CHAPTER IV
Favors to a fishing corporation
Art. 88. The Minister of Agriculture shall contract with some person, syndicate or company, offering guarantees of sufficient ability, for the establishment of a fishing enterprise, which with headquarters in Belém (Pará) or Manáos, that can be conveniently equipped as quickly as possible, to begin this and its allied industries, on a large scale in the Amazon rivers.
Art. 89. The following favors shall be given the enterprise:
(a) Exemption from all import duties, including fees, for the vessels, instruments and other maritime material; for all the material necessary for the installation, complete equipping and establishment of the enterprise on conditions which would enable it to be a going industry in all its phases, as well as the drugs, ingredients, cans and boxes, or materials to make them, and in general for all that it may be necessary to import from abroad, indispensable to the maintenance of its vessels and factories, during a term of 15 years, to count from the date of its operations;
(b) Premium of animation in money to the amount of 10,000 mibreis during 5 consecutive years, when the production of preserved and salted fish shall be annually more than 100 tons;
(c) The right of condemnation for public use, of the lands and improvements belonging to individuals, judged appropriate and indispensable for the installation of any of the establishments that it is necessary to build on land;
(d) Exemption from all state and municipal imports because the object of the contract is for the federal public service.
Art. 90. All the property of the enterprise shall revert to the Union, at the end of the term for which the contract was granted.
Art. 91. The exemptions from duties shall be given by the custom houses in Belém and Manáos, by a requisition from the Minister of Agriculture, from whom it shall be requested, attaching to the request a memorandum of the objects with specification of the qualities, quantities and ends for which they are needed, and what are imported for the services of the first establishment, and after this what must be imported for its maintenance.
Art. 92. The enterprise shall be subject to inspection by the Government as to the safety of the steamers, and processes employed in fishing, the faithful use of the objects imported, the manufacture of preserving, in which substances hurtful to the public health shall not be employed, nor in the annual production of preserved or salted fish for the purpose of obtaining the premiums in money.
Art. 93. Specimens of fish not well known, the party shall send one properly preserved to the Minister of Agriculture, accompanied by a small relatorio describing the place and conditions under which it was caught and noting anything particular that might be interesting in studying it.
Art. 94. Every commander or master of the vessels of the enterprise, shall make a written communication to the directors for them to bring to the knowledge of the Government, the places where there is the existence of any obstacle to navigation, indicating the position in a good sketch of that stretch of the river, describing its nature and the route to be followed to avoid it. These communications shall be transmitted to the Minister of Transportation in order that he may place a signal on the obstacle, and as soon as possible remove it.
TITLE VI
The Triennial Expositions Embracing All That Relates to the National Rubber Industry
Art. 95. The Rubber Expositions shall be held in Rio de Janeiro every three years, the first being on May 13, 1913; its object shall be to give the sum of the triennial movement of the national rubber industry in its various modifications, compared with the industry in other countries.
Art. 96. The triennial expositions shall include the rubber industry in all its branches and shall include the following classifications:
1. The Culture.
2. The Extraction.
3. The Improvement.
4. The Manufacture of Articles.
The classes shall be subdivided into groups including native and cultivated plants, machinery, utensils, processes, commercial type, studies and statistics.
Art. 97. Premiums of encouragement shall be given for the best processes of culture, extraction and treatment, and to the best manufactured products, whether as raw material, constituting commercial types for exportation, or as to manufacture.
Art. 98. The Government shall opportunely request the National Congress for the necessary enactments to make these premiums effective.
Art. 99. The rubber expositions shall be true expositions held in relation to the machinery and utensils and products of rubber of all kinds, but the sale sought to be registered in a special book, by the payment of a fixed percentage to the organizing commission which shall apply this income to the interests of these same expositions.
Art. 100. Foreign products can be admitted to these rubber expositions, for the purpose of permitting comparison and perfecting the national industry but shall receive no premium.
Section 1. Foreign products destined for the rubber expositions shall be free of all custom house duties, as established in Law No. 2,544, January 4, 1912, Article 89, No. 6, but if they are sold, shall pay their respective import duties when given to the buyers.
Sec. 2. Foreign products not sold shall be re-exported for the account of the respective expositors.
Art. 101. The transportation of the national products destined for the rubber expositions shall be gratuitous.
Art. 102. For these expositions there shall be prepared bound statistics and relatorios especially relative to the former period and as regards the rubber industry in Brazil, compared with the world movement.
Art. 103. During the expositions there shall be held:
1. National congresses specializing upon the rubber industry.
2. Lectures upon subjects previously chosen and illustrated with stereopticon slides.
For the carrying out of what is ordered in this article, the organizing commission shall provide for the respective programs and other measures for its entire success.
Art. 104. From all the principle products exhibited some specimens shall be selected to constitute a permanent exhibit, which shall remain exhibited in the Commercial Museum of Rio de Janeiro, and in whose care shall also remain some reserves to be sent to similar Museums in Brazil and in foreign lands.
TITLE VII
The Direction and Inspection of the Service
Art. 105. The direction and inspection of all the service for the economic defense of rubber, shall be in charge of a provisory department of the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, entitled “Superintendency of the Protection of Rubber.”
Art. 106. The superintendency is charged with:
1. To receive, to record, to prepare, and to inform the manuscripts which depend upon the despatch of the Minister.
2. To see to the effective and integral execution of measures of an administrative character foreseen in the Regulation.
3. The study, planning, calculating and execution of the work that must be done by the administration.
4. The study, planning, calculating, and execution of the work that must be done by contract.
5. The closing, with the approval of the Minister, of the contracts and the decrees relative to the concurrence of the States and Municipalities for the works and measures which they resolved to aid.
Section 1. Each service that has been definitely installed and is in normal working condition, shall be given over to a section of the Ministry of Agriculture with which it harmonizes and incorporated or subordinated.
Sec. 2. For the measure that is being executed as ordered in Sec. 1, the Government shall provide that the proper lawful budgets shall be apportioned of the means necessary for the maintenance, conservation and development of new settlements.
Art. 107. The Superintendency of the “Protection of Rubber” shall be constituted of:
A central section working in the Federal Capital.
A district section with headquarters in the national plantations of Rio Branco.
Partial commissions for services that may be indispensable.
Districts of inspection embracing one or more States, in conformity with the number and importance of the services under way.
Art. 108. The central section shall be composed of a superintendent, a secretary, a constructing engineer, an agricultural engineer, an engineer of the second class, two draughtsmen, two typewriters, a bookkeeper, two clerks, a messenger and two servants.
The district section shall be composed of a chief engineer, an engineer of the first class, engineers of the second class, agricultural engineers, conductors of the first and second class, a draughtsman, a bookkeeper, a paymaster, a customs officer, technical assistants, journalists and a physician.
The partial commissions shall be composed of a chief engineer, the technical and administrative personnel necessary, in conformity with the work to be done, and a physician.
The districts for inspection shall consist of a chief engineer, an engineer of the second class, an agriculturist and assistants to the number necessary and sufficient.
The staff of the employes shall not be fixed, but vary according to the development of the work, and will correspond well with the distribution of the respective work and the special instructions opportunely executed.
Art. 109. The services relative to the triennial rubber expositions, shall be directed by a special commission presided over by the minister and composed of the superintendent, who shall take the place of the minister in his absence, and of the members of the Permanent Commission of Expositions, created by Article 89 of Law No. 2,544, January 4, 1912.
Art. 110. All the personnel of the superintendency shall be considered in commission and dismissed when the work is finished for which it was formed.
Art. 111. There shall be appointed: by decree of the President of the Republic, the superintendent; by preferment of the Minister, the chief engineers, the secretary of the central section, the engineer of the first class and the paymaster of the district section; by the Superintendent, the engineers of the second class, the agriculturists, the physicians, the draughtsmen, the typewriters, the clerks and the customs officials; by the chief engineers, the personnel who work under their direction.
Art. 112. The salaries of the employes shall be those fixed in the annexed table.
For the employes in the services which were incident to the order in the first section of Article 106, the salaries are fixed in accord with tables for similar service already existing in the Minister’s department, increased from fifty to eighty per cent for those who shall be situated in the valley of the Amazon, while the high cost of living shall continue in that respective place.
Art. 113. For services which shall be thought advantageous, and when they have good reputations, the Government may employ professional specialists, natives or foreigners, paying them annual salaries not greater than those in the table or a lump sum for the service rendered, as may be advisable in each case.
Art. 114. To provide for the increase in the work of the Director General of Accounts, in consequence of the services mentioned in this regulation, there shall be added to the same Directorship, employees of the Treasury and other departments of recognized ability and the typewriters in commission accepted, under the proposal of the Director General; working overtime, whenever necessary, in accordance with Articles 68 and 71 of the Decree, No. 8,889, of August 11, 1911, the work of counting, examining, inspecting and recording the expenses, distribution of credits, advances, and other things of an urgent nature.
The expenses resulting from the order in this article shall be met by the credits which were opened in accordance with Article 14 of Law No. 2,543A, of January 5, 1912. It pertains to the Minister to fix the gratuities of the typewriters and the employes of the Department of Finance to which this same article refers.
TABLE OF THE SALARIES OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE SUPERINTENDENCY “PROTECTION OF RUBBER”
Monthly Classes Salaries
Superintendent 5,000$000 Chief Engineer of the Section Rio Branco 2,700$000 Physician 2,500$000 Constructing Engineer 1,500$000 Chief Engineer of the Partial Commission 1,250$000 Chief Engineer of the District of Inspection 1,250$000 Engineer of the first class of the Section Rio Branco 1,250$000 Agricultural Engineer 1,000$000 Engineer of the second class 1,000$000 Secretary to the Superintendent 1,000$000 Paymaster of the Section Rio Branco 1,000$000 Conductor of the first class 750$000 Customs Official of the Section Rio Branco 750$000 Conductor of the second class 600$000 Draughtsman 600$000 Bookkeeper 500$000 Technical Aid 450$000 Clerk 350$000 Typewriter 350$000 Messenger 200$000 Servant 150$000
The personnel in service in the Valley of the Amazon, with perhaps the exception of the Chief Engineer of the Rio Branco section, shall receive an increase over the salaries mentioned in the table, varying from fifty to eighty per cent according to the judgment of the Superintendent because of the high cost of living in their respective places.
A third part of the annual salary shall be considered the gratuity of the office.
To the technical personnel, to the paymaster, and to the physicians shall be adjudicated by the Superintendent a daily allowance of from 5$000 to 30$000.
Rio de Janeiro, April 17, 1912.
PEDRO DE TOLEDO.
* * * * *
List of utensils and materials exempt from importation duties, to which Article 2 of Decree No. 9,521 of April 17, 1912, refers:
FIRST GROUP
Implements and Utensils for the Rubber Gatherer
Axes. Hatchets. Knives and special apparatus for the incision of trees. Buckets, pails, basins of tin, zinc or other material. Pitchers for smoking. Machines destined for the coagulation of the milk. Cylinders for pressing. Colanders and their appurtenances.
SECOND GROUP
Implements and Material for Cultivation
Electric detoners and their accessories. Dynamite. Mining powder and other explosives. Caps and fuses. Decauville lines. Mono rails. Aerial transporters and their accessories. Locomotives and stationary engines. Chemical drugs, disinfectants and insecticides.
THIRD GROUP
Materials and Utensils Intended for the Culture of Trees and Treatment of Rubber, including:
Materials for the necessary installations for the mounting of factories, construction of buildings, huts and houses of workmen, box factory and factory for rubber articles.
FOURTH GROUP
Chemical Substances, Raw Material, Thin Cloth and Other Objects Used in the Treatment of and Manufacture of Rubber Articles
a. =Coagulants=:
Acetic Acid. Fluoric Acid. Formic Acid. Sulphuric Acid. Hydrochloric Acid.
b. =Dissolvents=:
Aceton. Ethylic Alcohol. Methylic Alcohol (C. H. 4 O). Benzine. Benzol. Borax or Borate of Sodium. (Na² B. ⁴O⁷ 10 H² O). Chloruret of Carbon. Chloroform. Ether. Essence of Therebentine. Methylbenzol or Tolnol (C⁷ H⁸). Solvent Naphtha. Oil of Camphor (essence). Oil of Dippel. Parafin Oil. Sulphuret of Carbon. Tetrachloruret of Carbon.
c. =Deodorizers and Disinfectants=:
Camphin or Camphene. Animal Charcoal. Porcupine Grape Yellow. Anilines and their derivatives. Arsenites and their derivatives. Aureoline. Cobalt Blue. Methylen Blue. Bistre. Fixed White (Salts of Baryum, etc.). Creosote. Cresolin. Essence of Lavender. Essence of Lemon. Essence of Peppermint. Essence of Menthol (C¹⁰ H² O). Essence of Eucalyptus. Essence of Florence Lily. Essence of Mustard. Essence of Moss. Essence of Rosemary. Essence of Tomilho. Essence of Thymol. Farmol, Formaldehyde or Formalin. Nitrobenzol.
d. =Coloring Materials=:
Cassel’s Yellow. Van Dyck and Bismarck Brown. Yellow Brilliantine. Bronze and its derivates. Orange Bleu. Brooksite (Mixture of rosin and oils). Bukaramuguiana. Pattison White. Paris White. Wax for cables (wax, asphalt and rosin). Cachou. Rosin Colors. Massicot. Minio. Murexide (purple). Paris Black. Lamp Black. Ivory Black. Uranium Black. Vine Black. Nigramine. Ochre of all colors. Orange Neutral. Salts of Mercury. Sulfapone. Terre d’Ombre. Falladium Red. Vermillion (sulphuret of mercury).
e. =Hydrocarburets, Heavy Bodies and Oils=:
Stearic Acid. Fish Oil. Fichetelito (C¹⁸ H²²). Vegetable Fibre. Glycerin. Heptana. Idrialine (C³⁰ H⁵⁴ O²). Lanoline. Linoxine. Marito Lard. Naphthaline. Arachyde Oil (Amendoim). Cole Seed Oil. Wood Oil, Chinese and Japanese. Cotton Seed Oil. Layos Oil. Banba Oil. Oil of Wool (fat of wool from sheep). Linseed Oil. Corn Oil. Cod Liver Oil. Nut Oil. Olive Oil. Palm Oil (Attalea Excelsis, Bertholetin Excelsis, Maximiliana regia). Pine Oil. Ricine Oil. Soja Oil. Calves’ Foot Oil. Tung Oil. Vulcanized Oils. Nitrated Oils. Parafin. Pentan. Petroleum and all its derivatives. Stearine. Vaseline.
f. =Resin, Resinous Gums and Lacs=:
Yellow Amber. Ambroid. Natural Balsam. Canada Balsam. Chypre Balsam. Sulphur Balsam. Perú Balsam. Therebentin Balsam. Talu Balsam. Benjoim. Colophane. Copal. Banana Gum. Lac Gum. Kauri Gum. Lacs separate. Enamel Lacs and all their derivatives. Rhus Lacs. Mastick. Rosin Oil. Ammonia Rosin. Bourgogue Rosin. Damar Rosin. Elemi Rosin. Hymenea Courbaril. Rosin (Copal). Jalap Rosin. Myrrh Rosin. Xanthorea Rosin. Sandarac. Storax. Therebentine. Venice Therebentine and its derivatives.
g. =Agents of Vulcanization=:
Metallic Antimony and its derivatives. Bromurets and all their derivatives. Calcium and its derivatives. Caustic Lime. Chlorine (Cl.) and all its derivatives. Lead and all its derivatives. Sulphur and all its derivatives. Iodine and all its derivatives. Sodium and its derivatives. Zinc and its derivatives.
h. =Fibres and Cloth=:
Cotton. Brass. Cabo Asbestos. Maselig Asbestos. Hemp. Banana Hemp. India Hemp. Sisel Hemp. Madrasta Hemp. Manila Hemp. Fibres of all kinds of vegetable or animal origin. Vulcanized Fibres. Raphia Fabrics. Lace. Flax Thread. Jute. Wool. Flax. Luffa. Japan Lacs. Nanking. Cotton Cloth. Asbestos Cloth. Linen Cloth. Paper Maché. Parameta. Rami. Silk Cloth, animal and vegetable. Taffetas. Zaputtine and its derivatives.
i. =Isolated Materials=:
Asbestos and all its derivatives. Alexite. Algina. Amiante. Asphalt. Astrictum. Russian. Birch. Animal and Vegetable Tar of lignite, hulha and all their derivatives. Bitite. Bitumen. Colorifugos and all its derivatives. Cerasine. Cork. Cellulose and all its derivatives. Esbetine. Eshalite. Fermantine. Fassilite. Fucasine. Gasoline. Gelatine. Gilsonite. Hermetine. Karphite. Lava. Ledererite. Lithine. Lithocarbon. Manjak. Marloid. Mica. Mecanite. Oil of Tar. Okonite. Ouralite. Ozocerite. Ozotere. Vegetable.
j. =Divers Materials=:
Citric acid (C⁶ H⁸ O⁷). Azotic acid (H. N. O³). Salicylic acid. Sehacic acid. Oxalic acid (C² H² O⁴). Oleic acid (C¹⁶ H³⁴ O²). Tartaric acid. Agalmatolite. Areometers. Alkalies. Ammonia. Salts of Ammonia. Aluminum and its derivatives. Alum. Starch. Auhydrite. Autibenzine Pirine. Astraline. Atmold. Whale Oil. Balenite. Balons. Salts of Baryum. Materials for bleaching. Bolus. Camptulikon. Afridi Wax. Japan Wax. Caruabuba Wax. Carbarundum. Materials for Beech Creosote. Chlorhydrate of Quinine. Cyanuret of Potassium. Caseina. Ceramyl. Vegetable Coal. Coal Dust. Horn. Mineral and Vegetable Waxes. Fish Glue. Coralline. Caokaline. Leather. Copper and its derivatives. Dextrina (C¹² A²⁰ O¹⁰). Dextrose. Diamond. Dichlorohydrine. Dielectrics. Dielectrine. Eburine. Sponges. Tin and its derivatives. Eternite. Flour. Potato Sediment. Felds Pathe. Fibroleum. Metallic Wires. Sheets of Tin. Lasts. Fuller. Fustian. Galalithe. Gas. Gaze. Fish Glue. Glucose. Glutin. Graphite. Mineral Oils. Gypsum. Hemalite. Hatschetine. Hydrofugine. Koalin. Kisselguhr. Compound Kirrage. Lactoleum. Lederine. Limeite. Lactoite. Lactites. Material for Polishing. Magnalium. Magnesium and its compounds. Magnesia. Magnesia Calcinated. Marble Dust. Morocoline. Nickel. Salt of Nipa. Nitronaphtaline. Organdim. Bones. Pagodite. Pantasote. Petrifite. Earth of Pipe. Pumice Stone. Phosphorus. Plombago. Pluviosine. Salts of Potassium. Poudre Rouge. Anti-ronille. Sand. Salitre (Nitrate of Potash K. N. O³). Soap. Sawdust. Silicates of Aluminum. Bronze Silicium. Hides. Luberine. Luberite. Metallic Sulphuret. Isinglass. Tannico. Metallic Cloth. Turfa. Tripoli. Trichopiese. Hulha Varnish. Wood Vinegar. Vulcoleina. Wallasine. Waterproof Varnish. Whaleboline. Xylolithe.
