To-day it has comfortable homes, good and solid buildings of artistic architecture. Its port is perfectly fitted to receive the visits of the large transatlantic steamers, which places it in communication with the leading European ports. The navigation line for the United States, served by an English company, is not yet of the required progress to insure all the necessary comfort to the passengers who venture to undertake the long trip. Furthermore, it is served by steamers that do not possess the modern requirements of speed, which at present is of first interest not only for the passengers who look for a pleasure resort as well as for the intercourse of commercial relations with the world’s markets. That is the reason why the interchange between Amazonas and New York has been rather slow, which interchange could be of greater magnitude than it is to-day if there was a more intimate knowledge between the parties. I would not want to end this information about the capital of the State of Amazonas without quoting some paragraphs from the excellent work, “The Rubber Country of the Amazon,” written by Mr. Henry C. Pearson, Editor of the “India Rubber World”: “When one considers that this city is a thousand miles from the seacoast, in the heart of a vast tropical jungle, with wild Indians within a hundred miles of it, its presence seems incredible. In a way, it is as modern as New York or Chicago. The latest Parisian fashions are there, and almost anything that civilized man desires is obtainable. Prices are high, to be sure, because both luxuries and necessities are imported and subject to a duty of 100 per cent. But when something besides rubber is produced by the magnificently fertile lands that surround it, Manáos will be one of the great and beautiful cities of the world and living as reasonable as anywhere.” That progress, although it has been made principally in Manáos, in some form is also affecting the interior of the State. The river navigation is made quicker than before and on elegant and up-to-date steamers, which navigate throughout all the tributaries of the Amazon River. Furthermore, the Madeira-Mamoré railroad has produced a great improvement in the transportation facilities adopted in the State for the quick delivery of merchandise in the interior. The most distant points of the territory are now connected by wireless telegraphy. The news of the world can be transmitted daily to the capital of the State by means of double river cable and by wireless telegraphy of the Marconi system. The climatic conditions are not so terrible as pictured in the minds of the outside people, who do not know the real facts and the true geographic situation of the State. [Illustration: CAOUTCHOUC PROCESS No. 1. The Men Set to Work Bleeding the Base of the Castillôa.]