“Events that perhaps lacked a historian” - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 320

Figure 20.2. Pamari houseboats on the river.
They have been dislodged by intensive immigration or were absorbed by it. In 1852 Silva
Coutinho, advancing only as far as Huitanãa, passed fourteen villages from the mouth (today known
as Redenção) up to Canotama, which Manoel Urbano had tamed with help of the Pamiri Indians. In
1866, the director of Indian affairs, Gabriel Guimarães, reported only five partially stable directori-
as : Alto Purús, Ituxi, Tapuarua, Arima, amd Hiapuã. In that same year, remember, the president of
the province advanced his initiative for regular navigation. which finally was contracted to the Upper
Purús by the Amazon River Boat Company, with its maiden voyage up the Purús in 1869.
The populace, initially mobile, began to settle and organize: a customs collecting point established
in Canotama drew in revenues in 1867-68 of 692,647 pounds sterling, significant given that the in-
comeoftheentirePurúsfifteenyearsearlierwasbut1,214,827pounds. *6 AndfinallyinMarch1868,
an outpost of the provincial police was established.
Newpioneersappeared.CaetanoMonteiraandBonaventuraSantosadvancedupriverinthelaunch
Canavari to the most remote points of the river, and the daring frontiersman Leonel Joaquim de Al-
meidawasanadmirablemodelforthetoughCearenseswhowouldsoonfollowinhissteps. 32 Infact,
shortly thereafter, steam navigation was inaugurated, and a powerful wave of population washed up
on the Purús in an uninterrupted advance that has yet to stop—unyielding, undeflectable, committing
itself to the stable dominion of the lands through which it passes and is animated by a rhythm that
impels it forward to the furthest headwaters.
This movement, begun in 1870, had a guide, Colonel Antonio Rodrigues Pereira Labre. Ably as-
sisted by Manoel Urbano, who warmly received him in Canotama, the adventurous Maranhense soon
proceeded up the Purús, passing Huitanãa, the terminus of the incipient navigation of that time, and
went on to stake out the confluence of the Purús-Ituxi. At that point, on a bluff on the right side of
the river, he cleared a bit of forest and raised in one day a hut covered with palm thatch. He founded
a city. Lábrea grew quickly out of the wilderness, keeping his name and soon turning into the most
privileged entrepôt from which further conquest would advance.
In 1873 Brown and Lidstone were not surprised as they advanced up the Purús to constantly see
wispsofsmokefilteringthroughthefoliageoftheriparianforest,revealingdwellingswherelatexwas
being cured, and in the settlements of Mabidir and Sepantini, more than 2,092 km from the mouth,
they passed opulent estates, exporting 18,000-30,000 kg of rubber. In order not to be tedious, we will
not review every population expansion into the region, one of the most dynamic of our country, if not
of all Latin America.
Rigorous numbers will substitute for the most detailed description. As we mapped it, we chose the
moreremotepointsofthatgreatriverand,inastretchofone-tenthofitsenormousextensionof2,624
km,wenoteditwasexclusivelycolonizedbyBrazilians.Now,reviewingthistable,weseethatinthe
decade of 1873-83, the occupation extended up through to Triunfo Novo (2,212 km from the mouth)
propelled by indefatigable explorers such as Antonio Bacellar, Casinio Pereira Caldas, and Antonio
Leonel de Sacramento. In view of the development of the whole river, including the Acre, to whose
mouthsteamnavigationarrivedforthefirsttimein1878,asimplecomparisonwiththeexportsofthe
lastthreeyearswiththelastdecadeofexportsfromtheMadeirarevealsthatthePurúswasalreadythe
richest ofall rivers inthe Amazon, whether inrubber,Brazil nuts, copaiba oil, dried fish, sarsaparilla,
or cumuru oil.
This startling progress, except for a few insignificant interruptions, continued apace, at least in ref-
erence to rubber, where the Purús produced 1,950,000 kg in 1884, 1,648,000 in 1885, 1,967,000 in
1886, and 1,990,000 in 1887.