PRODUCTS OF THE COUNTRY. 151 



men who have lived many years on the borders of the Amazon, 

 that of India rubber alone, not one-tenth was gathered, from 

 want of hands to pick it up at the proper season. And so it is 

 with all the other products. The mode of gatheiing is even 

 more astonishing. The trees are destroyed for the small fruit. 

 There are no saw-mills in that country, and when the people 

 want to build, they cut down just the most beautiful tree, and 

 shape to the dimensions of the piece of wood they want, with a 

 hatcliet. And these woods — what are tliey ? They are the 

 most exquisite in grain, the most admirable in color and in 

 variety, and the most precious for all possible cabinet work, 

 and for constructions of all kinds ; woods as hard and as dura- 

 ble as grow anywhere in the world, and which, I say, are not 

 even used in the country itself, and form no part whatsoever of 

 the exports of the country. It is this rambling, careless, indo- 

 lent population to which I have already alluded, which at 

 certain seasons wanders through the woods and gathers the 

 harvests. It is in that irregular manner that all tlie products 

 of the Amazon are collected — the sarsaparilla, the caoutchouc 

 or India rubber, the Brazilian nuts, and the hosts of fruits and 

 of fishes, which are used only to a very limited extent, but 

 which are already in some use for various manufactures, either 

 in the small towns along the Amazon, or at Para. 



In conversation with intelligent inhabitants, I have ascer- 

 tained that the planting of the India rubber tree, for instance, 

 would yield immeasurably larger returns than those which the 

 gathering of the natural product has thus far secured ; and 

 everywhere would these plantations be as easy as possible. 

 Life is so easy there — hardly shelter needed to be comfortable — 

 the variety of natural products through which life may be sus- 

 tained grow so profusely, that between fruits and grain and fish 

 and game and wild fowl, there is only a selection needed in 

 order to sustain an extensive population ; and I suppose that 

 the only reason why the country has not increased largely in 

 population is, because of the fact, that until recently, it has been 

 shut against intercourse with foreign nations ; but the great 

 fact to which I have alluded, which took place on the 7th of 

 September last, has laid the whole open, and according to the 

 laws of the land, the settlement of foreigners in Brazil is made 



