fitted them out, but very many prove faithless, and carry off their
produce to other towns, where they have no difficulty in finding
purchasers. Notwithstanding these losses, the merchants engaged in
the rubber trade have done well; its steadily increasing value
during the last few years having made the business a highly
remunerative one. According to the information supplied to me at
Greytown by Mr. Paton, the exports of rubber from that port had
increased from 401,475 pounds, valued at 112,413 dollars, in 1867,
to 754,886 pounds, valued at 226,465 dollars, in 1871. India-rubber
was well-known to the ancient inhabitants of Central America.
Before the Spanish conquest the Mexicans played with balls made
from it, and it still bears its Aztec name of Ulli, from which the
Spaniards call the collectors of it Ulleros. It is obtained from
quite a different tree, and prepared in a different manner, from
the rubber of the Amazons. The latter is taken from the Siphonia
elastica, a Euphorbiaceous tree; but in Central America the tree
that yields it it is a species of wild fig (Castilloa elastica). It
is easily known by its large leaves, and I saw several whilst
ascending the river. When the collectors find an untapped one in
the forest, they first make a ladder out of the lianas or "vejuccos
" that hang from every tree; this they do by tying short pieces of
wood across them with small lianas, many of which are as tough as
cord. They then proceed to score the bark, with cuts which extend
nearly round the tree like the letter V, the point being downwards.
A cut like this is made about every three feet all the way up the
trunk. The milk will all run out of a tree in about an hour after
it is cut, and is collected into a large tin bottle made flat on
one side and furnished with straps to fix on to a man's back. A
decoction is made from a liana (Calonyction speciosum), and this on
being added to the milk, in the proportion of one pint to a gallon,