, a city where the death rate among babies is 22.6 per thousand, as against 8.6 in Buenos Aires. One of our assistants visits in the homes of the women who come to us one after- noon a week. We realize that more of this follow- up work should be done and we mean to manage it. “Would you like to see us at work? It is not quite half past one, half an hour before the dispen- sary is supposed to be opened, but as we come in sight of the building we see ten or more women with their babies standing on the pavement in front of the door. By the way they stand, one can see how tired they are. When asked why they come so early the answer of one and all is, ‘So that we shall be sure to have a number.’ The rule is that only five new ones are admitted at a clinic; in this group of ten there are seven babies who have been brought for the first time. The five mothers who arrived first smile contentedly, the other two are women who have brought other babies to us, our ‘chents ’ as we call them. How can we send them back to their homes without even a look at the weak things hidden away under their mantos? We can’t. So the rule is broken, but as we say here in Chile, “Que vamos a hacer?’ Only yesterday when mak- ing out the admission sheets for a woman, we asked how many children she had had. ‘Seven,’ she re- plied. Then came the next question, “ How many are living?’ ‘The answer was, ‘ Three — the three 52 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE youngest that I have brought here to the dispen- sary!’ This is one of the many heart warmers that we have. Not long ago a woman on the street greeted me most affectionately and when I inquired about the baby that she brought at one time to the dispensary regularly, she said: ‘Oh, I wish you could see her; she is so well and strong! I can never be grateful enough to the dispensary for the help I received when my husband was sick and out of work.’ “We try to limit the number at each clinic to fifty, but it is almost impossible; yesterday there were sixty-two. “Part of the time this year we have worked at a great disadvantage, for our nurse had to be away for nearly two months on account of a serious operation. A practical nurse, a member of the Valparaiso church, but with no training, took her place to the best of her ability. ‘The doctors who were assigned to us through our connection with the Chilean Baby Welfare Society, called ‘ Con- sultorios para Madres e Hijos, have been a great acquisition. Each doctor gives us, free of charge, an hour once a week. ‘The nurse, with her assist- ants, attends to the babies with minor ailments, and also to the giving out of food and clothing, the giving of baths, the weighing of the babies, and the preparation of simple remedies. ‘The very sick babies are either sent to the children’s hospital or kept for the doctor to see. Sometimes there are as many as fifteen or twenty babies in an after- noon to be attended to for rupture. I said to one VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 538 woman, ‘ How was the baby ever left in that con- dition? Was it born at a maternity hospital?’ ‘No!’ ‘Then some neighbor, I suppose, looked after you?’ ‘No, I took care of myself except for a little girl of eight who passed me a basin of warm water.’ I can picture the misery. Can you? “We have many friends in the community, Chilean, English, and American, who have been most generous in our support. Mrs. Elmore is now chairman of the committee, and Mrs. Edwards, whom we are glad to welcome to our midst, has charge of the buying, makes the ‘ Meyer’s food,’ and keeps the accounts. “Our crying need is for a trained nurse, a woman with technical knowledge and a big heart. God grant that the way may be opened to send such a one. She would be invaluable in the board- ing department of our H’scuela Popular, and in the work among the women of our churches, if the dis- pensary did not demand all of her time.” It was a touching sight to see the mothers with their babies waiting in line at the dispensary; to see the deftness and care with which their needs were met and the gratitude and relief that shone on the faces of the mothers as they departed. ‘ Oh, in what diverse pains they met: oh, with what joy they went away!” And it was inspiring to see a veteran of the service, like Mrs. Garvin, in her apron and cap, active and diligent despite her forty-two years in Chile, tending babies and moth- ers and doing two missionaries’ work at once! A blessed service is being rendered through this dis- 54 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE pensary and the work there should become a reg- ular part of the work of the Mission. An orphanage, known as “The Sheltering Home,” established originally by Mr. and Mrs. Garvin, and maintained without subsidy from the Mission, through local gifts, is also rendering a service that only those who have lived in South America can evaluate and understand. All this institutional and social service has grown out of the original direct evangelistic work of the Church. We visited the main church, known as Saint Martin, and saw there the identical pulpit used by Dr. Trumbull over fifty years ago. The church is self-supporting and maintains preaching services and Sunday schools in three chapels on three of the numerous hills surrounding the bay, Mesilla, Membrillo, and Placeres. At Vina del Mar, the fashionable suburb of Valparaiso, and at Santa Inez, a less affluent district, are also churches which are both aiming at self-support. The en- rollment for these three churches in 1923 was 179, 54, and 47; of their Sunday schools, 850, 130, and 110. It should be said that the numbers on the church rolls have been diminished recently because of an earnest endeavor to remove from the lists those who are not active or bona fide members, and the totals given are honest records of the Presby- terian communicants of the city and suburban centers, The Union Church of Valparaiso, where Amer- ican and British and other English-speaking “ for- elgners’”” meet, has meant much to the moral and PULPIT USED BY DR. TRUMBULL NOW IN CHURCH IN VALPARAISO “We visited the main church, known as Saint Martin, and saw there the identical pulpit used by Dr. Trumbull over fifty years ago” (p. 54). og = > al = . Liat VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 55 spiritual tone of the community, and is a fine ex- ample of what such a church should be. The first Protestant church building in South America was one built by the Union Church in Valparaiso in 1854, and the church has had an inspiring history. There is a rest house in Vina del Mar, on the shores of the bay, which represents the gift of Miss Valeria I’. Penrose, of Philadelphia. The mission- aries in South America need such facilities for change and recreation, facilities which most mis- sionaries in the F'ar East possess. The gift of Miss Penrose has been deeply appreciated, and we hope that others will be led to make a similar contribu- tion toward the efficiency and health of the mission- aries in South America. I had but a day and a half in Valparaiso, all too short a time in which to form any judgments of value regarding the work and its needs, but several points were obvious. In the Model School of the Escuela Popular and of the Normal School, there are 600 pupils enrolled; in the absence of one of the missionaries on furlough, the burden of the work of these two schools comes upon two women, although, of course, Mr. Elmore, in addition to his many other duties, gives them genuine assistance. But I think the question of the assignment of an additional missionary teacher might well be con- sidered by the Mission and Board. Further, the tuition fees might be raised somewhat without de- feating the ends of the schools, and with real results in strengthening their financial position. The work of the dispensary deserves to be an 56 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE integral part of the Mission’s work. Of course, efforts should be continued to receive local gifts and subscriptions for property and current ex- penses, but if the work cannot be done efficiently with such help, a request for help from the churches at home would be justified. The record of membership in the three churches, which was compiled by Mr. Elmore and which shows the comparative figures for the past ten years, does not indicate so large an increase as might be expected. Further, the responsibility of the Valparaiso district extends beyond the city into the whole province, which measures forty by fifty miles and contains a population of 320,000 people. Mr. Elmore writes, “The province has many towns of importance, especially along the line of the railroad to Santiago, but up to the present these points have scarcely been touched by the Presbyte- rians.” I believe that if the Valparaiso missionaries and the city churches already established would throw out new and persistent efforts into this un- reached territory, the neighboring communities would be evangelized and the missionary churches would grow through the reflex power of this expanding service. The expense of such itin- eration may have to be borne by the Mission and some property additions made, such as a manse for the Valparaiso church, but the churches already established should put forth every effort to become entirely self-supporting, and doubtless can reach this status in the near future. Toward evening we climbed the little hill to the VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 57 Protestant cemetery there. ‘The right of Protes- tants to burial in such a cemetery had been granted by the Government of Chile only after years of struggle and agitation. As described in Chapter X, Dr. Trumbull was the leader and champion in this just cause. His grave is there, and we went to it first. ‘The marble shaft that marks the grave is broken in half as a result of the last earthquake that visited the city, but the memory of this great and good man has outlived and will outlive any material monument to his character and career. The inscription is a fair and true summary of his life and work: MEMORIAE SACRUM Tue Reverend Davin Trumsuttz, D.D. Founder and Minister of the Union Church, Valparaiso. Born in Elizabeth, N. J., 1st of Nov., 1819. Died in Valparaiso, Ist of Feb., 1889. For forty-three years he gave himself to unwearied and successful effort in the cause of evangelical truth and religious liberty in this country. As a gifted and faithful minister and as a friend he was honored and loved by foreign residents on this coast. In his public life he was the counselor of statesmen, the supporter of every good enterprise, the helper of the poor, and the consoler of the afflicted. 58 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE IN MEMORY OF HIS EMINENT SERVICES, FIDELITY, CHARITY AND SYMPATHY THIS MONUMENT HAS BEEN RAISED BY HIS FRIENDS IN THIS COMMUNITY AND BY CITIZENS OF HIS ADOPTED COUNTRY. The formal and legal recognition of the right of Protestants to be buried in their own cemetery was not given until August, 1883. But there are graves that are older than that, which were re- moved to this ground after its consecration. ‘There is a Slab in memory of the “ fifty-three officers and seamen slain on board the United States Frigate Essex, in the harbor at Valparaiso, Chile, in an en- gagement with H.B.M.’s Frigate Cherub, Febru- ary 28, 1814,” and to a lieutenant colonel of en- gineers, “ Don Jaime Charles, muerto glorisamente en defensa de Chile en el combate de Pisco” in 1819. But the last graves we saw are the ones I remem- ber best. In a little family plot is the grave of Rev. James Francis Garvin, with the simple in- scription: “ Born March 8, 1854, Lima, Indiana, U.S.A. Died January 6, 1923, Vina del Mar. Beloved missionary in Chile for thirty-eight years.” On the right of his grave are the graves of a son and a grandson, both of whom died when they were three years old, one in 1892, and one in 1922; and on the other side is another little mound with a tiny fed) .. poyouye sy} JO Aaposuos oy} pure "(6¢ ‘d) ..aAvaB [eaquas 94} JO 9U0 195AR] ‘100d oy} JO aadpey oy} ‘astadaozua poos Aaoao Oo} AMOTEq ssoto AuTY B YY punouw 3001 V > jo aojz4oddns oy} ‘ususeyeys Jo aopesunod JUL, 5 A SHAVYD NIAUVD AHL OSIVUVdGTIVA NI TINAWOAUL GIAVG “Ud AO HAVUD VALPARAISO, THE “VALE OF PARADISE” 59 cross below the larger one of the central grave. On the little cross was the name, “ Laura Artiga,” with the inscription in Spanish, “ Died in the Val- paraiso Sheltering Home, December 25, 1901, aged ten years,” and below: “ De los tales es el reino de los cielos,” ““ Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” The little girl was one of the many orphans of Chile; she could look to no father or mother for care; she had been taken into the Sheltering Home, in whose establishment and maintenance Mr. and Mrs. Garvin had had such a large part. On Christmas Day she died; there was no one to claim her body; the Catholic authorities would not con- sent to burial in one of their own cemeteries. So Mr. and Mrs. Garvin offered a place in their own family plot, beside the grave of their infant son, and now the little cross stands near two other baby crosses and below the larger cross of Mr. Garvin’s own grave. “ Of such is the kingdom of heaven”; lonely orphan and loving missionary are welcome there; and through such love and devotion, in life and in death, the men and women and children of Valparaiso, of this darkly shadowed “ Vale of Paradise,” are entering into that Kingdom. Wok swia CHAPTER IX A SUNDAY IN SANTIAGO ONG before the sun had climbed over the mountains, which rose 17,000 feet along the eastern side of the great Chilean Valley, I woke to look out from my window over the city, over the chrome-colored tower of San Augustinas Church with its ancient bell, to the verdure-clad, rocky hill of Santa Lucia and on beyond to the great wall of the Andes. In the early morning before the smoke and dust, less in any case on Sunday, had risen to dim the air with haze, the huge, purple-brown mountain rising to the snow peaks of La Chapa and Las Amarillos stood forth sharp and clear, always and yet never the same. It was just time for early mass and I walked up to San Augustinas where a novena had begun and joined the little company in the great old church. An old flower woman was selling flowers at the door. The altar was as sadly gaudy as most of these South American church altars are. It was full of angels and tinsel and the center of it was covered with flimsy pink netting drapery which perhaps hid the crucifix. At any rate even the image of Christ was hidden and the one conspicu- ous figure was the Virgin and the Child Jesus at the top of the altar over all else. Perhaps a dozen 60 A SUNDAY IN SANTIAGO 61 men and thirty or forty women and children were present, most of them faithful old women who came hurrying in and hurried out again. ‘The service over, I walked the two or three blocks farther to Santa Lucia and climbed up the steps and path- ways among the flowers and the eucalyptus trees to the tomb of Vicuna Mackenna, who was mayor of Santiago from 1871 for some years, with the monuments of the Indian Caupolican, the Arau- ecanian Hercules, below it and of Rafael Valentin Valdivieso, first Archbishop of Chile, just above. From the top one could look off in the quiet of the early Sunday morning over the wide-extending city. The Mapocho River ran between Santa Lucia and the near-by higher hill of San Cristobal crowned with its big figure of the Virgin with her light shining over the city by night. To the west were the hills of the Coast Range and eastward only a few miles away the calm, lofty barriers of the Andes. It was from this little rocky hill of Santa Lucia that, in 1541, Pedro Valdivia with his little band of 150 Spanish soldiers threw himself down on the Indian warriors surrounding him and decided the fate of Chile. For many years the hill was only a place of refuge, with provision on one side for the burial of the foreign Protestant dead for whom there was not admission to consecrated ground. When in the seventies Vicuna Mackenna trans- formed the hill into one of the most beautiful adornments of the city these outcaste bodies were removed and a tablet was set up which we copied 62 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE one day as we were clambering about. It was in Spanish and read: A la memoria de los expatria- dos del cielo y de la tierra que en este sitio yacieron sepultados durante medio siglo, 1820-1870. To THE Mrmory OF THOSE EXILES FROM HEAVEN AND EARTH WHo IN THIS PLACE Lay BuRIED For Har Aa CENTURY. 1820—1870 From Santa Lucia I came down to the near-by church or basilica of La Merced, one of the most popular and fashionable churches of the city. Again, it was Mary in full figure and crown who stood over the altar, but on one side was one of the terrible representations of the suffering Saviour on the cross, bleeding and torn, which make the heart sick with their gross realism. Beyond La Merced it was only a few blocks to the Plaza de Armas and the cathedral where the mass had begun as I came in. There were a dozen officiating clergy. The choir of small boys hanging over the rear gallery high above the floor sang the music beautifully. There were not more than two score worshipers. And again over the altar, crowning all other figures, was Mary. An American friend who has joined the Roman Catholic Church in Chile told me A SUNDAY IN SANTIAGO 63 I should have come to the noon mass which would be crowded, but I could not do so and it is certain that in most of the churches I went by there was no noon mass at all. From the Plaza de Armas it was a comfortable walk over to the Alameda, the great, broad street that runs through the city from Santa Lucia to the Alameda Station. At the southern end not far from Santa Lucia is the old pink church of the Franciscans, built in the sixteenth century, where the principal figure on the altar is the little be- decked doll, a foot or two long, which was Pedro Valdivia’s Virgin and bequeathed by him to the church. On one side of the church in a glass case is a seated figure of the Saviour, thong-tied, thorn- crowned, bleeding, and terrible, and neither here nor in any other church in South America, except the Church of the Passionist Fathers in Buenos Aires, have we ever seen any symbol or representa- tion of the resurrection or the risen Lord. Not even in the great Easter service in the cathedral in Buenos Aires did we hear any real utterance of the triumph and joy of the resurrection day. Down the Alameda are the monuments of some of Chile’s great heroes and we stopped as we walked on toward the Union Church to read the inscription on the monument of Jose Miguel Infante, of Chile, the eminent publicist who headed the triumvirate which governed the land after the abdication of O’Higgins and gave Chile her Con- stitution: “‘ The righteousness of his character and the purity of his patriotism entitle him to the honor of posterity.” Near by was the great monument to 64 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE O’ Higgins. On the one face was a relief of his enforced abdication, January 28, 1823, with these words, “ I despise death now as I despised it on the field of battle’; on a second face, a relief of the battle of Roble, October 17, 1813, and the words: “'To my children. Live with honor or die with glory ’’; on a third, of the battle of Maipu, April 5, 1818, and “ I have now only one arm, but with it I will decide the fate of the Fatherland ”; and on the fourth, of the sailing of the four little ships of the squadron of liberation, October 9, 1818, and the words: “ On these four planks hang the destinies of America.” At Calle Nataniel, the corner of the Young Men’s Christian Association, we turned down to the red brick church with its bright rooms where the English-speaking union congregation worships. It is a church with a good and useful history. True Christian men of the British and American communities have here for two generations ex- pressed and nourished their faith. The names of some of these men upon whose uprightness and honor the good names of these communities have been built, were on tablets about the walls, but I sat down under a new bronze tablet with a purple wreath over it, inscribed in perpetual honor to those lads of the church “ who responded to the call of their country and of humanity, served as valiant soldiers in the Great Kuropean War, and perished gloriously on the field of battle that others might inherit and enjoy true liberty.” Sitting under the inspiration of that memorial “CL7 ‘d) ., plo s1eah Om} 2q 0} AAT] IY) UL Usap[iy us} AtoAd JO yno anoy ATUQ ,, ODVILNVS LV AUVSNAdSIG AAVA : 7 ma Pe le yi es A SUNDAY IN SANTIAGO 65 we listened to a good, true sermon by Mr. Wheeler, one of the secretaries of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, who also was visiting Chile, on Jesus Christ as the Saviour who died and lives again and is the Lord of our lives. We sang, “ Jesus, Son of righteousness, brightest Beam of love divine” and “O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end” and then came out into the beautiful Chilean autumn sun. ‘There surely is need of these union churches. It is appalling to see what a purely external and environmental thing the Christian religion is to many who come out to these countries from our churches at home. It is easier to lose them than it is to win new Chris- tians from the people of these other lands. In the evening as the mountains were glowing pink and purple in the sunset I walked back to the cathedral but it was silent and dark. La Merced was open but there was no service. At San Augustinas, however, a really good service was just beginning. ‘There was good music, in some of which the people joined, a long responsive litany, a reading from the Scriptures, and the sermon, short and earnest, and a hundred poor and simple folk who had come in got good from it if that came to them which came to me. Then the lights went out and I sat alone in the dim old church, wonder- ing how the good of all this could be preserved and its lack supplied and its errors be set right and its power be multiplied. How can the Church which bears His name really become Christ’s true Church? And God’s quest be met? For “ they 66 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. ... For such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.” Nowhere are our evangelical Missions engaged in a more legitimate task than here. Ress CHAPTER X THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION IN THE CAPITAL OF CHILE HE setting and environment in which the work of our Mission in Santiago is being carried on have been indicated in the previous chapter. The work includes all four of the recognized types of mission service: educational, medical, literary, and evangelistic. Education is represented by the Instituto Ingles, a day and boarding school for boys; and by the Bible Seminary, a union institution in which the Methodists codperate. ‘There is a dispensary, as in Valparaiso; and a paper store and bookstore, which represents also codperative work with the Method- ists. Finally there are four churches and Sunday schools, with national pastors and strong congre- gations. The Instituto Ingles is the only Protestant school for boys in Santiago. It was founded in Copiapo in 1874 by Samuel J. Christen; was moved in 1877 to Santiago; its graduates are to be found in positions of leadership and influence throughout Chile. The president of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce invited Dr. Speer and others of us to dine with him in his beautiful city home; over his desk was a framed diploma of the Instituto, and he spoke with gratitude concerning its training and 67 68 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE instruction. Dr. W. E. Browning, Educational Secretary of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, was for twenty years head of the Instituto: he built it up and made it a real force in the educational life of Chile. A little book pub- lished when he was principal of the school, called What the Old Boys Say, is convincing proof of the affection and loyalty of the graduates for their “Ingles” Alma Mater. “Tf I were asked what was the most striking characteristic impressed upon me during my time at the Instituto Ingles, I would answer that it was the homelike spirit that seemed to pervade that institution in every detail of its daily life. There was a deeply religious atmosphere, broad, health- ful, helping, and constant. At my old school I learned to appreciate the meaning of true manli- ness, courage, truthfulness, activity, and loyalty to duty; and I must frankly admit that I owe all these inspiring ideals to my Anglo-Saxon teachers. .. . It was through some of my teachers that I was able to plan my life and attain my present situation.” “Sweet but true—in these three words can be expressed my recollection and thought respect- ing my school days, which, I regret to say, passed all too soon. ‘“ I cannot speak too highly of the courses I was taught at school; ... they laid the foundations for deeper studies afterward. But the Instituto did not only lay the foundation stones for my pro- ‘(fio -d) arty jo yeqdes 94} UL SAOG LO} JOOYOS URYSoJOIg ATUO OU} ST sopsuy oynqzysuy "SHIONI OLOALILSNI AHL LV AVG LNAWAONAWINOO ODVILIN Ee ee “ - - ve ric s 7 : reraegy pier? io) Y Sees ve at 2 ~ # 7 nA =|: bey ' 7 ’ ie . é ej ~ : ‘ we ow : 7 a ou ‘ . o he J f \ ‘ a v ry * - ‘ 7 7 i THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION ~ 69 fession; it as well gave me a firm base on which to build my moral life. “1 will never forget the farewell hymn we sang before breaking up school at the close of my senior year, ‘God Be with You Till We Meet Again.’ A boy could not be sent off with better words ring- ing in his ears.” “T do not believe there is a school in Chile where so much importance is given to the moral training of the boys as in the Instituto Ingles, and the dif- ference between the average boy of other schools and of the Instituto Ingles is very noticeable. Business men have found this out long ago, and they have always preferred an Instituto boy to any other. “IT believe that the old school has become a neces- sity in Chile, more especially in view of the need of preparing honest and capable young men for the business world, and I am very grateful, and not a little proud, that I am able to consider myself one of your boys.” A change in the curriculum recently effected is described in the Mission Year Book (1923): “Hitherto the grade of the Instituto has been that of an American grammar and high school, but the desirability of aligning it with the Government schools of secondary grade, so that its graduates may be able to continue their courses in the state university, has been increasingly apparent. By vote of the Advisory Committee, therefore, the 70 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE change has been begun this year, introducing the state course in the first and second intermediate classes, which are now known as the First and Second Humanities. It is proposed to continue this adjustment so as to bring the whole upper school into line as soon as possible. We have been assured by the prorector of the university, by the inspector of liceos, and by an influential member of the Council of Public Instruction, that the Govern- ment will grant us every facility for the carrying out of our plan.” The program of the commencement exercises in recent years indicates the standing of the school in the community. In 1922 the President of Chile, Sr. Arturo Alessandri, was the orator of the day; in 1923 the British Minister, Sir Arthur Grant Duff, presented the gymnastic prizes, and the American Minister, the Honorable W. M. Collier, delivered the principal address. At the 1924 com- mencement Dr. McGregor was the chief speaker. A mission résumé of the 1924 school year reads: “The present school year opened on Wednes- day, March 12. There was a larger number of applicants for admission this year than last, the number of Catholic families who came to inquire about terms of admission being very noticeable, as was also their failure to bring their boys when they learned that the school is frankly evangelical. Yet a great number of our new boys are from Catholic homes, some coming from priest schools, and even from the Academia de Humanidades (the second- ary school connected with the Catholic university). THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION’ 71 A consistent effort was made to prevent the en- trance of boys of bad antecedents, and to admit only those who might be expected to respond to our efforts. Not less than thirty boys were refused as undesirables, on moral or scholastic grounds. The enrollment is 194 to date, of whom 74 are boarders, 61 half boarders, and 59 day pupils. Withdrawals and changes during the year bring the figures down to 70 boarders, 63 half boarders, and 55 day pupils, making the total attendance on September 5, 188. This is 19 in excess of the total attendance on the same date last year. “In the midst of a busy matriculation day, the door opened and a splendid-appearing young man ushered his attractive wife and seven-year-old boy into the office. With a smile that lighted up his intelligent face, this gentleman, without preamble announced: ‘I am a graduate of the Instituto Ingles, and I am bringing you my little boy, in order that you may do for him what the school did for me fifteen years ago. I owe my moral and intellectual training to this school, and I want my boy to get what I received.’ The gentleman proved to be the manager of a growing importing concern, whose employers, the owners of the busi- ness, are also Instituto Ingles graduates. The number of lads whose fathers are graduates and former students of the Instituto is large this year and, as we should expect, seems to be increasing from year to year. We have had quite a few applications from Bolivians, but in almost every case they have desired work of college or university 72 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE grade, and we have had to refuse them admission. We have adopted the rule not to admit any new pupil who is over fifteen years of age, unless he has very special qualifications and knows English. There are in the student body this year thirty-one boys from evangelical homes, of whom eight are sons of pastors.” The school owns a little more than an acre in what was once an attractive residential district of Santiago. Its buildings and equipment once sur- passed and set a standard for the other schools of the city. A swimming pool and outdoor gym- nasium are unusual features in a South American educational institution. But the city has grown away from the Instituto; factories are invading that section; the grounds are too limited for athletic fields and the recreational equipment required by the modern school; and the need for a new site and a new plant is clear, It has been customary for the Instituto to em- ploy short-term teachers from the United States, their salary and travel expenses being paid in gold. The income of the school is necessarily paid in Chilean pesos. Consequently, when there is such a radical shift in the exchange rate between the peso and the American dollar as occurred in 1920, and has continued since, the dollar bringing nearly twice the former number of pesos, or conversely, the price of a dollar being nearly doubled, the in- come of the Instituto being in pesos and a large proportion of its salary expenses being in American gold, the school has been hard hit, and has been THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION~ 7 struggling to make ends meet during these past four years. This situation has been before the Mission and Board and it is clear that certain steps must be taken to meet it. A new site and a new plant should be secured; it is estimated that $40,000 for land and $150,000 for buildings will be necessary. A. site of approximately twelve acres in a good residential district was offered two years ago to the Instituto for 200,000 pesos (about $22,000) with the probability that the price might be lowered to 180,000 pesos. ‘This offer came in the fall of 1923 when the Board was facing a heavy deficit, and it was impossible to take any steps toward buying the land. This year it was sold for more than it had been offered for to the Mission. A committee is now on the lookout for another site, but it is prob- able that for ten acres, which is the minimum that should be bought, the Mission and Board will have to pay at least $35,000. It is clear that the school will also need an annual subsidy from the Board, in addition to the payment of the salaries of mission- ary teachers. The school has asked for 25,000 pesos annually, about $3,000 at the prevailing rate of exchange. The wisest way to secure loyal and efficient teachers is to prepare students of the school who will come back as members of the faculty, thus doing away with the necessity of se- curing short-term teachers from the United States, who are expensive, not always adaptable, and usu- ally transitory. As large a proportion as possible of the funds 74 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE needed for the new plant of the school are to be sought from the home Church in the Latin-Amer- ican Campaign scheduled for 1924-1925, and later through additional special efforts. Those who give toward this need can feel assured that they are giving to a Christian school which has had a long and honorable history, which is the only Protestant school for boys at the capital of one of the three chief nations of South America, and has now reached the parting of the ways, when help, prompt and generous, must come from the Church at home if the school is to go forward and realize the rich possibilities of service that he ahead. The recently elected head of the school is Rev. EK. G. Seel; Rev. A. W. Stevenson and Rev. George B. Dutton are the other two missionary members of the staff. This past year the short- term teachers have been Mr. EK. W. Wolfe, Mr. R. EK. Smith, and Mr. W. S. Wright. The Bible Seminary, representing eleven years of codperation between Methodists and Presby- terians in the training of ministers and evangelists, has just moved into its new quarters on Avenida Miguel Claro, in a residential suburb known as Providencia. Each Board has provided about $14,000 gold for the new property, which includes nearly an acre of ground and a handsome building. The original plans called for $3,000 more from each Board: one wing of the building which was to include the recitation rooms has not been com- pleted. It is hoped that both Boards will pay the additional sum of $3,000 originally requested, so ~ Sty} UL eyetodgod soyounyo TeuO;RU oy} PUL sUOTSSIPY UPEIoyAQSotg puR ysTpoY}W ey, ‘7z -d) Aavutuoes OSVILN VS NI AYUVNIWAS WIEIG AHL ? eheeeae 188k ec eae mit tf THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 75 the building can be completed. Last year there were eleven students in the seminary, seven Meth- odists and four Presbyterians. Rev. J. H. Mc- Lean is president of the institution; other teachers, some of whom give only part time, are Rev. G. F. Arms, Rev. A. EF’. Zimmerman, Rev. H. C. Stuntz, Rev. S. P. Hauser, Rev. Jesse S. Smith, and Senor Olivero Maufras. In the chapter on Valparaiso the general back- ground and reasons for maintenance of medical work have been indicated. Mr. Stevenson told us of an incident that occurred in one of his intiner- ating trips which had its amusing as well as its serious aspects. An elderly lady, a Church mem- ber in one of the towns he had visited, wanted him to procure some medicine for her. Mr. Stevenson was not certain just what her malady was, but promised to see a doctor when he returned to his home, who would prescribe some remedy. He de- scribed her symptoms to the doctor who, on the basis of Mr. Stevenson’s diagnosis, ordered a simple potion to be made up and sent to the invalid. Now there is a postal regulation in Chile that, ex- cept under certain limitations, no liquids are to be sent through the mail. ‘Those who send well-filled bottles disguise their contents by enclosing with them some material which will obscure the gurgle of the liquid. Loose shot is a favorable ballast and disguise for such bottles. The prescription was duly filled and was sent to the invalid, with its concomitant of B.B. shot. Later the elderly lady wrote Mr. Stevenson that she had been taking 76 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE faithfully the medicine he had so kindly sent her, that the liquid had benefited her, but that the pills had given her indigestion! How she had consumed all those leaden pellets without fatal results was a mystery, but in any case Mr. Stevenson said that this incident was a clear illustration of the need of intelligent medical care in the rural districts of Chile. In January, 1923, a dispensary was opened in Santiago, which had been christened “ Madre e Hijo’ —“ Mother and Child” — Dispensary. The initial property was bought by Rev. J. H. McLean and the dispensary is known as the Louise McLean Memorial, in memory of Mrs. McLean, who died in Chile in 1918, after twelve years of service. “Our service is limited to mothers and to chil- dren up to three years of age,” says a Mission report. “ All sorts of diseases have been treated — sore eyes, wounds, hernia, rickets, anemia, ec- zema, bronchitis, pneumonia, indigestion,,and in- testinal troubles. At least half of the cases show traces of venereal infections. Our staff is composed of a superintendent (Mrs. J. S. Smith), one doc- tor, two nurses, a pharmacist and her assistant, a statistician, and a Bible woman. In addition we have some voluntary helpers who come regularly to bathe babies, assist the pharmacist in making up powders, label and cork bottles (all prescriptions must be made up the same afternoon), make bandages, take temperatures, wait on the doctor, and help with innumerable tasks. The doctor, THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 77 nurses, and pharmarcist receive a very small re- muneration for their services. We owe no little debt of gratitude to American and English friends who have so faithfully and gladly given of their time, strength, and financial assistance. “It has been most gratifying to see the way in which the women respond to kind and sympathetic treatment. Most of them have a fear and dread of the doctor and expect, from their experience in the city hospitals, harsh words and a rough hand. Many most pitiable cases come to us, some of the babies reminding one of pictures of famine or- phans. It is no longer a shock to give a three- months-old baby its very first bath! The majority have some skin disease, some sign of bad blood — the innocent suffering for the sins of their fathers. It is to be hoped that some day in the not distant future we may have an evangelical hospital where our own people can be cared for and not suffer the inconvenience and persecution which they now have to undergo in the city hospitals, where nuns of the State Church are the only nurses, and all patients are obliged to go to confession. “This, the second year of the dispensary, Madre e Hijo, has been as interesting and full as the first year. It has been a year of continual answer to prayer, and proof of His readiness to provide even before we call. Sometimes at the beginning of the month there seemed to be barely enough in sight to meet necessary expenses, but -at the close of each month all bills have been can- celed, including emergencies, and a balance on 78 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE hand. Friends have been provided and funds have been received, sometimes from most unexpected sources. “During the year we have received some sixty dozen articles of clothing from friends here and in the United States and we want to express our sincere gratitude to all who have responded so will- ingly and promptly to our needs. Careful distri- bution has been made of all clothing. In many cases new and better articles have been sold for a few cents as it is our belief that they are appre- ciated more, and the women have been happier to get garments which otherwise would be beyond their means. Without doubt we shall always need all the clothing that can be provided. We live in a most needy district; in almost every block in the community there are from one to three conventillos or cites. ‘These house from twenty to thirty fam- ilies, each one living in one or two small rooms. There are anywhere from three to eight children in most of these families. “The prevalence of venereal diseases is so great in this country that it seemed necessary at the be- ginning of the year to give injections. Senora Leiton, who has taken up studies with the Red Cross since her husband’s death, gives one after- noon and one morning to apply injections. One of the doctors gives one afternoon entirely to this department. Since November over 1800 injections have been given. “ During the year (1924) 4,600 cases have been treated, making an average of 889 persons a month, THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 79 or about 45 patients a day. We are open eight or nine days per month. The running expenses for the year have amounted to 8,300 pesos, an average of 691 pesos per month, or 81 pesos a day. This makes the cost per patient each time a little over one peso eighty (about 20 cents). “Though only twenty or forty centavos are asked for consultation and prescriptions, this has amounted to 2,966 pesos during the year, or about 250 pesos per month. At the present time the pre- scriptions are paying one third of the running ex- penses. As is readily seen, serious cases cannot re- ceive the proper medical attention with only two consultations a week. Our doctors are energetic and thorough. We hope as soon as possible to open three days out of the week as well as attend seri- ous cases in the homes at a nominal price.” The Mission Committee consists of Mrs. EK. G. Seel, Mrs. A. W. Stevenson, Mrs. G. B. Dutton, and Mrs. J. S. Smith. The American and British communities have been most helpful and generous in their support of the dispensary. A visiting engineer from Cali- fornia, Mr. J. G. Van Zandt, became so interested that he offered on behalf of his mother and family to give the funds necessary, $4000, to build a small maternity ward, where mothers could be given the care and medical treatment that they could not otherwise receive. ‘This ward is to be a memorial to a brother of Mr. Van Zandt and should render much needed service. Christian literature in Santiago is represented 80 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE by the Heraldo Cristiano, a weekly paper in which both Methodists and Presbyterians unite, which prints an edition of 2,500; and a union bookstore, known as Hl Sembrador (“ The Sower ’’), the only place in Santiago where Bibles can be bought. The production and distribution of literature in any place is a process that is fraught with much toil and trouble, mental, spiritual, and financial, and nearly every one of the bookstores and papers in which our various Missions have had a part, have had their experiences with such vicissitudes. ‘The manage- ment of such enterprises requires a distinct flair and ability that not every missionary possesses. The Heraldo was in debt a year ago, but through the energetic and efficient efforts of Miss Florence EK. Smith and a timely appropriation from the Methodist Mission, at the suggestion of Bishop Oldham, the Heraldo now is on a solid financial basis with all debts cleared. ‘The bookstore has not as yet recovered from some of its difficulties, due partly to the unfavorable exchange, partly to too general credit being given, but with the addition to its managing staff of a Chilean who is an ex- pert in Spanish literature, and with reorganization and a clearing of a past deficit through special help from the home Church, it is expected that it will enter upon a new era of service. There is no ques- tion as to the need and opportunity before such a center for the distribution of Protestant literature, if the right men can be in charge and the right business methods followed in its administration. There are four churches in Santiago, known as THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION _ 81 The Church of the Most Holy Trinity, the Church of the Redeemer, the Church of the Saviour, and the Christian Union. Their communicant member- ship is respectively 109, 130, 79, and 52. The Church of the Most Holy Trinity is the oldest Protestant church in Chile, having been founded in 1868. Each church has a Sunday school, and most of them have Christian Endeavor societies and various clubs. Each of the four has its own national pastor. The budget of the Church of the Holy Trinity is 1,000 pesos a month, which includes the pastor’s salary. There were three burning questions before the Mission and deputation this past year: the ques- tion of the payment of a just salary to the pastors; the need and wisdom of the national churches’ as- suming a greater share in the responsibility, both administrative and financial, for spreading the gospel; and the need of wider itineration in out- lying districts of Chile, in which the missionary should take the lead. The depreciation in native currency in Chile and Brazil has been accompanied by a rise in prices, though this rise has not been entirely commen- surate with the decrease in the gold value of the peso. The pastors, whose salaries are paid in local currency, a large part of which comes from the Mission, have felt the pinch of the rising cost of living. The Mission appropriations to the national pastors are made in pesos, without regard to ex- change, and when the peso’s purchasing power is cut almost in half, and the appropriation is not 82 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE increased, the results are obvious. ‘There was no question that some of the pastors were not receiv- ing a living wage. ‘The remedy is either in the Mission’s increasing its appropriation or the na- tional churches’ increasing their gifts towards self- support. When the value and price of local cur- rency 1s decreased, the expense to the Board of the native-work classes in Chile is of course less, the appropriation last year in gold being about half the amount necessary in more normal years. A sliding scale of appropriation from the Board has been discussed, which would vary with the exchange and would appear to be fair both to the national pastors and to the Board. ‘There is much to be said in favor of such an arrangement in Chile, as of appropriation for these classes in gold, instead of in national currency, as long as the present situa- tion exists, with its continual fluctuation in local currency values. But for various reasons, it was decided at this time to make a lump addition to the appropriations for the Mission, from which the salary of the national workers might be increased, and also the point was made with clearness and emphasis that the national churches should be ex- pected to take over an increasingly large share of their own self-support; that as long as the churches depended chiefly upon North American support, they were not firmly rooted in Chilean soil, and could not stand in their own strength, if for any reason North American subsidies should be with- drawn. The same argument does not apply so much to THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION _ 88 property needs. Some of the churches have been trying to buy from the Mission the church build- ings erected for them by Mission funds. I do not believe that they should be expected to do this. I think that we should do more to help them to pos- sess buildings of satisfying and attractive archi- tecture and proportions; but that after the prop- erties have been made available, the national churches should be expected to maintain them and the work they represent. Chile, like other South American countries, needs capital: our Church in the United States has the means, and the will, if it knows the need, to furnish such capital, not for its own ends but as a free gift to the extension of Christ’s gospel; our Church should give more for such property needs, and the Chilean Church should give more for the current cost of its work. One of the reasons the Young Men’s Christian Association has become so quickly indigenous in certain lands is because it follows the principle of Americans’ furnishing capital for plant and equipment, and of nationals’ furnishing funds for current expenses, with administrative control deservedly in the hands of the latter. W.R. W. CHAPTER XI THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION IN THE CAPITAL OF CHILE (Continued) HE third problem before the Mission, that of the need of wider itineration and of a change in evangelistic method, is indicated by a statement in the Mission Year Book, published in 1924: “In the distribution of mission work in Chile between the two principal societies codperating — Methodists and Presbyterians — the great Central Valley, from Santiago to Concepcion, has been allotted to our Church. 'Twenty-seven provincial capitals of Departments, not including Santiago and Concepcion, are easily accessible by rail in this section. The smallest of them have populations approaching 10,000 and the largest 40,000, and all are centers for a large adjacent rural district. In this territory, which is exclusively Presbyterian, we have eight organized churches, in Rancagua, San Fernando, Curico, Talea, San Javier, Par- ral, Chillan, and Yungai, and this year have opened work in Rengo, Linares, and San Carlos. But sixteen other provincial capitals still await the first preaching of the gospel.” There are eleven ordained missionaries in Chile and fifteen ordained pastors. ‘The communicant membership after over fifty years of effort is ap- proximately 1,200. Of course, there are various 84 THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION _ 85 reasons for this seeming disparity between effort and result, and the influence and power of the Protestant movement in Chile cannot be measured by such mathematics. But there is justification also for a change in method and principle, and these changes were incorporated in Mission action during and after the visit of the deputation, as follows: “ After discussion and consultation with Dr. Speer, it was moved and carried that the policy of the Mission be changed so as to make the churches and unorganized groups more nearly self- supporting and independent; that the work of these churches and groups should be under the direction of presbytery rather than of the Mission; that the missionaries should give themselves more to the work of opening up new fields; and that all funds available for the national Church should be admin- istered directly by presbytery instead of by the Mission. The final form and details are to be worked out in union meeting with the national workers and are to be effective for a period of three years.” The following plan of work was later agreed upon between the presbytery and Mission: I. Organization 1. The presbytery will assume responsibility for all the churches and the work of evangelization already under way. 2. This work shall be directed by an Adminis- trative Committee named by presbytery; two mem- 86 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE bers shall be missionaries, as long as this work is sustained in part by the Mission, two, Chilean min- isters, and two, elders. ‘The committee shall have its own treasurer. 3. The Mission will share with the presbytery responsibility for new evangelistic work and for religious education; and will allocate for this as many missionaries as possible, whose residence shall be determined by the Mission in agreement with the Adminstrative Committee. 4. The help of missionaries not so assigned may be solicited for the evangelistic work; and may be granted to individual groups and churches. 5. The Administrative Committee shall divide its field into circuits and name superintendents for them. 6. The presbytery may employ as many evan- gelists as its resources may permit to organize and develop groups without pastors, with the under- standing that the aim shall be to develop the work as far as possible without financial help, and not to employ evangelists as pastors of small groups or congregations that are not yet self-supporting. 7. Bible women shall be under the direction of presbytery, and may be assigned as special helpers to groups and churches. 8. Students for the ministry shall be named and maintained, if necessary, by the presbytery, and shall do such evangelistic work as the Administra- tive Committee may indicate. But the adminstra- tion of the seminary shall be in the hands of the Mission, THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION — 87 II. Administration 9. The programs of the six Promotional Com- mittees appointed by the presbytery in January, 1925, shall be developed as rapidly as possible. 10. Missionary and national evangelists shall itinerate constantly, visiting organized groups and establishing new groups with the proper leaders. 11. Groups shall be organized as churches by the presbytery as soon as possible, and shall then be under its care. 12. Periodic conferences shall be held for pastors and national evangelists, under the direc- tion of missionary and national evangelists. 13. Each superintendent shall make a personal monthly report to the Administrative Committee. Each pastor shall report monthly to the commit- tee on the advance evangelistic work done (see paragraph 15). Evangelists and Bible women shall report monthly to the superintendents. 14. Each group and church is expected to con- tribute regularly to self-support according to its ability. When the contributions of a group reach fifty per cent of the standard salary of a minister, this group may solicit of the committee that a min- ister be assigned to it. Churches already existing may solicit a minister when their contributions reach forty per cent of the standard salary; but no new church may do so until its contributions reach fifty per cent. 15. Any minister in a church that is not yet self- 88 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE supporting shall give that part of his time not cov- ered by the contribution of the church to general evangelistic work under the direction of presbytery. 16. Presbytery may solicit of the Mission a sum not exceeding 100,000 pesos annually to supple- ment the contributions of the churches and groups. 17. The Mission will pay nothing directly to any pastor or church, but will make monthly payments to the Administrative Committee. 18. That part of the Mission’s subvention which is used for churches with ministers but not yet self- supporting, shall be reduced annually by ten per cent, until the churches reach entire self-support. III. Properties 19. Congregations shall have free use of the Mission’s buildings which are used for church serv- ices, but the titles of the properties shall remain for the time being in the name of the Union Hvan- gelica. ‘The Mission will help in securing new buildings. 20. The Administrative Committee may rent from the Union Hvangelica such manses as it may have available. Dwellings in connection with day schools shall be under the care of the director of the school. 21. The superintendents of circuits named by the presbytery through the Administrative Com- mittee shall be responsible for maintaining the church buildings in good condition; and shall pre- sent to the Building and Property Committee of the Mission detailed statements of sums exceeding THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION _ 89 fifty pesos which may be needed for the repair of these buildings within their respective circuits; any such sums shall be spent under the direction of the Building and Property Committee. It is expected that the church which receives the benefit will also bear a proportional part of the expenses. 