CHAPTER lY. 



EARLY HISTORY OF GUM-ELASTIC. 



Condamine's paper to the French Academy on gum-elastic. First importation of shoes into the 

 United States. Para the principal place of export. Method of gathering the gum by the 

 Indians, and their manufacture of shoes and toys. European manufacture. Of Mcintosh. Of 

 the French. American manufacture. The Roxbury Company. 



" GuM-ELASTic was first introduced into Europe and the 

 civilized wOrld from South America, about the close of the 

 seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century. 



It is certain that veiy little attention was paid to the new 

 material until the year 1736, when, as we are informed, M. de 

 la Condamine, a French Academician at Cayenne, presented a 

 paper to the French Academy, describing the tree from which 

 it is obtained, and the mode of preparation practiced by the 

 natives of South America. 



Very little vv^as heard of it until 1790, when some pieces of it 

 were brought to England from India. It was then found to pos- 

 sess one of its peculiar properties, adhesiveness, which renders it 

 valuable, for erasing pencil marks ; for this and its wonderful 

 elastic property, there has n^ver been found any substitute. 



The use of the article for other purposes, was first learned from 

 the Omagua tribe of Brazilian Indians, who cured it in their 

 peculiar manner, as described under the head of ' Indian Manu- 

 factures.' By these Indians it was brought to the notice of the 

 first Portuguese settlers in Para, and by them the traffic in it 

 was commenced with Europeans and Americans. 



The first pair of sho^s imported was brought into the United 

 States in 1820. They were gilded, and had long pointed toes, 

 like those of the Mandarin of China. They were said to be 



