OUTLAW KINGDOM

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 128, 16 June 1937, Page 8

OUTLAW KINGDOM

" ' ' -Own Correspondenty . - >

Banditry in British Guiana HALF-CASTE LEADER

CBy Air Mail-

GEORGETUWJN, inay AU. The Governor of British Guiana, Sir Geoffrey Northcote, has requested the Government of Brazil and Yenezuela to co-operate in his plans for dealing "tvith an outlow junta that is exactmg tribute from prospectors and travellere and illicitly operating _ alluvial gold and diamond deposits in the remote and little knokn region on the border of the tbree countries. _ At the neaa of the junta is a Brazilian^ hali-breed, Solferino, who has under his command a 3iumber of white "lieutenants," mepwho have escaped from the Erench penal colony of Devil's Island. Solferino's activities were described to His Excellency by a man who was his prisoner foy several days, Dr. Jacob Le Yan, a New York Gcientist. Dr. Lo Van spent eight months in the British Guiana hinterland) making a study of Indian psychology for the museum oi the American. Indian. in New York. Conducted ITnder GUard On hig arrival at a point near the junction of the three boundaries he was halted by an armed group of Indians and told that he must wait nntil permission was received from Solferino for his, expedition to proceed. He encamped under a guard while a runner started for the outlaw's headqnarters. "On the second day the mnner returned to say that I 'must come myself to see his chief," Dr. Leo Yan said. ""We were led through tiny trails for two days to a small clearing, where Solferino apparently made his temporary headquarters in a native hut. Solferino Teceived me hospitably and insisted, in a smattering of Spanish and Engligh, interspersed with Indian dialects, that I join him in innumerable cups of bitter,.syrupy native coffee, Escaped Oonvicta "With him were three white men, ap. parently jFrench, who admitted that they had escaped from a logging camp of the Erench penal oclony. 'One of them was emaciated from malarial at* tacks and was glad to obtain quinine from me. Another suffered great pain from ah infected bite of piranta fish on the hand. I lanced and disinfected it. - r "The*eonvicts, pleased at their escape from what they called the dry " guillotine, told me there were perhaps 60 other escaped felons " scattered through SoKerino 's 'kingdom,' supervising the labour of Indian working parties, who washed the gold and diamonds from stream ,beds. "The raw gold and diamonds— the latter mostly' usable only for tool purposes — were ,-then passed through the Indian villages, to be sold for a fraction of their real value to trading posfc 'fences,' who .xeturned" the proceeds in British or Brazilian cnrrency. *The convicts said they hoped eventually.,to aecumulate sufficient inoney to purchase the help of Solferino and his Indians to escape to Europe or the United States, as scores had already done. ' } , Dr. Le Van was permitted to proceed only when he had paid Solferino • an exorbitant sum for guides and- "pro-. tecti'on. |