Rio de Janeiro, April 17, 1912.
PEDRO DE TOLEDO, Minister of Agriculture.
[Illustration: GEORGE E. PELL, ESQ.
Commissioner for the Commercial Association of Pará]
PARÁ
FURTHER DETAILS RELATING TO PARÁ HAVE NOT COME TO HAND UP TO THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS
COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION, PARÁ (BRAZIL)
DESCRIPTION OF EXHIBITS.
Quality. Weight. Procedence.
501 Biscuits Fine Island Rubber, net 1,037 ks. From the Islands.
81 Biscuits Fine Island Rubber, net 804 ks. From River Cajary, Cajary, & partly islands.
111 Biscuits Fine Island Rubber, net 756 ks. From River Anapu Anapu, & partly islands.
235 Biscuits Fine Island Rubber, net 1,116 ks. From Island of Cavianna, Cavianna.
145 Biscuits Fine Low Xingú, net 979 ks. From Lower reaches of River Xingú (This parcel contains two lots, dry and fresh, should be separated and marked “Dry” and “New”).
44 Biscuits} on sticks net 937 ks. From Lower reaches 10 Biscuits} Fine Itaituba (Tap), of River Tapajos.
10 Biscuits Fine High Xingú, net 696 ks. From Higher reaches of River Xingú, above rapids.
5 Biscuits} on sticks net 1,025 ks. From Higher reaches 34 Biscuits} Fine Itaituba of River Tapajos, (Tapajos) Cachoeira, above rapids, and state of Matto-Grosso.
68 Biscuits Weak Fine Rubber, net 650 ks. From Lower Amazon.
Island Coarse Rubber, net 1,000 ks. From Islands and affluents of Lower Amazon.
110 Biscuits Cametá Coarse, net 1,515 ks. From River Cametá and partly Islands. Coarse Itaituba net 302 ks. From River Tapajos. (Tapajos), Weak Coarse, net 254 ks. From Lower Amazon. Tiras (Strips), net 119 ks. From River Tapajos.
20 Balls Toc. Caucho Ball, net 911 ks. From River Tocantins & Rio Fresco.
30 Balls Tap. Caucho Ball, net 1,061 ks. From Higher reaches Cachoeira, of River Tapajos, above rapids, and State of Matto-Grosso.
20 Balls High Xingú Caucho Ball, net 1,044 ks. From Higher reaches of River Xingú.
2 Bags—1 Bag Inaja Palm Nuts Used for curing Fine Rubber. 1 Bag Urucuri Palm Nuts Used for curing Fine Rubber.
2 Boxes—4 & 5 Tin Cups, etc., for collecting Latex
1 Case—No. 3 Natural Woods—2 blocks of wood and shavings, used for curing rubber
1 Box Machadinhos (Hatchets), collecting and curing utensils
1 Box Wooden Stand used for curing large biscuits of rubber.
The AMAZONAS Section
AMAZON STATE IS THE LARGEST ONE IN BRAZIL
Area in square kilometers, 1,894,724.
Population, 600,000 inhabitants.
Capital, Manáos; 60,000 inhabitants, 32ᵐ, 40ᵐ height from sea-level.
It exports rubber and woods for construction and for other works, Pará nuts, Guaraná and some other products.
Beans, corn, rice and almost every kind of cereals grow there beautifully.
It is put in communication with Europe by one English and two German Steamship Companies, and by cable and wireless telegraphy. These companies have improved their steamers, which go to Europe. To the United States it is served only by the English company, every ten days. They are cargo boats.
Principal cities: Stacoatiara, Manicoré, Humaythé, Teffé, Parintins and Labrea.
Medium temperature, 27° 2′ centigrade.
Rains—Evaporation in mm., 1592,0. Height, 1525,3 (in 202 days).
Wind—Velocity in one second, 1ᵐ, 60. Direction, east.
EXPORTS OF RUBBER FROM STATE OF AMAZONAS SINCE 1827 UP TO 1907
Years. Kilograms. 1837 802,410 1847 4,286,570 1857 7,134,195 1867 2,969,070 1877 17,403,574 1887 43,454,671 1897 106,424,423 1907 120,434,947
From 1827 to 1852 the exports belong to Pará and Amazonas together.
[Illustration: COLONEL ANTONIO CLEMENTE RIBEIRO BITTENCOURT
Governor of the State of the Amazonas, Brazil]
[Illustration: PORT OF MANÁOS]
[Illustration: DR. MANOEL LOBATO
Commissioner for the State of the Amazonas, Brazil, also of Matto Grosso and the Federal Territory of Acre]
RUBBER IN THE STATE OF AMAZONAS
General Ideas about the State. Progress in the Means of Transportation. Climatological Conditions.
The State of the Amazonas is the largest one in the Brazilian Republic. Notwithstanding its well-known natural resources that are not limited, according to many persons, to the precious milk of the rubber tree—that wonderful tree of fortune—which is disputed by various producing centers, its vast territory is yet far from being completely and properly populated.
The emigration currents towards that section have started lately, so that the population of hardly over two hundred thousand souls a few years ago, to-day is over six hundred thousand inhabitants, without any exaggeration.
As such changes are taking place the conditions of life are being altered every day. It is true that there still prevails in the books of gay tourists who consider humbug as a condition of inexhaustible success, the impression that the native indians travel about half nude and armed with arches and arrows, chasing the lost Europeans through such outlandish regions of the world.
The remark, however, is not based on real facts. The native Indians are not now to be found in very accessible places. The foreigner who lands in the Amazonas capital, for instance, may be sure that his habits and his civilization will not cause any fright.
It is difficult to find among the natives who possess some education and means one who has not been through several European countries, especially France; so that as soon as the visitor lands he notices an atmosphere of modern improvements and all the novelty and gay spirit of Parisian life; the latest fashions are found at once in Manáos.
The progress of that beautiful princess of the Rio Negro (Black River) is most remarkable, because it is at the most only twenty years. Until the proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, Manáos amounted to almost nothing. From 1889 to this date began its stupendous development, counting already over 60,000 inhabitants.
[Illustration: A. W. STEDMAN, ESQ.
Commissioner for the Commercial Association of the State of Manáos, Matto Grosso, and the Federal Territory of Acre, Brazil]
To-day it has comfortable homes, good and solid buildings of artistic architecture. Its port is perfectly fitted to receive the visits of the large transatlantic steamers, which places it in communication with the leading European ports. The navigation line for the United States, served by an English company, is not yet of the required progress to insure all the necessary comfort to the passengers who venture to undertake the long trip. Furthermore, it is served by steamers that do not possess the modern requirements of speed, which at present is of first interest not only for the passengers who look for a pleasure resort as well as for the intercourse of commercial relations with the world’s markets. That is the reason why the interchange between Amazonas and New York has been rather slow, which interchange could be of greater magnitude than it is to-day if there was a more intimate knowledge between the parties.
I would not want to end this information about the capital of the State of Amazonas without quoting some paragraphs from the excellent work, “The Rubber Country of the Amazon,” written by Mr. Henry C. Pearson, Editor of the “India Rubber World”:
“When one considers that this city is a thousand miles from the seacoast, in the heart of a vast tropical jungle, with wild Indians within a hundred miles of it, its presence seems incredible. In a way, it is as modern as New York or Chicago. The latest Parisian fashions are there, and almost anything that civilized man desires is obtainable. Prices are high, to be sure, because both luxuries and necessities are imported and subject to a duty of 100 per cent. But when something besides rubber is produced by the magnificently fertile lands that surround it, Manáos will be one of the great and beautiful cities of the world and living as reasonable as anywhere.”
That progress, although it has been made principally in Manáos, in some form is also affecting the interior of the State. The river navigation is made quicker than before and on elegant and up-to-date steamers, which navigate throughout all the tributaries of the Amazon River.
Furthermore, the Madeira-Mamoré railroad has produced a great improvement in the transportation facilities adopted in the State for the quick delivery of merchandise in the interior.
The most distant points of the territory are now connected by wireless telegraphy. The news of the world can be transmitted daily to the capital of the State by means of double river cable and by wireless telegraphy of the Marconi system.
The climatic conditions are not so terrible as pictured in the minds of the outside people, who do not know the real facts and the true geographic situation of the State.
[Illustration: CAOUTCHOUC PROCESS No. 1.
The Men Set to Work Bleeding the Base of the Castillôa.]
Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his “Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,” and Captain Maury, in his book “The Amazon and the Atlantic Coast of South America,” show themselves so enthusiastic over the climate of Amazonas and recommend it “as one of the healthiest and mildest in the world.” That easy enthusiasm is not so good for us as the competent French engineer, Mr. Paul Le Cointe’s opinion, after many years in the northern part of Brazil. Thus he expresses himself:
“The Amazonia, an immense tableland slightly concave, situated entirely in the tropics, crossed by rivers of colossal dimensions, with lakes and swamps, the remains of the original water basin, badly separated by modern alluvium land, covered with impenetrable forests from which emerge here and there some plains, ought to have a specially hot, damp and unhealthy climate.
“That is the reputation which it has enjoyed for a long time and which has frightened away the European immigration; but it is not deserved in such an absolute manner; as a hot country is perhaps on the contrary the less deadly for the settler as well as for the traveler.”
THE AMAZON AS RUBBER PRODUCER
It is indeed very difficult if not absolutely impossible to limit the rubber producing region of Amazonas. In almost the whole of the vast territory of that State there are found rubber trees and where they do not grow, they certainly can be successfully planted. Over large tracts of lands on the banks of rivers not navigable, there are extensive rubber forests not explored on account of lack of population.
That exuberance of the Amazonian flora, that arrangement of nature to furnish resources to the rubber extractor for many years, kept him away from any other occupation except that of raising the arm and wounding the tree of fortune in order to obtain prosperity. There was no necessity of planting that which the open road of the forest presents at each step; also why worry with a view to obtaining any other process of securing the “=hevea brasiliensis=” when its milk in the primitive state is obtained at the lowest price of exploitation and cultivation, preserving all the excellent qualities of the rubber?
The presence of competitors in the world’s market, more than the damage caused to the health by the smoking process of coagulation, is the reason to establish new exploitation. The rubber plantation is now being conducted perhaps without obeying the scientific criterion, but more in the shape of facilitating the gathering of the =latex=.
[Illustration: RUBBER-WORKER PERREIRA AND WIFE IN THEIR SUNDAY CLOTHES.]
One hears a good deal about high prices in the Amazonas, and careless observers state in opposition to that the cheapness of life in the Asiatic Islands and other points of the world. I do not think that a thoughtful person without any interest in connection with enterprises and plantations elsewhere in the world, would be able to use such an assertion, which is so unjust.
The French engineer, Mr. Paul Le Cointe, who is an expert in the matter, writes the following:
“For the work to be executed, the number of workmen required is much less where the production of those men is high, hence to calculate the price of hand work, the individual production is the factor that may become more important than the pay to the men who work by the day.
“In the Far East, the workmen are paid from Fr. 75 to Fr. 1.25, equal to 14 cents to 23 cents, approximately, including feeding. In the Amazonas, the pay per day amounts to Frs. 4.75, or that is, almost 91 cents for all the work, which is three to four times more.”
Let us examine the cost in Asia and in the Amazonas for the different work required by the cultivation of the rubber trees.
According to Mr. Stanley Arden, it is about 38 cents for each kilogram of rubber in the plantation (the data that I am presenting in connection with this matter is from the book of Mr. Le Cointe, entitled “Le Caoutchouc Amazonien et son Concurrent Asiatique”).
Mr. Lamy Torrilhon speaks about the Kuala Lampur Rubber Company (Malay), which had in 1909, 404,012 rubber trees from one to six years old. Calculating the price of cultivation of that rubber at Fr. 4 per kilogram or approximately 76 cents, Mr. Stanley Arden also calculated that the cost of a hectar of plantation before reaching the period of exploitation (the sixth year, according to him) was only Fr. 816, or more or less $157, including the salaries and establishment of European employees, and Mr. M. G. Vernet, of the Pasteur Institute of Nha-Trang, calculated Fr. 3,000, about $580.
Mr. Le Cointe further states that Mr. Stanley Arden in his calculations of expense seems to presume the plantation in lands not thickly wooded, because he counts for the burning and clearing of the land, hardly one-third the cost of felling the trees, when in the forest it is about the same. Of course, lands not properly protected and in the virgin state in the tropical countries, are less fertile than those covered with thick forests, furthermore the lands that have been devoted to a prolonged cultivation of plants, like coffee, tea, etc., are to a large extent exhausted, and if rubber trees were attempted to be planted there, the result would be that it would largely lose the advantages by having to fell new trees.
[Illustration: BRANDING RUBBER ON THE SAND-BAR.]
Mr. Le Cointe also speaks of about 225 trees per kilogram, when practically that number can be doubled; besides this the calculation made by the same author of about $18 for the clearing of the hectar, at the rate of $14 per day for each workman shows that the price for that work in almost clean land will take sixty-two days, whereas in the Amazonas we only count on twenty-six days for each clearing of a hectar in a virgin forest.
This argument, it seems to me, shows that there is a purpose to bring up a cheapness which is more apparent than real, with the determination of recommending the Asiatic plantations to the detriment of the Amazonas rubber plantations.
This plan of attack is not the most correct one. We have the advantage of having workmen who easily adapt themselves to the producing land, and with the measures of protection that the Government is going to guarantee to the rubber planters, the life of the contractor is going to become easier.
The tree which is planted in its own region, is less subject to ravages, being less persecuted by the destroying parasites, is not violently fell by hard winds.
As every day increases the number of industries which requires rubber as a raw material, it is therefore necessary to exploit it in different centers, counting even with possible disaster, but nowhere in the world, in accordance with the most reliable statistics, is there more favorable land for the planting of rubber trees than in the various territories of the Amazonas. That territory has been placed by nature to be the emporium of that industry, and counts with all the means to preserve that privilege, and for the guarantee of the planter as soon as the rubber tree develops itself, it has other resinous trees suitable for construction, and excellent fibres which can be sold at a profit. The Brazilian walnut is so abundant there that it is a second source of income in the State of Amazonas.
THE PRODUCTION OF RUBBER
Only during the first six months of this year, notwithstanding that the time for the full crop was not as yet due, from Manáos there were exported to the United States 2,328,389 kilograms of fine rubber, 602,180 medium quality, sernamby 991,088, caucho 798,024; to Europe, first quality 2,449,776, medium quality 407,278, sernamby 507,860, caucho 1,368,489; from Itacoatiara, first quality 37,240, medium 3,858, sernamby 26,237, caucho 11,405, that is for the Amazonas a total of 9,531,824 kilograms, almost half of the export of 22,902,401 kilograms made in that period for that State, besides that of Pará and Iquitos. The production of Amazonas in 1910 was 10,466,231 kilograms; in 1911, 10,122,242; this year, it is expected that there will be an increase of more than 15 per cent of the production of last year.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF A RUBBER-WORKER’S HUT.