22. This plan for the work shall be effective for three years, after which period it may be revised and modified as circumstances may indicate. A letter dated June 20, 1925, to the members of the Mission, from Mr. Elmore, Chairman of the Executive Committee, concerning this new plan, contains the following clear comment: “You will see by the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee that the new arrange- ment with presbytery does not remove the repre- sentative of the Mission in each Station from a direct cooperation in all that is going on in his Station. He is not the supervisor but the counselor and helper of each Chilean worker in his Sta- tion. . .. The missionaries have a chance now, such as they have not had before in our day. By the power of example and inspiration we can set up a new standard among our workers. “Tt is a stern but an evident truth that the suc- cess or failure of the new plan depends not on the Chileans but on the missionaries. ‘The new plan gives more responsibility to the national workers but it also increases that of the missionaries. If the Chilean pastors see that the missionaries are not doing anything more than before or that they are so 90 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE occupied in other things that they have no time for new evangelistic work, they will not feel the need of activity on their part. But if they can see in the missionaries an example of activity, interest, enthusiasm, and successful methods, they too will be carried along by the current of new life.” The advice and counsel of Dr. Speer, with his intimate and broad knowledge of Mission develop- ments in all parts of the world, were invaluable in the framing and putting into effect of these new principles of codperation and evangelistic extension in Chile. Santiago is the chief student center on the west- ern coast of South America, for both Protestant and Government schools, and the Mission has been fortunate in having a representative, Rev. J. H. McLean, who has been appointed a professor in English in the 'Teachers’ College of the University of Chile, with over 1,200 students enrolled, and who, through these contacts, can reach the students of this important Government institution. The Young Men’s Christian Association and Young Women’s Christian Association are doing good work in Santiago; several of the directors are grad- uates of the Instituto. The Associations provide opportunities for serving the students who could not otherwise be reached. Santiago is the headquarters of the work of our Mission and Church, and the general offices of the Presbyterian Church of Chile are housed with the offices of the Methodist Church in the top floor of a down-town building. This office was organized THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 91 early in 1923. Miss Florence EK. Smith is in charge, assisted by a committee of Chileans, “The first undertaking under the new régime was an evangelistic campaign through our south field before the winter rains set in. Three mem- bers of the committee, all pastors of Santiago churches, visited eight of the southern churches, and with the assistance of the various evangelists held two evangelistic meetings in each place. They returned brimming over with enthusiasm and reported a goodly number of decisions for Christ. “ In continuation of the study courses followed by the various women’s organizations last year under the auspices of the New Era, the general office has prepared and sent out monthly studies on Character Building in Childhood, being an adapta- tion and translation of a book published by the National Welfare Association in the United States. These studies have been taught by missionary women and pastors’ wives in the different churches all over the country. ‘The studies for last year have been published in book form as a Handbook for Mothers, and have met with considerable ac- ceptation outside of evangelical circles. The superintendent of domestic science in the public schools of Santiago has put them into the hands of her teachers as a book of reference, and 1s also using the charts published last year for the Baby Wel- fare Campaign. An order for fifty handbooks for the public schools in the North has also been filled, and representatives of the National Red Cross and various créches have become interested. Orders 92 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE have also been received from Argentina and Colom- bia. Mr. Inman, during his visit to the Pan- American Conference, ordered one half of the edition of one thousand to be sent to Mexico, Porto Rico, Cuba, and New York, together with one third of a new edition of the baby charts, specially prepared for other countries. Other publications have been a book for girls, La Nina Buenamoza, and the third and fourth numbers of studies for Young People’s societies, the latter in conjunction with the Methodists. ‘Based upon information received through a questionnaire sent to all the Women’s Leagues in the different churches, a model constitution was prepared with the object of securing some con- formity among them, which has been adopted by nearly all, thus preparing the way for the organiza- tion of a National League of Presbyterian Women. This was accomplished on September 11, 1923, with a very full representation of the women’s organiza- tions in Santiago. Since then the other organiza- tions throughout the country have expressed their allegiance to this movement. Its object is to extend the scope of women’s activities in each congrega- tion, and to engage them in work for the commu- nity, as well as the upbuilding of their own intellec- tual and spiritual life. “'The General Office serves as headquarters for the Missionary Library, the Library of National Workers, the Lantern Slide Committee, a Statis- tical Bureau of the Presbyterian Church in Chile, and a place of meeting for the Administrative and THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 98 Executive Committees and the regular Workers’ Monday Morning Prayer Circle.” At the meeting of the Mission, held with the Board deputation, the property needs for the next few years were studied and agreed upon. The full list is given in Chapter XVI. After his visit in 1909, Dr. Speer wrote of the property situation: “The Board has invested very little money in property in Chile. The only large appropriations which have been made have been for the Instituto Ingles property, and a good part of that has been provided by the school’s own earnings; for the Valparaiso church building and residence when the earthquake damaged it while in course of building; and for two or three chapels. The Mission has been left, accordingly, to work out its own require- ments, and it has done well with the ingenuity and economy enforced by cruel necessity.” Since that report was written, the Mission has received $5,000 from Mrs. C. P. Turner for the Central H’scuela Popular; $30,000 from the Sage Legacy grant for the Normal School, and $14,000 for its share of the building for the Bible Seminary. But there are certain imperative needs that should be met in the near future. The Instituto Ingles needs a new plant, as has already been indicated; this will require upwards of $150,000. It is hoped that Mr. Seel and Mr. Stevenson during their stay in the United States can help to secure this sum. The Church of the Holy Trinity should have an attractive and satisfactory building, and $25,000 is needed for this purpose. ‘The Mission has voted 94 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE to build four manses for the national pastors at $1,500 each, and these should do away with extor- tionate rents for unsatisfactory and -unhygienic residences. Property for a chapel and social hall, which will cost $500, is needed in Concepcion. Additional needs for future growth are given in Chapter XVI. Of one need, which the Mission did not empha- size, I should like to speak: this is the need for residences for the missionaries themselves. In 1925 there were thirty-one missionaries in Chile: eleven married couples, five single women, four single men. With three exceptions, the single women and men are housed in the schools. For the whole mis- sionary force there are only three missionary resi- dences in all Chile. The house in Valparaiso is untenable and the one in Santiago is almost so, so that there is really but one livable residence in Chile which has been furnished by the Board. Some British friends of Mr. and Mrs. Garvin in Val- paraiso felt their lack of adequate housing so keenly that they gave the funds themselves for a decent residence, stipulating that it should be available as long as Mr. and Mrs. Garvin were stationed there. Since Mr. Garvin’s death, Mrs. Garvin has been living in what is really a made-over garage. The former basis of appropriations, whereby mission- aries’ rents were paid from the same class of appro- priations as were the funds for the native work, prevented missionaries who were conscientious from asking for sufficient grants for rent for adequate houses; this system was rightly changed in 1922 THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 95 after the Post War Conference actions were ap- proved, so that missionary rents and native work appropriations are now kept separate; but the sys- tem that implies that funds for new property will be provided only as the Mission lists items in the order of their urgency also means that residences will not be built as rapidly as they are needed, as in a choice of items the missionaries will invariably put first the needs of the work. Recently the Board instructed the Missions to place any required resi- dence at the top of their preferred list of new property; in addition, special effort should be made to inform the Church of such needs, and to ask for the funds needed to meet them. Three members of the deputation, Dr. Mc- Gregor, Mrs. Gillmore, and Miss Reid, spent six weeks in Chile, arriving December 1 and leaving January 16. They met with the Mission at its annual meeting, and later with the Presbytery. Dr. Speer had thirteen days, and I had eight days in Chile in April, both of us attending the special meeting of the Mission, and Dr. Speer taking part in the regional conference held in Santiago follow- ing the Congress at Montevideo. We brought back with us a beautiful flag of Chile presented to the Board and home Church by a delegation of Chilean pastors. We were glad to receive this banner as a gift to the home Church, and as a re- minder of the half century of life and service of a sister Church in a southern land. The colors of the flag are truly representative and symbolic. The white recalls the snowy peaks of the Andes; the 96 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE blue, the broad reaches of the Pacific at their base; the red, the hearts’ blood of men and women who are putting their lives and souls into the task of the Mission and the Church of Chile. The Chile Mission held a special meeting from April 16 to April 21. Dr. Speer, Mrs. D. J. Fleming, and I were present as representatives of the Board. ‘The memory of those days together will not soon fade away. ‘The Chile Mission is blessed with a spirit of unity and of love that is at once perceptible and that means much to the suc- cessful and happy fulfillment of its task. The various committees had worked earnestly and effectively in the preparation of statements and reports for the use of the deputation. Each session of the Mission meeting was closed with a half-hour devotional service. Dr. Speer spoke at these meet- ings. He had recently been voted one of the twenty- five greatest preachers in our country; as he stood muffled in his overcoat, in the cold, unheated rooms of the Instituto, with lines upon his face and indi- cations in his bearing that told of the responsibility and anxiety of carrying through the sessions of the Montevideo Congress and of meeting the be- sieging demands which had been made upon his time and energy all along the way from New York to Santiago, I thought how different was that scene compared to the setting of other meetings in other places, in the homeland, before affluent and com- fortable congregations, or in the great conferences of Northfield and Asilomar and Silver Bay. A little group listened to him: men and women who THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION’ 97 had given their lives gladly to the work, who had left all to follow the call of the Christ across un- known lands and seas; men and women with the frailties of all human kind, and yet with a nobility of purpose and of soul that shone in their faces and that set them apart as missionaries and heralds of the cross; men and women with the sears of battle upon them, one with forty-two years of. service, whose husband last year had been with her, but who was now left alone; new missionaries, who had just come fresh from the homeland, with something still of its eagerness and buoyancy in their bearing and smile. But no audience in the United States drank in more thirstily the words of the speaker than did that little group on the South American frontier, and never had we heard Dr. Speer speak more movingly and inspiringly than there. He spoke of some of the helps to efficient missionary service; of daily Bible study that fertilizes and clarifies the minds of all who read; of the light that kindness and love throw upon the path; of missionaries as being in a true sense individuals with an “assign- ment,” men and women sent from God, whose names are known and recorded; of the creative and limitless power of the resurrection of Christ, the power of God that raised Christ from the dead, and could raise anyone to-day from the death of weak- ness and sluggishness and apprehension into new life and conquering power in Him. We had all been waiting eagerly and somewhat anxiously for the cabled report of the end of the Board’s fiscal year which closed on the thirty-first 98 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE of March. The year before a great deficit, like a vanishing cloud, had been rolled away. This year the cloud might come again. And if it came, the cherished hopes of expansion, of growth, of ad- vance in service in Chile and in the other Missions, would be thwarted and quenched. After Dr. Speer had finished his last address on the closing day of our meeting, and after Dr. Fleming had led in prayer, as if in answer to our prayers and in confirmation of the final message concerning the miraculous power of the resurrection, a cable was received from the Board in New York, saying that the fiscal year had closed without a deficit and with a moderate surplus that could be applied to new property. Later came the word that 50,000 pesos, or about $5,500, had been appropriated as an an- nual addition to Chile’s needs, with special view to the needs of the national pastors and school-teach- ers. Some one started the doxology and we all sang from our hearts, “ Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” ‘Then Dr. Speer led in a final prayer, thanking God for His goodness and bounty that had exceeded our faith and our hopes. As I had to make the trip to tropical Brazil, and the time was limited, I left Santiago that afternoon for the return journey across the Andes and Argentina. The missionaries came to the train to say good-by. Mr. Spining was there. He and I had stood together in the pulpit of the Union Church in Santiago on the preceding Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. We had noticed that he had been failing in health and strength. He THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 99 was disappointed because Dr. Speer and I could not visit Concepcion and the great valley of Chile. As he said good-by he spoke softly, almost under his breath and half to himself, ““ Well, you haven’t seen the Central Valley of Chile: but it is there just the same!” I knew what was in his heart and mind, his longing that the needs of that great val- ley should be understood and should be met and that Christ should be proclaimed there as well as in port city and capital. The next day Mr. Spin- ing became seriously ill: two weeks later, on May 5, he was taken away. But his final words echoed and reéchoed in my ears; our prayer and our effort will be that these words shall continue to sound throughout the Church in Chile and in America until the needs are met and until the final hope and dream of this true missionary and of those who follow in his train have been fulfilled. Ween wi CHAPTER XII AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE HE only artificial boundary of Chile is the northern, which from the days of the Inca Yahuar Huaccac, who gave a daughter and a niece in marriage to two chiefs of Chile, until the date of the arbitral award of President Coolidge (1925) has been a bone of contention. The old Inca high- ways extended through the Atacama Desert as far south as Copiapo, and there are evidences that this domain included the Central Valley of Chile to the banks of the River Maule, for there are traces of routes which mark the outthrust of the Inca’s power as did the roadways of ancient Rome. Chile ex- tends from the eighteenth degree south latitude to the fifty-sixth, nearly 2,700 miles, and the Antarctic Sea is all that hes between Cape Horn and the South Pole. There have never been many inhabitants in the extreme polar regions of the South — only a few Indians, whose customs were so crude and primitive as to induce Darwin to set them lowest in the scale of human beings. On the wooded slopes between the Andes and the sea the Indians lived in com- parative plenty. Magellan, who discovered the straits which bear his name, in 1520 saw but little of the aborigines. Their first contact with the white man came in 1535 when Diego Almagro, 100 AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 101 after the Pizarros had exhausted the booty of Cuzco, was fitted out by them for an expedition of discovery. ‘Their plan was to rid themselves of a dangerous rival by supplying Almagro with a new field for adventure. His original force consisted of 500 Spaniards and 15,000 Peruvian Indians. In 1536 he returned with 156 Spaniards and 5,000 Indians, after having traversed the deserts of Ata- cama and Tarapaca. The coast Indians were friendly but the Araucanian tribes opposed his ad- vance at every step. There was no actual conquest of the Araucanians by the Spaniards. ‘Those native tribes which had submitted to the Inca régime accepted the Euro- peans: those who had defied the Inca continued to defy the Spanish. The Spanish settled Chile in 1541, organized a social system, built cities and defenses, cultivated the soil, contributed blood and culture, created a nation; but South Chile was never conquered in the same sense that Mexico and Peru were subjugated by the Spanish. In 1541, Captain Pedro de Valdivia, thirty-five years old, a campmaster of Hernando Pizarro, ob- tained a commission to explore Chile, a land of poor repute since the return of Almagro. Having been appointed lieutenant governor he raised with difficulty 200 Spaniards and 1,000 Peruvian In- dians, and, avoiding the Andes, crossed the coastal deserts, arriving at the end of the same year in the Valley of the Mapocho. He intrenched himself in the rocky hill of Santa Lucia and in 1541 gave the province about this tribe the name of Santiago. 102 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE The fierce Araucanian Indians attempted to des- troy every settlement of the invader but he grad- ually extended his fortresses in a chain southward until he was occupying Arauco on the sea, Villarica, Osorno, Angol, and the entire forest region of the extreme south. ‘The Araucanians refused to ad- mit defeat by the foreigners. Led by Caupolican and young Lautaro, they organized their people, adopting certain military tactics they had learned from their Spanish foes, and began a series of re- lentless, systematic raids of destruction. Valdivia was captured and barbarously executed. The forts at Concepcion were twice ruined and re- stored and many a defeat was inflicted on the Span- iards. At the Parliament of Quillin in 1647 the Spanish authorities approved of a treaty with the Ayraucanians in which the Indians were recognized as owners of Indian territory south of the Bio-Bio under pledge not to invade territory to the north. This was confirmed in 1650 and thenceforth it be- came customary for each new governor of Chile, on his arrival from Spain, to call a meeting at the Bio-Bio border, where he met hordes of Arauca- nians, feasted them for several days, and gave pres- ents, with mutual compliments and speech-making. Meanwhile the Indian and Spanish strains were being interblended. Immigrants were constantly arriving from the motherland, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans became missionaries along the border, and Iberian merchants established channels of trade with the old world. The whole district was governed by a viceroy under a strict military AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 103 régime, and no foreigners were permitted to inter- fere with the exclusive rights of a conquering nation. The Chilean has a double inheritance; he is the offspring of two virile stocks. From his Spanish fathers he has inherited the imperious, dominating pride of race and place, tinged with cruelty and intolerance; from his Araucanian mothers the heri- tage has been an ardent love for his native soil, a stubborn, unconquerable valor, and a fierce passion for freedom. ‘To-day the two strains are so blended that the Chilean people are justly proud of their homogeneous character. We may pass by the centuries of that romantic epoch while the new world was adjusting itself to the tyranny of Kurope. The Indian traits have always predominated in the masses of the people. Spain has left her impress upon Chile and other Andean countries through language, social cus- toms, education, and religion. In Chile the Span- ish conquerors found no developed civilization as in the Inca Empire further north. On Easter Island, in the Pacific, off the Chilean coast, there are a few relics of a culture which leads some archeologists to identify the coast Indians with those of the entire Pacific strand as far north as Alaska. The Araucanians were nomadic, primi- tive in their habits and peaceful in their attitude toward all tribes which left them unmolested. Their religion, which survives almost unchanged to the present day, is a subtle animism in which naturalism is so sublimated as to border on a spirit- 104 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE ualized conception of the universe. Their ethical code is singularly pure; moral chastity was and is the rule of social life; courage is a religious virtue; deeds rather than words are meritorious. Among the Indian stocks of all the world there is no finer example of the superior sons of the soil than is furnished by the Araucanian Indian. About 100,- 000 of them still continue in the southern provinces of Chile, and the Government has at length realized how valuable a national resource they are. The South American Missionary Society has reason for encouragement and gratitude to God over the response to the gospel as presented in their schools, chapels, and community enter- prises. 'They have been successful in cultivating the soil and in breeding cattle so that their future looks brighter than that of any tribe on the Amer- ican continent. Spanish dominion was marked by paternalism, monopoly, and militaristic imperialism. The fa- vored aristocratic descendants of the early con- querors developed large estates and flourished within the limits of a feudal system. As in all Spanish countries, the Church had a free hand and played a large part in the public life. Chile was divided into the two bishoprics of San- tiago and Concepcion, and the Church managed to accumulate most of the wealth of the country. Monks and Jesuits did some useful work in teach- ing industrial and agricultural arts and in giving the people a certain degree of education. But it was a medieval Church working along medieval AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 105 lines, more concerned with political power and the prestige of wealth than with the moral enlighten- ment of the Chileans. Almagro, Valdivia, and Aguirre were true sons of the Church, and they no doubt rendered her true homage, even though their private lives showed little of the fruits of the Spirit. It was amid such conditions as these that the Reformation blazed forth in Europe, and it is such conditions, which have been little bettered with the passing of years, which constitute the call and the opportunity for the reformed faith in Chile. At the opening of the nineteenth century, there- fore, Chile was a colony of some 500,000 persons, a people endowed with the vigor of character bred by a mountainous country and a bracing climate, and by a hard struggle for existence, but lacking in education, shut out by a narrow-minded commer- cial system from knowledge of the outside world, and destitute of the character-training afforded by free institutions. Notwithstanding her extreme isolation and all the precautions of Spain, the great idea of “ egalité, fraternité, liberté”’ penetrated to the southern seas and took root in a soil fertilized by suffering and irrigated by tears. The successful revolt of the New England colonies shook the world, and natu- rally suggested to the far-away colonies of Spain the possibility of following their example, particu- larly as the deposition of Ferdinand VII by Napoleon afforded a favorable opportunity. In 1809 uprisings took place in Venezuela, in Ecuador, in Peru, and in Argentina and on September 18, 106 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE 1810, with a courage born of desperation, the Cabildo of Santiago secured the resignation of the Spanish governor and vested his powers in an elected board of seven members, which was the beginning of popular government in Chile. One of the first acts of the republic was the abolition of the restrictive laws against free trade. In 1811, Martinez de Rosas declared Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Taleahuano, and Valdivia open ports for the commerce of all nations. ‘This progressive measure opened the gates of Chile to foreign com- merce and quadrupled customhouse receipts the first year. The same year all slaves were liberated and reforms extended even to the abuses practiced by the ecclesiastical authorities. The contributions for the support of agents of the Inquisition were stopped, as were also the parochial taxes paid to the priests for baptisms, marriages, and funerals. In 1812 the first newspaper appeared, the Aurora, printed on a press imported from the United States by a North American merchant named Matthew Arnold Havel. Although it was issued but once a week and consisted of four pages of two columns each, it signalized the freedom of the press in a country which hitherto had had to limit its self-expression to ideas approved by a far- away sovereign. ‘I'welve years later Hl] Mercurio, Chile’s greatest newspaper, had its birth. Joining forces with San Martin, Bernardo O’ Higgins defeated the Spanish forces at Chaca- buco and Maipo in 1818, and was made supreme director of Chile. Spain made an ineffectual effort AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 107 to recapture the colony by blockading the port of Valparaiso, but Admiral Cochrane saved the day and established the basis of the Chilean navy. O’Higgins, like many another successful military commander, was not a success as a president. He was induced by his friends to abdicate on January 28, 1823. His willingness to stand aside in the interests of his beloved land is one of the finest illustrations of true patriotic magnanimity. For some time Chile was governed by a triumvirate, and later General Freire assumed power, accepting the offer of a provisional government. Efforts were made to frame a constitution, but it was not until 1833, during the presidency of General Prieto, that the great publicist, Diego Portales, advanced the country’s progress materially, and drafted the con- stitution which has been in force until 1925. Chile has been blessed with good presidents in the main. The wealthy landowners have been a bulwark of conservatism and have ungrudgingly accepted what they consider their birthright as rulers of the proletariat. ‘This has naturally given rise to the political abuse of an oligarchy. For many years it has been commonly declared that one hundred families have determined the destinies of Chile, and we believe that this popular estimate is not far astray. From the very outset of Chile’s life as a sovereign state, the men who have enjoyed special privilege have gravitated to one political group. On matters of national policy they have been conservative and aristocratic. They have allied themselves with the state Church and have 108 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE endeavored to preserve in Chile the best features of organization and government derived from medieval Spain. Within the past generation, how- ever, the liberal and progressive groups have suc- cessfully rallied about intelligent leaders and have succeeded in combating the ambitions of the Church while they promoted the cause of education and general liberty for the average citizen. The majority of Chileans have been thus dependent upon the caprices of a small group of privileged persons who control the revenues. The Chilean-Peruvian War of 1879 brought to- gether men of all classes and suddenly conferred upon Chile a source of hitherto unsuspected wealth derived from the nitrate fields of the Atacama and Tarapaca deserts. Mining became a rival of agri- culture in claiming the toil of Chile’s stalwart sons. The mountains are rich in ore deposits, and foreign capital has been attracted for the exploitation of copper and iron. In the larger cities some manu- factures have been begun so that industrial organi- zation has disturbed the former equilibrium. On the large country estates it was possible to employ men as laborers for a mere pittance. When these same workers moved to the cities the attempt was made to treat them as formerly. The resultant clash was inevitable. Conscious of their worth the industrial classes have demanded their rights and a middle class is emerging from the population which hitherto had been Helots. No longer are men and women ready to live in surroundings wholly inadequate for human beings; no longer AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 109 are they ready to sacrifice themselves and their children for the enrichment of their employers; no longer are they content to accept illiteracy as their destiny; they have found wise leadership in their crusade for sound opportunity, fair treat- ment, and equal rights. ‘There are ominous mut- terings against the oppression of the clergy, whose iron hand is over all the land, through the advan- tage which accrues to a state Church. In 1920, the presidential candidate selected as the champion of the workingman and the poor, as against the special immunities of the former ruling classes, was Don Alturo Alessandri. He was elected after one of the bitterest political conflicts ever known in history. Liberal sentiment became more widespread until a revolution was threatened. In September, 1924, by a cowp d'état the deadlock in Congress was broken by a military commission who dissolved Congress. ‘The president generously presented his resignation and left for Europe. It was found, however, that the military commission were favoring the policy of the old conservative parties and in January, 1925, a larger group of the younger officers deposed the military commission, took over the reins of government and invited President Alessandri to return. No episode in the history of Chile has been more dramatic or spec- tacular than the welcome accorded the returning president. Grievous defects in the Constitution required remedying and the plan proposed is sim- ilar to that adopted by Germany when President Ebert was named chief magistrate. A constituent 110 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE assembly will be convoked in December; repre- sentatives of all classes will express the will of the people respecting a revised national charter. President Alessandri hopes to guide the proceed- ings until it be possible by constitutional methods to elect a successor and a new Chamber of Depu- ties and Senate so that the chief executive to be elected may have every liberty to devise measures for the progress of a land whose inhabitants believe in the triumph of an ideal through the use of reason. Chile’s national motto is, “ By reason or by force.” In civil reform they are ready to trust the sane judgment of her intelligent citizens. Never has there been a revolution in the sense which is commonly associated with the precarious life of South American republics. In 1891, President Balmaceda undertook to oppose Congress by levy- ing taxation directly and defying the representa- tives of the people. Each of these positions was defended by armed force. ‘The presidential troops were defeated and the president committed suicide, but never has an aspirant for the presidency taken the field with his retainers to decide the issue of a presidential election through the arbitrament of war. In the two grave national crises involving interrepublican relationships, Chile has furnished a shining example to all the peoples of the earth. In the boundary dispute with Argentina she consented to have all vexed questions decided by arbitration and her daughters joined with those of her sister republic in erecting the Christ of the Andes on a AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF CHILE 111 snowy crest through which the dividing line runs. Chile’s moot question over her northern boundary has been left to President Coolidge’s Arbitration Committee for final award. Chile is rightly adjudged one of the most pro- gressive of the South American republics; her citi- zens are intelligent, energetic, ambitious; her legis- lators are anxious to promote the welfare of all citizens; her hospitality to foreigners of the right stamp is gracious and inspiring. Chile is ready to learn, eager to cooperate, and anxious to make a large contribution to the welfare of mankind. She is ready to clasp hands with all who will join her in an earnest attempt to work out the highest destiny of a people fortunately endowed by nature, shielded by Providence, and allured by noble aspirations. JAMES H. McLEAN CHAPTER XIII SOME SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION HE development of the Protestant movement and of the Presbyterian Church in Chile has been accompanied by important constitutional re- forms and by the winning of significant liberties. Some of the facts that lay back of these victories and the public opinion in regard to them, as ex- pressed by the contemporary press, are given in this and in the following chapter. For the trans- lation of original documents and of newspaper articles, and for the writing of this and the follow- ing chapter, Miss Florence E. Smith of the Chile Mission is responsible. AN ORIGINAL PIONEER Dr. David Trumbull, who arrived in Chile in 1845, is generally regarded as the pioneer of Protestantism in that country. In 1878, the Presbyterian Board entered the field, taking over the work initiated under Dr. Trumbull’s leader- ship. But before describing the origin of the work of Dr. Trumbull and of the Presbyterian Church, reference should be made to an unusual educational development that took place twenty-five years be- fore Dr. Trumbull reached Chile. 112 THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION 1138 Early in the nineteenth century in England a man was devising a system of education for poor children which would teach the three R’s to large groups at a very small expenditure and without trained teachers. Joseph Lancaster had had few opportunities for self-culture, but at the age of twenty he began to gather a few poor children under his father’s roof and to give them the rudi- ments of an education without a fee. The main features of his plan were the employment of the older scholars to teach the younger and the use of certain mechanical drills by means of which the young teachers could impart the rudiments of read- ing, writing, and arithmetic to large groups at the same time. Soon a thousand children were gath- ered in Borough Road. The order and cheerfulness of the school and Lancaster’s ability to do so much with so little in the way of material appliances soon attracted much attention, and reached the ears of royalty itself. King George III expressed the wish, in a personal interview with Lancaster, that every child might be taught to read the New Testament, and the versatile founder of the new system thereupon made it one of his textbooks, an action which was to bear important fruit. In 1818, James Thomson, a disciple of Jan- caster, arrived in Buenos Aires, where he remained three years in the twofold capacity of educational- ist and agent of the British Bible Society. The Argentine Government made many promises which remained unfulfilled, but the indefatigable Thom- son succeeded in founding eight schools and a soci- 114 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE ety pledged to the Lancasterian methods. With an ecclesiastic at its head, this society in a short time had one hundred schools where five thousand children were being educated. After such encouraging results in Argentina, in 1821, Thomson crossed the cordillera and intro- duced the Lancasterian system into Chile, where he arrived at the psychological moment. In the midst of all the disorder to which the new republic had fallen heir, men of broad vision were trying to extend the cause of popular education under the greatest difficulties. A new plan of primary edu- cation had been drawn up in 1813 by which schools should be established for both boys and girls in every village of fifty families, and the Instituto Nacional, organized in Santiago the same year by the fusion of three colonial schools, provided for the secondary education of that period. The ad- vent of a leader like Thomson with a ready-made system which needed no trained teachers, few text- books, and little expenditure of money, was hailed with great enthusiasm. He came under Govern- ment contract, as is evidenced by the following document: “The envoy of Chile will pay Mr. Thomson for the establishment of such schools as the capital of Chile may permit, the sum of one hundred pesos per month for the period of one year, which time is considered sufficient for establishing such schools and preparing the monitors and subalterns who shall continue the management of them. ... For THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION 115 the transportation of the director two hundred pesos will be paid on his arrival in Chile. (Signed ) “ MicgueL ZANARTU. ‘Dirco THOMSON. “Buenos Aires, March 26, 1821.” For his first school the Government ceded Thom- son the chapel of the University of San Felipe, which occupied the site of the present Municipal Theater. The chapel was the largest hall in the building, but it needed more light and its altars were converted into seats and its images of saints had to give room to maps and blackboards.* The alterations were speedily made, and on the national holiday, September 18, 1821, the new school opened its doors to two hundred children. In October of the same year, Thomson writes: “We expect to open another school in the Uni- versity Building, for which we already have more applicants than the hall will accommodate. All classes of society are interested in our schools, and every day we are visited by Government ministers. Four professors are studying our methods and in a few months more we shall be able to open schools in provincial towns, according to our plan. In Concepcion, in Coquimbo, and in other smaller towns, preparations are being made for the es- tablishment of Lancasterian schools.” 1 El Sistema de Lancaster en Chile, Amunategui Solar. 116 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE The third school in Santiago was located in the buildings which had belonged to the Jesuits, ex- pelled in 1767, where the Congressional Building now stands. In Valparaiso the first of these schools was opened in 1822 with 130 pupils, Thomson remained in Chile but the one year, according to his contract, but in this short time he accomplished wonders, establishing schools, pre- paring teachers, and not omitting to carry on his work as agent of the Bible Society. From Chile he went to Peru at the invitation of San Martin, and the impression he had made in Chile is demon- strated by the following letter: “Citizen Bernardo O’Higgins, decorated with the gold medals of Chacabuco and Maipo, Grand Officer and President of the Legion of Merit, Founder of the Order of the Sun, Commander in Chief of the Armies of Chile and Peru, Admiral of the National Navy, and Supreme Director of the State of Chile: “In view of the notable patriotism of Mr. Diego Thomson, native of England, and of the great merit which he has acquired in Chile as director of schools for mutual help according to the Lancas- terian system established in this city, the Normal School and others which have been opened by teachers who have received their training under him, the establishment of which all through the country will open an extensive field for the good education of youth and the consequent betterment of customs generally among all its inhabitants, THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION 117 and desiring to reward him according to the means at the disposition of this Government, “Hereby declares him to be a Chilean citizen, and therefore that he is and shall be respected as such Chilean, equal in rights with all who dwell in this country, and he shall enjoy all the graces and privileges thereunto belonging. “In virtue whereof all the inhabitants of Chile shall consider him as citizen thereof. Notice is hereby given to all courts, leaders, and judges that they shall collectively and individually carry out the terms of this my letter. ‘Take due notice hereof His Excellency, El Cabildo. “Written in the Presidential Palace, Santiago, Chile, May 31, 1822. (Signed) ‘“ Brernarpo O’HicaIns. “ JOAQUIN DE ECHEVERRIA.” It is not within the province of this chapter to follow in detail the story of Thomson in Peru and Colombia, which in truth reads like a romance, but the truth of which is abundantly proved by his- torical documents. In Lima, San Martin, not finding another place equally suitable, ordered the friars to vacate the College of St. Thomas, which order was given on Saturday. On Monday the friars vacated, and on Tuesday the Lancasterian school was opened. Things moved more rapidly in the early days of independence! Within two months, more than six hundred children were study- ing in the ancient hall of St. Thomas and reading the Bible instead of the lives of the saints. Thom- 118 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE son writes that in two days he sold five hundred Bibles and five hundred Testaments, and adds: “What immense advantages have resulted from the revolution! How great the blessings that fol- low in the steps of liberty! The Bible is now pub- licly sold only a short distance from the site where the terrible Inquisition celebrated its sessions.” He laments that his stock of Bibles is exhausted and unceasingly urges the Bible Society to send enough Bibles and Testaments “to cover if possible all South America.” The National Congress in Lima named Jose Francisco Navarrete, a respected priest of that city, to help Thomson in the organ- ization of his schools, and in 1826 he refers to him as his “able and esteemed collaborator” and recommends him to the attention of the Bible Society. As Dr. Lester points out in his Historia de la Obra Evangélica Presbiteriana en Chile, the story of Thomson’s work from this distance seems more like a fairy tale than sober fact. How could this man preach the gospel, found Christian schools and Bible societies, and in his work gain the in- terest and sympathy of both governments and priests, in times of crass ignorance and supersti- tion, doing a work which even to-day, a century later, would be impossible? The explanation is found: 1. In the character of Thomson — his valor, op- timism, constancy, and faith, combined with great tact. 2. In the awakening of intellectual and spiritual THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION _ 119 interest after the overthrow of Spanish thralldom. Men rejoiced in the exercise of new liberties. 38. During the struggle for independence, the Roman Catholic Church had steadfastly favored the monarchy and thwarted the establishment of the republic. The pope, faithful to his antecedents and the monarchical constitution of the Church, ex- communicated all who shouldered arms against the mother country. With very few exceptions, clerics and monks fought with the soldiers of Spain. It was natural, therefore, that in the first flush of victory, Chile should favor any movement which tended to debilitate the power of the Church. Conditions, therefore, favored the work of Thomson, and he knew how to embrace the op- portunity. But alas! Thomson was but one, and the only one, and his work could not endure. Ten years later the schools and societies which he founded had disappeared. Where was the Evan- gelical Church of England and America, and why did it not come to Thomson’s aid? He had opened the doors, they had but to enter in, in those days which Amunategui calls “the golden age of Protestanism in Chile.” But the American Church was not looking far beyond its own borders at that time. ‘The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- sions in the United States of America was not founded until sixteen years later, 1837, and did not interest itself in Spanish America until a dec- ade after its organization. ‘This movement which promised to change the intellectual and moral life of the new republics was allowed to die. 120 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE But if the Evangelical Church was not awake to the possibilities of the situation, not so of the state Church. Seeing that the colonies had finally triumphed, it did not take long for the astute hierarchy to change its political garments and pre- sent itself as the monitor and guide of Chile. Not many years later the Church had perfected its or- ganization and recovered its lost prestige, and had become as rich, autocratic, and dominant as ever, raising an insurmountable wall against the en- trance of freedom of religious thought and faith. Tuer GOSPEL FOR FOREIGNERS One of the most significant events in the history of Chile was the opening of its ports to foreign trade by Juan Martinez de Rosas in 1811, bring- ing in its wake not only increased wealth but, what was of even greater advantage to the country, col- onizers of Anglo-Saxon blood. And hereby hangs the tale of the introduction of the reformed faith, notwithstanding the insurmountable wall which the dominant Church had raised. No barrier of human construction, whether civil or religious, in the history of the centuries, has ever effectually prevented the propagation of the idea of equality, fraternity, and liberty. These foreigners were mostly from the north of Europe, England, and North America, and there- fore Protestants. That they should worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences had been the right for which their ancestors had THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION 121 suffered and died, and in coming to a new land they had no mind to leave their religion at home, or to be coerced into the adoption of another which was repugnant to their convictions. But by the Constitution of 1833 the religion of Chile was officially declared to be the Roman Catholic Apos- tolic, to the exclusion of all others. Education, marriage, and right of burial were solely in the hands of the priests. It does not require a very active imagination to comprehend what must have been the difficulties attendant upon the establish- ment of a home under such circumstances. It is not strange, therefore, that as the number of these foreigners increased, urgent appeals be- gan to be made to the Church at home to send out evangelical pastors to minister to the needs of Eng- lish-speaking congregations. In 1844 such a peti- tion, signed by English and North American resi- dents in Valparaiso, was sent to the Foreign Kvan- gelical Society of New York, later known as the American and Foreign Christian Union. We do not know the names of the signers of this historic document, but it conveyed one significant phrase: “A minister to preach in English, and also to carry the gospel to the Chileans.” This call reached David Trumbull, a Yale grad- uate of 1842, just as he was completing his course in Princeton Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1845, and we find the following comment in his journal in March of that year: “ It seems as though a field was opened there and in some respects as though I am fitted to enter and 122 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE enna till it, and, scattering seed, to wait patiently for God to give the increase.” A sailing ship, the Mississippi, 137 days from New York to VWal- paraiso around Cape Horn, brought him to his chosen field of labor, where he landed on Christmas Day, 1845. The Seaman’s Friend Society had co- operated with the Christian Union in sending him out, on the basis that part of his work should be dedicated to sailors in Valparaiso Bay. The port of Valparaiso, then a town of some 50,000 inhabitants, was already a great harbor where ships of all nations came to anchor. In 1850 nearly 1,500 commercial vessels, with 15,000 per- sons on board, representing thirty different nation- alities, visited Valparaiso; but then, as now, it had the reputation of being one of the wickedest ports in the world. It was a bleak challenge which confronted this young man of twenty-six that memorable Christ- mas Day. Beyond a small congregation led by an Anglican consular chaplain, Rev. William Arm- strong, In a private house on English Hill, there was no evangelical service for any nationality and no possibility of having one except behind closed doors. Dr. Trumbull’s first sermon was preached on board the Mississippi in Valparaiso Bay on Sunday, January 4, 1846, to a congregation of forty, from the text: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” II Cor. 4:4. THE HISTORY OF THE CHILE MISSION — 1238 Tradition has it that the next week he held his first service on shore in a warehouse of El Mer- curio, the great Chilean newspaper. 1,000 ROBERN LOM e tle we Wk Poly a gels! «(nls » 500 ene, Monte Aguila oe)... se + 300 15,400 1927-1928 DRAGON ALMNCARUG. SL ily avs s'« 0 2,800 Church and Manse, Parral ......... 2,000 Aspen. CONSEEMCION 2). + vine a slew 0s 4,000 Chapel and School, Carmen Lots, IMEEM eter eo le teaches a ahs. 9 1,000 9,800 1928-1929 Church and Manse, San Javier ..... 3,000 AIM HA NTD 2 CHT IOE Belg eens 51a 2,000 Chapel, Playa Ancha (Valparaiso) .... 4,000 9,000 1929-1930 OSTATIC RE OTISD here 5 Wa, eeed ms vba kes 3,000 SSB EL AN PANLONIO. s os.e 5 « creeds o> 4,000 7,000 $232,900 5 go) Chae vey 2 bing» ef, Aa aa oallla read the ade ahs f ‘i 0 sf ‘¥ , pe 1. \ i f he ; { g H ) *+ f ‘ , ee ello A I abit ; uy 4 PUP eee & ‘ La | j us a th Nya 7 ial DA ” PARTS LT BRAZIL / \ As . ; f j fe s ‘ ed , ; aang Reese hr ihe CHAPTER I ROLLING DOWN TO RIO On Boarp SouTHERN Cross, March 12, 1925 “Great steamers, white and gold, Go rolling down to Rio, And Id love to roll to Rio, Some day before I’m old!” O Rudyard Kipling has written, and soloists, undergraduate and otherwise, have sung; during these past twelve days we have translated song and verse into unforgettable reality. The steamers of the Pan-America Line of the United States Shipping Board, operated by the Munson Steamship Company, are indeed white and gold. The Southern Cross, on which we sailed from New York on the last day of February, is one of the Shipping Board’s “ 535’s,” a steamer 535 feet in length and of about 14,000 tons register. The four sister ships of the Munson Line, of which the Southern Cross is one, are capable of eighteen knots and are the largest and fastest liners on the run between New York and Rio and Buenos Aires. The Southern Cross is painted a glistening white, and with its shining brass work and railings pre- sents a picture quite in keeping with Kipling’s verse. 173 174 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Every ocean voyage has its own characteristics and atmosphere. Who can forget the haunting music and decorative leis of Honolulu and the ‘““murmurous, soft Hawaiian sea”’; the invigorat- ing breezes that blow from off the Aleutian islands and the cold, gray waves under North Pacific skies; the diurnal somersault or forward, at the crossing of the one hundred and eightieth meridian? So those who go “rolling down to Rio” will have unique experiences and memories. Perhaps most typical is the ceremony observed at the crossing of the Equator, and this I will attempt to describe. On the evening of the seventh we saw the power- ful searchlight of our ship send its glowing shafts over the sea off our bows. Then, apparently out of the sea, and directly over the bow of the ship, appeared a figure in white, flowing robes, carrying a trident, which moved to the center of the forward deck and announced that he was Triton, and that Neptune would board the ship on the ninth and would initiate all those who had not previously entered his equatorial realm. With a parting cry to beware, Triton disappeared over the bow, the passing of his float being marked by a blazing buoy that floated fast astern and that winked and gleamed on the far horizon long after he had disappeared. We crossed the Equator the night of the eighth and on the afternoon of the ninth all passengers assembled on the after deck. At three o’clock the ship’s orchestra appeared, heading a strange pro- cession. In the first rank came Neptune (Dr. R. ROLLING DOWN TO RIO 175 E. Speer), a gigantic, bearded figure festooned in maritime robes with the severe and judicial aspect of Michelangelo’s Moses; Neptune’s queen and daughter; a prosecuting attorney (Dr. S. G. Inman), dressed in high silk hat and black robe; and a group of examiners and guards armed with all types of instruments of torture. Neptune called his court to order, and the prosecuting attor- ney read the names of the neophytes who were to be initiated. These appeared before the king and were given various sentences. ‘The neophytes in- cluded such well-known individuals as Bishop F’. J. McConnell, Professor D. J. Fleming, Mrs. Robert EK. Speer, and Mrs. James Cushman, and the court was in session for more than two hours as sentences were passed and ruthlessly carried out. Later each neophyte was given a diploma, which read: Neptunus Rex “To all fish affluent or indigent and other dwell- ers of the vasty deep: “ Greeting: We, Neptunus Rex, exalted Poten- tate of the Deep Sea, do certify and proclaim that . aboard the good steamship Southern Cross on March 9, 1925, was duly initiated into the mys- teries of the Order of the Trident, instructed as to the sign of the Lobscouse and the password of the Brotherhood of the Salt Horse, and is, therefore, hereby constituted a Sea Urchin with all privileges and emoluments, if any, appertaining thereto. ‘““ Attested — Neptunus Rex. “ Commander — Joun G. F ELS.” 176 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL The mechanical inventions which safeguard life and aid navigation on such a ship as the Southern Cross are impressive. Captain John G. Fels and the officers of the Southern Cross were most cor- dial, and the former invited us to the bridge to inspect the apparatus there. The ship was steered by a gyrocompass, an adaptation of the principle of the gyroscope, which was used in the war in the self-direction of torpedoes. ‘The course is set by the compass, and if the ship deviates from it, elec- tric contacts are made through which power is applied to the rudder, the direction of the ship recti- fied, and the course maintained. ‘The captain said that the gyrocompass, or “ Iron Mike,” as it is famil- larly called, steered more truly than a man could do; but it seemed strange to us to see our great ship plowing through the ocean with no human hand at the wheel. Another invention which was given its first trial on our ship on our present trip was that of a radiocompass, by which the ship’s position could be ascertained in relation to certain land- marks when these were hidden by fog or were too far distant for communication except by radio. Certain hghthouses or stations known to navigators send out radio signals for the guidance of shipping. The radiocompass has an aérial like a magnified De Forest radio. Instead of turning this aérial at right angles to these sound waves from the distant station, so that the maximum sound is recorded, the aérial is turned until the sound is at a minimum, or until it ceases altogether. Thus the aérial is pointed directly, or almost directly, at the sending ROLLING DOWN TO RIO 177 station, and its direction is recorded on the chart. By taking another observation in this way a few miles farther on, and since the course and speed of the ship are known, it is possible to ascertain the angles of the two lines of radio signal, and the intersection of these lines on the chart gives the position of the ship. If there are two radio sta- tions on shore at some distance from each other this process is simplified. Despite such safeguards the sea is not without its victims. Last summer the Southern Cross picked up six survivors of a Norwegian schooner which had sunk off Cape Hatteras in the great storm in which the Arabic and other vessels were endangered. ‘The six men were afloat on a raft made from wreckage and had been for six days and nights without food or water. Hovering around the raft were several sharks which were patiently waiting their time. ‘The third officer of the Southern Cross, who picked up the shipwrecked mariners, struck one of these sharks over the head with an oar and drove the others away so the sailors could be transferred safely to the lifeboat. Among the survivors was the colored cook of the sunken vessel. After the rescue, one of the Norwegian sailors remarked, “One more day, and we ban eat the cook.” All of the sailors rescued lived, and were landed safely in New York. With a knowledge of such narrow escapes from tragedy in mind, and with the recollection of what the early discoverers and conquistadores braved to cross these seas, and after a few minutes in the 178 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL rooms of the radio operator surrounded by ma- chinery as intricate and awesome as the products of the imagination of H. G. Wells, or on the bridge, watching the wheel turning and keeping true to the course as if grasped by an unknown hand, we felt anew the greatness of this scientific age and the debt we owed to those who have pioneered in in- vention and discovery. Science has made the high seas safer, and in civilized lands has introduced comforts and luxu- ries unknown a generation ago, but there are sea- coasts and lands where there is much yet to be accomplished, and where the summons to service is still the call to the conquistador and the pioneer. There are many such areas in South America to- day, and on our ship are nearly fifty delegates to the Congress on Christian Work in South America, to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, who are repre- sentatives of the practical interest that the churches in North America are taking in this friendly serv- ice. Dr. Robert EK. Speer is chairman of the Com- mittee of Arrangements for this congress, Dr. Samuel G. Inman is secretary, and there are dele- gates on board from eleven different denominations in the United States. Each morning a conference has been held, with one of the twelve Commission reports prepared for the congress as the topic of discussion. The fellowship on board has been true and fine and prophetic of that which is to come. The first evening after we entered the tropics the sunset was inexpressibly beautiful. In the east the sky was flooded with evanescent tints and mod- ROLLING DOWN TO RIO 179 ulations of color which faded finally into a steady afterglow that warmed the whole horizon. In the west the clouds were fringed and tipped with fire so that they gleamed like the golden barriers of heaven itself. ‘Then “the sun’s rim dipped; the stars rushed out: at one stride came the dark.” We saw for the first time, low on the horizon, the Southern Cross, and above it the F'alse Cross, a distorted repetition of the symmetrical constellation below. A new moon rose and shone with a bright- ness and beauty that only tropical latitudes know. Our great steamer, white and gold, heaved majes- tically to the roll of the long Caribbean swell, and moved southward over the moonlit waters like a ship in a dream. Who would not love to go thus “ rolling down to Rio” ? But there are other joys and compensations in this journey more rich and abiding than those con- ferred by science and nature. Just as we have been gazing upon the Cross, True and False, in these southern heavens, so South America has looked upon two crosses. But the cross that has been held before it has been one falsely represented and dis- torted in meaning and message, and just as we believe that Luther was led by God to blaze the way for the Protestant Reformation in Europe four centuries ago, and to bring out in new relief the simplicity and direct saving power of the true cross, so we believe that God’s spirit is leading and guiding the evangelical and Protestant movement which was begun in South America only seventy years ago, whose light is shining with ever in- 180 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL creasing brightness and glory over southern lands and seas. In Rio de Janeiro, where we land to- morrow, we shall see the first fruits of this move- ment; we are grateful for the opportunity of shar- ing in its service; and our prayer is that we of both North and South America may walk in the light as He is in the light, and so may have true fellow- ship one with another and with Him. W. R. W. CHAPTER II FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL On Boarp S.S. Luretia, ComMpaanig Sup-ATLANTIQUE, March 23, 1925 T sunrise on March 13 we entered the wonder- ful harbor of Rio de Janeiro; nine days later, on March 22, we sailed from the port of Santos for Montevideo. This letter will carry to you our first impressions of Brazil. The first fact that impresses one is that Brazil hes east as well as south of the United States. This “ easting ” of the continent brought about the Portuguese discovery of the country through ac- cident rather than by design. Vincente Pinzon, a Spaniard and former companion of Columbus, had explored the Brazilian coast near the mouth of the Amazon early in 1500, but his discovery was ig- nored by the Spanish Government, which was in- terested only in the reports from the “ Indies ” farther north. In 1497, Vaseo da Gama reached Calicut via the Cape of Good Hope, and had thus opened a way to India by sailing south and east. In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral, a Portuguese, at- tempted to make the same voyage. In his journey south, under instructions from Da Gama, and in order to avoid the equatorial doldrums off the Afri- can coast, he kept well away from that coast line, and on Good Friday, April 22, 1500, sighted land 181 182 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL to the