Chapter XXII: Section 1: Each service that has been definitely installed and is in (2)

From the =baracâos=, the stations on the banks of the river, small mule trains proceed to the interior to bring in the rubber balls, which are laid in rows, usually in the open air, so that they will be thoroughly dried before loading them on the steamer. By the same mules, food and supplies are sent to the seringueiros in the forest. When the rubber gathering ceases in December or January, the seringueiro has other important work to do. Roads must be opened and repaired, clearings made in the forest, huts erected, wood cut and finally the paths set in order for the approaching harvest. During the rainy season, the steamer brings new supplies and food, which the seringueiro must buy at the =Baracâo=.

Concerning the duties the seringueiro has to perform, there are special regulations, which prevail in most seringaes and of which written or printed copies are often furnished.

To each seringueiro is allotted two or three estradas, each with 120 to 200 trees. For this he pays 15 per cent of his gathering of fine rubber to the owner of the forest and an additional 10 per cent if he uses the mules for transportation. The remaining rubber belongs to the seringueiro in so far as he does not have to pay it for goods purchased. As a rule, the owner purchases a portion of the product on the spot at a price that is, of course, somewhat lower than is paid in Manáos, the remaining portion is shipped, for account of the seringueiro, to Pará and Manáos, and he receives the full market price for it, of course, after deducting freight and duties. The balance is placed to the credit of the seringueiro and paid to the firm representing the owner in Manáos or Pará. Certain items, for instance, the price of Sernamby, consisting of residual scraps of rubber, the seringueiro also receives in Acre. In some cases payments are made in rubber products, a form of payment quite common in other transactions.

On the upper Acre, a seringueiro will usually collect in a day as much milk as will yield from 6 to 15 kilos of fine rubber. Two liters of this milk yield a kilo of dry rubber, whereas with Manihot Glaziovi, 3 liters are required for this. Exceptional cases occur where the seringueiro furnishes milk for 20 to 25 kilos of fine rubber in one day. Daily collections of more than 40 liters, however, a single worker can hardly control and he must then have an assistant for carrying and smoking. The yearly production of a seringueiro amounts, in the better rubber forest properties, to upwards of 1,000 kilos of dry rubber.

Some owners offer a reward, such as for instance, a gold watch, for the most industrious and luckiest seringueiro. On the Seringal S. Francisco, for the crop year 1911-1912, a seringueiro won the gold watch who had collected 2,500 kilos. The annual highest yield of caoutchouc from the Castillôa was only 1,700 kilos, for the forest there in regard to Castillôa is already very much exhausted. Otherwise the yields of this rubber are more variable and higher than those of fine rubber.

If the price of rubber rules high, a seringueiro has quite a considerable income and with a little frugality can acquire a property.

If, on the other hand, the price of rubber drops below five milreis, the seringueiro has trouble to make both ends meet with his income and easily gets into debt. The supplies that he must purchase from the proprietor or his representative (lessee) are very expensive. The customs duties, the long haul and consequently high freight, the risk, the different losses, which the proprietor suffers through debtor workmen, and the occasional high price of fine rubber, which forces all prices upward, makes everything in upper Acre very dear.

The prices of some of the most necessary supplies and goods are about as follows.

1 kilo mandioka flour, 2½ milreis.
1 kilo coffee, 4 milreis.
1 kilo sugar, 3 milreis.
1 kilo beans, 3 milreis.
1 kilo rice, 2½ milreis.
1 kilo dried meat, 5 milreis.
1 kilo fresh meat, 4 milreis.
1 chicken, 30 milreis.
1 dozen eggs, 10 milreis.
1 bottle brandy, 8 milreis.
1 meter goods, 3 to 6 milreis.
1 woolen quilt, 120 to 140 milreis.
1 pair boots, 40 to 60 milreis.
1 cake washing soap, 3½ milreis.
1 piece fine soap, 5 milreis.
1 macheté, 14 to 22 milreis.
1 package matches, 3 milreis.
1 carbine, 200 milreis.
1 kilo powder, 28 milreis.
1 kilo shot, 4 milreis.

1 pound sterling is now worth about 15 milreis, so that four shillings (about one dollar U. S.)=3 milreis.

On the lower Acre, goods are much cheaper and they fall still lower down to Manáos, where many articles only cost one-third or one-fourth as much, or even less, but Manáos is nevertheless an expensive city.

The large profits which fine rubber often yields, make all labor very dear. For this reason agriculture has developed but slowly and most food supplies must therefore be imported. Nevertheless cattle raising is constantly growing, stock being brought in from Bolivia. Bananas, the tubers of the sweet mandiola, beans and some vegetables are extensively grown, especially by Peruvians and Bolivians. Often the seringueiro will plant some bananas and cultivate a small patch of cleared land, but this is not favorably regarded by the proprietor. In some seringaes, even the marriage of the seringueiros is opposed; everything is directed towards obtaining the largest possible quantity of fine rubber.

Although the Acre is not very full of fish, fishing, in the dry season, is attended with some success, which particularly benefits dwellers on the banks of the river. Hunting also, in some sections, furnishes residents with fresh meat. As animals of the chase may be enumerated, monkeys, Taca, Aguti, wild swine, small varieties of deer, sloths, tapirs, various wood fowl and ducks.

Very different from the arrangements customary, as a rule, in the Acre, are the conditions in the Bolivian rubber districts, which for the most part are owned by a single proprietor, N. Suarez y Hermanos. He is said to produce 1,500 tons of fine rubber per year, and could produce more than four times the quantity if the entire forest concession, which is probably as large as South Germany, was all put in operation. One portion of this rubber forest is situated on the Acre, but the greater part includes the Southwestern tributaries of the Rio Madeira. In the properties on the Acre, the working methods are adapted to Brazilian customs, especially where Brazilian seringueiros are employed.

