by Savannah Weiler
File 33/39/4 is filled to the brim with decades worth of financial records and correspondence between the different treasurers for the Peruvian Inland Mission, now operating under the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU) as of 1948. These treasurers were operating out of Great Britain, Canada and the US, and the mission field in Peru from the 1950s until the 70s. In this file I came across a hand drawn map and survey of the Amazonas region in Peru made in the late 1960s by Mark Sirag, a missionary who was part of the RBMU. This map (see figure 1) and the information given in the survey help give an idea of what the landscape and lives of people in this area looked like.
CSWC 33/39/4, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
The map was probably drawn in 1967 by Sirag. It is accompanied by a four-page document, hand signed by Sirag, titled “Impressions from Amazonas”. The survey, in his words, gives a general outline of “the trip – by plane, truck and feet; the facts – geography etc.; opinions and recommendations”. This information serves as advice to other missionaries on where would be best to start a mission, based on the level of need of different communities and whether there is already a different mission or Church established in the area. Sirag gives population figures and states how these populations were dispersed into rural or urban settlements (see figure 2). It becomes clear that this area was sparsely populated, and that many lived in rural settlements.
CSWC 33/39/4, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh
Sirag lists the “recognised Indian communities” in the area. These are the Asuncion, Cheto, Chilliquin, Yambajalaca, Huancas, La Jalca, Levanto, Montevideo, Olleros, Quinjalca, San Isidoro de Mayne, San Pedro and Sonche. You can see some of these settlements dotted on his provided map. According to Sirag, it is the land of “the ancient Sachapuyos (or Chachapuyos or Chacas – the race of Indians conquered by the Incas in the 15th century.)”. Chachapuyos means “Jungle of the Mist”, which further creates a mental image of misty green rainforests and highland plains with river valleys piercing through. Sirag describes the area as follows:
The climate, the people, and the culture is that of the Sierra; typical are the potatoes, the coca, the ponchos, the shawls worn by the women, the eucalyptus tree, and the cool climate and the cold water.
The eucalyptus tree was likely first introduced in Peru, along with Chile, Argentina, and other South American countries, in the late 19th century by Franciscan friars and upper-class landowners. Over the course of the next hundred years, it had become a common sighting in the Sierra of Peru. By the 1960s, when this survey was written, eucalyptus had been readily adopted by many Peruvians in response to growing wood scarcity after the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. Deforestation and scarce forest regeneration due to increased demand for wood in housing construction and for use in mining endeavours caused an increased shortage of wood and deforestation. Planting the tall eucalyptus tree, with its fast growing and straight wood, served as a fast solution to this shortage.
A small passage in the four-page survey recounts the journey that Sirag, along with some other travellers, made to various regions and villages in four counties in the Amazonas. The survey details what kind of transport the travellers used. This, along with the population data on the next page, shows how interspersed communities here were and what travel to these villages involved. It says the following:
November 3 we flew to Chachapoyas
4 we went by truck to Leymebamba and visited national pastor David Landa (Presbyterian) and saw his work. We returned the 8th.
9 -11 we visited Pomachocas and Jumbilla, starting by truck, arriving on foot.
13 – 15 we flew to Mendoza (Rodriguez de Mendoza). We hike through the valley, visiting Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limabamba, and Huambo.
16 We returned to Chachapoyas by truck
17 & 18 we visitied Luya and Lamud by bus
22 We visited the town of Huancas, near Chachapoyas
The dates show an indication of the time it would take to travel to these areas and what mode of transport was used, with flying frequently being used to travel across the mountainous, river filled terrains of the Department of Amazonas. Sirag’s flight from Chachapoyas to Mendoza only took 14 minutes, but the hikes they had to take to the individual villages of Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limibamba and Huambo each took up to four and a half hours. At the time the survey was written, there were not (yet) roads to some of these communities, so travel by air or by foot was clearly seen as the best way to access some villages.
Sirag’s hand-drawn map and his survey help us understand how isolated some of these areas were. We get hints about the type of terrain and vegetation, what the inhabitants wear, their faith and their dress, and even what their diet comprised of. This all, especially when viewed with the supplementary map, helps form a colourful mental picture of the landscape and people of the four provinces of the Amazonas Sirag travelled through: Chachapoyas, Bongará, Luya and Rodriguez de Mendoza. Mark Sirag’s survey is a determined and concise effort of a missionary to select where would be most suitable to establish a mission. 50 years later, these documents also serve us as an evocative impression of these provinces in the 1960s.
