62 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1914. 



Among the Rubber Collectors of the Remote South 



American Hinterland. 



Leo I Miller, American Museum of Natural History 



[Mr. Miller has not only devoted a great deal of linn- to exploration in South America in the interest of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, of New York, but he was one of Colonel Roosevelfs famous party that discovered the "River of 

 Doubt." His description of rubber gathering on the I pper Orinoco in Venezuela and along the Machado in Brazil — both vis- 

 ited by him last year — makes a valuable and interesting addition to the contributions on this subject which have already 

 appeared in these columns.] 



NEARLY four years of constant exploration and travel in 

 the wilds of South America have taken me into many 

 out-of-the way places and little-known parts of that con- 

 tinent. Invariably my mission has been a scientific one — to study 

 the fauna and the flora of the region traversed, and a good deal 

 of my time has been spent in the haunts of rubber gatherers — 

 those pioneers of the tropics whose frail crafts are constantly 

 pushing beyond 

 the utmost front- 

 iers of civiliza- 

 tion in quest of 

 new fields to 

 conquer, and 

 braving a hun- 

 dred dangers in 

 their opening up 

 of the dark and 

 silent waterways 

 in the interior of 

 the great, mys- 

 terious land. In 

 recent years 

 much has been 

 written concern- 

 ing the condi- 

 tions attendant 

 upon the exploit- 

 ing of rubber 

 lands in parts of 

 South America, 

 some of which is 

 true, a great deal 

 of which is un- 

 true. It is one 

 of the objects of 

 this paper to 

 bring to light 

 some of the in- 

 teresting phases of the life that is lived in the eternal solitudes 

 of the boundless forests with which I became so intimately ac- 

 quainted but of which comparatively little is known in general. 



It has rarely been m_\ privilege to penetrate into more primi- 

 tive regions than the headwaters of the Orinoco, or into a land 

 of greater promise than is found along the upper reaches of the 

 Gy Parana, better km wn as the Rio Machado. The Gy Parana, 

 it might be well -to stair, of the largest affluents of the 



Madeira. For many years its lower course has been known i" 

 adventurous seekers of orchids, rubber and other natural prod- 

 ucts, all of which have been yielded in abundance; but it is only 

 within the last tew years that the course of the upper river has 

 been thrown open to navigation of any kind. Even now only 

 an occasional dugout ventures beyond the zone of pestilence and 

 rapids into the land of hostile Indian tribes ; but the way has 

 nevertheless been opened, and within a comparatively short time 

 this region will be giving up its fair quota of the natural riches 

 that lie hidden in the vast, untrodden wilderness. 



The Orinoco is, no doubt, better known by name than the 



Smoking Hevea Brasiliensis. Rio Machado 



Machado, and at present it must suffice to give merely a vague 

 idea of the remoteness of its hinterlands by citing that it re- 

 quires approximately three months of travel from Ciudad Boli- 

 var, two hundred and forty miles from the mouth of the mighty 

 river, to reach the Rapids of Guajaribo, far above the mouth of 

 the Cassiquaire ; beyond that point the river is wholly unknown. 

 On February 28. 1913, I stopped at the barraca of one 



Senor Paraquete, 

 far up on the 

 Orinoco, beyond 

 the mouth of the 

 Ventuari. The 

 m a i n building 

 stood on a high 

 bank thirty feet 

 above the river, 

 and was occu- 

 pied by Sr. Pa- 

 raquete and his 

 assistants. Sev- 

 eral large rooms 

 were used as a 

 venta or store 

 and a fair stock 

 of provisions and 

 merchandise was 

 carried. On one 

 side was the 

 camp of the full- 

 blooded Indian 

 employes, Ma- 

 quiritares from 

 the regions of 

 t h e Cunacunu- 

 ma, who lived in 

 small palm-leaf 

 huts with their 

 families. On the 

 other side stood long, thatched buildings, open all around, with 

 scores of hammocks strung from the posts and beams; these 

 were the quarters of the natives— Venezuelans and Zambos. In 

 the rear, and some distance away, stood the smoke-houses, com- 

 pletely enclosed with palm leaves except for one small door 

 opening. Trails led into the forest from a number of points, and 

 numerous dugouts tied to the landing indicated that work was 

 also prosecuted on the other Mile of the river. Often, especially 

 in the case of the Indians, man and wife worked together. Old- 

 fashioned methods are employed entirely. The trees are girded 

 with strips of palm pith at the base which intercept the latex 

 aoid deflect it into a folded leaf placed underneath. This sys- 

 tem is rather wasteful and injurious to the trees. There is no 

 fixed rule or custom for tapping the trees, the men hacking into 

 the bark at random, but occasionally the herring-bone pattern 

 of cut is used. Each man has two routes, and endeavors to have 

 from three to five hundred trees on each, seldom more, often 

 less, according to the abundance of the rubber trees in the lo- 

 cality. He takes one trail one day. and the other the next, thus 



