Liberal was a screw steamship commissioned by J.C Arana y Hermanos and built in 1904.[1] Liberal transported rubber for Julio César Arana's enterprise, which became the Peruvian Amazon Company in 1907. The ship had a prominent role in the Peruvian Amazon Company's excursions against the Colombian settlements of La Union and La Reserva at the beginning of 1908. Liberal was mortgaged to Eleanora Zumaeta de Arana on May 5, 1911, prior to the liquidation of the Peruvian Amazon Company.
The Liberal steamship was built by Murdoch & Murray at yard number 199 of Port Glasgow in October 1904. It was commissioned by J.C Arana y Hermanos, a rubber firm with offices in the cities of Manaus and Iquitos, located along the Amazon River. Liberal first arrived in Iquitos in December 1904. Liberal frequently travelled between Iquitos and the Putumayo River, transporting rubber and personnel during its service with Arana's enterprise.
Liberal transported Peruvian soldiers from Iquitos to the Putumayo on numerous occasions. According to David Cazes, the British consul-general to Iquitos between 1903 and 1910, Arana's company would transport Peruvian military and their stores from Iquitos to the Putumayo at no cost. In exchange, the Peruvian government did not charge the company for their shipments of rubber. In 1905, Liberal completed three voyages between Iquitos and the Putumayo estates, arriving at Iquitos in May, September, and November.[2]
After Armando Normand's attack against Urbano Gutierrez in January 1907, eight Columbians were taken captive on Liberal by employees of Arana's company, who intended to send them to prison in Iquitos. Instead, they were abandoned in a canoe near Cotuhé to avoid Brazilian officials discovering them upon arrival at port.
On August 5, 1907, Iquitos-based journalist Benjamin Saldaña Rocca published "" ("The Wave of Blood"), which detailed an altercation aboard Liberal witnessed by a cook named Juan Vela. Investigating a commotion, Vela saw Captain Zubiaur beating an employee of Arana's company, Juan Juarez, with a large piece of firewood. Zubiaur dragged Juarez below deck, where "six sailors, at Zubiaur's orders, gave him still more blows, mutilating and destroying his whole body..." Afterwards, they threw him off the ship onto the riverbank and abandoned him there. The account then detailed that Juarez shot himself two days later due to his suffering.
On September 23, 1907, Saldaña Rocca published an article with this statement: "The Liberal, small steamer of the Casa Arana, has brought from the Putumayo 93,000 kilos of elastic rubber. How many whippings, mutilations, tortures, tears, blood, murders and desolations represent such rubber!"
According to Charles C. Eberhardt, the American consul-general in Iquitos in 1907, upon its return to Iquitos on November 15 of that year, Liberal reported that 100 Colombian soldiers were encamped across the river from La Chorrera.
Sometime in December 1907, Miguel S. Loayza sent a group of his subordinates to harass David Serrano with the intention of pressuring him to abandon his estate. Serrano's wife, child, and stock of merchandise were loaded onto Liberal after he was tied to a tree and forced to watch as his wife was raped. – This incident happened a month before the assault on Serrano's estate.
Liberal completed a journey to El Encanto on January 3, 1908, carrying 85 soldiers from the Peruvian garrison at Iquitos. Around this time, Colombian police inspector Jesus Orejuela was waiting at Argelia for a meeting with Loayza, however Loayza never arrived at the meeting and Orejuela was detained at Argelia. The raids on La Union and La Reserva began shortly after Orejuela's imprisonment. Jesus Orejuela was brought on board the Liberal around 9 in the morning on January 13, and he was interred in what Hardenburg described as a "little cage."
In January 1908, armed employees of Arana's company onboard Liberal along with the Peruvian warship Iquitos, which had around 85 Peruvian soldiers on board, attacked a Colombian rubber station named La Union. Carlos Zubiaur was the captain of Liberal during the raids against La Union and La Reserva, which occurred on January 12. The armed agents of Arana's enterprise onboard Liberal were led by Miguel S. Loayza, Bartolomé Zumaeta and Miguel Flores.
