( 
122 THE AmZON ANH aiAHEIlU KWERS. 
lootors,” they are sure to select the most ridiculous gew'gaAvs, such as 
high riding-hoots, gold watches, and silk jackets, and silk uiuhrellus 
tor their hroAVU ladies, although they Imow that the useless articles 
will cost them a year or more’s haril labour. 
In tills condition of thing.s, it Avill be readily understood that no 
thought has been given to improving the preparation of the caoutchouc, 
either by the use of alum for its soliditieatiou, in place of the weary 
lu’ocess of smoking it with palm-nuts, which arc not always to be 
had, or by the mixture of ammoniac — a still more important discovery 
— by which the milk may be kept liquid, and tlius Avould become 
transportable in casks. And equally evident is it that only with a 
total change of their commercial conditions, by the establishment of new 
lines of steamers, by the construction of railways, and by the opening 
of branches of European firms, can these highly favoni’od countries be 
divorced fi'om the errors of their old routine, and led into other and 
more prosperous ways. These happy changes effected, thc> cacao plant 
also, Avhich giwvs luxuriantly over an immense range, may be turned 
to good account, more especially as the preparation of it for export 
is so simple, the seeds being only dried in the sun. There is also 
a coarse sort of chocolate made of it, but it spoils easily. It still 
continues to be planted on a small scale on the Amazon and near the 
mouths of some of its tributaries, and its quality is said to be first-rate ; 
but, as it was often sold mixed with the inferior seeds of the wild 
cacao, its purchasers fell off. 
This AAdld cacao, Avith its large lancet-shaped hanging leaves, and its 
cucumber-like fruit springing directly from the stem, is one of the 
characteristic features of the virgem, on which it often forms dense 
thickets, which are all the more impenetrable that the boughs— exhibiting 
frequently at the same time the small reddish flowers and the ripe golden 
fniit, in Avhich the seeds lie embedded in a sweet white marrow — bend to 
the ground and there take root again. 
Blit the india-rubber and the cacao are not the only treasures worth 
collecting in these forests. Even now the export of the Para nuts, 
the fruit of the Bertholleiia excelsa, yields an annual revenue of 200,000 
dollars ; and the copaiba oil and the urueu, the seeds of the Bixa 
Orellana, used for dyeing, about 100,000 dollars. These sums seem 
small enough, it is true, but there arc perhaps a hnuefr-ed times those 
vahies of the rich-flavoured nuts rotting unheeded in the forests, and 