west, the shores of Brazil, near the present state of Bahia. Cabral took possession of the land in the name of the Portuguese king, naming it “ la tierra de Vera Cruz,’ “The Land of the True Cross.” He sent a ship back to Portugal to make a report of the discovery, and went on to India. Later Amerigo Vespucci explored the Brazilian coast, the present name of the new continent north and south being derived from his association in this exploration, Brazil taking its name from the trees that produced a deep-red dye resembling that known in Europe as “ brasil.” On our voyage we sailed east as well as south, and turned our watches back two hours before reaching Rio. The difference in time between the United States and Europe is only three hours, so that Brazil is two thirds of the way, reckoning in time at least, across the Atlantic. A plumb line drawn due south from New York would not only fall to the west of Brazil but would not touch most of the continent of South America at all. In this sense, North and South America might be called West and East America. The southern continent is nearer to Africa and to southern Europe than it is to the United States, and this fact has had im- portant implications, both in the early history of the Americas and in their present development. - From the time we sighted land near Cape San Roque, on March 10, until we passed the southern boundaries of Brazil on March 24, we were con- tinually impressed by the size and expanse of ter- ritory of this great country. Its coast line extends FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL 183 along the Atlantic for nearly 4,000 miles; its total area exceeds by 200,000 square miles that of con- tinental United States, excluding Alaska, and is equal to the continental territory of the United States plus that of the British Isles, Holland, Bel- gium, Switzerland, and Portugal. Brazil is the fourth largest country in the world, being exceeded only by Russia, China, and by the United States when Alaska and the American insular possessions are included. Brazil includes within its boundaries nearly half the territory of South America. The single state of Texas in our own land is larger than many European countries, yet Brazil has one state, Amazonas, with 731,000 square miles, three times the area of Texas, and two states, Matto Grosso and Para, approximately double its size. A single island in the mouth of the Amazon is as large as the state of Massachusetts. The Amazon River is the largest river in the world; if its headwaters rose in the Olympic range of mountains in Wash- ington, on the Pacific Coast, this great river would extend entirely across our own continent and out into the Atlantic for nearly a thousand miles. The river is navigable for almost its entire length of 3,850 miles, ocean-going vessels sailing to Manaos, 925 miles from the sea; in the Amazon Valley are 25,000 miles of navigable waters. Brazil is the largest country in area on the south- ern continent; it is also the largest in population. But in its territory there are only 30,000,000 people, an average of nine inhabitants to the square mile, so that it is also one of the least densely 184 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL populated and least developed countries in the world. There are only 20,000 miles of railroad. On the round trip to Cuyaba, the capital of Matto Grosso, 2,000 miles from Rio, Dr. McGregor spent twenty-five days in hard and constant travel by train and river steamer, so that the great distances and the pioneer status of inland Brazil were brought forcibly home to us. The rugged beauty of this great land is im- pressive. We felt it first when we saw the elevated outline of its mountainous shore, the sky line broken by wooded hills and plateaus, We sighted Cape Frio on March 12; the Cape lay extended like a huge ichthyosaurus, with humped back and extended tail and neck, its head a rounded hill lit by a lighthouse that winked and blinked at us like an observant, reptilian eye. Nearer Rio, great, rounded granite boulders protruded above the waves, like the heads of some enormous creatures of the deep, described in one of Kipling’s “ Just So Stories ” as the submarine beasts which came to the surface and devoured cities and supplies, yet were the smallest of thirty thousand brothers who lived at the bottom of the sea. The next morning we entered the harbor of Rio, in the traditional manner at daybreak. Rio de Janeiro takes its name from the fact that its Portuguese discoverers, who entered the bay Jan- uary 1, 1531, thought they were at the mouth of a great river, and named it accordingly for the day of its discovery. Rio has been much written about: it is one of the few cities that actually surpasses FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL 185 its many laudatory descriptions. I shall not at- tempt another, except to say that, with its great bay one hundred miles in circumference, dotted by islands, bright with tossing palms and tropical foli- age, and punctuated by picturesque inlets and coves, with Pao de Assucar, a granite “ sugar loaf,” a quarter of a mile high, standing sentinel- ~ like at the harbor entrance, with the bright-colored houses of the metropolis lying like a necklace about the titanic throat of Corcovado, a precipitous cliff that towers 2,200 feet above the city and sea, with a triple range of hills and crags encircling the entire bay, the Organ Mountains in the ulti- mate distance rising apparently out of the clouds, Rio combines in unique fashion the glories of the three most beautiful harbor cities of the world — the Golden Gate and inner bay of San Francisco, Naples in the Mediterranean, and the Bay of Car- tagena on the Caribbean. The late Lord Bryce has well reproduced the spirit and atmosphere of the city and bay: “ Sup- pose the bottom of the Yosemite Valley, or that of the Valley of Auronzo in the Venetian Alps, filled with water, and the effect would be some- thing like the bay of Rio. Yet the superb vege- tation would be wanting, and the views to far- away mountains, and the sense of the presence of the blue ocean outside the capes that guard the entrance. ... Other cities there are where moun- tains rising around form a noble background and refresh the hearts of such town dwellers as have learnt to love them. ... But in Rio the moun- 186 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL tains seem to be almost a part of the city, for it clings and laps around their spurs just as the sea below laps around the capes that project into the bay. Nor does one see elsewhere such weird forms rising directly from the yards and gardens of the houses. ... Such strange mountain forms give to the landscape of the city a bizarre air. ‘They are things to dream of, not to tell. They remind one of those bits of fantastic rock scenery which Leonardo da Vinci loved to put in as backgrounds. Yet the grotesqueness of the shapes is lost in the splendor of the whole — a flood of sunshine, a strand of dazzling white, a sea of turquoise blue, a feathery forest ready to fall from its cliff upon the city in a cascade of living green.” * Brazil is beautiful, but it is a rugged beauty that holds a hint of menace in it that the unexplored and uncontrolled powers of nature always possess. The coast of Brazil is beautiful, but back of it we felt the threat of the vast hinterland of forest and jungle that contains the greatest unexplored wil- derness in the world to-day. The city of Rio itself is beautiful, but its chief beauty comes from the magnificence of its natural surroundings. The city is poised upon a narrow and precarious ledge at the foot of towering cliffs; the mountains above dwarf it and reduce it to unimpressive proportions. Over this vast land hovers a spirit of which Stewart Edward White wrote in The Silent Places, and we were glad when from boat or train we saw houses or glimpses of the handiwork of man. 1 South America, Lord Bryce, pp. 378-381. "(esr ‘d) . pjaom ay} Jo SoD Aoqivy [NJNvsq jsoutr Va1y} ey} Jo sat1o[# oy uorysey enbrum ut seurquios ONT 5, OUIHANVE Ad OIN AO ALIO GNV WORUVH COShS FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL 187 We were struck by the resemblance of Rio and Sao Paulo and Santos to the more prosperous cities of Southern Europe, of Italy, of Southern France, and of Spain. This portion of South America is more Kuropean than American. The houses are French and L[talian and Moorish in color and line; on the streets we heard French and Span- ish and Italian nearly as often as Portuguese. There were many automobiles in evidence, but also many two-wheeled carts, drawn by diminutive don- keys just as in Italy or Spain. In the better hotels the menus were in French and the accommodations were fully as comfortable as those supplied on the Southern European continent. Of the 30,000,000 inhabitants of Brazil, about one half, or 16,000,000, are largely of white blood, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish; 4,000,000 are Negroes; 8,000,000 are of mixed white and Negro blood; and about 1,500,000 are Indian. North America has not made much of a contribution to the racial stock of Brazil. In Rio, whose population is estimated at 1,200,000, there are less than 1,000 from the United States. Brazil has drawn its blood and its religion largely from Southern Europe; the religious faith which sprang up in Northern Europe, and which finds its strongest adherents in North America, has had a foothold in Brazil for less than seventy years. Of its growth and power as we have seen them demonstrated during the past nine days, I will try to write in the next chapter. WV en Vi CHAPTER III SOME GLIMPSES OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO AND SAO PAULO Monrevipeo, Urvuavay, March 27, 1925 S we entered the inner harbor at Rio, we passed a picturesque island which bore the name of Villegaignon. ‘There the French Hugue- nots, under the leadership of Nicholas Villegai- gnon, had established a settlement in 1555. With this enterprise are associated two of the greatest names in Protestant history, those of Calvin and Coligny. These two leaders encouraged a group of Huguenots to sail for “ Antarctic France,” and the fortress they built upon the island in Rio har- bor was named Fort Coligny. If that movement of the Huguenots had continued and the Protes- tants of France had become firmly established on Brazilian shores, how history would have been altered and what a transformation there would have been in the record of the Protestant Church in the Americas! But Villegaignon proved to be a traitor, the Portuguese drove the French from the island in 1567, and the colony was divided and disappeared. Later, Dutch Calvinists, under the leadership of Maurice of Nassau, attempted to settle in northern Brazil, but after an occupation extending from 1624 to 1654 they, too, were driven 188 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO 189 away. With the exception of a short visit of Henry Martin, who stopped on his way to India along the Brazilian coast in 1806, and of a tem- porary work done by Methodists from 1835 to 1842, the Protestant Church was not represented again in Brazil until 1855, when Dr. Robert R. Kalley, a Scotch Presbyterian, arrived in Rio and established there and in Pernambuco church groups under the Congregational form of govern- ment, which have continued until this day. Then in 1859 came the pioneer of Presbyterian Missions, Rev. A. G. Simonton, followed the next year by Rev. G. W. Chamberlain and Rev. A. L. Black- ford, the latter a brother-in-law of Dr. Simonton. In 1861 a preaching hall was opened in Rio; in 1862 the first Presbyterian church was established; in 1865 the Presbytery of Rio was organized. The work spread from Rio to Sao Paulo and Campinas and Pernambuco. The Methodists reopened work in 1876; the Baptists came in 1881; and the Epis- copalians, after an earlier temporary effort, re- newed their work in 1889. Such in outline is the history of the Protestant movement in Brazil.’ We had not spent twenty-four hours in Rio be- fore we had seen indisputable and inspiring evi- dence of the vitality and strength of this Protestant church, first planted less than two generations ago. An efficient-looking Brazilian boarded our steamer at the pier and gave to our party schedules of the meetings planned for the regional conference in Rio. He was Sr. Erasmo Braga, the secretary of 1 A fuller account is given in Chapter XV. 190 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL the local Committee on Cooperation and Moder- ator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, in culture and ability the peer of any man, North or South American, whom we met in Brazil. The schedule planned for the three days’ conference was an energetic one, pro- viding for meetings in the local churches at eight in the morning, two in the afternoon, and eight in the evening. On Sunday, for good measure, the first meeting was scheduled for seven-thirty. There was certainly nothing of South American languor in that schedule, and to travelers just arriving in the tropics it was a challenging test of North American energy. The reports of the work of the various churches given us at the first meeting we attended were im- pressive. Naturally we were keenly interested in the Presbyterian work. The Presbyterian Church of Brazil reported at the meeting of its General Assembly, in February, 1924, that there were 21,— 129 members in full profession, with 20,901 bap- tized (including children) who were not communi- cants; 3 synods, 10 presbyteries, 155 churches, 88 ordained ministers, all Brazilians, 867 preaching places, 306 Sunday schools, with 16,607 pupils, 179 church buildings valued at more than 3,000,000 milreis, or about $400,000, American gold, the contributions of the Church for 1923 totaling ap- proximately $140,000 in United States currency. Most of the churches are self-supporting. The total budget of both Brazil Missions representing gifts from the United States churches for their ERASMO BRAGA Secretary of the Brazilian Committee on Codperation; Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil; Chairman of the Congress on Christian Work in South America. “In culture and ability the peer of any man, North South American, whom we met in Brazil” (p. 190). ” THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO 191 work, and not including the salaries of our own missionaries, is about $11,000. This covers educa- tional, literary, medical, and evangelistic services. There is an Independent Presbyterian Church also in Brazil, which has no financial relations with the Missions; it reported this year 10,000 members, 23 ordained ministers, 100 churches, whose con- tributions amount approximately to $100,000 in American gold. At present there are 57 mission- aries of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil, their salaries and allowances representing an annual ap- propriation of about $60,000. When the appro- priation for the native work is added, the total annual investment from the home churches is $71,000. On the Brazilian side there are 111 or- dained ministers and 31,000 actual communicants, and the total contributions of the Brazilian Presbyterian churches amount approximately to $240,000, American gold. The pioneer mission- aries of our Church, Simonton, Blackford, and Chamberlain, must rejoice in this truly great growth of the movement which they began only sixty-five years ago. The other Protestant churches have reported inspiring growth also. ‘The Methodists have 15,000 members; the Baptists, 20,000; the Epis- copalians, 2,300 members; the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., in recent years have made distinct con- tributions. Rev. H. S. Harris, an affiliated mem- ber of our South Brazil Mission, reported that there were 82,000 children and young people in the Protestant Sunday schools of Brazil. The total 192 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL number of the Protestant communicants is esti- mated to be approximately 80,000. During the three days’ conference and after its sessions, we visited the various evangelistic centers in Rio. A college maintained by the Baptists is doing fine work and an evangelical hospital, with equipment for one-hundred beds, is making a con- tribution which only those who have lived in Latin American lands can appreciate. In a report writ- ten in 1909, Dr. Speer had said, “ It will be a long time before the native Protestant community in any South American city can supply and maintain its own hospital,” yet in Brazil to-day a hospital is in existence, supported entirely by fees and by gifts from the evangelical churches of Brazil, no funds being contributed from the United States. One Presbyterian church, of which Sr. Alvaro Reis is pastor, has a membership of 1,900 and is the larg- est Protestant church in South America. On March 18, we left Rio, with crowded mem- ories of the full and happy days there spent with our friends of the Brazilian churches, and after a twelve-hour ride through beautiful mountainous country we reached Sao Paulo, the second city of Brazil and its most wealthy metropolis. The next day we were invited to inspect the work of the churches there and, in a long line of automobiles, drove past the more important centers. A list had been compiled of 37 institutions, Sao Paulo havy- ing 21 organized evangelical churches, with a total of 54 points in the city where the “message of the gospel is delivered with regularity.” The THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO 1938 Methodists have 10 Sunday schools, with 968 pu- pils; the Presbyterians, 14 Sunday schools, with 1,109 pupils; the Independent Presbyterians, 13 Sunday schools, with 820 pupils, and so on down the list. The local committee had made careful arrangements and each church or Sunday school was placarded with a number which corresponded to its description in the leaflets given to our party. There were two especially interesting Sunday schools: one, ““ Number 6,” of the new Presbyterian church, the building of which was consecrated in September, 1922, having an enrollment of 470 pu- pils; the smallest school, “Number 11,” being “ conducted by two little sisters, one 9 and the other 7 years old, with 7 pupils.” After we had filed past and inspected churches and Sunday schools for most of the morning, our itinerary was varied by a visit to the Government snake farm known as Instituto Butantan. 'There snakes of all kinds, both poisonous and nonpoison- ous, are kept and antidotes are prepared there for snake bite, the antitoxin being made from the poi- son of the venomous snakes themselves. We watched with interest one of the attendants lift the poisonous jararaca, the wrutw and the jararacussu, and display their poisonous fangs and also allow the boa constrictors to coil about his arms as he lifted them from the ground. Ex-President Roosevelt has written a vivid description of this snake farm, which is contained in one of the early chapters of his book, Through the Brazilian Wil- derness. 194 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL On the twentieth, our party of delegates visited Mackenzie College, the outstanding Protestant in- stitution of higher learning in Brazil, and one of the best-known colleges in the country. The in- stitution has a total registration of over 1,400 stu- dents. It offers a complete course of instruction from the lower primary grades to the college and normal departments, and full courses in civil, archi- tectural, mechanical, electrical, and chemical en- gineering. There are seventy-six teachers, of whom eight are North Americans. ‘The college owns eleven and a half acres of property favorably situated in a high part of the city, and has devel- oped its site to the fullest possible extent, with a campus, athletic field, and buildings of North American standards and appearance. Its history goes back to 1871, when a school was opened with three pupils, one white boy, one black boy, and one white girl, thus beginning coeducation and the democratic mixture of social classes which has con- tinued ever since. and was secured outside the city for the amount of $400; later this property was sold for $120,000 and the present site was purchased. ‘The school early forged to the front rank in education in Brazil, and before 1890 was sending more pupils to the examinations for the Government professional schools than any other school in Sao Paulo. In 1890 the college was in- corporated under the laws of the state of New York. In 1891 courses in higher education were organized. In 1923 the engineering schools were recognized by the Brazilian Government and given THE GOVERNMENT SNAKE FARM, INSTITUTO BUTANTAN, AT SAO PAULO “We watched with interest one of the attendants lift the poisonous jararaca... and display its poisonous fangs” (p. 193). . — — ene 44 7 ‘ P 9 Pes ss — ak oe ' "4 = aed dee ne ¥ -» r) > aoe re eae | a. q : « vs =’ w* 7 a he . \ ¢ fig 6 oe * ° : i 1 } : ‘ 5 ] 4 be. Z 1 ® ‘ « THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO 195 an established place in the educational systems of Brazil. The Presbyterian Board made an annual grant of $5,000 to the college for a number of years, but in 1923 this grant ceased and since that year, as far as any contributions received from the churches in North America are concerned, it has been self-supporting. About fifteen per cent of the students enrolled are Protestants, the others being Roman Catholics. Its influence cannot be measured, however, by the number of converts won to the Protestant faith. Its graduates are in demand wherever there are positions requiring honesty and efficiency. The college has had a wonderful record of self-support and has received comparatively few gifts from the United States for building and equipment. Gifts totaling $130,000 have been made by individuals and by the churches in the United States; the pres- ent land and buildings are valued at $800,000. There is clear need for addition to the property. Especially is a building needed which can be used for chapel and assembly, as there is no room in the present buildings large enough to seat the full enrollment of the college. There is need also of a gymnasium and better athletic equipment, and books are needed for the new library building which is just being completed. Certainly any member of the Church at home who gives toward such equipment can feel that his funds will be spent with the utmost economy and for the things for which our Church has always stood.’ 1 For a more detailed description of the College, see Chapter IX. 196 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Another series of conferences and meetings sim- ilar to that at Rio was held in Sao Paulo, and on March 21 our party left for Santos, the principal port of Brazil, two hours to the south and east of Sao Paulo. We descended by the unique railroad which drops down about 2,500 feet in two hours, stayed that night at a hotel on the beautiful island of Guaruja, and next day boarded the steamship Lutetia, of the Compagnie Sud Atlantique Fran- caise, which took us to Montevideo on the twenty- fourth. On the Southern Cross, coming down from New York, was a veteran missionary of Brazil, Rev. H. C. Tucker. Dr. Tucker first landed in Brazil in 1886, thirty-nine years ago. One day on the boat he told us of his first impressions of Brazil and of the changes that have taken place since he first landed on its shores. In his own term of service he had seen Brazil change from a mon- archy to a republic; slavery abolished; the separa- tion of Church and state; the establishment of civil marriage and civil cemeteries; and the growth into power and prestige of the Protestant Church. Dr. Tucker spoke of some of his early experiences, and others told us of vicissitudes through which he had passed, of which he himself did not speak. One day he was threatened by a mob and he halted them by going out bravely to face them and by speaking to them of the gospel, quoting John 3:16. As he continued speaking the crowd ceased to threaten and finally gave way. Afterward he learned that on that same day his THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN RIO 197 mother in Tennessee had been moved by a compel- ling impulse to pray for him because she felt that he was in danger, and he testified that through the words of the gospel and through his mother’s prayers his life had been saved. Again Dr. Tucker told of the loyalty of Brazilian converts, one of whom had accompanied a missionary named Butler, whose life was threatened. A man came forward with a machete to strike Dr. Butler, and the Brazilian with him, crying out, “ The cause can better afford to lose me than you,” stepped between Dr. Butler and his assailant, took the thrust in his own body, and so gave his life for his friend. Dr. Tucker told of the joy of the service of his thirty-nine years in Brazil and, as all true mission- aries testify, he declared that in the service he had received far more than he had ever given and that the greatest boon he could ask would be for thirty- nine more years in which to serve his adopted land and in which to make Christ and His work known there. The life span of this one man had covered some of the most dramatic and important trans- formations in the life of the great nation which we have just visited and it is because of the temper and spirit of such men as Dr. Tucker and of the other missionaries in Brazil, the fidelity and strength of the leaders of the national Brazilian churches, and the manifest blessing of God that has been upon this work, that we look forward to the future with courage and confidence. NVG IVY CHAPTER IV ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA IrarArRE, BRAZIL, February 4, 1925, 1:30 a.m. ID you ever spend a night in tropical Brazil? No? Well, you would not like it. Why? Let me answer your question by citing my experi- ences to-day. We left Dr. Waddell in the Sao Paulo railroad station at six-fifty-five this morn- ing. I don’t know how many miles we traveled. It seemed like a thousand, but probably it was nearer two hundred. When traveling in a strange land and language, one’s only accurate measure- ment of distance is a watch, and that tells you the distance in time and not miles. We arrived here, Itarare — I’ve spelled the name correctly, but I swear it’s bad grammar. It should read, It’s-a- rare-burg — at eight-ten in the evening. Like it? I know you wouldn’t — either place or journey. We had the tropical sun, the tropical dust or pow- dered clay which sticks and sticks and sticks. We left Sao Paulo without “ breakfast” (luncheon) and arrived without catching up with one all day. Our board bill to-day will be a very light charge against our Board treasury, but our laundry bill will make up for it. We had a game, however, that was new and kept us busy from the beginning to 198 ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 199 the end of the day. It was with our engine. It started the game as soon as we left Sao Paulo. It was “snap the whip.” We were in the next to the last car and that engine did its best to whip us off. But we won out. We held on. That was our part of the game and we played it valiantly; as you should expect, of course, that we would do. Well, we stopped at this improperly or ungram- matically named place, because there’s an insur- rection against the Government some place down here and the said Government has decreed that “ safety first” is the best policy and therefore no night traveling. That’s what we understand. Re- member, please, that we are traveling in a foreign language and ours is not to reason why, ours is to do what we are told. Perhaps the engine got tired playing a losing game. At any rate, Mr. Graham has come down from Castro and brought us to the hotel. I don’t know its name. Probably I couldn’t spell it if I did, and no doubt it would give you a wrong idea even if it were spelled correctly. It might be called the Astor or the Biltmore or the Ritz, in which case you would certainly get the wrong idea. It’s no more like the hotels of these names as we know them than one of the several million ant hills we’ve passed to-day is like the Andes as we saw them last week. After we had scrubbed and scrubbed our hands and faces we had dinner (?) in the barroom. Down here they know nothing of an Kighteenth Amend- ment, and it would have done your hearts good if you could have seen Mrs. Gillmore and Miss Reid 200 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL step right up to the — table, while a half dozen or more of the barroom habitués watched us eat. Evi- dently they had feasted before we arrived, but the million or more flies had not. With them we had to fight for every bit we got, and this in spite of the fact that it was our first meal of the day. Yes, this deputation business is a fight for your very life in tropical Brazil. After dinner we went to some high officer to re- port that we had arrived in his town, show him our finger-printed document that we had qualified down below in Sao Paulo, and tell him that it was our plan to leave the dust of his town, or as much of it as we were able to leave, behind on the first train in the morning. After this, escorted by our trusty missionary, we walked around the cathedral which looked much like a New England Con- gregational church, and returned to our hotel. It was ten o’clock —time for tired travelers to retire. Our habitués were still at their cups and cigarettes. Perhaps they had slept, too, before we got here. Remember, again, that we are traveling in a foreign language, so we concluded that it was none of our business. Our train is to leave at four- twenty in the morning and perhaps theirs is leav- ing later. So we retired, and so far as I know the ladies and Mr. Graham are still retired. I was for two hours, but not to sleep. It started to rain at eleven o'clock and the mosquitoes started earlier. They began at once and with me they won out. I had to leave the field to them, Graham, in this case, being the field. I hope he is having a good rest, ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 201 Anyone deserves it who can get it. I got up, dressed, and came back into this bar-dining room, where some of the habitués are still at it. I wonder what they are talking about. I wonder what they think of me sitting here in this corner slinging ink. I don’t know. I just know that I’m enjoying my- self much more here writing you, our good friends, than entertaining the mosquitoes in my bedroom. It’s now two-fifty-five in the morning and in five minutes more I’m going to call Graham and the ladies to action. I’m anxious to hear their reports of the night, and I’d like to know how much you envy your deputation this trip to tropical Brazil. Don’t answer. It will keep, if we do, for three or four months more. All the time I’ve been in South America, I’ve been saying to myself, and it has inspired me with great admiration for them, all the time I’ve been saying: “These missionaries are wonders. ‘They are living here and would live nowhere else, be- cause there’s a work to do. It’s God’s work and it’s ours and we'll do it. Every day I’m grateful for the privilege that is mine — to be one of this deputation and to learn first-hand of how the fight is going on in these front-line trenches. It’s a tre- mendous job, but we are going to win out.” Somewhere, En Route CuyaBa, Brazi, February 12, 1925 What to write, O Christian friends, may all the gods destroy me if I know! My last letter was written from the never-to-be-forgotten place, 202 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Itarare, en route to Castro. This? Goodness only knows the name of this place. We spent last night at Aracatuba. Bet there is not one of you who can pronounce it correctly. It looks imnocent, but when pronounced by a native it sounds like a sneeze. Well, we had the welcome news upon our arrival here last night, that the train which we had ex- pected would leave at three-forty-five in the morn- ing would not leave until six. However, since we left at six one thing after another has happened. We pulled in lame at a little place an hour away —my watch is my best measure of distance — only to find that the engine tender had shed half a flange from one of its wheels. This meant get a new engine, et cetera, which in turn meant a delay of three hours. Then everything went well and everyone was happy for a long half hour, when we came to a halt out in the open country where the midges and the mosquitoes dwell. Perhaps there isn’t any place here where they do not dwell. That’s another thing I don’t know. After an hour we got under way with a third engine in con- trol— and now! now! now! “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now ” — our brave engine is completely off the track. It’s here that I wish I were an artist. My! what a picture I could give you. Alas, I’m not and so cannot. I’m sitting under a tree, with a brood — litter, I guess is the word — with a litter of pigs grunting and grub- bing (there must be a native hut somewhere near), a half dozen nannies nannying, while bugs and ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 203 mosquitoes are doing their best to let me know that I’m at least a little distance off Fifth Avenue. Just what is happening to our engine is another thing I don’t know. The crew is trying to put it back on the straight and narrow track; but just now it’s where it was two hours ago. It’s now two-forty-five and were we to start this minute, which we are not doing, we should have two and a half hours to run before we get to the place where we were to get breakfast at one o'clock. I have been assured that it’s the best place on the line for this particular meal. ‘To live up to its reputation, it looks now as though it will have to throw away to-day’s breakfast and get a new one for us. Its name? I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like this: Kat-a-poor-ly. But the point is that it’s now three- five and that we are hours away from our break- fast. Another point is, don’t come out here for your winter-summer vacation. It’s not a place for humans who care anything about life. Honestly, I don’t believe you'd like it. Yet it’s here in this unspeakably crude land that some six good men and women have chosen to live. Why, there isn’t one of you who will read this letter who would live here a day longer than you had to for all the land my eyes can scan. Not one of you—and I’m of your number! I’m going on simply that I may tell you and others some day just what these good sol- diers of Jesus Christ are up against and how they are carrying on the work against nature and human nature. This is our third day on the rail. We have two 204 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL more — only two more —if we have good luck and lots of it, before we come to the rivers. On these, if we have good luck and lots of it, we shall have nine or ten more days. ‘Then Cuyaba and a mule trip seven leagues to Burity where our school is located. I could tell you more, but I can’t. That sounds Dutch, doesn’t it? I can’t because the mosquitoes have found me and a pig is rooting at my feet. A native has joined me under the tree and thinks me a numbskull because I do not understand him. Perhaps I am. I’m no fair judge, being slightly prejudiced. But I’ve got to stop or the mosquitoes will get me before my day. Word comes that a new engine has been ordered to come from the place we left at six this morning and that we'll get breakfast at midnight. P.S.*. I’m glad the ladies are not here. And Cuyaba 1,000,000 miles away! P.S.2. This may be my last word. It’s five- fifteen in the afternoon — and breakfast! Will it ever ¢ P.S.° Six-three in the evening. We hear an engine in the distance. Perhaps we're saved after all. P.S. Three of the four engines we’ve had to- day have been Baldwins. Don’t ask the vintage. I saw 1908 on one and 1910 on another. P.S.2. We had breakfast at eight-fifty in the evening. Arrived here — I’ll tell you the name of ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 205 the place in my next — at one in the morning, nine hours late, and now, four-fifteen in the morning, same day, we are up and at it for the five-twenty- five train. Wonder where we'll get breakfast to- day! But we’re on our way to what our mission- aries, Mr. and Mrs. Moser, and two little kiddies, my fellow travelers, call home. En Route to CuyaBa, Brazit, February ~13, 1925 I dare call you friends because you no doubt think of me as you last saw me at “156.” Did you see me now I should not blame you a bit if you replied, “ You’re no friend of ours.” The fact is, I’ve changed very much. I’ve joined the great army of the unclean. I have not shaved in five days, my finger nails are in mourning, my face is covered with what looks like Pennsylvania shale, and my linen is of the same color. So is every- body else’s. We all look alike, Turk, Negro, In- dian, Brazilian, and American. You don’t like this? Neither do I; but it’s here and that is why I’m telling you. You can’t imagine it all and I can’t tell you it all. I’m simply doing my best — so don’t shoot. “ Mr. Missionary ” doesn’t like this: neither does “Mrs. Missionary”; but you know they are on their way home and to their God-appointed work in Cuyaba and I’m on my way to see both. Like it? Not a bit of it. I had enough of it before I was twenty-four hours out of Sao Paulo. I might have turned back saying, “ Excuse me, 206 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL I’m sick.” And I should have told the truth. I was sick. Dr. Waddell, when he saw me off on the train said, “If you don’t feel better in twenty- four hours take the advice of an old war horse and come back.” I did not feel better and I did not turn back. Two negatives making a positive, that means I kept on going with the result that we are four days nearer our goal, Cuyaba. Only three hours separated yesterday from to- day. We arrived at Tres Lagoas — I don’t know whether that “Tres”? means “three” somethings or a “very ’”’ something — but we arrived there at one in the morning and Mr. and Mrs. Missionary and Miss Three-Year-Old Missionary and I had shower baths. ‘Think of it— shower baths! For three hours, as far as shower baths could make us, we belonged to the clean class, and at four in the morning we were up and getting ready for the five-twenty-five-in-the-morning train. It’s on this I’m writing this letter to you. It was a cruel knock the man gave at our doors. My bed, three feet nar- row and six feet short, was very comfortable and I was so dead with tiredness that all the mosquitoes and all the mosquitoes’ men could hardly get this Humpty Dumpty up again. Yes, it’s a great world, even in far-off Brazil, if you treat it right. But we have not been treating it right. ‘Three hours of sleep are not enough after such a day as yesterday. One needs about three weeks. But we are on our way to our Missionary’s home and church and school and farm. ‘These are the big things that keep us going. ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 207 Lots of things are happening on or outside this train that one does not like. To begin with, the engine does not burn coal. It burns wood and the pyrotechnic display the smokestack’s output gives would put to shame anything Mr. Payne ever turned out in the line of Fourth of July star dust. It’s very wonderful to see; but the trouble is that much of the said “ pyro” comes into the train and one has nothing more important to do than to put out fires. My suit was new last Tuesday and now I have a score of holes to tell you that I’ve been through the fire. Why, right opposite me a trav- eler from Paraguay broke out in three places at one time. ‘That’s the record so far. If some one does not make it four to-morrow he'll probably get the medal because, with good luck and lots of it, we shall transfer ourselves from rail to river travel. No, I don’t care very much for this sort of thing. I put out six fires to-day and was put out once. If the Government insists on burning wood, the very least it can do, or should do, is to have a fire department on board. Another thing I do not like. Am I tiring you? Stop right here if I am. We ran into a Brazilian rain shower. It was the real article. Well, you know the glass in the front of our car was clean gone — the only clean thing about the car. What rain did not stay out came in through that door while the roof leaked like an old vat. Those who had them put up their umbrellas while those who did not have any huddled together and laughed the thing out. I had one, but of the jackknife variety, 208 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL carefully packed in my bag, which I dared not open lest the contents should get drenched. The rain laid the dust outside and inside the car and gave us something we could all, regardless of language, enjoy. From the car window I have seen a number of things. I saw some emus. Always thought them animals. ‘They are birds, big ones, if these were emus. I also saw a secretary bird, though why this aristocratic name I don’t know except that the bird stands high and the secretaries I know at home come high. The latter part of this letter is written in my attic room of another Itarare Hotel in Campo Grande by candlelight. Yes, it’s a great life if you survive it. But we’re another day nearer Cuy- aba and to-morrow we transfer to the river boat. I’m cutting out the Rio conference and may have to forego Montevideo; but I’m going to see Cuyaba and you are going to hear about it. The candle is pretty low and so am I for sleep. Good night. P.S." [ve just learned that the train leaves at five in the morning. It’s now eleven-ten. Up at four means — figure it out for yourselves. Tm too tired. P.S.’ I still brush my teeth. Perhaps there’s some hope for me. On THE Rio Paraauay, Brazit, February 15, 1925 I did not write yesterday for two reasons: there was no chance, and had there been I was too much ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 209 in to accept it. It was our fifth and last day on the train and perhaps the hardest of them all. It be- gan for us early, at four in the morning, and ended by our stepping aboard this river boat at six-thirty in the evening. ‘The hardest part of the day’s jour- ney was the heat. It was tropical and then some. At noon I envied some men on shore who had built and were tending huge bonfires, I believe to keep cool. We’re strange creatures, aren’t we? You in New York, stepping out lively because of the cold, when you think of us, probably say, “ I wish I were with McGregor and Company, where the sun shines.” I, in turn, am saying, ““ How I wish I could taste a bit of zero!” Yes, we’re strange. We always wish we were on the other side of the stream. We are sure there are bigger fish and more of them over there. 'There’s just one thing though, that holds me, keeps me both patient and happy: it’s the fact that ’'m on my way with Mr. and Mrs. Missionary to their home and work in Cuyaba. Last night, when everybody was so tired and when the missionary’s children just would not go to sleep, I heard that tired mother and father sing to them (my room was next door): “Long may our land be bright With freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King.” I wondered, dear friends, if they had in mind far- away America as they sang, because they have both 210 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL left father and mother and brethren and sisters for the Master’s sake. Or, tell me, were they think- ing of the land and people of their adoption? I don’t know, but of this I’m certain: they know that it’s just these things that the land in which they live and toward which we are moving needs. She does need to be bright “ with freedom’s holy light,” and these brave young people are making the su- preme sacrifice to bring it about. R. G. McG. CHAPTER V ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA (Continued ) On tHE Rio Paraguay, Brazit, February 16, 1925 FE, pulled in at Corumba at exactly noon yesterday. We had been on the Paraguay River just sixteen hours, and while the boat was not much, it gave me a chance to bathe, shave, get my nails out of mourning, and put on a complete change of clothes. So, for a few moments at least, I felt as though I didn’t care if the whole Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., with headquarters at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City, saw me. In fact, I should have liked it. Come any time you want, and I’ll not let you go until you, too, catch some- thing of the spirit and enthusiasm of Mr. and Mrs. Missionary. Upon arriving at Corumba we made inquiries about an upriver boat, and to our joy we found that one was to go at four in the afternoon. This gave us just time enough to go ashore in the blis- tering heat of noon and call upon some of the South American Inland people and return. At four-twenty-five we got under way for Cuyaba, 800 miles away. 211 212 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL By the way, it was at this place, Corumba, that Mr. Roosevelt completed his outfitting for his memorable South American expedition and then, leaving the beaten trail, went up this same river, the Paraguay, on his way to the River of Doubt, now called Rio Teodoro Roosevelt. But here we are under way, more comfortable than on the train because we are free from the clouds of dust and do not have to rush for a hotel at midnight and get up at four in the morning to get the train. I wish, however, that you might see the boat. It’s not an ocean liner, but a notion liner: it’s in a class quite by itself. It’s a wood burner of about forty feet over all and has lashed to its side a boat equally large which seems to be the cargo carrier. ‘There are just three cabins — the captain’s and two more which have been assigned to us. In mine are two bunks and one nail: no washstand, no basin, no mirror, no chair — there’s not a chair aboard. Each bed has one sheet so you can choose whether you'll have it over or under you. Since I’ve had one night’s experience, let me advise you to have it over you. The mos- quitoes, in this way, can be foiled somewhat. It really looks as though I’d have to join again the great army of the unclean. Under the circum- stances, tell me, what else is there to do? Just now we are coaling up with wood. We’ve pulled up alongshore and now by a relay of twelve men — our missionary is one of them — the wood is passed from shore to boat. ‘Three thousand pieces have been stacked, surely enough to put us quite a A SCENE ON THE PARAGUAY RIVER A PARAGUAY RIVER STEAMER “Mr. Roosevelt went up this same river, the Paraguay, on his way to the River of Doubt” (p. 2/2). = hb ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 213 bit farther on our way. In the meantime we are waiting patiently to do a little stoking of our own. It’s nine o’clock and no breakfast, though we were told last night to be ready for it at six. Breakfast seems to be the one uncertainty down here. We’ve chased more breakfasts than anything else, and some way or other the day does not seem well be- gun until we have caught one. But we made progress during the night. Night and day we are on our way to Cuyaba. On THE Rio Sao Lorenzo, Braziu, February 17, 1925 The value of an education down here is that it permits you to read ancient history, when you can get it. Ive just read in The Outlook, December 20, 1924 — it’s the latest edition down here — that Owen D. Young has returned to the States, that he was given a dinner and told by Secretary Hughes and others how great a thing he had done for the world, and so forth. Down here, this is news. Up there, it’s probably so ancient that Mr. Young has fitted himself again and so well to the harness of his everyday life that he has quite for- gotten that he ever crossed the Atlantic. News down here is like the stone cast into the ocean — we get it on the last expiring ripple. This is how far we are from news — and Just to play things to the extension of the limit, something my mathe- matical: professor said did not exist — we have at least 500 miles more to go before we arrive at the 214 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL place where Mr. and Mrs. Missionary have their home and work. While I was at Camp Lee during the war a Young Men’s Christian Association secretary told me of meeting a mountaineer who had never been on a train before. All he had seen of the world was from horseback. At this particular moment he was on a train rushing to the camp. His re- mark was, “If this old world is as big the other side of Ellensville as it is this side, it’s a buster.” In spite of the fact that I know what is on the other side of Ellensville, I want to say that I have never been so impressed with miles as I am on this trip. Think of it! Since we left Castro, ten days ago, not a train or a boat of any kind has passed us one way or another, and I assure you a good many miles have gone over the dam since then. Fresruary 18, 1925 About four o’clock yesterday afternoon a flock, fleet, or family — it’s all the same to me — of mos- quitoes descended upon this boat and among other things put my pen out of business. The way they attacked and were attacked was something beyond words. I never saw anything like it in all my life. It was awful, but last night was worse. Because we had nothing else to do but fight mosquitoes we got behind our nettings at six-fifty in the evening and retired for the night and then proceeded “ to wish for the day.” Sleep! Sleep! You just couldn’t. At ten-thirty we stopped some place ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 215 without my permission, took on some wood and a whole fleet of brand new mosquitoes. It was not fair. We had made some impression on the old fleet: but the new, fresh, vigorous, and hungry ones were too many and much for us. At about eleven I heard the mother, Mrs. Missionary, on the other side of the thin partition hit out as though she had discovered a lot of alligators trying to get away with her children. I spoke to her about it this morning and she said, “I was just desperate.” So were we all, but we had only ourselves to take care of, although I'll say this for myself, I have a little more to me than anyone else aboard. Now I’m not finding fault — not a bit of it. I did not have to come on this trip. I came because I wanted to. The missionary told me what Id run up against — and I knew he knew. But hon- estly, I thought he was overdoing things. I thought he was trying me out to see if our Foreign Board had red-blooded men and women on it. It was a kind of Garibaldi’s call to service and as I see it now, had I refused to come, it would have been a matter of only a short time before my conscience would have compelled me to ask you and my Church for a leave of absence to come back and finish the job. Yes, far from finding fault, ’'m glad I am on my way to Cuyaba, be- cause I shall know — and you will too, if you have time and patience to read these letters — just what our Mr. and Mrs. Missionary have to contend with in their homes and work at Cuyaba — 2,000 miles inland in great, big, needy, but splendid Brazil. 216 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL I did hear Mrs. Missionary say yesterday, “ I’m not coming out again until I go home five years from now.” I don’t blame her. ‘The surprise to me was that she did not say: “ When I go out again it will be never to return. I can’t stand it.” But she did not. The fact is that nothing but the love of God in the hearts of these brave missionaries holds them to this task. It’s not the salary. On THE Rio Cuyasa, February 19, 1925 I was on this boat not more than ten minutes before I was wishing for Dr. Dodd. Before I left New York he examined me with special attention to my heart, of which he said: “ There’s something there I don’t quite understand, but it’s not serious. I think your heart will see you through the trip.” When this notion liner got under way for the 800- mile river trip, I detected trouble that made me feel uncertain about getting to the other end. I diag- nosed this as leaky valves — something which I know can be most serious. That night when I retired and found that my head and feet tried to be in the same place at the same time — something like the sensation one has when being hauled up a steep grade by an engine that one is not sure can reach the top — I said, “ The heart of this boat has a bad palpitation.” That's why I wanted Dr. Dodd. I wanted his expert opinion. ‘The owner of this boat — anxious probably that we should be passengers in order to swell the receipts — assured us that we would get to Cuyaba in from ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 217 four to five days. Here we are almost four days on the way and we have not reached the halfway mark. I know my diagnosis is correct and I didn’t have a stethoscope either. These fellows down here either don’t know how or they just won’t tell the truth. I’m reminded of the story of a Scotchman who had a very serious nervous breakdown. He was put in a sanatorium where he made a remarkable recovery. ‘The doctor told him that he was cured, that he could go home, et cetera, but that before doing so he should write a letter telling the family to expect him on a certain train. He wrote this letter, licked the stamp, but let it fall to the floor. It happened to fall buttered side down, of course, on a cockroach which pro- ceeded to move away with it. When the poor man got down to look for the stamp and saw it go across the room, over the baseboard, and then up the wall to the ceiling, he took his letter, tore it into shreds, and said: “Cured! Cured! I’m here for life!” And that’s the way I feel about this notion liner. “ I’m here for life — for life!”’ Four miles an hour seemed to be our average — now it’s about two. You will note that my first steamer letter was written on the Rio Paraguay, my second on the Rio Sao Lorenzo, and this on the Rio Cuyaba. Yes, different rios, but the same boat! I wish I could lose it — could get out and walk so as to make progress. Longfellow, ’'m reminded, called the slow, me- andering Songo, the stream that connects the Sebago and Long Lakes, “the crookedest river in 218 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL the world.” Mr. Longfellow probably thought that he was telling the truth: but he never saw these rivers. Why, the Songo is a straight and narrow highway in comparison. And the man who is at the wheel — he is as black as coal and as old as “Old Black Joe” —is an artist at steering. What I’ve seen him do with this notion liner makes me believe that he could take that old game, “ pigs in clover,” and see the pigs in clover the first time and every time with his eyes shut. He is all right, if his ship isn’t. But we are on our way to Cuyaba — where there’s a home and church and school — where there’s a people, old and young, rich and poor, a people of all colors and conditions who need the gospel and are getting it through the lives and lips of Mr. and Mrs. Missionary. And Mr, and Mrs. Missionary know this: that’s why they are going back over these long, long, weary, weary miles. They have found a place in which to invest God’s great gift, life. Nothing else, I’m convinced by what they say and do, would cause them to return. It’s not salary. It’s not place. It’s not ease. It’s a consciousness and a confidence that God wants them here. ‘They, too, are saying, “ Woe to me, if I preach not the gospel to them that are in Cuyaba.” To these, Mr. and Mrs. Missionary, my hat is off. My heart is theirs. ‘They are the real article. P.S. Owning a car has put me under obliga- tions to the Standard Oil many times. But last night I added a new obligation. I took a bath in Left to Right— H. O. Moser, R. G. McGregor, P. S. Landes Left to Right — H. O. Moser, R. G. McGregor, P. S. Landes TRANSPORTATION BY MULE AND BY MOTOR IN MATTO GROSSO, THE “GREAT WILDERNESS.” (Part II, Ch. VI.) ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 219 one of their five-gallon tins — not much of a tub but a pretty good bath. I’m trying hard to keep out of the great army of the unclean. On tHE Rio Cuyasa, February 21, 1925 This rio is very disappointing. It proceeds abso- lutely on the basis that one good turn deserves another, and since there are so many of them and they all look alike to me, I confess to being not only confused but disappointed. You know the owner of this notion liner told us that we’d get to Cuyaba in from four to five days. Well, toward the end of the fourth day I began to look for it: but here it’s the sixth day and I’ve given up. Every now and then “ Old Black Joe” at the wheel blows the foghorn. At first I used to jump up and go for- ward only to find that instead of discovering Cu- yaba he had come across a half-naked Indian. Now I sit still. I’m becoming fond of these three hard benches. What he’ll do when he discovers the place I don’t know; but if he doesn’t blow up I will. Something will have to be done by way of cele- bration. Last night I was in a predicament. About mid- night a tropical rainstorm broke loose. Ever been in one? Well, one’s enough. I was in one of my two berths — the upper, over which Mr. and Mrs. Missionary had arranged for me a mosquito con- traption, fearfully and wonderfully made. Every- 220 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL thing went well for a while. What did I care how hard it rained! Then I felt a drop on my nose, another, and another; then my toes were favored. Evidently the boat was not going to allow the S8.O. five-gallon tin to have anything on it. I’m afraid to report this to the captain. It would be like him to advertise “ shower baths ” aboard. But something had to be done. I could go down to the lower berth: but I could not take the mos- quito contraption with me and I knew that a thou- sand more or less of these friendly enemies were waiting for just such a move on my part. I had no raincoat — just that one lone sheet supplied by the boat. Something had to be done. The storm was getting worse and the only part of me not get- ting wet was the part which was not on top. Then an idea struck me. I thought of the previously mentioned Outlook and a Literary Digest. These I tore apart and proceeded to shingle myself with their pages. Quite a trick, dear friends! Try it some time. But again, I “longed for the day.” February 22, 1925 We are still churning the water to the speed of three miles an hour. It’s a week to-day since we left Corumba. The trip was to take from four to five days. It’s now seven with at least two more to go. I had hoped to be able to attend service in the Cuyaba church to-day. Now that that’s im- possible, my mind is turning to the return trip. If this rate of travel keeps up, I should be well on ON THE ROAD TO CUYABA 221 my way back before I arrive. ‘This is South America for you. Yet the missionary says that he loves it because he sees so much to be done and so much that only a Christian man and woman can do. I tell you these good young people have won me over to them, boot straps and all. They are the real stuff and I’m thankful beyond words that for these few days at least it has been mine to share their plans, hopes, and ambitions. ‘They are the real stuff. R. G. McG. CHAPTER VI CUYABA, A MISSION STATION IN MATTO GROSSO, THE “GREAT WILDERNESS” CuyaBA, Brazit, February 26, 1925 OES “ Eureka ” mean “ I’ve arrived,” or does it simply mean, “I’ve found”? I’m not quite sure. In this case, let it mean both arrived and found, since I did both simultaneously early last Monday morning — arrived in and found the long-looked-for Cuyaba. We have three mis- sionary couples at work here — Rev. and Mrs. Philips Landes, Mr. and Mrs. Homer O. Moser, and Rev. and Mrs. Adam J. Martin, whom we met at the Mission meeting in Castro but who are re- turning next month to the States on furlough. Mr. and Mrs. Moser are the Mr. and Mrs. Missionary of my travels. Upon our arrival we came to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Landes, who had moved into a new house only two days before. After break- fast, Mr. Landes proposed that I take a stroll into the town. We visited the market place, saw some of the public buildings, called on several of the mer- chants, members of our Church, and then went to the church buildings which I found more than usually impressive in architecture, size and ma- terial. 