FROM RIO DE .LVXEIRO TO THE RAPEDS OF THE MADEIRA. 
40 
Cordillera through the Mamore and Madeira to the i^ijnazon and Para, 
while formerly it had to bo transported over the icy heights of the Andes 
to the Pacific. Besides a great many most extravagant household drugs, 
they use commonly the caferana, a herb of bitter taste found in tlic 
woods, which is said to be as efficacious as Peruvian bark. 
On account of the singularity of the fact, I caunot omit to mention 
that there is a German among the Seringueiros of the Madema. He had 
come over from Holstein twenty years ago, had enrolled himself as a 
soldier, and fought against Rosas in the La Plata States ; and he is now 
leading a sort of Robinson Crusoe life near the Madeira. Ho is reported 
to be a very fast gatherer, and to prepare, with his Indian wife, during 
the three or four di-y months, more than a hundred ai-robas (one arroba 
is equivalent to 32 lb.) of Seringa, while the average produce of a family 
is only about fifty aiTobas. 
It was pleasant to see the joyous surprise and the brightened face of 
the man, when he unexpectedly heard our loud salutation, in German, of 
“ Good morning, countryman ! ” from out a canoe full of Indians. We 
had easily recognised him by his fau- hair and beard, the more so, as wo 
had hom-d of him before, and had been looking out for him for two days. 
He stood near the water’s edge, watching oiu- canoes coming .slowly up. 
Near him was his female companion, a stout, strongly built Tapuya,* and 
behind them some of their ofispring, who.se yellow hair contrasted 
strangely with their dark skins. 
A thousand such families, living along the river, soon woidd 
completely change tlie aspect of the country. Especially if an energetic 
company, fully alive to the position, and siu-e of adequate support from 
Ivome, would lead the settlers and protect them against the iuevitable 
joalomsics of land and trade monopolists, such a colony might anticipate 
full success, particularly as facilities of intercommunication will soon give 
a heavy blow to the old system of robbery. 
Some of the hundreds of Em-opean workmen, necessary for the 
construction of the Madeira railway, certainly will remain there, in spite 
of fevers and difficulties ; and it will depend only upon the ability of the 
* In the Tupi language Tapuyo moans foreigner and enemy ; hut now.adays the 
ajipeUation is given not only to all ImUan settlors of the Amazon Valley, of wliatever 
tribe they may he, hut, also, promiscuously to aU mestizoes; so tJiat very likely, a 
hundi-ed years hence any one vho ha.s a brown skin and catches ii.sh there will be 
* ’ designated by the word. 
K 