There Were Always Two or Three Hammocks.]
This is due only to the active work of a few thousand workmen. What would be the colossal production of that territory, when the work of the men will be facilitated by a rational distribution of rubber trees!
Reflecting upon that, I am reminded of the words of Dr. T. Huber:
“A regular planting industry will have a marked and salutary influence upon the extraction of wild rubber and the management of wild rubber forests.”
Furthermore, I have the full conviction that the future of that industry competently managed will offer in Amazonas, and in order to be more exact, in Brazil, more guarantees of success than in any other region in the world.
M. LOBATO.
[Illustration: RUBBER-WORKERS’ HOME NEAR LAKE INNOCENCE.]
BRAZIL
The States of Amazonas and Matto-Grosso, and the Acre Territory
The Commercial Association of Amazonas exhibits samples of rubber from the States of Amazonas and Matto-Grosso, and from the Acre Territory, having been authorized by the respective Governments for this purpose.
STATE OF AMAZONAS
The main stream of the River Amazon flows through the entire territory of this State, and within its boundaries is joined by many tributaries.
The boundary with the State of Pará is formed by the same river, and that with Matto-Grosso and the Republic of Bolivia by the Upper Madeira River. The River Javary, a tributary of the Solimões (or Upper Amazon), forms the boundary with Perú, as does the Upper Rio Negro (the waters of which connect with the Orinoco through the Cassiquari Canal), with Venezuela. Before the formation of the Federal Acre Territory, the upper reaches of the Rivers Acre, Purús, and Juruá also constituted the frontiers of the State of Amazonas with Perú and Bolivia.
The capital of the State, Manáos, is situated in the bay of the Rio Negro, three days distant by steamer from the capital of the adjoining State, Pará. The nearest European port, Lisbon, can be reached in thirteen days, and New York in eighteen days.
Manáos is the turning-point for ocean going steamers from the United States of America, and Europe, as well as from the South of Brazil.
The companies engaged in the transatlantic service are:
=The Booth Steamship Co., Ltd.= (British), with four sailings each way to and from Liverpool per month, calling at Itacoatiara, Pará, Madeira, Lisbon, Leixoes (Oporto), Vigo and Cherbourg, and three sailings to and from New York per month, calling at Pará and Barbadoes.
=The Hamburg-Amerika Line= and =Hamburg-Sudamerikanische Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft= (German), with two sailings per month to and from Hamburg, calling at Pará, Madeira, Lisbon, Leixoes (Oporto), Havre and Antwerp. =The Booth Steamship Co., Ltd.=, also runs two lines, one from Liverpool and the other from New York, as far as Iquitos, the capital and principal port of the Loreto province of Perú. Maritime communication with Southern Brazil is maintained by the “=Lloyd Brazileiro=” and the “=Cia. de Commercio e Navegação=,” the former having six steamers per month, and the latter three. The voyage from Manáos to Rio de Janeiro occupies from 14 to 16 days.
[Illustration: MAP OF MANÁOS]
The river navigation is controlled by the Amazon River Navigation Co. (1911), Ltd., and numerous private steamers, which form a flotilla only to be compared with that of the River Mississippi. A new company “A Companhia Navegação do Amazonas” is about to commence operations. All these steamers call at Manáos, or have their headquarters there.
Telegraphic communication is as follows: By means of the =Amazon Telegraph Co., Ltd.=, in combination with the Western Telegraph Co. to and from all parts of the world.
=Wireless Telegraphy= (Marconi and Telefunken systems), is already making considerable headway. The Marconi station at Manáos, in the hands of the Madeira Mamoré Railway Co., receives and transmits messages to and from Porto Velho, on the Madeira River, the starting point and headquarters of the railroad, as well as to and from the Telefunken stations at Senna Madureira, Empreza and Cruzeiro do Sul (the capital towns of the three divisions of the Acre Territory).
These last stations are not yet open for use by the public, and other intermediate stations are still in course of construction.
Manáos has also a station of the =Amazon Wireless Telegraph & Telephone Co., Ltd.=, which transmits messages to Pará, and has lately been in regular communication with the station in Iquitos belonging to the Peruvian Government. By this route it is possible to send messages to Lima, the capital of Perú, on the Pacific Coast. However, the Company mentioned has so far not succeeded in obtaining the official permission of the Brazilian Government to operate in Brazil.
Manáos has a permanent population of upwards of 70,000 inhabitants. Its houses and public buildings conform to modern architectural ideas, and some of its buildings, such as the State Theatre, the Public Library, the Palace of Justice and the “Benjamin Constant” Orphan Asylum are magnificent.
The streets, squares and avenues are well lighted by electricity and the town possesses an excellent electric tramway system. The drainage scheme is almost completed, and the water supply is very satisfactory. The port works are in the hands of the Manáos Harbor, Ltd. There are some excellent hotels, and a splendid telephone service.
The following banks carry on operations in Manáos:
=The London & Brazilian Bank, Ltd.=, and =The London & River Plate Bank, Ltd.= (British), agencies.
=Banco do Brazil= (Brazilian), agency.
=Banco Amazonense= (Brazilian), Head Office.
[Illustration: A “SERINGUEIRO” TAPPING A RUBBER TREE.]
=Banking Firms=: Zarges Ohliger & Co. (German).
=Life, Fire & Marine Insurance Companies=:
Northern Insurance Co. (British), agency.
Royal Insurance Co. (British), agency.
“Mannheim” Insurance Co. (German), agency.
Lloyd Amazonense (Brazilian), head office.
And agencies of the following Brazilian companies: Garantia da Amazonia, Seguradora Paraense, Allianca da Bahia, Commercial Paraense, Lloyd Paraense, Allianca Paraense.
Rubber is the chief industry of the State, being its principal product and source of income. The predominance of this industry dates from 1863, and within a few years it superseded entirely the planting of rice, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, beans and maize.
Up to 1870 rubber was generally exported in the form of roughly made shoes, hats and caps, as well as in sacks and in bulk, the greater part of it going to New York, via Pará. Later, the present system of biscuits or balls, cut and packed in cases, came into use.
Considerable business has always been done in Amazon with the United States of America, although formerly the proportion shipped to America was greater than at present, as it was only in later years that the heavy competition by London and Liverpool came into being.
The production of the various rivers during 1911 was:
River Solimões 865,000 kilos Purús 3,019,000 ” Acre 371,000 ” Juruá 2,055,000 ” Madeira 1,370,000 ” Javary 1,420,000 ” Japurá 70,000 ” Jutahy 287,000 ” Negro 679,000 ” Branco 33,000 ” Lower Amazon 194,000 ”
The rubber exporting houses are:
Zarges Ohliger & Co. (German). Adelbert H. Alden, Ltd. (American). Ahlers & Co. (German). General Rubber Co. of Brazil (American). De Lagotellerie & Co. (French).
[Illustration: “DEFUMADOR,” OR SMOKING-HUT.]
STATE OF AMAZON EXHIBIT INCLUDES:
Pyramid of 50 tons rubber. Models of River Steamers. Rubber Milk. Photographs and Maps. Rubber Toys, etc., made by natives. Basins, Pails, etc. Large Rubber Tree Stump and several Young Rubber Trees.
=Exhibited by Messrs. Asenei & Co., River Madeira.=
Rubber Milk. Nuts and Appliances for Smoking Rubber.
=Exhibited by Sno. Raymundo Monteiro da Costa.=
COMPARATIVE RUBBER STATISTICS
Comparative Rates of Fine Pará. Liverpool. New York.
s. d. s. d. 1894 2 9 to 3 1 $0.64½ to $0.73 1895 3 0¼ to 3 4¼ .70 to .81½ 1896 3 0½ to 3 8¾ .71 to .85 1897 3 5 to 3 9 .79½ to .89 1898 3 7½ to 4 5 .82 to 1.06 1899 3 10 to 4 7¼ .91 to 1.10 1900 3 8½ to 4 9 .83 to 1.11½ 1901 3 4 to 3 11½ .76 to .95 1902 2 10 to 3 9½ .66 to .92 1903 3 6¼ to 4 8 .78 to 1.13 1904 3 10¾ to 5 6 .89 to 1.32 1905 4 10¼ to 5 8¾ 1.13 to 1.35 1906 4 11½ to 5 5½ 1.16 to 1.28 1907 2 11¾ to 5 3 .69 to 1.24 1908 2 9¼ to 5 5 .65 to 1.30 1909 4 10 to 9 2 1.13 to 2.15 1910 4 10 to 12 4½ 1.16 to 2.90 1911 3 10 to 7 1 .90 to 1.67
FEDERAL TERRITORY OF ACRE
[Illustration: SERINGUEIRO SMOKING RUBBER AT ALTO ACRE.]
THE ACRE
THE FLUVIAL REGION THAT IS RICHEST IN RUBBER
As far as the wealth of rubber obtained from natural sources is concerned, Brazil ranks first among all the world’s rubber producing countries. While the East Indian section, with its plantation grown product, has already outstripped her in the quantity of its annual plantation output, the superior excellence of genuine Pará rubber has not been attained. The “fine rubber” that comes from the inundated region of the lower river country is best known. In the upper districts of various southern affluents, fine rubber trees grow, but no longer in the lowlands that have long been subject to inundation, they occur rather in forests that are overflowed seldom, if at all, that even extend over the hilly districts. The method of collection and the entire operation of rubber production varies in many respects from the more familiar methods of the inundated districts. This applies particularly to Acre, with its characteristic and peculiar river section.
To explore this section, from economic and scientific points of view, I undertook a journey last year, 1911, at the instance of the Associação Commercial.
The results of this journey will be embodied in a detail report, it is at present proposed to make only a brief summary to supplement the pictures shown in the exhibition.
Our better knowledge of Acre dates back barely a quarter of a century. At that period uncertainty prevailed as to which of the countries adjoining Acre, Brazil, Bolivia and Perú, were the owners of the territory. In more recent times these conditions have been adjusted, the greater part having been awarded to Brazil, while Bolivia received a portion of the left bank of the upper Acre. The boundary between Bolivia and Perú is as yet undecided. The latter country includes the uppermost left bank of the source section which contains but few fine rubber trees.
[Illustration: DR. CARLOS DE CERQUEIRA PINTO,
Inventor of a Smokeless Process for Curing Rubber.]
[Illustration: LANDSCAPE ON THE BANKS OF THE ALTO ACRE.]
The Acre is a right affluent of the larger tributaries of the Purús, entering above the mouth of the Rio Negro and coming from the Southwest, and flows, like these, through the boundless forest tracts of the Amazon River country. It rises in elevated ground, East of the Andes, in a still partly explored territory, very difficult of access, at about the eleventh degree of southern latitude and 70½ longitude and flows at first eastward, to the Bolivian boundary at 69°. From this point, the Acre flows first Northeast, with a constantly increasing northerly inclination, until it enters the Central Purús at 8⅔ South latitude and 67½ longitude. The small steamers run from this point to the junction with the Amazon and on to Manáos in six to eight days.
In November more than 40 large and small steamers are despatched from Pará and Manáos. They carry supplies for the rubber district and load, for the return trip, fine rubber and other caoutchouc varieties. Such steamers have, as a rule, a cargo capacity of 100 to 300 tons. The largest, taking as much as 500 tons, are at most 50 to 60 meters in length.
The journey from Manáos to the Purús, is usually accomplished in one day. The Purús is a stately river, which, in its lower reaches often attains a breadth of 1,000 meters and although it gradually narrows, it always retains, until its confluence with the Acre, a breadth of several hundred meters.
The trip to that point takes, as a rule, 12 to 16 days and except for the last stretch of about three days, is open all the year. Here is the place called Cochoeiras, where there are rapids, which during the dry season of about four months, obstruct steam navigation on the Purús. The Acre, on the other hand, has a narrow but deep bed, is rarely over 100 meters wide and often contracts to 50 to 60 meters. In the dense forests, there may be seen, from time to time, clearings on the banks with the =Baracâos= that are the stations for the fine rubber business. Also occasional larger places of residence, villages and little towns, where longer stops are often made, are encountered.
We first pass Antimary, at the mouth of a river similarly named. Then we soon reach Porto de Acre, a large residential place, where the steamers must have their papers passed and pay duties.
This is the beginning of the Federal territory, which is separate from the State of Amazonas and is subject to the central government in Rio de Janeiro. Hardly a day’s journey up stream lies the little town of Empreza, with its picturesque houses embowered in foliage. It is the most important place on the lower Acre and the second largest residential town in Acre Territory.
About three days’ journey up the river the town of Hapury is reached, which contains several thousand inhabitants and enjoys a considerable trade. It is the largest and most important town in the entire Acre territory.
[Illustration: ON THE LOWER ACRE.]
When at times in the river’s narrow water course there are a dozen large steamers lying and a lively business intercourse is everywhere in progress, the scene, in the depth of the primeval forest, creates quite an imposing impression. Hapury is considered already in the district of Alta Acre and from this point, the difficulty of navigation increases, the breadth and volume of water of the river alike decreasing. Very rapidly during long, rainless periods, the river water level lowers and the further progress of the steamers becomes impossible. They must anchor at a convenient place and wait until the river rises again. In lower Acre, where water is more plentiful, such interruptions are less frequent, but in upper Acre they are the rule. The farther the river is ascended the more frequent are these compulsory stoppages, often lasting eight to fourteen days. High-water in the river often lasts but a few days, so that the steamers must stop again. Then too, the many windings of the river make navigation exceedingly difficult. On the upper Acre travel is by day only, boats laying to at night.
Following the course of the river, 85 kilometers above Hapury, Igarapé de Bahia is reached, on the Bolivian border and then the little town of Cobija. It is situated on the right bank and belongs to Bolivia, whereas on the left bank, Brazilian territory continues. The steamers here are subject to the Bolivian customs regulations and must pay duty on all goods destined for Bolivia.
A large number of the steamers that start from Manáos, go only as far as this or as Hapury, only a few venture to penetrate further and are not deterred by the great loss of time.
Above Cobija are some of the most productive rubber sections where there are goods to discharge and rubber to be loaded. A few steamers follow the Bolivian border up to the terminal station, Tacna. Here, as a small affluent from the right, the Taverija flows into the Acre, forming at the same time the boundary between Bolivia and Perú.
Bolivia maintains here a small military post, whereas there is only a commissioner for Perú. If the steamer has met with favorable conditions, the trip from Manáos may have been made in a month; ordinarily, however, it takes two or three months. The return trip is made much faster, some steamers, that do not stop, make Manáos from upper Acre in fourteen days.
Above Tacna there are but two rubber forest districts or seringaes as they are termed, the Seringal Auristella on the Peruvian side and the Seringal St. Francisco on the Brazilian side. The latter is a very productive and still young rubber forest, farther up the river the fine rubber trees suddenly cease and their output is no longer remunerative.
[Illustration: RUBBER TREE AT HAPURY.]
The climate, like that of the Amazon country, is humid and hot, with a rainy and a dry season. The southerly situation, however, causes a somewhat more marked difference between the two seasons. In April, the rains become less frequent and then, until October, there are no or but very few heavy precipitations; some times the fallen leaves on the ground in the woods are dried out and even the dew is absent. There then occur, however, especially in the months of June, July and August, steady cold spells, when the thermometer, in the morning, sinks to 8° C. and often does not go above 12° C. during the day. These so-called =Friazens= last several days and are recurrent, but cease in September. Thunder storms and violent rain storms begin in October, so that in November the rivers are usually navigable again. In December the first steamships arrive. In January and February a rainless period is frequent, which is followed, in March and April again, by a rainy spell. Many steamers undertake, usually at this time, their second voyage and if they have good fortune they make three trips to upper Acre.
The copious precipitation, the heat and the fertile soil have produced in Acre a luxuriant primeval forest, which is higher and more densely overgrown than that of the lower river courses of the Amazon country. Trees of 40 to 50 meters in height are not infrequent, they form a forest of varied composition. There may be found here representatives of the most diverse plant families; some of which, in the cool season, lose their foliage. The forest is densely overgrown with plants, shoots and shrubs. Where a thorny growth, Tapoea and other underbrush gets the upper hand, a macheté or axe is necessary in forcing a path through the virgin forest.
Various kinds of trees are used by the natives for building houses, fashioning canoes and other purposes. For export, however, neither these useful woods nor many other products of the forest, have attained any importance. The fruit of the cacao tree and Pará nuts, rot on the ground, transportation to Manáos being too costly. The caoutchouc products are, however, present in such abundance and possess such great value, that their acquisition and transportation recompenses every effort and have been the cause of the development in these distant primeval forests of a busy life.
