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The Empire Builders: A History of the Bolivian Rubber Boom and the Rise of the House of Suárez

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

J. Valerie Fifer
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Extract

Fascination with the history of the South American rubber boom never wanes. Its innate dramatic quality, the extraordinary touches of the bizarre which spice its narrative, and the ironic blend of climax and catastrophe which distinguish almost every aspect of its development have all proved sufficient guarantee against oblivion. Drawn by the curiosity of circumstances such as these, travellers have since penetrated the region to see for themselves the remains of former prosperity, and to marvel upon the strangely assorted flotsam of that great economic bonanza still left littered along the banks by the boom's swiftly retreating tide. A journey along the South American ‘rubber rivers’ is likely to tempt even the most phlegmatic observer to philosophize upon the vagaries of fortune in general—and upon Amazonia's experiences in particular.

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Articles
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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , November 1970 , pp. 113 - 146
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

1 The literature is scattered through many geographical, historical, scientific and technical journals and narratives.

Nineteenth-century classics include Edwards, W. H., A Voyage up the River Amazon, including a Residence at Pará (New York, 1847)Google Scholar; Wallace, A. R., A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Río Negro (London, 1853)Google Scholar; Bates, H. W., The Naturalist on the River Amazons (2 vols., London, 1863)Google Scholar; , L. J. R. and Agassiz, E. C., A Journey in Brazil (Boston, 1868)Google Scholar; Wickham, H. A., Rough Notes of a Journey through the Wilderness (London, 1872)Google Scholar; Brown, C. B. and Lidstone, W., Fifteen Thousand Miles on the Amazon and its Tributaries (London, 1878)Google Scholar; Mathews, E. D., Up the Amazon and Madeira Rivers, through Bolivia and Peru (London, 1879)Google Scholar; Smith, H. H., Brazil, the Amazons and the Coast (London, 1879)Google Scholar; Nery, F. J. de Santa-Anna, Le Pays des Amazones. L'El Dorado, Les Terres à Caoutchouc (Paris, 1885 and 1889)Google Scholar.

Early twentieth-century conditions, covering the period to the first world war, are recorded in Koettlitz, R., ‘From Pará to Manaos: a trip up the Lower Amazon’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 18 (1901), 11–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Church, G. E., ‘Acre Territory and the Caoutchouc Region of South-Western Amazonia’, Geographical Journal, 23 (1904), 596–613CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lange, A., ‘The Rubber Workers of the Amazon’, Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 43 (1911), 33–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Denis, P., Brazil (London, 1911)Google Scholar; Pearson, H. C., The Rubber Country of the Amazon (New York, 1911)Google Scholar; Tomlinson, H. M., The Sea and the Jungle (London, 1912)Google Scholar; Akers, C. E., Report on the Amazon Valley, its Rubber Industry and other Resources (London, 1912)Google Scholar; also, The Rubber Industry in Brazil and the Orient (London, 1914)Google Scholar; Bowman, I., ‘Geographical Aspects of the new Madeira-Mamoré Railway’, Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 45 (1913), 275–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roosevelt, Theodore, Through the Brazilian Wilderness (London, 1914)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woodroffe, J. F. and Smith, H. H., The Rubber Industry of the Amazon, and how its supremacy can be maintained (London, 1915)Google Scholar; Fawcett, P. H. (edit. Fawcett, B.), Exploration Fawcett (London, 1953)Google Scholar (also as Lost Trails, Lost Cities (New York, 1953))Google Scholar, with particular reference to expeditions into the rubber forests 1906–13.

