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 a _concessionnaire_ for 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 to unload 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 South America 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
the _Syphonia 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 quality of the “bolachas,” or biscuits, as
they are called, the price generally being about 26 to 30 milreis, say £2
12_s._ 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, immediately after 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.