May i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



271 



Offices of A. H. Alden, Limited, Para. 



Offices of Gruner & Co., Para. 



SECOND LETTER. 



Travel in a Boat Consecrated to Rubber. — The Lower Amazon and the Ap- 

 proach to Para. — Vast Waterways and the Perils of Navigating Them. — 

 Experiences with Customs Officials. — Landing Right in the Rubber District, 

 and Landing "Right." — Courtesies at Para. 



OUR craft was first and last a rubber boat and had carried 

 million of dollars' worth of fine Para to the States and 

 to Europe — $4,000,000 in one cargo. Almost from the 

 beginning the Captain and officers talked rubber. They spoke 

 with pride of Riker's plantation up at Santarem, and said he 

 had 50,000 trees and was already tapping. * Posted in the chart 

 room was the following : 



SHIPMENTS OF RUBBER IN MANAOS, PARA AND OTHER PORTS. 

 Special Notice to Captains and Officers. 



We desire to call the special attention of our captains and officers to 

 the fact that for some time past rubber cargoes have come forward 

 with the weights in kilos incorrectly marked on many of the cases, the 

 result being that whenever these cases are larded here broken, the 

 vessel is invariably called upon for the deficiency between the foreign 

 and the English weight. 



We therefore insist upon the utmost care being taken in receiving 

 and stowing this description of cargo, so that the cases stand no pos- 

 sible chance of being broken, and that a thorough search for loose 

 rubber be made in all lighters before being taken away from vessel. 



It is also important that very special attention be given to port of 

 destination on cases of rubber from Havre, and that shipments of 

 pelles and other loose rubber belonging to various consignees be en- 

 tirely separate; different holds preferred. 



Great care must be taken in the storage of nuts and Lisbon cargo, 

 that the immediate discharge of rubber in Havre and Liverpool be not 

 interfered with. This is very important. 



We had been in the mouth of the Amazon for certainly twelve 

 hours, and the yellow waves gave no suggestion of saltness. 

 We told each other the ancient tale of the boat's crew perishing 

 from thirst, hailing a passing vessel and begging for water, 

 and getting the well-known reply, "Dip it up then; you're in the 

 mouth of the Amazon." We never realized what a mean trick 

 was played on those thirsty mariners until we got a deckhand 

 to dip up some water. It was exceedingly brackish and far 

 from drinkable. 



At nightfall it began to rain in torrents, and we felt our 

 way up to the pilot boat, which lay rolling in the trough of the 

 sea in a manner that suggested the greatest discomfort to those 

 on board. After a time a boat put off from her side and we saw 

 it jerkily advancing over the waves to meet us. That is, we 

 didn't see the boat — it was too dark for that; we saw the gleam 



of a lantern at intervals when it rode on the crest of a wave. 

 The pilot, a huge two-hundred-pound Indian, caught the side lad- 

 der and climbed aboard with surprising agility. 



After about half an hour steady steaming, through sheets of 

 rain illumined by occasional lightning flashes, with the lead 

 going constantly, we anchored in 15 fathoms of water to wait 

 for daylight before proceeding up the river. At 5 o'clock the 

 next morning we started on again, and soon it was daylight. 

 The yellowish green water had taken on a deeper yellow and the 

 morning was a mixture of rain squalls and short intervals of 

 sunshine. The Tocantins looked like one of our own great 

 lakes after a storm. In all directions were floating forest 

 wreckage and marsh grasses, and in the far distance the low 

 lying coastline. 



' This was mentioned in The India Rubber World several years ago. 



Rubber Offices in a Para Street. 