The water in the deeply hollowed bed of the Acre, swells in flood time and submerges the land on the adjacent shores and some sand banks, but for the most part does not penetrate into the forest or only for a short period. The flooded forests of the lower water courses, often miles in extent, are lacking and the fine rubber trees grown on land free from inundation, often reaches up into the hills in the hilly or mountainous district.
[Illustration: JUNCTION OF THE ACRE RIVER WITH THE PURÚS.]
The fine rubber tree belongs to the Hevea brasiliensis, Mull. Arg. or to their near families. It is higher and more vigorous than the trees in the inundated districts and has somewhat larger and longer seeds. Trees of more than 40 meters in height and up to five meters in circumference, are not rare. Whether the Acre fine rubber tree is a special species or a variety of Hevea Braziliensis, can be determined only by a very painstaking investigation. In yield of rubber and quality of product, the Acre tree surpasses that of the inundated districts.
Of other Hevea varieties Hevea cuneata Hub. the Seringa vermelha, occurs but rarely, also sapium tapurú, Ule, is found but rarely. Castillôa Ulei, Warb., the “caucho” of the Peruvians, is quite plentiful and is generally utilized, its exploitation being regarded sometimes as more profitable than the fine rubber. Just as in the Amazon country, under the title “caoutchouc,” the product of castillôa is mainly understood, so, in Acre, for the yield of the Hevea, the name “fine rubber” is used.
At present, there are on the Acre no unowned, unused lands, but some of the seringaes in operation are capable of further development. In lower Acre there are many seringaes that are badly exhausted and furnish but a small yield. The rubber collectors too, who, as is well-known, cut down the Castillôa trees, are compelled to go further into upper Acre all the time to find profitable work.
Acre territory is regarded as the most productive fine rubber section, especially on its borders; on the little river Hapury and towards the Taurumano, which belongs to the water-shed of the Madeira, the output is said to be exceedingly rich. In proportion to their longitudinal extent, the extent of the woods belonging to Acre, in breadth, is comparatively small, for in a one or two days’ journey, it is possible to reach the district of another river. The rubber forest properties are consequently all measured from the river and include usually, a territory of several hundred square kilometers, often in fact, equal to small principalities. Many owners have also several seringaes, often in Bolivia and Brazil simultaneously.
In such a seringal on the river bank, the dwelling with warehouse accommodations and sales-place, is erected, known as the Baracâo in contradistinction to the small Baraken of the work people.
About the Baracâo the forest is usually cleared to afford land for planting and pasture for the cattle.
The management of the seringal and its entire business, proceeds from the Baracâo. According to the extent of the seringal, from twenty to several hundred work people are employed on it. Through the entire forest, paths, known as =estradas=, are laid out, from which all obstructive brush and hanging creepers, are cut away with the macheté. These =estradas=, where possible, are laid out in loops, so that they lead back to the starting point and are so planned as to include from 100 to 150 fine rubber trees.
[Illustration: SERINGAL WITH THE RUBBER ON THE ALTO ACRE.]
Every seringueiro is allotted two or three =estradas= to work. These seringueiros live in the interior of the forest in special =baraken=, either with their families, or usually several together. The different =baraken= are connected by broader roads that can be traversed by mules.
In May or June, after the =estradas= have previously been put in order, the gathering of fine rubber commences. The seringueiro proceeds in the early morning into the forest, taps the trees in the customary manner with the little axe Maschadi, attaches the tin cups and afterwards collects the accumulated milk. It is afternoon when he reaches home with the milk he has collected in a rubber bag or in tin cans, to be smoked. In a little hut, roofed with palm-straw, the smoking is proceeded with. Pieces of wood that give a copious smoke are burned and over the fire is placed a tin cylinder, known as a =Boião=. The seringueiro first collects, in the middle of a round, strong stick, some coagulated rubber milk and pours the still fluid milk, which he has in a large tin dish, over this place, turning the stick so that the smoke can impregnate the coagulating caoutchouc. He continues this operation until the milk in the tin pan is all used up.
By this means, a rubber ball is produced which is enlarged in the succeeding days until it weighs about 50 kilos. The stick is then withdrawn and the ball, stored with others, until the mule train comes for it. A mule can carry on each side of him 50 kilos without over-exerting himself.
If, however, the weight of the ball exceeds sixty kilos, the mules are overloaded and the seringueiro who made the balls pays a fine. Where the dwelling place of the seringueiro is near a river and the fine rubber can be transported by canoe, larger balls, that often weigh more than 100 kilos are made.
This gathering and preparation of the fine rubber differs materially from that practiced on the lower water courses where the milk is smoked with much greater care, on the shovel shaped mould and the balls, as a rule, weigh but 10 to 30 kilos. On the Acre, the seringueiro will gather in a day 15 to 25 liters of milk, which will yield 7 to 12 kilos of dry rubber, whereas in the inundated section he will be able to gather but one-half or one-third as much. Of course the seringueiro can smoke the milk much more carefully and take certain precautions, as for instance, that the rubber-milk is never heated. On the Acre on the other hand, the milk is warmed as a rule, because otherwise the large mass is difficult to manage. There is no question but that in this manner the quality of the rubber, which is prepared from the best material and certainly would yield the best product, suffers. Nevertheless the rubber balls from Acre, prepared in the primitive manner, furnish a good and much sought for rubber. The tapping of the trees also is often effected with less care, small steel axes being used that make wounds that are too deep and as a result, the seringaes in the Acre are exhausted more quickly than those in the inundated district.
[Illustration: A HUT ON THE UPPER ACRE IN WHICH RUBBER IS SMOKED.]
From the =baracâos=, the stations on the banks of the river, small mule trains proceed to the interior to bring in the rubber balls, which are laid in rows, usually in the open air, so that they will be thoroughly dried before loading them on the steamer. By the same mules, food and supplies are sent to the seringueiros in the forest. When the rubber gathering ceases in December or January, the seringueiro has other important work to do. Roads must be opened and repaired, clearings made in the forest, huts erected, wood cut and finally the paths set in order for the approaching harvest. During the rainy season, the steamer brings new supplies and food, which the seringueiro must buy at the =Baracâo=.
Concerning the duties the seringueiro has to perform, there are special regulations, which prevail in most seringaes and of which written or printed copies are often furnished.
To each seringueiro is allotted two or three estradas, each with 120 to 200 trees. For this he pays 15 per cent of his gathering of fine rubber to the owner of the forest and an additional 10 per cent if he uses the mules for transportation. The remaining rubber belongs to the seringueiro in so far as he does not have to pay it for goods purchased. As a rule, the owner purchases a portion of the product on the spot at a price that is, of course, somewhat lower than is paid in Manáos, the remaining portion is shipped, for account of the seringueiro, to Pará and Manáos, and he receives the full market price for it, of course, after deducting freight and duties. The balance is placed to the credit of the seringueiro and paid to the firm representing the owner in Manáos or Pará. Certain items, for instance, the price of Sernamby, consisting of residual scraps of rubber, the seringueiro also receives in Acre. In some cases payments are made in rubber products, a form of payment quite common in other transactions.
On the upper Acre, a seringueiro will usually collect in a day as much milk as will yield from 6 to 15 kilos of fine rubber. Two liters of this milk yield a kilo of dry rubber, whereas with Manihot Glaziovi, 3 liters are required for this. Exceptional cases occur where the seringueiro furnishes milk for 20 to 25 kilos of fine rubber in one day. Daily collections of more than 40 liters, however, a single worker can hardly control and he must then have an assistant for carrying and smoking. The yearly production of a seringueiro amounts, in the better rubber forest properties, to upwards of 1,000 kilos of dry rubber.
[Illustration: RUBBER TREE OF NEARLY FIVE METERS IN CIRCUMFERENCE.]
Some owners offer a reward, such as for instance, a gold watch, for the most industrious and luckiest seringueiro. On the Seringal S. Francisco, for the crop year 1911-1912, a seringueiro won the gold watch who had collected 2,500 kilos. The annual highest yield of caoutchouc from the Castillôa was only 1,700 kilos, for the forest there in regard to Castillôa is already very much exhausted. Otherwise the yields of this rubber are more variable and higher than those of fine rubber.
If the price of rubber rules high, a seringueiro has quite a considerable income and with a little frugality can acquire a property.
If, on the other hand, the price of rubber drops below five milreis, the seringueiro has trouble to make both ends meet with his income and easily gets into debt. The supplies that he must purchase from the proprietor or his representative (lessee) are very expensive. The customs duties, the long haul and consequently high freight, the risk, the different losses, which the proprietor suffers through debtor workmen, and the occasional high price of fine rubber, which forces all prices upward, makes everything in upper Acre very dear.
The prices of some of the most necessary supplies and goods are about as follows.
1 kilo mandioka flour, 2½ milreis. 1 kilo coffee, 4 milreis. 1 kilo sugar, 3 milreis. 1 kilo beans, 3 milreis. 1 kilo rice, 2½ milreis. 1 kilo dried meat, 5 milreis. 1 kilo fresh meat, 4 milreis. 1 chicken, 30 milreis. 1 dozen eggs, 10 milreis. 1 bottle brandy, 8 milreis. 1 meter goods, 3 to 6 milreis. 1 woolen quilt, 120 to 140 milreis. 1 pair boots, 40 to 60 milreis. 1 cake washing soap, 3½ milreis. 1 piece fine soap, 5 milreis. 1 macheté, 14 to 22 milreis. 1 package matches, 3 milreis. 1 carbine, 200 milreis. 1 kilo powder, 28 milreis. 1 kilo shot, 4 milreis.
[Illustration: THE MOUTH OF THE ACRE.]
1 pound sterling is now worth about 15 milreis, so that four shillings (about one dollar U. S.)=3 milreis.
On the lower Acre, goods are much cheaper and they fall still lower down to Manáos, where many articles only cost one-third or one-fourth as much, or even less, but Manáos is nevertheless an expensive city.
The large profits which fine rubber often yields, make all labor very dear. For this reason agriculture has developed but slowly and most food supplies must therefore be imported. Nevertheless cattle raising is constantly growing, stock being brought in from Bolivia. Bananas, the tubers of the sweet mandiola, beans and some vegetables are extensively grown, especially by Peruvians and Bolivians. Often the seringueiro will plant some bananas and cultivate a small patch of cleared land, but this is not favorably regarded by the proprietor. In some seringaes, even the marriage of the seringueiros is opposed; everything is directed towards obtaining the largest possible quantity of fine rubber.
Although the Acre is not very full of fish, fishing, in the dry season, is attended with some success, which particularly benefits dwellers on the banks of the river. Hunting also, in some sections, furnishes residents with fresh meat. As animals of the chase may be enumerated, monkeys, Taca, Aguti, wild swine, small varieties of deer, sloths, tapirs, various wood fowl and ducks.
Very different from the arrangements customary, as a rule, in the Acre, are the conditions in the Bolivian rubber districts, which for the most part are owned by a single proprietor, N. Suarez y Hermanos. He is said to produce 1,500 tons of fine rubber per year, and could produce more than four times the quantity if the entire forest concession, which is probably as large as South Germany, was all put in operation. One portion of this rubber forest is situated on the Acre, but the greater part includes the Southwestern tributaries of the Rio Madeira. In the properties on the Acre, the working methods are adapted to Brazilian customs, especially where Brazilian seringueiros are employed.
While in the Seringaes, trade is conducted mostly through the Baracâos, there are in some places, notably in Cobija, Hapury and Empreza, various business houses, through which the owners of seringaes, captains of ships and other persons, can supply their wants, for before the steamer returns, there is often a scarcity in some products.
[Illustration: THE ACRE SEEN FROM COBIJA ON THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER.]
The retail trade is mainly in the hands of so-called Turks, various Orientals, from Syria, Arabia, Tunis and Morocco. They have large boats, propelled by poles and oars and which contain the goods in a covered space. These Turks travel as pedlars for years about on the rivers, selling their goods for money or rubber. This commerce is designated =Regatao= and is not favored by proprietors, who sometimes forbid stopping in their territory. The seringueiro can not only buy cheaper of them, but can dispose of caoutchouc surreptitiously.
Those who encounter favorable conditions on the Acre, who are diligent and economical, can, by working in the rubber industry, or in any other field of activity, soon acquire a property. The majority, however, squander their earnings on trips to Manáos, Pará or Ceará, or suffer from sickness.
Although hygienic conditions on the Acre have improved with the times and there are numerous healthy localities, malaria still prevails there a great deal, and other diseases, notably beriberi, are often fatally prevalent. Many privations, caused by the difficulties of travel, and a certain amount of luxury, made possible by the large earnings, often contrast with one another.
From Acre, during the year, about 5,000 tons of fine rubber, inclusive of other rubber products, are exported, of which certainly a portion comes from the adjacent territory.
This quantity, according to the price of rubber, will represent a value of 20,000 to 75,000 contos of réis, about $5,000,000 to $15,000,000. These are figures that play a part in the total output of rubber, the importance of which is increased by its quality.
THE ACRE TERRITORY.
Previous to the Treaty of Petropolis, in 1903, between Brazil and Bolivia, the Acre Territory formed part of the State of Amazonas, one portion being, in fact, still in dispute. By virtue of this treaty the Acre Territory became Brazilian, Brazil in exchange paying £2,000,000 to Bolivia, an indemnity to an American syndicate, and undertaking to construct the Madeira Mamoré Railway.
The Congress then empowered the Federal authorities to administer the Territory until the question should be finally settled.
The administration is much the same as that of the other States. Recent laws have tended to decentralize the administration, the latest being one giving municipal independence. The three provinces of the Territory are:
Upper Purús (capital Senna Madureira), Upper Juruá (capital Cruzeiro do Sul), and Upper Acre (capital Empreza).
[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF RUBBER BISCUITS.]
The only product and export is rubber, the proportions during 1911 being:
Upper Purús 4,042,000 kilos Upper Juruá 3,008,000 kilos Upper Acre 3,526,000 kilos
One of the most serious questions has been that relating to the ownership of land. The Federal Congress is prepared to solve this problem satisfactorily, by recognizing bona-fide holdings dating from before the Treaty of Petropolis, giving preference to property deeds granted by the State of Amazonas, next to those given by the Republic of Bolivia during its brief occupation, and then to any possession obtained in good faith during the whole interregnum, up to the date of the last law passed.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
For the protection of Brazilian rubber, and in order to facilitate and develop its culture, as well as its final handling, a Federal law was passed on January 5th of the current year. (No. 2513 A.)
Its principal measures are especially concerned with Amazon rubber and the country in which it is produced, viz.: the States of Amazonas and Matto-Grosso and the Acre Territory. The scheme embraces the construction of railways and roads, the clearing of rivers, reduction of import duties and of dues on river navigation, the establishing of coal depots, living accommodation for laborers, centres for the production of foodstuff, model cattle farms, prizes to rubber planters and exemption from import duties on all material for rubber working.
Besides the Madeira Mamoré Railway, which benefits principally the Madeira River district of Matto-Grosso, and a further branch of the same railway, now in course of construction, and which is intended to open up the Bolivian district of the Beni River, the Brazilian Government will construct another railroad (in the route of which the Commercial Association has suggested some alterations) to commence from Manáos and to work through the region of the Rio Branco, to link up with the English railroad already constructed in British Guiana up to the Brazilian boundary. This railway will open up to the State of Amazonas a huge tract of country admirably suited to agriculture of all kinds, and to colonization by Europeans.
The Association Commercial will also propose the construction of a further railroad to communicate by means of branch lines with the various provinces of the Acre Territory, in order to bring the product of that region to the lower Purús River, at a point which will admit of free access to steamers of deep draft to and from Manáos.
[Illustration: THE UPPER ACRE SEEN FROM PATAGONIA.]
DR. CERQUEIRA PINTO’S PROCESS
EXTRA FINE PARÁ
This rubber was cured for export in the rubber estate “IRACEMA,” in the Federal Acre, Amazonia, Brazil, by Dr. Cerqueira Pinto’s process of smokeless coagulation. (See The India Rubber World, August 1, 1909, page 396, and copy of the same journal of 1st September, the same year, page 435.)
The enclosed sample contains 68 kilos and belongs to the lot of 5,000 kilos (11,025 lbs.) that Dr. Cerqueira Pinto holds to be sold in New York.
Dr. Cerqueira Pinto’s process is one of coagulation of the latex of the “=Hevea Brasiliensis=” by an ingredient patented by the Brazilian Government—“=LACTINA=”—absolutely free of any acid.
The latex after the coagulation is pressed through a cylinder in order to dry out.
This rubber was tested and classified as of STANDARD type by the Government of the United States of America.
It offers the resistance of 2,010 pounds per square inch according to the experiments made by The Manhattan Rubber Company in July, 1909. This rubber means a saving to the manufacturer of at least 20 per cent, in the opinion of the Favorite Rubber Mfg. Co. of New Jersey and of 25 per cent, as per the analysis made in London.