On February 1, 1908, Benjamin Saldana Rocca published an article in La Sancion titled "The crime of Lesa Patria". The article claimed that Loayza had telegraphed the company headquarters information that "a large force of Colombians, well armed and uniformed and under the command of two generals" was assembling to attack El Encanto and La Chorrera. This large force was said to consist of "300 or 400 men" and were bringing a canon. 85 Peruvian soldiers from the garrison at Iquitos were sent to the Putumayo after the Peruvian Amazon Company forwarded Loayza's message to the prefect at Iquitos.
Bartolomé Zumaeta, along with 14 Peruvian soldiers travelled to the Yubineto River on board the Callao steamship and captured several Colombians along with Gabriel Martinez, manager of the Ordoñez y Martinez Rubber Company because he "had dealings with Indians, whom the Aranas cynically said belonged to them." Two agents of Arana's company which were sent to trade with Colombians at La Union were imprisoned there in response to Zumaeta's actions. Loayza along with around 80 armed men, employees of Arana's company, embarked on Liberal to investigate what had happened to the two imprisoned agents. Liberal was accompanied by Iquitos, which had Peruvian soldiers on board. The Peruvians had six cannons and two machine guns that took part in this attack.
At La Union, Colombian colonel Gustavo Prieto was said to have unfurled the Colombian flag in response to the Peruvian's repeated demand to land at port, which according to Hardenburg and Saldana's information, is what sparked a conflict between the two parties. After resisting for half an hour, the Columbians ran out of ammunition and subsequently dispersed into the jungle. The Peruvians loaded around one thousand arrobas of rubber onto Liberal, and several Colombian woman were taken on board as captives. 27 Colombians were killed at La Union during this incident. The dwellings at La Union were set on fire. Cattle, machinery, and any other valuable items were sent to Iquitos. According to a pilot of Liberal, named Simon Pisango, men onboard Liberal began firing first, and Loayza was on board the ship at the time.
An ex-employee of Arana's company named Julio Montero provided a sworn deposition in Iquitos in 1909. In this deposition, Montero provided information that he had heard from his coworkers regarding the raid against La Reserva. Montero said that 29 Colombians were taken prisoner and he provided the names of 15 of them. According to Montero's information, the prisoners "who had already been robbed and were then in chains, were taken out of the house and not far off were shot to death and cut to pieces with machetes..." This information was corroborated by Carlos Murgaitio, a Colombian who had published his own eyewitness account in Jornal de Comercio of Manaos.
Hardenburg witnessed both the Liberal and Iquitos traveling towards La Union and then returning along the river with prisoners. However, he did not witness the actual events at La Union. Although the men aboard Liberal ignored the canoe that Hardenburg was on, the men on Iquitos shot at Hardenburg's group and decided to take them prisoner. Hardenburg wrote:
"As I afterwards ascertained, the two launches, upon reaching La Unión, had started to disembark the soldiers and employees... the thousand arrobas of rubber were carefully stowed away on Liberal, the houses were sacked and burned, and several Colombian women, found hiding in the forest, were dragged aboard the two launches as legitimate prey for the 'victors.'"
Several hours after the raids against La Union and La Reserva, Iquitos and Liberal reached the settlement of Argelia, where they stayed for the night. Hardenburg was transferred from Iquitos to Liberal at Argelia and reunited with his friend Walter Perkins, who was already imprisoned there. Jesus Orejuela was brought on board the Liberal around 9 in the morning on January 13, and he was interred in what Hardenburg described as a "little cage." Hardenburg and Orjuela were informed about the raid against La Reserva, where the Peruvians had attacked the settlement, looted 170 arrobas of rubber, which was loaded onto Liberal and afterwards they "destroyed everything they could not steal."
On January 13, Liberal and Iquitos travelled down the Caraparana River towards El Encanto and they reached a Colombian rubber station named El Dorado around 9:30 in the morning. According to Hardenburg, Loayza threatened the Colombians settled there with death if they would not meet his demands of immediately abandoning their estate and surrendering their firearms. Loayza and his group of men returned to the steamships with the Colombian firearms, afterwards they travelled towards El Encanto. El Dorado was owned by a Colombian named Ildefonso Gonzalez, he was later murdered by a manager of Arana's company named Mariano Olañete while transferring his workforce to another estate.