Conditions in the 1920s and 1930s, the effects of the second world war, and accounts covering the period to the present day are variously recorded by Schurz, W. L., ‘The Distribution of Population in the Amazon Valley’, Geographical Review, 15 (1925), 206–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schurz, W. L., Rubber Production in the Amazon Valley (Washington, D.C., 1925)Google Scholar; H. and Wolf, R., Rubber, a Story of Glory and Greed (New York, 1936)Google Scholar; Mingay, R. G., ‘An Ill-Starred Jungle Railway’, Discovery, 18 (1937), 238–40Google Scholar; Field Reports of the United States Rubber Development Corporation, 1941–1945 (National Archives, Washington, D.C.); Rusell, J. A., ‘Fordlandia and Belterra, Rubber Plantations on the Tapajós River, Brazil’, Economic Geography, 18 (1942), 125–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Melby, J., ‘Rubber River: an account of the rise and collapse of the Amazon boom’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 22 (1942), 452–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baum, V., The Weeping Wood (London, 1945)Google Scholar; Netto, F. F., ‘The Problem of the Amazon’ Scientific Monthly, 61 (1945), 33–44 and 90–100Google Scholar; Bekkedahl, N., ‘Brazil's Research for Increased Rubber Production’Google Scholar, ibid., pp. 199–209; Higbee, E. C., ‘Of Man and the Amazon’, Geographical Review, 41 (1951), 401–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Murray, R. A., ‘The Two Brazils, II, The Amazonian North’, Geographical Magazine, 25 (1952–1953), 157–66Google Scholar; Linke, L., ‘Down the Changing Amazon’, Americas, 13 (02 1961), 7–12Google Scholar; McBride, B. S., ‘Down the Amazon’, Geographical Magazine, 35 (1962–1963), 463–78Google Scholar; Botting, D., ‘Manaus’Google Scholar, ibid., xxxix (1966–7), 434–47; ‘Amazonia, Problems and Promise’, The Christian Science Monitor, 01 3, 9, 17, 24, 31, 02 7, 14, 20, 1968Google Scholar; Collier, R., The River That God Forgot: the story of the Amazon rubber boom (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Furneaux, R., The Amazon, the story of a great river (London, 1969).Google Scholar

2 Specific references include de Rivière, H. Arnous, ‘Explorations in the Beni Province’, Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, 24 (1892), 204–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also ‘Explorations in the Rubber Districts of Bolivia’, Ibid., XXXII (1900), 432–40; Pando, J. M., Viaje a la Región de la Goma Elástica (Noroeste de Bolivia) (La Plata, 1894)Google Scholar; Tucker, Q., Seeking Rubber in Bolivia (Dorchester, Mass., 1908)Google Scholar; Ballivián, M. V. and Pinilla, C. F., Monografía de la Industria de la Goma Elástica en Bolivia (La Paz, 1912).Google Scholar

3 Rubber collectors. The Portuguese term will be used throughout.

4 The history of the Bolivia-Brazil boundary is variously reviewed in: Ganzert, F. W., ‘The Boundary Controversy in the Upper Amazon between Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, 1903–1909’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 14 (1934), 427–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ireland, G., Boundaries, Possessions, and Conflicts in South America (Harvard Univ. Press, 1938), pp. 40–53Google Scholar; and Fifer, J. V., ‘Bolivia's Boundary with Brazil: a century of evolution’, Geographical Journal, 132 (1966), 360–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Barraca (Spanish and Portuguese) usually signifies the dwelling of a rubber worker, and includes a number of estradas. These are winding pathways through the surrounding forest, each enclosing 150–200 rubber trees. Barraca can also denote a major collecting and supply centre for seringueiros based at smaller centros (centro gomero y agricola).

6 Keller, F. (Keller-Leuzinger), The Amazon and Madeira Rivers. Sketches and Descriptions from the Notebook of an Explorer (London, 1874), pp. 39–40Google Scholar. Josef and Franz Keller, father and son, were German engineers who had been commissioned by Brazil, after the 1867 Muñoz-Netto treaty with Bolivia, to survey the Madeira-Mamoré falls, and examine the feasibility of constructing a railway around them.