The author of this process calls the Jury’s attention to his rubbers and is willing to furnish with the sufficient quantity in order to prove to the entire satisfaction of his assertions. It vulcanizes as well by acid as by vapor. Dr. Cerqueira Pinto will prepare, during the Exposition, in September, before the public and the manufacturers, his rubbers with both Hevea and Castillôa latexes, yield of the trees in October, 1911, in the Federal Acre, Brazil. He shall present as well a large quantity of similar rubbers cured by the author on different occasions. They are true rubbers of commerce cured for export. They are clothed by a vegetal varnish, soluble in water, which is also a discovery of Dr. Cerqueira Pinto, to prevent the mould.
CASTILLÔA OR CAUCHO.
Prepared by the process of Dr. Carlos de Cerqueira Pinto. (See the India Rubber World of September 1st, 1909, page 435).
The included sample weighs 68 kilos. The author holds 1,400 pounds of this quality to be sold in New York market.
The article was cured by rubber laborers of the estate “Iracema” in the Federal Acre, Amazonia, Brazil, during the months of July to December, 1911. They are rubbers of commerce and cured for export.
[Illustration: COURTYARD OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE MESSRS. SUAREZ Y HERMANOS, FILLED WITH RUBBER BISCUITS READY FOR SHIPMENT.]
[Illustration: THE TOWN OF HAPURY.]
[Illustration: SETTLEMENT OF PORTO AUCAO WITH MULES CARRYING MERCHANDISE TO THE INTERIOR.]
[Illustration: SETTLEMENT OF MONTE MO.]
[Illustration: SERINGUEIRO CARRYING LATEX.]
THE STATE OF MATTO GROSSO
[Illustration: BALLS OF RUBBER.]
THE STATE OF MATTO GROSSO IN THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL RUBBER EXPOSITION IN NEW YORK, 1912
BY LEOPOLDO DE MATTOS
Dr. Joaquim Augusto da Costa Marques, President of the State of Matto Grosso, 1911-1915
The State of Matto Grosso, Brazil, at the Third International Rubber Exposition in New York, 1912
Of the twenty states composing the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Matto Grosso is second to the largest in its territorial extension. It is situated south of the States Amazon and Pará, having on the East the States of Goyaz, S. Paulo and Paraná, on the South the Republic of Paraguay, and on the West Bolivia.
It embraces on the map that portion of the earth’s surface which extends, approximately from the fourth degree South of the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn. Its immense area is about 50,175 square leagues, or according to Mr. Candido Mendes it has an area of 1,379,651 square meters. Its population is actually about 350,000, not including a considerable number of uncivilized Indians, whose improvement is carried steadily forward by the united efforts of the State and Federal Governments.
Without mentioning its capital, the principal cities of the State are Corumbá, S. Luiz de Caceres, Miranda, Nioae, Focoué, Santa Aunade Paranabyba, Diamantina, Rosario, Livramento, and the new and recently incorporated municipality, S. Antonio de Rio Madeira. Its capital, Cuyabá, is situated on the left bank of the river of the same name, 288 meters above sea level, and owes its origin to the Paulistas, who formed colonies in the western part of Brazil during the first part of the Eighteenth Century.
In 1719 Paschoal Moreira Cabral ascending the River Coxipé Mirim, founded on the left bank of this stream a village which was called Forquilha, but to-day is the city of Cuyabá, where in those early days a rich gold mine was discovered. In those days, according to Elysée Reclus, the vast region of Matto Grosso, was hardly anything except a narrow, ordinary zone, nothing more than an immense solitude of undefined limits and unknown, but given over to Indians and wild beasts. It was joined to the rest of Brazil by the lonely paths of hunters, and by channels of the rivers that had their origin there. Really in those days communication with the remainder of Brazil was as difficult as with Matto Grosso. It is within the memory of many and known to those who read the history of Brazil, that it was impossible for the troops who were enrolled and equipped in the coast provinces, to go directly to the aid of their compatriots in Matto Grosso, when the Brazilian people had to respond to the declaration of war by Paraguay.
With the thousands of obstructions in their path, a portion of the army composed of 3,000 men, which left Rio de Janeiro in April, 1865, and which could only be organized in Uberaba, in the upper basin of Paraná, was reduced to about 700, when it arrived at that safe and impregnable place.
The war with Paraguay being ended, there is no doubt that the victory gained by Brazil opened wide the ports of Matto Grosso, for the natural declivity of the soil, the course of the streams, with the free river navigation, guaranteed by her triumph, established a regular line of packets between Rio de Janeiro, Corumbá and Cuyabá, by way of the River La Plata, passing by Montevideo, Buenos Ayres and Assumption.
The fluvial ways of the Guaporé, Madeira and Amazon were constantly used in the Eighteenth Century, after the exploration made by Manoel de Lima in 1742. Navigation by the Guaporé river to the Madeira, in short to S. Antonio, which is the initial point of navigation on this last mentioned river, is long and full of difficulties. Withal, Matto Grosso is gradually approaching the coasts of Brazil by means of railroads, such as the Northwestern Road, which will shortly unite it with Rio de Janeiro, and the railroad, already projected, which, parting from S. Luiz de Caceres, will reach the old city of Matto Grosso, where the Guaporé begins to be navigable, to Guajará-Mirim, the terminal point of the great Madeira-Mamoré Railway.
In a short time, as can readily be seen, these roads will be a reality, the navigable rivers being united by the stretches of railroads between them. The Paranápanema and the Ivahy in the States of Paraná and S. Paulo, continue on the one side of the Paraná River, ascending the Ivanhema, and the Brilhante, as far as the neighboring mountains of Miranda, in the meridional part of Matto Grosso.
[Illustration: RUBBER FROM JACY PARANÁ OF FIDEL BACA & CO. READY TO BE PUT IN BOATS TO BE TAKEN TO A STATION OF THE MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
The magnificent regions of Matto Grosso promise in the near future, to be great centers of population and consequently a future focus of civilization by probable fusion of the different elements of immigration, which will certainly come together there in the flight of time, and the increased facilities in the way of transportation. Somewhere it has been said, that colonization without doubt will come from the South, from Paraguay and Argentina; but at the present time, with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, undoubtedly colonization will also come from the North, communication being facilitated by the Amazon River, the Madeira being one of its tributaries, on the right bank of which is situated Porto Velho, the initial point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. These effects are already commencing to produce results as may be seen from founding of a new municipality and district of Matto Grosso, called the municipality of St. Antonio of the River Madeira, reached by the above-mentioned railway and to which region we will devote a special chapter later on.
Already one sees the farthest northern side of Matto Grosso filling with people, while the southern side really contains the greater number of inhabitants.
Matto Grosso is one of the regions of least roughness on the continent of South America. There are no elevations of the land which constitute real mountains.
The elevated lands have their points of culmination in the western bases of the Mantiqueira, the Aymorés, and the Espinhaço, and continue, gradually lowering from this side to the West of Goyaz, and on the other side are the elevated lands at the base of the Andes, which incline to the East with its supports. Elysée Reclus says that an intermediary plain, separating the two geographical districts, goes winding in the form of a valley, that in other ages certainly was a maritime strait separating the two islands—Western Brazil and the Andes.
To-day rivers run in the depression where formerly there was a sea and the plain is actually full of alluvial soil. The true center of South America is between the two cities of Cuyabá and Corumbá.
To those who do not know the region, the slopes of the hills are mistaken for mountains and geographical maps show a chain of mountains more or less continuous, between the basins of the Tapajóz and the Madeira, between the head waters of the same Tapajóz and Paraguay and finally between the Tapajóz and the Araguaya. Nevertheless this semi-circular plain exists only in fragments, because the elevations which are found in the plains of the upper Paraguay and its tributaries are only a high, level ground of horizontal sections or slight elevations and worn away by the rivers which flow into the great Amazon.
[Illustration: REMOVING THE BALL OF RUBBER AFTER IT HAS BEEN SMOKED.]
They are rather tablelands than mountains, for they do not reach an elevation, except in some parts of the tableland, of more than 100 meters, while the mean elevation of a range of mountains is 500 meters.
This geographic district in the State of Matto Grosso is indifferently called the cordillara of Parecys, but does not present a mountainous aspect except on the South side. On this scarred side, the rock is cut into peaks, or cut away into obelisks. On the other side towards the Tapajóz and Xingú, a long range extends and gradually declines into the plains of the State of Amazonas. D’Orbiguy found in the high northern part of Matto Grosso, the existence of beds pertaining to the carboniferous age and corresponding to rocks of the same nature which on the opposite side of that region are found in the Bolivian bases of the Sierra of Santa Cruz. After this Hart and Derby verified the fact that the southern parts of the Araxá, which are the elevated borders of the tableland, date probably from paleozoic epochs, and there are found the carboniferous, devonian and silurian beds. Fossil beds found by the Geologist Smith below the hillocks of the plains, 50 kilometers east of Cuyabá, place these facts beyond doubt. More to the North is the zone of the rocky places, which in links cut the Madeira, Tapajóz, Xingú, Tocatius and their tributaries, the walls denuded by erosion, are all of the crystalline formation, granite, gueis, porphory and quartzite. The elevations that unroll in the direction of the South, between the sources of the Paraguay and Araguaya, following between the Paraguay and the Paraná, do not present the same characteristics as the tablelands of the North. The high parts of Western Matto Grosso were separated from the East and West sides and devastated by lateral excavations, take in certain places the aspects of true mountain chains, and for this reason they are named, from the North to the South, the Sierras of S. Jeronimo, Maracajú and Anhauhaly.
Eruptive rocks, called basaltic in this country, probably porphyritic rend the beds of sandstone, of which the mountains are composed and appear to form by their disintegration “red lands,” similar to those which give the farmers of S. Paulo their abundant harvests of coffee.
In a sort of circle limited by a semicircle of elevations isolated masses have been lifted up, rocks whose outlines, seen from a distance, have a perfect regularity. The hills proper, for the greater part, have geometrical forms, which it should be said, great forces have crumbled, leaving smooth walls like the sides of pyramids. The tops of the tablelands, as well as summits, have been maimed by a force certainly corresponding to the other summits, which now may be seen as part of the same prairie. According to Taunay, who traveled over the country, these masses of sandstone in horizontal beds regularly placed one above another, are formed of marshy sediment deposited by the sea of fresh water, which in former times covered this region.
[Illustration: COLLECTING THE LATEX.]
The ruins of these hills and slopes contributed also to change the physiognomy of the landscape. These excoriations were picked up and dragged by the rivers, to form new beds and soil, and much rock disappeared below the continued crumbling of the mountains. Others show nothing except their summits above the land of recent formation. Masses that held them to the tablelands and the chains of the interior are separated from them, because their bases are buried and they emerge abruptly from the soil. These distinctive peaks to which the name of =itambea= has been given, raise their heads above a sea of trees, like some great buildings erected by the hand of man. To the East, the southern part of Matto Grosso, they range themselves in files and group themselves in archipelagoes, each time becoming higher and more numerous. The part that goes towards the West are solitary peaks on the circle of the horizon and may be seen along the banks of the River Paraguay, and even on the other side of the same.
The Upper Guaporé, Itenez of the Bolivians, although situated in the immense basin of the Amazon as a tributary to the Madeira River by the Mamoré, belongs to the State of Matto Grosso, for the city of this name was founded on its banks and nearly the whole population of the state accumulated in this depression, through whose western half the river finds its way. Its principal source is very obscure. It rises in a grotto along the border of the Araxá, and takes first a southerly course, parallel to other rivers which descend towards Paraguay. On leaving the last hills it curves to the West, and afterwards to the Northwest, where already enlarged by numerous tributaries it crosses the plain, where there is found the city named at its founding Villa Bella and to-day called Matto Grosso.
The Paraguay is one of the most known rivers of South America, as a way of navigation, as Elysée Reclus affirms. Few rivers have such a slight declination in proportion to their length. Castelnaw says that it rises at an altitude of 305 meters, in places where tranquil waters glide slowly to the sea, the altitude of the land being scarcely 200 meters. At a point 4,000 kilometers from the sea, the declination is scarcely 5 centimeters. Therefore, steamers of light draft can freely ascend to the confines of Brazil, far to the North of the two Republics of Argentine and Paraguay and arrive at the base of the tableland by the principal river and its tributaries, Jaurú, Sepotuba, Cuyabá, S. Lourenço and Taquary. The Paraguay presents another notable phenomenon, which is the crossing its sources with those of the tributaries of the Amazon.
[Illustration: SMOKING RUBBER.]
The River Jaurú approaches the Guaporé so closely that it would be easy to make a canal from the waters of this western river to a tributary of the Jaurú. Another tributary of the Paraguay, the Aguapehy, is only separated from the Alegre River, which flows by the old city of Villa Bella, to-day called Matto Grosso, by a low and narrow isthmus, which according to Leverger measures 5,280 meters. During 1772, and even later, it was proposed to cut a canal at different places in this isthmus, but the work was never done because of the little commerce of that locality. Certainly, railroads, in the near future, will supply the absence of a canal and will join Montevideo to Pará, passing through the larger part of the State of Matto Grosso, and by a continental navigable water way of 8,300 kilometers, as Bartholomo Bossi says.
The Paraguay River has as its principal tributaries the S. Lourenço, enlarged by the waters of the Cuyabá, the Taquary, the Mondego, and the Apá, the last marking the boundary between Brazil and the Republic of Paraguay. At the time of the floods, its level, and that of its tributaries, rises 10 to 11 meters and overflows to the right and the left, forming a temporary sea, which extends to great distances, being lost to sight and continuing in lakes. The first Spanish explorers gave it the name of Lake Xarayes, in its lower section, where it receives the nearly dormant waters of its principal tributaries. This lake is about 600 kilometers in length from North to South, between the mouths of Jaurú and the hills of “Fecho-dos-Morros,” and in certain places reaches a width of 250 kilometers.
It is not permanent, as you already know, but at certain seasons of the year there are overflows, which the Indians called bays and rightly, for here there were bays of an ancient sea, which to-day are nearly dry, and most of these lakes are in constant communication with the Paraguay River, either by underground openings, or by long canals. These latter are called the lakes of Uberaba, Gaiaba, Mandioré, Caceres, etc. Some of these lakes contain only fresh water from the overflowing rivers, while others being ancient cavities are now filled with salt water, and have in their depths beds of salt, which give to the liquid a soapy characteristic. It is singular that this contrast by nature of fresh and salt water is also found in the lands of the vast plains, and thus it is, that these extensive fields, covered by a rich alluvial soil, bear heavy forests. Here the agriculturist can certainly obtain marvelous harvests. It is certainly true that these fields of Matto Grosso will serve for agriculture as well as pastoral industry.
The height of the lands, formed in the center of this vast valley, hinders the tributary from remaining in a regular channel, and the waters escaping from both sides ramify in a labyrinth of rivers and false rivers. The lateral branches follow in the zones of the lakes, to the confluence of the Taquary and Miranda Rivers, which descend from the mountains on the East. These receive in the upper region, a tributary called the Coxim, which travelers consider one of the most picturesque rivers of Brazil. It is curious to see, in some places, the waters of the Coxim crowded between perpendicular walls 50 meters in height and the small vessels floating on their bosom at the bottom of an opening not more than 10 or 12 meters in width.
THE CLIMATE
The climate of Matto Grosso is relatively warm in the lower parts and those overflowed by the high waters of the Paraguay and other rivers. In the region of the tablelands the climate is cool and healthy. The movement of the air columns is determined by the open passage way between the Andes mountains and the highlands of Brazil, as well as in the center of the South American continent, and are held by it. The warm winds, coming from the region of the Amazon, are succeeded in the Winter time by the winds which blow from the cool pampas. In the high parts of the circle of hills and mountains which surround the tablelands of Matto Grosso, the cold goes below the freezing point. The copious rains brought by the cooling winds refresh the central tablelands of Brazil and then dash themselves against the sides of the Andes. They fall with great regularity in the Summer and are frequently accompanied by thunderstorms. According to observations taken by some, the annual fall of water is 3 meters, and in Cuyabá about 135 days of the ordinary year are rainy ones.
ITS SITUATION
The State of Matto Grosso, from its geographical situation in the Continent of South America, placed at the point of separation of the two great basins of Brazil, contains at the same time the flowers and faunae of the Amazon and Plata regions. Nevertheless, the tropical flora predominates with its infinite variety of vegetable forms in all the forest regions, that is to say, along the banks of the rivers, and among the famous species found along the shores of the River-Sea, there are few which are not found in the region of the Upper Guaporé, and specimens of which may not be seen.
In no other parts, like here, will the development of Cipo’s palm be found. In 1875, a boundary commission discovered one of these palms =Urumbamba (Calamus procumbeus) or Des Moncus rudentum de Martins=, of more than 20 meters in length, with hardly the thickness of a centimeter. The cotton tree, tobacco, ipecac, there called “poya,” grow spontaneously on the plains and in the forests. The last grows abundantly in the forests of the Upper Jaurú and the neighboring rivers. Maté, the most notable product of the tablelands of the South, and which has made some regions rich, as the State of Paraná, grows here spontaneously between the Rivers Miranda and Apá, without speaking of the seringa, which is found in immense and thick forests in a district that extends from Cuyabá to Madeira and which will be the special subject of this leaflet.
