November 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



63 



Huge Balls of Crude Rubber Spread Out to Dry on the Upper Mai hado 



permitting the trees to rest on alternate days. It it rain- the 

 day's catch is spoilt, as latex mixed with water is worthies-, 



The season of 1913 had been a p one; at the beginning the 



Bow was abundant and of good quality, one hundred pounds of 

 latex yielding 

 sixty pounds of 

 rubber. That 

 was in Decem- 

 ber; by May fh e 

 hundred trees 

 were producing 

 •only twenty-live 

 pounds of milk, 

 and this wa 

 such poor qual- 

 ity that it con- 

 tained but 40 per 

 cent, of rubber. 

 Of course, the 

 trees had become 

 weakened as the 

 season advanced, 

 which also ac- 

 counts for the 

 decrease in yield, 

 but the main 

 trouble had been 

 almost constant 

 rains long before 

 the regular wet 



season. The milk was weighed as brought in by each man at 

 midday and credited to his account ; in the afternoon the whole 

 force repaired to the smoke-house to work up the day's catch. 

 A kind of wood called Mazarandul is used exclusively for the 

 smudge; it is of a deep reddish color and grows plentifully along 

 the river. 



The cost of transportation between the Upper Orinoco and 

 Ciudad Bolivar is enormous. In the first place, the distance is 

 very great and the river is full of rapids, necessitating long over- 

 land portages; all provisions have to be brought up, and the 

 crude product has to be taken back down; there is always a 

 great loss both ways from theft and wreckage, and as there is 

 no regular system of navigation beyond the mouth of the \purc. 

 the difficulties encountered in securing boats and crews are 

 tremendous. 



The headquarters of the Orinoco rubber gatherers is San 

 Fernando de Atabapo, containing about a hundred huts, which 

 is the only settlement above the Cataract of Maipures. In Feb- 

 ruary the town was almost deserted In May it was full of life. 

 Numbers of people were arriving daily ; there was dancing and 

 gaming, eating and drinking, day and night, and many a man 

 spent his entire season's earnings in a few evenings. The sight 

 was not unlike that formerly seen in the western mining camps 

 of our own country. Representatives of the big houses in 

 Ciudad Bolivar, which bad made advances to the concessioners, 

 were there to see that they received all the rubber collected bj 

 their debtors. The governor of the department (Alto Orinoco) 

 made his home further down the river, on the Rio Cataniapo, 

 near the Rapids of Atures. He explained that it was "healthier" 

 on the Cataniapo than at San Fernando, and I subsequently 

 learned just what he meant; but more of this later. All goods 

 going up the river were stopped at his domicile, examined and 

 an impuesto collected. There was also a good deal of pilfer- 

 ing of boxes and bales by the light-handed inspectors. Another 

 tax was imposed on all rubber leaving the territory. No wonder 

 that there was great dissatisfaction with the existing regime, 

 and a few days after I left San Fernando the injured parties 

 took a terrible revenge. The governor (Gen. Roberto Pulido) 

 had come up from the Cataniapo and had decreed that not one 



ounce of rubber was to leave the district until the tax had been 

 paid in advance. I his tax was looked upon as robbery, pure 



and simple, and it was said, was illegally imposed by the gov- 

 ernor fi r the benefit ol his own pocket So one night, as 



Govi i nor Pulido 

 lay ill with fever, 

 his room was en- 

 uid he was 

 killed and hor- 

 ribly mutilated. 

 At the same time 

 all the other 

 nment offi- 

 cials in the town 

 were treated in 

 like manner and 

 in the riot that 

 ensued the 

 gri ater part of 

 the male popula- 

 i San Fer- 

 was ex- 

 terminated. It 

 was said that In- 

 dians had made 

 the attack, but 

 ily the real 

 perpetrators of 

 the deed were a 

 i o u p of the 

 owners of concessions in that district who objected to what 

 they called open robbery. Personally, I was treated most court- 

 eously by Governor Pulido, and he helped in many ways to 

 further my mission I low ever, there seems bale doubt that he 

 drove his methods of extortion too fai . this was apparent even 

 in the postoffice, where postage stamps were sold at twice their 

 face value, and if anyone refused to buy them but used stamps 

 purchased elsewdiere, there were reasons for believing that the 

 letters never left the building. 



The difficulties of travel on the Machado are even greater 

 than on the Orinoco. In eight days we came down a stretch of 

 water that requires three or four months to ascend. The cur- 

 rent is terrific; in a large iti we could easily travel eighty 

 kilometers a day. Rapids are numerous, those of San Vicente 

 being the most dangerous. Just before my visit a batelao with 

 a crew of thirty-cue had gom over, id whom twenty-seven were 

 never seen again. Steam launches, privately owned, now ply 

 between some of the worst rapids and greatly facilitate travel. 

 By their use we covered in one day a distance that had formerly 

 required five months, as the boats had to be dragged around 

 long ainl difficult portages. 



On the Machado the rubber camps arc not abandoned during 

 the rainy season but as the floods advance stand isolated above 

 the muddy water, crowded with their human inhabitants, 

 chickens, pigs and dogs. Many of the houses are built on piles. 

 and the water comes up until it touches the floor. As may be 

 expected, the interior is always damp and ill-smelling. Cooking 

 and washing are done on the front porch and canoes are tied 

 to the posts in readiness for instant flight if necessary, or to 

 use in gathering wood or visiting the neighbors. Behind the 

 huts, banana palms bend and bow gracefully as the current tugs 

 at their bases, and a few vultures are usually perched on the 

 roof. The whole presents a scene of devastation, but the people 

 seem perfectly happy. If there is any high country within 

 reach, the men may cut timber and collect copaiba oil or hunt 

 for various kinds of gums. The gathering of Brazil nuts forms 

 one of the chief occupations, and thousands of tons are brought 

 down the various rivers annually. Canoes are hollowed out, 

 palm leaves and poles for new huts are brought in, and every- 



