October i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



21 



sixteen rapids which divide the place from Cucuhy. From 

 Cucuhy the river is navigable in launches as far as the mouth 

 of the Casiquiare in all seasons. The Casiquiare could be nav- 

 igated with very powerful light draft steamers at high water — 

 March to June— and during the rest of the year in canoes. 



Little is known of the natural products of the Casiquiare, 

 but it may safely be asserted that up to the present not a single 

 kilogram of rubber— fine, scrap, or slab — has been shipped 

 from this river. The late Chevalier Teresio Piasco, chief of 

 the Italo-Venezuelan expedition to the upper Orinoco, in- 

 formed the writer that Caucho and Balata were abundant ; he 

 was silent, however, as to the presence of Hei'ea rubber, al- 

 though, as it is found at the mouths of the river, both on the 

 Orinoco and the Negro, it is probable that a careful search 

 would reveal its presence on the banks of the numerous af- 

 fluents of this river. 



The climate is said to be 

 healthful. Don Andre Level 

 Gutierez, actual governor of 

 the province, has for some 

 years sent men to this river in 

 search of piassava, and has 

 never encountered a mortality 

 above the average. The tem- 

 perature varies little, 35' to 36° 

 Centigrade being the average ; 

 no data is at hand as to rain- 

 fall, but thunderstorms are 

 said to be frequent. Like all 

 other parts of this region, the 

 valley of the Casiquiare is un- 

 inhabited. Nomadic Indians 

 of the Vare tribe visit it occa- 

 sionally on hunting expedi- 

 tions, but that is all. Fish 

 should be abundant, but fresh 

 water turtle are absent. 



The Venezuelan government 

 are known to have given vari- 

 ous grants of land on the up- 

 per Orinoco, and to have offer- 

 ed special inducements to set- 

 tlers, but hitherto without 

 avail, owing to the enormous 

 difficulties of transport. The 

 only way to work the Casi- 

 quiare satisfactorily would be 

 by the construction of three the casiquiare 



roads — one from Trinidad to Camanaos, in Brazil : one round 

 the falls at the mouth of the Casiquiare; and another further 

 upstream to avoid the rapids. The first would be about 80 

 miles long over rocky and very uneven ground, the forest being 

 chiefly small trees and beechwood, about five bridges would 

 be required. As to the others nothing certain can be said, 

 owing to lack of information, but the first would be about one 

 mile and the second about 10 miles long. 



In parenthesis it may be mentioned that up to May, 1903, 

 when the last news was received from San Carlos, nothing was 

 known there officially as to any grant of lands on the Casiqui- 

 are, the writer's informant being the governor himself. The 

 Venezuelan provinces of Alto Orinoco and Amazonas do all 

 their business with Mandos, the falls and rapids of the Orinoco 

 being even worse than those of the rio Negro. They come 

 down from July to November in big canoes and return in 

 steamers to Trinidad, where they reembark in their canoes. 



From four to five months are spent in the round trip. Whether 

 the falls are passable or not at other seasons of the year is hard 

 to say, but the Venezuelans, and those Brazilians who live on 

 the upper Negro, never do pass them at other times. 

 During the past year Venezuela exported via Mandos: 



Rubber, fine 48,354 kilograms 



Rubber, scrap 20,240 " 



Piassava 25,211 



Nearly the whole of the above is shipped to New York. It 

 will be seen, therefore, that the trade of this region is very 

 small, the rubber output being less than that of many seringales 

 on the Acre or upper Jurud. 



Seeing that foreigners located in the best parts of the Ama- 

 zon valley have hitherto failed to succeed, it is to be feared that 

 on the Casiquiare they would inevitably meet the same fate. 

 The difficulty in obtaining men to work there, the enormous 



expense of transport, and the 

 unsettled condition of the 

 country (the Venezuelan pro- 

 vince of Amazonas is notorious 

 as a hotbed of pronunciamien- 

 tos and revolutions, three gov- 

 ernors having been disposed 

 by force of arms in as many 

 years) would form insuperable 

 objections to such an enter- 

 prise. 



If the manager be a foreigner 

 he will ignore the most essen- 

 tial details of the rubber busi- 

 ness. If he has the necessary 

 experience, he can get a better 

 berth on the lower Amazon, or 

 find houses willing to set him 

 up for himself. Should he be 

 a Venezuelan he will meddle 

 with politics, with disastrous 

 results for the company. Bra- 

 zilians won't go; there are 

 plenty of good rubber lands 

 awaiting exploration here yet, 

 and they naturally prefer to 

 stay at home. 



The greatest difficulty after 

 transport would be the person- 

 nel. The days when one could 

 get hundreds of Cearenses for 

 and its outlets. the asking are gone. Not only 



does Ceara impose a heavy tax on every person leaving that 

 state, but the men themselves have had their eyes opened and 

 know that rubber collecting is one of the most sickly trades in 

 existence, and about the worst paid. It requires a certain skill, 

 too, not to be found in every raw hand as many owners of 

 land on the Purus and Jurua know to their cost. 



In Peru the supply of rubber workers is inadequate to the 

 demand. Venezuela, as mentioned, is even worse off in this 

 respect, and Europeans cannot stand the climate. West Indian 

 blacks are no good ; they have been tried here and found want- 

 ing. Chinese might serve, but there is a very considerable 

 prejudice against them which may any day culminate in a law 

 expelling them. In short, as long as there is rubber here, be- 

 low the falls, it is utter folly to go for it to places like the Cas- 

 iquiare, where the product hardly compensates the expense of 

 the transportation. 



Manaos, Brazil, August 20. 1903. 



