CHAPTER IV.Borba—Tobacco—Island of Araras—Piedras de Uruás— Cachoerina—Exaltacion—Manicoré—Mundurucu Indians—Marmélos—Bayetas—Juma—Mission of San Pedro—Crato—Old penal settlement—Umaitá—Parententin Indians—Missionary efforts unable to reclaim these savages—Praia of Tamandoa—Turtles—San Antonio.
Borba—Tobacco—Island of Araras—Piedras de Uruás— Cachoerina—Exaltacion—Manicoré—Mundurucu Indians—Marmélos—Bayetas—Juma—Mission of San Pedro—Crato—Old penal settlement—Umaitá—Parententin Indians—Missionary efforts unable to reclaim these savages—Praia of Tamandoa—Turtles—San Antonio.
The first village arrived at in the ascent of the Madeira is Borba, an old Jesuit settlement about twelve hours’ steam from the junction of the Madeira and Amazon. Tobacco of excellent quality is grown at Borba, and fetches about two milreis, or four shillings, per pound. The method of preparing the tobacco is very simple, the picked leaves being strung up in the roof of the hut until properly dried, when they are, by hand, pressed into a stick-like form of an inch and a half in diameter, and being tied closely round with split cane, are sold in “masas” of from four to six feet in length.
Ascending the river, Sapucaia-oroca and Arauna-cuara, rubber gatherers’ huts are passed, and the Island of Araras is reached on the third day’s steaming in the river. This island is of considerable size, and is the property of the Amazon Steam Shipping Company of Pará. It is very rich in rubber and nut trees, and sarsaparilla and other drugs are found there, but no minerals.
About three hours’ steam above this island, “Las Piedras de Uruás,” or the Rocks of Uruás, are reached. These form the first danger to navigation, and, uncovered at low water, leave only a channel of about fifty yards wide, a rather tortuous passage for the steamer. A careful pilot can, however, always take a steamer drawing not more than eight feet through with perfect safety; while from high to half-flood water, the rocks offer no obstruction whatever.
Next in order, Cachoerina and Exaltacion are passed, the former a single house only, and the latter one of the largest rubber settlements on the river. On the fifth day the village of Manicoré is arrived at. It is a settlement of the Mundurucu Indians who have been brought into entire subjection, and who, though proverbially lazy, are quiet and well disposed. At this village are several storekeepers who trade with these Indians.
Marmélos, a collection of sandbanks requiring caution on the part of the pilot when the river is low, come next in order. Then Bayetas and Juma, both rubber stations, and San Pedro, a government mission under the care of Franciscan friars, are passed in succession. Crato, one of the best cleared spots on the river, is reached on the eighth day’s journey: here there are good grazing grounds, and the place is now remarkable for its healthy climate, though strange to say, not many years ago, perhaps less than thirty, it was used by the Brazilian Government as a penal settlement where prisoners of very bad character were kept, the climate being then so bad that their term of imprisonment was soon cut shortby their death. About three miles above Crato is Umaitá, a thriving Portuguese settlement belonging to Don Juan Montero, who is the wealthiest settler on the Madeira River. He has a small steamer of his own that trades between Umaitá and Pará. Das Abeillas, a Brazilian rubber collector’s head-quarters, is the next station passed, and then an ascending steamer enters on the reserve of the Parententin Indians, and steams through some score or so of leagues of lands where no settler has yet been able to keep a footing. It is supposed that, about two centuries ago, these savages were Christianized by the earlier Jesuit Fathers, and that, in consequence of some bad treatment, they revolted, and are now deadly enemies of any settlers, whether whites or mestizoes. The idea is strengthened by the fact that a raid on one of their temporary settlements, practised a few years ago by the Portuguese of Umaitá, in retaliation for a murderous attack on a rubber gatherer’s hut set up near the territory roamed over by these savages, found roughly carved crosses and figures that might be supposed to represent saints, in the huts of these Parententins. However this may be, they now have the reputation of being cannibals, and no settler dares to set up a hut on their territory, although it contains very rich growths of rubber trees.
The Brazilian Government does not allow the improvement of these savage races by the only practical method, namely extermination, but trusts to the efforts of the few missionary friars to whom is entrusted the work of proselytizing the untamed tribes of the interior of the empire. These effortsmight doubtless be successful in partially civilizing milder tribes, such as the Mundurucus of the Amazon, the Pamas of the Purus, or the Caripunas of the Madeira, but they are perfectly unable to tame fierce tribes, such as the Parententins of the Madeira, the Ycanga Pirangas of the Jamary, or the Sirionos of the River Grande of Eastern Bolivia, tribes that refuse to hold any converse with the white faces, but attack suddenly with their arrows whenever they can come across an unprepared party. For these irreclaimable sons of the forest there is no taming method other than the rifle and bullet, and it is no use trying to shirk the fact that they must be removed out of the way of the opening up to commerce of the Amazon and its tributaries.
The termination of the Parententin territory is marked by the junction of the river Machado on the eastern or right bank of the Madeira. Above this point the huts of rubber gatherers are again met with, and on the ninth day’s steaming on the Madeira, the “Praia,” or sandbank of Tamandoa, which at low water forms a vast and barren deposit for many miles of the river’s course, is reached. In the dry season, when the river is low, in the months of August and September, enormous numbers of turtles frequent these sandbanks for the purpose of depositing their eggs. On one occasion, passing this bank in a canoe at daybreak, I saw an extraordinary sight. For miles, as far as the eye could reach down the river, which hereabouts runs straight for some six or seven miles, were continuous rows of turtle at the water’s edge; the rows being eight and ten deep, many thousands of turtle must have beencollected together. The business of gathering the eggs of these turtles for making oil, and catching the turtles for food, is one of the regular occupations of the settlers on the river, who flock to these sandbanks in great number at the time of lowest water.
On the tenth day’s journey on the Madeira, and about the sixteenth from Pará, the steamer should arrive at San Antonio, the first of the rapids of the Madeira River. The total distance from Pará to San Antonio is said to be about 1600 miles, the upward journey generally occupying fifteen to sixteen days, while the return has been made by a steamer belonging to the National Bolivian Navigation Company, in six days and seven hours.