Hardenburg managed to convince Loayza that the United States government would investigate the disappearance of either Perkins or himself and Loayza later promised Hardenburg and Alfonso Sánchez free passage on Liberal to Iquitos: however captain Zubiaur demanded a payment of £17 from them.
Cosmopolita stopped at Chorrera while Liberal was on the expedition against Colombian settlers at La Union. On January 19, 1908 Cosmopolita later travelled to the port of Santa Julia, where Liberal was then located. On January 20 Cosmopolita and Liberal met with Iquitos at a settlement named Arica, located near the confluence of the Igaraparana tributary with the Putumayo River. From there, they travelled together towards the Peruvian border with Brazil. Iquitos escorted the other two steamships until the group reached the confluence of Cotuhé with Putumayo. Cosmopolita and Liberal continued travelling towards the city of Iquitos, while gunboat Iquitos stayed at Cotuhé. On either January 31 or February 1 according to Hardenburg, Liberal arrived at Iquitos with 35,000 kilos of rubber and seven Colombian prisoners who were "suffering heavily" from the conditions of their imprisonment. The rubber it carried was collected from El Encanto, which was gathered from PAC slave labor as well as the Colombian settlements which were raided. Cosmopolita was transporting 120,000 kilos of rubber at the time.
Many of the Peruvian Amazon Company employees that took part in the attack against La Union were arrested, with the notable exception of Bartolomé Zumaeta. These men were taken to La Chorrera in chains and imprisoned there for around two months before the prefect of Iquitos, along with Julio Cesar Arana and Peruvian consul-general Carlos Rey de Castro arrived at La Chorrera. Roger Casement believed that "[t]his journey of Senor Arana in company with these two Peruvian officers of high rank is really the key to the whole subsequent situation." The prefect of Iquitos, Carlos Zapata, arranged the release of the imprisoned group at La Chorrera. David Cazes, Roger Casement, and two other sources implicated Arana with bribing Zapata for an amount that varies by source, ranging between £5,000 and £8,000. During Casement's investigation of the Peruvian Amazon Company, he discovered that Carlos Rey de Castro was indebted to Arana's company in Manaus to a sum that ranged between £4,000 and £5,000 in 1909.
Consul-general Roger Casement was sent to investigate the involvement and abuse of Barbadian employees in Arana's rubber company in 1910, and he travelled to the Putumayo River estates onboard Liberal. Elías Martinengui left the Putumayo River by Liberal, and he was allowed to take four of his indigenous concubines from Atenas with him.Martinengui left on the Liberal's voyage from Putumayo to Iquitos subsequent to Casement's journey from Iquitos to Putumayo.
The indigenous people entrapped by Arana's enterprise had to deliver rubber from their local stations towards La Chorrera and El Encanto, and from there the rubber was shipped from the Igaraparana and Caraparana tributaries down the Putumayo River towards Iquitos.
While describing the transportation of rubber from Entre Rios to the port at La Chorrera, Casement wrote: "The fifty men who go down to Chorrera have to carry the whole of this mass of rubber from [Puerto] Victoria, about 1(1/2) miles above the rapid down to Chorrera – a distance of probably 3 miles. At 30 kilos again per load the 16,000 kilos gives each man 10(1/2) to 11 loads to carry, involving 11 journeys of 6 miles. When the rubber is unloaded and stored he will be kept at Chorrera doing any dirty or heavy work at the Station, just as the Boras Indians who found on arrival had to discharge the cargo from the 'Liberal'. He will also be compelled to load the rubber on the down-going steamer and his detention at Chorrera, including the journeys up and down the river in the launch will be not less than 7–9 days."
On August 26, 1910, Casement was informed by the Brazilian customs post at Javari that Liberal had cleared the Javari River and was transporting 45 tons of rubber towards Iquitos. The ship was also transporting "many sick men", most of whom were Peruvian soldiers. Casement estimated that the value of this rubber shipment would represent around £45,000 in England. On September 1, Liberal arrived at Iquitos with 23 ill Peruvian soldiers and the 45 tons of rubber from the Putumayo.
