One old parchment-faced fellow, with a skin the colour of mahogany, seemed to be a capital story-teller; but I was sorry Idid not know enough of the language to follow him in all the details which he gave.Amongst other things, he related an adventure he had once had with a jaguar.He got up from his hammock in the course of the narrative to give it the greater effect by means of gestures; he seized a bow and a large taquara arrow to show how he slew the beast, imitated its hoarse growl, and danced about the fire like a demon.
In descending the river we landed frequently, and Mr.Wallace and I lost no chance of adding to our collections, so that before the end of our journey, we had got together a very considerable number of birds, insects, and shells, chiefly taken, however, in the low country.Leaving Baiao, we took our last farewell of the limpid waters and varied scenery of the upper river, and found ourselves again in the humid flat region of the Amazons valley.
We sailed down this lower part of the river by a different channel from the one we travelled along in ascending, and frequently went ashore on the low islands in mid-river.As already stated, these are covered with water in the wet season;but at this time, there having been three months of fine weather, they were dry throughout, and by the subsidence of the waters, placed four or five feet above the level of the river.They are covered with a most luxuriant forest, comprising a large number of india-rubber trees.We found several people encamped here, who were engaged in collecting and preparing the rubber, and thus had an opportunity of observing the process.
The tree which yields this valuable sap is the Siphonia elastica, a member of the Euphorbiaceous order; it belongs, therefore, to a group of plants quite different from that which furnishes the caoutchouc of the East Indies and Africa.This latter is the product of different species of Ficus, and is considered, Ibelieve, in commerce, an inferior article to the India-rubber of Para.The Siphonia elastica grows only on the lowlands in the Amazons region; hitherto, the rubber has been collected chiefly in the islands and swampy parts of the mainland within a distance of fifty to a hundred miles to the west of Para; but there are plenty of untapped trees still growing in the wilds of the Tapajos, Madeira, Jurua, and Jauari, as far as 1800 miles from the Atlantic coast.The tree is not remarkable in appearance; in bark and foliage it is not unlike the European ash.But the trunk, like that of all forest trees, shoots up to an immense height before throwing off branches.The trees seem to be no man's property hereabout.The people we met with told us they came every year to collect rubber on these islands as soon as the waters had subsided, namely in August, and remained until January or February.
The process is very simple.Every morning each person, man or woman, to whom is allotted a certain number of trees, goes the round of the whole and collects in a large vessel the milky sap which trickles from gashes made in the bark on the preceding evening, and which is received in little clay cups, or in ampullaria shells stuck beneath the wounds.The sap, which at first is of the consistence of cream, soon thickens; the collectors are provided with a great number of wooden moulds of the shape in which the rubber is wanted, and when they return to the camp, they dip them into the liquid, laying on, in the course of several days, one coat after another.When this is done, the substance is white and hard; the proper colour and consistency are given by passing it repeatedly through a thick black smoke obtained by burning the nuts of certain palm trees, after which process the article is ready for sale.
India-rubber is known throughout the province only by the name of seringa, the Portuguese word for syringe; it owes this appellation to the circumstance that it was only in this form that the first Portuguese settlers noticed it to be employed by the aborigines.It is said that the Indians were first taught to make syringes of rubber by seeing natural tubes formed by it when the spontaneously-flowing sap gathered round projecting twigs.
Brazilians of all classes still use it extensively in the form of syringes, for injections form a great feature in the popular system of cures; the rubber for this purpose is made into a pear-shaped bottle, and a quill fixed in the long neck.
September 24th.--Opposite Cameta, the islands are all planted with cacao, the tree which yields the chocolate nut.The forest is not cleared for the purpose, but the cacao plants are stuck in here and there almost at random amongst the trees.There are many houses on the banks of the river, all elevated above the swampy soil on wooden piles, and furnished with broad ladders by which to mount to the ground floor.As we passed by in our canoe, we could see the people at their occupations in the open verandas, and in one place saw a ball going on in broad daylight; there were fiddles and guitars hard at work, and a number of lads in white shirts and trousers dancing with brown damsels clad in showy print dresses.The cacao tree produces a curious impression on account of the flowers and fruit growing directly out of the trunk and branches.There is a whole group of wild fruit trees which have the same habit in this country.In the wildernesses where the cacao is planted, the collecting of the fruit is dangerous due to the number of poisonous snakes which inhabit the places.One day, when we were running our montaria to a landing-place, we saw a large serpent on the trees overhead as we were about to brush past; the boat was stopped just in the nick of time, and Mr.Leavens brought the reptile down with a charge of shot.
