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Peters, Cornelius (1938-1953)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1953 Apr 2 p. 1
Birth date: 1938
text of obituary:
Chaco Jungle Claims Life of Youth
Companion Found Near Death After Six Days Of Wandering in the Bushlands
Filadelfia, Paraguay. — That the Paraguayan Chaco-jungle can be ferocious and cruel, to the point of death, has been shown once again.
West of the Mennonite colonies extends the unsettled, untamed Chaco-bush with occasional open land between. It was here that Colony Fernheim had purchased a section of land around which a picada (trail) was to be hewn. A group of men decided to take the job and soon they began to work their way through the bush. Their animals had to feed on what little they could find there.
On Tuesday morning March 10, Cornelius Peters, a 15-year-old boy, was sent to get the mules but could not find them and so Hans Schmidt, the 21-year-old cook, offered to go along. Taking a bush knife, they took off to look for the mules but never returned.
At first the other men paid little attention to their absence since their water supply was almost exhausted and they were eager to get through the bush to open land. However, the following day, Wednesday, they became worried about it and when in the afternoon people from the colony came, they reported the incident.
Immediately a search party of about 150 men was organized which tried to comb the jungle, shouting and shooting in the hope that the two might hear them and thus find their way out.
One has to have lived in the Chaco to understand fully what it means to be lost in the jungle, with a temperature of 105 to 110 degrees and no water anywhere. The men searched Thursday, Friday and Saturday, after which they gave up all hope of ever finding the youths alive. Many of the men in the search party were near exhaustion themselves. The whole colony was anxiously waiting and praying for the safe return of the two boys.
The Indians had not participated in this search. On Sunday morning another group organized and hired Indians to help them, setting a premium for finding the boys. With new eagerness they started out and soon the Indians found the track — little branches, chewed pieces of cactus, etc. but still did not find the lost youths.
On Monday morning Cornelius Peters was found dead of exhaustion and dehydration, and some hours later Hans Schmidt was found, completely exhausted, a mere skeleton, but alive. Immediately notice was sent to the colony for the doctor, while a path was made to bring Schmidt out of the jungle. He recovered very slowly. He could not grasp that he had been lost for over six days.
His story was given incoherently and had to be pieced together: As he and Peters looked for the mules they got deeper and deeper into the bushes until they lost direction and came to the terrifying realization that they were lost. Peters, who was a new immigrant and not well acquainted with the Chaco as yet, grew panicky and started to run. Hans Schmidt, who had been lost once before, followed.
Their bodies grew weaker and weaker, but they continued to work their way through the bushes: They found a little honey but otherwise lived only from a few small wild fruits. Chewing the inner parts of the cactus stem, they were able to obtain a little moisture. Only once did it rain a little. They were able to obtain a few cubic centimeters of water by shaking the drops from the leaves into their helmets.
As the days went by, hope diminished and they realized that death by exhaustion and thirst was to be their lot. They knelt and prayed for forgiveness of sin and for peace and strength to face death. They had promised each other to stay together. Schmidt, the stronger and older of the two, had supplied them with a little cactus. Once the plane which was employed to look for them went close by but they were unable to get the pilot's attention.
It was Sunday morning when Peters, who was not built very strongly, collapsed and declared he could go no further. Schmidt told him he would try to get some more cactus, but Peters should forgive him if he were too weak to return, thus each having to face death alone. After a while, some distance away, he found a cactus tree but due to weakness he was unable to chop off a piece. Each time he tried, he fell to the ground. Realizing that the end was near he crawled under a tree to await death, and there they found him on Monday forenoon.