While in the Seringaes, trade is conducted mostly through the Baracâos, there are in some places, notably in Cobija, Hapury and Empreza, various business houses, through which the owners of seringaes, captains of ships and other persons, can supply their wants, for before the steamer returns, there is often a scarcity in some products.

The retail trade is mainly in the hands of so-called Turks, various Orientals, from Syria, Arabia, Tunis and Morocco. They have large boats, propelled by poles and oars and which contain the goods in a covered space. These Turks travel as pedlars for years about on the rivers, selling their goods for money or rubber. This commerce is designated =Regatao= and is not favored by proprietors, who sometimes forbid stopping in their territory. The seringueiro can not only buy cheaper of them, but can dispose of caoutchouc surreptitiously.

Those who encounter favorable conditions on the Acre, who are diligent and economical, can, by working in the rubber industry, or in any other field of activity, soon acquire a property. The majority, however, squander their earnings on trips to Manáos, Pará or Ceará, or suffer from sickness.

Although hygienic conditions on the Acre have improved with the times and there are numerous healthy localities, malaria still prevails there a great deal, and other diseases, notably beriberi, are often fatally prevalent. Many privations, caused by the difficulties of travel, and a certain amount of luxury, made possible by the large earnings, often contrast with one another.

From Acre, during the year, about 5,000 tons of fine rubber, inclusive of other rubber products, are exported, of which certainly a portion comes from the adjacent territory.

This quantity, according to the price of rubber, will represent a value of 20,000 to 75,000 contos of réis, about $5,000,000 to $15,000,000. These are figures that play a part in the total output of rubber, the importance of which is increased by its quality.

THE ACRE TERRITORY.

Previous to the Treaty of Petropolis, in 1903, between Brazil and Bolivia, the Acre Territory formed part of the State of Amazonas, one portion being, in fact, still in dispute. By virtue of this treaty the Acre Territory became Brazilian, Brazil in exchange paying £2,000,000 to Bolivia, an indemnity to an American syndicate, and undertaking to construct the Madeira Mamoré Railway.

The Congress then empowered the Federal authorities to administer the Territory until the question should be finally settled.

The administration is much the same as that of the other States. Recent laws have tended to decentralize the administration, the latest being one giving municipal independence. The three provinces of the Territory are:

Upper Purús (capital Senna Madureira),
Upper Juruá (capital Cruzeiro do Sul), and
Upper Acre (capital Empreza).

The only product and export is rubber, the proportions during 1911 being:

Upper Purús 4,042,000 kilos
Upper Juruá 3,008,000 kilos
Upper Acre 3,526,000 kilos

One of the most serious questions has been that relating to the ownership of land. The Federal Congress is prepared to solve this problem satisfactorily, by recognizing bona-fide holdings dating from before the Treaty of Petropolis, giving preference to property deeds granted by the State of Amazonas, next to those given by the Republic of Bolivia during its brief occupation, and then to any possession obtained in good faith during the whole interregnum, up to the date of the last law passed.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

For the protection of Brazilian rubber, and in order to facilitate and develop its culture, as well as its final handling, a Federal law was passed on January 5th of the current year. (No. 2513 A.)

Its principal measures are especially concerned with Amazon rubber and the country in which it is produced, viz.: the States of Amazonas and Matto-Grosso and the Acre Territory. The scheme embraces the construction of railways and roads, the clearing of rivers, reduction of import duties and of dues on river navigation, the establishing of coal depots, living accommodation for laborers, centres for the production of foodstuff, model cattle farms, prizes to rubber planters and exemption from import duties on all material for rubber working.

Besides the Madeira Mamoré Railway, which benefits principally the Madeira River district of Matto-Grosso, and a further branch of the same railway, now in course of construction, and which is intended to open up the Bolivian district of the Beni River, the Brazilian Government will construct another railroad (in the route of which the Commercial Association has suggested some alterations) to commence from Manáos and to work through the region of the Rio Branco, to link up with the English railroad already constructed in British Guiana up to the Brazilian boundary. This railway will open up to the State of Amazonas a huge tract of country admirably suited to agriculture of all kinds, and to colonization by Europeans.

The Association Commercial will also propose the construction of a further railroad to communicate by means of branch lines with the various provinces of the Acre Territory, in order to bring the product of that region to the lower Purús River, at a point which will admit of free access to steamers of deep draft to and from Manáos.

DR. CERQUEIRA PINTO’S PROCESS

EXTRA FINE PARÁ

This rubber was cured for export in the rubber estate “IRACEMA,” in the Federal Acre, Amazonia, Brazil, by Dr. Cerqueira Pinto’s process of smokeless coagulation. (See The India Rubber World, August 1, 1909, page 396, and copy of the same journal of 1st September, the same year, page 435.)

The enclosed sample contains 68 kilos and belongs to the lot of 5,000 kilos (11,025 lbs.) that Dr. Cerqueira Pinto holds to be sold in New York.

Dr. Cerqueira Pinto’s process is one of coagulation of the latex of the “=Hevea Brasiliensis=” by an ingredient patented by the Brazilian Government—“=LACTINA=”—absolutely free of any acid.

The latex after the coagulation is pressed through a cylinder in order to dry out.

This rubber was tested and classified as of STANDARD type by the Government of the United States of America.

It offers the resistance of 2,010 pounds per square inch according to the experiments made by The Manhattan Rubber Company in July, 1909. This rubber means a saving to the manufacturer of at least 20 per cent, in the opinion of the Favorite Rubber Mfg. Co. of New Jersey and of 25 per cent, as per the analysis made in London.