7 Semi-cylindrical blocks of wild rubber, each weighing approximately 120 lbs-220 lbs. They are shaped by the seringueiro who pours the latex over a stout rod or stick, which he slowly turns in the smoke of a small fire at his barraca. Smouldering urucuri nuts, or isigo or aguaí; woods are most commonly used for curing the rubber. When ready, the rod is eased out, and the bolacha is stored with others until the end of the season. This remains the traditional production method among seringueiros throughout Amazonia.

8 Pentland, J. B., ‘Report on Bolivia’, 2 12 1827Google Scholar, Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office Archives, Peru (F.O. 61), vol. 12.

9 Ricketts, C. M. to Canning, George, Lima, 27 12 1826, F.O. 61/8.Google Scholar

10 Herrara, F., ‘An official report (1827) on the river Beni, and the countries through which it flows’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 5 (1835), 99–101.Google Scholar

11 Church, G. E., The Route to Bolivia via the River Amazon. A Report to the Governments of Bolivia and Brazil (London, 1877).Google Scholar

12 Craig, Neville B., Recollections of an Ill-fated Expedition to the Headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil (Philadelphia and London, 1907).Google Scholar

13 Palacios, José Agustín, Exploración de los Ríos y Lagos del Departamento del Beni y en especial el Madera practicada de orden del Supremo Gobierno de Bolivia (La Paz, 1852).Google Scholar

14 Gibbon, L., Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1854)Google Scholar. (Vol. I, Herndon, W. M., 1853.)Google Scholar

15 Orton's earlier travels in South America are recorded in his own work The Andes and the Amazon; or, Across the Continent of South America (New York, 1876)Google Scholar. Reference to the Madeira-Mamoré falls, pp. 341–5.Google Scholar

16 An error in the entry for Orton, James in the Dictionary of American Biography (edit. Malone, D.), 14 (New York, 1934), 64–5Google Scholar, should be noted here. Orton's companion on the Beni expedition is mistakenly named as Edwin Heath instead of Ivon Heath, of whom no mention at all is made. Reference to this source by other writers has perpetuated the confusion between the two brothers.

Reference to Ivon Heath, however, is made, for example, by Clements R. Markham, Secretary and later President of the Royal Geographical Society, in his lecture delivered to the Society on 9 April 1883, and subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (New Series), 5 (1883)Google Scholar, under the title ‘The Basins of the Amarumayu, and the Beni’, 313–27. See p. 323.Google Scholar

17 Edwin Heath's diary, map and original surveys made during his voyage down the Beni river were sent by him to the Royal Geographical Society, London, in 1882. Extracts from the diary were read to the Society and these, together with a map, were subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (New Series), 5 (1883), 327–41Google Scholar, under the title of ‘Exploration of the River Beni in 1880–1’. Extracts were also published in the Journal of the American Geographical Society, New York, 14 (1882), 117–65Google Scholar. In Bolivia, the diary was later translated and annotated by Ballivián, M. V., La Exploración del Río Beni, revista histórica por el doctor Edwin R. Heath (La Paz, 1896)Google Scholar. See also Ballivián's short summary, Apuntes para la biografía de Mr Edwin R. Heath (La Paz, 1897).Google Scholar

18 Heath acted as Bolivian Consul in Kansas City, Mo., for the remainder of his life. London, Royal Geographical Society Archives, Correspondence from E. R. Heath to the President of the Society, Kansas City, 16 Aug. 1895 and April 1911. The second letter was in response to an error made by P. H. Fawcett during his lecture to the Society on 13 Feb. 1911 (a lecture subsequently printed in the Geographical Journal, vol. 37)Google Scholar in which he had stated that the river Heath was named after ‘an English explorer killed there by the savages’. E. R. Heath protested that he was alive, American and personally unacquainted with the river bearing his name. It had in fact been named in his honour by Colonel, later President, Pando of Bolivia, during exploration in 1892–3. Receipt of Edwin Heath's letter was noted in the Geographical Journal, 37 (1911), 681.Google Scholar

19 Riberalta was officially founded on this same site on 3 02 1894, with 252 inhabitants.Google Scholar

20 One interesting result of the cruceño migrations into the northern rubber forests is that, today, many of the tree species in the Pando retain names of Santa Cruz origin.