The woods for building are very abundant and of a great variety, such as Brazil wood, Jacarandá, Peroba, Canella, Cedro, Jequitibá, Massaran-duba, Arco, Ferro, Setim and Vinhatico.
Among the animals are found deer, tapir, panther, and also a large number of small animals usually found in tropical regions. The fowls and birds along the streams and the songsters in the forests are, because of their variety, almost innumerable. The ostrich is found in the region of the pampas and on the margins of the upper Paraguay. There are many varieties of fish in the large and small rivers.
In the mineral kingdom, the State of Matto Grosso has numerous mines of gold, silver, platinum, copper, tin, mercury, coal, iron, precious stones, diamonds, etc. There are already four English companies developing gold mines. There is also granite, crystal, malacacheta, limestone, sal-geunna, etc. Finally, in the region of the Araxá, there are sulphur mineral springs.
In Matto Grosso are found the largest cattle ranches, not only as to their territorial extent, but also as to the number of horses and cattle, some of them numbering 100,000 head. The number of cattle is calculated to be 2,000,500,000 head. Although the transportation of cattle from Matto Grosso to Rio de Janeiro is difficult, it is generally done by a road running West to Uberaba, where they pass the Winter season of two or three months and being recuperated are sent by railroad to Rio de Janeiro. Hence it is easy to see that with the completion of the Northwestern Railway of Brazil, the problem of transportation to the coast will be solved. Also with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway the navigable rivers of Matto Grosso, will in short time, be linked with the port of Pará. Before long another railway will extend from S. Luiz de Caceres, the ancient city of Matto Grosso, where the River Guaporé commences to be navigable to Guajará-Mirim, the terminal point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. This will solve the problem of the transportation of cattle to the States of Amazonas, Pará, etc.
[Illustration: RUBBER BEING SHIPPED ON MADEIRA-MAMORÉ RAILWAY AT THE ESTATES OF FIDEL BACA & CO., JACY PARANÁ RIVER]
From this brief exposition one concludes that the State of Matto Grosso is very rich in cattle and gold, diamonds and coffee, tobacco and maté, rubber and ipecac, and all other products of the tropical and temperate zone. Without doubt it will come to be one of the largest and richest empires of the world.
Endowed with a warm climate in the North, it has in other regions a temperate and even cold climate. The tablelands contain a rare accumulation of wealth, yet little explored. Naturally people, in their activities and progressive conflict for a livelihood, will come here from all parts of the world. By their intelligence and endeavors they will make that part of Brazil an industrial, commercial and maritime mart. Here from the fusion of the different races, a great civilization will arise, and mankind will progress onward and upward to the final conquest of the land.
RUBBER
The rubber sent to this Exposition, comes from the vast regions served by the Rivers Machados, or Dgy-Paraná, Jamary, Jacy-Paraná, Mutum-Paraná, Paca-Nova and Guaporé and their tributaries, which in turn are tributaries of the great Madeira River, on whose right bank is situated the new municipality St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, installed July 2, 1912.
The new municipality has the following limits: Starting at the falls of St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, on parallel 8° 48′, the River Madeira above; the River Madeira above to the mouth of the Guaporé on parallel of 12°, and on this parallel to its intersection with the River Camararé; on this river below to its confluence with the Juruema; on this river below to the point where it unites with the Arinos; on the parallel at this point which passes to its intersection with S. Manuel River; it follows this river down to its confluence with the Tapajóz; and from this point back to St. Antonio Falls, along the line that divides Matto Grosso from the Amazonas. All this immense territory of the new municipality is traversed on the North by the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, which was completed and opened for traffic, September 7, 1912. It starts at Porto Velho and terminates at Guajará-Mirim, a distance of 390 kilometers.
The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad, in addition to the stations already opened in Porto Velho, Candelaria, St. Antonio, Jacy-Paraná, Abunã, Villa Murtinho, and Guajará-Mirim has 46 places of stopping, which corresponds to the number of camps.
Among the ways of communication that St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, the new municipality, has with the neighboring States of Amazonas and Pará, as well as with the capital and other cities of Matto Grosso, we would mention the telegraph line which the Federal Government is constructing along with its public road ways. There are two gangs of engineers and workmen engaged in the construction of the telegraph line. One started at St. Antonio in the North, and the other at Diamantina in the South. Leaving St. Antonio the telegraph line follows parallel 8° 48′ until it comes to the River Jamary, a distance of about 60 kilometers. Arriving there its course is changed to the headwaters of the Dgy-Paraná River, to a place called Urupá. Here it will meet and be joined to the line coming from the South. On June 3, 1912, at the very headwaters of the Dgy-Paraná River, the telegraph station of José Bonifacio was opened, by the gang from the South, while those from the North had, previous to this, opened the stations of St. Antonio do Rio Madeira and Jamary. This notable undertaking is under the efficient and extraordinary devotion of the Colonel of Engineers of the Brazilian army, Candido Roudon, who has a record for the construction of telegraph lines in Brazil and South America.
Within a year, more or less, the telegraph line will follow along a roadway 40 meters wide, and about 200 leagues in length, extending from Cuyabá to St. Antonio on the Madeira River. This immense roadway of communication cutting all this vast interior, rich in rubber and gold, will have a telegraph station every 10 leagues. In Porto Velho, the initial point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, there is already working a wireless telegraph station of the Marconi system. There is daily communication with Manáos. Also with Iquitos and with the Federal department at Acre, Purús and Juruá.
Transportation from Manáos to St. Antonio on the Madeira River is made in good condition and comfortable vessels. During the time of low water, that is during the dry season of the great Amazon and its tributaries, only vessels of 500 tons can ascend to those places from Manáos. In the time of high waters, when the valley of the entire Amazon is overflowed, the trans-Atlantic steamers of 7,000 to 9,000 tons, ascend in four days from Manáos. This has been done in the transportation of materials for the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. The vessels easily approached and made fast to the two wharves made of wood, one of which is in front of the offices at Porto Velho and the other at Candelaria. The Government of the Republic, however, has determined to build of stone and lime the wharves between Porto Velho and St. Antonio on the River Madeira.
[Illustration: RUBBER ON THE BEACH READY FOR SHIPMENT.]
The small steamers which navigate during the dry season, have accommodations for first and third class passengers, are lighted by electricity, have an artificial ice plant and make the voyage from Manáos to Porto Velho and St. Antonio in about five days, at the average speed of ten miles an hour, calling at the small Amazonian ports and cities situated on the banks of the Madeira River. In descending the river both the large and small steamers make the voyage in from three to four days.
The rubber from St. Antonio on the Madeira River is of the same physical and chemical constituents as all the rubber of the Amazon Valley. This is worth remembering, when we think of this new municipality in the State of Matto Grosso, being the frontier of the States of Amazonas and Pará.
In the Manáos market, where the rubber comes by way of the Madeira River, and in that of Pará, which it reaches by way of River Tapajóz, it is always quoted at the same price and under the same conditions as those produced in the regions of the Amazon proper.
The production has been increasing annually since 1906 and is actually about 2,000,000 of kilos annually. This will certainly increase to an amount that cannot be foretold, with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, the wagon road and telegraph line and the constant improvements in navigation.
During the first six months of the current year, the production of rubber was greater than for the same length of time in any year since 1907, as can be verified from the report annexed.
In those regions, between Cuyabá and the new municipality, there exist rubber (seringa) forests capable of producing in one year, more than 40,000,000 of kilos of rubber.
To attain this ideal, it is only necessary that the captains of industry should join in the development of extraction. This fountain shoots forth from the earth spontaneously without the necessity of cultivation. To encourage and stimulate those who wish to employ there, their endeavors and capital, the law of the State of Matto Grosso offers special favors. These are offered to those who wish to develop the vast forests of rubber existing, as well as to those who wish to plant and cultivate the =Syphonia elastica=.
Speaking of the Rubber Exposition soon to be held in New York, it is proper to call attention to the well-known fact that already the capitalists of North America have begun the development of that region.
The large capitalist, Percival Farquhar, of North America, has already incorporated two rubber companies, the Muller and Guaporé, under the social terms of July, for the purpose not only of developing the extraction industry of the =hevea= braziliensis, but also for the different branches of agriculture necessary for the making of sugar, cotton cloth, etc.
Actually the extraction of rubber in the vast seringaes of the municipality of St. Antonio of the River Madeira employ about 5,000 workmen. This number will constantly increase, as the said municipality becomes the center of the currents of commerce, industry and agriculture, from Matto Grosso and the Republic of Bolivia.
This is easy to imagine, when we see that the Madeira-Mamoré Railway will place it in communication to the South with S. Luiz de Caceres, by means of the River Guaporé, and by the railway, which, from S. Luiz de Caceres will extend to the ancient city of Matto Grosso, thus joining the basin of the Plata—by means of the Paraguay River, to the basin of the River Amazon. And to the West the same Madeira-Mamoré Railway, reaching to Ribeira-Alta, will bind the vast and rich regions of the Bolivian Republic to the basin of the Amazon, by means of the Madeira River. Presently the chief engineer and director of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, Mr. H. Dose, will leave for that region, to begin the construction of the branch Guajará Mirim—Matto Grosso, to Ribeira Alta, Bolivia, which will be finished within a year and a half, and be about 100 meters long.
In addition to this with the prompt construction within a year of the wagon—telegraphic line—roadway from Cuyabá to St. Antonio on the Madeira River, we can easily conclude, that the municipality of St. Antonio on the Madeira River, will indeed become the converging point of these great and strong currents of development of progress and of civilization.
In conclusion it should not be forgotten that this territory herein described serves not only for the production of rubber, which there, as in the whole valley of the Amazon, is native and grows according to the laws of nature. It also should be mentioned that cacao and cotton are native, while there can be planted and cultivated, sugar cane, coffee, vanilla, corn, beans, rice, tobacco, potatoes, brazil nut, etc. The Madeira-Mamoré Railway Company has the concession of a vast amount of land along its line, which it proposes to plant in cacao, sugar cane, etc., thus improving these lands.
From this description, in which we have endeavored to set forth only the truth, giving the facts concerning the region in question, it can be concluded that the new municipality of St. Antonio on the River Madeira, which actually exports to the markets of the world, via Pará and Manáos, about 2,000,000 kilos of rubber, will in a few years, with immigration and from other causes, export from 10 to 15,000,000 kilos.
The author of this article asks indulgence for any shortcomings it may contain, as it was written in the spare moments he could find, while laboriously collecting the samples of rubber and putting them on board the steamer at Manáos for New York.
[Illustration: PUTTING THE LAST LAYERS OF MILK ON THE BALL.]
The samples of rubber from the State of Matto Grosso, which are seen in this International Rubber Exposition, have been exhibited by order of the Government and at the expense of the Commercial Association of the Amazonas.
STATE OF MATTO GROSSO
Inspection Department of the North
Table showing the production of rubber in the valleys of the Madeira and upper Tapajóz, for the years 1907-1912, in comparison with the first six months of 1912:
Origin 1907 1908 1909 Machado and Jamary 1,092,454 1,252,194 910,982 Jacy-Paraná, Upper Madeira and Moré 98,464 152,713 150,759 Upper Tapajóz 156,034 167,841 107,458 --------- --------- --------- 1,190,918 1,560,941 1,229,582
Origin 1910 1911 1912 Machado and Jamary 1,295,605 1,317,917 1,315,995 Jacy-Paraná, Upper Madeira and Moré 142,458 201,562 259,612 Upper Tapajóz 73,688 113,453 --------- --------- --------- 1,545,521 1,593,167 1,689,060
[Illustration: TAPPING THE RUBBER TREE.]
STATE OF MATTO-GROSSO
The capital, Cuyabá, and the principal port, Corumbá, belong to the hydrographical system of the Paraguay River.
The boundaries of this State, formed by the Amazon River, embrace the upper basin of the Madeira River, which as the result of an agreement with the State of Amazonas appertains to Matto-Grosso, whereas it previously belonged to the former State.
This territory constitutes the judicial and administrative province of Santo Antonio do Madeira.
The executive and fiscal administration is entrusted to a Fiscal Delegate in Manáos. The collection of duties is attended to by the State Customs of Amazonas.
The rubber producing rivers, with total production of Matto-Grosso, are:
1908 1909 1910 1911 Kilos Kilos Kilos Kilos Machado and Jamary 1,253,000 911,000 1,296,000 1,318,000 Jacy Paraná, Upper Madeira & Mamoré 153,000 150,000 143,000 202,000
During the first half of the current year the production has shown a considerable increase, this being largely due to the opening and developing of the Madeira Mamoré Railway, which passes through the whole region of these rivers.
[Illustration: BOATS GOING TO THE UPPER JACY PARANÁ RIVER TO GET RUBBER]
[Illustration: WALKING THROUGH THE FOREST ESTATE OF FIDEL BACA & CO., JACY PARANÁ RIVER.]
ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO NA EXPOSIÇÃO INTERNACIONAL DE BORRACHA DE 1912 EM NEW-YORK
POR LEOPOLDO DE MATTOS
NEW-YORK, 1912
DR. JOAQUIM AUGUSTO DA COSTA MARQUES PRESIDENTE DO ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO 1911-1915
O ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO NA EXPOSIÇÃO DE BORRACHA DE 1912 EM NEW-YORK
Dos vinte Estados que compõem a Republica dos Estados Unidos do Brasil, Matto-Grosso está collocado em segundo plano, pela sua extensão territorial situado ao Sul dos Estados do Amazonas e Pará, tendo a Leste os Estados de Goyaz, S. Paulo e Paraná, ao Sul a Republica do Paraguay e a Oeste a Republica da Bolivia.
Abrange no mappa uma porção que vae approximadamente desde o 14° grao ao Sul do Equador até o Tropico do Capricornio. Sua área immensa é de cerca de 50175 leguas quadradas, segundo Candido Mendes, ou melhor, tern uma superficie de 1379651 kilometros quadrados.
Sua população é actualmente de cerca de 350,000 habitantes, não incluindo consideravel numero de indios bravios, cuja cathechese se procede com afinco, dia a dia, com o concurso simultaneo dos Governos Federal e Estadoal.
Sem contar a Capital, as cidades principaes do Estado são Corumbá, S. Luiz de Caceres, Miranda, Nioac, Poconé, Sant’ Anna de Paranahyba, Diamantina, Rosario, Livramento e o novo Municipio recentemente installado de Sto. Antonio do Rio Madeira.
Cuyabá, sua capital, está situada á margem esquerda do rio do mesmo nome, a 288 metros acima do nivel do mar, e deve as suas origens aos Paulistas que formaram as legendarias bandeiras e que percorreram o Brasil Occidental no começo do seculo XVIII.
Em 1719 Paschoal Moreira Cabral subindo o Rio Coxipó Mirim, fundou á margem esquerda d’esta corrente uma povoação que denominou Forquilha, hoje a cidade de Cuyabá, onde naquelles tempos se descobriu uma rica mina de ouro.
* * * * *
Em outros tempos, conforme Elysée Reclus, a vastissima região de Matto-Grosso era apenas, salvo uma estreita zona mediana, não mais que uma immensa solidão de limites indecisos e senão desconhecidos pelo menos ainda entregues aos indios e ás feras, a qual se ligava ao resto do Brasil por simples picadas de caçadores e pelos cursos dos rios que ali nascem. Realmente em outros tempos eram tamanhas as difficuldades de communicação do resto do paiz com Matto-Grosso, que ainda está na memoria de muitos e no conhecimento dos que leem as paginas da Historia do Brasil, a impossibilidade que tiveram as tropas reunidas nas provincias do littoral para irem soccorrer directamente seus compatriotas de Matto-Grosso, quando a nação brazileira teve de responder á declaração de guerra do Paraguay.
[Illustration: A RUBBER GATHERER MAKING A RUBBER SACK BY COVERING CANVAS WITH LIQUID RUBBER.]
Com os mil estorvos da travessia, o corpo de exercito composto de 3000 homens que partiu em Abril de 1865 do Rio de Janeiro e que só poude organisarse em Uberaba, na bacia superior do Paraná, estava reduzido apenas a 700 homens quando chegou a ponto inatacavel e seguro.
Vencida, porem, a guerra com o Paraguay, não ha nenhuma duvida que a victoria do Brasil escancarou-lhe as portas de Matto-Grosso, pois que o declive natural do solo e o curso das aguas com a liberdade da navegação fluvial, garantida pelo triumpho, estabeleceu um serviço regular de paquetes do Rio de Janeiro a Corumbá e Cuyabá, pela via do Rio da Prata, passando por Montevideo, Buenos Ayres e Assumpção.
O caminho fluvial do Guaporé, Madeira e Amazonas foi muito utilisado no seculo XVIII, depois da exploração feita por Manoel de Lima em 1742. A navegação pelo Rio Guaporé até o Rio Madeira, até enfim Sto. Antonio, que é o ponto inicial da navegação d’este ultimo rio, é longa e cheia de fadiga.