The author of this process calls the Jury’s attention to his rubbers and is willing to furnish with the sufficient quantity in order to prove to the entire satisfaction of his assertions. It vulcanizes as well by acid as by vapor. Dr. Cerqueira Pinto will prepare, during the Exposition, in September, before the public and the manufacturers, his rubbers with both Hevea and Castillôa latexes, yield of the trees in October, 1911, in the Federal Acre, Brazil. He shall present as well a large quantity of similar rubbers cured by the author on different occasions. They are true rubbers of commerce cured for export. They are clothed by a vegetal varnish, soluble in water, which is also a discovery of Dr. Cerqueira Pinto, to prevent the mould.

CASTILLÔA OR CAUCHO.

Prepared by the process of Dr. Carlos de Cerqueira Pinto. (See the India Rubber World of September 1st, 1909, page 435).

The included sample weighs 68 kilos. The author holds 1,400 pounds of this quality to be sold in New York market.

The article was cured by rubber laborers of the estate “Iracema” in the Federal Acre, Amazonia, Brazil, during the months of July to December, 1911. They are rubbers of commerce and cured for export.

THE STATE OF MATTO GROSSO

THE STATE OF MATTO GROSSO IN THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL RUBBER EXPOSITION IN NEW YORK, 1912

BY LEOPOLDO DE MATTOS

Dr. Joaquim Augusto da Costa Marques, President of the State of Matto Grosso, 1911-1915

The State of Matto Grosso, Brazil, at the Third International Rubber Exposition in New York, 1912

Of the twenty states composing the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Matto Grosso is second to the largest in its territorial extension. It is situated south of the States Amazon and Pará, having on the East the States of Goyaz, S. Paulo and Paraná, on the South the Republic of Paraguay, and on the West Bolivia.

It embraces on the map that portion of the earth’s surface which extends, approximately from the fourth degree South of the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn. Its immense area is about 50,175 square leagues, or according to Mr. Candido Mendes it has an area of 1,379,651 square meters. Its population is actually about 350,000, not including a considerable number of uncivilized Indians, whose improvement is carried steadily forward by the united efforts of the State and Federal Governments.

Without mentioning its capital, the principal cities of the State are Corumbá, S. Luiz de Caceres, Miranda, Nioae, Focoué, Santa Aunade Paranabyba, Diamantina, Rosario, Livramento, and the new and recently incorporated municipality, S. Antonio de Rio Madeira. Its capital, Cuyabá, is situated on the left bank of the river of the same name, 288 meters above sea level, and owes its origin to the Paulistas, who formed colonies in the western part of Brazil during the first part of the Eighteenth Century.

In 1719 Paschoal Moreira Cabral ascending the River Coxipé Mirim, founded on the left bank of this stream a village which was called Forquilha, but to-day is the city of Cuyabá, where in those early days a rich gold mine was discovered. In those days, according to Elysée Reclus, the vast region of Matto Grosso, was hardly anything except a narrow, ordinary zone, nothing more than an immense solitude of undefined limits and unknown, but given over to Indians and wild beasts. It was joined to the rest of Brazil by the lonely paths of hunters, and by channels of the rivers that had their origin there. Really in those days communication with the remainder of Brazil was as difficult as with Matto Grosso. It is within the memory of many and known to those who read the history of Brazil, that it was impossible for the troops who were enrolled and equipped in the coast provinces, to go directly to the aid of their compatriots in Matto Grosso, when the Brazilian people had to respond to the declaration of war by Paraguay.

With the thousands of obstructions in their path, a portion of the army composed of 3,000 men, which left Rio de Janeiro in April, 1865, and which could only be organized in Uberaba, in the upper basin of Paraná, was reduced to about 700, when it arrived at that safe and impregnable place.

The war with Paraguay being ended, there is no doubt that the victory gained by Brazil opened wide the ports of Matto Grosso, for the natural declivity of the soil, the course of the streams, with the free river navigation, guaranteed by her triumph, established a regular line of packets between Rio de Janeiro, Corumbá and Cuyabá, by way of the River La Plata, passing by Montevideo, Buenos Ayres and Assumption.

The fluvial ways of the Guaporé, Madeira and Amazon were constantly used in the Eighteenth Century, after the exploration made by Manoel de Lima in 1742. Navigation by the Guaporé river to the Madeira, in short to S. Antonio, which is the initial point of navigation on this last mentioned river, is long and full of difficulties. Withal, Matto Grosso is gradually approaching the coasts of Brazil by means of railroads, such as the Northwestern Road, which will shortly unite it with Rio de Janeiro, and the railroad, already projected, which, parting from S. Luiz de Caceres, will reach the old city of Matto Grosso, where the Guaporé begins to be navigable, to Guajará-Mirim, the terminal point of the great Madeira-Mamoré Railway.

In a short time, as can readily be seen, these roads will be a reality, the navigable rivers being united by the stretches of railroads between them. The Paranápanema and the Ivahy in the States of Paraná and S. Paulo, continue on the one side of the Paraná River, ascending the Ivanhema, and the Brilhante, as far as the neighboring mountains of Miranda, in the meridional part of Matto Grosso.

The magnificent regions of Matto Grosso promise in the near future, to be great centers of population and consequently a future focus of civilization by probable fusion of the different elements of immigration, which will certainly come together there in the flight of time, and the increased facilities in the way of transportation. Somewhere it has been said, that colonization without doubt will come from the South, from Paraguay and Argentina; but at the present time, with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, undoubtedly colonization will also come from the North, communication being facilitated by the Amazon River, the Madeira being one of its tributaries, on the right bank of which is situated Porto Velho, the initial point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. These effects are already commencing to produce results as may be seen from founding of a new municipality and district of Matto Grosso, called the municipality of St. Antonio of the River Madeira, reached by the above-mentioned railway and to which region we will devote a special chapter later on.

Already one sees the farthest northern side of Matto Grosso filling with people, while the southern side really contains the greater number of inhabitants.

Matto Grosso is one of the regions of least roughness on the continent of South America. There are no elevations of the land which constitute real mountains.