21 Foreign Office Lists.

22 Registered offices of the company were variously at 12 Fenchurch Street, E.C. 3; 158 Fenchurch Street, E.C. 3; 4–6 Copthall Avenue, E.C. 2; 69 Old Broad Street, E.C. 2; 24 Old Broad Street, E.C. 2.

23 Wooden boats, each about 30 feet in length and 8 feet in beam, which were assembled in fleets at each end of the falls section. (Spanish, batelón.)

24 F. Keller had written of the hazards in the period before the Bolivian rubber boom (when traffic was to increase so dramatically in volume and frequency): ‘Of the misery and annoyance of such repeated unloading and carrying of heavy chests … only he can form an idea who has seen this kind of “navigation” with his own eyes. Notwithstanding all this, packages of from 500 to 600 lbs are sometimes transported to Bolivia in the same covers in which they came from Pará; and I was told that even pianos have been thus conveyed, and—wonderful to relate—have arrived entire at Sierra, Santa Cruz de la' Op. cit., p. 57.Google Scholar

25 The Territorio de Colonias became the Department of Pando in 1938.

26 Travellers would speak appreciatively of the hospitality received at Dr Vaca Diez' home at the mouth of the Orton river. See, for example, Col. Labré, A. R. P., ‘Colonel Labré's Explorations in the region between the Beni and the Madre de Dios rivers and the Purus’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (New Series), 11 (1889), 496–502Google Scholar. Others, while acknowledging liberal hospitality, had some reservations. H. H. Rusby, a North American pharmacist employed by Parke, Davis & Co. of Detroit, descended the Beni, Madeira and Amazon rivers during his 1885–7 botanical expedition on behalf of the company. Writing later of this period in Jungle Memories (New York and London, 1933)Google Scholar, Rusby recalled that ‘the most noted of the rubber collectors of the Beni was Dr Vaca Diez who, because of the dominating nature of his personality, and his arrogant assumption of control, had come to be commonly referred to as the “King of the Beni”’ (p. 309)Google Scholar. Reference to Suárez is brief, and is confined to the Suárez portage control-point at the Theotonio Fall on the Madeira river. Conversation recorded there (p. 328)Google Scholar is most likely to have been with Gregorio Suárez. Of the many barraca-owners encountered by Rusby, however, Antenor Vázquez was remembered with the greatest affection and esteem (pp. 271–328, passim).Google Scholar

27 Diez, Antonio Vaca, Vías de Comunicación en el Noroeste de la República (La Paz, 1893)Google Scholar; idem, Propuesta de Víns de Comunicación en el Oriente Boliviano (La Paz, 1893)Google Scholar and idem, El Río Orton y su colonización (Orton, 1894).

28 El Istmo de Fitscarrald (Fiscarrald, Fizcarrald), La Junta de Vías Fluviales (Lima, 1903). Text and surveys.Google Scholar

29 Vías del Pacífico al Madre de Dios, La Junta de Vías Fluviales (Lima, 1902), p. 93.Google Scholar

30 London, British Board of Trade Registration No. BT31/7224/51078. Registered office at 15–16 George Street, Mansion House, E.C. 4. 4,278 estradas (each containing approximately 150 rubber trees) were specifically registered—2,878 on the Orton river, 900 on the Tahuamanu, and 500 on the lower Beni.

31 El Istmo de Fitscarrald, op. cit., pp. iv–v and 152–3.Google Scholar

32 Fernandez, H. Sanabria, En Busca de Eldorado (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 1958), pp. 70–1Google Scholar. Nevertheless, this study provides an interesting account of Santa Cruz, its people, and life in the Bolivian Oriente.

