From 1827 to 1852 the exports belong to Pará and Amazonas together. [Illustration: COLONEL ANTONIO CLEMENTE RIBEIRO BITTENCOURT Governor of the State of the Amazonas, Brazil] [Illustration: PORT OF MANÁOS] [Illustration: DR. MANOEL LOBATO Commissioner for the State of the Amazonas, Brazil, also of Matto Grosso and the Federal Territory of Acre] RUBBER IN THE STATE OF AMAZONAS General Ideas about the State. Progress in the Means of Transportation. Climatological Conditions. The State of the Amazonas is the largest one in the Brazilian Republic. Notwithstanding its well-known natural resources that are not limited, according to many persons, to the precious milk of the rubber tree—that wonderful tree of fortune—which is disputed by various producing centers, its vast territory is yet far from being completely and properly populated. The emigration currents towards that section have started lately, so that the population of hardly over two hundred thousand souls a few years ago, to-day is over six hundred thousand inhabitants, without any exaggeration. As such changes are taking place the conditions of life are being altered every day. It is true that there still prevails in the books of gay tourists who consider humbug as a condition of inexhaustible success, the impression that the native indians travel about half nude and armed with arches and arrows, chasing the lost Europeans through such outlandish regions of the world. The remark, however, is not based on real facts. The native Indians are not now to be found in very accessible places. The foreigner who lands in the Amazonas capital, for instance, may be sure that his habits and his civilization will not cause any fright. It is difficult to find among the natives who possess some education and means one who has not been through several European countries, especially France; so that as soon as the visitor lands he notices an atmosphere of modern improvements and all the novelty and gay spirit of Parisian life; the latest fashions are found at once in Manáos. The progress of that beautiful princess of the Rio Negro (Black River) is most remarkable, because it is at the most only twenty years. Until the proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, Manáos amounted to almost nothing. From 1889 to this date began its stupendous development, counting already over 60,000 inhabitants. [Illustration: A. W. STEDMAN, ESQ. Commissioner for the Commercial Association of the State of Manáos, Matto Grosso, and the Federal Territory of Acre, Brazil]