Generally, a leading man fitted out an expedition with a few companions, partners in effort and initial expenditure, and with a gang of hired 'peons,… - Roger Casement

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Generally, a leading man fitted out an expedition with a few companions, partners in effort and initial expenditure, and with a gang of hired 'peons,' or, as they are called in that region, 'racionales' (half-breeds mostly who can read and write to distinguish them from the 'Indios', who are ignorant of all save forest lore), he journeyed to some part of the forest in search of tribes of wild Indians - 'infieles' or "infidels" - who could be easily subdued and reduced to work the wild rubber trees in the territory they inhabited. An Indian would promise anything for a gun or for some of the other tempting things offered as inducements to him to work rubber. Many Indians submitted to the alluring offer only to find that once in the "conquistadores'" books they had lost all liberty and were reduced to unending demands for more rubber and more varied tasks. A cacique or "capitan" might be bought over to dispose of the labor of all his clan, and as the cacique's influence was very great and the natural docility of the Indian a remarkable characteristic of the upper Amazon tribes the work of conquering a primitive people and reducing them to a continual strain of rubber finding was less difficult than might at first be supposed. Moreover, their arms of defense were puerile weapons to oppose the rifles of the "blancos."