222 CUYABA, IN THE GREAT WILDERNESS 228 Up in the Chapada, seven leagues, or twenty- eight miles, away we have the Burity School, started just a year ago. ‘To see this was counted most im- portant, so after luncheon we started in a Ford which was to take us the first stretch of the dis- tance. The second stretch of seven miles we walked. This brought us to an Indian hut where Indian hospitality, the privilege of hanging our hammocks in the best room, and some food was offered. After we had eaten, we held a gospel serv- ice, Landes preaching to some dozen or more In- dian men, women, and children. Karly the next morning, after sharing Indian hospitality again, we started afoot for a place five miles distant where we were to get mules for the rest of the journey. Now, out here it’s one thing to own animals — mules, horses, and cows — and it’s another thing to be able to find them when you want them. Ani- mals not in use are allowed to roam ad libitum. We arrived at nine in the morning, but it was three in the afternoon before the animals were found and saddled, and it was seven in the evening before we reached Burity, too late to see, but not too late to talk about the place, plan and purpose of the school. Mr. Missionary was one of the party and since he and Mrs. Missionary are in charge of the school he could and did speak with authority. Here’s his story: “ We (for the Foreign Board) bought this property in November, 1921. It consists of twenty-four square miles. We had to buy all these miles of land in order to get the two houses 224 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL deemed necessary for school purposes. It was all or nothing; but as all, land, houses, wonderful water supply for power as well as drinking pur- poses, dozens of orange and mango trees, hundreds of pineapples, et cetera, were to be had for $2,000, we felt that we were not gambling with the Board’s money. “Well, we opened school July 1, 1924, and we had seven students whose ages ran from eleven to twenty-five years, and who paid 35 milreis ($4.00) a month for tuition, board, room rent, books, et cetera. This year, which will begin March 9, we expect 15 scholars. ‘The teaching force will be as last year, my wife and I with a young Brazilian who is preparing himself for the ministry; so, too, will the tuition. We don’t know where we'll put all these boys and girls, but they seem to be willing to put up with inconveniences, so we'll try to make out. But please tell the Board back home that we have a going concern here and by the grace of God we'll lay the foundation broad and deep, so that from this school there shall go out young people who are saved themselves and determined to help to save others for Jesus Christ.” This was the missionary’s story: and if you could have heard him speak, if you could have seen him wave aside the difficulties, if you could have caught the fire in his eye as he emphasized the possibilities, you would have said, “ Of course, this is a going concern.” No one but God can stop such a man: and God never does. He may bury His Moses, but somewhere He always has a Joshua to carry on. "(96g *d) ., paoty 94} Jo vureU ot} ur Stouurq dry} dn yos oavy sofdnoo Sunod 2014} voe{d AB M-9}-JO-]NO ‘1ey SI} UL ‘etay osnevoeq :Aoudnol aT YIOM eB S4t yn ‘Yoved 07 dovTd vB JO 10110} B st BqeaAnd,, ‘aanjord ayy JO 1ozUI. sy} UT St YounyO UPLIOJAQSOL OWT, V€VANO AO ALIO AHL AN ANSARI oe Eis ogl. ae eg f Pp . aa peu “Ay - ea r) ’ +) in } 7 | 7 my ( re ; a ] Ld * L. A 5 ; Meo oa ‘ ” i ns CUYABA, IN THE GREAT WILDERNESS 225 The next morning we began the long trek back. Did you ever know that twenty-eight miles can be fifty-six miles without losing your way? Well, they can be. All you have to do is to be a neophyte, get on a mule, which we did at nine in the morning, and ride all day under a tropical sun with little to eat and still less to drink. Do this and you'll see how easy it is to make it fifty-six miles — and how difficult it is the next day to take fifty-six steps. But we arrived home at seven in the evening. We had come to the end of a long, if not a perfect, day, thankful for what we had seen and done in the sixty hours we had been away. I was too tired to sleep that night and the mos- quitoes were on hand to see that, too tired or not, I did not sleep. Next morning, I went with Landes — Cuyaba, you know, is his parish — into a number of the poor houses to see the sick and shut-ins. What I saw and felt I shall never forget. I saw the faces of the hopelessly sick light up when he entered the room; I saw the aged reach out to him as they would for a staff on which to lean; I saw the people from the street crowd into the room where he entered in, and when he said, “‘ Let us pray,” which he did in most of these homes, there seemed to be a peace and a power pervading the place more than suggestive of the days when our Lord “ went about doing good.” That afternoon, by appointment, we called on the president of the state, who, like our governor, is elected by the people and for a term of four years. Then followed a conference in the church 226 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL with the four missionaries, and that night I had the privilege of speaking to the Church members at a special service in the church. To-day I have learned definitely that no boat will leave for the return trip until next Wednesday. This is a disappointment, but it will give me the chance to see the Sunday-school work, preach at the evening service, and attend some of the out- of-door preaching services conducted every Sunday afternoon by the elders of the church. Cuyaba is a terror of a place to reach, but it’s a worth-while journey: because here, in this far, out- of-the-way place three young couples have set up their banners in the name of the Lord. Here, on the frontier of Brazil’s extending population they are at work blasting away the rocks of ignorance and superstition, filling in the valleys of hatred and indifference, and making straight the highway of our God. Don’t try to tell them that they made a mistake in coming so far from other missionary work and workers. They have not time to argue this. ‘They settled this question long ago. They know they are right and so do I. What they ask for, and what they should get from us as a Board and from our Church at large, is that support in prayer and giving which will help them to hasten the day when our Lord shall have full sway in the hearts and lives of these needy and very much worth-while people. I expect to leave here for Sao Paulo next Wednesday. To-day, Dr. Speer, Mr. Wheeler, and others should leave New York for Rio, 5,000 CUYABA, IN THE GREAT WILDERNESS 227 miles away. I’m only 2,000 miles away: but they will beat me to it by days. ‘This is Cuyaba, and don’t forget that this is the place where three of our young missionary couples are busy doing God’s work. Sao Pauto, Brazit, March 14, 1925 I arrived in civilization, Sao Paulo, yesterday, pretty well tired, but happy that I went to Cuyaba. Perhaps when you have read all my letters you will be sorry I went. Ican’t help that. I just had to. I’ve told you that at times I could not sleep. It was not all due to mosquitoes. Part of it was due to Mr. and Mrs. Missionary and the little Mis- sionaries whom I had come to know in Brazil and Chile, and through whom I was made to feel I knew all the world over: because, no doubt, every land has its Cuyaba, its difficult frontier. I’ve always been a missionary pastor, but I have required this trip to get the facts. Now that I have them, now that I’ve travelled with the missionary, have lived with him and worked with him, I’m his, hand, head, and heart. At Bauru on my way out of the interior I had the pleasure of meeting Senor Oscar de Costa Marques, of Corumba, who had entertained Mr. Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, at his magnificent fazenda on their way to the River of Doubt. He told with much spirit of Mr. Roosevelt’s cour- age. He said that Mr. Roosevelt was not a good shot because his eyes bothered him — though his 228 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL son, Kermit, was an excellent shot — but the way in which Mr. Roosevelt met and killed his first ofica, or Brazilian jaguar, while afoot in grass four feet high, captivated his host. He quoted Mr. Roose- velt as saying, “In four hundred years this river section of Brazil will be the granary of the world,” and Senor Marques added with much admiration, ‘“ He was a great man!” Sohewas. Mr. Roose- velt, wherever he went, made that impression. He was generally right on political and moral ques- tions, and probably he was right in this world- granary prophecy. Four hundred years are a long time. What do you think will happen in four hun- dred years with the seed Mr. and Mrs. Missionary are planting? What do you think? Twelve generations will have come and gone. I will tell you what I think. Whether Mr. Roose- velt’s prophecy comes true or not, the seed Mr. and Mrs. Missionary are planting to-day will make that river section a part of the world granary of souls saved for Jesus Christ. Why am I so sure? Because I have in mind another prophecy. Here it is: “ For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” What a glorious thing it would be to see these two SON NEB TR ARR i i i ss Seek Se ce CPariel [Chai be CHURCH IN CUYABA CSBYTERIAN k rn oR CUYABA, IN THE GREAT WILDERNESS 229 prophecies approach their realization together! Could you see this river country and then see our work you would realize that we have a fine start. To-night I am off for Rio where Mrs. Gillmore and Miss Reid have already gone for the confer- ence. I assure you it will be a joy to see Dr. Speer, Mr. Wheeler, and others. R. G. McG. CHAPTER VII CURITYBA AND PONTA GROSSA Sao Pavuto, Brazit, February 20, 1925 FE, took a river boat from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, transshipping there to the ocean steamer, a French boat, very comfortable, and of course we had a lovely, cool sail up the coast to Santos, Brazil. Dr. Waddell met us there and after a day of seeing the town we took the first train out and reached Sao Paulo that afternoon. We went there to the Esplanada Hotel, the best we have seen in our travels. The clerk told us at once that General Pershing had just left there and he was proud of the fact that the North Americans had stayed at his hotel. We have followed Gen- eral Pershing in several places and hear nothing but praise of him. He seems to have made a fine impression wherever he went, always doing and saying the right thing. It does much to cement the good feeling between the countries to have men of his stamp come to South America. Monday was a holiday, but Dr. Waddell made arrangements with the authorities to take our fingerprints, for the rules are very strict now and we could not leave the state without a salvo con- ducto. It took all day, at intervals, to accomplish this and it was considered a great favor to do it at 230 CURITYBA AND PONTA GROSSA 231 all. So we got off the next day for Castro, already several days late for the Mission meeting. We had a comfortable trip if a long one, for the road was laid by an engineer of another country who was paid by the kilometer, so he took pains to make the track wind all over the map. In one place we could see six lines of track. We curved around hill after hill so the engine was constantly in sight. We became quite attached to it because it always looked so earnest and businesslike with its great pile of wood for fuel — taking this so much longer route so patiently instead of going a short cut across the country. But having a one-track mind is an admirable quality in an engine. The Mission meeting was extremely interesting —a contrast to Chile, for there we had seen the work first and could better give an opinion. Here we knew only what we had been told in New York and judged by what we heard after we arrived, but we could help with some of the questions. There is a fine group of missionaries here, with a splendid spirit. We made many plans and finally settled on Dr. McGregor’s going to the interior with Mr. and Mrs. Moser to see the work in Matto Grosso. It takes so long to go there that he will get back only in time for the Montevideo Conference. They go by train and river steamer and finally by mules. He will have a great tale to tell when he comes back. We have had a telegram from him, saying that they were all well and making unusually good connections on the funny trains and steamers. 232 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Miss Reid and I were to take a short trip to- gether and then separate, Miss Reid going south and I going north, but at the last minute the first trip had to be given up because of unrest in the section, so we went to Curityba to see the girls’ school and work there. Miss Reid stayed two days, then went to Ponta Grossa for the service there. I stayed over Sunday. They gave us a party Friday evening in the house of one of the members. It was a great affair. First our path was strewn with flower petals, then the minister presented us with huge bouquets, accompanied by a speech that con- tained more flowers than the bouquets. ‘There was instrumental and vocal music, and more speeches; then we were presented with three pieces of woodwork, articles made from some of the beau- tiful native woods. ‘Then we went into the dining room to a table that should have groaned with the weight of viands. It was a strenuous evening. Sunday was also a strenuous day for me. I spoke first to a fine Sunday school. This is in the national church, the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. They have a good piece of property with room for a new Sunday-school building; there is already a manse and a good church. The pastor, a young Brazilian from the north with a French wife, is doing a fine piece of work there. I preached the sermon (?) at the morning service and again in the evening. I never did like to see a woman in the pulpit, but here I suppose my duty is to do whatever I am asked. Mr. Lenington acted as interpreter, = ° i ’ by tater f tat tat b ney. ane ray i THE GIRLS SCHOOL AT CURITYBA (p. Zoo THE MAIN SCHOOL BUILDING AT CASTRO CURITYBA AND PONTA GROSSA 233 While we were at Curityba we went for a day to Parangua, a four hours’ trip toward the coast. Our missionaries have been stationed there and have made converts, but the work now is in the hands of the Baptists and Lutherans. There are two quite large churches and active congregations. It was a most beautiful trip through the moun- tains. The trees were hung with a wealth of or- chids and hanging moss, and everywhere were lovely flowers and birds. Occasionally in the mass of unknown wild flowers would be some joe-pye weed and Michaelmas daisies which made us feel at home. The alleluia tree was in bloom. It is connected in the minds of Christians with Easter, because the flower comes out a vivid pink and changes in three days to a pure white. Some of the woods were yellow with mimosa. ‘The bird we saw most often was the ibis, quite as much at home as the flamingo in the Argentine. We saw emus in the Argentine, too, but I am not quite sure whether they are birds or animals. After the visit to Curityba was ended Mr. Len- ington took me to Ponta Grossa to see the work which Mr. and Mrs. Cook are carrying on there. It is five hours by train from Curityba, much shorter as the crow flies, but we were still on the winding railroad. ‘There is a good church there at which Miss Reid spoke on Sunday to a large audi- ence. There is a flourishing Sunday school and a large Christian Endeavor society, all being carried on in the face of much opposition. How anyone can think that South America does not need help 234 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL is more than I can see. Miss Reid joined us and we came on to Senges to see the church in charge of a converted priest, a well-educated man who has control of the town of one thousand people. We arrived at nine in the evening to find a great crowd of people who had come to meet Mr. Len- ington. He used to be here, and the people are devoted to him. It was quite dark and we had to walk over the railroad bridge, rather slippery in the rain and with only the ties to walk on, but no one fell through and we arrived safely at the pas- tor’s house where we stayed for two days, visiting his school of about ninety pupils and speaking at the evening service on Wednesday. After some more fuss about our salvos conductos we came on to Sao Paulo to Dr. Waddell’s. Miss Reid is planning to stay here until the regional conference in Rio. She is hoping to help in the office for this month and see the work of the school. Traveling in South America is not all nectar and ambrosia, but Miss Reid has been a brick about accepting whatever came and making the best of it. As soon as connections can be made I am going up into the interior of Goyaz with Mr. and Mrs. Graham. It will be much the same kind of trip Dr. McGregor is taking. A new work is opening there in a most promising field. They want one of us to see it so we can enlist sympathy for it at home. It is in the part of the country where the capital is to be moved and will be an important strategic point. We will stop at Campinas on the way up, to see the seminary. CURITYBA AND PONTA GROSSA 235 We are all having a wonderful time and are grateful to the Board for making it possible. And we are trying our utmost to do the work intrusted to us. M. Mcl. G. CHAPTER VIII GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ Sao Pavuto, Brazit, March 13, 1925 HEN the Committee of Arrangement asked me to take a trip to the interior of Goyaz, I thought that meant Indians and snakes and orchids, romance and adventure spelled with cap- ital letters. I was keen to go; but there were no Indians, very few orchids, and the nearest ap- proach to a snake was the skin of a small water python — only twenty feet long, the natives said with an apologetic air. My air would have been apoplectic if I had met it in the flesh. The good- sized ones are from thirty to forty feet long. Mr. Lenington went with me as far as Campinas where I stopped overnight to see the seminary and join Mr. and Mrs. Graham, a bride and groom who were going to their station in Planaltina, in the state of Goyaz. We broke the first night’s journey by stopping overnight at Ribierao Preto at the Southern Methodist Girls’ School, presided over most ably by Miss Putnam. One is struck by the fine order and cheerful atmosphere of the place. The town is progressive and prosperous for it is in the midst of the rich coffee estates. One planta- tion near here has 3,000,000 coffee trees, with 5,000 people employed to care for them. It takes the 236 GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ 237 trees about twelve years to mature. When they are young, corn is planted between the rows to shield the plants from the sun; in order to use the ground, the owners are experimenting with what they call dry rice, rice that will grow in dry ground. The rice plants looked strong and promising. In the more remote sections of the country the trains do not run at night, so we stopped for the night and Sunday at Araguary. The hotel left much to be desired — in fact, everything. It was a busy day and a full house. All the bed linen was in use, so my top sheet was a red table cover. These hotels are patronized chiefly by people who stay one night. ‘That would naturally mean a great deal of washing of bed and table linen, so it is taken to the kitchen, pressed out, and put back without the formality of washing. I thought be- cause the napkins were warm it meant they had been washed, but was warned not to use them be- cause of the danger of infectious diseases. It is much safer to wash your hand thoroughly with antiseptic soap and use the back. Almost always the pillow had some kind words embroidered on it — “Sleep well,’ or “ Good morning,” in Portu- guese of course. That helpeda little. The farther inland we went the more primitive the hotels be- came. In three of the towns there was no glass in the windows, just board shutters which had to be shut when it rained so the room was quite dark. The walls do not go to the ceiling. That made a good circulation of air through the house and a 238 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL feeling of intimacy with the other guests and the family. In one place a pigeon sat on the floor of my room all night, and every time I coughed it cooed in the most soothing way, as though to say, “You poor thing, how did you get such a cold?” The cold started because there was a wreck on the road as usual, and we had to walk around it in the rain, through wet grass and through a little brook that was too wide to jump, and I had to keep on my wet clothes all day. Then when we reached the hotel that night, I found a black table cover for the upper sheet and a black comfortable, all of which I folded and laid on the floor and wrapped myself in a cape that was still damp, but there was nothing else available. The cold did not last long — I was too busy. We found a nice church at Araguary, the Brazilian Presbyterian, with a national pastor who is doing good work. Mr. Hardie, of the Southern Presbyterian Church, happened to be there at the same time, so I spoke at the Sunday school and he had the church service. There was a large con- gregation of interested people, who listened to his sermon with the usual courteous attention. ‘There is always the same friendly atmosphere with the bouquet of flowers at the end. ‘The nationals are always eloquent and unhurried. ‘The Sunday- school lesson was taught by a young pastor from Rio de Janeiro, and lasted an hour. We went afterwards to the pastor’s house for tea and then to call on an elder. Five hours passed before we returned to the hotel. The pastor gave me two GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ 239 delicious mangoes, the best fruit I know of. Mod- eration has to be used, however, for too many of them cause some trouble. They have a slight taste of turpentine, so perhaps they would give you painter’s colic if eaten to excess. We left Araguary Monday morning by rail for Ipamery, a run of about seven hours. ‘The time- tables are works of art in this country. The pic- ture of a crossed knife and fork means either that a diner is put on at that station or that a meal may be had at the station. A bed shows a sleeper, and a steamboat, the boat connection. The hours run from one to twenty-four as they do on the Con- tinent, so one may arrive at one’s destination at 1620 like any Pilgrim Father. The road is gener- ally narrow gauge and the train rocks unmerci- fully. Because of the motion, and perhaps be- cause the people do not travel often, many of them were actively car sick. Ipamery is a small town of one-story adobe houses, whitewashed, with red-tile roofs. The plaza is well laid out and tended, with a band stand in the center. Once in about four months a na- tional pastor or a missionary visits the town and holds a service in a private house. They are soon going to start a Sunday school with a young girl to lead it. They avoided the use of the word Prot- estant in Brazil by calling the Church members Crentes, which means “ believers.” Mr. Graham wanted to see one of his friends, so Mrs. Graham and I went with him to see the town. We had not been in the shop five minutes before there was a 240 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL sound across the plaza like the back fire of an automobile. It sounded too much like New York for us to pay any attention to it, but the natives knew better. Everyone ran out to the street, and we did, too, to see a crowd of men struggling out of a drinking place. In the midst of the crowd a soldier held a man he was endeavoring to arrest. It seems that there had been a row and the man had shot at the town dyer; he did not hit him, but it annoyed the dyer extremely and there was much loud talking and much running to and fro. Finally the would-be assassin was taken to the police court, the dyer ran to the school to place his two little boys in safety, and another man ran for the police. Everyone in the town was on the street. About half an hour later when the excitement had rather subsided, a Ford dashed up honking madly, filled with policemen armed with guns and ready for anything. Later we saw it returning from the police station with the prisoner and all the policemen, who were not only taking the man to the jail but protecting him from the infuriated dyer. ‘Two days later, after we had left, there was another shooting affray. A ~ man shot another through the head, but evidently his head had nothing in it at the time for he went about his business; then the gunman went to the drug store to look for another friend to shoot, but he was not there so he stabbed a man who was pur- chasing some medicine and killed him instantly. All in one week! We left the railroad at Ipamery and went the GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ 241 rest of the way by motor bus, 216 miles. The bus was an antique, with burlap nailed over boards for seats. We were filled to capacity with ten pas- sengers and two chauffeurs. We needed both chauffeurs, for we broke down quite often and spent much time with repairs, so much time that darkness overtook us before we reached Christal- lina where we were to spend the night; the lights would not stay hghted so we went the last two leagues by my flash light. We had to cross several bridges that are made in a most sketchy way so that the cattle will not cross. They were just loose boards or poles laid for each wheel, with a yawning hole between; some of them were made of two hol- lowed-out logs. This seemed a little safer, for if the wheels hit the bridge at all they could not slip out of the trough. We traveled 100 miles the first day and 116 the next, through miles of partly cut forest. Between Ipamery and Christallina there were three widely separated houses by the side of the road, and from Christallina to Planaltina there were none. When there was a clearing in the forest we had a lovely view of distant hills. There were always multitudes of wild flowers and many strange birds. We saw emus through the trees and enlivened the time by chasing a seriema, first cousin to a secre- tary bird, about half the size of an emu. The bird would run ahead of the automobile while we ¢a- reened along the road after it. As we came nearer and nearer, the bird looked wildly from side to side as if seeking a means of escape, then, when 242 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL we were almost on it, it would spread its wings and fly into the woods. Generally after these chases the bus would break down awhile, so we had time to compose ourselves for the next event. Along the road were great ant hills six or eight feet high and another kind of mud nest on the trunk of a tree with a mud tunnel as an approach. We stopped by the roadside for lunch. There were shady woods near by but too many stinging and prying insects for us to sit there, so we sat on a log in the broiling sun and had an apostolic lunch— all the food was in common. All the men had both pistols and murderous-looking knives in their belts. The guns were not used at all and the knives only for cutting cheese and guava paste. The first night was spent in Christallina, just a little adobe village come into some prominence because of the crystal mines there. These crystals have been bought by Germans and Japanese, but there is a British army officer there now buying them up for the War De- partment to be used in some way which he would not divulge. He said the only other good crystal mines were in Madagascar, under the control of France, and he was much pleased to find these for Great Britain. We made an early start the next morning for Planaltina, which place we reached at three in the afternoon as the result of much speeding when the car would go at all. This is a most interesting place, for it is here, eventually, that the capital will be moved from Rio de Janeiro. When the republic was formed in 1889, a clause in the Con- PLANALTINA, THE PROPOSED SITE OF THE CAPITAL OF BRAZIL “A clause in the Constitution calls for a tract of land... to be set aside for the future capital on the high plain of the state of Goyaz” (p. 243). THE MOTOR BUS TO PLANALTINA “The bus was an antique, with burlap nailed over boards for seats ” (p. 241). » GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ 243 stitution called for a tract of land 14,400 kilometers square to be set aside for the future capital on the high plain of the state of Goyaz. It is the most beautiful country, low hills with wooded mountains in the distance. It is a watershed, the streams and little rivers flowing both north and south — not the same ones of course. In 1922, the centenary of Brazilian independence, with much ceremony a corner stone was put up to mark the site of the future capitol. Now they are working on two rail- roads to bring them into this district, for of course no progress can be made until there is a railroad. Mr. Graham has bought a tract of land of 2,300 acres in the district for a hospital site and farm school. ‘The land was 80 cents an acre. It has already gone up in value, and when the capital does finally come it will be immensely valuable. In the meantime he hopes to have a school and in time a church, and will be right in on the ground floor. It will be great to have a Protestant church grow up with the town. Whenever he is here, a meeting is held in the house of one of the believers — a pathetic meeting it is, for the people have aspirations but no means of satisfying them. There is now a teacher for the boys’ school but none for the girls, so the girls go without. I had a class one evening in English, and was interested to see how eager and quick the chil- dren were. Whenever we went out, everyone, in- cluding the village lunatic, turned out into the streets to see the bride. We stayed at a private home because there is no hotel in the place, so the 24:4 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL neighbors often came in to watch us eat our meals. ‘They are such kindly people and have so little to be entertained by. ‘There are no sewers in the village and the water supply is a stream that runs through the streets or yards. I was glad the house where we stayed was the first in the village so that nothing but the cattle and goats and sheep drank at the stream first. Planaltina is 1000 meters high, has good climate and cool nights. It has great possibilities. It depends now for its in- dustry upon a tanning factory and a sawmill. Houses are at a premium. They generally have the names of the owners painted in blue letters across the front, which is very convenient. When we started on the return Journey we were overtaken by a tropical cloud-burst and motored for eight miles with the road entirely under water. We bounced considerably. The men spread their ponchos, but in spite of that we were almost too wet. My hat was a total wreck. The only other woman on the trip down was a native with a goiter at least half the size of her head. I had to look at her for two days. Mr. Graham came with me as far as the railroad, then I came the rest of the way for a while with the British officer, and later was met at every station where I had to change cars by a national pastor or a missionary. I knew the hotels by this time and had no trouble. The people are immensely interested in a foreigner and very kind. But I never saw anything look so comfort- able as the hotel in Sao Paulo, or any food that tasted so good. GLIMPSES OF GOYAZ 245 I know this is not a very “R. L. S.que” kind of letter, and I have not told you all the unpleasant things. Sometimes I thought I could not stand it a minute longer and then of course I did. But this is what these missionaries stand without a mur- mur — in fact, they are so interested in their work they do not notice many things that are hard to stand. ‘There is that sweet, refined Mrs. Graham looking forward with enthusiasm to spending years there and happy to do it for the good she can do. But that is the stuff missionaries are made of. I am going to Rio to-night. Miss Reid is already there and Dr. McGregor has just come in from Matto Grosso with a thrilling tale. We have a regional conference at Rio and then go on to Montevideo for the conference there and then home on the twenty-seventh. I shall leave this beautiful upside-down country with regret — upside-down because you go north to be warm and south to be cool, gardens are planted with a northern exposure for rapid growth, Orion is a summer constellation, February is midsummer, and the fences are deep ditches. There are many contradictions to us, but it is all quite fascinating. ‘The boat from the States was a day late in coming in so we have not heard yet who has come for the conference, but we shall be happy to see those good people. M. Mcl. G. CHAPTER IX MACKENZIE COLLEGE? Sao Pauto, Braziu, April 28, 1925 N March 20 and 21 and on April 27: and 28, we had the pleasure of being in Sao Paulo and of visiting Mackenzie College. At other times during the past month I have had the opportunity of talking with Dr. Waddell and other members of the Mackenzie faculty. A summary of some of the impressions of the college is contained in this chapter. Before we reached Sao Paulo we had heard favorable comments in regard to the work of the college, both on the part of British and North Americans and on the part of Brazilians. The literature of the main steamship lines running from the United States contains complimentary references to Mackenzie College as an outstanding example of North American educational service. A guidebook to South America, recently published, devotes half a page to a description of the college. The institution is evidently a landmark in Sao Paulo, which is in certain ways the most influential city and center in Brazil. From the standpoint of the Brazilians it is evi- dent that the college had become the focal point 1 A brief description of the College is also given in Chapter ITI. 246 MACKENZIE COLLEGE 247 in the battle between the Liberals and the Con- servatives, the Liberals supporting it and of course the majority of its alumni being loyal to it, and the Conservatives and the clerical party being opposed to it. In general, from what we could learn, it can be maintained that Mackenzie College is one of the leading, if not the leading educational institution of its type in Brazil, all schools, Government and private, being included in this comparison. ‘The Mackenzie Schools of Engineering still hold first place in their standards and service in the re- public. A statement concerning the college, by its presi- dent, Dr. W. A. Waddell, gives a succinct sum- mary of its character and work: “ Mackenzie College was chartered by the Re- gents of the University of the State of New York in 1891. The Board of Trustees has its seat in New York. The first class graduated in 1900. Since then the sequence has been unbroken. The degrees given are Bachelor of Literature, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineer- ing, in Electrical Engineering, in Chemistry, in Architecture, — all five-year courses. ‘There are also shorter courses in industrial chemistry and pedagogy. ‘There are 175 college students. In 1896 the schools from which the college grew, founded in 1871, were placed under its care. There are, at present, two high schools, commercial and preparatory, with 220 and 280 pupils, and a grade school of 700 pupils. ‘The total enrollment in 1925 248 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL reached 1429 with a teaching force of 76 in all departments, with 15 in the office force. “The buildings would cost more than $400,000 to replace, having cost about $310,000, of which $135,000 came from the United States, the remain- der being obtained from school earnings. ‘There is an endowment of 600 contos ($80,000 at present rate of exchange) in bonds of the State of Sao Paulo, realized from the sale of a piece of property which became unsuitable for school purposes. There is no operating debt. The fixed debt is about $7,000, mostly a mortgage for property pur- chased, which the seller wishes to stand during her life. “For many years Mackenzie has lived on its own earnings. The contribution received from the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church covered certain scholarships, netting heavy losses to the school. Since the above endowment became available in 1922, these scholarships are charged against it and the grant is withdrawn. “To accomplish self-support, the most rigid economy has been practiced, with the result of limiting many desirable activities. Teaching has had the right of way over everything else; experi- ments, whether in education or in scientific investi- gation, had to wait on means. Kven thus handi- capped the schools have been able to contribute very substantially to the progress of public instruc- tion, the grade school having furnished a model for the Sao Paulo school system, which is gradually being extended throughout Brazil. Each succeed- MACKENZIE COLLEGE 249 ing change in the plan of higher education adopts more of the methods of the Mackenzie. Some valu- able scientific work has been done. All our gradu- ates, some 260 engineers and 360 commercials, are employed and we have always many calls, often including requests from the Government for men at good salaries. The national Government in 1922 gave the Engineering School equal rights with its own schools. The college has done much to mediate American ideas to the Brazilians. Reference can be made to all Americans who have a knowledge of its work in support of its claims. “The college has made important contributions to the Protestant movement in Brazil. The Escola Americana from which the college grew up was organized to provide education for Protestant children persecuted in the priest-inspected public schools of the empire. Later when the republic secularized these schools, its value had become so clearly established that it was continued and de- veloped. “Here many of the most prominent ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil had their pre- seminary course. North Americans present at the Montevideo Conference will remember Erasmo Braga, Alvaro Reis, and Mathatias Gomes dos Sanctos — all ex-students of Mackenzie — and those who attended the Regional Conference at Rio will remember the charming personality of a youthful matron, a graduate of the high school, who addressed the meeting in English. Many of the outstanding lay leaders of the Church are alumni. 250 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Ex-students who have not adhered to the Protes- tant faith are almost without exception Liberals and their friendship opens many doors to the gos- pel. With the passing years the school has not changed its relation to the Protestant community. In 1925 twenty-three students, presented by their ecclesiastical authorities as candidates for the min- istry, are receiving free instruction and several of them free board. This number is greater than that of the students now in the seminary courses to which they are destined. “Throughout its history the school has carried a free list of from fifteen to twenty-five per cent, an expenditure amply justified by the positions at- tained and the service rendered by the great major- ity of these students. All classes of the community recognize the value of this service.” On March 20, Dr. Speer and I attended the morning chapel maintained for the students of the third- and fourth-year classes of the preparatory school, and then, in company with a group of dele- gates bound for Montevideo, had an enjoyable hour with Dr. Waddell, during which he spoke briefly on the history and development of the college and answered questions of all kinds in regard to the institution. We inspected the college buildings after this session and had some refreshments at Dr. Waddell’s hospitable home on the campus. At luncheon that day Dr. Speer and I had a more in- timate conference with Dr. Waddell. On the twenty-first Dr. Speer and I met with the council of the college, composed of the officers and deans ‘ouRy IW CH “Ad ‘yueprsead qaul1oy Jo ysnq IY, (2A0qY) ‘TPPPBPM “V “M Feptsetd ‘raed “say stood aT “WU Ad “JIS “O “WV Used ‘uvuIysND “GS SoueL “SIT srouxyd ‘'( ‘W Ad — 4st 03 WI] SAadWVO ADATION AIZNEAMOVN AHI NO SALVDATAG OACIAALNOW UAWOS MACKENZIE COLLEGE 251 of the college, representatives of the Brazilian Church, and representatives of the Missions. We talked with the various deans, especially with Mr. Slater and Mr. Piers, and tried to see as much of the work of the different departments and classes as we could. On my return trip up the Brazil coast, when my boat stopped at Santos yesterday, I was met by Dr. Waddell and came up with him to see Mackenzie again. This morning I visited the chapel exercises of the first-year class of the preparatory school, and had the opportunity of - visiting individual classes and departments, and of looking over the grounds again. The college owns about eleven and one half acres in one of the highest sections of Sao Paulo. The land was bought when the city had not grown out to it, and there was considerable speculation as to whether or not the city would ever reach the new site. Now it is in the best residential section, with strict development, and the building of new houses going forward beyond it. The land is valued at approximately $450,000 American gold, Dr. Wad- dell having been offered the other day $10 gold per square meter for the land which totals about 45,000 square meters. ‘The purchaser offered in addition to pay for the buildings. When it is remembered that the total invest- ments from the United States for property in Mackenzie have been approximately $130,000 gold, and that the present buildings are worth approx- imately $350,000 gold, making a total valuation of $800,000 gold, and that the additions to the prop- 252 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL erty, outside of those made possible by the funds from the United States, have been secured through economies and through income on the field, one is impressed anew with the wise and careful leader- ship in college finances shown by Dr. Lane and by Dr. Waddell. The question was raised by Dr. Speer as to whether the college would not gain by selling its present lands and buildings and by purchasing more land farther out and erecting new buildings there. Dr. Waddell was clear that the site was the best possible one that could be secured and that it would not be wise to move now. One receives the impression, however, that the present area is too small for an institution of the size of Mackenzie. The buildings of the college departments are set very closely together. One is reminded of the way space has to be utilized in certain sections of New York City, and of the way the buildings of the Union Medical College of the China Medical Board, in Peking, are crowded together because of the restricted space available for them. ‘The buildings of the college are three stories high, built of red brick; those of the lower schools are mostly of brick and stucco, are not so crowded, and, being newer buildings, are more attractive architecturally. All available space has been used most ingen- iously both in the college and in the lower schools. There are restrictions in regard to the students from the lower schools entering the college grounds, and the boys are not expected to invade the build- ings and the campus reserved for the girl students. MACKENZIE COLLEGE 253 The Mackenzie quadrangle, between the two lines of college buildings, is most attractive with its background of evergreen trees and feathery bamboos. This court is reserved for the girls. One wishes that there had been more space and more funds available for this contribution to the natural attractiveness of the Mackenzie campus and to the beauty-loving minds and hearts of the girl students, as at Wellesley and Bryn Mawr or at the Women’s Colleges at Peking and Nanking. Certainly it can be said that every possible use has been made of the space available and every dollar put into the property has been carefully in- vested. The walls of the library are practically complete and the roofing and finishing of the interior are being delayed until the additional funds needed, approximately $5,000, can be secured. The build- ing, when completed, will have a unique place in the educational sphere, and we ought to secure at once the funds required to finish it. The question arises, of course, as to the possi- bility of securing more land if the college is to con- tinue in its present location. Dr. Waddell feels that there are other needs more pressing just now than additional land, but the college ought to be looking ahead to meet the requirements of the future. Dr. Job Lane, the son of Dr. Horace M. Lane, a former president of Mackenzie, owns about five acres immediately adjoining the college prop- erty and has stated verbally that the institution will be given an opportunity to purchase this property 254: MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL before it is offered to any other buyer. Its present price would probably be between $5 and $10 gold a square meter. “There are about 25,000 square meters in all. He is holding the land as an invest- ment, with the expectation that it will appreciate in value and that he can realize more in the future for it than he can by selling now. It is not pro- ducing any income now, but the taxes are com- paratively low. I hope that part at least, if not all of this land, can be secured eventually. To one visiting the college for the first time three needs are apparent: the college needs more land, as has already been suggested, and I should like to see a chapel and assembly hall and more adequate facilities for athletics, including a track, a gymna- sium, and possibly another football field, and an athletic field which can be used by the girls. The college has no room large enough for the attend- ance either of the college students or of those in the lower schools. From the North American standpoint and from the viewpoints of colleges in other foreign lands, it would seem most desirable to provide facilities which would make possible the gathering of the total student body in one place. I believe that a chapel where this could be done would have a direct influence on the religious life of the students and upon their general religious spirit and morale. When one considers the moral conditions which surround boys and young men in Latin Ameriean lands, one appreciates anew the value of athletics and the training in clean living and self-control which they give. There is no track MACKENZIE COLLEGE 255 and no gymnasium for the Mackenzie students at present, and only one football field for about 1,100 boys and young men. If a man could be added to the faculty who could give his time to athletic supervision and to personal Christian fellowship and work with the students, I am sure that he could make a vital and lasting contribution to the Christian life and morale of the student body. In the Annual Report for 1924, Dr. Waddell lists certain definite needs for additional equip- ment and for current expenses: $7,000 to cancel Mackenzie’s debt in the United States, $5,000 of this owed to Mrs. Chamberlain, for the purchase of land years ago, and $2,000 which Dr. Alexan- der had generously advanced out of his own funds; $5,000 gold, rendered necessary by the general upset caused by the revolution last summer, $2,000 of this to be paid this year, $2,000 next year, and $1,000 the following year; $3,000 for the equipment of the chemical and physical laboratories and architectural and civil engineering courses; $5,000 to complete the library building; $4,700 for library books; $5,000 for ath- letic equipment and gymnasium, promised some time ago by the trustees, provided that an equiva- lent amount be raised on the field; $7,000 for a physics building, for which comparatively small sum Dr. Waddell states there can be put up a building which will be of practical value in this course; $2,000 for installing a balopticon and a motion-picture outfit for the scientific demonstra- 256 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL tion and teaching of geography and history; and certain other items which look toward the future. These eight needs, all of them valid and obvi- ously desirable, total only $38,700. When this list is compared with the expensive totals which trustees of other colleges or universities abroad receive each year, one gains a true conception of the economy with which the college is being main- tained. Another vital need is an endowment fund which will provide an income of $5,000 gold annually. The salaries of the members of the faculty are clearly too low and must be raised. Dr. Waddell proposed to secure this increase through the raising of the fees for tuition and board of the students. There are few colleges on the foreign fields which would have courage enough to attempt to finance such an increase in salaries through their own re- sources without appealing to the trustees for help. However, the increase in fees would not cover another need of the faculty, that is, for funds to meet their furlough expenses and to provide for study when they are in the States. It is clear that such study is necessary if the educational standards of the faculty are to be maintained. The plan is to use the income from the fund of $100,000, if it can be secured, to cover such furlough study and furlough expenses of the faculty. There are other matters, in regard to Dr. Wad- dell’s resignation, which he would like to have accepted, to take effect April, 1926; in regard to his successor; an important matter which may affect MACKENZIE COLLEGE 257 the Government recognition already accorded to the Engineering Schools of Mackenzie; and the service which Mackenzie can render by the better preparation of students for the ministry, for the discussion of which there is not space in this chapter. Dr. Waddell said, in a conference with the dele- gates to Montevideo, who were visiting the college, that the margin of safety in the current income of the college did not exceed five per cent. Other North American institutions or business corpora- tions desire a margin of sixty per cent or eighty per cent. No one can visit Mackenzie and study the work being done there without a profound realiza- tion of the almost superhuman efforts which have been made to make the best use of every dollar in- vested, and the outstanding success which has in the main attended these efforts. Mackenzie is a college set upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid, and it is sending forth its radiance into all parts of the great republic of Brazil. I know that any North American visitor would re- joice in what is being done here if he could have the opportunity of seeing with his own eyes the actual accomplishments of the institution, and that anyone who visualizes its achievements and oppor- tunities would be happy to have a share in the broad and deep service it is rendering to the youth of Brazil. W. R. W. CHAPTER X UP THE LADDER OF LATITUDE FROM BUENOS AIRES TO BAHIA Bau, BRAZIL, May 4, 1925 N April 23, at seven in the evening, I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina; eight days later, on May 1, at ten at night, I reached Bahia, in tropical Brazil, twenty-two degrees nearer the Equator and nearly 2,000 miles farther north. On the journey from Buenos Aires to Bahia we had touched at the ports of Montevideo, Santos, and Rio, and had transshipped at the first and last cities. The return trip up the east coast of South America gave opportunity for revisiting work and places already seen on the way south, and I was grateful for many kindnesses of friends and acquaintances all along the way. My steamer, the Pan-America, left Buenos Aires at three o’clock April 23, and the Inter- nacional train from Mendoza did not reach the city until seven o’clock, but with the kind assistance of Mr. Ewing, of the Young Men’s Christian Asso- ciation, I caught the River Plate boat for Monte- video that night at ten and so boarded the Pan- America the next day. Mrs. W. E. Browning, in the absence of her husband who was in Chile, gave me freely of her time during the day in 258 FROM BUENOS AIRES TO BAHIA 259 Montevideo, and helped me to outfit for the trip into tropical Brazil from Bahia. The Pan-America sailed at five o'clock, “April 24, and reached Santos early on the morning of April 27. On Sunday, the twenty-sixth, we held an informal service on shipboard, and it was a great pleasure to come to know various fellow passengers through that service. I had boarded the steamer alone, and that is always a somewhat lonely experience, but at the first meal I discovered a Yale classmate, Bayard Rives, who was returning to New York after an interesting trip to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, as legal representative of a North American corporation which was offering to develop the harbor facilities of that city. Rives represents the best type of North American busi- ness man, and commercial relations between North and South and investment of capital would result more happily if more men of his integrity and culture were engaged in such activity. Later I met Walter Bartholomew, an engineer, a brother of Marshall Bartholomew, Yale ’07, who is now director of the Yale Glee Club, and after the serv- ice, Mr. Thomas EK. Coale, President of the T. E. Coale Lumber Company of Philadelphia, Hon. and Mrs. J. D. Fredericks, of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, the former a member of the national House of Representatives, and Senator and Mrs. Wesley L. Jones, of Seattle, Washington, Senator Jones having had a leading part in recent shipping legislation of our Government. Our little group of North American Protestants met and joined in 260 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL the service on shipboard in those South Atlantic waters and along that Roman Catholic seaboard, and were drawn Closer to one another because of the hour spent together in that way. Dr. W.