54 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



no punishment can be inflicted on them for desertion. 

 If the employer can ascertain the whereabouts of an 

 absconder, he can take civil process against him for 

 debt, but it is unlikely that he will recover any portion 

 of his claim. These conditions only refer to Brazil; 

 in Bolivia a deserter can be arrested and returned to 

 the estate, and by law must remain and work on the 

 property until the amount of his indebtedness has been 

 discharged. 



A certain number of labourers are recruited annually 

 from Para and the immediate neighbourhood, and a few 

 also from Manaos. Only a small proportion of these 

 belong, strictly speaking, to the permanent resident 

 population, the majority being the flotsam and jetsam 

 from gangs employed on contract work, various trades, 

 deserters from ships, or discharged sailors and others 

 who have drifted to the Amazon Valley from various 

 causes. They comprise Portuguese, Italians, some 

 Spaniards, Brazilians white, black, and mulatto 

 negroes from the British West Indies, and occasionally 

 coolies from Calcutta who have drifted down from 

 British Guiana. These men are engaged by commis- 

 sion agents, and forwarded to different parts of the 

 rubber-producing districts on the same terms as the 

 immigrants from Ceara and the adjoining States. 



From the many thousands of labourers annually 

 brought to the rubber properties, a certain percentage 

 remain permanently on the estates, partly because they 

 find themselves heavily in debt to their employer, and 

 frequently for the lack of funds to pay for a return pas- 

 sage to their homes. As a general rule the men are well 

 treated so far as personal relations between master and 

 man are concerned, and the fact that they are charged 