The elevated lands have their points of culmination in the western bases of the Mantiqueira, the Aymorés, and the Espinhaço, and continue, gradually lowering from this side to the West of Goyaz, and on the other side are the elevated lands at the base of the Andes, which incline to the East with its supports. Elysée Reclus says that an intermediary plain, separating the two geographical districts, goes winding in the form of a valley, that in other ages certainly was a maritime strait separating the two islands—Western Brazil and the Andes.

To-day rivers run in the depression where formerly there was a sea and the plain is actually full of alluvial soil. The true center of South America is between the two cities of Cuyabá and Corumbá.

To those who do not know the region, the slopes of the hills are mistaken for mountains and geographical maps show a chain of mountains more or less continuous, between the basins of the Tapajóz and the Madeira, between the head waters of the same Tapajóz and Paraguay and finally between the Tapajóz and the Araguaya. Nevertheless this semi-circular plain exists only in fragments, because the elevations which are found in the plains of the upper Paraguay and its tributaries are only a high, level ground of horizontal sections or slight elevations and worn away by the rivers which flow into the great Amazon.

They are rather tablelands than mountains, for they do not reach an elevation, except in some parts of the tableland, of more than 100 meters, while the mean elevation of a range of mountains is 500 meters.

This geographic district in the State of Matto Grosso is indifferently called the cordillara of Parecys, but does not present a mountainous aspect except on the South side. On this scarred side, the rock is cut into peaks, or cut away into obelisks. On the other side towards the Tapajóz and Xingú, a long range extends and gradually declines into the plains of the State of Amazonas. D’Orbiguy found in the high northern part of Matto Grosso, the existence of beds pertaining to the carboniferous age and corresponding to rocks of the same nature which on the opposite side of that region are found in the Bolivian bases of the Sierra of Santa Cruz. After this Hart and Derby verified the fact that the southern parts of the Araxá, which are the elevated borders of the tableland, date probably from paleozoic epochs, and there are found the carboniferous, devonian and silurian beds. Fossil beds found by the Geologist Smith below the hillocks of the plains, 50 kilometers east of Cuyabá, place these facts beyond doubt. More to the North is the zone of the rocky places, which in links cut the Madeira, Tapajóz, Xingú, Tocatius and their tributaries, the walls denuded by erosion, are all of the crystalline formation, granite, gueis, porphory and quartzite. The elevations that unroll in the direction of the South, between the sources of the Paraguay and Araguaya, following between the Paraguay and the Paraná, do not present the same characteristics as the tablelands of the North. The high parts of Western Matto Grosso were separated from the East and West sides and devastated by lateral excavations, take in certain places the aspects of true mountain chains, and for this reason they are named, from the North to the South, the Sierras of S. Jeronimo, Maracajú and Anhauhaly.

Eruptive rocks, called basaltic in this country, probably porphyritic rend the beds of sandstone, of which the mountains are composed and appear to form by their disintegration “red lands,” similar to those which give the farmers of S. Paulo their abundant harvests of coffee.

In a sort of circle limited by a semicircle of elevations isolated masses have been lifted up, rocks whose outlines, seen from a distance, have a perfect regularity. The hills proper, for the greater part, have geometrical forms, which it should be said, great forces have crumbled, leaving smooth walls like the sides of pyramids. The tops of the tablelands, as well as summits, have been maimed by a force certainly corresponding to the other summits, which now may be seen as part of the same prairie. According to Taunay, who traveled over the country, these masses of sandstone in horizontal beds regularly placed one above another, are formed of marshy sediment deposited by the sea of fresh water, which in former times covered this region.

The ruins of these hills and slopes contributed also to change the physiognomy of the landscape. These excoriations were picked up and dragged by the rivers, to form new beds and soil, and much rock disappeared below the continued crumbling of the mountains. Others show nothing except their summits above the land of recent formation. Masses that held them to the tablelands and the chains of the interior are separated from them, because their bases are buried and they emerge abruptly from the soil. These distinctive peaks to which the name of =itambea= has been given, raise their heads above a sea of trees, like some great buildings erected by the hand of man. To the East, the southern part of Matto Grosso, they range themselves in files and group themselves in archipelagoes, each time becoming higher and more numerous. The part that goes towards the West are solitary peaks on the circle of the horizon and may be seen along the banks of the River Paraguay, and even on the other side of the same.

The Upper Guaporé, Itenez of the Bolivians, although situated in the immense basin of the Amazon as a tributary to the Madeira River by the Mamoré, belongs to the State of Matto Grosso, for the city of this name was founded on its banks and nearly the whole population of the state accumulated in this depression, through whose western half the river finds its way. Its principal source is very obscure. It rises in a grotto along the border of the Araxá, and takes first a southerly course, parallel to other rivers which descend towards Paraguay. On leaving the last hills it curves to the West, and afterwards to the Northwest, where already enlarged by numerous tributaries it crosses the plain, where there is found the city named at its founding Villa Bella and to-day called Matto Grosso.

The Paraguay is one of the most known rivers of South America, as a way of navigation, as Elysée Reclus affirms. Few rivers have such a slight declination in proportion to their length. Castelnaw says that it rises at an altitude of 305 meters, in places where tranquil waters glide slowly to the sea, the altitude of the land being scarcely 200 meters. At a point 4,000 kilometers from the sea, the declination is scarcely 5 centimeters. Therefore, steamers of light draft can freely ascend to the confines of Brazil, far to the North of the two Republics of Argentine and Paraguay and arrive at the base of the tableland by the principal river and its tributaries, Jaurú, Sepotuba, Cuyabá, S. Lourenço and Taquary. The Paraguay presents another notable phenomenon, which is the crossing its sources with those of the tributaries of the Amazon.

