Up the Amazon and Madeira rivers, through Bolivia and Peru

by Edward D. Mathews

Next in order, Cachoerina and Exaltacion are passed, the former a single house only, and the latter one of the largest rubber settlements on the river. On the fifth day the village of Manicoré is arrived at. It is a settlement of the Mundurucu Indians who have been brought into entire subjection, and who, though proverbially lazy, are quiet and well disposed. At this village are several storekeepers who trade with these Indians.

Marmélos, a collection of sandbanks requiring caution on the part of the pilot when the river is low, come next in order. Then Bayetas and Juma, both rubber stations, and San Pedro, a government mission under the care of Franciscan friars, are passed in succession. Crato, one of the best cleared spots on the river, is reached on the eighth day’s journey: here there are good grazing grounds, and the place is now remarkable for its healthy climate, though strange to say, not many years ago, perhaps less than thirty, it was used by the Brazilian Government as a penal settlement where prisoners of very bad character were kept, the climate being then so bad that their term of imprisonment was soon cut short by their death. About three miles above Crato is Umaitá, a thriving Portuguese settlement belonging to Don Juan Montero, who is the wealthiest settler on the Madeira River. He has a small steamer of his own that trades between Umaitá and Pará. Das Abeillas, a Brazilian rubber collector’s head-quarters, is the next station passed, and then an ascending steamer enters on the reserve of the Parententin Indians, and steams through some score or so of leagues of lands where no settler has yet been able to keep a footing. It is supposed that, about two centuries ago, these savages were Christianized by the earlier Jesuit Fathers, and that, in consequence of some bad treatment, they revolted, and are now deadly enemies of any settlers, whether whites or mestizoes. The idea is strengthened by the fact that a raid on one of their temporary settlements, practised a few years ago by the Portuguese of Umaitá, in retaliation for a murderous attack on a rubber gatherer’s hut set up near the territory roamed over by these savages, found roughly carved crosses and figures that might be supposed to represent saints, in the huts of these Parententins. However this may be, they now have the reputation of being cannibals, and no settler dares to set up a hut on their territory, although it contains very rich growths of rubber trees.

The Brazilian Government does not allow the improvement of these savage races by the only practical method, namely extermination, but trusts to the efforts of the few missionary friars to whom is entrusted the work of proselytizing the untamed tribes of the interior of the empire. These efforts might doubtless be successful in partially civilizing milder tribes, such as the Mundurucus of the Amazon, the Pamas of the Purus, or the Caripunas of the Madeira, but they are perfectly unable to tame fierce tribes, such as the Parententins of the Madeira, the Ycanga Pirangas of the Jamary, or the Sirionos of the River Grande of Eastern Bolivia, tribes that refuse to hold any converse with the white faces, but attack suddenly with their arrows whenever they can come across an unprepared party. For these irreclaimable sons of the forest there is no taming method other than the rifle and bullet, and it is no use trying to shirk the fact that they must be removed out of the way of the opening up to commerce of the Amazon and its tributaries.

The termination of the Parententin territory is marked by the junction of the river Machado on the eastern or right bank of the Madeira. Above this point the huts of rubber gatherers are again met with, and on the ninth day’s steaming on the Madeira, the “Praia,” or sandbank of Tamandoa, which at low water forms a vast and barren deposit for many miles of the river’s course, is reached. In the dry season, when the river is low, in the months of August and September, enormous numbers of turtles frequent these sandbanks for the purpose of depositing their eggs. On one occasion, passing this bank in a canoe at daybreak, I saw an extraordinary sight. For miles, as far as the eye could reach down the river, which hereabouts runs straight for some six or seven miles, were continuous rows of turtle at the water’s edge; the rows being eight and ten deep, many thousands of turtle must have been collected together. The business of gathering the eggs of these turtles for making oil, and catching the turtles for food, is one of the regular occupations of the settlers on the river, who flock to these sandbanks in great number at the time of lowest water.

On the tenth day’s journey on the Madeira, and about the sixteenth from Pará, the steamer should arrive at San Antonio, the first of the rapids of the Madeira River. The total distance from Pará to San Antonio is said to be about 1600 miles, the upward journey generally occupying fifteen to sixteen days, while the return has been made by a steamer belonging to the National Bolivian Navigation Company, in six days and seven hours.

CHAPTER V.

Madeira and Mamoré Railway—Ocean steamers can ascend to the first rapid—Brazilian outposts—Difference between high and low water below the rapid—Rainfall—Temperature—Scenery—Marks on rocks—Glossy black deposit on rocks—Trees of the forest—Brazil nuts—Alligators—Peixebois, pirahybas, pirarucus, and other fish—Tapirs, how shot—Onças, and other animals—Birds, wild turkeys, ducks, etc.—Insects, mosquitoes, ants, etc.—Snakes, etc., etc.

From San Antonio the railway commences that is in course of construction by the Madeira and Mamoré Railway Company. This line, which is to run upon the eastern side of the rapids, has for its object the establishment of communication between the navigable waters of the Mamoré and Guaporé or Itenez in Eastern Bolivia, and the Madeira and Amazon in Northern Brazil. The length of the line will be about 180 miles, and it is estimated to cost £6000 per mile, with a metre gauge. At foot of the rapid of San Antonio the river forms a bay on the right or eastern bank of the river, on which the wharf and terminus of the railway will be built. For eight or nine months of the year, ocean-going steamers could ascend the Madeira and make fast alongside the bank, but for three months of the dry season, August to October, steamers that do not draw more than three to four feet will have to ship the produce brought down by the railway to San Antonio, and tranship into the ocean steamers either at Manáos, Serpa, or Pará.

My object being to describe a route of travel, it would be out of place to remark at length upon the commercial importance of the enterprise of the Madeira and Mamoré Railway; I would therefore claim attention for it principally on the ground that it will afford means of rapidly passing the barrier placed by the falls of the Madeira River in the way of navigation from Bolivia and the province of Matto Grosso, in Brazil, to the Amazonian outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. No doubt exists in my mind that the railway will draw to itself a very considerable and important traffic, as it will open up provinces in Bolivia and Brazil that at present have no means whatever of exporting their valuable products of either mineral or agricultural industry.