10 RUBBER 



CHAPTER III 



THE HISTORY OF RUBBER 



Of course, you have already guessed that the material 

 used by the " poor savages " I have been talking about 

 was rubber. But I should not be at all surprised if 

 you are thinking that I have made up the whole story 

 I have told you about the discovery of the product. 



For the moment, I will neither confess nor deny that 

 I have spun you a fairy story. Instead, I will ask you 

 to give your attention to a few well-known facts about 

 the history of rubber. 



On the authority of an old and honoured historian, 

 Herrera by name, Columbus saw the natives of the 

 Island of Haiti, in the West Indies, playing with balls 

 which were said to be made of gum from a tree. This 

 was during his second voyage of discovery, in 1493 to 

 1496. A sixteenth-century document refers to elastic 

 balls which the aborigines of the New World used in 

 their games. And early in the seventeenth century a 

 report was issued dealing with a tree growing in Mexico, 

 from which the natives extracted a milky liquid that 

 came to be used by the Spaniards for the purpose of 

 making their garments water-tight. 



In each case, the historical reference is generally 

 admitted to concern the material we now call rubber. 

 Therefore, by the way, so far as history enlightens us, 

 Columbus was the first European to become acquainted 

 with this forest product. 



According to history, then, the aborigines in different 

 parts of Southern America discovered rubber, and made 

 use of it, without any help from the civilized world. 