33 British Board of Trade Registration No. BT34/1292/51078. Liquidation of the company began July 1901 and was completed July 1910. In 1901, the Directors of The Orton (Bolivia) Rubber Co. Ltd. had included Nicolás Suárez and Oswaldo Vaca Diez.

34 London, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, Burial Records, 13 02 1897Google Scholar. Francisco Suárez had moved to a new house in West Hampstead in 1891; see the Rate Books of the Vestry of the Parish of St. John, Hampstead. Over the next twenty years, a number of additional properties were purchased there by the Suárez family, in Compayne Gardens and Priory Road, and this area became the centre of the small Bolivian colony in London; Rate Books of the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead, 1901–25.

35 Memoirs and commentaries upon events which culminated in the Acre campaign are readily available, from Brazilian, Bolivian and foreign viewpoints, e.g. the selected writings of Baron do Rio Branco, who was Brazilian Foreign Minister 1902–12: Obras do Barão do Rio-Branco. Questões de Limites (9 vols., Ministério das Relaçōes Exteriores, Rio de Janeiro, 1945–1948)Google Scholar. See vol. v, 1–41; Sagárnaga, E., Recuerdos de la Campaña del Acre de 1903: mis notas de viaje (La Paz, 1909)Google Scholar; Acha, J. Aguirre, De los Andes al Amazonas, recuerdos de la campaña del Acre (2nd ed., La Paz, 1927)Google Scholar; Suárez, N., Anotaciones y Documentas sobre la campaña del Alto Acre, 1902–1903 (Barcelona, 1928)Google Scholar. Large numbers of this famous black leatherbound book were distributed free by Nicolás. It was accompanied by a map of his campaign against the Brazilians (under Plácido de Castro) which the author compiled at Cachuela Esperanza in 1922. See also Ganzert, F. W., op. cit.Google Scholar; Ireland, G., op. cit.Google Scholar; and Tambs, L. A., ‘Rubber, Rebels and Rio Branco: the contest for the Acre’, H.A.H.R., 46 (1966), 254–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 It must be remembered that it was the astonishingly high prices being paid for rubber in the world market, not high output which was responsible for northern Bolivia's booming economy. Production figures of Bolivian rubber (estimated in tons) for the 1890–1915 period emphasize that output was always relatively small. (Up to, and including 1902, the Acre production is accredited to Bolivia): 1890 289 1896 1,121 1902 1,870 1908 1,786 1914 4,485 1891 339 1897 1,644 1903 1,297 1909 2,998 1915 5,055 1892 357 1898 3,100 1904 1,543 1910 2,486 1893 388 1899 2,102 1905 1,661 1911 3,696 1894 622 1900 3,434 1906 1,895 1912 4,080 1895 806 1901 3,404 1907 1,798 1913 5,143 During World War I, Bolivian rubber production averaged approx. 5,000 tons annually. Thus, although output increased between 1912–13 (when prices slumped) and 1919, the rubber boom, as such, was over. Production dropped to 2,000–3,000 tons annual average between the wars, and rose again to approx. 4,000 tons annually in World War II. Today, it averages about 1,400 tons a year. (Sources: The India Rubber World (New York), passim; Informe de la Comisión enviada por el Gobierno Norteamericano a estudiar la Riqueza Gomera de Bolivia, Schurz, W. L. (La Paz, 1927)Google Scholar; República de Bolivia Ministerio de Hacienda Dirección General de Estadística y Censos.)

37 Tambs, L. A., op. cit., p. 273.Google Scholar

38 This account of Gregorio's death, and of the events which followed it, is based on Nicolás Suárez' own description, recounted on many occasions to members of his family, and recorded by the writer in personal interviews with some of them.

