by Joe Jackson
But there were many others. Gil’s sister Maxie was the best shipboard cook anyone could hope for. Expatriate Steven Alexander, owner of the Bosque Santa Lucia nature preserve at Piquiá-tuba, where the Wickhams first settled, was invaluable for his vast knowledge of rain-forest flora and fauna. Regional historian Cristovão Sena revealed the hidden history of Fordlandia. Eric Jennings, descendant of confederado Elizabeth Vaughan, was a font of knowledge concerning his wayward American ancestors. Fellow explorers are always appreciated when setting off into the unknown. In this case, Alyhana Hamad, Deyna Cavacánta, and José Eduardo Siqueiria (better known as Ze) braved the logging trails of the forest to find the hidden route to Taperinha. And I would be remiss if I left out hotelier James Murray, owner of the Amazon Shamrock Inn, who connected me with Gil Serique and Steven Alexander in the early stages of my research.
In Fordlandia, I’m grateful to Doña America Labita, Doña Olinda Pereira Branco, and Biamor Adolfo de Sousa Passoa for opening their homes and explaining the realities of life as Henry Ford tried to tame the rain forest. In Belterra, Divaldo Alves Marques ushered us through the twilight of Ford’s ambition, while rubber tapper Raimondo Mirando Lopez, eighty-three years old, graciously provided a crash course in the art of the seringueiro. In Boim, regional historian and author Elisio Eden Cohen unveiled the hidden history of Wickham’s seed theft, probably doing more to clear up this first modern act of biopiracy than the legions of other commentators I’d read. And Cohen’s daughter, fourteen-year-old Herica Maria, was kind enough to show a nosy stranger the basket she’d woven—a basket whose design had been passed down through the generations and was the same as those used to carry seventy thousand stolen rubber seeds from the heart of the Amazon to the greenhouses of Kew.
To comprehend such travels, one needs a framework of theory and history. At times like this, archivists and librarians are a writer’s best friend. Christopher Laursen, Science and Technology Librarian at the University of Akron, started the ball rolling for me with the depth of his knowledge amidst what is probably the best collection of rubber-related material in the United States. Elaine Donnelly, a fellow traveler from my teenage years and now an archivist at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., provided sources on the far-flung lands of Wickham’s exile. David Steere, senior reference librarian at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, opened the door to a wealth of research. Steve Sinon, head archivist at the New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library, provided access to the Warren Dean papers and to the botanical lore of Amazon rubber. In England, Michelle Losse at the archives of the Royal Botanical Gardens-Kew and Rachel Rowe, Smuts Librarian in South Asian and Commonwealth Studies at the University of Cambridge, were gracious and patient guides through the vast botanical and colonial collections of both libraries. Especially helpful was David Clover at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London: Thanks to him, I was able to relocate Violet Wickham’s memoir of life with her difficult husband, an unpublished manuscript that had been buried in the files of the B.F. Goodrich Company for half a century.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to develop a kind of personal brain trust of friends and professors at Virginia Wesleyan College in Virginia Beach, Virginia, close to where I live. They’ve helped me in past projects, and this time was no different. Paul Resslar, Batten Professor of Biology and world traveler, actually handed me the subject of this volume on a silver platter when we were talking over dinner about biopiracy and the Amazon. “Why don’t you write about Henry Wickham, who smuggled seventy thousand rubber seeds out of the Amazon and killed their economy?” he asked as I passed the shrimp risotto. Friends should be careful with their casual remarks: This one sent me into the heat and mad hornets of the Amazon Valley, the subway bombings in London, and the automated Metro nightmare of Washington, D.C. Susan Wansink, Professor of German and French, guided me through the B-movie translation of Kautschuk, a forgotten German potboiler of the 1930s. This was matinee fare, like Jungle Jim or Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, but what it lacked in art was made up by transparent national aspiration, an important point I wouldn’t have seen without Susan’s help.
John Loadman deserves special mention of his own. A former analytical chemist with the Natural Rubber Producers’ Research Association, the research arm of the Malaysian Rubber Board, he turned himself into a world-class expert on the history of natural rubber. Today he maintains the Web site www.bouncingballs.com. a starting point for everything connected to natural and synthetic rubber, and in 2005 Oxford University Press published his Tears of the Tree: The Story of Rubber—A Modern Marvel. The man is an encyclopedia of rubber-related information, and he helped me several times as I wrote this book. I’m indebted to him.