-A. Waddell, President of Mackenzie College, was on the pier at Santos, where we arrived early on the morning of the twenty-seventh. He took me up to Sao Paulo, and I had an interest- ing and well-occupied twenty-four hours at Mac- kenzie College, dictating to Dr. Waddell’s capable secretary (a stenographer who can take English is a rare treasure in South America), conferring with Dr. Waddell and Mr. Stewart in regard to college matters, and meeting with a group of the teachers and with various classes of students at their chapel exercises. We called on Dr. Job Lane, the son of the former president of Mackenzie College, who has an authoritative position in the medical pro- fession in Sao Paulo. Incidentally I learned that he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898, and was on his university track team with such well-known stars as George Orton, Kranzlein, and McCracken. Dr. McCracken is now in China and Dr. Lane in Brazil; they are both giving them- selves to the service of others in the same high and effective spirit in which they served their university in undergraduate days. We left Sao Paulo at noon on the twenty-eighth: the Pan-America sailed at six and arrived in Rio at daybreak the twenty-ninth. There I changed to the S.S. Orania of the Royal Holland Lloyd (Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd) and sailed for FROM BUENOS AIRES TO BAHIA 261 Bahia about four o’clock. Dr. Donald C. Mac- Laren came down to the boat and helped me to do various final errands in Rio. We entered the spacious harbor of Bahia at ten o’clock on the eve- ning of May 1, and there I disembarked after eight interesting days along the coasts of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Bahia has not had a favorable reputation on account of the prevalence of yellow fever and other tropical maladies there, but representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation have rendered most valu- able service in the improvement of health con- ditions, and the year 1924 was the first on record when not a single case of yellow fever was re- ported. Shortly after I had gone to my pension in Bahia, one of the guests there said that another guest, a woman, had left on the boat which had brought me to Bahia with the coffin of her husband, who had died at the pension with what was diagnosed as typhus fever. There was also a representative of a Belgian corporation staying at the pension, who had been so ill from malarial fever contracted in Cachoeira, which is on the way to Ponte Nova, that he had been compelled to drop his work tempo- rarily while he recovered his health and strength. These reports did not make for a very auspicious welcome to Bahia, but it developed later that the typhus rumor was probably not correct and, as succeeding chapters will show, the journey into the interior from Bahia was made with no ill effects. The missionaries in the city and state of Bahia go 262 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL forward with their work without thought of any possible dangers from injury or disease. There are few coasts with such beautiful harbors, and it seemed that our steamers chose the most favorable time for entering and leaving each port. When we left Montevideo, we saw the light wink- ing and flashing on the top of the “ Montevideo Hill”; above it the silvery new moon and the shining Pleiades and Southern Cross, the signal light and moon and stars mirrored in the quiet bay and reproduced in the crescent of lights stretching far around the harbor shore. The lights of Santos and its sheltered harbor shone over the sea long after we had left our anchorage there, and the in- comparable Bay of Rio seemed even more mag- nificent by sunrise and sunset as we entered and left it for the second time. Bahia is a fitting climax to this chain of beau- tiful ports. The city is one of the oldest in Brazil, the one-time capital of the country and the center of the slave trade and of the power of the Roman Church. It is protected by a great wall rising from the level of the sea, built by slave labor and resembling the great walls of Cartagena in Colombia. The full name of the city is Bahia de Todos Santos de San Salvador, but it is known generally as Bahia, or “ Bay,” and this surviving title indicates the most conspicuous and beautiful portion of its landscape. A wonder- ful bay it is, with less gigantic and incredible moun- tain ramparts than at Rio, but surrounded instead by friendly wooded hills. The bay is less cut by FROM BUENOS AIRES TO BAHIA 263 ees sn nn inlets and is wider than the bay at Rio, and “ stretches forward free and far ” as one sails up to the city built upon high land on its eastern shores. Here we are only thirteen degrees from the Kqua- tor and the air is lifeless and still, with rarely a puff of wind to stir the quiet waters of the harbor or the feathery palms that stand so still upon the surround- ing hills. As I look down upon the bay from this pension on the hill, I see the wee fishing boats with triangular sails, apparently motionless on the glassy waters, “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” There is no sign of human habita- tion on the farther shores two or three miles away, and nothing to indicate that the scene is not that of two or three centuries ago. You can almost see the slave ships coming up the bay, loaded with their pitiable cargoes of suffering, abject humanity, torn from their native shores and brought to this “ new world” under the approval of so-called Christian monarchs and the Roman Catholic Church. You can almost catch the glint of the sunlight on the shields and cuirasses of the soldiers in that farther caravel with the Portuguese flag at its masthead, or of that other ship hovering out to sea with the lions of Aragon and Castile on the crimson and yellow banner fluttering aloft; and you can almost hear the clanging of the bells of the cathedral wel- coming the bishops and clergy and officers of the Holy Inquisition and the secular arm of the Church as they enter the imposing gateway in the great city wall. The spirit of the past hangs over Bahia and 264 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL permeates its whole atmosphere — a past of cruelty and superstitions and evil, wrought in part by those who called themselves priests of God, and leaving a stench that remains even to this day. For Bahia to-day, with nearly all of its popula- tion of 300,000 descendants of those people of Africa brought bound to its shores, with seventy per cent illiterates, with over fifty per cent of illegitimate births, with a great part of its male population contaminated by venereal disease, is still the stronghold of the Roman Catholic Church, and through four centuries has received no true cleansing or light from those in authority in that Church. “I hate the Roman Catholic Church,” a man told me in Bahia, with deep bitterness in his voice, “because of its superstition and the character of its priests,” and could you wonder at that feeling if you had lived in Bahia and knew its conditions of life and the life of the Church that claims full moral and spiritual respon- sibility for its inhabitants? Bahia and Central Brazil need the redeeming and purifying power and love of Christ, and they have been cheated of this gift by the only Church of Christ they have known. Who that knows the facts and the need will main- tain that those who do know Christ and are willing to present Him and His gospel should not enter here? In Dr. Speer’s report on our South Ameri- can Missions, written in 1909, are these concluding words: “'There is much immorality in our own land, but much as there is, it is clean compared FROM BUENOS AIRES TO BAHIA 265 with South America. Who dare deny the right and duty of any morally cleansing power to go in upon this moral need? . . . If religion has nothing to do with morality, then it is all well. We can leave South America alone. But if as we believe, religion is nothing but a living morality, the moral- ity of a true and loving fellowship with a heavenly Father, a righteousness alive in Christ, if true religion and undefiled is this, that a man should visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and keep himself unspotted, then we are no Chris- tians if we do not carry such a religion to South America.” W. R. W. CHAPTER XI FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA BY STEAMER, RAIL, MOTOR, AND MULE Ponte Nova, Braziz, - May 9, 1925 N May 5 we left Bahia for a trip of about 250 miles to Ponte Nova, an inland station of our Central Brazil Mission. The journey, com- bining four different types of transportation, is typical of present-day travel in tropical Brazil, and those who read these letters may be interested in a somewhat detailed description of our experiences en route. Mrs. H.v.K. Gillmore, representing our Foreign Board, had preceded us, leaving Bahia on the twenty-first, and being accompanied by Rev. and Mrs. H. C. Anderson and Rev. and Mrs. Peter G. Baker, of Bahia. My traveling companion was Rey. James H. Haldane, of Pernambuco, a mem- ber of the United Free (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, but, as that Church has no work in South America, at present a missionary of the Evan- gelical Missionary Union. The first part of the route to Ponte Nova is by water, across Bahia Bay and up the Paraguassu River, for 42 miles to the town of Cachoeira. The steamboat, of shallow draft and about eighty feet in length, was well laden with passengers and freight, 266 FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 267 for it runs but three times a week and is the only regular means of transportation from Bahia up the Paraguassu. After two hours crossing the bay we turned up the winding river, its banks lined with palms and bamboos. Additional passengers came out in long dugout canoes and boarded our steamer, the paddlers performing miraculous feats of balancing as they stood in their narrow, unsteady craft that rose and fell in the wake of our boat. We passed several sailboats, some of them merely dugouts with a triangular cloth rigged to the wind; others, larger boats with upturned prows and square, many-patched sails, which looked much like the junks on the Yangtze, except that their sails were whiter and their bows lacked the staring eyes of the Chinese boats. We had left Bahia at eight, and reached Ca- choeira at two in the afternoon. The town has about 5000 inhabitants, and there Dr. Chamber- lain, one of the pioneers of our Church, once lived and worked. There is a Presbyterian church of about 70 members, its pastor being Rev. Manuel Antonia da Silva. A school with an enrollment of about 50 is being conducted by Senhorita Adalgiza Soares, a graduate of the school at Ponte Nova. Cachoeira, like most river towns in other coun- tries as well as in Brazil, has not a high moral tone, and our hotel was not exactly in the same class as the Ritz or the Bellevue-Stratford. A naked baby of about three years, with distended abdomen and scabby head, stood in the center of the dirty floor of the hotel and cried. A slatternly woman in un- 268 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL speakably begrimed dress handed out meat and coffee to the hotel guests who sat about the dirty tables and smoked and talked. Other half-clothed children played about the room. The women seemed listless and without hope; the men, without energy or ambition or cleanliness. What hope, what faith in the future or in mankind, can there be for these women? Looked upon as creatures to be used and taken advantage of for the moment, then abandoned or betrayed, with no one to look to for protection and care, what must they think of men? And what a penalty it is to a baby to be born in a Cachoeira hut, so often to have no father and no intelligent or cleanly care! If these things cut us to the heart as we look upon them and think of those whom we love and of our own children, whom we should grieve to see so desolate and so forlorn, how must all this appear to the One who is the Father above, and whose children they all are? Our train did not leave until six-thirty next morning, so that evening we walked across the bridge to the town of Sao Felix and, hearing sing- ing, entered the Roman Catholic church where services were being held. ‘The month of May is devoted to special meetings in honor of the Virgin Mary, and the service we visited was one of these meetings. The church was fairly well filled by women, with a few rows of men in the back or standing in the doorway. ‘The little Brazilian boys and girls of obvious Indian and African strain, sang lustily, doing the best they could with unin- FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 269 telligible Latin words. A robed priest stood be- fore the altar; an attendant swung a censer filled with burning incense, its billowing smoke rolling up before the gilded images and about the blazing candles. The scene was African or Buddhist rather than Christian. And yet why should not these poor women who were there, who knew men and who knew the character of too many of the priests, put their trust in Mary, just as the Bud- dhists look always to Kwan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy, for help and succor? ‘“ Mary, pity women,’ and especially the women of Cachoeira and Sao Felix and the cities of tropical Brazil! The Senhora of the hotel had promised us coffee at five-fifteen. We rose at five and had to rouse our hosts at five-thirty or depart without food. We crossed the river in a dugout canoe, and left Sao Felix by train at six-thirty. ‘The engine was a Baldwin of some early model, wood-burning, with expansive stack, the cars filled with Brazilian country people, with some few cattlemen and dia- mond prospectors of more ample means. We climbed out of the valley of the Paraguassu, the engine’s drivers slipping and whirling on the wet rails, and we rode over a table-land, evidently a cattle country, with scrub growth of trees and brush. At one-thirty we arrived at Paraguassu, formerly called Sitio Nova, 126 miles from Ca- choeira, our train having averaged 18 miles an hour, which is unusually good time for this type of loco- motion. From Paraguassu to Ponte Nova the distance is 270 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL about 108 miles. When we alighted from the train, we were given a note from Mr. Anderson, who after escorting Mrs. Gillmore to Ponte Nova, had kindly come down again to meet us and was waiting for us at Alagoas, 28 miles from Para- guassu, with riding and pack mules. The inter- vening distance we were to cover by motor, that is, by Ford. There exists apparently, among our friends and others in the United States, the feeling that to go into the interior of South America involves one in certain risks. ‘The insurance companies do not care to write protective policies for travelers in the interior. ‘The danger of such journeys is vastly overrated, but of one aspect of it something may be said, that is, the excitement and real chances for destruction involved in riding in an automobile behind a Latin-American chauffeur. ‘The risk exists both in the city and in the country. In the cities there are apparently no regulations as to the sides of the street the traffic must follow, as to the passing of another car, or as to speed limit. Most of the streets have blind crossings, with houses built close to the sidewalk so that it is impossible for the driver on one street to see a car approaching from a cross street. The drivers do not try to see, but put on extra speed, blow their horns, and trust to Providence that another car will not reach the crossing at the same moment. Furthermore, the Latin American drives a car as he does a horse, al- ternating spur and curb. A description of a trip by carriage down a mountain road in Chile will give an inkling of our sensations in South Ameri- CIN ‘YD ‘IT 140d) ‘SVODVIV OL avou AHL NO GHL SdssVd ATAW AHL $SaILTOAOlddId NI “MNOMS AHL, ‘VaNVD ‘ b uiOLol FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 271 can motor cars: “’'The horses were fresh and ex- cited, and the driver could not hold them, so my hair stood on end as we dashed along. * Why don’t you have a brake on these wheels?’ I asked. ‘ Brake, indeed!’ he replied. ‘What for? What use would it be? If you are smashed, you're smashed, and there’s the end!’ Oriental fatalism, I reflected, handed on, like the Oriental saddle, by the Moors to the Spaniards, and by Spain to South America.” * A man may drive a horse safely with one hand but not an automobile, and the Brazilian cannot adequately express himself unless he uses at least one hand in gesture. Most drivers wish to con- verse en route, and their propensity to remove one hand from the wheel and to use it as an aid to conversation does not add to the peace of mind of their passengers. The other three members of our delegation had had various automobile escapades on the west coast, and had had the unpleasant ex- perience of knocking down a boy and running over him, in a city in Peru. Fortunately the lad was not seriously hurt, but the incident did not in- crease their confidence in Latin American drivers or in their driving. Soon after Mr. Haldane and I boarded the Ford at Paraguassu for the twenty-eight-mile trip to Alagoas, we realized we were in for a trip of unusual interest. The car had a light-colored top and we heard later that the driver had named his machine, Gamba, meaning “ Skunk.” It was a well-chosen name, although, to be just, it applied 1 Aconcagua and Tierra del Fuego, Sir Martin Conway, p. 303. 272 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL more to the performance of our chauffeur than to the conduct of the car. After a few miles it was evident the driver had three dominant ideas: first, a Ford had the right of way over any other animal on the road, mule, steer, or man; second, an auto- mobile is built for speed; ergo, it must go fast, the presence or lack of highway being entirely a secondary matter;. third, when you go through a town, you must put on extra speed as a demonstra- tion to the populace. These three principles were followed faithfully and to their logical conclusion. A drove of mules were picking their way across the first large bridge we encountered; our chauffeur drove the “ Skunk ” crashing into their flank and ceased motion only when the milling, plunging herd prevented all progress. Beyond, an elderly man and his wife were riding up a slight grade, accompanied by the usual number of pack mules. The Skunk bore down upon them and, the senhora’s mule present- ing a tempting mark as it stood broadside on the road, car and mule collided sharply, and the lady was toppled from her saddle to the ground. She rose to lean against a tree and weep. Certainly this was no way for Protestants to go through a country, maiming mules and knocking elderly ladies off their mounts! We berated the driver, but he seemed elated rather than depressed. Having cleared the road of pedestrians, our chauffeur proceeded to show us what the Skunk could do in the way of speed. Now the road be- tween Paraguassu and Alagoas is not properly a FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 273 road at all, but a mule trail in process of becoming a road. In places it is baked hard and dry, with great gulfs and ridges and protruding rocks; in other sections it 1s covered six inches deep with sand. Hard clay, rock, and sand, all looked alike to the Skunk and its scorching master. He in- formed us that on a preceding trip he had broken a spring, and after several miles we wondered why the casualties had been so small. Certainly the capacity of that car to absorb punishment without sustaining a mortal wound was an impressive tribute to the genius of its Michigan makers. We came to a sandy stretch. ‘Thus far the trail had been fairly wide, with trees at a safe distance on either side. But here the road narrowed and there appeared a row of telegraph poles, made of rails taken from the railroad and driven at inter- vals into the ground. The Skunk tried to make speed through the sand. Now not even a Latin American can make good mileage or control a car attempting to move rapidly on such a roadbed. We neared the first telegraph pole which had a most unresilient and Calvinistic perpendicularity. Our front wheels skidded to the right, and then to the left; we described a double parabola, and missed the pole by a scant six inches. We came to a town on top of the hill. The Skunk put on additional speed and we dashed through the narrow streets, honking wildly, and avoiding carts and individuals by miraculous margins. Down the hill we sped; at its foot, we saw more sand. Into the sand we went; there was a jerk, and a crash, and we turned 274 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL at a sharp right angle and plunged directly into the forest. Providence saw to it that there were no large trees directly in our path. We crunched through the brush and saplings, until the Skunk came to a standstill some fifteen feet off the road. With the help of some passing muleteers, we extricated the car and pushed it back on to the path. Apparently this adventure and the earnest words we addressed to the driver had their effect, and we proceeded thenceforth with less accelera- tion, and about five o’clock, after three hours on the way, we arrived in Alagoas. For anyone who has driven a car, riding in the back seat of an automobile behind an incompetent and senseless driver is a most fatiguing experience, and we were glad to see the mules waiting at Alagoas to take us the remainder of the way to Ponte Nova. On TRAIN FROM Paracauassu TO CACHOEIRA, May 21, 1925 Distance in Central Bahia in tropical Brazil is measured by leagues rather than by kilometers or miles. A league is reckoned to be approximately six kilometers or four miles. In reality it is the distance a lightly laden mule or horse will cover in one hour. From Alagoas, where we left the Ford and mounted mules, to Ponte Nova, it is said to be 20 leagues or approximately 80 miles. It was five o'clock when we arrived in Alagoas; the moon that night would be nearly full, and we voted to repack, FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 275 to have our supper, and to go on that evening in the moonlight. At seven-twenty we left Alagoas, our train of fourteen mules and horses, including pack animals and extra mounts, making a pictur- esque cavalcade as we rode along the winding path- way, the mules moving noiselessly on the soft dirt, the moonlight filtering through the palms and the giant trees of the tropics, hung by waving moss and tangled creepers that threw grotesque shadows across the trail. For four hours we rode until we reached Flores, 16 miles away, and there put up for the night in the little house owned by the Mission and used as a shelter for members of the Mission and for friends and travelers like our- selves. The next two days we spent in the saddle. Tropical Brazil is still in the equestrian age. Everyone rides. We moved in a world whose transportation, livelihood, customs, and atmosphere were expressed in terms of the mule or horse. It is a world in which Chaucer would have felt very much at home, and the appearance on the trail of the Canterbury Pilgrims would not arouse much comment or surprise. There is a railroad from Cachoeira, about 150 miles in length, but at present it passes 60 miles from Lencoes, which is 36 miles from Ponte Nova. Everything is brought into Ponte Nova on mule back or on a two-wheeled oxcart. ‘There is not a piano in Ponte Nova, for a piano cannot be loaded onamule or acart. So the senhoritas of a musical turn devote themselves to portable organs. Cloth- 276 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL ing and food are packed into small trunks that a mule can carry. We passed mule trains loaded with tobacco, salt, kerosene, farina, flour, and furniture. One of the missionaries at Ponte Nova had brought in a four-wheeled wagon, like those used in the North, but his experiences on the way were not those which would encourage a repetition of the experiment. In due time better roads and more modern equipages will invade central Bahia, but for the present the mule and horse and the four-team oxcart, with two solid wooden wheels that revolve with their axles and send forth grind- ing and shuddering shrieks, hold sway in this part of tropical Brazil. Many of the figures and much of the life along the trail are most picturesque. Nearly all the men wear round leather hats, with wide brims and two leather thongs knotted in the back, like the head- gear worn by the pirates and buccaneers who haunted these seacoasts and the Spanish Main. The cowboys, or vaqueros, wear dark leather shirts and tight-fitting leather leggings. One group we saw had come with their cattle from the inland state of Goyaz for over a thousand miles, having been on the road for six months. ‘There were nine- teen of these cowboys, their leader a tall, well- proportioned Brazilian, with dark, handsome fea- tures of a distinctly Spanish type, whose grace in the saddle and charm of manner and smile gave him unusual distinction. We came upon a betrothal group, a party of about twenty, the bride to be and her sister profusely powdered and dressed FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 277 for the occasion, riding sidesaddle, with long habits like those worn three centuries ago; the prospective groom in a new suit and new sombrero; the father- in-law and mother-in-law on their horses with a child perched up behind each; a group of vaqueros and friends, all mounted, making a joyful and boisterous escort. Bauia City, May 23, 1925 On our way to Ponte Nova on the evening of May 6 we covered 16 miles from Paraguassu to Flores. Next morning we joined in a hymn and Scripture-reading and prayer with a little group of believers. Mr. Anderson, as a representative of the Mission, had various errands to perform and purchases to make, and it was ten-thirty before we left Ruy Barbosa, formerly called Orobo, a half hour beyond Flores, for the second stage of our journey. We rode for nearly three hours, and after a stop to rest the animals and to have luncheon, started again and rode for six hours, the last two hours in the moonlight, until, at nine o'clock, we reached Pedrinhas, “ little rocks,” eight and one half leagues or about 34 miles from Flores. That night was unexpectedly cold and we shivered beneath our single blankets on our portable cots, despite the fact that we were but thirteen degrees south of the Equator. We had been ascending the valley of the Sara Cura River, which we crossed that day, by actual count, eighty-six times. But it was the end of the dry season: the stream bed was dry and the only 278 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL water beyond Flores was contained in pits or arti- ficial ponds. Some of it was of the same nature as that described in Kipling’s “ Gungha Din,” water which even the mules would not touch, so we carried drinking water in canteens from Flores clear through to Ponte Nova. The road had led through an upland cattle coun- try, through extensive fazendas where there was less of typical tropical foliage and more of the rough serub and brush associated with our own Southwest. The country seemed the more harsh and rough because of the long dry season. We came upon skeletons of cattle that had died on the road: buzzards soared above them, or waited in gruesome, silent groups for the exploration of some steer that had fallen on the trail. We saw the skins of cougar, lynx, leopard, and deer hung in the doorways of the stores in some of the ham- lets through which we passed. Every possession of the houses was primitive and spoke of the frontier. At Pedrinhas, where we had another simple service before starting on the day’s journey, we were 1,700 feet above sea level, according to the aneroid which I had carried throughout the trip and the needle of which I had watched soar from sea level to over 10,500 feet as we crossed the Andes; at Uruguayana, where we stopped for lunch on May 8, the altitude was 2,400 feet. There we crossed the divide, and saw far ahead of us the purple, wooded hills beyond the Utinga Valley, where lay Ponte Nova, and farther away FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 279 on the horizon the higher crags and buttes of the Bonito Mountains and the Lencoes Range. We passed the last fazenda, and rode through uncleared forest land, the tangled caatinga and matto meeting overhead and interlaced with vines and creepers and thorn-bearing undergrowth. It would have been an arduous task for any man to force his way through that forest, a task that would have been made even more painful because of the presence of myriads of stinging ants, whose dark hornet-like homes hung on so many trees, and because of the carapatos and other voracious insects that infest such woods. At five o’clock we crossed the dark waters of the Utinga, that looked cool and refreshing after the thirsty trail of the past two days, and we rode up the valley through the deepening dusk until, after an hour, we came out upon the hospitable clearing of the Ponte Nova fazenda. We had covered seven and one half leagues, or thirty miles, that day, thirty-four miles the preceding day, and sixteen miles on the first evening, so that our time for the eighty miles was a little less than two days, or to be exact, just forty-seven hours. Including the three hours in the Ford, and the two hours spent at Alagoas, we had come from Paraguassu, 108 miles, in fifty-two hours, and from Bahia to Ponte Nova in four days, thereby establishing a new record for the trip. The work at Ponte Nova and the Mission meet- ing there will be the subject of a later chapter. I will close this letter with a sketch of our return trip 280 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL to Bahia and a summary of our general impressions on the road. We left Ponte Nova Saturday morning, May 16, our party consisting this time of Mrs. Gillmore, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Baker, Mr. Haldane, Annie Reese, the eight-year-old daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Alexander Reese, stationed at Ponte Nova, and myself. We had an enormous train of mules and horses, totaling thirty in all. The first day we covered seven and one half leagues, or 30 miles, to Pedrinhas; there we spent Sunday, with a service in Portuguese for the be- levers of that district and one in English for our- selves. Monday we went through to Quati, five and one half leagues, or 22 miles: and Tuesday, through to Alagoas, seven leagues, or 28 miles. Wednesday we took our former car and another Ford to Paraguassu. The Skunk appeared with one of the two radius rods extending to the front axle smashed and repaired with three limbs and wire. We placed the Skunk behind the other Ford which was driven by a man of some discretion and self-control, and, after a thorough exhortation to our own driver on modern methods of motor man- agement, we made the journey without mishap, save that the Skunk could not resist bunting twice into the other car, once side swiping it and the second time ramming it with unexpected force. At Paraguassu, where we had some extra time before the departure of the train, the men of our party went for a swim in the Paraguassu River. We were accompanied to the river bank by a ‘(ose “d) soyeg °9 ‘d ‘SAA “9PPOUM “UM OURPleH “Hf ‘IsoayYITUUY ‘XOUT[ED “Y “A “HE ‘SAP SUOSTOpuYy ‘say ‘UOSLOpUY “OD “EE — yYSsIY 0} Yo] GdvOd VAON WLINOd WHEL NO NIVUL HIOAW YOO FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 281 French engineer in the service of the railroad, formerly a captain in the French aviation service, and a holder of several medals for distinguished service in the Great War. The captain did not go into the river, which was running bank full as a result of recent rains farther up the valley. Later he explained that he had not joined us because, just a short time before, three employees of the railroad who had swum in similar flood water, had been at- tacked by some large pythons which had been washed down by the river, and that the three men had been devoured by these snakes! We treated the remarks of the engineer rather lightly until further investigation revealed the fact that in that same locality, near Paraguassu, Dr. Waddell had assisted in the capture of a python which measured forty-two feet in length, the snake being sent alive to the London Zoo. A python had also been killed at Cachoeira some years before, which had attacked and devoured several dusky residents of that town as they crossed the river where it was in hiding. Dr. Waddell told us also of incidents in which his children and two jarara- cas, the most deadly poisonous of Brazilian snakes, were involved. At Ponte Nova, when the rainy season first begins, a multitude of small frogs and toads usually appear. The children, with the usual young- sters’ fondness for peripatetic reptiles, enjoyed their presence. One day Dr. Waddell saw his young son, about four years of age, stooping over, apparently trying to coax a small frog or a toad 282 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL out of its hole. Repeatedly he tried to grasp its head between his thumb and forefinger, saying, ‘Come out, toady! Come out, toady!”” Dr. Wad- dell walked over to inspect the scene more closely, and saw that what his son was trying to pull out by its head was not a frog or a toad but was really a jararaca; that the hole was so shallow the snake could not retreat farther, and so narrow that it could not open its jaws to grasp the baby’s fingers, which were pinching and slipping off its scaly head and jaws! At another time, one of the Waddell children was sleeping with his hand open and above his head and a jararaca came crawling through the window and over his hand. The child felt the snake on his palm, and awakening suddenly, closed his hand, held tight, and screamed. Luckily his fingers had closed around the snake just back of its head so it could not turn and bite him, and help soon ar- rived. Such incidents were exceptional, however, and except for carrying snake-bite antidotes on all their itinerating trips, the missionaries pay small heed to the possibility of such reptilian adventures. The trip by train from Paraguassu to Cachoeira on Thursday was delayed by the derailment of one of the cars. Part of Thursday night was spent in our former hotel at Cachoeira, which had ac- quired no additional charms during our absence. We held a service in the church in the evening, where several members recalled Dr. Speer’s visit sixteen years ago; and at two-thirty in the morn- FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 283 ing we boarded the river steamer for Bahia. It was rainy and the wind was gusty; about eight o'clock we reached the open bay where the boat went through an extraordinary series of gym- nastics. Missionaries and business veterans one by one succumbed to the increasing oscillation of our flat-bottomed craft; it was with some difficulty that the two members of the Board’s delegation retained their wonted composure, though they managed to come through eventually with clear dockets. Throughout the entire trip to and from Ponte Nova, Mrs. Gillmore had lived up to the military traditions of her family. On the journey to Ponte Nova, her party had not had the advantage of travel part of the way by Ford: consequently she rode the full 108 miles on mule back; this distance, with that traveled on our return trip, totaling 188 miles, no mean total for any woman, not accus- tomed to the tropics, to cover in eight days. Fur- ther, two days before we left Ponte Nova and on the first night we spent on the road, she had attacks of the malarial fever of Brazil, the malignant foe of many a traveler in the tropical interior. She en- dured the discomfort and the dirt of the nights in the country homes along the trail, and the final extra strain of the unspeakable quarters at Ca- choeira and the weird trip by night and early morn- ing in the unstable boat down the river and across the bay, in the best West Point manner. I am sure that her colleagues in New York should be proud of the way she came through this grueling schedule with such flying colors, and I think the 284 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Board is to be congratulated on having such a representative in Central Brazil. Bahia seemed modern and clean and the acme of civilization after the five hundred miles traveled in the interior, and we were glad to enter the hospit- able doors of the Mission house, situated on a hill- side some distance from the city, overlooking grace- ful palms and the distant sea. In reviewing the experiences on the road to and from Ponte Nova three impressions are especially vivid and strong: First, the comparatively high and dependable character of the country people, as seen against the background of the life and moral standard of the people of a similar class in the cities. ‘These country folks are of comparatively good stock, and are good soil for the sowing of the gospel seed. Cavalheiro is the Portuguese term for gentleman; our own word, “ cavalier,” connotes a horseman. The people of Central Bahia are poor and their mounts are lowly, but they have something of the air of the cavalier, as they ride over their rough, narrow trails, saluting each other with a lift of the hat, and holding themselves erect on their mulas and burros. In their greetings and good-bys, in their “ bon dias” and “ adeus,” there is an air of self-respecting and courteous independ- ence, a spirit that rises above poverty and lowly condition, in short, the gesture of a gentleman, and we were glad that after some acquaintance with the city life of Brazil, we could have this insight into the more wholesome and simple life and mores of the country folk of the land. FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 285 Further, no one can go over the Ponte Nova trail with the missionaries and not admire their courage and uncomplaining endurance of hardship. Kspecially is such meed of admiration due to the missionary wives. The physical exertion of riding 80 or 100 miles in three or four or five days is sufficient test of the strength of almost any Ameri- can woman, but the more trying aspects of the journey are the dirt and the odoriferousness and the insect life of the houses along the road where they spend the nights. Chickens and tur- keys amble through the rooms; black pigs — mother pigs and litters of little pigs — sleep under one’s window or join in a porcine symphony in the night hours. The people crowd about the for- elgners, watching them as they eat and staying always near by. Continually there is the con- sciousness that fully sixty per cent of these people, despite the comparatively higher moral tone of life in the country, are infected with communicable disease. All honor to the missionaries who itiner- ate on these roads, who, undismayed by hardship or dirt or disease, patiently and faithfully carry the light of the gospel into the dark places of this land! All honor to the older missionaries, veterans of the trail, who so deftly and quietly make their camps, and in providing their own daily bread, forget not to offer “ the bread of life ”’ to those who will accept it; to the young missionaries, eager and ready to give of themselves to this new service, fresh from the cleanliness and sweetness that, despite its many failings, are still characteristics of our own North 286 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL American life: new recruits upon whom the squalor and dirt and misery of these tropical communities burst with almost overwhelming force! And a blessing upon the children of the missionaries, who, like little Annie Reese, on our journey to Bahia, accept without question the surroundings and limitations of their lives, often with no other Ameri- can children for playmates, self-sufficient and bravely happy, bouncing along on the hard-gaited mule, singing and glad and full of the spirit of simplicity and trustfulness and joy that Jesus said is akin to the spirit of the Kingdom of heaven! Finally, there is the inspiration of the fidelity and courage of the “ Crentes,’ the believers, who live along the Ponte Nova road. In many ways, they must resemble the Christians of the first and second centuries. Like those early Christians, they live surrounded by hostile and unfriendly com- munities, communities from which they may ex- pect persecution and ostracism; like the early Christians, their light shines in the midst of a great and almost overpowering darkness. ‘There is something of pathos in the warmth of greeting and in the eagerness with which one little group of Crentes welcomes another, and the reluctance with which they say farewell. It is a long and lonely trail that the Protestant must follow in the Roman Catholic tropics of Brazil. But along that trail, if one has eyes to see, is appar- ent the springing up of seed sown in prayer and faith years ago. Here is a man who heard Dr. Chamberlain preach and knew at once that there FROM BAHIA TO PONTE NOVA 287 was the true word about the relation between man and God; in this lowly home, a single evangelist had left a portion of the New Testament that had brought the whole family into the new and better Way. All along this winding road the fires of the new faith are burning, in some places flickering and falling low, in others, shining brightly and rising into a steady flame of faith and hope and love, undying fires that, in spite of obstacles and impedi- ments and the stifling atmosphere of superstition and evil, will bring the warmth and power and light of Christ to bear upon the deepest needs of Brazil. W. R. W. CHAPTER XII MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES Ponte Nova, Brazit, May 9, 1925 AIL comes and goes with delightful irregu- larity and uncertainty in Ponte Nova, but I want to send you a final letter even if I reach New York before it. ‘The deputation traveled together as far as Rio; there Dr. McGregor and Miss Reid went on, on the American Legion, to New York and I transshipped to a Dutch boat, the Zeelandia. Ten o'clock on the evening of the second day found us anchored off the city of San Salvador, usually called Bahia, where we were duly inspected by the doctor from the port and the chief of police. Then confusion reigned. Mr. Harold C. Anderson, our missionary sta- tioned in Bahia, came aboard, leaving Mr. Baker to manage having the launch brought to the gang- way. ‘There was confusion about passports, then about baggage, still more with passengers coming on at the same time others were going off. But Mr. Anderson stood firm at the elbow of the distracted official, and finally we reached the launch by walking across one nearer at hand and in ten minutes were ashore. We made our way among pushing and shouting taxi drivers to the Ford and at midnight reached the Mission house. The road after we 288 MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES 289 passed through the city left much to be desired but it seemed only a continuation of the pitching and tossing of the steamer; and it was pleasant to be once more in a comfortable American home. Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Baker, who came out after the June conference of 1924, are staying with the Andersons until they have completed a year of lan- guage study. They are studying with the son and daughter of a judge in Bahia, whom they met on the steamer, and are making fine progress. We had heard that one does not see Brazil until one sees Bahia, so the three days spent there were full of interest. Brooklyn is called the city of churches and baby carriages, but Brooklyn is not in the running with Bahia. There is a different church for every day in the year, 365 churches, great struc- tures with adjoining piles of monasteries and schools. Each order that came out from Portugal built an edifice to rival the preceding order and the city is literally clogged with them. The city was settled first by the Portuguese in 1520. Slaves were brought from Africa, and Bahia soon became the slave market for South America. The population is now a mixture of Portuguese, Indian, and Negro, with over ninety per cent Ne- gro. There are about 100 English, 50 North Americans, and 50 Germans. There is also a lesser number from several other countries. ‘The Presby- terian Church is well established but has been going through throes, having been without a_ pastor several times, which impaired its usefulness. Now there is the prospect of having a fine young Brazil- 290 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL ian from Recife, and the church should take on a new lease of life. The Sunday school is conducted by Mr. Walter Donald, a Scotch business man. Mr. Anderson preached at the eleven o’clock serv- ice Sunday morning, and he and I united our efforts at the evening service before the usual courteous and attentive audience. We left Bahia for Ponte Nova on the twenty- first, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Baker, and I, on a little steamer that crosses the bay and turns up the Paraguassu river. It was a beautiful ride on quite a comfortable boat. We stopped several times to send off passengers in boats made of hollowed-out logs, very tippy and narrow, and reached Cachoeira in the afternoon. The hotel was near the pier, the best hotel in the town, pain- fully dirty in spite of the fact that word had been sent that we were coming and the rooms had been prepared for us. But each room had a balcony facing the square, which was quite lovely with its tropical vegetation, so we could hang over the bal- cony and look at that, but the romance was some- what marred by having to throw our wash water over the same balcony, and if any of you have ever had to clean your teeth over a balcony you know how difficult it is to do it thoroughly and avoid the pedestrians underneath. We crossed the river the next morning in one of the tippy log boats and took the train for Sitio Nova where we arrived that afternoon. A line of soldiers was drawn up on the platform, for there is still unrest in these out-of-the-way places. *(06¢ ‘d) ., syeoq Soy Addy ay} Jo ouo UT * * * ABATL BY} PISSOID OM ,, VUIGOHOVO LV YUAAINM ASSVODVUVd AHL YNISSOUD af a OOLN 4f oF je a) é oe eee Lisi aia Cie e 4 ty iter ip ete Y Pat rstess 4 MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES 291 Eiverywhere were dogs and pigs and mules and chickens. Sitio Nova is the railroad center for discharging freight from the interior and there were piles of bags of cotton, tobacco, and farina about, and the pack mules that brought in the cargo. If the first hotel we stayed at was doubt- ful, this one was impossible, but we had brought along army cots and bedding and by keeping in the middle of the room and not touching anything and eating the food we had brought, we managed without too much discomfort to pass the night. We could not have the windows open for they opened on the street and anything might come in, but there was good ventilation through the walls and roof and a merry-looking star taught a lesson of cheer and rising above one’s surroundings. The next morning the exciting part of the trip began. Nineteen mules and three camaradas were waiting for us. Eight mules were used for mounts, seven were loaded with the cargo, and the remainder accompanied the train as a reserve. It was a long cavaleade and an amusing one. For three of us it was our first experience on a mule, and I for one thought of the trip with some trepidation. I had been warned that if a mule is annoyed with his mount, he suddenly turns to one side while going at a smart pace, and his mount goes on, landing quite often on the top of her head; so I piled my hair on top of my head to act as a cushion and prepared for the worst. My mule was named Jacaré, which means in Portuguese “ alligator.” He had an easy swinging walk and an easier pace 292 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL but his trot was execrable. I had always heard that mules were sure-footed and should be given freedom of rein to choose their own path, so I did not presume to direct his steps except as to speed. He required the reminder of both spur and whip to make our stopping places at the appointed time, but in every other respect he had his own way. He preferred the high places and took all the ridges of the road no matter how narrow. When we went down hills so steep they were almost like walls he would wander over the countryside through the bushes until he found a convenient grade. Once when we came to a particularly steep, slippery hill Jacaré headed for the bushes. Mr. Anderson called out, “ Hey, where are you going?” but he received no answer for I did not know and Jacaré was in one of his independent moods and paid no attention. But in a short time we came back on the trail ahead of the other mules who were still slipping and sliding down the hill. We forded one river eighty-six times, sometimes only the sandy bed and many times through water. Jacaré re- fused to follow the other mules but found a place he liked better and I could only hope he knew how deep it was. Sometimes he stopped with the others to drink, but often he would pursue the even tenor of his way and I never stopped him when he felt inclined to go, so we wandered on out of sight of the others, I hoping that no snakes thirty feet long would notice my unprotected state. On one of these solitary expeditions I saw what I firmly be- lieve to be a black parrot. When the other mem- MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES 293 bers of the party joined me and I told them of the wonderful discovery, Mr. Anderson said that the River of Doubt had been authenticated but he had no hope for my black parrot. Associating for five days with a mule may have given me a new trait or accentuated an old one for [ still think it was a black parrot. We stopped for lunch and for the night at some solitary house along the way where the hospitable owners always welcomed us and gave us their best. We had our own beds and food but were glad to have fresh eggs and milk, although the latter al- ways had to be boiled. For our lunches we tried to keep out in the open and ate in the shed where the sugar or the farina was manufactured. 'The drawback to this was the audience of dogs and pigs and children, and in one place an inquisitive mar- moset, but the air was fresh and the further sur- roundings lovely, for it is a beautiful stretch of country we came through. We saw myriads of brilliantly colored birds and luxuriant tropical vegetation, and a most lovely sky. The nights would have been a trial if we had not been very tired at the close of a day in the saddle. In two of the places we reached at night- fall the owners were no longer living and the place was inhabited by a cowboy and his family. They were very kind in every way but our quarters can- not be appreciated until seen. In one house my room, which was perhaps a trifle the best of the three, was the room where farina was stored, and the only article of furniture was a huge bin, which 294 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL served as a washstand, dresser, clothes rack, and chair. There was one door leading to the hall which did not lock, so I pushed my trunk in front of that, and another door that was locked on the inside, and was the only exit of a mysterious room, so I pushed my bed in front of that so if anyone came out in the night I should at least know it. I remembered hearing that these country people for want of a better place kept a defective relative in just such a place. But notions have no place when one is riding 108 miles and sleep always quieted any fear. We passed one tarantula on the road, so large that Mr. Baker’s horse shied at it as it walked slowly across our path. It was the size of a man’s hand, and black and hairy. Every day brought a new experience and new sights so the trip was full of interest, but when Mr. Anderson announced that we were within a league of Ponte Nova, I for one was ready for the haven of a missionary’s home. Soon we saw a cavalcade coming out to meet us, and were welcomed by Mrs. Wood, Miss Hepperle, little Annie Reese, and a boy from the school. I was assigned to Dr. Wood’s home, and never did a house seem more clean and comfortable and restful. It would be difficult, I think, to find a more romantic story than that of Ponte Nova; that story is told, however, later, and I will not try to give it here, but I do want to speak of the work of Dr. Wood, who came to Ponte Nova in 1916. A trip from Bahia is a triumphal procession for him. On the first day of our trip, on the boat was a MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES) 295 man who was bringing his wife to Dr. Wood for treatment. She had been to all the leading doctors in Bahia and was now going 250 miles as a last hope. After two painful nights in hotels we reached Itaberaba and went to a nice-looking house on the square, the home of Colonel Hilariao. He received us most cordially, and when we protested that five of us were too many for him to take in for the night, he replied that nothing was too much to do for friends of Dr. Wood. Had not Dr. Wood twice saved his daughter’s life when she had been given up by other physicians? And there was the smiling daughter coming to welcome us and then going off to superintend the preparation of a dinner that reminded one of a Thanksgiving Day feast; the table fairly groaned with food — sundried meat, turtle, breadfruit, manioe, and other delicious native dishes. We spent the night there and after breakfast had prayers: this in a Catholic home that would never have opened its doors to Protestants if gratitude had not overcome prejudice. We overtook two parties going to consult Dr. Wood, one on mules and one afoot, the latter group walking the 86 miles because hope gave them strength. All along the way Mr. Anderson pointed out houses where people lived, or the people themselves, who had been cured. The places where we stopped for the night were often the homes of his patients. For miles in every direction the people adore him. They consider him a miracle worker, for he makes the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the dumb to speak. I think Dr. Wood 296 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL would be the first one to say that he could not accomplish so much as he does if it were not for Mrs. Wood’s help — she is indefatigable. Ponte Nova is greatly in need of more buildings and more workers. More money is needed for the hospital and its equipment. It would be a wonder- ful station for some church at home to take over. Dr. McGregor’s church has been supporting Dr. Wood. A little of my enthusiasm for this place is caused by the fact that I have not seen a snake yet. Dr. Waddell told me the most fearsome stories about snakes until I expected to see a flock of them, or whatever a quantity of them is called, every time I went out of the house. Several have been seen and some killed since we have been here. The people who live here apparently have no dread of them. Mrs. Wood told me casually that one day she found one on her dressing table and her hus- band killed it with her hairbrush. Acting under advice, I always take the precaution of looking in my shoes before I put them on in the morning, for snakes like to sleep in shoes. The constant expec- tation of meeting a snake makes me have quite a friendly feeling for the bats and lizards about my room — they are so mild in comparison. Mr. Reese the other evening was much enter- tained with watching a toad beneath the lamp on his desk catching insects with deadly accuracy. The toads here are about four times the size of those we have at home — huge things. ‘This was a smaller one, and after a while Mr. Reese became MULES, MOUNTAINS, AND MIRACLES. 297 absorbed in his work and forgot the toad — until he was in bed and was waked in the middle of the night to find the toad sitting on his head. It would be about the last thing anyone would want to have sit on his head, I should think. But I never saw such people as missionaries are. They are never afraid of anything, or find anything too much trouble to do, or mind making any sacrifice, or ever acknowledge that they are tired; and they would give you the clothes off their backs. ‘They make other people’s chance of heaven seem remote. AL CTD Ce CHAPTER XIII PONTE NOVA AND THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION IN TROPICAL BRAZIL Baus, BrazZit, May 27, 1925 HE work of the Presbyterian Mission center- ing about Ponte Nova is marked by courage and common sense, consecrated to the service of Christ and Brazil. The work in Ponte Nova was commenced in 1906 by Rev. and Mrs. W. A. Waddell, when, to quote Dr. Waddell’s own statement, “ for a man to go to live in Central Bahia was considered to be treason to his wife and children.” At Ponte Nova on the Utinga River, 250 miles from the seacoast, Dr. Waddell bought a fazenda, or ranch, of about 4,500 acres and opened a school for boys and girls. The purpose of the undertaking, as stated by Dr. Speer in his report written after his visit to Ponte Nova in 1909, was “to make this an industrial, self-supporting training school, to take the boys and girls of the interior churches who would profit by some additional training, to prepare the better girls to be teachers of village and ranch schools, to select the best young men and send them on into the ministry, and send back the other boys and girls to their own homes not disqualified for their old life, but fitted to be good farmers and good 298 THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 299 mothers and housekeepers.” Dr. Speer went on to say: “The plan is sensible and the facilities appear to be excellent. Eiveryone who knew of this school enterprise commended it.” For a single family to go into central Bahia to live, twenty years ago, took courage, and the Mis- sion and Church owe much to the fortitude and foresight of Dr. and Mrs. Waddell in planning and carrying out this pioneer project in tropical Brazil. Often Dr. Waddell had to be away on itinerating journeys, and he has told us how his enemies of the Roman Catholic faith would bring reports to him that his wife or his children were ill or that one of them had died, just as they brought similar false tales of disaster concerning him to his wife left alone at the Ponte Nova ranch. Of the loneliness of that Station, Dr. Speer wrote in 1909, “ One’s heart goes out to only one family far off in this lonely valley, lonely enough by day, and where the night silence is so deep that one almost longed to hear Dr. Waddell’s pythons roaring like young bulls.” We visited Ponte Nova sixteen years after Dr. Speer was there and nineteen years after the in- ception of the work. The advance and the growth in the service of the Station during these years are most impressive. In 1909 its equipment consisted of a one-story ranch house which served as a dor- mitory for the girl students and a residence for the missionary director and his family; a schoolhouse building, little more than a rough shed; and on the other side of the river a simple and unpretentious 300 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL dormitory for the boys. When we rode out into the clearing on May 8, 1925, instead of these three buildings we saw sixteen, ranged on both sides of the river: first, a small building that had served for a hospital since 1917, when Dr. W. Welcome Wood opened pioneer medical work in the interior at Ponte Nova; beyond this temporary building, the walls and the frame of a new hospital under con- struction, that will have twenty-five beds and will be one of the most modern buildings in the interior; a consultorium, or consultation hall and dispensary, well-built and modern in appearance; a house for the pharmacist; a moderate-sized hotel that has been built to accommodate the increasing number of those who come to Ponte Nova for consultation and treatment; Dr. Wood’s home and a residence for another missionary family, now occupied by Rev. and Mrs. F. EK. Johnson, Mr. Johnson at present overseeing the construction of the hospital, his main responsibility at other times being evan- gelistic itineration in the Lavras field; an attrac- tive chapel where students and villagers can join in worship; a building for the primary day school for the children of the vicinity, and the old dormitory for the boys in the boarding school; at the river, a sugar mill, with power provided by an undershot waterwheel, built by Rev. C. E. Bixler, who, when Dr. Waddell left Ponte Nova in 1914 to become the president of Mackenzie College, came to the Station and has been indefatigable in building up the work of the school and the ranch; across the river, the ranch house, now grown into a building DR. W. W. WOOD AND MRS. GILLMORE IN THE CORRIDOR OF THE NEW HOSPITAL “ Dr. Wood is regarded as a miracle worker ” (p. 302). THE NEW HOSPITAL UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT PONTE NOVA The mound in the foreground is an ant hill (p. 300). * THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 301 of two stories, where Rev. and Mrs. Alexander Reese now live, and where over thirty girls are accommodated, double-decker beds having been installed because of their number and the lack of space; the old building, formerly used as recitation hall for the school, now a workmen’s shed; a tool house; and adjoining it a similar small house of two rooms now being used by Mr. and Mrs. Irvine S. Graham, the present manager of the fazenda and director and directora of the school; and finally a building which serves as recitation hall and chapel for the students of the school. These are but the material evidences of the growth of the work at Ponte Nova. ‘The effects of that service in the relief of human suffering, in the spread of truth and light, and in the redeem- ing of spirits weighed down by evil and sorrow cannot adequately be computed. The number of those whose lives have been touched and influenced can be given approximately, but mathematics is a poor instrument for measuring the things of the spirit. With the inadequate equipment of the old hospital and dispensary, during the year 1924, Dr. and Mrs. Wood and Miss Hepperle, the trained nurse who has just joined the staff, reported treat- ing a total of 14,753 patients, performing 250 operations, the largest total of patients cared for in one day being 92, and in one month, 1,886. The primary school registers 58 pupils and the second- ary school 46, 50 students being boarders; and in addition there are various schools scattered through- out the state which are taught by Ponte Nova grad- 302 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL uates and are loosely affiliated with the parent school. Of the 4,500 acres of the fazenda, 500 acres are in pasture and about 60 under cultivation; there are on the ranch 100 head of cattle and about 50 horses and mules. Dr. Wood is regarded as a miracle worker; when these simple country people see a woman who has been totally blind and who has come to the hospital led by a small boy return to her home, walking alone and with vision restored, the cataracts having been removed from her eyes, or a young man who was rendered speechless by a peculiar tropical disease made able to speak again, they believe that the Bible prophecy is being fulfilled before their very eyes when they behold “ the dumb speaking... and the blind seeing,” and they honor Dr. Wood and his associates accordingly. iverywhere along the road from Cachoeira, people spoke of this medi- cal work; a mayor of one town requested us to ask Dr. Wood to come to his home to operate on his daughter, and to bring with him his ferramentas, using a Portuguese term that signifies “ imple- ments,” such as axes, saws, hoes, et cetera. ‘The cowboy we met, who had come a thousand miles on the trail from Goyaz, had heard of Dr. Wood and of Ponte Nova; and all through the state of Bahia the unique combination of educational, agricul- tural, evangelistic, and medical service was known and esteemed. Consecrated courage and common sense, under the blessing of God, have built at Ponte Nova a work which is like a city set on a hill, whose light cannot be hid. THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 308 From the beginning of the work at Ponte Nova a standard of the strictest economy has been set, and in the main has been rigidly followed. Since 1916, aside from the salaries of Dr. and Mrs. Wood from 1916 to 1923, and the salary of Miss Hepperle for the past year, and except for an initial grant of $150 and an appropriation of $1,455 made for the hospital by the Women’s Committee of the Board, no funds from the Church at home have gone into the medical work. ‘The ranch cost the Board little in the beginning, its purchase and the building of the school being made possible by the conversion of other property. Since then the Board’s invest- ment in the educational, agricultural, and evan- gelistic work of the Station for property and equipment has not exceeded $3,000. The entire increase in property, as represented by the sixteen buildings and improved equipment of the Station, has been financed without any help from the United States except for the appropriations totaling approximately $4,600 already noted, the funds needed for the expansion of the work being pro- vided through savings on the field and through personal contributions of the missionaries. Aside from the missionaries’ salaries and a minor grant for Brazilian school-teachers, no subsidies have been paid to the Station by the Mission and Board. I do not know of any other Mission Sta- tion of our Church which has a financial record that can equal the record of this interior Station. The Station has done magnificently in financing its work during these past nineteen years without 304 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL asking help from the Mission and Board, but Mrs. Gillmore and I, as representatives of our Board, both feel that the Station and Mission should be given more cooperation and help in the immediate future by the Board and Church at home, and that in some instances economy has been carried so far that the efficiency and health of the missionaries are being, or will be, seriously affected. The mis- sionary residences are not much better or more comfortable than those of the Brazilian country people of the region. There is malaria in the Utinga valley, but none of the residences have screens; most of them have no ceilings, but are of one story, with rooms opening directly on the unpainted rafters and rough tiles of the roof above; none have running water or modern pro- visions for sewage and sanitation. There was absolutely no complaint by anyone, and the mem- bers of the Station seemed surprised that we should raise the question of any future change in living conditions. When we made further Inquiries, one family admitted that they had lived in Brazil for ten years in houses without wooden floors; another said they would ap- preciate a house with ceilings but did not really expect such provision for their comfort. One young couple in Ponte Nova were living in two small rooms of what was really a workman’s tool house. When we asked them if they were not un- comfortable there, they seemed surprised and said they were grateful for the two rooms, for formerly they had lived in only one. When Dr. Speer ‘(00g °d) ., dtystom ur urol uvo siaSeypIA pue syuspnys osoyM podeyo oAtjoraqqe uy ,, HOYODHOD VAON ALNOd GHW it a i 7 > mal 7 _ . Lye gh] 7 , ; A is ry ’ , i - Pawn) o s i 7 7 mn, tA 7 ’ e . 