Rough Notes of a Journey Through the Wilderness, from Trinidad to Para, Brazil By Way of the Great Cataracts of the Orinoco, Atabapo, and Rio Negro

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Sir Henry Alexander Wickham (1846-1928) is remembered for his role in bringing the seeds of the rubber tree in 1876 from Brazil to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where seedlings were successfully cultivated and then sent to Asia for the establishment of commercial plantations. Wickham later styled his actions in collecting some 70 000 seeds as a tale of botanical smuggling, though at the time such action was not illegal. Skilled as a self-publicist, he enjoyed the great acclaim of the rubber industry as it burgeoned in British colonies abroad.

This account, first published in 1872, is of Wickham's earlier travels in South America. The first part of the work traces his journey by river into the continent, recording his observations on rubber cultivation in Brazil. The second part describes his time among the indigenous peoples who lived on the Caribbean coast of Central America.

Contents

Part I. Rough Notes of a Journey through the Wilderness:
1. Starting
2. Cutipita
3. Mura raudales
4. Iguana camp
5. Jovito hill
6. A moonlight start
7. Increase of rain
8. Maroa and its vicinity

Part II. A Journey among the Woolwa or Soumoo Indians of central America:
1. Impressions of St Lucia
2. The Woolwa river
3. Starting for the Rama branch
4. Temple's explanation
5. Starting for Consuelo
6. Return to the coast
7. Continuation of journey to Blewfields
8. A prayer-meeting at Hawl-over
9. The old Soukier

Report on the industrial classes in the provinces of Pará and Amazonas

Customer Reviews