CHAPTER III.Manáos—Trade direct with Europe—Obelisk commemorating opening of the river Amazon to all flags—Climate of Manáos—Absence of mosquitoes—River Madeira—Rubber-collecting preferred to agriculture—Mode of collection and preparation of the rubber—Guaraná.
Manáos—Trade direct with Europe—Obelisk commemorating opening of the river Amazon to all flags—Climate of Manáos—Absence of mosquitoes—River Madeira—Rubber-collecting preferred to agriculture—Mode of collection and preparation of the rubber—Guaraná.
Manáos, a small but well-built town of about 5000 inhabitants, is situated on the banks of the Rio Negro, whose black waters offer a great contrast to the white but muddy waters of the Amazon. The town is clean and fairly paved, and the stores, kept principally by Portuguese merchants, are extremely well filled with general articles. The authorities of the province, led by their intelligent and talented president, Doctor Domingos Monteiro Peixoto, are evidently desirous of improving the condition of the place by every possible means, and concessions and subventions are given to any scheme that promises to be of public utility. Premiums on cattle imported to Manáos are given; a contract for lighting the town with gas, and a liberal subvention for a water supply are offered; while the sum of £10,000 per annum was given to aconcessionnairefor the organization of a company to run steamers direct from Manáos to Europe, six times during the twelve months. There is also a German house lately established, whose vessels are towed up the Amazon without having tounload at Pará, the house receiving a considerable drawback on the duties payable according to the general tariff. A good public school where boys are taught useful trades and handicrafts exists, and appears to be well managed. Some Germans were engaged in Hamburg, and brought to Manáos as teachers of carpentry, masonry, smith’s-work, and other useful occupations, and were paid good salaries, but could not settle themselves down to steady work or to Brazilian fare; they were therefore sent back to Hamburg, at great loss and expense to the province.
There is at Manáos an obelisk erected to commemorate the opening of the river Amazon to free navigation by all flags. This took place in 1867, and was a politic act on the part of the Emperor of Brazil, which is much appreciated by all the dwellers on the river. For the present this privilege is only given as far as Manáos on the Amazon, and Borba on the Madeira, but there is no doubt but that it will be extended to all the navigable waters when commerce calls for further facilities.
As a field for emigration, Manáos offers many advantages; its climate is good, and there are no mosquitoes or other insect plague, for although these abound on the Amazon and other rivers, there are none on the lower part of the Rio Negro. The blackness of the water of this river is said to be caused by the tannin imparted to it by the trees on its banks, and the presence of this substance, though perfectly harmless to human beings, seems to be fatal to the production of insect life. After a stay in Manáos, one wishes that all the waters of SouthAmerica could be impregnated in like manner, so that the fearful plague of flies and mosquitoes might become unknown throughout the land. Grants of good agricultural land would doubtless be made by the provincial authorities, and as there is a well-established city, and constant communication by steamers with Europe at least once a week, emigrants would not feel so lonely as they do in districts less accessible.
The Madeira is much narrower than the Amazon, and may be said to have a general width of about half a mile to 1000 yards. The current is, however, much swifter than that of the Amazon, and runs, when the river is at half flood, at about four miles an hour. The banks are, as a rule, much higher and better defined than those of the Amazon, there being few, if any, lagoons on its course from Serpa to the rapids.
The only trade of consequence at present on the river Madeira is the collection of rubber, the forests on either bank abounding in groves of theSyphonia elastica, the tree that yields this valuable product. The rubber trade, as at present carried on, on this river, is a most delusive one, and few, if any, of the speculators have gained fortunes from their labours. In consequence of the large profits that were made when the river was first opened up, the “seringueiros,” as the collectors are called, devote all their time to working the trees already discovered, or to finding out new ones; therefore agriculture is entirely neglected, and all provisions have to be brought from Pará; for, in many cases, the seringueiros will not tell off an Indian to hunt or fish,labour being so scarce that, in order to send as much rubber as possible to their creditors in Pará, the seringueiros must get all the work they can out of their Indians in the season favourable for entering the forests. This season may be said to last from April to November. The “estradas,” or roads of rubber trees, yield well on the Madeira, but some are much more prolific than others; trees on lands that are inundated at times only, yielding better than those on very low or on elevated grounds. The method of collection is, that small tin pots, possibly holding about a third of a pint, are hung on the tree closely under an incision made at an angle so that the sap of the tree may run into the pot. These are emptied daily into convenient vessels, which are carried to the peon’s hut near by. Fires made from nuts of the motocu palm are then made, and the sap being emptied out into large vessels, the operator dips a kind of flat wooden shovel in it, and immediately holds the shovel over the smoke, which causes the sap to coagulate quickly. The smoke from these nuts is found to effect this much quicker than any other process; and from the large demand for them, these nuts are in some districts getting very scarce, the absurd practice of felling the tree for the sake of the nut having been much resorted to. The operation above described having been frequently repeated, the coagulated sap attains a thickness of about a couple of inches; it is then cut on one side, and the shovel is withdrawn, leaving the rubber in its marketable shape, its price being regulated according to its freedom from impurities. There is, however, very little difference in qualityof the “bolachas,” or biscuits, as they are called, the price generally being about 26 to 30 milreis, say £2 12s.to £3 per Brazilian arroba of 33 lbs., according to the demand or the crop. A low quality, called “sernamby” in Pará and “negro-head” on the London market, is a collection of all the scrapings of, or droppings from, the vessels, and, being full of impurities, fetches only about half the price of the “bolachas.”
The only other exports from the Madeira River are Brazil nuts (Bertholetis exelsa) and Sapucaya nuts (Acythis ollaria), which are collected and shipped to Pará, principally for exportation to the United States.
Guaraná, collected principally at the town of Maués nearly opposite to Serpa, but situated inland upon a small stream of the same name, forms an item of considerable value in the trade with Bolivia and the province of Matto Grosso, and is a preparation of the fruit of the guaraná tree (Paullinia sorbilis).
The beans are ground up, and pressed into cylindrical masses of about eight or ten inches in length by one and a half to two inches diameter. The quality varies in accordance with the evenness of the paste and its freedom from impurities. The taste is slightly acrid, and its property of astringency renders it valuable in diarrhœa and other kindred sicknesses; but in the central parts of South America it is freely taken as a beverage, and there are many Bolivians who would fast all day, and even forswear their beloved “chicha,” rather than miss their glass of guaraná and water, taken at daybreak, immediatelyafter rising. What the peculiar virtues of the guaraná may be, I cannot say; for, though I tried it many times, I discovered none at all. Some people consider it a specific for sick headache, but my experience does not allow me to recommend it as a perfect cure. Probably it sustains the body in a similar manner to the coca plant; for I have seen many Bolivians who positively could not begin their day’s work without their glass of guaraná. In order to drink it, the mass is rasped down on the dried tongue of the pirarucú fish, until about a teaspoonful of powder is obtained, and this is taken with half a pint of water sweetened to the palate. So great a sale exists for this article both in Bolivia and in Matto Grosso, that traders on the Madeira River never make the return journey without taking several hundredweights amongst their cargoes, and some are content to load up their canoes entirely with it.