Imperialisms, Revolutions, and Resolutions in the Caribbean Amazon - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 112

Coudreau had carried out reconnaissance for governor of Pará (and da Cunha's
schoolmate) Lauro Sodré on the Amazon tributaries of the Xingu and the Tocantins-
Araguaiainthe1880sandhadmappedmuchoftheestuary,alongwiththeriversofMa-
rajó Island and its autonomous communities. It would be difficult to imagine anyone in
the European world who knew the Contestado better, and he, a quite glamorous figure,
was famous in European geographic and political circles. But the pro-France positions
and extensive colonization programs Coudreau was advocating for the Contestado were
extremely worrisome for Brazil, as was the gold rush. The huge number of Francophone
migrants—the population of the Calçoene alone had exploded by more than ten thou-
sand people—was a clear threat to Brazil's purported sovereignty. 98 The doctrine of uti
possedetis that had worked so effectively for Brazil in other boundary disputes might
backfire in this case.
“All the rivers seem to be auriferous”
With more gold strikes, the bucolic days of the Cunani were soon over. Gold seemed
to be everywhere: nugget-bearing rivers that transected the Contestado were suddenly
lined with commercial houses, and regatões , small commercial boats, plied the rivers
withtrinketsandnecessities,whiletheregionseemedonlytobelchupgoldineveryside
stream. The Calçoene region, however, was a becoming a flashpoint: French vessels in-
creasingly plied the river, and British boats loaded with foodstuffs used for ballast and
traded for rubber and gold dust. In 1895, an Englishman and an American, Mr. Har-
greaves and Mr. Cerdemn, resolved to start an agricultural colony with seventy men
transported on the Gazelle (they were turned back). 99 Both Brazil and French Guiana
wereupinarms,butwhatwasclearisthatbitbybittheregionasawholewasbecoming
“frenchified.” The Calçoene, once home to Brazilian fugitives, now teemed with popu-
lationsfromeveryFrenchcolonyandindenturedlaborfromAsia.TheentireContestado
seemed to be changing from a place of Afro-Brazilian refuge and rebellion into an out-
post of the French métropole . Adventurers (and adventuresses) from all over flocked to
the new Amazon Klondike. A French Guianan regional magistrate, Eugenio Voissien,
was placed in charge of Calçoene, as most of its gold went out through Cayenne, and he
began to prohibit the entrance of Brazilian mining in this zone. 100
TheBrazilianresponsewastocreateanadministrativetriumvirateheadedupbyViega
Cabral, Gonçalves Tocantins, and Antonio Coelho on the Amapá River, essentially in
defianceoftheneutralizationorders.TheythenplacedacustomsstationontheCalçoene
River, where they taxed materials coming from Cayenne at 10 percent. The response in
French Guiana was to appoint another magistrate of their choosing, Trajano Gonzales,
who was, after all, a black former Brazilian, to administer the French interests on the
Calçoene,andindeedgavehimthetitleCapitão-GovernadordoAmapá.Thistitleinfuri-