Remember the Rainforest 1

Home

Expedition Index

Itinerary

Etchings

Maps

Plants

Animals

People / Scenes

Green Girl's Eco Club

Lessons

Free Posters

Authors / Artists

Contact us

In the year 1769 (according to Pizarro, "Memoirs of Rio de Janeiro", Vol. IX, page 11), there were exported to Para 85,963 gold octaves or 116: 050 $ 725, valued at eighths to 1 $ 350; in 1770, the value of 41: 270 $ 000 was exported there (in the same year, exports to Rio de Janeiro rose to 142: 4ll $ 8, and to Bahia, 101: 351 $ 250). There is still exported from there, as the main products of the province of Mato Grosso: some sugar of good quality,

Sugar plantation

coarse cotton,

Indian-made objects,

tamarind pulp,

Maranhao carnation,

pixurim fava beans,

and also gemstones in contraband.

With the scarce population of the province, which prevents the production of articles of industry, gold continues to be the most important object of export. It is estimated that, from Belem do Para to the mouth of the Madeira in the Amazon, ships have to travel 270 leagues; thence to the first waterfalls, 186; from there to the junction of Guapore with Mamore, 103; hence to Vila Bela, 205 - a total, therefore, of 764 leagues.

For this colossal voyage, a loaded canoe, usually spent nine to ten months. More than a third of the time, it is used in surmounting the waterfalls, some of them, difficult for small empty canoes, the more so for the great boats.

In the falls of Teotonio,

Jerau,

Pederneira,

Madeira,

and Bananeira,

the cargoes have to be unloaded, and if the water level is not very favorable, the canoes are also carried forward on wooden rails. The passage, which they thus travel is 160 bracas, at the very least. The favorable season to overcome these falls is in the quarter from July to September, when the river has little water; however, even then many passages can offer great difficulties, if the river is empty, and the boats must be pulled forward in tow, over the rough rocks. In the height of the flood, it is too painful to navigate, not so much because of its own waterfalls, but due to the violent currents existing between them.

In the following months, travelers are often subjected to intermittent fevers, dysentery, and diarrhea as a result of the tiresome efforts. As well as the plague of mosquitoes and intolerable pests in many places, from Borba upriver, where the favorable east wind ceases, the resources of the settler are precarious, and there is fear of an assault by Indians, even in spite of their apparent friendly disposition; the merchants are absolutely right, when they prefer the safer voyage of four to five months, by land, to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, to these long river journeys, exposed to so many setbacks. The government did not fail to encourage the ease of communication there, so much so that it established a troop detachment in the waterfall of Teotonio,

to protect navigation and provide travelers with food, also acquired in Borba (it is estimated, for each man, five arrobas of cassava flour, in addition to the daily fish meal); nevertheless, it was abandoned because the frequency of travelers was rare there and the influx of hostile Indians was great. Recently a similar post was installed at Ribeirao. In this century commercial traffic between Mato Grosso and Para diminished,

States of Brazil

not only because of the importance of Rio and Bahia as commercial cities, and because of the establishment of competing merchants, from whom they could receive supplies in half the time. But trade also increased rapidly, especially since the large investments, which are necessary for an expedition to Para, with the declining production of the mines in Mato Grosso, became increasingly rare.

As soon as the settlement, becoming more important, occupied the fertile regions of Madeira, there will undoubtedly be a means of circumventing the waterfalls by suitable channels, and then a brilliant prospect for trade will have opened up in that territory. In the preceding century, one would have expected a great increase in the settlement of this deserted basin if the rich gold mines of the Jamari River or other tributaries had been discovered. Nowadays, however, one thinks more wisely about this; the illusions about the great profits of mining have been discarded (it is estimated that a gold miner can average only 600 cruzados per week or 31 $ 200 a year on average, while crop yield, sugar cane, amounts to 50 $ 000 or 70 $ 000, and only overpopulation of the rivers may be able, over time, to provide workers for the fertile, but deserted, fields of the Madeira.

306