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Cornugaya Directory 10
Page 06
I know too well that on expeditions it is fatal to halt anywhere;
therefore I was anxious to push on at once. The night before our
departure Mr. Barretto gave a grand dinner-party in my honour, long
speeches being read out by him and his assistant, when we sat down on
rough wooden benches and packing-cases to a most elaborate meal of fried
fish, grilled fish, boiled fish, tortoise eggs--quantities of
them--stewed pork and roast pork. A whole sucking-pig adorned the table.
The greatest happiness reigned that night at table, and I owe a deep debt
of gratitude to Mr. Barretto for his exquisite kindness during the two or
three days I was his guest. My men were also asked to the banquet, and
had a good fill. But I felt extremely sad, quite broken-hearted, over the
loss of the fossils, and I could really enjoy nothing notwithstanding
outward appearances.
It was impossible to get labour up that river. The few _seringueiros_,
chiefly negroes who were there in absolute slavery, had been led and
established by their masters up the river, with no chance of getting
away. Their masters came, of course, every year to bring down the rubber
that had been collected. Twenty times the quantity could easily be
brought down to the coast if labour were obtainable. Not only was the
Juruena River itself almost absolutely untouched commercially--as we have
seen, we did not meet a soul during the fifty days we navigated it--but
even important tributaries close to S. Manoel, such as the Euphrasia, the
Sao Thome, the Sao Florencio, the Misericordia, and others, were
absolutely desert regions, although the quantity of rubber to be found
along those streams must be immense. The difficulty of transport, even on
the Tapajoz--from the junction of the two rivers the Juruena took the
name of Tapajoz River--was very great, although the many rapids there
encountered were mere child's play in comparison with those we had met
with up above. In them, nevertheless, many lives were lost and many
valuable cargoes disappeared for ever yearly. The rubber itself was not
always lost when boats were wrecked, as rubber floats, and some of it was
generally recovered. The expense of a journey up that river was enormous;
it took forty to sixty days from the mouth of the Tapajoz to reach the
_collectoria_ of S. Manoel. Thus, on an average the cost of freight on
each kilo (about 2 lb.) of rubber between those two points alone was not
less than sevenpence or eightpence.
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