39 By Post, C. J., a reporter for The India Rubber World (New York, 04 1905)Google Scholar. ‘What Rockefeller is in the world of oil, that is Suárez in rubber in Bolivia.’ Post visited Cachuela Esperenza in September 1904, but his article contains so many inaccuracies that, were it not for the inclusion of a pen-sketch of Nicolás, one could be forgiven for wondering whether Post ever met him at all. As Nicolás spoke only Spanish, communication between them may in fact have been minimal. Some later writers have relied heavily upon the article for background material.

40 Reminiscences of one such Swiss accountant, Leutenegger, Ernst, are recorded in his Menschen im Urwald. Ein Schweitzer erlebt Bolivien (Zurich, 1940)Google Scholar. They concern his first impressions and experiences in the early 1900s. Leutenegger became a barraca manager and subsequently, as a son-in-law of Nicolás Suárez, managed part of the Suárez ranching interests in the Beni.

41 In the issues of 22 Sept., 29 Sept., 6 Oct., 13 Oct. 1909. Also, subsequently, Hardenburg, W. E., The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise (London, 1912).Google Scholar

42 Gosling, Cecil to SirGrey, Edward, La Paz, 7 01 1912, F.O. 371/1301.Google Scholar

43 SirCasement, Roger to SirGrey, Edward, London, 8 03 1912, F.O. 371/1301.Google Scholar

44 Acting Secretary of State Huntington Wilson to Knowles, H. G., Washington, D.C., 26 12 1912Google Scholar, Records of the Department of State relating to the Internal Affairs of Bolivia (Washington, D.C., National Archives, Record Group 59).

45 Knowles, H. G. to Secretary of State P. C. Knox, La Paz, 28 03 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

46 Stangeland, C. E., Chargé d'Affaires, to Secretary of State P. C. Knox, La Paz, 29 04 1913Google Scholar, ibid.

47 Published as a Government Blue Book; ‘Correspondence respecting the Treatment of British Colonial Subjects and Native Indians employed in the collection of rubber in the Putumayo District, July 1910-June 1912’, Miscellaneous Parliamentary Papers, No. 8 (1912) [Cd. 6266] (London, 1912)Google Scholar. See also, Report and Special Report from the Select Committee on Putumayo, together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Appendices, ordered by The House of Commons to be printed, 5th June 1913 (2 vols., London, 1913)Google Scholar, and Thomson, N., The Putumayo Red Book (2nd ed., London, 1914).Google Scholar

48 A few hundred Japanese were hired by the American Rubber Co. and Inca Rubber Co. of Peru after 1905, and a proportion of these had migrated into northern and eastern Bolivia where they were employed on the Suárez estates. More importantly, however, they worked as market gardeners, fishermen or carpenters, and about 200 of these became resident in Riberalta at this period. Reference to Japanese immigration into Peru and Bolivia between 1900 and 1915 is made by Tigner, J. L., ‘The Ryukyuans in Bolivia’, H.A.H.R., 43 (1963), 206–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 Foreign Office Lists.

50 Published in The Times South American Supplement, 30 07 1912.Google Scholar

51 Largely on the basis of this public assurance, and in the absence of more positive evidence, the Foreign Office decided to accept the appointment of Pedro Suárez as Bolivian Minister in London in May 1913. ‘In the light of more conclusive evidence of Putumay-ism against the family, there seems to be no reason for objecting … to Suárez’ appointment', Memorandum of 17 09 1912, F.O. 371/1301.Google Scholar

52 Gosling, C. to SirGrey, Edward, ‘Report on a Journey on the Amazon, Madeira and Mamoré rivers, and through the rubber districts of Bolivia’, 22 12 1913, F.O. 371/1914.Google Scholar

53 Pedro died of yellow fever at Cachuela Esperanza, aged 19.

54 St. Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, Admission Registers.

55 Don Nicolás, the eldest child and longest surviving member of the Suárez family, now lives in La Paz.

56 British Board of Trade Registration No. BT31/18958/104431. 20,758 rubber estradas were specifically listed as Suárez property in 1909, as well as widespread ranch land, real estate, and river-boats on the Amazon, Madeira, Mamoré and Beni. The rubber lands alone amounted to 6,466,970 hectares (approximately 25,000 square miles).

