EDITORIAL. 
175 
savages,  and  averse  to  intercourse  with  the  white  man.  Above  Sarayacu 
on  the  Ucayali,  is  the  river  Aguaylia,  upon  the  banks  of  which  grows  sarsa- 
parilla in  sufficient  quantity  to  enrich  not  only  the  Province  of  Mainas,  but 
all  the  department  of  Amazonas.  [Yet]  Padre  Calvo,  the  president  of  the 
Missions  at  Sarayacu  told  Mr.  Herndon,  that  although  he  has  the  exclusive 
right,  by  order  of  the  prefect,  of  collecting  all  the  sarsaparilla  on  the  Ucayali 
and  its  tributaries,  he  could  not  for  any  price  supply  more  than  300  arrobas 
[about  10,000  lbs.]  annually  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  laborers 
who  are  willing  to  brave  the  attacks  of  the  savages."  p.  188. 
Manieiga  is  another  production  of  a  different  kind  which  is  also  largely 
an  article  of  Amazonian  commerce.  It  is  the  fixed  oil  obtained  from  the 
eggs  of  the  turtle  that  inhabit  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  and  is  obtained  by 
crushing  the  eggs  in  a  canoe,  exposing  the  emulsive  mass  to  the  sun  till  the 
oil  rises  to  the  surface,  when  it  is  skimmed  off,  boiled  and  introduced  into 
earthen  pots  of  45  lbs  weight.  Each  pot  is  worth  $1.30  at  the  beach,  and 
$2  to  $3  at  Para.  A  turtle  will  average  eighty  eggs  ;  forty  turtles  will 
give  a  pot  of  oil ;  twenty  five  men  will  make  200  pots  in  twelve  days  ;  the 
beaches  of  the  Amazon  and  its  tributaries  yield  about  6000  pots  annually. 
Copaiba  is  another  drug  that,  like  sarsaparilla,  is  collected  in  small  quan- 
tities on  various  branches  of  the  main  stream,  and  it  is  carried  down  to  Para 
in  earthen  pots  to  the  amount  of  7  or  8000  annually,  from  whence  it  enters 
foreign  commerce  in  barrels.  The  rivers  draining  the  country  north  of  the 
Amazon,  especially  the  Rio  Negro,  yield  more  of  the  copaiba  than  those  to 
the  South. 
Among  other  articles  which  come  down  to  Para  are  annatto,  cacao,  tonqua 
beans,  vegetable  wax,  isinglass,  vanilla,  sugar,  copal,  various  valuable 
cabinet  woods,  guarana,  Brazillian  nutmegs  and  caoutchouc.  The  annatto 
plant  grows  spontaneously  in  Eastern  Peru.  Tonqua  beans  (Cumarc)  are 
found  in  great  abundance  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Rio  Negro.  The  same 
region  is  particularly  productive  in  cacao. 
The  India  rubber  is  produced  very  largely  in  the  country  bordering  on 
the  Xingu  and  [smaller  neighboring  streams  of  which  Gurupa  is  the  entrepot. 
Our  author  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  process  of  extracting  the  juice 
and  converting  it  into  the  commercial  caoutchouc,  which  we  will  present  to 
our  readers  on  a  future  occasion. 
It  may  be  wondered  at  that  no  notice  is  taken  of  the  cinchona  trees  or 
the  bark  trade.  The  portion  of  country  traversed  by  the  author  was  not  a 
bark  region,  or,  unfortunately  for  the  interests  of  materia  medica,  being 
neither  a  botanist  or  pharmacologist,  he  could  not  take  advantage  of  the  ex- 
cellent opportunity  for  observation  and  inquiry  in  that  direction  which  his 
official  character  afforded.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Lieut.  Gibbon,  who  passed 
through  the  Bolivian  bark  region,  and  who,  we  are  informed,  brought  home 
specimens  of  bark,  has  been  more  medico-botanically  disposed,  and  will 
give  us  in  his  forthcoming  continuation  of  the  "  Exploration  of  the  xlmazon  " 
a  fund  of  interesting  observations  on  the  local  commerce  in  cinchona,  and 
the  probability  of  diverting  the  current  of  trade  in  this  important  drug 
down  the  valley  of  the  Madeira  to  an  Atlantic  port. 
