Every year about this time I receive an annual report
from my spy in South America. He has not been idle during 1953, crossing the Transandean Railway between the Argentine and of the very few white men who have visited, without ill effect. the territory of the Chavante Indians. The village he went to was just north of the Rio das Mortes. He writes: " These Chavantes , have for generations been amongst the most dangerous savages in South America and have killed anyone, white or Indian, who attempted to enter their territory; but this group were successfully contacted last year, though it's still a rather chancy business going into their country. Big muscular fellows, forthright and independent in their attitude, they look unmistakably cruel and treacherous, and whereas most of the tribes in the Xingu basin are sadly decreasing in numbers this Chavante village was simply crammed with children. and the women almost all appeared to be pregnant." It sounds as though it had paid the Chavantes to keep the blessings of civilisation at arm's length.
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