The only other exports from the Madeira River are Brazil nuts (Bertholetis exelsa) and Sapucaya nuts (Acythis ollaria), which are collected and shipped to Pará, principally for exportation to the United States.
Guaraná, collected principally at the town of Maués nearly opposite to Serpa, but situated inland upon a small stream of the same name, forms an item of considerable value in the trade with Bolivia and the province of Matto Grosso, and is a preparation of the fruit of the guaraná tree (Paullinia sorbilis).
The beans are ground up, and pressed into cylindrical masses of about eight or ten inches in length by one and a half to two inches diameter. The quality varies in accordance with the evenness of the paste and its freedom from impurities. The taste is slightly acrid, and its property of astringency renders it valuable in diarrhœa and other kindred sicknesses; but in the central parts of South America it is freely taken as a beverage, and there are many Bolivians who would fast all day, and even forswear their beloved “chicha,” rather than miss their glass of guaraná and water, taken at daybreak, immediately after rising. What the peculiar virtues of the guaraná may be, I cannot say; for, though I tried it many times, I discovered none at all. Some people consider it a specific for sick headache, but my experience does not allow me to recommend it as a perfect cure. Probably it sustains the body in a similar manner to the coca plant; for I have seen many Bolivians who positively could not begin their day’s work without their glass of guaraná. In order to drink it, the mass is rasped down on the dried tongue of the pirarucú fish, until about a teaspoonful of powder is obtained, and this is taken with half a pint of water sweetened to the palate. So great a sale exists for this article both in Bolivia and in Matto Grosso, that traders on the Madeira River never make the return journey without taking several hundredweights amongst their cargoes, and some are content to load up their canoes entirely with it.
CHAPTER IV.
Borba—Tobacco—Island of Araras—Piedras de Uruás— Cachoerina—Exaltacion—Manicoré—Mundurucu Indians—Marmélos—Bayetas—Juma—Mission of San Pedro—Crato—Old penal settlement—Umaitá—Parententin Indians—Missionary efforts unable to reclaim these savages—Praia of Tamandoa—Turtles—San Antonio.
The first village arrived at in the ascent of the Madeira is Borba, an old Jesuit settlement about twelve hours’ steam from the junction of the Madeira and Amazon. Tobacco of excellent quality is grown at Borba, and fetches about two milreis, or four shillings, per pound. The method of preparing the tobacco is very simple, the picked leaves being strung up in the roof of the hut until properly dried, when they are, by hand, pressed into a stick-like form of an inch and a half in diameter, and being tied closely round with split cane, are sold in “masas” of from four to six feet in length.
Ascending the river, Sapucaia-oroca and Arauna-cuara, rubber gatherers’ huts are passed, and the Island of Araras is reached on the third day’s steaming in the river. This island is of considerable size, and is the property of the Amazon Steam Shipping Company of Pará. It is very rich in rubber and nut trees, and sarsaparilla and other drugs are found there, but no minerals.
About three hours’ steam above this island, “Las Piedras de Uruás,” or the Rocks of Uruás, are reached. These form the first danger to navigation, and, uncovered at low water, leave only a channel of about fifty yards wide, a rather tortuous passage for the steamer. A careful pilot can, however, always take a steamer drawing not more than eight feet through with perfect safety; while from high to half-flood water, the rocks offer no obstruction whatever.