57 The voluntary winding up of Suárez Hermanos & Co. Ltd. had in fact begun in 11 1912Google Scholar and a new company Suárez & Co. Ltd. been registered in 01 1914Google Scholar, with a nominal capital of £100,000, British Board of Trade Registration No. 133615.

58 Suárez Hermanos accounted for about 60 per cent of Bolivia's rubber output. Other firms exporting from Bolivia via the Amazon included: Alfredo W. Barber; Zeller, Villinger; Guillermo Demmer; Sociedad Comercial Matto Grosso y Bolivia; Komarek & Bruckner; Braillard; Société Picollet; Salvatierra; Anglo-Bolivian Rubber Estates. Trade connexions here were dominated by the European, especially the London market, until 1915 when for the first time the U.S.A. took the bulk of the output.

North American rubber interests in Bolivia were largely concentrated much farther west, e.g. The Chicago-Bolivian Rubber Co. at Sorata and Isapuri, and The Bolivian Rubber Co. of Baltimore (Maryland) near Apolo, exporting to the Pacific via Mollendo.

59 It was about the time of Suárez' last journey up the Amazon that, somewhat ironically, the river was beginning to acquire a cachet as a new attraction for the discriminating tourist, particularly in Europe. Cruises on the Hildebrand along the old ‘rubber river’ as far as Manaus, advertised lectures on board on both outward and homeward voyages, as well as an orchestra, games, dancing and a swimming pool. The popularity of the cruises increased considerably in the late 1920s and 1930s. The Booth Steamship Co. reprinted favourable reports on health conditions from The Lancet, and sought to allay anxieties about the climate. Indeed, the climate's notorious monotony (mean monthly temperatures at Pará and Manaus, 78°F and 80°F, vary by only 2°F throughout the year), was not without its advantages … the Booth Line recommended its June, July and August cruises with the bland assurance that ‘the climate on the Amazon in the summer is no warmer than in other months’.

60 Pearson, Henry C., founder and editor of The India Rubber World (New York)Google Scholar (founded as The India Rubber World and Electrical Trades Review in 1889)Google Scholar, had recorded in the Sept. 1910 issue of this journal that Nicolás Suárez was estimated to be worth U.S. $35–40 million. See also Pearson's, The Rubber Country of the Amazon (New York, 1911), p. 149.Google Scholar

61 Information here is based on interviews and discussions with various members of the Suárez family, with former employees, and with others having first-hand knowledge of the enterprise.

62 Many of the buildings at Cachuela Esperanza today lie deserted. The Brazil nut-cracking plant, however, has been taken over by another (European) merchant, who continues to operate the Suárez machinery, and to keep his accounts in printed ledgers still headed Suárez Hermanos. In addition, a small unit of Bolivia's Fuerza Naval, the river-patrolling force, is stationed at Cachuela Esperanza. The Lieutenant-in-Charge occupies Nicolás Suárez' former office, making use of the massive desk, chair, grandfather clock and other furniture imported from England by the patrón. On the wall hangs a large map of the waterways, trackways and river-side settlements of the Pando and northern Beni. It was constructed by Nicolás Suárez, and remains the most detailed map of this region ever produced.

63 Arias, N. Solares, Síntesis biográfica del Señor Don Nicolás Suárez (Cachuela Esperanza, 1951)Google Scholar; Oyola, V., Ultimos años de Don Nicolás Suárez (Riberalta, 1952)Google Scholar; Zavaleta, C. Arce and Lettelier, A., Informe sobre el Departamento Pando y provincia Vaca Diez (Beni) (La Paz, 1962)Google Scholar. These are short summaries, printed or typescript, for limited circulation only.