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 short by 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 efforts might 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 been collected 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.