"Next, the employer is in debt to the small traders in the river towns, to whom he sells his rubber; he pays very dear for his goods, and gets a low price for the products of his enterprise. Then the small trader is in debt to the wholesale dealer at Para, and the wholesalers are in debt to London and New York, where the rubber goes for a market. Heavy profits are made in every transaction, and the result of it is that the Indian who collects the gum and prepares the crude rubber works for very low wages, and is paid in goods at very high prices. The annual exportation from Para is said to be twenty million pounds of rubber, worth from six to eight million dollars. [Illustration: RUBBER TREE AND PARASITES.] "Rubber trees begin to yield when they are fifteen years old, and it has been proposed to cultivate rubber by planting large areas with trees, and conducting the business like that of a coffee or sugar plantation. But the necessity of waiting fifteen years before any return can be obtained for the outlay will naturally deter capitalists from making investments." [Illustration: STATION OF A RUBBER COLLECTOR.] While on the January our friends saw a new way of catching turtles. An Indian stood on the bow of his canoe, watching the water, with bow and arrow ready. Suddenly he aimed the arrow at the sky, drew it to the head, and fired. It rose to a great height, then made a graceful curve, and descended. It struck the water within twenty feet of the Indian, pierced the shell of a turtle, and the creature was secured in the manner already described. Manuel explained that this was the only way in which the shells of the large turtles could be pierced, the arrow obtaining great penetrative force through the momentum it acquires in descending. The Indians are so expert in this difficult mode of shooting that they rarely miss their mark. The January is not an important river, and the only settlements along its banks are those of the rubber collectors. Some of them have made clearings, and established banana and mandioca groves, but none of these groves rise to the dignity of plantations. The return to the consul's house was safely made, and the rest of the time of waiting for the steamer was passed in writing up the story of the journey and preparing letters for home. They did not expect to make any delay in their journey down the Amazon, and if the boat kept to her schedule she would reach Para just in time for the outward mail for New York.