I go 



producer. In order to study this question it is necessary to con- 

 sider the condition under which the rubber estates are at present 

 being explored and worked. 



The Hevea Braziliensis, is, as has already been stated, scattered 

 through the Amazonian forests. In some places it is much more 

 frequently met with than in others. Nothing but actual explora- 

 tion and trial will enable the most experienced person to form any 

 reliable opinion as to the value of a block of forest. The manner 

 in which explorations are conducted is as follows : — An individual 

 who enjoys a certain amount of credit in Manaos charters a small 

 launch and freights her with a cargo of food, clothing, and imple- 

 ments necessary. He then proceeds to search in the low class 

 hotels and boarding houses at Manaos and Fara, or perhaps he 

 may even go to the State of Ceara whence the labouring classes 

 are chiefly recruited, for a number of men with whom he intends to 

 work his estate. These he engages, not on wages but on the con- 

 dition that he will barter his goods for the rubber they extract. 

 Most of these labourers draw a ccnsiderable advance before they 

 can be persuaded to go up country. With this cargo and crew he 

 proceeds to the district where he intends to work. Having arrived 

 at a place which he considers promising, he despatches some of 

 the most practised labourers, or " Seringueiros, " as they are here 

 named, to explore the forest, find the rubber trees, and open the 

 paths between them. With the remainder he builds a store, known 

 as the " Barracao, " in which he stores his goods, and which be- 

 comes a rendezvous or nucleus for the colony. The men all this 

 time are living at their own expense, the price of supplies given to 

 them being debited to their account, to be paid for in rubber latter 

 on. The forest having been explored, the trees located and con- 

 nected by paths, known as " Estradas, " the men select which they 

 are going to work. Each " Estrada " makes a loop, visiting gener- 

 ally some ioo or 150 trees, and returning to the starting point, 

 generally on the bank of a river or stream navigable for canoes. 

 Each man builds his own small hut, or " Baraca/ 1 where he lives 

 and from which he works the two " Estradas " which he has selected. 

 From time to time he pays visits to the central store to obtain 

 goods, and deliver the rubber he has collected. This the owner of 

 the store, or the "Patron" as he is termed, buys from him at a 

 price, generally fixed by the "Patron" himself and credits him 

 with the amount as a set off against the goods that have been sup- 

 plied to him. As the "Seringueiros" can, as a rule, neither read 

 nor write, the opportunities of an unscrupulous " Patron " are 

 great. As the end of the season, that is to say, in January, most 

 of these men return to Manaos. A fresh lot is generally taken up 

 by the " Patron " each year. 



The labourer or "seringueiro " spends his day much as follows. 

 Rising from his hammock just before day break he takes a cup of 

 black coffee. He then proceeds to tap the trees in one of the 

 " estradas, " affixing at the same time the cups to catch the latex 

 as it exudes. The necessary cups a~e placed at the foot of each 

 tree at the time that the " estrada " is being opened. By 9 A.M. 



