ON THE AMAZON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 51, 2 March 1911, Page 4

ON THE AMAZON.

NEW ZEALANDEB'S EXPERIENCE. Mr. J. C. MacLean,^of Dunedin, -who has been absent from" New Zealand for some years, returned by the Moeraki from Sydney yesterday. He came recently from Chili and Brazil. After serving with the Fourth New Zealand Contingent im South Africa, he took up railway engineering, and followed it up on the Trans-Andean railway, between Chili and Argentina, working for the English firm of contractors who undertook this stupendous work. In company with Dr. C. J. Wilson, an Englishman, Mr. Mac Lean started from Antofagasta overland. "I believe we are tho first white men who made the journey across the continent by river. We were told before setting out that if we escaped drowning in the rapids we would fall into the hands of the Indians, and if we escaped them, then we'd certainly die of fever. We did none of these things. We took the train from Antofagasla to La Paz, then mules, and after that started on a raft down the- Beri ; thence we got into the Mamore and so to the Amazon, east of Manaos. We did over 2000 miles from La Paz to Riberalta. "We had no trouble with Indians, and no fever ; but fever is really very bad on the river. The real trouble was with the German planters and those of Spanish descent. They were most reluctant to assist us with labour for navigating the raft. We came down on a rait. The ' boys ' are virtually slaves to the planters. The truck system is seen in its most malignant form. The 'boys' are indentured for the plantations, and they must buy all stores from the planter and at the planter's price. If they change employment the new planter engaging them clears off the boy's liabilities by paying his former master ; but the debt is passed on. So they never get free of debt ; they are always in bondage.' They are charged from 14s to 16s for a bottle'of spirits or beer." Labour is scarce, Mr. Mac Lean continued, for the rubber planting is enormous. There are thousands and tens of thousands of miles ,of rubber trees. Transport of the rubber, .too, is v-ery costly. Rubber, Mr. AlaoLean thought, from what he learned on the spot, would fetch a good price 'for. many years to come. " The Indians, we met with were kind and obliging," added Mr. Mac Lean. "The fever, however, a real peril. It was no rare thing fora raft to reach its destination with half of the people gone with fever. In one case a party of forty started. Only thirteen finished the passage alive — all the others died of fever. Dr. Wilson, my companion, found a village in that bad district, in which everyone he saw was suffering from ague more or less. We both escaped fever."

Do not go to the expanse of calling in a doctor wlisn you sprain your ankle. Bathe your foot aaid ankle in water as hot as can be borne and rub in Chamberlain's Pain Balm freely. Repeat th« rubbing several times, and in. two or three days you will be able to get about, and will be quite cured in less than a week. — Advt.

LOCAL AGENT.