The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-09-15
The Great India Rubber Emporium.


AND AFFORD FIFTEEN THOUSAND MILES
OF MANAGEABLE WATERS.
Especial Correspondence of the journal.
PARA, BRAZIL, Aug. =, 1892. There is
an old Portuguese saying concerning this
world renowned rubber market which
stares us in the face at every turn and
runs as follows:
QUEEN Wien para Para, parou;
QUEEN behen Assai, ticou.
Freely translated, it signifies to the effect
that whoever comes to Para desires to
STAY whoever drinks Assai cannot get
away 1t is lettered above the doors of
saloons painted on signboalds, carved on
stone bridges; and in our case, as in that
of most visiting foreigners, the first line
of it at least is true, though not on ac-
count of the magical virtues OF -Assai. 1t
may as well be explained right here that
Assai is the national beverage OF Brazil,
leo. the name being that OF a certain
species Of aim from whose dark, plum
like fruit. a mild. notwithstanding sort
OF shelbet is made by rubbing the pulp
through sleeves into jars of water. There
are aS>ai- stands at every step in all the
streets OF tie city, and the natives never
lire Of the sweetish, lullewarm stuff,
which is drank on the spot, served in
small. round gourdshells. at the rate of
twenty refs, (about on cent? per gourd.
The tull name OF this rubber emporium
is santa Maria do b lem do Gram Para :;
bur III this busy nineteenth century no
body has time to say it all. The outer
world has shortened it to Para, (pro
nounced Pah- rall. with the accent heavy
on the last syllable); but Brazilians, who
insist on other than the modern geo.
graphical names for all their cities,-as
Pelnambuco is called ''Recife,H Bahia,
san Salvador. and SO on to the end of the
ohapter-put it down on their charts and
maps as Balem. As a city, its history
dates back to the year in which Shakes
peare died 1616), when Don Francesca
Caldeira erected the queer old fort whose
foundations still remain. with the inten-
ton of closing the Amazon river for all
time TO come against foreigners, multi
trdes OF whom had already begun to trade
with the tribes OF its upper waters. For
Para is not seaport, as is generally sup
posed, but is situated eighty miles above
the ocean on the mighty Amazon - or
rather ON one Of the several 'nouths'' of
this hydra-like Father of Waters. that is
called the Rio do Gram Para. At this
point several lesser rivers flow into the
larger one, and the city is built upon a
long, harrow peninsula formed by the de
bUuchment OF two of them, its extensive
anchorage almost completely landlocked
by densely wooded islands,
To reach Para from PeInambuco you
may take an American steamel-one of
the United States and Brazilian Mail 5. $
line bound for New York, with cargo of
coffee and sugar picked up at Eio de ia
metro. Bahia and Pernambuco-and for
tive days enjoy the luxury OF hearing
again from your own veInacuar. with the
doubtful advantage OF Yankee food, in
Guiding pie three times day. BY the
way, when Cape Saint Rogue was rounded,
It few hours out from Pelnamhuco we We're
reluctantly compelled, by the Captain 5
chart and all the maps on board, assisted by
our own visual organs, to admit that the
|,
ing that Saint Rogue is the most easternly
point OF South America. Cape Saint Au-
gustine, half degree to the southwark,
ought properly to enjoy that distinction.
The latter point was that first sighted by
Europeans on the southern continent-by
l'incon in the year 1900. To the right OF
it, but invisible except on the clearest OF
days is the tiny island of Fernando de
Noronlla, Brazil $ penal colony-a mere
barren rock amid a waste of waters, more
than Il hundred miles from the main land.
You do not need to be informed whe.
the good ship turns into the Atlantic, fol
its turbid chocolate colored tide utterly
refusing to mix with that OF the Atlantic
tells its own story, and the voyager while
Yet far out of sight OF land on the boist-
rous ocean, may actually dip up fresh
water. Its southern mouth called the
Rio do Gram Para and APPLY described by
joaquin Miller as Dark and Dreadful
wide like an ocean. much like a river bu1
more like d sea, separates toencircle the
great island of Marajo. which is larger
than the whole State of New York, witt
towns and rich plantations along its shores
and an uneXplored forest in the interior
III is difficult to conceive OF the enormous
extent of this greatest river Of the world
with its tangled network of tributaries
channels, density wooded islands, lakes
and creeks, which penetrate every coun-
Try of South America except Chill ant
Patagonia, and has been likened by some
travellers to a vast archipelago and by
others dubbed the Mediterranean Of the
Western Hemisphere. Rising as it does
within sixty miles of the Pacific, it crosse,
the continent to the Atlantic, and with it.
attluents furnishes more than fifty thou
sand miles OF navigable water, hal