7 P Wits ‘ > Lan ihe ow oe SL eS 2 & Wee! in Fey : 4 Pp ce - -, “ A cw 4 nes is need ‘ i by y ts a eT Acca e %! PANEL Fy or saaly. ay teh Asp a fae : Te 7 ¢ . re Ph oo Oe Peak RO Em REN tats Ls ~~ anys THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 305 visited Ponte Nova in 1909, he also commented on the housing facilities provided by the ranch house: “TI do not think that a missionary family should live in the ranch house without some improvements. The floors downstairs are simply thin tiles laid on the earth. ‘There should be floors that allow a circulation of air beneath. If it is found desirable later to build another house for residence, it should be a little farther back on still higher ground.” We wished that some of the very few individuals who believe that missionaries live in luxury could make the trip with us to Ponte Nova, and could see for themselves the residences which these pioneers on the fringe of civilization call home. The most expensive residence at Ponte Nova cost less than $800. In other Mission Stations of a similar type, the cost of a residence is estimated at from $3,000 to $4,000. Construction is very cheap at Ponte Nova, because the fazenda can pro- vide timber and other building materials, make bricks, and secure cheap labor; certainly in the future, houses with good floors, screens, ceilings, and running water facilities should be built, and an expenditure of $1,500 to $2,000 would not be too much for each residence. Many members of our Church at home pay more than that for a garage. The Board has voted to send a delegation to visit each Mission at least once every seven years, and as soon as practicable once every five years. Each Mission at the time of such a visitation plans out its work and policy during the coming five- or seven-year period and computes its possible re- 306 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL quirements as to its equipment and staff. At the Mission meeting at Ponte Nova, the Central Brazil Mission agreed upon a five-year property list which totaled roughly $55,000. Some of the chief items on the list are enumerated below. First on the list is a request for $3,000 for com- pletion of the Grace Memorial Hospital, a modest request when compared to the sums asked for hos- pitals in other fields. 'The medical work expects to earn an equivalent sum for necessary equipment for the new hospital building. $1,000 is asked for a portable sawmill, $2,000 for a steam tractor to provide power for the mill and for other purposes about the ranch. All lumber at Ponte Nova is either hewn out by broadax or is whipsawed by two men, one standing on a platform above the other. In other Mission Stations in pioneer areas, port- able sawmills have been brought in to do such work. Whether or not there is sufficient demand at Ponte Nova to justify the expense of such a mill is an open question. ‘The experiment would be an interesting one. The sum of $2,500 is asked for a new dormitory for the boys, to be built on higher land above the present girl’s dormitory, this new building to include a residence for a mission- ary as well as quarters for thirty boys. Funds are needed for purchase of land controlling a waterfall and rapids of the Utinga River below the Ponte Nova ranch, which will provide electric power and running water, the present water supply being both inadequate and unhygienic. $5,000 is needed for a new dormitory for the girls and a residence for THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 307 the missionary director of the school and for the missionary teacher, this building also to be placed on higher land near the new dormitory for the boys. The new building is to accommodate fifty girls and a missionary family and a teacher; the sum of $5,000 seems small to provide such a building, and we hope that the Women’s Committee of the Board or the woman’s missionary societies will see to it that this money is surely given during the coming year. The needs outside Ponte Nova were also con- sidered by the Mission. Other stations of this type, combining school, medical work, agricultural training, and evangelistic service are to be planted across the state of Bahia. The first one is to be located in the southwestern part of the state, in the field where Rev. and Mrs. Chester C. Carnahan have lived and worked; $5,000 is needed for the initial cost of the establishment of this Station. Mr. and Mrs. Carnahan are in the United States now and we hope the pastors and members of our churches will aid them in securing this needed sum. Bahia City presents a challenging opportunity for service; 325,000 people live there, one tenth of the population of the entire state; our Mission and Board should go forward with energy and courage in its more adequate occupation. In 1909, Dr. Speer emphasized the need of a good school there; the sum of $5,000 has been made available for such a school; about half of this sum has been invested in land, but more land is needed and to build or buy suitable property; $15,000 additional is needed 308 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL and should be given. The Ponte Nova fazenda also needs additional equipment and stock, but these requests the Mission has placed in groups two and three of its present needs. We reached Ponte Nova, Friday night, May 8; Saturday we spent in visiting the various buildings and in becoming acquainted with the diversified work of the Station; Sunday morning, there was a Sunday-school service at which Mrs. Gillmore and Mr. Haldane made addresses; Sunday afternoon, a communion service; and that night, a church gathering at which I spoke. At these meetings the girls and boys of the school were conspicuous for their shining faces and attractive appearance, a striking contrast with the children whom we had seen along the trail, and an irrefutable argument as to the worth of such missionary enterprise as Ponte Nova represents. From Monday until Friday evening the Mission held its meetings, every member being present except Miss E. R. William- son, who was not able to make the trip from Jacobina, and those who were on furlough in the homeland. Mr. Haldane was present as an in- vited guest from Pernambuco, and his appoint- ment as full member of the Mission was recom- mended at this meeting to the Board. Our dele- gation discussed with the Mission their various problems: problems of relationship and organiza- tion, such as are presented by the revised consti- tution of the Brazil Council, which in the future will represent Missions and Board in their rela- tions with the National Presbyterian Church, its ‘(90¢ ‘d) spaau apoyy yoou 07 yUoUd nbs YUoPYo sLoUL LOJ SULYSe ST UOTZVIG PAON 9UOg ATddOS FWALVM AHL TIINMVS VAON WZLNOd V '. ‘ Ua | of I ro = H i en AIM ¥ ee > 2 = fa : ett , ae as bay | ae eee | As =" as ah ” ey . . 1 an “iow, 3% a iy Cee We oe . orn ¥. 7 ary } iG “i y Sew A ‘he Ps i vk a - the v 7 7 a”, i sd ms tye Tee See + Geer ) ee THE WORK OF A PROTESTANT MISSION 309 General Assembly and the Executive Committee of the Assembly, and will codrdinate the work of the two Missions in Brazil; problems such as the administration of the medical work, which in the future 1s to be brought into closer unity and inte- gration with the other branches of the work of the Station; problems of development, of emphasis, of policy, of correlation, and of acquisition of the spiritual power and strength needed so truly if the great burden of work that must be done is to be carried forward by this little missionary group in the heart of the state of Bahia. At the last meeting, on Friday evening, May 15, before the missionaries from Bahia City and Mr. Haldane and Mrs. Gillmore and I should leave on the following day, we all knelt in a final service of prayer. One feels close to God at such times of prayer with our missionaries on the field. That evening the stillness of the Utinga Valley was about us; above us shone the southern stars; within our hearts was a light and a peace that the outside world could neither give nor take away. We thanked God for the hours of warm and true fellowship together; for what had been: accom- plished in the past two decades by the power and grace of His Holy Spirit and through the unspar- ing devotion and courage of those who had given themselves to the service in Ponte Nova and in Central Brazil; in that friendly circle of light that was so hemmed in and surrounded by the darkness of the tropical valley, we thanked the Father above, and took new courage for the carrying forward of 310 MODERN MISSIONS IN CHILE the blazing torch into new regions of opportunity and along new paths of duty, however dark those realms and roads might be. Because of our prayers for one another, and through the prayers that will be uttered this coming year for the work in Latin America and in Brazil, we believe that the word of the Lord will “run and be glorified,” both in the North and in the South, both in the shining land we know as America and in the country where the light shines in the midst of so much darkness, the nation to which our missionaries are giving their love and their lives, the illimitable, alluring, lonely land of Brazil. W. R. W. CHAPTER XIV BAHIA, RIO, AND NEW YORK On S.S. American LeEGIon, June 14, 1925 UR final days in Brazil before boarding this steamer at Rio on June 10, were full and happy ones. In Bahia, during our stay from May 22-27, we had an added opportunity of seeing and sharing in the work of the local churches and church groups which are under the direction of Mr. Ander- son; of inspecting various sites for the proposed Bahia school, which should be established at the earliest possible moment; of learning of the grow- ing work of the missionaries of the Southern Bap- tist Church, who have opened a school and founded several churches in the city; of meeting members of the American community, including the efficient consul, Mr. Brett; and of informing ourselves more about the character and products of the city and state of Bahia. The state’s chief products are cocoa, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and hides, in the order named, but it is also the home of two products, one vegetable and the other mineral, which are of world-wide im- portance and interest. Bahia state was the orig- inal home of the finest species of navel orange, known in the United States as the “ Washington navel”; and in the mines along the Paraguassu 311 312 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL River in Bahia the most valuable kinds of carbons, miners’ “ black diamonds,” are found. A publication of the United States Department of Agriculture’ states that the importation from Bahia into this country of the Washington navel orange “has proven to be, perhaps, the most valu- able introduction in the way of fruits ever made by the Department of Agriculture. Its culture in California has been continually extended, until to-day the industry produces an annual income of approximately $30,000,000.” * This orange was first sent to the United States by a Presbyterian missionary, Rev. F. I. C. Schneider, of Bahia, who in response to a sugges- tion from the United States Commissioner of Agri- culture in 1869, forwarded some trees to Washing- ton. Mr. William Saunders, Superintendent of Gardens and Grounds of the Department of Agri- culture, in an unpublished notebook, thus describes this importation, his account being of interest, incidentally, in the light it throws upon the fickle- ness of nomenclature, and upon a certain aspect of local psychology: “Sometime in 1869 the then commissioner of agriculture, Horace Capron, brought to my office and read to me a letter which he had just received from a correspondent at Bahia, Brazil. Among other matters, special mention was made of a fine seedless orange of large size and fine flavor. Thinking that it might be of value in this country, 1 The Navel Orange of Bahia. U.S. Department of Agricul- ture, Bulletin No. 445. BAHIA, RIO, AND NEW YORK 313 I noted the address of the writer and sent a letter asking to be the recipient of a few plants of this orange. ‘This request brought, in course of time, a small box of orange twigs, utterly dry and use- less. I immediately sent a letter requesting that some one be employed to graft a few trees on young stocks and that all expenses would be paid by the Department. Ultimately a box arrived containing twelve newly budded trees, and, these being packed as I had suggested, were found to be in fairly good condition. “ The first two young plants received from Bahia that were sent out were forwarded to a Mrs. Tib- betts, Riverside, California. That lady called here and was anxious to get some of these plants for her place, and I sent two of them by mail. They pros- pered with her, and when they fruited, attention was directed to their size and fine appearance, and when ripe, their excellence was acknowledged and the fruit was called ‘ Riverside navel,’ thus ignor- ing the label attached to the plants, ‘ Bahia,’ a very distinctive name, which should have been retained. Afterwards, other Californians, not wishing River- side to be boomed with the name, changed it to ‘Washington navel,’ all of which was uncalled for, but this Department could not alter it, and it was considered best to adopt the name and so avoid further confusion.” Several years ago, Dr. Waddell, President of Mackenzie College, who, according to the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, has furnished the most complete and probably the most accurate 314 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL statement concerning the origin of the fruit, during the first or second decade of the nineteenth century. in the Cabulla district of Bahia, visited Riverside, California, and saw the two original trees sent by Mr. Saunders to Mrs. ‘Tibbetts. The other unique product of Bahia is mineral. Until the Kimberly Mines of South Africa were opened in 1870, Bahia and the neighboring state of Minas Geraes were the only places in the world where diamonds were mined in commercial quan- tities. Bahia still furnishes the world carbonatos or bort. In 1895 the largest mass on record, weigh- ing 3,078 karats, was mined there. This substance known also as carbons or non-crystalline diamonds, black, slaggy, and clinker-like stones, is used to pro- vide the cutting edge of core drills, and because of its scarcity and the rivalry of American firms, its price has doubled within the past year. Mr. Richardson, the local manager for the mines of the Patrick Company of Duluth, accompanied us from Para- guassu to Bahia and showed us a handful of these small, black, uncut stones, which he said were worth some $60,000. Of course he had to exercise due precautions in traveling through that unpoliced country, and was always armed. Gold is found everywhere but not in large quan- tities in Bahia, but it is mined farther south, and this fact has romantic as well as economic possi- bilities and implications. Recently a son of one of our Brazilian missionaries took advantage of these mineral resources by having his engagement ring made from gold mined in Sao Paulo, with a dia- BAHIA, RIO, AND NEW YORK 315 mond which came from the Bahia mines, certainly a most appropriate and eloquent gift. The rainy season with its mild winds and eva- nescent showers was approaching during our last days in Bahia, but our last night there was clear and calm, with a stillness and peace that brooded over that ancient city and its picturesque and beau- tiful harbor that we can never forget. As the sun set, the little sailboats that had been motionless for hours upon the bay seemed to merge into the quiet waters and to rest there, as if they had become an integral part of a tired universe that had fallen into peaceful sleep. Lines written by Joseph Conrad about a sunset on other tropical shores, reproduce truly that scene: “ There was no wind, and a small brig that had lain all the afternoon a few miles to the northward and westward .. . had hardly altered its position half a mile during all these hours. ... The calm was absolute. ... As far as the eye could reach there was nothing but an impressive immobility. Nothing moved on earth, on the waters, and above them in the unbroken lustre of the sky. On the unruffled surface of the Straits the brig floated tranquil and upright as if bolted solidly, keel to keel, with its own image reflected in the unframed and immense mirror of the sea. To the south and east the double islands watched silently the double ship that seemed fixed amongst them forever, a hopeless captive of the calm, a helpless prisoner of the shallow sea. “The falling sun seemed to be arrested for a 316 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL moment in his descent by the sleeping waters, while from it, to the motionless brig, shot out on the polished and dark surface of the sea a track of light, straight and shining, resplendent and direct; a path of gold and crimson and purple; a path that seemed to lead dazzling and terrible from the earth straight into heaven through the portals of a glorious death. It faded slowly. The sea vanquished the light. At last only a vestige of the sun remained far off, like a red spark floating on the water. It lingered, and all at once, without warning, as if extinguished by a treacherous hand, it went out... . “In half an hour after sunset the darkness had taken complete possession of earth and heavens. The islands had melted into the night. And on the smooth water of the Straits, the little brig lying so still seemed to sleep profoundly, wrapped up in a scented mantle of starlight and silence.” * The next day, May 28, with feelings that only the “ missionary exile”? and “ missionary visitor ” can know, we said good-by to Mr. and Mrs. Ander- son and Mr. and Mrs. Baker and boarded the Dutch steamer, 8.S. Zeelandia, for Rio, leaving there two couples to carry on their brave work, isolated and surrounded by the more than 300,000 dusky citizens of Bahia. On the thirtieth we reached Rio, and the ten days that followed were full ones. We had the opportunity of meeting the Brazilian pastors of all denominations who live in Rio, a fine, capable group of men who have helped to make the Prot- 1 The Rescue, Joseph Conrad, pp. 12, 13, 20-23. BAHIA, RIO, AND NEW YORK 317 estant Church the force it is in Brazil to-day; of conferring with Brazilian representatives of our own Church concerning the proposed preseminary department that Dr. Waddell expects to help es- tablish after he leaves the presidency of Mackenzie College in April, 1926; of visiting the Union Theo- logical Seminary, where Dr. Donald C. MacLaren is teaching, the seminary being housed temporarily in property belonging to the Southern Methodist Church, and used also by them for a thriving day school; of visiting the attractive grounds and build- ings of Bennett College, a school for girls main- tained by the Southern Methodist Board, where, as at Crandon Institute at Montevideo, the wisdom of making a substantial investment of upwards of $300,000 in property and equipment, well located in a metropolitan area, has been amply demon- strated; of seeing the bookstore managed by the Baptists, which is the only Protestant center of its kind in Rio; and of becoming familiar with the headquarters of the Brazilian Committee on Co- operation, which, with the American Bible Society and the World’s Sunday School Association, has offices at Number 6, on the “ Avenue First of March.” Sunday morning, the seventh, we took part in the services at the Union Church for Ameri- cans and British, and that evening participated in a most impressive service in the Brazilian Presby- terian church. The circumstances which led up to this last serv- ice were extraordinary and tinged with tragedy. On June 2 we had conferred with Senhor Alvaro 318 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Reis, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Rio, about the presentation of a beautiful Brazil- ian flag that his congregation desired us to take to the Board of Foreign Missions in New York as a gift from the Presbyterian Church of Brazil to the Presbyterian Church of the United States. Senhor Alvaro was to present the flag on the following Sunday, June 7, with appropriate ceremonies. On the night of June 3 he was suddenly seized by a heart attack. He knew death was near and he began to sing a hymn in Portuguese to the air of “Home Sweet Home.” He died within two hours. On Friday, the fifth, his funeral was held. For twenty-eight years Senhor Alvaro had been pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Rio. The church at the time of his death had a communi- cant membership of over 1,900, with a great Sun- day school and with branch services in various parts of Rio. It is the largest Protestant church in South America. Senhor Alvaro, whose full name was Alvaro Emygdio Goncalves dos Reis, was born in 1864, was ordained in 1889, and had been pastor in Rio since 1897. ‘The newspapers of Rio com- mented upon his character and work, giving this space despite the fact that Senhor Alvaro was a Protestant. One writer made the statement that, among other rich results of his ministry, there were two institutions in Rio which had come into being largely through his influence and leadership, the Y. M. C. A. and the Evangelical Hospital. The walls and gallery of the church where the funeral was held were covered with wreaths and BAHIA, RIO, AND NEW YORK 319 flowers; a great crowd thronged the building and crowded about the open coffin in the center of the church. ‘The funeral began at eleven-thirty and continued until two: a dozen or more speakers, representing all sections of society and all parts of the city, spoke from their hearts, telling of their love for Senhor Alvaro and of what he had meant to them. Men and women in the audience sobbed openly and audibly during the ceremony. At the open grave these scenes were continued, new speakers rising to pay their tribute before the earth should close over the body of one whom they so much loved. At the service the following Sunday evening, Senhor Erasmo Braga presided, and one of the women of the church, standing beside the beautiful Brazilian banner of satin, made a formal presenta- tion address, to which Mrs. Gillmore and I re- sponded on behalf of the Board and the Church at home. We recalled Dr. Speer’s words, written after he had first met Senhor Alvaro in 1909, when he said: “ I was drawn to Senhor Alvaro with gen- uine confidence and love. ... He was overflow- ing with good works, wisely planned and tirelessly executed. No one could come to know him with- out deep gratitude and joy,’ and we thought of the words of Edwin Markham, written of another leader who had been suddenly taken away: “And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down, As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs, Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.” 320 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL In the passing of Senhor Alvaro Reis, a mighty cedar of Lebanon has fallen, leaving a lonesome place on the whole horizon of the Protestant Church in Brazil. On the ninth we had a few hours for a final view of the city and harbor which we were to leave on the following day, and we took the aérial journey to the top of Sugar Loaf, Pao d Assucar, the pre- cipitous, perpendicular block of granite that pro- jects a quarter of a mile into the air and guards the entrance to the bay. y 2.3 Path,” Peek Tey at {ei n bom ir bees. ¥ 7 oe eS i . a 9 | | hind Per omedhl srantene wy +7, et ae EF; athepitek wat Thus } THUCLIGA TRY 1 tthe o atwygne ¢ e B : = # Joon apie reds or sie the leacien’ ap (35 t soo cspem oftx aulletes. Protea. tie. ae vile at. firsy devorable. te oan vil nie Z ea severe dyes, | y ithe: 2 eT a « “_ = AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF BRAZIL 329 to Sao Paulo and found their houses closed against them and their families refusing to recognize them until they should return victorious. They re- turned to the struggle against enemies constantly reénforced by new arrivals from Europe, and were practically exterminated. One of the tragic tales of Brazilian history is of the return of the solitary fugitive who rode through the streets of the town, proclaiming to the women of Sao Paulo that their fathers, husbands, broth- ers, and sons were dead in the great wilderness. The Portuguese Government separated Sao Paulo from Rio de Janeiro in 1710, and in 1720 separated from Sao Paulo all districts containing mines, under the title of Minas Geraes (General Mines), and gave all support and aid to the mining region whence it gained its greatest revenue. For a century and a half Sao Paulo did not recover from this blow, although its leaders con- tinued to be the explorers of the great interior, discovering the mines of Goyaz and those of Matto Grosso, and pushing into the region of the upper Amazon. For a century Brazil was a fountain of wealth. Gold and diamonds were mined over a very large area, and the royal fifth rendered immense sums. The North, engaged in the sugar trade, was pros- perous, and royal governors with their accompany- ing swarm of personal attendants followed each other, returning home laden with the spoils. Following the narrow commercial policy of the age, the ports were forbidden to the vessels of other 330 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL nations and even the trade with Portugal was from time to time put in the hands of chartered monop- olies. ‘The Church supported the crown in main- taining the people in tutelage and the provinces, from Sao Paulo southward, which did not offer easy profits were comparatively neglected. ‘The Anglo-Portuguese alliance was an almost complete protection against foreign aggression. | In the movement of the Liberal ministers in Europe, which preceded the French Revolution, the Marquez de Pombal, of Portugal, showed him- self one of the most energetic, and his expulsion of the Jesuits in 1759 and his suppression of the Inquisition and various attempts at reform loosened somewhat the rigidity of the Government organization. Students from Paris, some of whom had been in contact with Franklin and Jefferson, dreamed of liberty and independence, but the Government’s secret service was omnipresent and their efforts culminated for the time in the execution of Tira- dentes, April 21, 1789, and the savage persecution of his family and associates. Various revolts through the century were suffocated in blood. In 1808 the royal house of Portugal was driven from Lisbon by the Napoleonic armies and fled under guard of an English fleet to Brazil, where they chose Rio de Janeiro for their residence, thus fixing its status as capital. Their dependence upon England rendered necessary the opening of the ports, and commerce with the rest of the world soon made the relation with Portugal intolerable. All AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF BRAZIL 331 over Latin America a spirit of insurrection was brewing, and when it was again possible for the king of Portugal to return to his titular kingdom, it is reported that he said to his son, who was left as regent in Brazil, “ When independence comes, do not let the crown go to another; put it on your own head.” The Portuguese Government, eager to maintain control of the resources of Brazil, went much far- ther than the king wished in the attempt to coerce the Brazilians. At this juncture, September 7, 1822, the prince declared for independence and associated himself with the great leaders who had been making it possible. The empire was proclaimed. After a short struggle in which the Brazilian arms were efficiently aided by the fleet of Admiral Cochrane, the last of the great sea rovers, the separation of the two countries became an accomplished fact. The first emperor, Dom Pedro I, was too imbued with Portuguese ideas of absolutism to govern with success, and in a short time (1831) abdicated in favor of his son, Dom Pedro II, a boy of five years, and went to Portugal to contest the throne of that country. ‘The boy Pedro, naturally intelligent and social in his tastes, grew up under conditions which inclined him to liberalism. Difficulties with regard to the regency led to his recognition as monarch in 1840, when fourteen years of age, and he continued to govern as the head of the state until 1889. This long reign was undoubtedly of great value to Brazil, a country of immense distances, with sparse 332 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL population, grouped principally in certain widely separated districts, accustomed through all its his- tory to most arbitrary methods of government administered by officials imposed from without. Had the first place in the state been open to aspira- tion, it is certain that vigorous and long-continued struggles would have resulted, with possibly the separation of the country into independent states. On the other hand, the imperial power, which rarely made itself felt save in a rather genial way, ful- filled the purpose which was expressed in the im- perial Constitution, and was the “ moderating power” which checked the strife of parties and limited the extravagances of chiefs. Under it the country grew toward self-government with less strain than probably would have been developed under any other form. The long reign was far from being peaceful. Local disturbances, now forgotten except in local traditions, and greater troubles, often republican revolts that involved large regions, constantly developed. Every change of ministry involved a series of little quarrels all over the country. The only foreign difficulty of importance was the war of 1864-1870, in which Brazil, associated with Uruguay and Argentina, crushed Lopez, dic- tator of Paraguay, and brought that country out of the dead water in which it had been left as the result of priestly subjugation of the Indians and consequent political incapacity. All through the reign, the spirit of liberalism was growing and the people were becoming more AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF BRAZIL 333 and more tired of the reaction inherent in the mon- archial form of government. Exceptionally re- actionary tendencies of Dom Pedro’s heirs caused the change to be precipitated during his lifetime. The abolition of slavery, May 13, 1888, was fol- lowed by the proclamation of the republic, Novem- ber 15, 1889, in obedience to what appeared to be a revolt of the armed forces, but really was a spon- taneous movement of the majority of the thinking members of the community. A Constitution was adopted, closely modeled after that of the United States, and after the failure of various attempts to subject the Government to pronunciamentos of the type of the Spanish-American republics, it passed from the military presidents that succeeded the provisional Government into the hands of civil- ian presidents regularly elected. Unquestionably Brazil gained by the passage to republican government. ‘The possibilities of free labor, and separation of Church and state, and the encouragement given to enterprise combined to produce rapid material development. In the last days of the empire Sao Paulo woke from its century and a half of sleep and became a great city. The southern provinces, despised in the days when sugar was king, have come into their own with coffee, cattle, and other products. Railroads have been built, ports improved, public education de- veloped. Despite strikes, political contests, and other disturbances of types all too common in other parts of the world, there has been no profound disturbance of the public peace. 334 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Brazil entered the World War on the side of the Allies, and sent a division of its fleet to assist in patrolling the Atlantic, but Armistice Day cut short the preparation of an army for foreign serv- ice. At present, of all Latin American countries, Brazil offers the greatest probabilities of future development. List oF PRESIDENTS February, 1891...... Manoel Deodoro da Fonseca V. P., Floriano Peixoto’ ESA OUTING PUT eae ee Prudente de Moraes TS OSU Re Eat ede Surinam Campos Salles LOOZ OM OR ran Ney anu ee teint mere ien tt Rodriguez Alves TOO GO Rese COROT a Te NEP Gate ncrn page Affonso Penna V. P., Nilo Pecanha OL Ose en ae net See Hermes da Fonseca DAE be (i aa A AA LAME Ag Wenceslao Braz LOTS eine Mitesh ena NNT MMe Rodriguez Alves * V. P., Delphim Moreira FOLD ana tang tate are eke a Epitacio Pessoa * TOD ese sane ge nny. Mar Bae Arthur Bernardes W. A. WADDELL 1 Vice president who succeeded to the presidency. 2 Jll and unable to take office. 38 Elected under Brazilian law to finish term of Alves, Moreira CHAPTER XVI HISTORY OF THE BRAZIL MISSIONS N the early establishment of Portuguese colonies in Brazil, the French Huguenots and Dutch Calvinists appeared as rivals in Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco. ‘Their efforts can scarcely be called missionary, although it was to the Church of Per- nambuco that the Dutch trading post of New Amsterdam owed its first minister: His health failed in the tropics and he was transferred to the cooler climate of the North. ‘The churches es- tablished by these invaders disappeared with their expulsion. Very little seems to have been done to present the truth to the Portuguese population, and those who accepted the message found it expedient to retire with the invaders. During the entire colonial period, missionary work was impossible in Brazil. ‘The dominance of the Roman Catholic Church and policing by means of the Inquisition were absolute. With the first beginnings of independence the country was opened to liberal influence. Unfor- tunately the United States was not at that time in a position to carry on extensive missionary work, and its nascent Missions in the Orient were calling for more resources than were available. The first visits to Brazil were made by representatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836, in Rio de 335 336 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Janeiro. This work was abandoned in 1842. It had been almost entirely among the English and American residents and seamen, no regular services in Portuguese having been attempted. Mr. Daniel P. Kidder, one of the two missionaries, worked in connection with the Bible Society, and his work was continued by others. In the early fifties, Rev. J. C. Fletcher, a Presby- terian, worked for a short time. He established a peculiar relation with the emperor and afterwards entered the diplomatic service. The first permanent work was begun by Dr. Robert R. Kalley, a Scotch physician who had carried on a remarkable work in Madeira from 1842 to 1846. Driven thence by persecution, he provided for his fellow exiles in various parts of the world and reached Rio de Janeiro in the end of 1854, beginning his work in Petropolis in 1855. His first work in Rio de Janeiro was begun in 1858. His work is continued by the Congregational Church, but has never had the support of any of the great missionary societies. The first Presbyterian missionary, Rev. A. G. Simonton, landed in Rio de Janeiro in August, 1859. In July, 1860, he was joined by Rev. A. L. Blackford, D.D., and by Rev. F. J. Schneider in 1861. Rev. G. W. Chamberlain joined them in 1866, and the first single ladies, Misses Dascomb and Greenway, in 1869. The first preaching hall, in the third story of a building rented by H. M. Lane, at that time a merchant in Rio de Janeiro, was opened in May, 1861. ‘The first audience con- HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 337 sisted of Lane and two men to whom instruction in - English had been given. At the next meeting a fourth appeared. At the third the number reached six; and the work has gone on across the years. In January, 1862, the first Presbyterian church of Rio de Janeiro was organized, with one of the attendants of the first Portuguese service and an American professing their faith. In 1864 a jour- nal, the Imprensa Evangelica, was begun. In October, 1863, Sao Paulo was occupied as a Mission Station, Mr. Simonton removing thither. Extracts from Dr. Simonton’s Journal which de- scribe his first service in Brazil in English in 1859; his first service in Portuguese in 1860; the baptism of the first members of the church in 1862; and the loss which he sustained in the death of his wife in 1864, follow. Rio de Janeiro, Aug. 31st, 1859. “On Sabbath I held my first service on board the John Adams. Captain Mason sent his boat for me and after a brisk row of about five miles we mounted her side and found everything prepared for the service. ‘he audience numbered nearly two hundred and were very attentive. The singing was weak under my leading. I was greatly pleased to have an opportunity to open my mouth to so many who were not privileged to hear the Gospel regu- larly. Kean and several of his men were among the audience. I appointed another service for that day two weeks. “T visited on the 29th the Saude with Mrs, G. 338 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL and made the acquaintance of several of Christ’s humble followers. I have had a conversation with Dr. Kalley. He thinks this mission timely and that American missionaries are the proper persons to prosecute it because their Minister and Consul can give them protection and the English are in- efficient. He urges secrecy in my movements and thinks it would be well for societies prosecuting missions in Popish countries to have a secret serv- ice fund." He thinks that the time has come for preaching in Portuguese and that already there are some ready to suffer for Christ. As to holding a service for the Americans he inclines to think it unadvisable. I cannot in this agree with him. I think besides being useful to them I can thereby get an intrenched position and secure their in- fluence on my side. My presence here and purpose cannot be hid and therefore my hope les in the protection of God and in the use of all prudent means of defence. The future cannot be foreseen and I therefore strive to secure the guidance of infinite wisdom and submit myself in all things to His direction. “TI feel encouraged by the aspect of things here and hopeful for the future. There are indications that a way is being opened here for the Gospel. 1 Dr. Kalley was under the impressions caused by the destruction of his work in Madeira, a persecution organized by the bishop under laws that, while obsolete, had never been repealed, causing the exile of some thousands of new Protestants and the destruction of Dr. Kalley’s house. It is interesting to remember that one of the most popular of Brazilian hymns, “ Here We Suffer Affliction,” was written by Dr. Kalley on board an English ship in the harbor by the light of his burning home. HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 339 April 28th, 1860. “Last Sabbath, the 22nd, I held a Sabbath school in my own house. It was my first Portu- guese service. Kubank’s children were all present and Amalia and Mareoguinas Knaack. The Bible, a catechism of sacred history, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress were our textbooks. “Letters from home to my satisfaction promise the arrival of Lille and Blackford at an earlier date than was first announced. Now that all is ready for their reception I long to see them. The yellow fever is still prevalent. ‘The deaths re- ported are still twelve or fifteen a day. January 14th, 1862. “The week of prayer is past. I trust that God’s people everywhere lifted up fervent supplications for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that the Kingdom of Christ may be established in the earth in these troublous times. I explained to the Portuguese who attended my service the recommendation to observe this week and the impression produced upon them seemed to be very good. “On Sabbath, the 12th, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper, receiving by the profession of their faith Henry KE. Milford and Cordoso Camillo to Jesus. This is our organization into a church of Jesus Christ in Brazil. It was an occasion for joy and gladness. Far sooner than my weak faith had been 340 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL expecting, God has given us to see the first fruits of our mission gathered in. I felt grateful in some measure though net to the extent which is becom- ing. The Communion services were conducted by Mr. Schneider and myself in English and Portu- guese. Senhor Cordoso at his own request and in accordance with the course judged best by our- selves after much thought and some hesitation, was baptised. His examination was most satisfactory to Mr. Schneider and myself and left no doubt upon our minds with respect to the reality of his conversion. “God be thanked that our feeble faith has been confirmed by seeing that it is not in vain that we preach the Gospel. Castle Hill, Sunday, 19th of June, 1864. “Our first child is just born at eleven o’clock and it is now twenty-five minutes past. God be praised for His goodness. He heard and answered our prayers and I will praise Him for His good- ness. ‘The remembrance of Helen’s sufferings is yet too vivid to permit me to think of the child. Tuesday, June 28th, 1864. “ God be merciful to me now for the deep waters have now come in upon me. Helen lies in her coffin in the little parlor. God has taken her so suddenly that I walk as in a dream. July Ist, 1864. “T have just returned from a short walk with Chamberlain. How changed is all around me and HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 341 within me. Yet the Lord has afflicted me and I must be still. I do feel that He has also upheld me so that I have not been utterly overcome. Unless I do bow submissively under this blow, I feel that it must harden me. My God and Savior keep me and my little Helen. Poor little thing, I am not yet conscious of more than caring for her. “Though so sudden I am rejoiced to know that death found my dear wife ready. She was diffi- dent and distrustful of self, slow to express as- surance of her being in Christ, yet in the hour of her trial she was calm and peaceful. When at 8 a.M. I returned from the doctor she asked, ‘ How am I? Conceal nothing from me.’ I told her my fears. She said, ‘ Pray for me,’ but added quickly, ‘No, I will pray for myself.’ Quietly and calmly she prayed in language nearly this, * Lord Jesus, I come to Thee, not that I have any worthiness, I feel I have none. Have mercy upon me and re- ceive me, Lord Jesus.’ I then prayed as I could. Soon after she said, “I believe I want to go.’ During my absence she said to Louisa, who was crying, ‘ Louisa, don’t be concerned. I am ready.’ I bless God that the suddenness of this blow has not bereft me of precious words of consolation and of this testimony that her Savior was with her in the dark valley. ‘God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,’ is a Scripture that is very precious to me now more than ever. The union of all saints to Christ, and through Him with the Father, and their communion with one another, are facts full of consolation.” 342 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL The Rev. Eduardo Carlos Pereira, a distin- guished Brazilian pastor, wrote of Dr. Chamber- lain, who was associated with Dr. Simonton in pioneer service: ‘Both in the populous cities as well as in the inhospitable regions of the back-woods; from Rio Grande do Sul to the villages of Minas and Bahia along the Sao Francisco River; before a calm and attentive audience or facing a turbulent mob agi- tated by bloody fanaticism; the strong, convincing voice of this intrepid evangelist could be heard, proclaiming to sinners of all classes the saving grace of his God and his Lord... . “Our church edifice (the First Presbyterian Church of Sao Paulo, of which Mr. Chamberlain was acting pastor for twenty years) as well as the Presbyterian Church of Rio, the E'schola Ameri- cana and Mackenzie College (in Sao Paulo) are enduring monuments which proclaim the inde- fatigable energy and fiery zeal of the man who now rests from his labors.” In the year that Sao Paulo was occupied the mis- sionaries got into contact with Jose Manoel da Con- ceicao, ex-vicar of Brotas, in Sao Paulo. He was a remarkably intelligent and forceful man who as a Catholic priest had been very much given to horse racing and gambling. Being in- vited to preach a festa sermon on Saint Anthony, and wanting to escape from the banalities which ordinarily formed sermons of that type, he tried to find the story of the saint in the Latin Bible which by some accident existed in the priests’ room of his HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 348 church. It took a long search to convince him that Anthony had not been mentioned in the Scriptures and in the course of it he found a large number of doctrines and facts that he had never met before. He began to preach these to his congregation and suspended his Sunday racing. The bishop investi- gated the case and decided that he must be insane. His reply was: “ Very well. If I am insane, then I am irresponsible and I am going out to talk just what I believe.” This he started to do, going about the country, depending entirely upon the hospitality or inhospitality of the people for his support, preaching everywhere the gospel as he understood it. Had this been ten years before, it would have been a flash in the pan and nothing would have come of it, but Mr. Simonton had reached Sao Paulo and gave him the backing of his organization. Father Conceicao never con- | formed himself to regular methods of work. It was amusing to hear the old-time missionaries tell how a plan of campaign would be mapped out, in- volving his going hither and yon, this plan being talked over with him with no assent or dissent save occasional grunts; then the next morning it would be discovered that he had taken his staff and started a hike entirely of his own devising. He was perse- cuted in every possible way. Once he appeared as if by resurrection. On this occasion he was shoved off the market place and stoned to death, as his assailants believed, at the side of a little brook. Coming to, he washed the blood out of his eyes, got his staff, and returned to the market 344 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL place to resume his preaching. With a shout, “ He has come to life; he was surely dead!” the greater part of his audience fled, leaving him to preach to half a dozen whose courage was sufficient to enable them to face the risen one. Everywhere he went, little groups accepted the gospel and the mis- sionaries following up his work were able to or- ganize them into churches and make them the seed of a vast harvest. His death was as heroic as his : life. He fell by the wayside, ill with fever, when a workman picked him up and took him to the hospital of the National Gunpowder Factory which was near by and reported to the colonel in com- mand that a sick man was talking Latin. The colonel went to see him and he came to himself, before he died, long enough to preach Christ to his involuntary host, and the colonel became one of the outstanding men of Brazilian Protestantism. So in life and in death Conceicao bore witness to the - saving power of Christ in Brazil. It is largely due to Padre Conceicao’s methods of penetration, which were linked up by Simonton’s and Chamberlain’s evangelistic efforts, that the Church in Brazil escaped the period of Mission overorganization which has been detrimental to the cause in many places. Conceicao and Chamberlain covered so much country that it was utterly impos- sible to establish regular services with the Sunday sermons, a ‘Thursday evening meeting, and the other paraphernalia of North American religious expression in each place where they had awakened interest, HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 345 A group system in the hands of the natural lead- ers of the people, with occasional visits by the evangelists, became the only method by which the work could be handled, and its capacity for exten- sion thus became augmented indefinitely. Conceicao died in 1873 and by that time the whole western and northwestern edge of the great developing coffee field of Sao Paulo had been occupied by scattered groups of believers and half a dozen churches had been organized. School work was begun in Rio Claro in the ’60’s and in Sao Paulo in 1871: in the one case, to provide for orphan and destitute children; in the other, to pro- vide education for the children of Protestants who were persecuted in the public schools. In 1871, Bahia was occupied as a Mission Station and work began in central Brazil. In 1884, the state of Parana, to the south of Sao Paulo, was entered. In 1869, missionaries of the Southern Presbyterian Church came out and occupied Campinas, about 70 miles from the city of Sao Paulo, as their cen- ter, and undertook to care for the work along the Mogyana Railroad, then planned into the interior from that point. In 1873, the Southern Church occupied Pernambuco and thence extended its work through the northern states of Brazil. In 1888, the Missions of the Northern and Southern Churches came together, forming the National Presbyterian Church of Brazil, independ- ent of the mother Churches. By this time the Northern Church had gathered into its Missions 2,098, and the Southern Church, 509 Church mem- 346 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL bers. ‘The Church thus formed developed with reasonable rapidity, certainly as rapidly as was consistent with the consolidation of the Christian sentiment of its members. From the time of the ordination of the first Brazilians, the native ministers discussed among themselves their proper relation to the Board. A section of them, led by a most scholarly and lovable man, held that by ordination they should become members of the Missions and should be entitled to voice and vote on all questions, including those re- lated to funds, equally with the American mission- aries. Another group, led by a most vigorous and convincing pastor, held that the Mission was an abnormal Presbyterian organization and should disappear, giving place to the presbytery, and that all the affairs which had been handled by the Mis- sions should pass to the care of the presbytery. The fact that the first leader had great personal influence with the missionaries and the second almost unquestioned leadership among the elders possibly accounts for their different views as to the preferable organization. This question inevitably became mixed with antipathies among the mission- aries, originating in Civil War questions in the United States and intensified by the abolition struggle in Brazil, which rendered it impossible for the missionaries to present to their Brazilian breth- ren the example of Christian solidarity which was very much to be desired. ‘The result was a tend- ency to ecclesiastic politics that did not increase the growth of the Church. However, comparatively HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 34:7 few gave much attention to these things and the rank and file of the Church strove earnestly for the extension of the Kingdom. In 1891, with a view to clarifying the situation, the missionaries in Brazil, without one dissenting voice (two or three failed to sign the document for other reasons than dissent), agreed to retire from the native Church, separating, thus, Mission ques- tions from Church questions and leaving the Brazil- ians to settle their own questions as they saw fit. This movement was not finally approved by the Board, however, until several years later. After various turns, in the first years of the twentieth century, the controversy took a new phase. The leader of the nationalistic movement discovered that Masonic influences were being used to detach members of his party. Jatin American Masonry is very different from the North American brand. In its secular contest with the Church of Rome it has assumed a quasi religious attitude, different from anything known in the United States. It was not difficult to make out a theo- retical prima-facie case against Masonry and the neutral and Masonic elements in the Church were foolish enough to forbid the discussion of the sub- ject. This added fuel to the flames and in 1908, at the triennial meeting of the General Synod, the schism came. A group of native ministers, with the strongest churches of the great Sao Paulo region and considerable elements in nearly every part of Brazil, separated from their brethren and the missionary element. The North American 348 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Churches immediately took the position that since there was no unsoundness in the faith in the case no opposition should be made to the new Church. Perhaps the strongest proof that has been given of the divine presence in the Church in Brazil was the fact that despite the ruthlessness with which men devoted themselves through the schism to the destruction of true Christianity, it somehow man- aged to worry along, and by and by the anvil wore out the hammer and things became normal. In the twenty-two years since the schism, the in- dependent Church has developed in numbers and resources at about the same rate as the larger frac- tion, possibly more rapidly in the districts where the two are in close contact, the heaviest growth of the synodical Church having been in new mis- sionary districts. In 1923, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church reported 21,000 mem- bers; the independent Presbyterian Church about 10,000 members. Shortly after the schism, missionary work in the states of Bahia and Sergipe reached the point of organizing a presbytery. ‘The Mission proposed to the new presbytery a modus operandi along essentially the following lines: (1) The mission- aries would not be members of the presbytery save as it might be necessary in the earlier days to main- tain a quorum. (2) The field should be divided between the presbytery and the Mission on the basis of the Mission, as the older body, being re- sponsible for the entire field save those portions HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 349 which had been separated to. the care of the presby- tery. (38) All congregations, with the reasonable evangelistic districts surrounding them, which had passed to the care of national pastors, should con- stitute the presbytery’s field. As fast as congre- gations were in shape to be put in the care of national ministers, they would be passed over to the presbytery. The Mission would assist at the time of this transfer to the extent of fifty per cent of the pastor’s salary, diminishing this aid one tenth annually until extinction. The assistance was granted to the field and had nothing to do with the person of the pastor. It was suspended in case of vacancy. The Mission would not employ an or- dained Brazilian in its work unless by a special arrangement with the presbytery for a definite service and a short period of time. Mutual assist- ance between the missionaries and Brazilian pastors would be governed by the ordinary customs of ministerial courtesy. The Mission would be repre- sented by one of its members (without vote) at the meetings of the presbytery and similarly the presbytery at meetings of the Mission. In either case executive sessions for the treatment of per- sonal questions might be held without the presence of the delegate. This plan commended itself to the Church at large and substantially was adopted at a later date by the Church codperating with the missionaries. Of late years, a strong movement toward the reunion of the separated Churches has developed, which in time undoubtedly will prevail. The Gen- 350 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which convened in Pernambuco in 1924 was the first at which no missionary was present as a delegate. The deliberations of the Assembly and the results adopted did not yield in wisdom to those of any previous meeting and have been carried into effect with more vigor and greater unanimity than those of any previous assembly. In 1874 the Methodist Church South began mis- sion work in Brazil, occupying the principal points on the railroad between Sao Paulo and Rio and an extensive district along the Central Railroad of Brazil, in the heart of Minas Geraes, and also a district around Piracicaba, in the state of Sao Paulo. Workers using Spanish had crossed the border of Rio Grande do Sul from the Northern Methodist work in Uruguay and Argentina, min- istering to scattered Argentinos and Uruguayos. Very soon they passed to the use of Portuguese, addressing themselves to the general population, and in an adjustment between the two home Churches, the work was transferred to the southern branch. The work has radiated from these centers in all directions and developed greatly. ‘There are at present three conferences. At the time of the difficulties in the Presbyterian Church, agitation extended to the Methodist Church, but a very large recognition of the Brazilian element averted any serious results. The Southern Baptists entered the field in 1881 and have extended their work to practically every part of Brazil reached by the workers of other HISTORY OF BRAZIL MISSIONS 351 denominations. They claim a large membership and a long roll of churches. The American Episcopal Church sent out mis- sionaries in 1883. With a Christian courtesy which cannot be too highly commended, they were directed to enter into contact with the workers already on the field and to endeavor to secure for their work a district otherwise unoccupied. At that time the state of Rio Grande do Sul contained only a single Presbyterian church founded by an independent missionary, and two or three Northern Methodist churches still supposedly Spanish and not connected with any organization in Brazil. The suggestion was made that they occupy a dis- trict in this state. A little later, more workers being sent out, the Presbyterian church was passed to their care, and for many years they limited their operations to that state. Recently they have opened work in the capital of the republic and in the cities of Santos and Sao Paulo. In general their work had been most successful. Various independent workers have made at- tempts in Brazil. One only, through the after adoption of his work by the Evangelical Union for South America, succeeded in founding work of some stability. The work of the Union extends from Sao Paulo into the state of Goyaz. Various attempts have been made to develop work among the uncivilized Indians of Brazil. Most of them have been dismal failures because the workers knew nothing of tropical life, and less about the Indians. Several deaths among the 352 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL workers have testified equally to their devoted spirit and their lack of common sense. At present groups of workers are engaged among the Indians of Matto Grosso on a saner basis and with promise of more satisfactory results. W. A. WADDELL CHAPTER XVII EDUCATION IN BRAZIL ODERN readers cannot appreciate the lack of education in Europe when the settlement of Brazil began. During the century that passed before the first Anglo-Saxon settlements in North America, the entire Reformation struggle and the beginning of the counterreform, both essentially educational in their nature, had intervened, and the Mayflower party could draw up, discuss, and sign a civic compact which, from their point of view, left very little to be desired, while it is doubtful if any considerable part of any group of settlers in Brazil, one hundred years earlier, could have read, signed, or discussed such a document. In 1500 the literate class was very small. A good many priests and a few civil functionaries could read and write. Distinguished men some- times could read and generally could make a fear- ful and wonderful drawing which, when done with bad ink and a badly made quill pen, surpassed any modern effort at bad writing and was called their signature. Join to this variegated spelling and the tendency to abbreviate words, and you can see that at this dawn of the printed book, writing was indeed a black art. The Middle Ages had developed endless patience in the working of stone and a rule-of-thumb architectural engineering, by 353 354 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL which wonderful results were attained, but art had developed only along these lines. All the industry of the time is characterized more by endless pa- tience of attempt than by anything approaching quantity production. Any modern insurance com- pany would classify as attempted suicide an ocean voyage in one of the ships with which Vasco da Gama opened the road to the Orient, and although the authors of the period wax eloquent in their description of the great ships of India, the history of their voyages is more remarkable as showing how much flesh and blood can endure than as a maritime record. It was in this twilight of the gods, when the modern age was just dawning, that Brazilian settlements were begun, and the settlers did not grade high in this educational scale. From the first, the priests of various orders, especially the Jesuits, interested themselves in education, but we should not allow modern ideas to picture for us the schools they established. Often a school founded in connection with the Church will be found to have limited its curriculum to teaching by rote the cate- chism and the “ divine service,” which, like Chau- cer’s prioress, they “entuned”’ in the nose “ full seemly,” without any ability to recognize the words on paper or to understand their meaning. It is mentioned with surprise that a very advanced and evangelical bishop insisted upon the choir boys’ understanding the meaning of what they said and sang. For some of the boys, at least, reading and writing would be added and Latin would follow EDUCATION IN BRAZIL 355 inevitably. The cultivation of the vernacular was despised even after Camoes magnificent work had dignified the language. Latin, as opening the stored information of the ages, was of vast im- portance. The isolation caused by the establishment of large plantations, and the constant service of the leading men in bandeiras and other military enter- prises (it may be said that until the end of the Dutch wars in 1654, Brazil was always in a state of war), prevented the extension to Brazil of the great development which in these same generations mani- fested itself in Europe. It must be admitted that there was very little to attract men to studies. ‘The Church had taken a position of suspicion toward all investigation and even toward literary development. ‘There was - practically no religious dissent in Brazil, but there was a strong hostility to the Church and especially to the Jesuits. Since priestly teaching had arro- gated to itself the whole round of thought, it was very difficult for a man to study anything without finding some fact contrary to priestly teaching, and the sure reward of any progress was free trans- portation to Portugal and residence in the dun- geons of the Inquisition. It is inexpressibly sad to read the annals and find mention of youths who developed some literary spirit, with the slightly varied closing phrase: “In... he incurred the suspicion of the Holy Office and was arrested and held prisoner for . . . years, and thereafter wrote 2? 