The River Jaurú approaches the Guaporé so closely that it would be easy to make a canal from the waters of this western river to a tributary of the Jaurú. Another tributary of the Paraguay, the Aguapehy, is only separated from the Alegre River, which flows by the old city of Villa Bella, to-day called Matto Grosso, by a low and narrow isthmus, which according to Leverger measures 5,280 meters. During 1772, and even later, it was proposed to cut a canal at different places in this isthmus, but the work was never done because of the little commerce of that locality. Certainly, railroads, in the near future, will supply the absence of a canal and will join Montevideo to Pará, passing through the larger part of the State of Matto Grosso, and by a continental navigable water way of 8,300 kilometers, as Bartholomo Bossi says.

The Paraguay River has as its principal tributaries the S. Lourenço, enlarged by the waters of the Cuyabá, the Taquary, the Mondego, and the Apá, the last marking the boundary between Brazil and the Republic of Paraguay. At the time of the floods, its level, and that of its tributaries, rises 10 to 11 meters and overflows to the right and the left, forming a temporary sea, which extends to great distances, being lost to sight and continuing in lakes. The first Spanish explorers gave it the name of Lake Xarayes, in its lower section, where it receives the nearly dormant waters of its principal tributaries. This lake is about 600 kilometers in length from North to South, between the mouths of Jaurú and the hills of “Fecho-dos-Morros,” and in certain places reaches a width of 250 kilometers.

It is not permanent, as you already know, but at certain seasons of the year there are overflows, which the Indians called bays and rightly, for here there were bays of an ancient sea, which to-day are nearly dry, and most of these lakes are in constant communication with the Paraguay River, either by underground openings, or by long canals. These latter are called the lakes of Uberaba, Gaiaba, Mandioré, Caceres, etc. Some of these lakes contain only fresh water from the overflowing rivers, while others being ancient cavities are now filled with salt water, and have in their depths beds of salt, which give to the liquid a soapy characteristic. It is singular that this contrast by nature of fresh and salt water is also found in the lands of the vast plains, and thus it is, that these extensive fields, covered by a rich alluvial soil, bear heavy forests. Here the agriculturist can certainly obtain marvelous harvests. It is certainly true that these fields of Matto Grosso will serve for agriculture as well as pastoral industry.

The height of the lands, formed in the center of this vast valley, hinders the tributary from remaining in a regular channel, and the waters escaping from both sides ramify in a labyrinth of rivers and false rivers. The lateral branches follow in the zones of the lakes, to the confluence of the Taquary and Miranda Rivers, which descend from the mountains on the East. These receive in the upper region, a tributary called the Coxim, which travelers consider one of the most picturesque rivers of Brazil. It is curious to see, in some places, the waters of the Coxim crowded between perpendicular walls 50 meters in height and the small vessels floating on their bosom at the bottom of an opening not more than 10 or 12 meters in width.

THE CLIMATE

The climate of Matto Grosso is relatively warm in the lower parts and those overflowed by the high waters of the Paraguay and other rivers. In the region of the tablelands the climate is cool and healthy. The movement of the air columns is determined by the open passage way between the Andes mountains and the highlands of Brazil, as well as in the center of the South American continent, and are held by it. The warm winds, coming from the region of the Amazon, are succeeded in the Winter time by the winds which blow from the cool pampas. In the high parts of the circle of hills and mountains which surround the tablelands of Matto Grosso, the cold goes below the freezing point. The copious rains brought by the cooling winds refresh the central tablelands of Brazil and then dash themselves against the sides of the Andes. They fall with great regularity in the Summer and are frequently accompanied by thunderstorms. According to observations taken by some, the annual fall of water is 3 meters, and in Cuyabá about 135 days of the ordinary year are rainy ones.

ITS SITUATION

The State of Matto Grosso, from its geographical situation in the Continent of South America, placed at the point of separation of the two great basins of Brazil, contains at the same time the flowers and faunae of the Amazon and Plata regions. Nevertheless, the tropical flora predominates with its infinite variety of vegetable forms in all the forest regions, that is to say, along the banks of the rivers, and among the famous species found along the shores of the River-Sea, there are few which are not found in the region of the Upper Guaporé, and specimens of which may not be seen.

In no other parts, like here, will the development of Cipo’s palm be found. In 1875, a boundary commission discovered one of these palms =Urumbamba (Calamus procumbeus) or Des Moncus rudentum de Martins=, of more than 20 meters in length, with hardly the thickness of a centimeter. The cotton tree, tobacco, ipecac, there called “poya,” grow spontaneously on the plains and in the forests. The last grows abundantly in the forests of the Upper Jaurú and the neighboring rivers. Maté, the most notable product of the tablelands of the South, and which has made some regions rich, as the State of Paraná, grows here spontaneously between the Rivers Miranda and Apá, without speaking of the seringa, which is found in immense and thick forests in a district that extends from Cuyabá to Madeira and which will be the special subject of this leaflet.

The woods for building are very abundant and of a great variety, such as Brazil wood, Jacarandá, Peroba, Canella, Cedro, Jequitibá, Massaran-duba, Arco, Ferro, Setim and Vinhatico.

Among the animals are found deer, tapir, panther, and also a large number of small animals usually found in tropical regions. The fowls and birds along the streams and the songsters in the forests are, because of their variety, almost innumerable. The ostrich is found in the region of the pampas and on the margins of the upper Paraguay. There are many varieties of fish in the large and small rivers.

In the mineral kingdom, the State of Matto Grosso has numerous mines of gold, silver, platinum, copper, tin, mercury, coal, iron, precious stones, diamonds, etc. There are already four English companies developing gold mines. There is also granite, crystal, malacacheta, limestone, sal-geunna, etc. Finally, in the region of the Araxá, there are sulphur mineral springs.