I’m also indebted to Anthony Campbell, his mother Sallie Campbell, and their relatives Hubert Mitchell and Peter Lendrum. All are related to Wickham through a separate branch of the family tree. I’d been unable to find a photo of Henry and Violet Wickham while they were young, and without this I was having a hard time envisioning my main characters. Anthony and his mother were gracious enough to lend me their collection for this book. They and the others had stumbled upon the Santarém group photo and Wickham’s sketch of five graves, among other treasures, while rummaging through some old family files. In addition, Anthony Campbell traced the lineage of his illustrious ancestor and was nice enough to provide it, too. Jenepher Allen and David Allen Harris appeared late in the game with the unpublished autobiography of great uncle Arthur Watts Allen, a distant relative of Wickham’s. Allen’s “The Occupational Adventures of an Observant Nomad” helped piece together a few mysteries of Wickham’s years on the Conflict Islands. All helped me understand my subject immeasurably better.
Finally, I must thank those who keep me going and deal with me day by day. Wendy Wolf and Ellen Garrison, my editors at Viking Penguin, believed in and nurtured this little globe-trotting project, even as its scope expanded. Noah Lukeman, my literary agent, helps keep the bill collector at bay and has always been a valued sounding board and friend. And, as always, my love and gratitude go out to my wife Kathy and son Nick, who endure my transitory moods and do the happy dance with me whenever the latest project is safely put to bed.
PHOTO CREDITS
Insert page
Top: Henry Wickham, 1899. Courtesy of Sally Campbell. Bottom: Henry Ford, 1934. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Top: Henry Wickham’s sketch of Hevea brasiliensis, leaf, seed pod, and seed. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Bottom: Wickham’s sketch of the graves outside Santarém. Courtesy of Sally Campbell.
Top: Group photo, Santarém, 1875. Courtesy of Sally Campbell. Bottom: Henry’s sketch of Violet Wickham at the first camp outside Santarém. Courtesy of Sally Campbell.
Top: Tapping a rubber tree on the Orinoco. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Middle: Smoking rubber in Brazil. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Bottom: Wickham’s rancho on the Orinoco. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Top: Charles Goodyear, discoverer of the vulcanization process. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Middle: Joseph Dalton Hooker, second director of Kew Gardens. Courtesy of the British Library. Bottom: Sir Clements Markham. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
A rubber tree in Belterra, with tappers’ scars. Author’s collection.
Top: Taperhina plantation house. Author’s collection. Bottom: Taperhina, from the heights. Author’s collection.
Top: Henry Wickham standing by the oldest tree in Ceylon, 1905. Courtesy Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library. Middle: Portrait of Sir Henry Wickham, after his knighthood and shortly before his death. Courtesy of Sally Campbell. Bottom: One of the original seeds brought from the Amazon. Courtesy of Sally Campbell.
INDEX
Acré territory
Acuna (Jesuit Priest)
Africa:
British explorers in
European colonization in
rubb
er from
Agassiz, Elizabeth
Agassiz, Louis
agouti
aguardiente
Agumaita, Brazil, hevea trees of
Akron, Ohio, rubber manufacturing in
aldeira
Alexander, Steven
Allen, Arthur Watts
Allen family
alligators
alpacas
Amazonas, SS
Amazon Basin:
as biological resource
dangers of
deforestation in
fertility of
geographical range of
population levels in
rain forest coverage of; see also tropical forests
recent climate changes in
resource extraction cycles in
rubber production in, see Brazilian rubber trade
soil fragility of
Amazon River:
drainage area of
flow rate of
Indian name for
length of
Orinoco system linked to
steam navigation on
tributaries of
Amazon Steam Navigation Company
anacondas
Anderson Warehouses
Anis (Yucatán governor)
Antarctica, British exploratory voyage to
antipodes
Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society
ants
Arana, Julio Cesar
Archer, T. W.
arghan (Bromelia magdalemae) (Colombia pita fiber) (silk grass)
Argyll, George John Douglas Campbell, Duke of
Arigua
army caterpillars
Arthur
assembly lines
Atures, Venezuela
Aublet, Jean Baptiste Fusée
Australia, see Queensland, Australia
automobile industry
Aveiro, Brazil
aviadors
Ayrton, Acton Smee
Aztecs
Azulay family
balatá
balde
Balfour, J. H.
balsam
banana plantations
Banham, G. S.
Banks, Joseph
Barbados, escaped slaves from
barracão
basketry
Bates, Henry Walter
on fire ants
on piquiá trees
on piranha
in Santarém area
bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber)
beer, rubber added to
bejucas
Belém, Brazil, see Pará (Belém), Brazil (city)
Belgium, Congo rubber production controlled by
Belize City, British Honduras -47n
Belize Estate and Produce Company
Bell, Alexander Graham
Bellamy, J.
