MAKING A RUBBER PLANTATION 69 



supplies being brought down by dirt. Brazil is also 

 developing her railway system, opening up the far 

 interior of the country in order to make transport 

 quicker and cheaper, and prevent some of her most 

 valuable rubber getting lost through boats being 

 wrecked in the rapids. 



CHAPTER XV 



MAKING A RUBBER PLANTATION 



We have come out to the East, to see for ourselves how 

 rubber is cultivated. And we have chosen to spend 

 most of our little remaining time together in the Malay 

 Peninsula, since this is the country where the largest 

 area of land has been given over to rubber-trees, 

 where many of the finest plantations are situated, and 

 where advanced methods of cultivation and manufac- 

 ture are most generally practised. 



Our surroundings are very Oriental, yet there are 

 many signs that Western civilization is playing an 

 important part in the life of this country. When our 

 ship dropped anchor in the harbour at Singapore, we 

 imagined that by some mistake we had been brought 

 to a Chinese port, instead of to our proper destination 

 in the British Straits Settlements. The quay was 

 packed with Chinamen, or " boys," as they are all 

 called when they belong to the working class, no matter 

 whether their age is six or sixty. When our luggage 

 had been seized by as many of the pig-tailed brigade 

 as could manage to secure any one of our belongings, 

 when we and our traps had been taken possession of 

 by Chinese rickshaw coolies, and at last we were on the 