In Matto Grosso are found the largest cattle ranches, not only as to their territorial extent, but also as to the number of horses and cattle, some of them numbering 100,000 head. The number of cattle is calculated to be 2,000,500,000 head. Although the transportation of cattle from Matto Grosso to Rio de Janeiro is difficult, it is generally done by a road running West to Uberaba, where they pass the Winter season of two or three months and being recuperated are sent by railroad to Rio de Janeiro. Hence it is easy to see that with the completion of the Northwestern Railway of Brazil, the problem of transportation to the coast will be solved. Also with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway the navigable rivers of Matto Grosso, will in short time, be linked with the port of Pará. Before long another railway will extend from S. Luiz de Caceres, the ancient city of Matto Grosso, where the River Guaporé commences to be navigable to Guajará-Mirim, the terminal point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. This will solve the problem of the transportation of cattle to the States of Amazonas, Pará, etc.

From this brief exposition one concludes that the State of Matto Grosso is very rich in cattle and gold, diamonds and coffee, tobacco and maté, rubber and ipecac, and all other products of the tropical and temperate zone. Without doubt it will come to be one of the largest and richest empires of the world.

Endowed with a warm climate in the North, it has in other regions a temperate and even cold climate. The tablelands contain a rare accumulation of wealth, yet little explored. Naturally people, in their activities and progressive conflict for a livelihood, will come here from all parts of the world. By their intelligence and endeavors they will make that part of Brazil an industrial, commercial and maritime mart. Here from the fusion of the different races, a great civilization will arise, and mankind will progress onward and upward to the final conquest of the land.

RUBBER

The rubber sent to this Exposition, comes from the vast regions served by the Rivers Machados, or Dgy-Paraná, Jamary, Jacy-Paraná, Mutum-Paraná, Paca-Nova and Guaporé and their tributaries, which in turn are tributaries of the great Madeira River, on whose right bank is situated the new municipality St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, installed July 2, 1912.

The new municipality has the following limits: Starting at the falls of St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, on parallel 8° 48′, the River Madeira above; the River Madeira above to the mouth of the Guaporé on parallel of 12°, and on this parallel to its intersection with the River Camararé; on this river below to its confluence with the Juruema; on this river below to the point where it unites with the Arinos; on the parallel at this point which passes to its intersection with S. Manuel River; it follows this river down to its confluence with the Tapajóz; and from this point back to St. Antonio Falls, along the line that divides Matto Grosso from the Amazonas. All this immense territory of the new municipality is traversed on the North by the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, which was completed and opened for traffic, September 7, 1912. It starts at Porto Velho and terminates at Guajará-Mirim, a distance of 390 kilometers.

The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad, in addition to the stations already opened in Porto Velho, Candelaria, St. Antonio, Jacy-Paraná, Abunã, Villa Murtinho, and Guajará-Mirim has 46 places of stopping, which corresponds to the number of camps.

Among the ways of communication that St. Antonio do Rio Madeira, the new municipality, has with the neighboring States of Amazonas and Pará, as well as with the capital and other cities of Matto Grosso, we would mention the telegraph line which the Federal Government is constructing along with its public road ways. There are two gangs of engineers and workmen engaged in the construction of the telegraph line. One started at St. Antonio in the North, and the other at Diamantina in the South. Leaving St. Antonio the telegraph line follows parallel 8° 48′ until it comes to the River Jamary, a distance of about 60 kilometers. Arriving there its course is changed to the headwaters of the Dgy-Paraná River, to a place called Urupá. Here it will meet and be joined to the line coming from the South. On June 3, 1912, at the very headwaters of the Dgy-Paraná River, the telegraph station of José Bonifacio was opened, by the gang from the South, while those from the North had, previous to this, opened the stations of St. Antonio do Rio Madeira and Jamary. This notable undertaking is under the efficient and extraordinary devotion of the Colonel of Engineers of the Brazilian army, Candido Roudon, who has a record for the construction of telegraph lines in Brazil and South America.

Within a year, more or less, the telegraph line will follow along a roadway 40 meters wide, and about 200 leagues in length, extending from Cuyabá to St. Antonio on the Madeira River. This immense roadway of communication cutting all this vast interior, rich in rubber and gold, will have a telegraph station every 10 leagues. In Porto Velho, the initial point of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, there is already working a wireless telegraph station of the Marconi system. There is daily communication with Manáos. Also with Iquitos and with the Federal department at Acre, Purús and Juruá.

Transportation from Manáos to St. Antonio on the Madeira River is made in good condition and comfortable vessels. During the time of low water, that is during the dry season of the great Amazon and its tributaries, only vessels of 500 tons can ascend to those places from Manáos. In the time of high waters, when the valley of the entire Amazon is overflowed, the trans-Atlantic steamers of 7,000 to 9,000 tons, ascend in four days from Manáos. This has been done in the transportation of materials for the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. The vessels easily approached and made fast to the two wharves made of wood, one of which is in front of the offices at Porto Velho and the other at Candelaria. The Government of the Republic, however, has determined to build of stone and lime the wharves between Porto Velho and St. Antonio on the River Madeira.

The small steamers which navigate during the dry season, have accommodations for first and third class passengers, are lighted by electricity, have an artificial ice plant and make the voyage from Manáos to Porto Velho and St. Antonio in about five days, at the average speed of ten miles an hour, calling at the small Amazonian ports and cities situated on the banks of the Madeira River. In descending the river both the large and small steamers make the voyage in from three to four days.

The rubber from St. Antonio on the Madeira River is of the same physical and chemical constituents as all the rubber of the Amazon Valley. This is worth remembering, when we think of this new municipality in the State of Matto Grosso, being the frontier of the States of Amazonas and Pará.

In the Manáos market, where the rubber comes by way of the Madeira River, and in that of Pará, which it reaches by way of River Tapajóz, it is always quoted at the same price and under the same conditions as those produced in the regions of the Amazon proper.

The production has been increasing annually since 1906 and is actually about 2,000,000 of kilos annually. This will certainly increase to an amount that cannot be foretold, with the completion of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, the wagon road and telegraph line and the constant improvements in navigation.