Belt, Thomas
Belterra
Benacio (Venezuelan worker)
Bentley, Holman
Benz, Carl
Berbice
Bernhardt, Sarah
B. F. Goodrich Company
bicycles
Bierce, Ambrose
biopiracy:
of cinchona
current Brazilian fears of
ethics of
international law on
moralistic justification of
of rubber -43n
Birch, Samuel
birds, tropical:
Crystal Palace exhibition of
plumage collected from
see also specific tropical birds
blackbirders
blackflies
Boa Vista, Brazil
Fordlandia replacement of
Boer War
Boim, Brazil
hevea from highlands behind
Jesuit history of
location of
river traffic at
rubber trade in
Sephardic Jewish traders of
Bolívar, Simon
Bolivia
rubber from
Bonpland, Aimé
boobies
Borbon, Venezuela, confederado settlement at
Borneo, rubber grown in
borracha
botany:
economic
professional status in
botflies
Braga, Eduardo
Brazil:
British economic influence in
coffee biopiracy of
current biopiracy fears in
customs regulations of
independence of
international slights felt by
Jewish merchants in
land ownership in
navy of
North-American plantation projects in
political stability of
Portuguese presence in
slavery in
soy cultivation in
state rivalries within
territorial boundaries of
Brazilian rubber trade:
best source areas of
biopiracy efforts and ; see also biopiracy, of rubber
Boom periods in
British plantation production vs.
credit overextended to
decline of
economic benefits from
export levels of
labor oppression in
Manaus as center of
plantations in
as principal source of raw rubber
professional hierarchy within
sugarcane in
Brazil (Pará) nuts
Brazil nut tree, (castanheira)
brazilwood
British Empire, see Great Britain
British Guiana
British Honduras
capital city of
farming stifled in
logging industry of
progressive governor vs. plantocracy of
settlement of
sunken treasure sought near
territory of
Victoria peak in
Yucatán Maya conflict with
British Honduras Company
British Rubber Growers’ Association
Bromelia magdalemae (arghan)
(Colombia pita fiber) (silk grass)
Bruce, Sir Charles
Buckup, Paulo
Bull, William
Burma, rubber cultivation in
Burton, Sir Richard
buzzards
Cabanas, War of
cablanos
cable cars
caboclos
cacau
cachaca
Cadman, Joseph
calabash (tutuma)
California, wagon trains to
campos
candiru (toothpick fish)
cannibalism
caoutchouc
capitalism
Caraval, Gaspar de
Cargill, Inc.
Carib tribe
Caripune Indians
Carnegie, Andrew
Carpodinus
Carter, Patty
Carter, William H. J.
Caruso, Enrico
Caryocar villosum
cascarilla roja
Casement, Roger
Casiquiare canal
cassava
castanheira (Brazil nut tree)
Caste War, of Yucatán Peninsula
Castilla elastica (Panama rubber tree)
Castilloa elastica (Ule)
Castries, St. Lucia
Castro (governor of Amazonas)
catfish
cattle ranches
caucho
caudillos
Caura River
Cayce, Edgar
Cayla.
cayman
Ceará rubber plants (Manihot glaziovii)
cenate
centipedes
Ceylon (Sri Lanka):
coffee blight in
gutta-percha from
Hevea seedlings brough
t to
rubber plantations of
Chalmers, James
Chanel No.
Channel Cable
Chan Santa Cruz
Chapman, William
Charles I, King of Great Britain
Chávez, Ricardo
chibéh
chiggers
cholera
Chontales Mining Company
Christianity
British imperial mission and
Jesuit priests and
Church, George
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
cidade
cinchona
biopiracy of
Dutch cultivation of
name of
yellow-bark variety of
ciringal (seringal)
Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
Civil War, U.S.:
Latin-American settlements of refugees from, see confederados
rubber utilized in
clipper ships
Clitandra
cockatoo farmers
Cockscomb (Corkscrew) mountains
cocoa
coconut plantation
Cocos islands
coffee
Cohen, Elisio Eden
Cohen, Herica Maria
Cohen family
Collins, James
Colombia, rubber from
Colombian exchange
Colombia pita fiber (arghan) (Bromelia magdalemae) (silk grass)
Colón, Panama
Columbus, Christopher
Commerce, U.S. Department of
confederados
financial successes of
near Santarém
slave system backed by
in Venezuela
Conflict Islands
Congo Free State
Conrad, Joseph
consuls, British
Continental Kautschuk und Gutta Percha Co.
Coolidge, Calvin
coolie labor
copra
coral reefs
Cordingly, David
Corkscrew (Cockscomb) Mountains
Cortés, Hernando
cow-tree (Maceranduba)
Cramer and Company
Creoles
Cross, Robert
in cinchona theft effort
hevea collected by
Cross, William
Cruzob
Crystal Palace
cucurito palm
Cumane (Venezuelan Indian)
Cupari River
curiaras
Curuá rivers
curupira
cyanide