October i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



II 



Examining Rii-.beu in ax Amazun WAHEHcrsic. 



Barbados for care or funeral expenses in case I arrived at that 

 careful island with yellow fever. 



DOWN THE AMAZON. 



Early on Sunday morning, therefore, we said our good byes 

 and made our way down to the pier, where a delegation from 

 the Commercial Association was waiting to bid us boii voyage. 

 We all shook hands and said nice things to each other; the- 

 president gave me a beautiful spray of orchids, the Catalaya 

 superba, and with a final adieu we went aboard. Shortly after, 

 the boat started down river. Our last glimpse of Manaos as we 

 steamed away was the huge dome of the theater, its rich blending 

 of red, blue, yellow, and green tiling blazing in the sunlight 

 like a gigantic fire opal. We passed by the red clay shores, and 

 at length out of the black water of the Rio Negro into the yellow 

 Amazon again. 



The captain was a veteran in the Amazon trade, and knew 

 Manaos thirty years before, when it was only a farmyard. He 

 gave me his cabin and laid himself out to make me comfortable. 

 The boat was a slow one, but with the current we had no trouble 

 in doing i,? knots, and passed Itacoatiara early in the evening. 

 The river had risen 10 feet since we came up, and by the water- 

 marks on the trees had still another 10 to go. The floating logs, 

 trees, and grass patches had multiplied greatly. 



The food was excellent, the drinking water was good, and, 

 swinging our hammocks high up on the rear deck, we were very 

 comfortable. The big flat bottomed freighter was as steady as 

 a rock, and slid through the water as if she was greased. 



I was up at 6 the next morning and found it raining heavily. 

 All the forenoon we passed through exceedingly heavy showers. 

 The rain drove under the awning more or less, so I put on a rub- 

 ber coat and wondered if friends at home would believe how 

 cool it was at midday directly on the equator. 



We passed Santarem that afternoon, and got a good view of 

 the sandy beach in front of the town, its big white church, and 

 its little one-story houses with blue fronts and red roofs. We 

 also saw the Wireless station — the "deaf and dumb wireless" 

 as the captain graphically described it. The Tapajos river enters 

 the Amazon opposite Santarem, and as it is not as muddy as the 

 latter, it shows the same line of black water as does the Rio 

 Negro, although in lesser degree. 



WICKHAM AND SANTAREM. 



It is a good thing to remember that Santarem is the place 

 where Wickham, back in 1871 or '72 or '73 was installing a small 

 rubber plantation and watching for Opportunty. Luckily for the 

 planters in the Far East it came, when the big British steamer 

 Amaconas. without cargo and without supplies to buy one, hove 



Gathering Turtle Eggs on the Amazon. 



in sight. Wickham, practically penniless, chartered it for the 

 Indian government, stored baskets of Hevea seeds in its huge 

 hold, won hasty clearance from Para for "rare botanic speci- 

 mens," and got the seeds to the Kew Gardens alive and vital. 

 Every Hevea tree in the Far East and thousands in other parts 

 of the world are a direct result of that act. 



The British planters should erect a splendid monument at 

 Santarem in honor of Wickham, but they will never do it — with 

 the consent of the Brazilians. 



One night a boat of our own line saluted us in passing, show- 

 ing a flare which burned green for three minutes, then shot 

 up three white balls, lighting up the yellow waters and the black 



'ill A T I. A .V ?■ / (H 

 - O C I, .1 .1 



The Casioiiare River and its Outlet. 