During the first six months of the current year, the production of rubber was greater than for the same length of time in any year since 1907, as can be verified from the report annexed.

In those regions, between Cuyabá and the new municipality, there exist rubber (seringa) forests capable of producing in one year, more than 40,000,000 of kilos of rubber.

To attain this ideal, it is only necessary that the captains of industry should join in the development of extraction. This fountain shoots forth from the earth spontaneously without the necessity of cultivation. To encourage and stimulate those who wish to employ there, their endeavors and capital, the law of the State of Matto Grosso offers special favors. These are offered to those who wish to develop the vast forests of rubber existing, as well as to those who wish to plant and cultivate the =Syphonia elastica=.

Speaking of the Rubber Exposition soon to be held in New York, it is proper to call attention to the well-known fact that already the capitalists of North America have begun the development of that region.

The large capitalist, Percival Farquhar, of North America, has already incorporated two rubber companies, the Muller and Guaporé, under the social terms of July, for the purpose not only of developing the extraction industry of the =hevea= braziliensis, but also for the different branches of agriculture necessary for the making of sugar, cotton cloth, etc.

Actually the extraction of rubber in the vast seringaes of the municipality of St. Antonio of the River Madeira employ about 5,000 workmen. This number will constantly increase, as the said municipality becomes the center of the currents of commerce, industry and agriculture, from Matto Grosso and the Republic of Bolivia.

This is easy to imagine, when we see that the Madeira-Mamoré Railway will place it in communication to the South with S. Luiz de Caceres, by means of the River Guaporé, and by the railway, which, from S. Luiz de Caceres will extend to the ancient city of Matto Grosso, thus joining the basin of the Plata—by means of the Paraguay River, to the basin of the River Amazon. And to the West the same Madeira-Mamoré Railway, reaching to Ribeira-Alta, will bind the vast and rich regions of the Bolivian Republic to the basin of the Amazon, by means of the Madeira River. Presently the chief engineer and director of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, Mr. H. Dose, will leave for that region, to begin the construction of the branch Guajará Mirim—Matto Grosso, to Ribeira Alta, Bolivia, which will be finished within a year and a half, and be about 100 meters long.

In addition to this with the prompt construction within a year of the wagon—telegraphic line—roadway from Cuyabá to St. Antonio on the Madeira River, we can easily conclude, that the municipality of St. Antonio on the Madeira River, will indeed become the converging point of these great and strong currents of development of progress and of civilization.

In conclusion it should not be forgotten that this territory herein described serves not only for the production of rubber, which there, as in the whole valley of the Amazon, is native and grows according to the laws of nature. It also should be mentioned that cacao and cotton are native, while there can be planted and cultivated, sugar cane, coffee, vanilla, corn, beans, rice, tobacco, potatoes, brazil nut, etc. The Madeira-Mamoré Railway Company has the concession of a vast amount of land along its line, which it proposes to plant in cacao, sugar cane, etc., thus improving these lands.

From this description, in which we have endeavored to set forth only the truth, giving the facts concerning the region in question, it can be concluded that the new municipality of St. Antonio on the River Madeira, which actually exports to the markets of the world, via Pará and Manáos, about 2,000,000 kilos of rubber, will in a few years, with immigration and from other causes, export from 10 to 15,000,000 kilos.

The author of this article asks indulgence for any shortcomings it may contain, as it was written in the spare moments he could find, while laboriously collecting the samples of rubber and putting them on board the steamer at Manáos for New York.

The samples of rubber from the State of Matto Grosso, which are seen in this International Rubber Exposition, have been exhibited by order of the Government and at the expense of the Commercial Association of the Amazonas.

STATE OF MATTO GROSSO

Inspection Department of the North

Table showing the production of rubber in the valleys of the Madeira and upper Tapajóz, for the years 1907-1912, in comparison with the first six months of 1912:

Origin 1907 1908 1909
Machado and Jamary 1,092,454 1,252,194 910,982
Jacy-Paraná, Upper Madeira and Moré 98,464 152,713 150,759
Upper Tapajóz 156,034 167,841 107,458
--------- --------- ---------
1,190,918 1,560,941 1,229,582

Origin 1910 1911 1912
Machado and Jamary 1,295,605 1,317,917 1,315,995
Jacy-Paraná, Upper Madeira and Moré 142,458 201,562 259,612
Upper Tapajóz 73,688 113,453
--------- --------- ---------
1,545,521 1,593,167 1,689,060

STATE OF MATTO-GROSSO

The capital, Cuyabá, and the principal port, Corumbá, belong to the hydrographical system of the Paraguay River.

The boundaries of this State, formed by the Amazon River, embrace the upper basin of the Madeira River, which as the result of an agreement with the State of Amazonas appertains to Matto-Grosso, whereas it previously belonged to the former State.

This territory constitutes the judicial and administrative province of Santo Antonio do Madeira.

The executive and fiscal administration is entrusted to a Fiscal Delegate in Manáos. The collection of duties is attended to by the State Customs of Amazonas.

The rubber producing rivers, with total production of Matto-Grosso, are:

1908 1909 1910 1911
Kilos Kilos Kilos Kilos
Machado and Jamary 1,253,000 911,000 1,296,000 1,318,000
Jacy Paraná, Upper
Madeira & Mamoré 153,000 150,000 143,000 202,000

During the first half of the current year the production has shown a considerable increase, this being largely due to the opening and developing of the Madeira Mamoré Railway, which passes through the whole region of these rivers.

ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO NA
EXPOSIÇÃO INTERNACIONAL DE
BORRACHA DE 1912 EM NEW-YORK

POR
LEOPOLDO DE MATTOS

NEW-YORK, 1912

DR. JOAQUIM AUGUSTO DA COSTA MARQUES
PRESIDENTE DO ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO
1911-1915

O ESTADO DE MATTO-GROSSO NA EXPOSIÇÃO DE BORRACHA DE 1912 EM NEW-YORK

Dos vinte Estados que compõem a Republica dos Estados Unidos do Brasil, Matto-Grosso está collocado em segundo plano, pela sua extensão territorial situado ao Sul dos Estados do Amazonas e Pará, tendo a Leste os Estados de Goyaz, S. Paulo e Paraná, ao Sul a Republica do Paraguay e a Oeste a Republica da Bolivia.

Abrange no mappa uma porção que vae approximadamente desde o 14° grao ao Sul do Equador até o Tropico do Capricornio. Sua área immensa é de cerca de 50175 leguas quadradas, segundo Candido Mendes, ou melhor, tern uma superficie de 1379651 kilometros quadrados.

Sua população é actualmente de cerca de 350,000 habitantes, não incluindo consideravel numero de indios bravios, cuja cathechese se procede com afinco, dia a dia, com o concurso simultaneo dos Governos Federal e Estadoal.

Sem contar a Capital, as cidades principaes do Estado são Corumbá, S. Luiz de Caceres, Miranda, Nioac, Poconé, Sant’ Anna de Paranahyba, Diamantina, Rosario, Livramento e o novo Municipio recentemente installado de Sto. Antonio do Rio Madeira.

Cuyabá, sua capital, está situada á margem esquerda do rio do mesmo nome, a 288 metros acima do nivel do mar, e deve as suas origens aos Paulistas que formaram as legendarias bandeiras e que percorreram o Brasil Occidental no começo do seculo XVIII.

Em 1719 Paschoal Moreira Cabral subindo o Rio Coxipó Mirim, fundou á margem esquerda d’esta corrente uma povoação que denominou Forquilha, hoje a cidade de Cuyabá, onde naquelles tempos se descobriu uma rica mina de ouro.

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Em outros tempos, conforme Elysée Reclus, a vastissima região de Matto-Grosso era apenas, salvo uma estreita zona mediana, não mais que uma immensa solidão de limites indecisos e senão desconhecidos pelo menos ainda entregues aos indios e ás feras, a qual se ligava ao resto do Brasil por simples picadas de caçadores e pelos cursos dos rios que ali nascem. Realmente em outros tempos eram tamanhas as difficuldades de communicação do resto do paiz com Matto-Grosso, que ainda está na memoria de muitos e no conhecimento dos que leem as paginas da Historia do Brasil, a impossibilidade que tiveram as tropas reunidas nas provincias do littoral para irem soccorrer directamente seus compatriotas de Matto-Grosso, quando a nação brazileira teve de responder á declaração de guerra do Paraguay.

Com os mil estorvos da travessia, o corpo de exercito composto de 3000 homens que partiu em Abril de 1865 do Rio de Janeiro e que só poude organisarse em Uberaba, na bacia superior do Paraná, estava reduzido apenas a 700 homens quando chegou a ponto inatacavel e seguro.

Vencida, porem, a guerra com o Paraguay, não ha nenhuma duvida que a victoria do Brasil escancarou-lhe as portas de Matto-Grosso, pois que o declive natural do solo e o curso das aguas com a liberdade da navegação fluvial, garantida pelo triumpho, estabeleceu um serviço regular de paquetes do Rio de Janeiro a Corumbá e Cuyabá, pela via do Rio da Prata, passando por Montevideo, Buenos Ayres e Assumpção.

O caminho fluvial do Guaporé, Madeira e Amazonas foi muito utilisado no seculo XVIII, depois da exploração feita por Manoel de Lima em 1742. A navegação pelo Rio Guaporé até o Rio Madeira, até enfim Sto. Antonio, que é o ponto inicial da navegação d’este ultimo rio, é longa e cheia de fadiga.

Comtudo Matto-Grosso vae gradualmente se approximando do litoral do Brasil por meio de estradas de ferro, taes como a Noroeste do Brasil que ligal-o-á dentro em breve ao Rio de Janeiro e a estrada de ferro já projectada que partindo de S. Luiz de Caceres irá até a antiga cidade de Matto-Grosso, donde o rio Guaporé começa a ser navegavel até Guajará-Mirim, ponto terminal da grande via Madeira-Mamoré Railway.

Dentro de pouco tempo, como se vê, as estradas mixtas serão una realidade, comprehendendo rios navegaveis por vapores e os trechos de communicação entre estes rios. O Paranápanema e o Ivahy, nos Estados do Paraná e S. Paulo continuam para outro lado do rio Paraná subindo o Ivinhema e o Brilhante, até as visinhas montanhas de Miranda, na parte meridional de Matto-Grosso. As magnificas regiões de Matto-Grosso promettem ser de futuro, e futuro já bem proximo, um grande centro de povoamento, e conseguintemente um futuro foco de civilisação, pela provavel fusão dos diversos elementos de immigração que para alli certamente concorrorem com o correr dos tempos e a facilidade que forem apresentando cada vez mais os meios de communicação. Algures se disse, que a colonisação far-se-ha sem duvida pelo Sul, pelo lado do Paraguay e da Argentina; mas nos dias que correm, com a presença da Madeira Mamoré Railway, indubitavelmente a colonisação darse-á tambem pelo Norte, facilitada a communicação pelo Rio Amazonas, de que é um dos affluentes o Madeira, á margem direita do qual está Porto Velho, ponto inicial da mesma Madeira Mamoré Railway. E estes effeitos já se começam a produzir com a fundação de um novo Municipio e Comarca de Matto-Grosso, que é o Municipio de Sto. Antonio do rio Madeira, cortado pela referida via ferrea e a cuja região dedicaremos adiante um capitulo especial.

Já vae portanto se enchendo de população a extremidade da vertente septentrional do territorio de Matto-Grosso, postoque a da vertente meridional é realmente a que contem maior numero de habitantes.

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