OCTIJBEK 1 , 1910] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Para, Manaos and the Amazon. 



A'v The Editor of "The India Rubber World." 



SEVENTH LETTER. 

 The Rubber Fields Beyond Maimos. — Matto Grosso, Peru, the Acre, and 

 Tenezuela. — The Many Kinds of Rubber in Peru, Other than "Caucho." — 

 Renuniscences of Manaos, and of Some Visitors There. — The Return Trip 

 Down the Amazon, and Welcome at Para. 



SOME people at Manaos are still wrathful over an article 

 published in the New York Herald back in February, 1907, 

 entitled "Peter Panning in the Land of Poco Poco." It 

 was an alleged interview with Casper Whitney, illustrated by 

 reproductions of photographs, such as all tourists may purchase 

 anywhere in Brazil. One of these was labeled "Indian of the 

 Upper Amazon Never Before Seen by White Man." Another 

 pictured Indians found only in the Argentine republic, some 

 2,000 miles from the region in which "Peter Pan" was "poco- 

 pocoing." By keeping the canoe close in shore he fortunately 

 slipped by without attracting the attention of these savages ! 



He went cautiously up the Amazon as far as the Rio Negro, 

 where he found that "steamboat navigation ceases." Here he 

 took to canoe, paddled past Manaos, with its waterfront crowded 

 with buildings and its huge floating docks, passing through the 

 fleets of ocean going steamers that crowd the river basin even 

 to midstream, and saw only jungle covered shores and watery 

 wastes never before trodden by the foot of white man. From 

 danger to danger, from little jeopardy to great jeopardy, he ad- 

 vanced up to the Cassiquiare river. 



His adventures were marvelous. He fought his way through 

 schools of crocodiles that slew natives right and left; slept in 

 trees while cannibals held orgies on the ground beneath, and 

 at last — worn, ragged, half starved, but with unfaltering imagi- 

 nation — he came down the Orinoco, never before seen by white 

 man, and was safe. 



Peter need not go so far afield for material. A little "pan- 

 ning" nearer home would surely get color. Why not offer the 



Herald a story on "Jigging for Giraffes in Jersey City, 

 back in the hall bedroom before dark? 



and be 



RUBBER FIELDS OF M.\TTO GROSSO. 



One really is obliged" to go as far as Manaos to appreciate 

 what immense rubber producing areas extend south, west, and 

 north. Take, for example, the great Brazilian state of Matto 

 Grosso. It produces considerable rubber, but has possibilities 

 in the way of infinitely greater production, once its territory is 

 explored. It is over a million square miles in area, reaching from 

 Amazonas on the north to Paraguay on the south. The Guapore 

 river, wliich flows into the Amazon through the Madeira, is 

 part of the boundary line between this state and Bolivia. The 

 river just named is but one of a number of important streams, 

 coming from the great forest reaches in which is much rubber. 

 Of the others perhaps the Tapajos is the most important. 



The state of Matto Grosso is very sparsely populated, 150,000 

 souls being a liberal estimate. No portion of the Brazils is per- 

 haps better named than this, the words meaning "Dense Forests" 

 — practically as dense, indeed, as at the time of its discovery 400 

 years ago. The forest lands are wonderfully rich in valuable 

 woods, medicinal plants and barks, and all the sturdy pioneer 

 needs to do is to go in and help himself. 



It was as late as 1893 that rubber trees were discovered in 

 Matto Grosso and the official report declared that there were 

 "thousands of millions" of them. Undoubtedly Matto Grosso 

 rubber came out through the Xingu, the Tapajos, and the Gua- 

 pore before the dates mentioned, but with no record of just 

 where it came from. Where there is regular rubber gathering 

 in this state, estradas are laid out, each gatherer attending 

 to something like 100 trees. According to de Mello, latex cups 

 are not attached to the tree itself, but little troughs made from 



A SHIPMENT OF CAUCIIO AT ITAITUBA. 



{This class of rubber abounds in Brazil, often on the same lands witii Hcvea, Itaituba 



"Album do Estado do Pari."] 



at the bead of navigation on the river Tapajos. — Frotn 



