The success of the Inca Rubber Company has attracted other investors to the Montaña, and, within the past two years, several similar enterprises have been inaugurated. The Inambari Pará Rubber States Company, Limited, was formed a year ago with a capital of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds, to exploit the rubber of the province of Carabaya; the Paucartambo Rubber Company, Limited, has started an enterprise in the Madre de Dios region; the Compañia Gomera Alto Marañon recently began the development of the rubber industry in the Department of Amazonas, and the Sociedad Madre de Dios has begun to work the forests of the eastern rubber district. With the increased output of rubber promised by the successful exploitation of these properties, the annual revenue derived from this source will undoubtedly show rapid gain. The financial crisis which affected the North American market in 1907 was severely felt in the rubber trade of the Amazon region, the shipments of this product being cut down to an alarmingly low quantity. The new enterprises felt the disastrous conditions most keenly, though all the rubber establishments of the Amazon country suffered greatly. The loss was heavy also to those merchants who depend on the success of the rubber trade for their prosperity. In Iquitos, as well as in the ports of the lower Amazon, the whole business atmosphere was pervaded with gloom for a time; though it was understood that the depression could only be temporary, as the demand for rubber is constantly increasing, and the purposes for which it may be employed appear to be of an almost unlimited variety. A passing money crisis is not sufficient to imperil the interests of a trade which is of world wide importance; and the steamers and launches of the Amazon tributaries are already as busy as ever fulfilling the requirements of the rubber shippers in this vast region. The exports of rubber now amount annually to thousands of tons, valued at upward of five million dollars, nearly all of which passes through the ports of Mollendo and Iquitos, the latter the capital of the great rubber-producing territory of Loreto.
SCENE ON THE MADRE DE DIOS RIVER NEAR MALDONADO.
CHAPTER XXXII
IQUITOS, THE CHIEF PERUVIAN PORT OF THE AMAZON
HOSPITALITY IN THE RUBBER COUNTRY.
All the commerce of the Department of Loreto passes through its capital, Iquitos, which is the chief port of the Amazon in Peru, and is one of the important rubber-exporting centres of the world. It is a city of about twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and is situated on the left bank of the great river, over two thousand miles from its mouth and a few leagues below the confluence of the Marañon with the Ucayali. Iquitos overlooks a broad expanse of water, more like an inland sea than a stream, the channel at this point being nearly three miles wide; in front of the city lies a large island. The depth of the river makes it possible for ocean steamers to anchor in the port, which has an average of twenty-five feet of water, and, in summer, when the rainy season is at its height, has twice that depth.
Not only does all the commerce of Loreto pass through Iquitos, but the largest share of the imports and exports of the entire region of the upper Amazon is distributed from this point. Merchandise for the rubber camps is brought up the Amazon from foreign ports to Iquitos and is here reshipped on smaller river steamers to the various interior towns along the tributaries of the upper Amazon,—ports of the Ucayali, Huallaga, Pastaza, Morona,—from which they are again reshipped in launches and canoes to towns on the smaller branches of these waterways. Sometimes the river boats carry enterprising explorers, gold hunters, rubber gatherers, and commercial travellers in a strangely mixed company, with usually but one idea in common—the prospect of fulfilling long-cherished dreams. Material for adventure, romance, and scholarship is mingled in the characters that one sees on such a trip, conversation on board bringing out the most unexpected revelations.
Several steamship lines make regular trips between Iquitos and European and North American ports. The Booth Steamship Company has been engaged in this trade for some years, and has a line of commodious steamers for carrying passengers and cargo. Bi-monthly trips are made from England, returning by way of the United States, and vice versa, calling at Pará and Manaos en route. This company recently built its own docks at Iquitos, and other improvements are under consideration which will greatly benefit the interests of trade in this port. The Red Cross Line has monthly steamers to Iquitos; and a number of Peruvian merchants have smaller fleets on the rivers from Iquitos to the interior. The Liberal, a trim little steamer of a hundred and fifty tons, with a speed of ten miles an hour, is one of the best of these river boats; it is of modern construction, is lighted by electricity and is provided with excellent accommodations for a limited number of passengers.