Comtudo Matto-Grosso vae gradualmente se approximando do litoral do Brasil por meio de estradas de ferro, taes como a Noroeste do Brasil que ligal-o-á dentro em breve ao Rio de Janeiro e a estrada de ferro já projectada que partindo de S. Luiz de Caceres irá até a antiga cidade de Matto-Grosso, donde o rio Guaporé começa a ser navegavel até Guajará-Mirim, ponto terminal da grande via Madeira-Mamoré Railway.
Dentro de pouco tempo, como se vê, as estradas mixtas serão una realidade, comprehendendo rios navegaveis por vapores e os trechos de communicação entre estes rios. O Paranápanema e o Ivahy, nos Estados do Paraná e S. Paulo continuam para outro lado do rio Paraná subindo o Ivinhema e o Brilhante, até as visinhas montanhas de Miranda, na parte meridional de Matto-Grosso. As magnificas regiões de Matto-Grosso promettem ser de futuro, e futuro já bem proximo, um grande centro de povoamento, e conseguintemente um futuro foco de civilisação, pela provavel fusão dos diversos elementos de immigração que para alli certamente concorrorem com o correr dos tempos e a facilidade que forem apresentando cada vez mais os meios de communicação. Algures se disse, que a colonisação far-se-ha sem duvida pelo Sul, pelo lado do Paraguay e da Argentina; mas nos dias que correm, com a presença da Madeira Mamoré Railway, indubitavelmente a colonisação darse-á tambem pelo Norte, facilitada a communicação pelo Rio Amazonas, de que é um dos affluentes o Madeira, á margem direita do qual está Porto Velho, ponto inicial da mesma Madeira Mamoré Railway. E estes effeitos já se começam a produzir com a fundação de um novo Municipio e Comarca de Matto-Grosso, que é o Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, cortado pela referida via ferrea e a cuja região dedicaremos adiante um capitulo especial.
Já vae portanto se enchendo de população a extremidade da vertente septentrional do territorio de Matto-Grosso, postoque a da vertente meridional é realmente a que contem maior numero de habitantes.
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Matto-Grosso é uma das regiões de menor relevo do continente da America do Sul; alli não se encontram elevações de terreno que constituam verdadeiras montanhas.
As terras elevadas do Brasil tem os seus pontos de culminancia nas cadeias orientaes da Mantiqueira, dos Aymorés e de Espinhaço e vão-se abaixando proporcionalmente d’este lado para o Oeste do Estado de Goyaz e do outro lado são as elevadas massas da cadeia dos Andes que se inclinam para Leste com os seus contrafortes. Diz Elysée Reclus, que separando os dois systemas orographicos, vae serpeando em forma de valle uma planicie intermediaria, que certamente foi outr’ora um estreito maritimo separando as duas ilhas—Brasil Oriental e Andes.
Hoje correm aguas fluviaes na depressão por onde passaram outr’ora as aguas marinhas e a planicie está cheia actualmente de suas alluviôes. O verdadeiro centro da America do Sul está entre as duas cidades de Cuyabá e Corumbá.
Pará os que desconhecem a região, as vertentes são as vezes confundidas com as serras, e em cartas geographicas se desenha uma cadeia de montanhas mais ou menos continua, entre as bacias do Tapajóz e do Madeira, entre as nascentes do mesmo Tapajóz e do Paraguay em seguida, e finalmente entre ainda o Tapajóz e o Araguaya. Comtudo este relevo semicircular não existe senão fragmentado, pois que as elevações que dominam as planicies do alto Paraguay e seus affluentes são na realidade um alto =chapadao= de extractos horisontaes ou mui ligeiramente inclinados e carcomidos pelos rios que descem para o grande Amazonas.
São antes =taboleiros= que montanhas, ou ao menos estas não se elevam senão em alguns pontos do grande planalto, attingindo, aqui e alem, uns mil metros de altura, emquanto a elevação media do proprio paredão é de quinhentos metros.
Assim, o conjuncto orographico do Estado de Matto-Grosso chamado indifferentemente cordilheira dos Parecys, não apresenta aspecto montanhoso senão para o lado do Sul; n’esta face escarpada, a rocha é talhada a pique ou recortada em agulhas, mas do outro lado para o Tapajóz e Xingú, uma encosta longa se estende e vae morrer gradualmente nas planicies do Estado do Amazonas.
D’Orbigny reconheceu na eminencia da parte septentrional do Estado de Matto-Grosso a existencia de camadas pertencentes á edade carbonifera e correspondendo ás rochas da mesma natureza, que do lado opposto da região se apresenta nos contrafortes bolivianos de Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Depois d’este, Hart e Derby verificaram que as partes meridionaes do Araxá, que são as bordas elevadas do planalto, datam provavelmente das epochas paleozoicas, e que alli estão representadas as camadas carboniferas devonianas e siluricas. Leitos fossiliferos encontrados pelo geologo Smith abaixo das collinas da Chapada, 50 kilometros á Leste de Cuyabá, puzeram fora de duvida estes factos. Mais ao Norte, na zona de rochedos que em travessões cortam o Madeira, o Tapajóz, o Xingú, o Tocantins e seus affluentes, as paredes desnudadas pela erosão são todas de formação crystallina: granitos, gneis, porphiros e quartzitos.
As elevações que se desenvolvem na direcção do Sul entre as nascentes do Paraguay e as do Araguaya, em seguida entre o Paraguay e o Paraná, não apresentam as mesmas caracteristicas dos planaltos do Norte. As eminencias da parte Oriental do Estado de Matto-Grosso foram esbarancadas dos dois lados a Leste e Oeste e devastadas por estas excavações lateraes, tomam em certos pontos o aspecto de verdadeiras cadeias de montanhas, e assim é que desenham-se do Norte ao Sul as serras de S. Jeronymo, do Maracajú e Anhanbahy.
Rochas eruptivas, chamadas no paiz =bassaltos=, provavelmente porphyricas, romperam as camadas de grez que compõem as montanhas e parece que formaram pela sua desaggregação “terras roxas,” analogas ás que dão aos fazendeiros de S. Paulo tão copiosas colheitas de café.
Na especie de circo limitado pelo semi-circulo das elevações levantam se massiços isolados, rochas, cujos extractos, visiveis de longe, têm uma regularidade perfeita. Os proprios morros têm pela maior parte formas geometricas: dir-se-ia que se esboroaram vastos lanços, deixando paredões lisos, eguaes aos flancos de uma pyramide. Os cumes horizontaes como se as pontas tivessem sido decepadas por um instrumento cortante correspondem a outros cumes, e vê se que outr’ora faziam parte de um mesmo =chapadao=. Segundo Taunay, que percorreu o paiz, estes massiços de grez, de camadas horizontaes e regularmente superpostas, são formados de sedimentos lacustres coados pelo mar de agua doce que outr’ora cobriu a região.
[Illustration: HUT OF RUBBER GATHERERS ON THE UPPER ACRE.]
As ruinas d’estes paredões e das escarpas contribuiram tambem para mudar a phisionomia da paysagem. Os escombros, apanhados e arrastados pelos rios, foram revestir de camadas novas o solo, e muitas saliencias de pedras desappareceram debaixo dos restos esmigalhados das montanhas e outras não mostram senão as pontas por cima doz terrenos de formação mais recente. Massiços que se prendiam aos planaltos e ás cadeias do interior estão agora separados d’ellas, porque suas bases se acham soterradas e elles emergem abruptamente do solo. Estes picos distinctos aos quaes se deu o nome de =itambés=, erigem seus cabeços por cima dum mar de arvores comparaveis a gigantescos edificios erguidos pela mão do homem. A Leste da parte meridional de Matto-Grosso, elles enfileiramse e agrupam-se em archipelagos, depois cada vez mais altos e menos numerosos, á proporção que se caminha para Oeste, ou completamente solitarios no circulo do horizonte, apparecem até nas margens do rio Paraguay e ainda do outro lado do mesmo.
O alto Guaporé, Itenez dos Bolivianos, posto que comprehendido na bacia do immenso Amazonas, como affluente do Madeira pelo Mamoré, pertence especialmente ao Estado de Matto-Grosso, pois que a cidade d’este nome foi fundada nas suas margens e quasi toda a população de Estado se accumulou na depressão, cuja metade occidental este rio percorre. Sua principal nascente, muito ferruginosa, desponta n’uma grota junto á borda do Araxá, e corre primeiro na direcção do Sul, parallellamente a outros rios que descem para o Paraguay; mas ao deixar as ultimas collinas o ribeirão curva-se para Oeste, depois para Noroeste e já engrossado por numerosos affluentes atravessa a planicie, em que está a cidade que se chamou na sua fundação Villa-Bella e hoje se denomina Matto-Grosso.
O Paraguay é um dos rios mais notaveis da Terra como via de navegação, segundo affirma Elysée Reclus; poucos têm um declive mais suave e fraco proporcionalmente a sua extensão. Affirma Castelnau que elle nasce na altitude de 305 metros; nos lugares onde as aguas tranquillas deslizam lentamente para o mar, a altitude dos campos é apenas de 200 metros, e a partir de um ponto situado a quatro mil kilometros do mar, o declive é apenas de cinco centimetros. D’este modo, vapores de pequeno calado podem subir livremente até os confins do Brasil, muito ao Norte das duas Republicas da Argentina e Paraguay e chegar á base do planalto pelo rio principal e pelos seus affluentes, Jaurú, Sepotuba, Cuyabá, S. Lourenço e Taquary. O Paraguay apresenta ainda um phenomeno notavel, que é o do cruzamento de suas nascentes com as dos affluentes do Rio Amazonas.
O Jaurú approxima-se tanto do Guaporé, que seria facil passar por um canal as aguas do rio Occidental para um affluente do Jaurú. Outro tributario do Paraguay, o Aguapehy, só está separado do rio Alegre, que desce para a antiga cidade de Villa-Bella, hoje Matto-Grosso, por um isthmo de pouca largura, de fraco relevo, que segundo Leverger, mede 2400 braças ou 5280 metros. No anno de 1772, e depois, tentou-se cavar um canal em pontos diversos do isthmo, masas obras não chegaram a termo por falta de commercio na localidade. Certamente estradas de ferro, em mais ou menos dias, supprirão a ausencia do canal que ligaria Montevideo ao Pará, passando em grande parte do Estado de Matto-Grosso, e por uma via continental navegavel de 8300 kilometros, segundo refere Bartholomeu Bossi.
O rio Paraguay tern como affluentez principaes os rios S. Lourenço, engrossado pelas aguas do Cuyabá, o Taquary, o Mondego e o Apá, limite este ultimo entre o Brasil e a Republica do Paraguay.
Por occasião das enchentes, seu nivel e o dos seus affluentes eleva-se de dez e onze metros e derrama-se á esquerda e á direita, formando um mar ephemero que se estende ao longe, a perder de vista e se prolonga em =banhados=. Os primeiros viajantes hespanhoes deram o nome de lago Xarayes á baixada onde se esparramam as aguas quasi dormentes dos braços principaes do rio. Este lago tern de extensão cerca de 600 kilometros de Sul a Norte, entre as boccas do Jaurú e as collinas do Fecho-dos-Morros e em certos pontos chega a 250 de largura.
Elle não é permanente, como se pensava outr’ora, mas em qualquer epocha do anno ha trechos alagados que os indios denominam bahias e com razão, pois que são bahias de um antigo mar, que hoje está meio secco, e a maior parte de taes lagoas está em communicação constante com o rio Paraguay, ora por furos lateraes, ora por longos canaes, taes como os denominados lagos de Uberaba, Gaiaba, Mandioré, Caceres, etc. D’entre estes lagos, uns não contem senão agua doce trazida pela innundação fluvial, emquanto outros, que são antigas cavidades outr’ora occupadas por agua do mar, conservam no fundo de seus leitos camadas salinas, que dão ao liquido um sabor caracteristico. É singular que este contraste da natureza das aguas doces ou salinas tambem se produza nos terrenos da vasta planicie, e assim é que campos extensos, cobertos de ricas alluviôes, deram nascimento a mattas cerradas, e o agricultor pode muito bem alli obter colheitas maravilhosas. É certamente por este motivo que os campos de Matto-Grosso tanto se prestam á industria pastoril.
[Illustration: FAMILIES OF THE AMERICAN EMPLOYEES, MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
A horizontalidade do terreno, formada pelo centro da depressão do immenso valle, impede que o confluente se conserve em um leito regular, e as aguas escapando por ambos os lados ramificam-se n’um labirintho do rios e falsos rios. Os ramos lateraes seguem por entre as zonas dos =banhados=, até á confluencia do rio Taquary e do rio Miranda, que descem das montanhas de Leste, recebendo o primeiro d’estes, na região superior, um affluente, o Coxim, considerado pelos viajantes como um dos mais pittorescos rios do Brasil. É curioso ver em alguns lugares o Coxim estreitara-se entre paredões a pique, de 50 metros de altura, e as pequenas embarcações correrem sobre elle como no fundo de um vallão que não tem mais de 10 ou 12 metros de largura.
* * * * *
O clima de Matto-Grosso é relativamente quente nas regiões baixas e alagadas pelas enchentes dos rios, taes como Paraguay; nas regiões dos planaltos o clima é salubre e frio. O movimento das columnas de ar é determinada pela forma de corredor aberto entre a cordilheira dos Andes e as terras altas do Brasil, bem no centro do continente Sul Americano, e por elle são arrastadas; aos ventos tepidos proveniente da região da Amazonia, succedem no inverno ventos que sopram do frio pampa. Nas alturas do circo de chapadões e montanhas que rodeiam a planicie do Estado de Matto-Grosso, o frio desce abaixo do ponto de congelação. As copiosas chuvas trazidas pelo rebojo dos ventos que contornam o planalto central do Brasil e vem esbarrar nos primeiros contrafortes dos Andes, cahem com muita regularidade no verão e são frequentemente acompanhadas de trovoadas.
Consoante alguns observadores, a queda da agua annual é de 3 metros, e em Cuyabá contam-se mais ou menos 135 dias de chuva por anno medio.
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O Estado de Matto-Grosso, pela sua situação geographica no continente Sul Americano, collocado no ponto de separação das duas grandes bacias do Brasil, reune ao mesmo tempo as floras e as faunas da região da Amazonia e das regiões Platinas. Entretanto, a flora tropical predomina com sua infinita variedade de formas vegetaes em todas as regiões das florestas, isto é, á beira dos rios, e entre as especies famosas habitantes das margens do Rio Mar, poucas ha que não estejam representadas na região do alto Guaporé, ou das quaes se não encontrem congeneres.
Em nenhuma parte se desenvolve como alli as palmeiras Cipós, e em 1875 uma commissão de limites descobriu uma d’estas palmeiras =Urumbamba (Calamus procumbeus) ou Desmoncus rudentum= de Martius, com mais de 200 metros de comprimento e apenas com a grossura de um centimetro! O algodoeiro o tabacco, a ipeccacuanha, chamada alli =poaya= nascem espontaneamente nas planicies e nas florestas; esta ultima sobretudo colhem-na nas florestas do alto Jaurú e dos rios visinhos. O mate, a mais notavel das plantas da zona meridional e que faz a riqueza de algumas regiões como do Estado do Paraná, cresce alli espontaneamente entre Miranda e o rio Apá, sem fallar propriamente da seringueira, que é encontrada em immensas e cerradas florestas n’uma extensão comprehendida desde Cuyabá até o Madeira, e a qual fará o assumpto especial d’este ligeiro exposto.
[Illustration: EXCAVATING FOR THE MAMORÉ RAILWAY AT KILOMETER 263.2.]
[Illustration: HOSPITAL FOR EMPLOYEES OF MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
As madeiras de construcção são abundantissimas e em grande variedade, podendo-se citar o pao-brasil, o jacarandá, a peroba, a canella, o cedro, o jequitibá, a massaranduba, o pao-d’arco, o pao-ferro, o pao-setim, o vinhatico, etc.
Entre os animaes, encontram-se os veados, as antas e as onças, alem de um grande numero de outros pequenos, proprios das regiões tropicaes. As aves e os passaros, aves ribeirinhas e passaros cantores das florestas, são pela sua variedade quasi innumeros. A avestruz vinda das regiões dos pampas chegou as planicies marginaes do alto Paraguay; os peixes abundam n’uma riquissima e magnifica variedade nos grandes e pequenos rios.
No reino mineral, o Estado de Matto-Grosso possúe minas numerosas de ouro, prata, platina, cobre, estanho, chumbo, mercurio, carvão de pedra, ferro, pedras, preciosas, diamantes, &c., existindo já quatro companhias inglezas na exploração de minas de ouro. Ha tambem granitos, crystal de rocha, malacacheta, pedra calcaria, sal-gemma, &c. Finalmente nas regiões do Araxá, ha fontes de aguas mineraes sulphurosas.