Casement interviewed Stanley Lewis onboard Liberal on September 20, and James Clark on September 22. Lewis was employed as a steward on Liberal at the time and he was able to provide information of abuse to Casement while Clarke was employed on steamships during his service with Arana's company and did not testify to witnessing any abuse. Liberal arrived at La Chorrera on September 23, with Casement and the other commercial commissioners.The Boras men that Casement saw unloading Liberal's cargo left La Chorrera via Liberal, and at the time they were subordinate to Miguel Flores, who travelled with them on Liberal to El Encanto.
Frederick Bishop told Casement that Zubiaur had a Peruvian man placed "'down the hold' of the Liberal" who perished from suffocation. Casement wrote "Nothing was done to Zubiaur. I can well believe anyone would die from even 1/2 an hour down the hold of a tiny launch like this – the depth is not more than 4 feet, and there is absolutely no air or breathing hole of any kind once the hatch is on, and iron walls all around, in this climate!" This described method of punishment was employed on occasion by ship captains in this area of the Amazon, and Casement witnessed captain Reigada administer this punishment to a number of his crewmen because they had gotten drunk on Liberal.
Rubber brought in for the fabrico of November 1910 as of November 12, according to Casement:"
Casement wrote that the stations of Ultimo Retiro and Santa Catalina were expected to deliver rubber prior to the Liberal's departure, and the stations of Sabana and Abisinia would deliver their rubber in December.
Fidel Velarde was fired by Tizon or Macedo as of October 24, 1910, and he was supposed to travel on Liberal with Casement. Verify if he was with Casement, or if he travelled later. Normand was originally supposed to travel with Casement as well however he did not. find source.
On November 12, 1910, Casement noted that "[t]here are over 40 – nearer 50, I should think" natives from the Sur station of La Chorrera that loaded rubber onto Liberal, there were also several natives from the Entre Rios station. The ship was undergoing repairs at the time for its screw shaft. One of the natives from Sur was physically assaulted by an employee from Entre Rios named Borborini, and he was fired by the manager of La Chorrera. Originally, Borborini was supposed to leave on the next steamer leaving the Putumayo, which would have been Liberal, in company with Casement and the Barbadian men, however Borborini went to "pick up his [two] 'wives'" from Entre Rios and therefore he would have to board the Liberal when it went to El Encanto in December.
Casement and several Barbadians boarded Liberal on November 16, 1910, and left La Chorrera traveling towards Iquitos. Casement stated that the ship was carrying "sixty-odd tons of rubber" at the time. On November 21, 15 Barbadians disembarked from Liberal at a small port in Brazil. During a conversation with Roger Casement, the Chief Engineer of Liberal in 1910 estimated that the ship cost between £6,000-£7,000 to operate annually.
In his journal, Casement wrote about an article by El Oriente of Iquitos, this article was "on the constant theft of servant boys and girls (menores) who in 9 cases out of 10 are Huitotos from various people in the town". The article implicated Reigada and Zubiaur, who were both captains of Liberal at some point, with this crime.
Pablo Zumaeta travelled to the Putumayo onboard Liberal on December 14, "in order to try to change the employees who had become incapable". Benjamin Dublé accompanied Zumaeta on this voyage.
Victor Macedo travelled on Liberal with Andrés O'Donnell and the Commercial Commission in February 1911, away from the Putumayo. The judge Rómulo Paredes speculated that Casement's arrival had frightened the men implicated in the Putumayo atrocities, and that his own arrival in the region resulted in those men fleeing. Paredes was informed by the Liberals crew that two managers of Arana's company had recently left the area onboard Liberal. Paredes claimed:
"On the Liberal were the two notorious criminals, Abelardo Aguero and Augusto Jimenez, chiefs or managers of the rubber region known as Abisinia, who, supposing the approaching boat had on board the judge, and fearing discovery, behaved like madmen, committing the most ridiculous acts, which caused even the crew to lose their wits, especially when they were compelled to do their utmost to conceal the outlaws in the hold."
In 1911, Liberal was mortgaged to Eleanora Zumaeta de Arana along with several other assets of the Peruvian Amazon Company, amounting to £60,000. The mortgage document was dated to May 5, 1911, signed by Pablo Zumaeta, director of the Peruvian Amazon Company.[3] Liberal continued to export rubber from Arana's estates in the Putumayo under the firm of Cecilio Hernandez.
