r 
ON  THE  INDIA-RUBBER  OF  THE  AMAZON. 
545 
NOTE  ON  THE  INDIA-RUBBER  OF  THE  AMAZON. 
By  R.  Spruce,  Esq.* 
The  extraction  of  caoutchouc  from  the  various  species  of  Sipho- 
nia  was,  at  the  time  of  my  arrival  in  Para  (July,  1849),  a  branch 
of  industry  limited  to  the  immediate  environs  of  that  city,  being 
carried  on  principally  in  the  island  of  Marajo,  and  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Tocantins.    The  low  price  it  fetched  in  the  Para 
market  (10  milreis — £1  3s  4d  the  arroba  of  321bs.),  and  the 
great  gains  which  those  who  trade  in  the  sertaef  except  on  their 
outlay,  prevented  the  sertanejos  from  employing  themselves  in 
the  fabrication  of  seringa  ;t  to  which  contributed  also  the  universal 
apathy  and  even  antipathy  to  everything  new,  if  it  involved 
labor,  no  matter  how  profitable.  When  I  ascended  the  Rio  Negro 
in  1851, 1  pointed  out  to  the  inhabitants  the  abundance  of  seringa- 
trees  they  possessed  in  their  forests,  and  tried  to  induce  them  to 
set  about  extracting  the  gum  ;  but  they  shook  their  heads,  and 
said  it  would  never  answer.    At  length  the  demand  for  India- 
rubber,  especially  from  the  United  States,  began  to  exceed  the 
supply;  the  price  consequently  rose  rapidly,  until  early  in  1854 
it  reached  the  extravagant  sum  of  38  milreis  (£4  8s.  Sd.)  the 
arroba.    This  woke  up  the  people  from  their  apathy,  and  the 
impulse,  once  given,  extended  so  rapidly  and  widely,  that  nearly 
throughout  the  Amazon  and  its  principal  tributaries,  the  mass  of 
the  population  put  itself  into  motion  to  search  out  and  fabricate 
seringa.    In  the  province  of  Para  alone  (which  now  includes  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  Amazon)  it  was  computed  that  25,000 
persons  were  employed  in  that  branch  of  industry  in  the  year 
*  Hcolcers  Journal  of  Botany  and  Kew  Gardens  Miscellany ;  July,  1854, 
p.  193. 
-j*  The  Interior, — literally,  "  the  desert.'7 
I  The  name  usually  given  to  India-rubber  on  the  Amazon  is  "  Xeringue 
(pronounced  nearly  Sheringhy).  This  is  undoubtedly  an  Indian  corruption 
of  the  Portuguese  word  44  Seringa,"  a  syringe  or  clyster-pipe,  the  fabrica- 
tion of  which  was  the  first  use  to  which  the  gum  of  the  Siphonia  was  applied 
in  its  native  country.  In  Lingoa  Geral,  xeringue  is  the  common  term  for  a 
liar  (query,  a  stretcher?),  but,  as  it  has  no  affinity  with  any  other  word  in 
the  same  language,  it  seems  certain  that  it  is  of  Portuguese  origin.  The 
Spaniards  have  adopted  the  term  "  Seringa,"  in  which  I  follow  them.  The 
Indians  of  Venezuela  call  the  rubber  ydpi  ddpi,  or  ddpiche. 
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