O Estado de Matto-Grosso é a região do Brasil onde se encontram as maiores fazendas de gado, não só em extensão territorial, como em numero de cabeças de gado vaccum e cavallar, havendo algumas que contam cem mil cabeças. Calcula-se o numero de cabeças de gado vaccum em Matto-Grosso em dois bilhões e quinhentas mil.
Nos dias que correm, ainda é um pouco difficil o transporte de gado de Matto-Grosso para o Rio de Janeiro, principalmente, e a exportação é feita pelo caminho de Oeste até Uberaba, onde a invernada se faz em dois ou trez mezes, até que os animaes se refaçam e possam ser conduzidos em caminho de ferro até o littoral do Rio de Janeiro. Vê-se, entretanto que, com a terminação da via ferrea Noroeste do Brasil, o problema do transporte para o littoral será resolvido, assim como a Madeira Mamoré Railway, contando Matto-Grosso presentemente com rios navegaveis e dentro de bem pouco tempo com a via ferrea de que já fallamos, de S. Luiz de Caceres á antiga cidade de Matto-Grosso, donde começa a ser navegavel o rio Guaporé até Guajará-Mirim, ponto terminal da Madeira Mamoré Railway, resolverá tambem o problema da exportação de gado para os Estados do Amazonas, Pará, &c.
* * * * *
D’este leve exposto conclue-se que o territorio do Estado de Matto-Grosso é grandemente rico de gado e ouro, de diamante e café, de tabaco e mate, de borracha e ipecacuanha e de todos os productos dos tropicos e das zonas temperadas:—elle só bastaria para constituir um dos mais vastos e mais opulentos imperios do mundo!
[Illustration: RUBBER STATION ON THE UPPER MADEIRA RIVER ALONGSIDE MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
Dotado de um clima, se bem que quente ao Norte, porem temperado e mesmo frio nas demais regiões, como a dos planaltos, apresentando um accumulo de riquezas raro e ainda pouco explorado como está, forçosamente para lá o homem das diversas partes da Terra, na sua constante actividade, na sua crescente lucta pela vida, immigrará e concorrerá com a intelligencia e com o esforço do trabalho, para fazer d’aquella parte do Brasil um grande emporio de industrias, commercio, navegação, caminhos de ferro e conseguintemente uma grande nascente de civilisação, donde, pela fusão das diversas raças, o mesmo homem surgirá sempre grande, sempre vencedor no immenso concerto e na elevada harmonia da Vida e da Terra!
* * * * *
A borracha que se vê n’esta Exposição é extrahida e vinda toda das vastas regiões cortadas pelos rios Machados, ou Dgy-Paraná, Jamary, Jacy-Paraná, Mutum-Paraná, Paca-Nova e Guaporé com seus affluentes, aquelles a seu turno affluentes do grande rio Madeira, em cuja margem direita está situado o novo Municipio e Comarca de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, installado em 2 de Julho do anno corrente.
O novo Municipio tem os seguintes limites: partindo da cachoeira de Sto. Antonio no rio Madeira, no parallelo de 8° 48′, o rio Madeira acima; o rio Mamoré acima até a foz do Guaporé no parallelo de 12, este parallelo até a sua intersecção com o rio Camararé; este rio abaixo até a sua confluencia no Juruema; este rio abaixo até o ponto em que se reune ao Arinos; o parallelo que n’este ponto passa até a sua intersecção com o rio S. Manuel; este rio abaixo até sua confluencia no Tapajóz; e d’este ponto até encontrar a cachoeira de Sto. Antonio no Rio Madeira a linha que extrema os territorios dos Estados de Matto-Grosso e do Amazonas.
Todo o immenso territorio do novo Municipio é cortado ao Norte pela Madeira Mamoré Railway, que conta 365 kilometros de via ferrea já construidos, partindo de Porto Velho no Estado do Amazonas, distante 7 kilometros da sede propriamente do Municipio, até Guajará-Mirim.
A via ferrea Madeira Mamoré, alem das estações já construidas, em Porto Velho, Candelaria, Sto. Antonio, Jacy-Paraná, Abunã, Villa Murtinho e Guajará-Mirim, tem 46 pontos de parada que correspondem ao numero dos seus acampamentos.
[Illustration: PORTO VELHO INITIAL POINT OF MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
Entre as vias de communicação do novo Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira com os visinhos Estados do Amazonas e Pará e tambem com a capital e outras cidades do Estado de Matto-Grosso, comecemos por dizer algo da linha telegraphica ora ainda em construcção por conta do Governo Federal e da respectiva estrada de rodagem. São duas as turmas de engenheiros e operarios que constroem a linha telegraphica, uma partida do Norte—Sto. Antonio—e outra do Sul—Diamantina. Partindo de Sto. Antonio, a linha telegraphica segue o parallelo 8° 48′ até encontrar o rio Jamary, n’uma extensão de cerca de sessenta kilometros; ahi chegando desvia se para o rumo das cabeceiras do rio Dgy-Paraná, no lugar denominado Urupá, onde se deve encontrar com a turma do Sul e onde a ligação será feita. A 3 de Junho de 1912 na mais alta cabeceira do rio Dgy-Paraná, já foi inaugurada a estação telegraphica de José Bonifacio, pela turma do Sul, emquanto a do Norte tambem já inaugurou em data anterior as estações de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira e Jamary. Este emprehendimento notavel está sob a intelligencia e extraordinaria dedicação do snr. Coronel de Engenheiros do Exercito Brazileiro, Candido Rondon, que tem o record das construcções de linhas telegraphicas no Brasil e quiçá na America do Sul.
Prompta dentro de um anno, mais ou menos, a linha telegraphica marginará uma estrada de rodagem de 40 metros de largura, de cerca de duzentas leguas de extensão a partir de Cuyabá até Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira. Esta immensa via de communicação cortando todo um vasto sertão sobretudo rico em borracha e ouro, terá de dez em dez leguas uma estação telegraphica.
Em Porto Velho, ponto inicial da Madeira Mamoré Railway, ha já por sua vez funccionando uma poderosa estação radiographica do systema Marconi e que se communica diariamente com Manáos e já se tem communicado mesmo com Iquitos e com os Departamentos Federaes do Acre, do Purús e do Juruá.
Quanto á navegação de Manáos até Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, ella é feita em boas condições e em navios confortaveis. Nas aguas baixas, isto é, nos tempos da secca do grande rio Amazonas e seus affluentes, sobem de Manáos até aquelles pontos os navios de tonelagem até 500, nos tempos de aguas altas, em que o valle do Amazonas todo se alaga, navios transantlaticos de 7 mil a nove mil toneladas sobem de Manáos até alli, em quatro dias de viagem, como já tem succedido no transporte de materiaes para construcção da Madeira Mamoré Railway, acostando facilmente em 2 caes feitos de madeira de lei, o primeiro construido em frente as officinas de Porto Velho e o segundo em Candelaria. Por sua vez o Governo da Republica está resolvido a construir um caes de pedra e cal entre Porto Velho e Sto. Antonio.
[Illustration: IRON BRIDGE ON PARANÁ RIVER.]
Os pequenos navios que navegam durante a secca dos rios, teem accomodações para passageiros de 1.ª e 3.ª classe, são illuminados á luz electrica, possuem fabricas de gelo e fazem bem a viagem de Manáos a Porto Velho e Sto. Antonio em cerca de 5 dias, com uma media de velocidade de 10 milhas por hora, fazendo escala por pequenos portos e cidades amazonenses, situadas nas margens do rio Madeira. Na descida tanto dos grandes transantlaticos como dos pequenos navios de 500 toneladas, a viagem se faz mais rapidamente, em 3 e 4 dias.
* * * * *
A borracha de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira é da mesma natureza phisica e chimica de toda borracha do valle do Amazonas, e esta asserção salta á vista, quando nos lembramos que a parte do Estado de Matto-Grosso occupada pelo novo Municipio é justamente aquella limitrophe dos Estados do Amazonas e do Pará.
Na parça de Manáos, para onde vem o producto pela via do rio Madeira, e na de Belém do Pará onde é enviada pela via do rio Tapajóz, ella é sempre cotada pelos mesmos preços e nas mesmas condições das produzidas propriamente nas regiões da Amazonia.
A sua producção, que vem num crescendo desde o anno de 1906, é actualmente de cerca de 2 milhões de kilos annuaes, que augmentará certamente numa proporção—impossivel desde já de ser prevista—com a presença e o desenvolvimento da Madeira Mamoré Railway, da estrada de rodagem da linha telegraphica e os progressos constantes da navegação.
No. 1ro. semestre do anno fluente a producção da borracha foi superior a de não importa qual seja o anno desde 1907, conforme se verifica do quadro estatistico annexo.
N’aquellas regiões, comprehendidas desde Cuyabá até a sede do novo Municipio, existem seringaes capazes de produzir por si sós dentro do periodo de um anno, mais de quarenta milhões de kilos de borracha.
Pará attingir a este ideal, bastaria que os capitaes concorressem para exploração de uma industria extractiva, cuja fonte brota espontaneamente da terra sem carencia de cultivo e para animar e estimular aquelles que desejam ali empregar os seus esforços e capitaes, ahi está a lei do Governo do Estado de Matto-Grosso, que offerece favores especiaes aos que, alem propriamente da exploração dos vastos seringaes já existentes, se quizerem dedicar ao plantio e cultivo da mesma =syphonia= elastica.
Tratando-se uma exposição de borracha em New-York, é justo chamarmos a attenção dos que nos queiram ler para o facto bem importante da concorrencia que já começa dos capitaes norte-americanos para a exploração d’aquella região.
O grande capitalists Percival Farquhar, americano do Norte, já incorporou duas companhias sob as razões sociaes de Julio Muller Rubber, e Guaporé Rubber, com o fim não só de explorar a industria extractiva de =hevea brasiliensis=, como tambem para os diversos ramos de agricultura attinentes ao fabrico do assucar, dos tecidos de algodão &c. &c.
[Illustration: KILOMETER 212 MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
Actualmente a extracção da borracha nos vastos seringaes do Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira occupa cerca de cinco mil trabalhadores, mas este numero augmentará cada vez mais, positivamente, á proporção que o referido Municipio se for tornando o ponto de convergencia para onde affluirão as correntes commerciaes, industriaes e agricolas dos centros de Matto-Grosso e da Republica da Bolivia.
Isto é facil de imaginar, quando vemos que a estrada de ferro Madeira Mamoré por seá em communicação para o Sul com S. Luiz de Caceres por meio do rio Guaporé e da estrada de ferro que de S. Luiz de Caceres irá até á antiga cidade de Matto-Grosso, ligando assim a bacia do Prata de intermedio o rio Paraguay—á bacia do rio Amazonas, e para Leste, a mesma Madeira Mamoré Railway levará os seus trilhos até Ribeira-Alta, ligando as vastas e riquissimas regiões da Republica Boliviana tambem á bacia do Amazonas, de intermedio o rio Madeira. Presentemente, parte para aquella região o Engenheiro chefe e Director da Madeira Mamoré Railway, Mr. H. Dose, que vai dar começo a construcção do referido ramal de Guajará Mirim—Matto-Grosso—á Ribeira Alta-Bolivia—, que ficará concluida dentro do praso de um anno e meio e terá cerca de cem kilometros de extensão.
Accrescendo a isto ainda a construcção prompta, dentro de um anno, da grande estrada de rodagem da linha telegraphica de Cuyabá até Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, poderemos facilmente imaginar o que n’um futuro, que nada faz pensar será muito remoto, irá ser o novo Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, como um verdadeiro e incontestavel ponto de convergencia de tão fortes e ricas correntes de desenvolvimento de progresso e de civilisação.
Antes de terminar, não devemos esquecer que o territorio em questão não se presta somente á producção da gomma elastica, que aliás como em todo o valle do Amazonas é agreste e nasce á lei da natureza. Convem dizer que alli, alem do cacao e do algodão, que tambem são agrestes, podem ser plantados e cultivados a canna de assucar, o café, a baunilha, o milho, o feijão, o arroz, o tabaco, a batata, a castanha, &c.
A propria Madeira Mamoré Railway Co., concessionaria de uma vasta faixa de terra á margem de sua linha ferrea, pensa em fazer o plantio do cacao, da canna de assucar, &c., &c., aproveitando os referidos terrenos.
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[Illustration: SECTION OF A ROAD IN USE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
De tudo o que fica exposto em linhas bem ligeiras e nas quaes procuramos nos approximar sempre da verdade, dando noticias sobre a região em questão, pode-se concluir facilmente que só o novo Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, que exporta actualmente para o commercio mundial, via Pará e Manáos, cerca de 2 milhões de kilos de borracha, passará a exportar dentro de poucos annos, sobretudo com a immigração que todos os factores nos levam esperar, de 10 a 15 milhões.
* * * * *
O auctor d’este exposto pede indulgencia para as lacunas que nelle forem encontradas:—foi escripto nos raros momentos livres ao trabalho fatigante de organisar a exposição das amostras de borracha até o respectivo embarque em Manáos para New-York.
As amostras da borracha de Matto-Grosso que figuram no recinto da Exposição, são expostas por ordem do Governo, pela benemerita Associação Commercial do Amazonas.
ESTADO DE MATTO GROSSO
DELEGACIA FISCAL DO NORTE
QUADRO DEMONSTRATIVO DA PRODUCÇÃO DA BORRACHA DOS VALLES DO MADEIRA E ALTO TAPAJÓZ NOS ANNOS de 1907 a 1912, EM COMPARAÇÃO COM A MESMA PRODUCÇÃO NO PRIMEIRO SEMESTRE DE 1912.
Procedencia 1907 1908 1909
Machado e Jamary 1.092454 1.252194 910982 Jacy Paraná Alto Madeira e Moré 98464 152713 150759 Alto Tapajóz 156034 167841 -------- -------- -------- 1.190918 1.560941 1.229582
Procedencia 1910 1911 1912 só o lo. semestre Machado e Jamary 1.295605 1.317917 1.315995 Jacy Paraná Alto Madeira e Moré 142458 201562 259612 Alto Tapajóz 107458 73688 113453 -------- -------- -------- 1.545521 1.593167 1.689060
[Illustration: LAST CAMP IN CONSTRUCTION OF MADEIRA MAMORÉ RAILWAY.]
[Illustration: PORTO VELHO.]
STATE OF BAHIA
EXHIBITS OF THE STATE OF BAHIA AT THE INTERNATIONAL RUBBER EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK, 1912
STATE OF BAHIA.
1 bale of 100 kilos of superior maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of 100 kilos of first quality maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of 100 kilos of second quality maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of 50 kilos of superior mangabeira rubber.
1 bale of 50 kilos of first quality of mangabeira rubber.
1 package of 20 kilos of caucho rubber.
Various statistical tables, photographs, diagrams and a panoramic view of the City of Bahia.
Books and pamphlets concerning the natural resources of the state.
BY S. HESS & COMPANY.
Samples of the various kinds of native rubber of Bahia.
Two sacks of the seed of the maniçoba rubber tree cultivated in Bahia.
Specimens of the maniçoba tree.
BY F. STEVENSON & COMPANY, LTD.
1 bale of 100 kilos of superior maniçoba rubber from Jequié.
BY M. ULMANN & COMPANY.
1 bale of 50 kilos of superior maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of 50 kilos of first quality maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of superior mangabeira rubber.
1 package of caucho rubber from the State of Bahia.
BY VON DER LINDE & COMPANY.
Specimens of the various kinds of rubber, from the State of Bahia, in a glass case.
BY MORAES & COMPANY.
1 bale of 100 kilos of superior maniçoba rubber.
By JOSÉ C. DA COSTA SANTOS.
1 bale of superior maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of first quality maniçoba rubber.
1 bale of second quality maniçoba rubber.
Specimens of the various kinds of rubber of Bahia.
STATE OF ALAGOAS.
Specimens of various kinds of rubber.
Specimens of the rubber grown in JARAGUA.
These specimens were sent by Mr. Americo Mello, representative of the Commercial Museum of Rio de Janeiro, in the State of Alagoas.
STATE OF PERNAMBUCO.
Two large packages of the various kinds of rubber grown in the State. These were sent by Dr. Antonio Valenca, representative of the Commercial Museum of Rio de Janeiro, in the State of Pernambuco.
STATE OF MINAS GERAES
STATE OF MINAS GERAES—PROVISIONAL NOTE
EXHIBITS
1. Wild Manisoba (Manihot) Rubber in the raw and cleaned market condition.
2. Planted Manisoba Rubber, viz.: (a) Fine; (b) Seconds; (c) Scrap.
3. Photographs taken on the San Francisco River, the rubber region of the “Highlands of Brazil.”
4. Photographs of Rubber Trees, viz.: (a) Manihot Glaziovii; (b) Manihot Heptaphylla; (c) Manihot Piauhyensis.
5. Photographs of Bello Horisonte, capital of the State of Minas Geraes, and of other localities of importance and general interest. Maps of the State and Climatological Charts.
BRAZIL DAY
Saturday, September 28