Customer Reviews

White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1906-1916

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How Yungjohann got to So. America is a mystery. But he worked on a coffee plantation from 1896-1906 and had set his eyes on cutting rubber to make some money. Going up the Amazon in a steam boat he finally arrived at the mouth of the Xapuri and hooks up with seven men to cut rubber on contract. A month longer up the river, in a canoe, with a guide, finds the group on the banks of the Rio Acre trying to hack out a piece of jungle to make a home. They cut rubber trees, bleeding them, as a fever begans to decimate their ranks. In two months Yungjohann is alone having buried all his compadres. He struggles on, fighting animals and disease--He would find 18 foot boas sleepng on his chest when he awoke in the morning, which screemed like cats when he moved...But did he make money? No. his supplies cost him more than he made. He went out again for eight months, with new men, who also died. For ten years he perseverd in the wilds of the Amazon. The men he met, what he learned in the jungle and camps makes for reading found in no other book. This is the man's diary. IT'S TOO SHORT!