The Missions send to Chachapoyas and Truxillo tobacco, salt fish, straw-hats, coarse cotton cloths, wax, incense for the churches, balsam copaiba, and vanilla, and receive, in return, cattle, horses, goods of Europe, and a little money. The Brazilians bring up heavy articles—such as I described as composing the cargo of the traders we met at Laguna; and take back straw-hats, hammocks of the Indians, sarsaparilla, and money. The value of the sarsaparilla of the Missions is estimated at two thousand dollars at the place of production, and six thousand at its place of sale in Brazil; the value of the wax at the same at the place of production; and at four thousand dollars at place of sale. The greatest profit, however, is made on the fish, of which thirty thousand pieces are taken annually in the Ucayali and Amazon. It costs there about three cents the piece; and is worth in Tarapoto, Lamas, and other places of the province, about twelve and a half cents the piece.
Estimate of the expenses and returns of a canoe-load of salt-fish from Nauta to Balza Puerto.
| Dr. | A canoe-load of eight hundred pieces may be bought in Nauta for one yard of English cotton cloth (valued at twenty-five cents) for every eight pieces | $25 00 |
| Freight, or hire of canoe, for thirty-six days, from Nauta to Balza Puerto, at 3⅛ cents per day | 1 12½ | |
| Pay of seven peons, 12 yards of cotton cloth of Tarapoto, valued at 12½ cents the yard | 10 50 | |
| Maintenance of the seven men for thirty-six days, at 3 cents per day | 7 56 | |
| 44 18½ | ||
| Cr. | Eight hundred pieces in Balza Puerto, at 12½ cents | 100 00 |
| Profit | 55 81½ | |
| or about one hundred and twenty-six per cent. in thirty-six days. | ||
The return-cargo also yields a profit: so that my friend, the governor, who by virtue of his office can get as many men to take fish for him as he wants, will probably return to civilized parts in a few years with a snug little sum in his pocket. Old Cauper is rich, and the priest in comfortable circumstances.
Estimate of expenses and returns of an expedition from Nauta to the Ucayali for the collection of sarsaparilla. (The expedition will occupy four months of time.)
| Dr. | Hire of two garreteas, that will carry seventy-five arrobas each, at 3⅛ cents per day, (four months) | $7 50 |
| Eighteen peons from Nauta to Sarayacu, at ten yards of English cotton cloth each, (twenty-five cents) | 45 00 | |
| Support of these peons for twenty days, at 3⅛ cents per man per day | 11 25 | |
| Contract with fifty Pirros or Conibos Indians (who now take the boats and go up the tributaries of the Ucayali) for the delivery by each man of three arrobas of sarsaparilla, at 75 cents the arroba | 112 50 | |
| Hire and support of peons for the return from Sarayacu to Nauta—being one-third of the amount for the trip up | 18 75 | |
| 195 00 | ||
| Cr. | One hundred and fifty arrobas, worth in Nauta two dollars the arroba | 300 00 |
| Profit in four months | 105 00 | |
| or about thirteen and a half per cent. per month. | ||
The people engaged in this occupation make, however, more profit, by cheating the Indians in every possible mode. They also own the garreteas; and, by management, support their peons for less than three cents per day.
This is an estimate made up from information given by Arebalo. Hacket makes a much better business of it. He says, "Eighty working hours above Sarayacu, on the Ucayali, is the mouth of the river Aguaytia, on the banks of which grows sarsaparilla in sufficient quantity not only to enrich the province of Mainas, but all the department of Amazonas. Its cost is eight varas of tocuyo the hundred pounds, undertaking the work of gathering it with formality—that is to say, employing one hundred persons under the direction of a man of talent, and paying them a monthly salary of twenty-four varas of tocuyo each; quadruple the price that is generally paid in Mainas.
"It sells in Nauta, Peruate, and Loreto for nine dollars the hundred pounds, gold or silver coin; in Tabatinga, (frontier of Brazil,) for ten dollars and fifty cents; in Pará, for twenty-five dollars; and in Europe, for from forty to sixty dollars, in times of greatest abundance."
Sarsaparilla is a vine of sufficient size to shoot up fifteen or twenty feet from the root without support. It then embraces the surrounding trees, and spreads to a great distance. The main root sends out many tendrils, generally about two lines in diameter, and five feet long. These are gathered and tied up in large bundles of about a Portuguese arroba, or thirty-two pounds of weight. The main root, or madre, should not be disturbed; but the Indians are little careful in this matter, and frequently cut it off, by which much sarsaparilla is destroyed. The digging up of the small roots out of the wet and marshy soil is a laborious and unhealthy occupation.