Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America by Ray, G. Whitfield

The priest is satisfied with nothing less than the most complete submission of the mind and body of his flock. A woman must often give her last money for masses, and a man toil for months on the well- stocked land of the divine father to save his soul. If he fail to do this, or any other sentence the priest may impose, he is condemned to eternal perdition.

Mr. Patrick, of the R. B. M. U., has described to me how, soon after he landed in Trujilla, he attended service at a Jesuit church. He had introduced some gospels into the city, and a special sermon was preached against the Bible. During the service the priest produced one of the gospels, and, holding it by the covers, solemnly put the leaves into the burning candle by his side, and then stamped on the ashes on the pulpit floor. The same priest, however, Ricardo Gonzales by name, thought it no wrong to have seventeen children to various mothers, and his daughters were leaders in society. "Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." In Trujilla, right opposite my friend's house, there lived, at the same time, a highly respected priest, who had, with his own hands, lit the fire that burnt alive a young woman who had embraced Christianity through missionary preaching. Bear in mind, reader, I am not writing of the dark ages, but of what occurred just outside Trujilla during my residence in the country. Even in 1910, Missionary Chapman writes of a convert having his feet put in the stocks for daring to distribute God's Word. [Footnote: I never saw greater darkness excepting in Central Africa. I visited 70 of the largest cathedrals, and, after diligent enquiry, found only one Bible, and that a Protestant Bible about to be burned--Dr. Robert E. Speer, in "Missionary Review of the World," August, 1911.]

Up to four years ago, the statute was in force that "Every one who directly or through any act conspires to establish in Bolivia any other religion than that which the republic professes, namely, that of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, is a traitor, and shall suffer the penalty of death."

After a week's stay in Piedra Blanca, during which I had ample time for such comparisons as these I have penned, quarantine lifted, and the expedition staff separated. I departed on horseback to inspect a tract of land on another frontier of Bolivia 1,300 miles distant.

PART III.

PARAGUAY

[Illustration: AN INDIAN AND HIS GOD NANDEYARA]

PARAGUAY