66 no more,” “ was imprisoned in Rio de Janeiro, sent 356 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL y) to Portugal, and died in the dungeons,” or “ was sent into perpetual exile in . . . where he died in a short time.” The definite and inevitable snuffing out of all who in any way incurred the suspicion of the Holy Office effectively squelched any tendency toward educational development save in the priestly fold and along lines of complete orthodoxy. ‘Thus it came to pass that although the awakening in- fluence of the New World unquestionably pro- duced its effect among the settlers and their de- scendants, no adequate expression of this became possible in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. No educational institution has come down to us from the first three hundred years of Brazilian history except as the choir schools have developed into diocesan theological seminaries. The failure to develop local institutions forced the wealthy, who desired that their children should share the world’s progress, to send their sons to Portugal, and created a much closer educational dependence upon the metropolis than existed be- tween the North American colonies and Great Brit- ain. But only the rich could study in Portugal. This rapidly developed an aristocracy of learning, which, joined to the increase of the servile class and the impossibility of anyone’s attaining distinc- tion through education alone, distributed the popu- lation into three classes: a vast mass of illiterates of varying intelligence; a very small group of, for the time, highly educated literati; and a larger but still small class of semiliterates of considerable natural intelligence. Throughout the eighteenth century EDUCATION IN BRAZIL 357 there was intellectual ferment, but no institutional growth. When in 1808 the royal family of Portugal fled from Lisbon to Brazil and established itself in Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian ports, which pre- viously had been subjected to Portuguese monop- oly, were opened to the world, Brazil had no school system. Each bishopric had its school for at least the partial preparation of priests; various monas- teries maintained boarding and day schools; a few of the wealthy families provided for the household education of their children, and prosperous neigh- borhoods, working through the clergy or indi- viduals, provided primary education for the chil- dren of some well-to-do families. There were a few professional men who had studied abroad, some of them in France but for the greater part in Portu- gal, and there was a not very strong tendency on the part of these men to diminish for others the difficulties that they themselves had experienced in obtaining preparation. With the opening of the ports, new life de- veloped all over the country. Even during the re- mainder of the Portuguese rule, popular instruc- tion made a great stride forward, an engineering school was established in Rio de Janeiro and when in 1822 independence was proclaimed, it was at once seen that if political independence were to be maintained, educational independence must be es- tablished. It was at this period that Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, the great Brazilian patriot, made 358 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL a speech on the educational needs of the country, which being read, in translation, by the boy, John Theoron Mackenzie, led, seventy years later, to his gift which rendered possible the development of Mackenzie College. Steps were at once taken for the foundation of professional schools, law schools in Sao Paulo and Pernambuco, medical schools in Rio de Janeiro and a school of mines at Ouro Preto. Schools of pharmacy were attached to the medical schools and dental schools were added later. ‘These schools ex- tended their courses downward to the lowest studies pertaining to the profession. For example, the medical course included general chemistry, general biology, and general physics. Preparation was ob- tained in the gymnasia which accepted pupils as young as ten years of age with about five years of primary- -school preparation. These gymnasia gave a six-year course, corresponding to the gram- mar and high school of the American system, with classes in sciences and philosophy in the upper years corresponding to Steele’s Fourteen Weeks in American high schools of 1870. The American college is unknown to the system, being in part substituted by these studies in the high-school course, and in part by prestudies of the profes- sional courses. With modifications this system has continued until the present time. At the same time a public-school system was or- ganized. Little was attempted beyond writing and reading and the most elementary number work. Sewing and embroidery were taught to the girls, EDUCATION IN BRAZIL 359 while a very active school-teacher might extend the work of the boys into geography and a bit of his- tory. The parish-priest was ex officio school inspec- tor. Study was often carried on at the top of the lungs, the idea of learning being to memorize the textbook. Little or no attention was given to the preparation of teachers and the appointments were political rewards. As late as 1870 public- school teachers were dismissed on the ground that they could neither read nor write. ‘The opposition journals did not dispute the facts, but said that gross partisanship was shown since others who were in the same condition were retained. In 1910 there was at least one public-school teacher in the interior of Bahia who in over twenty years of serv- ice had never held a class and had never been known to read or to write more than his own name. There were, of course, many devoted teachers and much good work was done. No attempt whatever was made to link the public schools with the professional schools. A model gymnasium, or high school, the Dom Pedro II, was organized in Rio de Janeiro, and cursos annexos were attached to the various professional schools. In these, students of any origin who brought certifi- cates signed by persons of titular proficiency could take examinations for admission to the professional schools. Consequently private schools grew up of- fering all kinds of instruction, in a general sense preparatory to professional study. ‘This was the condition until the end of the empire. The fall of the empire and the coming into power 360 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL of the thoughtful men who had brought about abo- lition and the establishment of the republic, caused an immense wave of enthusiasm for the cause of instruction. Cesario Motta, in Sao Paulo, became the leader in that state. His well-known phrase, “The republic is universal instruction or ruin,” set the note of effort. Immediate attempt was made to reorganize the public schools and extend the possibilities of higher education. For twenty years the North American Missions had maintained schools which by their efficiency had gained the respect of the people. The director of the Pres- byterian Board School in Sao Paulo, Dr. H. M. Lane, had a wonderful aptitude for seizing the es- sential and the transferable of the American system and translating it into its Brazilian equivalent. He became the confidential adviser of the repub- lican leaders and the school system of Sao Paulo was organized on the model of the school he di- rected. ‘Teachers were lent by his school who organized the first model schools associated with the newly organized normal schools, and the whole system took on the American form. This has ex- tended from state to state, primary education hav- ing been left principally in the hands of the state, and has reached practically all Brazil. At this time the formation of so-called free, as distinguished from official, professional schools was permitted, and several were organized. Mackenzie College came under this class. ‘The states estab- lished gymnasia, high schools, and private schools were admitted to share their privileges under cer- EDUCATION IN BRAZIL 361 tain conditions. In 1910 the Law Rivadavia was enacted, which practically conceded to all private establishments equal rights with the Government schools. This having been found pernicious, in 1915 a new law was enacted which turned in the direction of the first republican law, but did not permit the extension of official privileges to private secondary schools. Provision was made, however, for examining their pupils. In the present year, 1925, a new reform has been promulgated, dis- tinctly reactionary on the one hand, in that it ex- acts absolute conformity to a standard type on the part of all schools that desire Government exami- nations and in that the type adopted is distinctly old-fashioned, and on the other hand progressive, since it enacts many desirable reforms in organi- zation. During all this time there has been a tremendous growth in education. At the incoming of the repub- lic one sixth of the people of Brazil nominally could read and write. Many of them had learned as chil- dren, but through disuse, for there were few books and fewer journals in the interior, had lost the ability. Perhaps one tenth were really literate. During these thirty-five years the proportion prob- ably has grown to one fourth, or at least that is the impression general among those best informed. In other words, literacy has gained 150 per cent in thirty-five years, and is gaining in accelerated ratio. W. A. WADDELL. CHAPTER XVIII ADVANCE PROGRAM AND NEEDS OF THE BRAZIL MISSIONS T the meeting of the South Brazil Mission, held January 27 to February 6, 1925, and of the Central Brazil Mission, held May 11-15, 1925, when the delegation was present, the probable property needs for several years to come were studied and the Missions voted to approve the lists which are given below. Some of these items are included in the appeal for the 1925 Christmas of- fering of the Presbyterian Sunday schools. It is hoped that others will be met in the Latin Ameri- can Campaign scheduled for 1925-1926. A map indicating the different Mission Stations, present and prospective, is placed on the opposite page. SoutH Brazit Mission Property List: Seven-Year Program Castro — Girls’ Dormitory, Instituto Chris- tao — Balance Needed (Already Se- CULE ) isis. is Mele AeA Gee | 2 $6,700 Burity — Dormitory for School ......... 4,000 Hlectrice-Light System (a... ee 2,000 Goyaz — Completion of Purchase of Prop- OLE Ys i eee ie RN ONES NO I en 1,600 CHAPTER XVIII ADVANC’1 PROGRAM AND NEEDS OF THE BRAZIL MISSIONS T the neeting of the South Brazil Mission, held January 27 to February 6, 1925, and of the Centra’ Brazil Mission, held May 11-15, 1925, when the lelegation was present, the probable property reeds for several years to come were studied anc the Missions voted to approve the lists which are ziven below. Some of these items are included ir the appeal for the 1925 Christmas of- fering of tie Presbyterian Sunday schools. It is hoped that others will be met in the Latin Ameri- can Camp:ign scheduled for 1925-1926. A map indicating the different Mission Stations, present anl prospective, is placed on the opposite page. SoutH Brazit Mission Property List: Seven-Year Program Castro — ‘szirls’ Dormitory, Instituto Chris- tao — Ealance Needed (Already Se- CUTER ) BBR aera OMe 4. Na: 0 hee $6,700 Burity — Dormitory for School ......... 4,000 Electri¢ Liat System io) 3). 0 2,000 Goyaz — Completion of Purchase of Prop- erty. A BR I i ered 362 BO Vee KEY TO MAP (Each dot represents 10,000 inhabitants) Taboleiro de Bahia. sought. Evangelists available. ( 7) Matto Grosso . Wea Authorized by Mission; site being Ponte Nova. This station is completely manned, includ- ing doctor. Csrinhanha. except doctor, available; site being sought. Planalto de Goyaz, ‘‘Planaltina.’’ Station authorized by Mission; workers, Property partially secured; workers designated with the exception of doctor. Registro de Goyaz, Included in plan but no steps as yet taken. Burity, near Cuyaba. station manned with the exception of a doctor.’ West Matto Grosso. populated eountry. Property partially secured and Eventual station in very sparsely South Matto Grosso. Eventual station in very sparsely populated country. Western Station, Catharina or Parana. Mission; site being sought; evangelists available, Castro, ‘‘Instituto Christao.”’ manned; does not need a doctor. Authorized by This station is completely Note:—The locations are all approximate. A circle indicates that the site has not been fixed although the region has been indicated. The large ellipse on the Amazon River indicates the region where it is hoped that the Southern Presbyterian Church will establish a station with river steamer, The National Presbyterian Churches of Brazil have taken over the responsibility for the work of evangelization in the more densely populated centers, with the understanding that the Missions would assume responsibility for leadership in pioneer work in rural districts and in the interior. e ° ed & yO eee 000000 See Za ” oy MAP WITH PRESBYTERIAN MISSION STATIONS PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE OF BRAZIL ° “37 Espirito Santo NEEDS OF THE BRAZIL MISSIONS 363 Buildings and Farm Equipment ...... 14,000 Pages Property for schools 2. eal. 200, 5,000 Castro — Water Power and Extension of melechric-Lightrsyvstem! ney ln 3,500 Burity — Stock, Farm Equipment, and "STO Oiler i i WR EMMA 2 ANON Ree ya Mee gee 4,000 Western Parana— Property for School TPT see eR apie aca Om oa | LINC eg 5,000 “TECTED oh ued age A aah a A aA a $45,800 CENTRAL Brazit Mission Property List: Five-Year Program Group One For the Completion of Grace Memorial PiooMiraiecabe NOVA eo Nee oo was $3,000 Sawmill for Construction Work, Ponte TAIT SRE kate sek li ga AE (i a a NR ASO 1,000 Steam Tractor (Wood-Burning) to Run eT ee ODLEEN OV ere ene Pore) inl 2,000 Missionary Residence for Boys’ Dormitory, BA COMIN V EO Nits as, oye os eb weet iets ele oe. 2,500 Purchase of Two Houses and Land from the Independent Medical Work, Ponte ON OV RRPMEe I Paerertie elit pea los Ne pas eke ky ty 8 1,500 Purchase of Site for Hydroelectric Plant, POnIEG WN OV AARNE or. ees hea ee ae rt 1) Tate 1,500 Purchase of Farm and Property for a Sta- tion of the Ponte Nova Type in South- CURR REIT: rho pe Mie itis ONE ISR OR OU ot we Uh 5,000 364 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Dramage.and Sanitation vee Ges, en aie 1,000 Girls’ Dormitory and Residence for Direc- tor’s Family and Teachers at Ponte INOV A UL CRO CS RCIA Pyne 5,000 Group ‘Two Purchase of Property for American School, Bahtav@ity he ah Mn eet ae cane $15,000 School Equipment for Ponte Nova (Maps, Books for Library, Blackboards, Simple Laboratory equipment) e. jue. eae 1,000 Farm Machinery for Ponte Nova (Plow, Dise Harrow, Corn Planter, Cultivator, Wagon, Emsilage Cutter) (0) ina 1,000 Dynamo (15 K.W.K.) for Ponte Nova SES TIOM EW cri anya 2h vel Tis aoe ae 500 Accessories for Electrical Equipment .... 500 Water System and Screens for Dormito- PIES SNA Se SAIN VP a ae 2,500 (otal tor Group Pwornauce. ccna $20,500 Group Three Silo and Dipping Tank for Stock at Ponte NOV aE UIE NIM i 068 ae Ra $1,000 Improved Live Stock for Ponte Nova (Bull, Jackass, Boar; Also Ten Work Mules ian ion cic i) ai ke On) aia 2,000 Roads and Bridge-Building at Ponte Nova 2,000 NEEDS OF THE BRAZIL MISSIONS 365 Purchase of Farm and Property for a Sta- tion of the Ponte Nova Type in Northeast PEST) ee Ou ate dice tak ty) ee IA 5,000 Bias SD Ge ‘ ‘ A ea i" ud th ah " ; va Yo oe Pas eh a " ( AD AAT bya ae "ay, Pewee Anitat, r M4 vA ui y ‘ ay em Ip Ain 4 W cn L ¥ hee ik atin Lis . ae rag : AT Peon fia ’ / i cat ai . yee! ; ad “0 PART III THE MONTEVIDEO CONGRESS AND SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS CHAPTER I THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK IN SOUTH AMERICA HE Congress on Christian Work in South _ America, which met in Montevideo, Uru- guay, March 29 to April 8, 1925, brought together representatives of practically all the evangelical agencies which are at work in South America. It was called a congress rather than a conference be- cause the word conferencia in South America means, not what it means with us, but a single lec- ture or address. It was called, “ Congress on Christian Work” rather than ‘“ Missionary Con- gress,” because, as will appear, it was primarily a congress not of missionaries or missionary secre- taries but of the national evangelical churches, or native churches, as the South American members of the Congress often called them, rejecting the term “indigenous” because that meant the aboriginal Indians, and not seeking to enter into rivalry for the term “national” with the Roman Catholic Church, which in some of the South American countries is still the official national Church. It was called the “ Congress on Christian Work in South America,” rather than “‘ Latin America,” be- cause it covered South America alone and not the whole Latin American world. It is planned in 369 BO ih MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL 1926 to hold a similar congress in Mexico City for the Latin countries about the Caribbean Sea. South America itself presented a field of study of sufficient magnitude and diversity. In area the continent is as large as the United States, including Alaska, plus the whole of Kurope. Brazil alone is nearly as large as Europe and is larger than Aus- tralia plus Germany, and Colombia, which is one of the smaller countries, has an area equal to Ger- many, France, Holland, and Belgium combined. In population the entire continent is less than two thirds the size of the United States or about one and a half times the population of France. Part of the magnitude and complexity of the economic and religious problems of the continent is found in the disproportion of its population to its area and resources. The population of Japan is about equal to that of all South America, but Japan is only one third the size of Venezuela, which is one of the smallest South American countries. And the problem of South America is as diverse asitis huge. One of the revelations of the Congress was the reality and the extent of this diversity. So much has been said of the Latin American mind and spirit and its attitude and ideals that many had assumed that there was a substantial unity justi- fying such utterances. And in the development of Christian cooperation it had been expected that the Congress would result in some new form of conti- nental action. It was made very clear, however, that neither Latin America nor South America can be truthfully conceived in these unitary terms. THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 371 Brazil in area, language, development of the evan- gelical churches and schools, is in a situation of its own. ‘The three republics of the Rio de la Plata, as another distinct /group, differ among themselves and differ from all the rest of South America. There are wide diversities between the east and west coast countries and on the west coast itself the - differences are equally great. The national types differ throughout South America, due to diverse ancestral stocks and to diverse social conditions, while the widest diversities are found between coun- tries like Uruguay and Chile, where the social and economic movements are far advanced, and coun- tries like Bolivia and Colombia, where they have not begun. Indeed, the delegation at Montevideo from Colombia and Venezuela said that they felt they were in a strange world and that it was clear to them that their relations lay with the other Carib- bean countries and not with South America. In the relation of the state to the Roman Catholic Church and to religion, the South American countries pre- sent also the widest possible divergencies, from the concordat between the Church and the state in Colombia, which gives the Church a great politi- cal and educational ascendency, to the complete severance of relationships and the abjugation of Church influence in Uruguay, with half a dozen in- tervening stages in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and other lands. If ever a Congress was needed to think out and provide for the fundamental unities of interest and duty of the evangelical forces in neighboring lands, and also their diversities and 372 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL distinctions of task and responsibility, it was needed at this time in South America. The Congress was one of many outcomes of the effort of the evangelical agencies at work in Latin America to deal -with their work effectively and unitedly. This effort was itself the result of the omission of work in Latin America from the con- sideration of the Edinburgh Missionary Confer- ence. The American societies were at first strong in their conviction that the Latin American field should be included at Edinburgh, but they waived that conviction, or at any rate they refrained from insisting upon it, in view of what they believed were the largest interests of the Edinburgh gathering. Immediately afterwards, however, they proceeded to provide in a special way for the study and de- velopment of the work in Latin America. ‘They held a special conference on the subject in New York in March, 1913, which appointed a small com- mittee “ to deal with the whole subject of the work in Latin America and especially with the question of cooperation and to make any presentations they may deem desirable to the Boards.” 'This commit- tee, enlarged to embrace representatives of all the Boards at work in Mexico proposed the plans which the Boards and Missions subsequently adopted for the complete codperative reorganization of the work in Mexico after its political and social revo- lution. The next steps were a communication from the committee to all the workers in Latin America, proposing a new program of codpera- tion especially in education and literature, the THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 3873 employment of a full-time secretary in Rev. S. G. Inman, who had been a missionary in Mexico and who was contributed to the committee by the Women’s Board of Missions of the Christian Church, and in February, 1916, the Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, held in Panama, attended by 304 delegates and 174 visitors from all | the Latin American fields and the United States and Canada and Europe. The Panama Congress began a new day of interest and activity in the Latin American field. It recommended the es- tablishment of the Committee on Codperation in Latin America, which was at once constituted by the Boards at work in Latin America, each ap- pointing its own representative upon the committee, and for nine years this committee has now been at work promoting interest in Latin America at the home base and cooperation and expansion in the work on the field. All the work of this committee has been directed and its expenses have been paid by the Boards with contributions proportionate to the extent of their work in Latin America. A few coodpted members have been added and some individuals have helped financially, but the strength of the committee’s work has lain in the fact that it has been the repre- sentative and responsible agency of the Boards themselves for caring for their common interests and responsibilities. It was in the fulfillment of this task that the committee, in consultation and codperation with the regional committees in South America, arranged for the Montevideo Congress. 374 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL The plans contemplated a small congress of two hundred members, 100 from South America and 100 from abroad. As it turned out, there were 315 in all in attendance, of whom 161 were full official delegates, 19 fraternal delegates, 10 invited guests, and 121 visitors. Eighteen nations were repre- sented, including all the countries of South America, one Central American nation, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. Of the delegates more than three fourths were nationals and missionaries from South America, the number of nationals and missionaries being approximately equal. ‘Thirty- six organizations were represented, practically all the organizations and denominations at work in the South American lands, including the Salvation Army, the Plymouth Brethren, and the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Waldenses, the evangelical Churches in France and Spain, and all the Ameri- can and Canadian Churches interested in South America. It was a dominantly South American meeting. At Panama the great body of the delegates were direct from the United States, the chairman of the day session was a North American, the language was English and what was said in Spanish and Portuguese was translated into English, and the discussions were for the most part conducted by the American delegates or missionaries. At Montevideo, the Congress was unmistakably Latin American. It was held not on American soil as in THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 375 Panama but in Spanish America. The largest group of delegates was South American. The Congress had only one presiding officer and he was Senhor Erasmo Braga, of Brazil. The language of the Congress was Spanish, usually though not always summarized in English. Portuguese also was used, as the language of Brazil, but was not translated into Spanish or Spanish into Portu- guese. ‘Twenty-one of the twenty-nine members of the Business Committee, through which all the resolutions and findings and official actions of the Congress were passed, were from South America. And the discussions of the Congress were almost wholly in the hands of the nationals and the mis- sionaries, the foreign delegation speaking but seldom. It was clear to everyone that this was a Congress not of the missionary Boards but of the South American evangelical churches. At first perhaps these churches were not sure that this was to be the case but they quickly realized it and were cordial in their appreciation of the attitude of the missionary Boards in taking the leadership in pre- paring for the Congress and making it possible and then leaving it fully in the hands of the leaders of the national churches. The place and conditions of the Congress meet- ing were perhaps as favorable as could be found in South America. Uruguay is a sort of South American Switzerland in its neutral and central position midway between the great Portuguese- speaking republic of Brazil and the two other leading South American nations of the A.B.C. 376 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL group, Argentina and Chile. A commodious sum- mer hotel on the seashore in the most pleasant suburb of Montevideo had been engaged by the Committee on Cooperation, and all the delegates lived, and all the meetings were held, under one roof. The Boards and a few individual friends contributed the funds to cover the cost of enter- tainment of all the nationals as the guests of the Congress. The delegates mingled in a common fellowship at mealtimes and in the scanty periods between the sessions, which were held in a sun parlor looking out over the sea and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata toward Africa, with the surf breaking musically under the wide windows. The program of the Congress followed in the main the outline of similar gatherings. ‘The day began at eight-thirty with a half hour of quiet medi- tation and prayer. From nine until eleven-thirty the report of one of the twelve commissions was considered. At eleven-thirty came a half hour of devotional address and prayer. From two-thirty to five another commission report was discussed. At five the Congress adjourned for the day but from six to seven a public meeting, addressed by one of the Congress speakers, was held in the Ateneo, the best hall in the heart of the city, for the general public, especially the intellectual group, and at eight-thirty in the evening in the hotel, gen- eral meetings were held for the delegates and visi- tors, of which something more must be said later, as these meetings represented something new in con- ference programs. THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 377 The main work of the Congress was in connec- tion with the commission reports and the findings. These reports were put together in New York but were made up of material prepared in South America under the regional or sectional commit- tees. ‘They were printed in English and in either Spanish or Portuguese so that they were accessible | to all members of the Congress, as those who read Spanish could easily understand the Portuguese and vice versa. ‘The reports took for granted the material presented in the reports at Panama and built upon these, but they also broke into new fields wholly untouched at Panama and illustrating the wider power and social influence and surer spirit- ual and moral grasp of the evangelical churches in Latin America to-day. The subjects of the twelve reports were: 1. Unoccupied Fields. 2. Indians. 3. Education. 4. Evangelism. 5. Social Move- ments. 6. Health Ministry. 7. The Church and the Community. 8. Religious Education. 9. Lit- erature. 10. Relations between Foreign and Na- tional Workers. 11. Special Religious Problems. 12. Codperation and Unity. The Missions in South America have always been primarily evan- gelistic. In Brazil for some years there was a strong missionary group opposed to the use of edu- cation as a missionary agency, except for the train- ing of Christian workers, and at Panama the fear of the modern social interpretations of the gospel was very manifest. At Montevideo the duty of making and keeping missionary education un- equivocally Christian and the warmth and direct- 378 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL ness of the evangelistic purpose were as clear as at Panama but the churches and the Missions were already laying hold of the great social conceptions of the New Testament and realizing with a fuller mind the significance of the Incarnation for human relationships as well as for individual life. One of the reports, on “ The Church and the Community,” sets forth as satisfactory and convincing a state- ment as we have seen of the necessity and possi- bility of a true construction of the two aspects of the Christian gospel. I have spoken of the findings of the Montevideo Congress. In this respect the Congress differed from Edinburgh and Panama. The workers in South America made it plain before the Congress that they desired opportunity not only to discuss but also to state the results of discussion and ex- perience in definite conclusions. Provision was accordingly made for this. On two afternoons the Congress broke up into six groups. Each group considered two allied subjects of the twelve treated in the reports and drafted a series of findings on each of these subjects. ‘These findings were gone over and revised by the general Business Com- mittee of the Congress and were then printed and considered for a whole day by the Congress, which amended and adopted them. ‘There were 106 of these findings in all. ‘They were subjected to the criticism of all such actions as academic, as too general, as counsels of perfection, as representing the balance of divergent views, as timid, as extreme, but they were of great value both because of what THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 379 they showed to exist in the life and thought of the South American churches and because of what they are sure to result in.’ A few of these findings may be quoted as illus- trating their general character: ‘ South America holds a large and rapidly grow- ing place in the life of the world. Capital and | people are pouring in from the older and over- crowded countries to develop its immense natural resources and occupy its fertile plains. There exist here all the conditions that make for great movements and great consequences to humanity. The wisest development, therefore, of the political, economic, and social life of the continent, as well as its impact on the world, make imperative that South America shall be enabled to have the highest spiritual development. The great problem of both continents, north and south, is a religious problem. While on the one hand the masses have inadequate opportunity to rise out of their deep economic, in- tellectual, and spiritual poverty, the directing classes remain largely indifferent to religion as a vital factor in human progress. “ There are not wanting, however, signs of great promise. Recent years have witnessed in some of the countries extraordinary progress in democracy. There are abundant evidences of a new idealism, particularly among the educated youth. ‘There is a new sense of responsibility on the part of the directing classes in most of the countries. A sig- 1 These findings are contained in the two-volume report on the Congress called Christian Work in South America, published by Fleming H. Revell Company. 380 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL nificant social awakening is stirring great sections of the people, especally the industrial classes, and there is a new responsiveness, on the part of a growing and influential group, to Christ and His program for humanity. These new signs add urgency to the problem confronting the Christian forces in South America. “ The forces as yet at work in South America are wholly inadequate to the largeness and especially to the urgency of the task. Not only are large areas almost completely devoid of spiritual minis- tration, but great groups of society are given little opportunity to come into contact with vital religion. We would urge the importance of greatly strength- ening the evangelical forces of the continent. Especially do we feel that the time has come for increased emphasis on intensiveness in the cultiva- tion of the Latin American field. That so much of spiritual result has been achieved with so little of material equipment is a distinct evidence of the Divine approval of the evangelical work. We are deeply of the conviction, however, that the provi- dential indications now point toward emphasis on qualitative rather than quantitative effort. So thoroughly do we feel this that we would look with favor upon the concentration of our extended lines of occupation upon the points where the highest quality of work can be done. “Every evangelical institution, just because it is a Christian school, should be as nearly as possible a model school in its area, in equipment, methods, and teaching staff. Some of our schools have THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 381 measurably approached this ideal and are the best schools available in their communities. In general our schools have done a great work and have won for themselves a high place in the estimation of the people. But in many schools our missionary teach- ers are too often untrained for their specific tasks and overburdened with administrative details; and the buildings, equipment, and grounds of the schools are inadequate. We find that these de- ficiencies, wherever they exist, are prejudicing our educational status and should be removed through the provision of adequate resources. “ Recognizing that eventually the evangelical work in each South American republic will be under the control of the nationals, we recommend that each school carefully work out and adopt, as rapidly as may be found wise, a system developing educational leadership by nationals, and tending toward eventual complete control. “We recommend that the educational forces give careful study to the problem of normally integrat- ing sex-social education in the educational scheme with a view to promoting the fullest and soundest development of personality and character, increas- ing individual happiness, and conserving and ad- vancing the welfare of society. “Inasmuch as the so-called ‘individual’ and ‘social’ gospels constitute two essential and com- plementary aspects of the gospel of Christ, we con- sider that no Christian church fully discharges its mission unless it ministers to human welfare in both a physical and a spiritual sense.” 382 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL “That this Congress recommend that each Mis- sion body appropriate annually for the production and circulation of evangelical and evangelistic literature a fixed sum, aiming to reach one tenth of its annual budget. “In view of the misconceptions prevailing in South America with regard to the true nature of religion, and the rooted prejudices which in conse- quence of these misconceptions characterize the attitude of multitudes of people towards the lit- urgic aspect of Christianity, it appears to us desir- able that the ‘ conferencia sin culto’ should be em- ployed as a recognized method of evangelism when by so doing the gospel could be presented to people for whom the ordinary type of religious service is without appeal. “In view also of the fact that there exist in all large centers groups of people belonging especially to the educated classes who, while being sincere Christians or being interested in Christianity in a general way, are not disposed to associate them- selves with any of the existing churches, we recom- mend that specially prepared men be set apart to work with these groups with a view to leading them to a full experience of Christ, and by gradual and natural stages lead them to a full outward expres- sion of their faith. “This Congress calls upon all believing Chris- tians of South America continually to remember that we are the body of which Christ is the Head, and that loyalty and devotion to our Head will keep us in the bonds of the closest fraternity. We THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 383 will therefore ceaselessly seek the unity of the spirit in the bonds of love. In all matters, when not of the same opinion, we will ‘ agree to differ, but re- solve to love.’ “This Congress advises that the churches should be known under a common name, the denomina- tional name being placed in a parenthesis follow- , ing, so that the name would read, ‘ The Evangelical Church of Brazil (Presbyterian), ‘The Evan- gelical Church of Brazil (Methodist),’ et cetera.” Roki) CHAPTER II THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK IN SOUTH AMERICA (Continued ) ERHAPS attention should be called sepa- rately to the findings regarding the Indians and the relation of the churches and Missions to social movements. In addition to a full report on the Indians prepared by one of the commissions, the Congress had the benefit of the experience of a number of workers among the Indians, including Mrs. W. C. Roe and Miss Edith Dabb and es- pecially the invaluable help of Dr. Horta Barbosa, of Brazil, who had been sent to the Congress by the Brazilian Government. Dr. Barbosa is one of the best representatives of Brazilian Comtism, a man of noble spirit and devotion, who endeared himself to everyone and who represents the finest attempt which any South American Government is making to deal with the difficult problem of the native Indian population. On the west coast there is in addition to this problem the equally difficult one of educating and developing the great mass of people of mixed blood with the Indian strain predomi- nant. The following are some of the findings on the subject of the Indians: “The Congress is impressed with the work being done by some of the Governments, notably that of Brazil, for the economic and social welfare of the 384 THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 3885 indigenous races. It feels strongly, however, the urgency of auxiliary work by evangelical agencies for the Indians, with a view to training them to become self-supporting and self-respecting citizens of their countries, and in order that they may share with their fellow men the full blessings of Chris- tianity. : | “ The Congress recommends that the regional Committees on Cooperation appoint Indian sub- committees which will work in close codperation with the Committee on Codperation in Latin America and with the Indian Commission which was recently organized in the United States. “'The Congress recommends that Mission cen- ters for work among the uncivilized Indians should be established at points to be determined as suitable by the regional committees, and that these centers should be adequately equipped for extending their service into the surrounding territory. “The Congress would recommend that mission- aries to the Indians, in the interests of understand- ing their problems as well as to win their confidence and be able to express effectively the Christian message, should: (a) acquire the native tongue; (b) where permitted by law, live among the people; (c) bear in mind that while industrial, medical, agricultural, educational, and social work are urgently necessary, the Indians’ fundamental prob- lems will not be permanently solved without help- ing them to a vital faith in Christ. “'The Congress would place upon the heart of the national churches the burden of responsibility 386 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL for Christian work on behalf of the Indian races, and would urge that they seek in this service an out- let for the consecrated activities of their young people.” As already stated there was a far more assured and adequate treatment of the social problem than at Panama or perhaps than has been the case in any conference thus far held in Asia or at home. A most instructive report was presented on the social movements now affecting South American life and at several sessions the Congress considered the question of the relation of the churches to these movements. A few of the findings will indicate the result: “The Congress would express its deep interest in all movements, tending toward the application of the principles of Christ, for the improvement of the physical, mental, moral, and social habits and standards of the members of the community and their environmental conditions and_ influences. There are many such movements seeking to raise the level of individual and community life. “Since Christ Himself made no unequal dis- tinctions between men and women, the evangelical forces should educate public opinion to stand squarely for equal rights and duties of men and women before the law, and for an equal standard of morality in its highest interpretation. “ Jesus calls us to a universal brotherhood; peace in industry and between the nations; economic se- curity for all; the uplift of the classes of society that lack opportunity; the awakening of the be- THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 387 lated races; the moral enrichment of all peoples by means of a free exchange of scientific and spiritual discoveries; the complete realization of our highest human possibilities. The realization of these ideals depends upon our making universal brotherhood a recognized and practical fact. The Congress there- fore calls on all Christian people to cleanse their hearts of all suspicion, all prejudice, and all selfish- ness; to begin now to treat all men as true brothers; to keep alive the spirit of good will in schools and churches; to oppose all forms of discord between national and international groups; to establish per- sonal contacts with men of different beliefs, dif- ferent social conditions, and national affiliations, so that there may be a leaven of brotherhood through- out the continent; to study sympathetically human activities in other lands, in order that understand- ing and knowledge may eliminate all suspicion and lack of confidence, and that in every land here represented there may be the development of a consciousness whose touchstone is the Golden Rule of Christ.” The unity of mind and spirit which came to characterize the Congress and which led it to adopt the findings in a full day’s discussion, with but few amendments and with practical unanimity, was the more remarkable when one considered the wide diversity of types of thought and experience and organization represented. Some one stated that he had made a list of at least thirty divergent trends of opinion and temper. All who have had to do with work in Latin America know that this observ- 388 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL er’s list was very conservative. At first, perhaps some feared that differences would prevail over unity but it was not so. ‘The spirit of unity gath- ered up all diversity into a richer whole and the last morning of the Congress was the happiest and best, ending with a notable address by Bishop McConnell, in which he drew attention to the underlying facts or assumptions of the Congress, that we are already one in spirit, that true Christi- anity and true knowledge belong together and that there can be no conflict between them, that the social program of Christianity is a natural and integral part of the gospel, that in the distinctive problems of South America the South American churches of course have to speak the determining word, that doctrinal differences are not to be al- lowed to thwart us, that our hope is in Christ and that He is to be found in the way of daily, stead- fast duty. Interlaced with the gravest problems of mission- ary policy which were discussed the Congress found and faced the deep problem of evangelical work in South America, the types of Christianity known to South America and desired or rejected by the people, the place of. mysticism and beauty in the worship of the churches, the attitude of the evan- gelical churches to the Roman Catholic Church, the social, individual, and spiritual problems of the Latin American nations. As a help in the under- standing of these problems, and especially in in- forming the delegates from North America and Europe regarding them, a number of representa- THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 389 tive men and women had been invited to the Con- gress, who, it was known, were in sympathy with the ideals for which the Congress stood, although some of these guests were members of the Roman Catholic Church and others were members of no church at all, such as Dr. Molino, Rector of the University of Concepcion in Chile, Senor and: Senora Salas Marchant and Dr. Cora Mayers, of Santiago, Dr. Ernesto Nelson, of Buenos Aires, and Dr. Barbosa, of Rio. One of the evening meet- ings was called “ The Evening of the Open Heart,” when these friends spoke with complete candor. At first some of the evangelical Church leaders were distrustful of this arrangement but they fol- lowed with an evening in which these evangelical leaders opened their hearts and by the end of the Congress I think all felt that the innovation had been well worth while and the visitors left with many expressions of affection from them and to them. It was clear that, whatever separated, there were deeper things that bound together. Among the side meetings of the Congress was one called by the nationals themselves to consider their attitude to the Roman Catholic Church and the matter of any deliverance regarding it. Some would have taken a very polemic position, and in- deed all recognized that whatever the attitude of the evangelical churches might be, the Roman Catholic Church as such would not look upon the evangelical churches otherwise than as outlawed schismatics and would have no relations of codpera- tion with them. On the beautiful verdure-clad hill 390 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL of Santa Lucia in the heart of Santiago can still be seen the tablet to the memory of the Protestant dead who have been buried there for half a century and who are described on the tablet as “ exiles from heaven and earth.’- Officially that is the attitude of the Roman Church in South America toward the evangelical churches and their members, whether native or alien. But many of the nationals at this little meeting pointed out that with Roman Cath- olics as individuals they were sustaining increasing relations of understanding and intimacy and that their evangelical position in South America was too assured to make it necessary for them to apologize for it or defend it. This is one of the true lessons which every one must have brought away from Montevideo, namely, first, the strength and power of the evangelical churches in South America, and secondly, the warrant and necessity for their power and work. A word may be said on each of these points. The evangelical churches of South America are an actual reality, a part of the present indigenous life of the republics, as truly at home and national as any other force or institution on the continent. According to the statistics of the World Missionary Atlas (1925) the Protestant churches in South America have a communicant membership of 122,- 266 with 2,006 clergy and other workers. ‘The atlas does not include the total number of Presby- terians in Brazil which, according to the churches’ reports, is 31,129 instead of 8,497. Adding the difference, 22,632, would make the total of Protes- THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 391 tant communicants, 144,898. The churches in the other Latin American countries of the Caribbean area have 65,146 members with 1,871 workers. If Jamaica and the British Lesser Antilles and Trini- dad, et cetera, were included, these islands would add 180,873 communicants and 2,217 workers. These are not to be included as Latin America, | however. In Latin America alone, accordingly, there are 210,044 Protestant communicants. The Congress bore striking witness to the growth and power of the Protestant movement in South America during the past two decades. In 1903, there were 750 missionaries on the continent; in 1924, 2,105; in 1908, 1,100 national ministers; in 1924, 2,306. In 1903, there were 32,000 communi- cants; in 1925, 144,898, with a total Protestant com- munity of 251,196. Since the Panama Congress in 1916, there has been marked advance. The number of organized churches has increased fifty per cent, from 856 to 1,263; the communicant membership has increased by nearly forty per cent. The largest advance has been made in Brazil; Argentina and Chile follow next. Numerically the Protestant Churches in Latin America are two thirds as strong as the Church of England in Canada or more than twice the Protestant Church in China at the end of the first ninety years of missionary work there among four times the popu- lation of Latin America. But the position of the evangelical Church in Latin America is not to be measured numerically. ‘Their influence, as in Japan, is out of all proportion to their present 392 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL numbers, and that influence is increasing every year. The late Dr. Jose Carlos Rodriguez, founder of the Jornal de Comercio of Rio and one of the most influential leaders of Brazil, who de- voted the last years of his life to writing a great book on the Bible, once remarked to a visitor, to whom he was describing the dire needs of his coun- try: “And yet I see a hope but I am almost ashamed to tell you where it is. It is in the Protes- tant churches which are multiplying in my land.” “In our moral fight for temperance and purity,” said the outstanding leader of reform in another South American country during our visit, “the Protestant churches are our greatest religious ally.” In Brazil alone the communicants of the evangelical churches number nearly 70,000, with more than double this number of adherents, and with more than 60,000 children in the Sunday schools. The name of these churches stands for probity and character. And no one could see the Brazilian delegation at Montevideo and fail to realize that these churches and their leaders are entitled to a full place in the councils of the Churches of the world. To treat them or to think of them as intruders is sheer presumption. ‘They are as natural and as lawful in Latin America as the Roman Catholic Church, and no small part of the hope of Latin America for the future is in them. The second clear impression received at Monte- video, and at the regional congresses in Rio and Buenos Aires and Santiago which preceded and followed the continental congress, is that Latin THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 393 America needs and welcomes the forces represented by the evangelical churches. ‘The need is beyond exaggeration. Dr. Nelson told the Congress plainly that the Christian Churches came to South America under a_ discredited banner. South America had learned to identify Christianity with the institution of the Church and had rejected both. This is true of a large section of the population. | And that is in itself a revelation of the need of what Paul calls “ Christ’s gospel” in Latin America. These nations are facing all the destructive political ideas of the modern world. Argentina has a prob- lem of immigrant assimilation and agrarian re- adjustment and Chile a problem of economic and social evolution and Peru and Bolivia a problem of popular education as grave as any nations in the world have to consider. ‘The whole continent faces acute problems of physical and moral health and well-being. It needs all agencies of help which it can secure. And it welcomes them. It is a curi- ous fact that the only unfriendly and inhospitable words about the Congress of which we heard were in a British paper and an American magazine in Buenos Aires. From every Latin American ele- ment, the Governments, the press, the people, only a hearty welcome was given to the Congress and all for which it stood. And perhaps the heartiest words of all were spoken by the president of one of the leading South American republics. The Congress began far more than it concluded. It called for a long list of codperative services to be provided for directly by the Committee on 394 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Coéperation in Latin America or by that commit- tee indirectly through the regional committees on the field, three of which at least are already doing good work, led by the Brazil Committee. This committee is under the guidance of Sefior Krasmo Braga, who, with four languages at his command and with rare grace and wisdom, presided over the Congress at Montevideo and demonstrated the capacity of the leadership already developed in the evangelical centers in South America. In other words, this Congress, which was in the hands of the nationals of South America, instead of suggesting that the era of foreign missionary help was over, called for more of it than ever and gave indisput- able evidence that such help offered in the true spirit of equal brotherhood and service is more desired than ever before. And it also proved that this help is deserved and may issue soon in South America in the full development of great national bodies fitted to render in South America the same sort of service rendered by the evangelical Churches in Europe and in the United States and Canada. Nobody will profit more by this service than the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America. “ The difficulty with the Roman Catholic Church in South America,” the ablest bishop in one of the South American countries is said to have remarked, “ is that here the Church is like a rich man’s son. In the United States, it has had to work for its living. Look at the difference!’ ‘There is every reason why the Churches of Great Britain and the United States should follow their sons who go to South THE CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN WORK 395 America and try to hold them to the Christian faith and character. It is appalling to see how easily Christianity falls away from our young men when they go abroad. The Anglican and Union Churches which are seeking to serve and help these men deserve a far more adequate support. And whatever reason exists for the Churches in Great Britain and the United States to look after their own sons in South America is vital also as a reason for them to help the evangelical Churches of South America in their effort to bring the Christ of life and power, not of the manger and the crucifix alone, but also of the resurrection, to the place of leadership in the great struggle which is going on in Latin America. Dat aad Nek: CHAPDE Rat iL THE OPENING AND CLOSING MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO HE first session of the Congress on Christian Work in South America was held on Sunday afternoon, March 29, in the large terraced sun parlor of the Pocitos Hotel, where the whole Con- gress lived together for nearly a fortnight. There is dispute as to whether Montevideo is on the Rio de la Plata or on the seacoast. Perhaps it is on both. At any rate the delegates looked out from their meeting room over the Atlantic waters tinged by the yellow flood of the Plata. A white lght- house glistened in the sun on a little island miles away and the soft winds blew in from the sea. Bishop Oldham and Dr. Drees, the veteran of the Methodist Mission in Latin America, conducted the devotional services and then Dr. Erasmo Braga made the opening address. Dr. Braga is the leader of the evangelical forces in Brazil. He isa son of devoted old evangelical parents still living, a graduate of Mackenzie College, a former teacher in the Campinas gymnasium or state college and also in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Campinas, now secretary of the Committee of Codperation of the Evangelical Churches and Mis- sions in Brazil, and the trusted friend of the best men in the intellectual and moral life of Brazil. 396 MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO 397. The following day of the Congress he was unani- mously chosen its presiding officer and this Sunday afternoon he spoke the first words. He exhorted everyone to put all his heart and confidence into the work before them. “The besetting sin of South America,” said Dr. Braga, “is pessimism. Without question one of the great problems for which a solution must be found is this spirit of despair and distrust. It is a sin alike against God and humanity. It is not a minor evil; it is one of the greatest of sins. We of this Congress should realize that we are great sinners unless we face our problems in the spirit of trust in God and con- fidence in the future progress of the human race. Without a doubt, a lack of trust and confidence in humankind is a contributing cause of the jealousy and suspicion which so often in the past have broken out into open hostility between nations and races. On the other hand, those who have been in the thick of the struggle for the advance of humanity have been men who have been able to maintain their confidence in God and in their fel- low men. It is in such a spirit of trust and con- fidence that this Congress proposes to face the vital problems of South America. Pessimism shall have no place in our councils.” Dr. John Mackay, of Lima, was the next to address the members of the Congress and he awakened an enthusiastic response by declaring that South America has come to the springtime of its national life. Xverywhere evidences are to be seen that the long winter has passed and that the 398 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL spring is at hand, emphasized Dr. Mackay. In the coming of this new life the representatives of the evangelical Churches with their increasing empha- sis on education and social movement have had a very real part. “Paul the apostle, if he were living to-day, would most certainly be a missionary,” the speaker said. In this statement he took issue with EK. Re- nan who fifty years ago asserted that Paul of our time would not be a missionary. “ When in the world’s history has there been greater need for Paul’s gospel of reconciliation and good will than to-day? It is for the spread of this gospel that Christian missions in South America stand. Those who are enlisted in the missionary enterprise have reason for hope and encouragement. God is in South American life in a new way. Evidence of this is to be found in the way in which young peo- ple are everywhere devoting themselves altruisti- cally to the service of humanity, working with de- votion and enthusiasm for popular enlightenment and uplift. Many of these young people do not know themselves as Christians but they have been moved by what is the essential spirit of the gospel and they will sooner or later find themselves in ac- cord with those instrumentalities which are doing the work of Christ in South America. Another evidence to the same effect is to be found in the new interest in social movements and more especially a new hunger for personal fellowship. The study of metaphysics and philosophical theory no longer satisfies as it once did. Men long to find friend- MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO 399 ship, and yearn for an assurance that the Spirit of the universe is a Friend and Companion. ‘The modern interest in spiritism is a testimony to this same longing for personal fellowship. Conver- sions to the Christian life, striking cases of which can be related by every missionary, are another evi- dence of the presence of God’s Spirit among us. Still another evidence is to be seen in the Con- gress which meets here to-day. We are here,” said Dr. Mackay, “not for what we can get but for what we can give. We are here not through selfish interest in any institution. Too long reli- gion has been interpreted in terms of an institu- tion and in terms of dogma. The _ by-prod- ucts of religion have long been looked upon as the real thing. It is criminal in South America to accentuate mere denominational differences. 'Too long have jealousies and suspicions prevailed among the peoples of this continent. Behind in- stitutions, creeds, and services, there is a new life that gives the best results in all endeavors, whether civic, political, social, or religious, and it is in this new life that we find our hope for the future.” In this address Dr. Mackay anticipated a mes- sage which he gave later, in which many thought he struck the keynote of the conference, when he said that we should love the living, loving Christ, we should love one another, and accept the full con- sequences of such allegiance and love. “ Our mes- sage is to be prophetic rather than sacerdotal: the living word of the living Christ to living man, the essence of Christianity being not a rite or a creed, 400 MODERN .MISSIONS IN BRAZIL but communion with the living God and service of men as our brothers, growing out of the inspira- tion and fellowship of that communion.” Both of these addresses laid deep hold upon the Congress. Dr. Braga spoke in his native lan- guage, Portuguese, and Dr. Mackay in Spanish. Dr. Mackay is a missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, the section that refrained from the union of the old Free and United Presbyterian Churches. He studied at Princeton and learned Spanish in Spain. One of the delegates from Spain was carried away by his address. “ I never knew,” said he, “that a foreigner could speak with such elo- quence in Spanish.” But it was not eloquence only; it was moral and spiritual power, as Dr. Mackay set forth the likeness of South America to the almond blossoms of the spring of Jeremiah’s vision, with its promise of the rich fruitage to fol- low when the time of gathering shall have come in the day that is both sure and near. The company of three hundred who faa gath- ered for the conference from three continents went out with new hope and confidence in their hearts and gathered again in the evening for the opening English address by Dr. Speer. “ Christianity,” said he, “is a religion which is always fearlessly and unrelentingly criticizing it- self. If Christianity is what those who profess it believe it to be, it presents to men in Christ an absolute ideal and in the gospel of Christ the ulti- mate revelation. It follows of necessity that our attainment of this ideal and our comprehension of MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO 401 this revelation must be imperfect as yet. ‘There- fore, we must be forever summoning ourselves to higher doctrines and to fuller knowledge. But while we are dissatisfied with and doubtful about ourselves, we are sure about Christ and His gospel. The imperfection is not in Him, but in our appre- hension of Him. What we need is simply a better explanation of Christianity, that we may lay human life open to admit more of the power and truth which we possess in Christianity but have not drawn on and made use of in life. “We are here to push out the limits of our life and thought. We are not to add anything to Christ and the truth that has come in Him, but we are to make fresh discoveries in this truth and new demands upon this power. Christianity does not flinch from such fresh examinations. 'The more we subject it to the tests of life and the world the more we discover that what is needed is there. “We are here in this Congress to discover how rich and varied the Christian gospel is. Many aspects of it are to be brought into view, and we shall find them not in conflict, but in accord, supple- menting each the other. We shall see Jesus Christ shining as the Lord of life and the Light of society and nations. We shall bring out the power in Christianity to work miracles in this day. We shall make room for those who work on the prem- ises which are fundamental, in a religion which makes the normal growth up from childhood its first endeavor even more than the recovery of broken manhood. We shall see the social principle 402 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL as a vital element and recognize that Jesus Christ came not to lose but to save the world. We must draw out the law of brotherhood which does not destroy but fulfill and consecrate the law of nation- ality and race. We shall see the new values which emerge from a return to the earliest conception of Christianity as a way of life. We shall discover the meaning of the doctrine of the resurrection as a principle of life and power before which any- thing that ought to be becomes possible. And we shall discover the one hope for the world in Jesus Christ as the real head of men and nations, the one world emperor. ‘“ And this is not a correction or enlargement of Christianity. It is simply the discovery of what is already there and waits to be drawn out and made use of now in South and North America alike, and in all the world.” It was thus that the Congress opened. Nine days of conference followed, and then on Tuesday even- ing, April 7, and Wednesday morning, April 8, the Congress came to a close, but not to an end. On the last morning the Congress came together with the cool winds of the South American autumn blowing up from the Antarctic. The sunlight poured in through all the glass walls and shone on the great bunches of pink and yellow flowers. ‘The surf broke musically under the windows and the white lighthouse glistened in the morning sun across the sea. The hearts of all had been closely knit together during the fortnight gone and shadows of regret fell across the joy of the last MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO 408 hours together. Dr. Drees led the devotional hour, speaking in Spanish, of course, on the thirteenth chapter of John, with the map of South America hanging behind him and representing the call of those whom Christ would have more truly served. Then came a prayer to O altissimo Dios y nuestro Padre, ““O Jloftiest God and our own Father,” and the Spanish hymns, “Cantad Alegres al Senor” and “ Despliegue el Cristiano Su Santa Bandera.” The findings of the Congress had been adopted on the preceding day but two more resolutions were now presented, one urging the development of the regional codperative committees like the one which had done such efficient work in Brazil, and the other sending the greetings of the South American Congress to the Congress of the Caribbean Sea countries to be held in Mexico or Havana in the summer of 1926. ‘Then Mr. Inman presented the facts regarding the membership of the Congress, and spoke of the work of the Committee on Co- operation in Latin America which represents all the Boards and which had prepared for the Monte- video Congress. And Mr. Tallon, of Argentina, rose and expressed in behalf of the South Ameri- can delegates and for the Congress their gratitude to the Committee on Cooperation for all that it had done. Then followed mention by one after another of some of those who had been at the Panama Con- ference in 1916 or had served Latin America and were now gone: Sr. Eduardo Carlos Pereira, of 404 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Brazil, Dr. A. W. Halsey, Bishop Homer C. Stuntz, Bishop Walter A. Lambuth, Dr. A. Mc- Lean, of the United States, and Mr. Wolf, of Peru. Mr. Caudier, the delegate of the French evan- gelical Churches, told of the joy it was to them to have these closer relationships with the Churches of America, North and South, and Sr. Araujo, of Spain, spoke for the Spanish delegates of their new realization of the community of the problems of the evangelical Churches in all the Spanish-speaking world. Then everybody thanked everybody with overflowing love and good cheer and the whole group melted together in the sense of a real unity, the unity of common problems, common duties, common difficulties, common aims, common mo- tives, and one common Master. All this had been absolutely unpremeditated, and in the same open family confidence. Dr. Ernesto Nelson, of Buenos Aires, rose to speak for the little group of men and women who had attended the Congress because they were in sympathy with the spirit and ideals of the evangelical movement in South America though they themselves had not yet become identified with it. Many of them, he said, were educators and they realized that their work was incomplete and vain without the things repre- sented in the Congress. Senhorita Corina Bar- reiros, of Rio de Janeiro, followed with words of gratitude in behalf of the women of Brazil and of all South America for what the Congress and the North American women in the conference had already meant to them and would mean in the future. MEETINGS AT MONTEVIDEO 405 The Congress was nearing its close and, before calling on the last speaker, Sr. Krasmo Braga spoke his farewell words as chairman. 'The Con- gress had already expressed its love for him and its admiration of the ability and skill and grace and wisdom with which he had guided the gathering from the first to the last. “ Perhaps,” he said, “there are some of us who when we came doubted the warrant of the Congress. ‘Would it not be better,’ we thought, “to spend the cost of the Con- gress on the work instead of meeting for talk and paper resolutions?’ All these doubts had been swept away, especially in the unity of the consider- ation of the findings on the preceding day. The Congress represented real moral and _ spiritual forces. ‘These were the great need of South Amer- ica. Its curse was officialism. It needed private persons with moral enthusiasm to carry forward the movements essential to South America’s life. Here they had come to the great central things, especially to the cross. ‘The place around the cross is big enough for all of us but not for our preju- dices and distrusts. We are to bring our hearts and all the world to stand with us around the cross. The heart of Christ is not dead. It is alive. And here we are to live —all of us in and about the cross of Christ.” | Then Bishop McConnell spoke the final words. As he ended, Sr. Erasmo rose once again to say: ‘Now we have cleared for action. Into action let us go. And the first action is prayer. The women have called us to this in the league which they have begun here of the evangelical women of South 406 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL America for prayer for Christ’s supremacy in our continent.” And we sang in many languages but with one tune and one heart, “ Bless be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love,” Bishop Oldham pronounced the benediction, and the Congress closed. But it did not end. ‘‘ Father,” said a little boy to his father as the sermon came to a close, “is the sermon done?” “ No, my son,” said the father. “It has been said but it is not done. It is for you and me to do it.” Re Bee CHAPTER IV MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK IN SOUTH AMERICA HE medical profession is one of the most honored callings in South America and many of the most useful and conspicuous of its public men have been physicians. In the great cemetery at Buenos Aires there is a monument to Dr. Raw- son with two bronze bas-reliefs, one showing Raw- son in the clinic, the other in the legislative hall. Doctors also are among the leading teachers in the schools, quite apart from the medical schools. In- deed, one of the drawbacks, in the judgment of some, in the way of the largest usefulness of the medical profession is its use by so many men as a means to something else or as an avocation rather than life’s controlling occupation. On the other hand, there are many great physicians and students who have served their profession and humanity in noble measure. One has only to mention Oswaldo Cruz, Miguel Pereira, Vital Brasil, and Carlos Chagas to show what is the contribution of the Brazilian medical profession alone ‘to the world. In some of the South American countries also there are great and well-equipped hospitals and good medical schools. Many of their graduates have also taken medical courses in Kurope. And there is great interest in public health and sanita- 407 408 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL tion and especially in the war against tuberculosis and venereal disease and infant mortality. Many men of courage and devotion are giving their time to these undertakings. ‘The need for the work that they are doing and for its immediate enlargement is immense. Chagas, of Brazil, says that Rio has the greatest death rate from tuberculosis of any of the great cities of the world, and Dr. Pera, of Chile, told us that of the great death rate in Chile twenty-four per cent was due to syphilis and — twenty per cent to tuberculosis. The whole situation was surveyed in one of the reports presented at the Congress on Christian Work in Montevideo, March 29 to April 8, and it can best be set forth perhaps in a summary of some of the statements in that report: Brazil. — ““ We must confess that we have few hospitals worthy of mention. Our principal hos- pital, the Santa Casa, is an old, out-of-date struc- ture, built in an epoch when there was a complete ignorance of modern medical practice. Hygiene, microscopy, antisepsis, and the like, were not even known as names. ‘The best hospital in existence is the San Francisco de Assisi, a more or less model one, yet installed in a building erected for other purposes and but imperfectly adapted to the care of the sick. There is not a single hospital for children in Brazil. There are two hospitals for contagious diseases: one for tubercular women in a building erected for this purpose, well located but inadequate for local needs, much less for patients outside of Rio; and another for general contagious MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 409 diseases, in which there is a pavilion for tubercular men. In addition to these there is a hospital for lepers, wholly inadequate. ‘There is a maternity hospital in Rio, but this is also too small. ‘There are, of course, many well-installed and well-con- ducted private sanitariums and hospitals, but these are,in the. cities., In. general: terms; it) ‘can be affirmed that there is a sad lack of good hospital service throughout Brazil.” “ Dr. Thwing in his report on medical conditions in South America remarked that one hospital in Sao Paulo designed for five hundred patients was at the time of his visit used by eight hundred. He found another hospital with three tiers of patients. “One tier lay on the floor beneath the ordinary beds; one occupied the ordinary beds; and one lay on the second deck of the double-decked cots.’ ” Argentina and Uruguay.— “ Drs. Mayo and Martin made an official visit of inspection and com- mented as follows: ‘Some of the hospitals were deficient in modern plumbing. ... Two defects evident in nearly all the hospitals visited and which appealed to us as rather easy to remedy were the lack of screening against flies, mosquitoes, and other insects and of a well-organized system of nursing. The latter was freely admitted by our hosts. “In Uruguay, the Hospital Maciel at Monte- video is certainly one of the largest in the republic, yet its hundreds of rooms have no screens. Its 1 Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics, April-August, 1920, pp. 10. r] 410 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL wards are always crowded and some of them are in- adequate. The sisters who are in charge of the nurs- ing are supposed to refrain from religious propa- ganda, unless requested; but strange things are heard of their practice in this regard. Scanning the résumé of the movement within the public hos- pitals in Uruguay for any one month, one is apt to conclude that registers are not always carefully kept, especially in the provinces. There is but one nurses’ training school in the country, poorly equipped at present, but with a fine future before it. The Pereira-Rossell, under the Asistencia Publica of the Government, is well located and quite well equipped. But what may be found true in this or any other South American metropolis should not lead one to assume equal progress out in the provinces. It is practically axiomatic that all progress is initiated, all show places are to be found, in the capitals. where visehttle song in the writer’s mind that the situation in provincial Argentina, far from en- couraging in towns under 50,000, and hopeless in the remoter districts, will greatly improve in the next two decades. ‘The other large cities besides Buenos Aires are more or less served from a hos- pital standpoint; but how discouraging it is to read that in the vast province of Santa Fe there are only four or five municipal hospitals, two of which are in Rosario. The remaining hospitals of this province probably do not exceed a dozen, though the popu- lation of Santa Fe Province is 1,000,000. Ex- cluding from the list of Argentine hospitals those MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 411 of the Federal District and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, and Santa Fe, we find that the remaining eleven provinces and the territories are served by only about one hundred. ‘The great area of Argentina makes this number quite inadequate, to say nothing of the frontier neglect already men- tioned.”’ Chile. — “Sr. Oscar A. Gacuita writes: ‘In 1911 there were 98 hospitals in the country; in 1915, 107. These were maintained by grants in aid by the Government, and by municipal and private sub- scriptions. In spite of the increase, however, the agencies at present in operation cannot adequately attend to the needs of the people, and many are daily turned away from their doors. There is room to make mention of the splendid clinics which have been established in the principal hospitals in Santiago . . . where the most delicate operations are performed without cost to the patient... . The hospitals are managed by the Benevolent Com- mittee who in the main are members of the Con- servative and pro-Catholic party, and the care of the patients is given over to the nursing sisters.’ ”’ Peru. — “ President Thwing writes: ‘A physi- cian, visiting in Cuzco, said that the hospital found in that little city is about as deplorable a remnant of the medieval ages as can be found on the entire continent.’ Dr. Johnson adds, ‘In my estimation local hospitals are an absolute necessity.’ ”’ Bolivia. — ‘“‘ From the sanitary standpoint the field is untouched; its surface has not even been 412 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL scratched! In spite, however, of this desperate situation, there is a small nucleus of people in La Paz at present who are beginning to have some idea of social welfare.” Ecuador. — “ One. visitor to Ecuador describes a visit to a hospital in which he was warned not to approach the beds of the patients too closely on account of the vermin with which they were in- fested. ‘ Hospital facilities in Guayaquil are very poor and the hospitals, such as they are, are badly overcrowded with malaria. At the time the hos- pital was visited, a row of mattresses extended down the middle of the floor, each containing a malaria patient.” Mr. E. S. Gilmore, Superintendent of the Wes- ley Hospital in Chicago and President of the American Hospital Association, remarked at the Congress in Montevideo that during his visit to South America he had seen some hospitals as good as any and some that were the worst he had ever seen, and that the fault was not with the doctors but with the lack in South America of the trained nursing profession as it is known in the United States and Canada and Europe. We need to re- member that this profession is new with us. The Rockefeller Foundation has established in one of the best hospitals in Rio a training school which is lifting the whole standard of nursing and which it is hoped may mark the beginning of a new day in medical work in South America, where the sur- geons are capable but where there is a lack of proper preoperative and postoperative care. MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 413 But the vast majority of the people are out of the reach of hospitals and the care of competent doctors. ‘The hospitals are in the large cities and the doctors also concentrate there. Also the masses of the poor are in need, especially the poor children. Chile is one of the most enlightened and energetic of the South American countries but its conditions of sanitation and mortality are probably the worst in South America. One of the most experienced and devoted women in Chile set forth the conditions in a paper which she presented to the Regional Conference on Christian Work in Santiago, April 21-26: “We live in a land of lofty mountains, whose snows are glistening white in their purity, and of deep, dark valleys with treacherous sides. “We live in a country whose climate is wonder- ful beyond compare, whose people are of a strong and sturdy stock, but whose population is deci- mated by plagues and disease. “We live in a country that has the highest birth rate in the world, but alongside stands the awful specter of the highest infant mortality. “We live in a land whose cities have finely equipped hospitals and whose doctors stand high in their profession, but where the people of the vil- Jages are at the mercy of charlatans. “We have the carefully cared-for mother with nurses and doctors and every comfort that money can buy. We have the poor woman with neither nurse nor doctor, nor a bed to lie upon. The follow- ing will explain this statement: 414 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL “A few years ago the wife of the governor of Valparaiso visited the maternity hospital of that city and published a description of what she saw, in one of the daily papers. “She said that every bed in the free ward was occupied. At one bed there was a woman sitting at one end who had just been delivered of a child, at the other end a woman waiting for the bed, which was occupied by a woman in labor, until it should be available for her. The governor’s wife made an appeal to the public and more beds were added. ‘To one of the Mission dispensaries a woman took her baby with its navel in a very bad con- dition. She was asked if she had had her confine- ment in a maternity hospital. Her answer was, ‘No.’ “You had a midwife?’ ‘No.’ * Some neighbor took care of you?’ ‘No. Then in reply to the surprised look of the missionary, she said, ‘I had no one with me but my little girl of eight who passed me a basin of warm water.’ “There are large families of healthy, happy children and there are mothers who bear children only to bury them. Ignorance, poverty, alcohol- ism, and the dreadful scourge of venereal disease all have their part in putting out the little flame of life. I knew a woman who used to have a fine robust baby in a box by her side as she washed. One day, missing the baby, I asked for it. ‘It died,’ was her answer. ‘What was the matter?’ “Tt had an attack.’ ‘ Is it the first child that you have lost?’ ‘ No, eight have died.’ MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 415 ‘We live in a land of splendid universities but where the law of compulsory education cannot be enforced for lack of buildings and teachers. ‘We live in a land where children by thousands are gathered into asylums, offsprings of illegiti- macy. But who goes to hamlet and tenement to teach the girls to guard their honor? ‘We live in a land where vice is made easy for the man but where the woman who is a mother but cannot call herself a wife is abandoned or cared for at the caprice of the father of her child. ‘We live in a land of fabulous wealth and ab- ject poverty. In the nitrate deserts of the north, in the waving wheat fields of the south, in the underground treasure house of the mines, are the mighty masters of industry, who often in a few years have amassed fortunes from the heart blood of their workmen. “ We live in a land where there is true patriotism and love to fellow man but where the odds are so great against these apostles of better things that their figures stand out like the Christ of the Andes, solitary and alone. “The hacendado says, ‘ If I give decent houses to my workmen, they will still live like pigs and spend their wages in drink.’ Has anyone taught them better and does not he himself make and sell to them the wine and spirits that they drink? “The doctor says that if I tell a woman in a tenement to give her sick child a hot bath, she will not do it. Perhaps she cannot. To illustrate this the following case might be cited of a mother in a 416 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Mission dispensary. When handing her her baby, just bathed and sweet and clean in fresh clothing, the nurse said: ‘ Now you bathe your baby your- self every day. You can use your bates (a wooden trough used for -washing). ‘But I have none, Senora.’ *’Then use your washbasin.’ ‘I have not that either.’ ‘ Get a paraffin tin and cut it length- wise. ‘ Yes, but that costs money.’ ““Many of the babies die at time of weaning. The mother gives the child the breast just as long as there is a drop. That does not cost money. Then the child is given just whatever there is, bread, black coffee, beans, et cetera, not always because the mother knows no better but because there is no money to buy anything else. But why is there no money? It is an awful circle. The man drinks because he is poor and sick, and he is poor and sick because he drinks. ‘The family lives in a squalid room because they can pay for no better. The father drinks to drown his misery. The mother is hopeless and does not try to make things better. The children who manage to live early learn to fend for themselves, and so begins another circle.”’ | The Congress in Montevideo considered these facts and adopted the following findings regarding medical missions and health ministry in South America: “While recognizing the existence in some cities of good hospitals, well-trained physicians, and modern clinical facilities, we recognize the need of providing such health service in rural and other MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 417 districts. Christ healed, taught, and preached. Can we afford to omit one of the means which He used? Why should medical work be established in South America? Because tens of thousands of lepers on this continent challenge Christianity; because huge tracts in some republics are without a medical man; because many towns have no med- ical attendance, or, at best, the visit of a physician once or twice a year; because in a city of approxi- mately a million inhabitants there is no children’s hospital or special care for tubercular patients; because, in at least one country, six out of ten chil- dren die before reaching the age of two years. “In order to help to remedy these conditions, it is recommended that there should be put into the field, under interdenominational auspices, a highly trained medical and health specialist for the fol- lowing purposes: to make a thorough study of medical and health conditions on the South Ameri- can continent; to formulate a farseeing, compre- hensive policy and program of development in health education on the basis of the study made; to serve as expert adviser on these matters to the Church Boards; to codperate with the national health forces in extending their program and propaganda to the neglected masses, to train the missionary forces on the field for the work of health education, and to foster the training of evangelical nationals for the service of health pro- motion. “It is suggested that a committee be appointed to confer with representatives of the Rockefeller 418 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Foundation working along the line of nurses’ train- ing in Rio de Janeiro, with reference to the codp- eration of the evangelical forces in extending such training of nurses to other centers and regions. “It is urged that the several Mission Boards, independent of any joint action, study thoroughly their respective fields and resources with reference to their responsibility for the extension of medical and health service. “The Congress is glad to have heard that repre- sentatives have been appointed in South America by the American Mission to Lepers, and recom- mends that evangelical workers throughout the continent cooperate with this institution and fur- nish it with all the information available.” At present there are only two medical mission- aries in South America, Dr. W. W. Wood in Ponte Nova, Brazil, and Dr. McCormick in Lima, Peru. There are also a few dispensaries and clinics for the poor and for mothers and babies. No one can watch these poor women and the little ones, as in the “ Madre y Hijo” dispensaries in Santiago, without a heavy heart. Work like this might be multiplied tenfold in South America and the need would still be pressing. It is true that there are difficulties in the way of foreign medical missions in South America, just as there are in the way of foreign doctors practicing in the United States, but experience has shown that in some countries these can be overcome by wise and unselfish men, and there would be no difficulty except financial anywhere in the way of such work MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK 419 as the national evangelical doctors are doing in the Evangelical Hospital in Rio, the only hospital of its kind in South America and the oldest piece of cooperative work in Brazil. In the past, medical missionary work has, with a very few exceptions, not been a part of the mis- sionary enterprise in South America, but the Con- gress at Montevideo was convinced that such work is as warranted and as necessary in the neglected areas of South America as anywhere else, and that it would commend and manifest the gospel and meet with as eager welcome as it has already done if it refrains from all competition with the work of the South American doctors and seeks only to supple-- ment that work by caring for the great multitudes now neglected. Re bcs? CHAPTER V IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA AND THE MISSIONARY WORK THERE HE delegates from the United States to the Congress on Christian Work in South America, held in Montevideo, March 29 to April 8, 1925, after leaving the Congress attended the meet- ings of the regional conferences in Buenos Aires and Santiago and then sailed from Valparaiso on April 29. Before reaching Montevideo they had at- tended the meeting of the Brazilian Conference of the Evangelical Churches and Missions at Rio and had come from Rio overland to Sao Paulo, the sec- ond city in Brazil, to see Mackenzie College and the other evangelical work in this great center of the coffee trade. The delegation had had opportunity accordingly to see something of conditions in four of the South American countries, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. There were, moreover, six specialized groups in our delegation, representing education, medicine and hygiene, literature and publication, women’s work of all types, the Indians, and general evangelistic work and Mission policy. Each of these groups was expected in each land to study its special field for the benefit of all the dele- gation, and each one had unusual opportunities for doing so, receiving a cordial and hospitable wel- come everywhere and from everyone. Two days 420 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA 421 after leaving Valparaiso the deputation was to divide, part returning directly to the United States, but the larger part to visit Bolivia and Peru, leav- ing the steamship Santa Elisa at Antofagasta and going from there to La Paz and Cuzco and Are- quipa by rail. It seemed desirable to crown the daily meetings held on the Southern Cross, which the deputation had held on their way from New York to Brazil, with a closing meeting on the Santa Elisa to gather up the fresh impressions of the two months. These impressions were stated very freely, but those who spoke did so with the declaration that they had not had time to weigh their Judgments and review all their experiences and would not wish their first impressions to be regarded as final. Accordingly, in seeking to give a summary of what was said as we sailed along the high Andean ranges with the long swell of the southern Pacific rocking the ship, it will be fairer not to quote the names of the speakers. But it may be well to state who they were. Not all found time to speak but those who did speak from each group were the following: (1) Education. Dr. Frank K. Sanders, formerly president of Washburn College and dean of the Yale Divinity School, now Secretary of the Board of Missionary Preparation; Prof. D. J. Fleming, of Union Theological Seminary; Prof. Hl. A. Holmes, of the University of New York; Prof. W. W. Sweet, of De Pauw University; Dr. Wade C. Barclay, of the Sunday School Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. (2) Medicine and 422 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Hygiene. Mr. K. S. Gilmore, President of the American Hospital Association and Superintend- ent of the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Chicago, and Dr. Max J. Exner, Secretary of the American Association of Social Hygiene. (38) Literature and Publication. Dr. Orts Gonzales, Editor of La Nueva Democracia. (4) Women’s Work and Young Women’s Christian Association. Mrs. Francis J. McConnell, Mrs. Robert E. Speer, Mrs. James S. Cushman, Mrs. D. J. Fleming. (5) Indians. Mrs. Walter H. Roe and Miss Edith Dabb. (6) General Problems. Bishop EF. J. McConnell, Dr. S. G. Inman, Mrs. R. A. Doan, Rev. Albert E. Day, of Canton, Ohio, and Mr. F. P. Turner, Secretary of the Conference of the Foreign Mission Boards of North America. These were the friendly and sympathetic visitors whose first and unreviewed impressions it may be worth while to record. There were other delegates to the Congress of course, not on our ship. “My first impression,” began one of the edu- eational group, “is of the many good men here in South America with whom we ought to work. Of course we met the best and the most friendly men in Government, education, and public life, and per- haps we had exceptional opportunities of access, but I wonder whether our missionary work might not draw closer to these men and help them and be helped by them. We were greatly impressed by their quality and their spirit and aims. For the most part they are already aloof from the Roman Catholic Church and their ideals of freedom and IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA 423 progress are in close accord with ours. We ought to be working together now more than we are.” “My interest,” said the next speaker, “was primarily in the Indians, and one sees at once the lack of integration in the whole problem. The character and status of the Indian differs in the different countries. Some of these countries have a true conception of the problem and are earnestly dealing with it and elsewhere it is conceived in a totally inadequate way. In some cases the dis- tinctness of the problem is realized and elsewhere it isnot. As you go home will you not turn atten- tion to this problem of at least 10,000,000 Indians in South America? ”’ “What we have seen,” remarked the third speaker, “ shows that in this work persons count. The personal touch means more than anything else. Impersonally our problems are much the same. The problem is one of persons. And the persons here are now accessible to the right persons from without or within. In each country there are some leaders awake to the social and religious problems. As we think and speak of South America at home we must keep in mind these men and women in whose leadership there is great hope.” “It was a revelation to me,” said one of the women, “to feel the touch of the women of Chile and a few other women with the human problem. They were thinking and feeling with the best women of all lands. But then there were few such women, and there was a great gulf between them and the mass of women. ‘They feel keenly the 424 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL smallness of their numbers and some of them are discouraged, but there are able and trusted leaders who will not lose heart, like Madam Mesquita, of Brazil, Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean poetess, and Dona Eudalia, of the Club de Senoras, and Senora Elena Oliveira de Castro, of the National Council of Women in Santiago. Also, I was dis- tressed at our Protestant neglect of beauty in our bare worship and our poor, barren churches. Protestantism at home has been very negligent of the right and use of beauty and it has been even more so here. Of course most of the people of our evangelical churches are poor and their houses are bare, and it is quite true that much of the Roman Catholic Church adornment is tawdry and ugly and not beautiful, but Nature is beautiful here and the Spanish tradition has so many elements of beauty in it that I wonder if we could not make more of it.” “TI have the same feeling,’ replied another woman. “ The Government and Roman Catholic school buildings which we have seen were so much more beautiful than our Mission schools. Why do we sacrifice color and beauty so for our Puritan barrenness? I want to get pictures and beautiful adornments for our schools. I don’t believe we use beauty enough in the cultivation of the soul.” “Women have been gaining their rights steadily in South America,’ added the former speaker. “In Chile under the new laws women now control their own property and have equal control of the children. In Argentina, however, we were told IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA 425 that three quarters of a wife’s earnings can be taken to pay her husband’s debts.” “As to the hospitals,” said one of the medical group, “ I have seen some of the best and some of the worst I have ever seen; some that would com- pare with our best at home and some that are be- yond all condemnation, with wretched sanitation and with shameless crowding. ‘The doctors are good but the great weakness is a lack of nurses. In consequence there is no competent postoperative care. ‘The great need is for the development of a trained nursing profession such as the Rockefeller Foundation is helping to develop in Rio. And poor nurses are due in fact to the attitude of South America to women. The doctors do not regard women as equal or efficient. There is no greater need in South America than for nurses and nursing schools. I can’t conceive of a more powerful Christian agency than a company of nurses.” “We have had an enlarging experience,” said the next speaker. “It is a good discipline to try to come into sympathetic understanding with a con- tinent. As for me, I go back with a far greater hope than ever before. The problems of social health are more even than I had supposed. The price which South America is paying in prevent- able sex diseases is colossal. But there are true leaders and real movements under way to deal with these evils. In Chile they have now a law requir- ing a certificate from a state examiner of good health on the part of both parties before civil mar- riage. These countries are looking for the best 426 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL experience of other countries in dealing with these problems. We need to keep in friendly association with them, with more frequent interchange of thought. Thus we shall spread the processes of social evolution.” “As for me,” one of the educationalists con- tinued, ‘“‘ I have as yet not so much impressions as interrogations. I wonder why we can’t provide more adequate educational plants. With two or three exceptions, all the mission institutions we — have seen were inadequately equipped. Can’t the Boards unite and do together what they can’t do alone? And how can we produce more leaders both in the Church and in society? And ought we not to send out to our institutions young people with more adequate equipment? ‘These are some of my questions. As yet I have questions but not answers.” “That is my position, too,” added one of the laymen. “I remember something that Dr. Ernesto Nelson, of Argentina, said at Montevideo on the ‘ Night of the Open Heart’: ‘ A believer who is a rascal is a thousand times more harmful than an atheist who lives a Christian life. You remember he told us that Christianity, thanks to the historic Church here, is a discredited banner in South America. How can we overcome all this with a more powerful leadership? Also, I wonder if our methods which accept our denominational distinctions are right. I do not like the findings at Montevideo on cooperation and union because they assure the continuance of our denominations. I IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA 427 think they should all be one and that we ought to begin at home.” ‘““ My impression,” said one of the home pastors of the group, “is of the great amount of moral and spiritual idealism which is not being capitalized for the Kingdom of God. We need missionaries who can reach these idealists who are outside of any Church. In the interest of general evangelization I would do more to reach these leaders.” “IT ask myself,” said a home teacher, “ how we can help South America when we get home. We owe South America a better understanding in the United States. There is so much that is good, that we ought to appreciate and praise. I am going to try to make my students see this as well as the other side.” ‘“‘T have seen nothing more beautiful,” said one of the women, “than the affection and joy of the girls in the Young Women’s Christian Association in Santiago. Their interest and devotion were lovely. These girls of South America are eager for friendship and responsive to every effort to provide for them what our own girls have at home.” “What a treasure we shall always have now in our new friendships,” added one of themen. “ We should keep these alive. It has been a joy to meet these good men. At the same time I would qualify a little what is said about the leader class. As a matter of fact here, as in the United States, any men and women of intelligence and character can rise to leadership. Perhaps the most influential woman in Chile did not come from a family of 428 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL social position or wealth. We do well in our Mis- sion work to lay our emphasis on work for the great body of the people. As to our teachers, I, too, would prepare them better for specialized teaching, but it is easy for teachers to lose sight of the fact that persons more than subjects to be taught are the important thing.” “Well, I could make criticisms on what we have seen,’ said another, “but I would say only one ~ thing, that it seems to me that what is needed in South America is some of the courage of Paul in these Nicodemus leaders. ‘There are many of them who are in sympathy with our evangelical Churches and their principles but who are not ready to make the sacrifice of open avowal. How are we to get churches for this class until some of them boldly do what Paul did in identifying himself with the Church of the despised and the poor?” “This trip has been a delight to me,” said another member of the group. “I have seen how missionary work begins, and how necessary it is to begin right even if it means slower growth. I realize the importance of this especially in the matter of self-support. ‘To do for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is an injury and not a kindness.” ‘Well, I come home loving the women and girls of South America,” said another of the women, “and especially of Chile. The new movement of life is certainly active among them. I have been disappointed in the churches of some of these coun- tries, but ever since I have seen the girls I have IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA 429 taken fresh courage, and I observe that the women leaders in the Mission work and in many other aspects of life in some of these lands are the gradu- ates of our Mission schools.” “What the Missions have done,” said the last woman who spoke, “is the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. And the results are just now be- ginning. From the little that we have given as yet, far greater things are already appearing. I think we should study the needs of Christian mysticism in our Protestant worship and its forms. Also we should see that these girls, so eager and friendly, deserve what they are reaching out for. In edu- cation they certainly deserve something better than that which goes under the name of ‘ university’ in some of these countries.” “Of my impressions,” said one of the group, “ I would speak of three: First, I see more clearly than ever the value and necessity of the work of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America and I appreciate what Mr. Inman and Dr. Orts have done. Second, I, too, wish we might reach influ- ential leaders but I remember that the New Testa- ment was written in the language of ordinary men and that the gospel took hold on the mass of human society. Do not let us be afraid to go down to the peon and the rato. And third, we are asking too much of our missionaries in the way of sacrifice.” “Well,” said the last speaker, “we are going home to be a company of advocates of South America. We have got a great deal of good and made many friends. The great South American 430 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL papers could not have been kinder to us than they were and we have helped the leaders of the national evangelical Churches to realize the real purpose of our missionary work and to see more clearly the ideal of it all which is to be realized in their abso- lute independence and authority. We have done our best to help them to see that the Mission and the home Churches are eager to have them take the leadership that we may follow them. ‘The Con- gress at Montevideo and the regional conferences which preceded and followed it have made it clear how great is our duty at home to work together with one another and with the South American Churches. They laid out a dozen more tasks which they wish us to undertake with them. If anyone thought that we are not wanted in South America or that our work is done, these congresses put an end to that misconception. ‘They called for a quadrupling of our codperative work. Let us go home to summon our Churches to respond to the call which we have heard set forth with such ur- gency and friendship and good will.” These were first impressions. One may be sure that some of them, at least, will remain as perma- nent convictions. R. E. S. A BRIEF READING LIST ON CHILE AND BRAZIL (Notre. — For those who desire a shorter list than the fol- lowing, certain books which might be included in such an abbreviated list, are starred.) GENERAL * South of Panama, by E. A. Ross. The Century Company, New York, 1921. A clear and informing summary of impressions by a well known sociologist. * South America: Observations and Impressions, by James Bryce. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1912. An interesting description of the countries on the west and east coasts of South America by the late Lord Bryce. The South American Tour, by Annie S. Peck. George H. Doran Company, New York, 1924. There is material in this book of value to the traveler and tourist, though the style hardly does justice to the subject matter. History of the Latin American Nations, by W. S. Robertson. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1922. An inclusive and readable history, not overburdened with detail, of all the Latin American countries. A valuable introductory volume. * The Commercial Traveler's Guide to Latin America. Re- vised Edition. Edited by Ernst B. Filsinger, U. S. Department of Commerce, 89. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1922. A detailed compilation of important facts concerning the Latin American countries, published originally in separate volumes by the U. S. Department of Commerce. *The Rise of the Spanish American Republics, by W. S. 431 432 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL Robertson. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1921. A more detailed history, based on the original sources, of the recent development of the chief Spanish American republics as told in the lives of their liberators. Pan-American Relations, by W. S. Robertson, Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1923. A study of the particular relationships, commercial, social, and political, which form the basis of the inter- related life of the American republics to-day. One Hundred Years of the Monroe Doctrine, by David Y. Thomas. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1923. An account of the formation and development of one of the chief principles in the foreign policy of the United States, with a study of its influence not only in America but also in Asia, Europe, and Africa. * Problems in Pan-Americanism, by S.G. Inman. George H. Doran Company, New York, 1921. A general discussion of present-day political, social and religious problems, by the Secretary of the Com- mittee on Codperation in Latin America. Men, Maidens and Mantillas, by Stella Burke May. The Century Company, New York, 1923. A vivid and readable description of Latin American life and customs by a well-known traveler. LITERATURE *The Literary History of Spanish America, by Alfred Coester. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1916. Studies in Spanish American Literature, by Isaac Goldberg. Brentano’s, New York, 1920. The first book is a general introduction to the subject; the second is a more detailed and technical study of certain phases and writers in Latin America. Brazilian Literature, by Isaac Goldberg. A. A. Knopf, New York, 1922. A study of the literature of Brazil. A BRIEF READING LIST 433 Ariel, by Jose Enrique Rodo. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1922. ‘Translated into English by Fred J. Stim- son, late United States Ambassador to Argentina. A volume of delightful essays by one who has been styled “The Emerson of South America.” It would be better to read this book in the original Spanish but the translation will be helpful. RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS * New Days in Latin America, by Webster E. Browning. Missionary Education Movement, 1925. * Looking Ahead with Latin America, by Stanley High. Mis- sionary Education Movement, 1925. The mission-study textbooks for 1925-1926, which give a brief, popular statement of the present-day situation in Latin America, with special reference to the work of Protestant Missions there. Roman Catholicism in Latin American Lands, by Webster E. Browning. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1924. A clear and fair description and discussion of Roman Catholicism in Latin America by the Educational Secre- tary of the Committee on Codperation in Latin America, who has spent nearly thirty years in South America. * Christian Work in South America (2 volumes). Fleming H. Revell Company, 1925. The report of the Congress on Christian Work in South America held in Montevideo, Uruguay, March 29 to April 8, 1925. Contains full and complete in- formation concerning the Protestant movement in South America. Missions in South America, by Robert E. Speer. Presby- terian Board of Foreign Missions, 1909. A valuable study of Presbyterian Missions, printed especially for the Missions and the Board, based on a trip to South America in 1909. 434 MODERN MISSIONS IN BRAZIL FROM THE MEDICAL VIEWPOINT South America from the Surgeon’s Viewpoint, by Franklin H. Martin. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1922. A discussion “of public health and medical education and service in South America by an eminent American surgeon. 2 CHILE * Chile To-Day and To-Morrow, by L. E. Elliott. The Mac- millan Company, New York, 1922. | A well-written description of the country and its people. Two Thousand Miles Through Chile, by Earl C. May. The Century Company, New York, 1924. An interesting account of modern conditions in Chile by a skillful observer. Vagabonding Down the Andes, by Harry A. Franck. The Century Company, New York, 1923. The concluding chapters are devoted to Chile. ’"Twirt the Andes and the Sea. Year Book of the Chile Mission, 1923. A current account of the work of the Presbyterian Mission in Chile. BRAZIL The Brazilians and Their Country, by C. F. Cooper. Heineman and Company, London, 1920. * Brazil To-Day and To-Morrow, by L. E. Elliott. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1917. Working North from Patagonia, by Harry A. Franck. The Century Company, New York, 1921. The story of the conclusion of the author’s four-year trip through Latin America, written in his own indi- vidual style. Ta He ‘ KenL BT Ute * Ni “gs * -Date Due Fh ie a= awk y i ll —Speer Li = razil, | | ary n Ih \o eo ll h .W56 i dern mis | si Princeton a | Wn ™ <4 oO a+ S co Mo