Liberal arrived in Iquitos on November 27, 1911, with 25 tons of rubber from the Putumayo estates. The ship was dispatched to deliver this consignment of rubber by agents of Cecilio Hernánedez's firm, which was employed by Eleanora Zumaeta. Casement was told by Siefert Greenidge that Donald Francis was onboard Liberal during its return voyage to Iquitos. According to Greenidge, the captain of Liberal, Ubaldo Lores, assisted Francis and allowed him to disembark in Brazil, away from Peruvian authorities.
On August 29, 1912, Jose Torralbo, a Colombian consul-general wrote that, "[t]he Liberal is to-day a veritable phantom ship, the whistle of which raises terror in the inhabitants of the forests." He also wrote that "On board of that ship [Bartolomé] Zumaeta and many of his companions have committed acts of veritable piracy."
The American consul Stuart J. Fuller and British consul George Mitchell were sent to investigate conditions in the Putumayo in 1912. They secured passage on Liberal and travelled to La Chorrera on the Igaraparana River. Julio Cesar Arana, the photographer Silvino Santos and Carlos Rey de Castro boarded Liberal prior to its arrival at La Chorrera, and the two shadowed the consuls during their trip to the Putumayo. Liberal transported this group to La Chorrera, El Encanto, Argelia, Union, and La Florida. Arana's company later published an album that contained the photographs Santos took during this journey. Ubaldo Lores was the captain of Liberal during the consular commission. The indigenous concubine of Andres O'Donnell was transported back to the Putumayo by Liberal on this voyage.
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Gaspar de Pinell boarded the Liberal on October 9, 1918, with permission from the commander of the steamship, Captain Celso Prieto of the Peruvian navy. Prieto agreed to take Pinell to El Encanto because he had a letter of recommendation from Arana. Pinell referred to Casa Arana y [Cecilio] Hernandez as the sole rulers of the Igarparana and Caraprana rivers at the time.
According to Huitoto professor Aurelio Rojas, around 1,000 soldiers arrived in the Putumayo on Liberal in 1917, and these soldiers were used to suppress an indigenous rebellion against Arana's enterprise. Pinell also stated that there was an indigenous rebellion in 1917 against Arana's company and their efforts were suppressed by the Peruvian military, which had a machine gun with them. Pinell did not clarify whether or not the Peruvian soldiers were transported to the Putumayo rubber estates onboard Liberal or not.
According to an oral history provided by Florentina Piña de Miveco, Liberal transported members of the Aguaje Bora nation from their native-lands in the Putumayo towards Remanso after the rebellion. Years later, Arana's enterprise, along with Miguel S. Loayza organized another migration of Putumayo natives in order to retain their workforce during the transition of the Peruvian-Colombian border in the Putumayo, which was affected by the Salomón–Lozano Treaty. Piña de Miveco stated that during this time, Liberal transported various groups of people towards the Algodón tributary and from there migrants travelled on foot for several days until they reached the Yahuasyacu River.[4]
Liberal transported Peruvian soldiers during the 1921 insurrection of Loreto Lieutenant Colonel Teobaldo Gonzalez, onboard steamship Beatriz, joined forces with Liberal at the Hullaga River's confluence with the Maranon River. Gonzalez had 140 soldiers under his command on Beatriz while Lieutenant Azcaraté had 120 soldiers and two officers under his command onboard Liberal. This combined force travelled towards Puerto Melendez and Liberal was later sent to search for a detachment of soldiers that went missing nearby. During this time government soldiers arrived at Puerto Melendez onboard steamship Hamburgo and attacked Gonzalez's group, most of which dispersed into the jungle. Government forces onboard Hamburgo successfully convinced the soldiers on Liberal to surrender unconditionally.[5]
Liberal was later apart of a flotilla that travelled to the Prefecture of Iquitos. This flotilla was composed of the gunboat América, with the steamships Adolfo, Luz II, San Pablo, Cahuapanas and Liberal.[6]
During the Colombia-Peru War, Liberal was commanded by lieutenant commander Manuel R. Nieto and lieutenant José Mosto, they were given orders to travel towards Leticia with the steamship. These two officers organized defenses which consisted of mines and torpedoes, their goal was to hinder the progression of enemy reinforcements by river.[7]