J .^7!2S3 — 5^^'=^ 



r 1 



44 GOODYEAR ON GUM -ELASTIC. 



from India, but as no shoes have been brought from that country 

 since, the origin of this pair is doubtful. In 1823, a lot of five 

 hundred pairs was brought into Boston, and sold at high prices, 

 they were soon after imported in large quantities. From that 

 year may be dated the commerce in this article, which has since 

 grown to such extent. The India rubber bottles were imported 

 into Europe and the United States in small quantities, many 

 years before, and were commonly cut up and used for the pur- 

 pose of erasing pencil marks." 



INDIAN MANUFACTURE. 



" The city of ' Santa Maria de Belem do Grand Para,' is 

 situated on the southern branch of the river Amazon, called the 

 Tocantins, one hundred miles from its mouth, and lies in 1^ de- 

 grees S. latitude. Para is the capital of the truly magnificent 

 province of the same name, which forms the northern boundary 

 of Brazil ; the city contains twenty thousand inhabitants, and 

 being the only port of entry on the Amazon, is a place of con- 

 siderable commercial importance, receiving, as it does, all the 

 produce of that immense river, on which are situated a great 

 number of important trading villages. 



There are several American, English, and French houses 

 established here, but the principal part of business is carried on 

 by Portuguese merchants." 



We are not informed by what steps the natives advanced to 

 the degree of perfection attained by them in the manufacture of 

 this singular substance. That the natives should have invented 

 their various processes of gathering, moulding, and smoking 

 the native gum, is certainly creditable to their ingenuity. It 

 is only recently that civilized men have been able, by the aid 

 of chemical combinations, to improve upon the qualities of the 

 substance which the Indians imparted to it by their mode of 

 manufacture. 



