Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1902 — LITTLE SOUTH AMERICAN REGION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LITTLE SOUTH AMERICAN REGION

That May Precipitate War Between Bolivia and Brazil. The region of Acre, in northern Bolivia, has been disputed territory between that country and Brazil for nearly fifty years.

The little country has come into public notice recently because Bolivia leased a part of the Acre region to an Anglo - American syndicate. Brazil objects to this business arrangement, and has threatened to break off diplomatic relations unless the contract la rescinded. Except that the

country is rich in rubber, little is known about it. It occupies a triangular space between the boundaries of Brazil and Bolivia, and Peru and Bolivia, with the Beni river as the base. The position of the sides qf this triangle as interpreted by the two-countries is the cause of the dispute. A traveler recently returned from Acre gay.v of the natives that they are in many respects like the Bolivians, but that there are among them tribes of a lower class than ean be found elsewhere in that part of the world. Some of them are said to be cannibals, and all are shy and averse to the invasion of their country by the whites. Thsy are experts in the art of using darts, spears and javelins, and delight in practicing with these from the bush on intruders, whom they usually attack from behind. They wear no clothes, but hav© elaborate head dresses made of feathers and beads, and the younger ones wear strings of coins and metal disks around their necks and wrists. There are no horses or mules in Acre, and the llama is used as the beast of burden.

AN ACRE CHIEF.