THE RUBBER TRADE 313 



were the first native Brazilians who, a hundred years 

 ago, played a great part in opening to settlement vast 

 stretches of wilderness. The rubber-hunters have played 

 a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber 

 dazzled them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other 

 men and driven them forth to wander through the wide 

 waste spaces of the world. Searching for rubber they 

 made highways of rivers, the very existence of which 

 was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any 

 map-makers. Whether they succeeded or failed, they 

 everywhere left behind them settlers, who toiled, married, 

 and brought up children. Settlement began ; the con- 

 quest of the wilderness entered on its first stage. 



On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we 

 bought, of course at a high price, sugar and tobacco for 

 the camaradas. In this land of plenty the camaradas 

 over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as ever. 

 In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the 

 only men who paddled strong and continuously. The 

 storekeeper's stock of goods was very low, only what 

 he still had left from that brought in nearly a year 

 before ; for the big boats, or batelaos — batelons — had 

 not yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet 

 them somewhere below the next rapids, the Infernao. 

 The trader or rubber-man brings up his year's supply of 

 goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching 

 the upper course of the river early in May, when the 

 rainy season is over. The parties of rubber-explorers 

 are then equipped and provisioned ; and the settlers 

 purchase certain necessities, and certain things that 

 strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut crop 

 on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers 

 and wilderness wandei'ers. 



On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, 



