Wickham, who had spent some years in South America, understood the difficulties of gathering rubber in the jungles. He believed that if rubber could be cultivated it might prove a good crop on the coffee plantations in India which a blight had recently rendered valueless for coffee. What a strange fact it is that this blight gave Brazil a chance to go into coffee growing, and that while Brazil was losing the rubber supremacy to the Far East, the Far East at about the same time was surrendering the leadership in coffee to Brazil. The latter now holds first place in coffee growing as firmly as does the Far East in rubber growing.
Wickham saw that there were difficulties that would prevent the gathering of wild rubber from keeping pace with the growing demand. Although millions of rubber trees still stood untouched in the Brazilian forests, only those trees near the river banks could be tapped because of the impossibility of getting the rubber out of the dense vegetation. Life in the jungle was dangerous and lonely, and therefore rubber gatherers were not easy to find. They were compelled to work far from their families and friends, and in constant danger from wild beasts, reptiles and death-bearing fevers. It is no wonder that rubber obtained in this way came to be known as "wild rubber." Moreover, transporting the crude product through the jungles was hard and expensive and the rubber obtained under these conditions was not always so clean or high in quality as might be wished.
"If rubber trees grow from the seeds which nature scatters in the jungle," said Wickham to himself, "why should they not grow from seeds put into the ground by hand?"
"If rubber trees could be raised from seed, they could be planted in the open in rows where they could easily be tended and tapped, and the rubber gathered quickly and safely. Instead of having to brave the dangerous jungles, men could plant and cultivate rubber in spots of their own choosing so long as they chose places where the climate was right."
For many years people only laughed at Wickham's great idea, but like Goodyear he had faith enough to persevere. While in Brazil he planted some rubber seeds to see what would happen. The seeds DID grow, and the book which Wickham wrote about his idea and his experiments finally came into the hands of Sir Joseph Hooker, the Director of the Botanical Gardens in Kew, near London. So interested did he become that he called Wickham's plan to the attention of the Government of India, and finally Wickham was commissioned to take a cargo of rubber seeds to England, so that his idea might be tried out.
This commission was more difficult than one might think, and all of Wickham's faith and perseverance were needed to carry it out. Indeed for a time it seemed hopeless, principally because the seeds so quickly dry up and lose their vitality that they must be planted very soon after being gathered.
But Wickham watched his opportunity, and finally he was able to charter a ship in the name of the Indian Government. About a third of the way up the Amazon River he placed in her hold several thousand carefully packed seeds of the Hevea Braziliensis, or rubber tree. Let Wickham, himself, tell how he surmounted the next difficulty:
"We were bound to call in at the city of Para as the port of entry, in order to obtain clearance papers for the ship before we could go to sea. Any delay would have rendered my precious freight quite valueless and useless. But again fortune favored. I had a 'friend at court' in the person of Consul Green, who went himself with me to call on the proper official, and supported me as I presented to His Excellency 'my difficulty and anxiety, being in charge of, and having on board a ship anchored out in the stream, exceedingly delicate botanical specimens, especially designated for delivery to Her Britannic Majesty's own Royal Garden of Kew. Even while doing myself the honor of thus calling on His Excellency, I had given orders to the captain of the ship to keep up steam, having ventured to trust His Excellency would see his way clear to furnishing me with immediate dispatch. An interview most polite, full of mutual compliments in the best Portuguese manner, enabled us to get under way as soon as the captain had got the dinghy hauled aboard."
Can you imagine Wickham's sigh of relief as his vessel, with its freight of perishable treasure, steamed out of port, and began the long journey to England?