“The milk of the =ulequahuitl= is obtained by beating the tree with a small hatchet. The liquid is then seen to ooze out from the incision made like blood from a wound. The natives gather it into dry hollow gourds of various sizes. It gradually takes consistency in these receptacles, until it turns into a gummy mass, from which it is easy to adapt it to any form which may be required. “Those who have no gourds, besmear their bodies with the liquid substance, as it flows out from the tree; which in drying forms itself into a species of membrane, which is easily taken off and whose thickness varies according to the coating spread over the skin. Skins very much appreciated for their elasticity are made with this =ulli=. The ulli solidified serves for shields, which thus are proof against the sharpest-pointed arrows, owing without doubt to the pliability of the material, which does not affect its tenacity. “Kings and nobles habitually use shoes made of ulli. The Spaniards of Mexico, moreover, impregnate their capes with =ulli=, so as to make them water-proof, because it is proved that such substance resists water in a marvelous manner, but melts before the action of the sun.” [Illustration: COUNT CANDIDO MENDES DE ALMEIDA, President of the Federal Government of Brazil Commission.] In Mexico and Central America, the name of =Ule= still denotes even to-day one of the rubber trees known as the elastic Castille. After the Spaniards, the French in 1736 occupied themselves with that substance, whose interesting properties had not up to that date come to deserve the attention of the Europeans. De la Condamine sent by the French Government to Perú, in order to measure a degree of the terrestrial meridian, was the first to refer to the Hevea of the Guyana. In a note that accompanied a small sample of resinous gum of a heavy dark color, almost black, he said to the Academy of Sciences: “There grows in the forests of the province of the Esmeraldas a tree known to the natives by the name of Hevé; a white resinous liquid something like milk runs out from it after making an incision; this substance is collected in a leaf that is laid close to the foot of the tree and afterwards is exposed to the sun, when it gets black at first upon its surface and afterwards by continuous exposure to the sun becomes black in all its mass. Torches, which burn admirably well, are made from it. It is known in Quito, that that tree grows also upon the banks of the Amazon and that the Mainas call it cautchú. They make earthen moulds in the form of bottles and cover them with that material. Afterwards when the resin gets hard, they break the mould and thereby obtain unbreakable water-jars much lighter than glass bottles.”