The Thief at the End of the World

by Joe Jackson

  21-22. “frombateytoVok-a-tok” Peter Mason, Cauchu, the Weeping Wood: A History of Rubber (Sydney, Australia: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1979), p. 15.

  22. The English discoverer of oxygen, Joseph Priestley Priestley gave rubber its name in the Preface of his Familiar Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Perspective (1770), which is quoted by Howard Wolf and Ralph Wolf in Rubber: A Story of Glory and Greed (New York: Covici, Friede, Publishers, 1936), pp. 288-89.

  22. “all kinds of leather, cotton, linen and woolen cloths, silk stuffs, paper, wood” Peal’s patent application is quoted in Wolf and Wolf, Rubber: A Story of Glory and Greed, p. 289.

  22. “perfectly waterproof ” Ibid., p. 269.

  23. In 1827, the first rubber fire hose was used Ibid., p. 295.

  23. “vile taste” Ibid.

  24. “instrument in the hands of his Maker” Ibid., p. 300.

  24. “While yet a schoolboy” Ibid., quoting from Charles Goodyear’s Gum-Elastic.

  24. “The most remarkable quality of this gum, is its wonderful elasticity” Ibid., quoting from Goodyear’s Gum-Elastic, p. 299.

  25. “In time, the process would be dubbed” The term vulcanization was actually dreamed up by one of industrialist Thomas Hancock’s friends, a “Mr. Brockedon,” when trying to come up with a better term than just “the change.” Thomas Hancock, Personal narrative of the origin and progress of the caoutchouc or india-rubber manufacture in England (London: Longman, 1857), p. 107. Hancock repeats the story again on p. 144.

  25. “one of those cases where the leading of the Creator” Ibid., p. 311.

  26. His mother, Harriette Johnson This and subsequent information about Wickham’s family comes primarily from two sources: Edward V. Lane, “The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wickham: Part 1—Ancestry and Early Years,” India Rubber Journal 125 (Dec. 5, 1953), pp. 962-65; and Anthony Campbell, “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham, a Genealogy” (self-published, Jan. 30, 2005).

  27. fought and governed in the American Revolution Campbell, “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham,” quoting the Barlow Genealogy Papers, “unpublished ms. in possession of A.S.C. (Sallie) Campbell (born 1931.)”

  27. “richest and most populous metropolitan parish” From “St. Marylebone: Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer,” in Genuki: St. Marylebone History,http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StMarylebone/StMaryleboneHistory.html.

  27. Seven years later, in 1845, he married Harriette They may have married in Muthill, near Crieff in Perthshire, where Henry Wickham’s brother-in-law, Alexander Lendrum (1811-1890) was a minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Much family lore seems to have passed down through the Lendrums, especially since Henry and Violet Wickham would not have children. It was presumably through the Lendrums that Edward Valentine Lane would collect much of the undocumented stories of Wickham’s adventures. Since Wickham’s mother and father married before statutory registration was enacted in Scotland, there seems to be no record of their wedding. Campbell, Anthony. “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham, a Genealogy” (self-published, Jan. 30, 2005), p. 3.

  27. By then, the Wickhams were firmly ensconced in the country Information on Hampstead Heath and Haverstock Hill came from the following sources: “Genuki: Hampstead History, Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/HampsteadHistory-html; “Finchley Road and Haverstock Hill,” www.gardenvisit.com/travel/london/finchleyroadhaverstockhill.html; and “Genuki: Middlesex, Hampstead,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/index.html. Development at Haverstock Hill and Hampstead Heath appears to have progressed in a surprisingly modern manner; a landowner would divide his estate into parcels, and then speculators would build houses, or at least a couple of models, and promote the advantages of living in the healthy suburbs. Details are found on the following Web sites: “Hampstead: Social and Cultural Activities/British History Online,” www.british-history.ac.uk report.asp?compid-22645; “Hampstead: Chalcots/British History Online,” Ibid.; “Hampstead—MDX ENG,” http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alan/family/G-Hampstead.html; and “Genuki: Hampstead History,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/HampsteadHistory.html.

  27. Several rich courtesans built retirement homes Dan Cruikshank, “The Wages of Sin,” in BBC Online-History, www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/zone/georgiansex.shtml.

  27. “open and airy slope of Hampstead”Lancet, Nov. 5, 1881, quoted in “Sanitation, Not Vaccination the True Protection Against Small-Pox,” www.whale.to/vaccine/tcbbl.html.

  28. “occupied by the very lowest class of society” Pamela K. Gilbert, Mapping the Victorian Social Body (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004), p. 92.

  28. “wretched houses with broken windows [and] starvation in the alleys” Dickens is quoted in Gilbert, Mapping the Victorian Social Body, p. 92.

  28. Hampstead was an urban center in itself “Genuki: Hampstead History,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/HampsteadHistory.html.

  29. due to give birth in the summer John Joseph Edward Wickham, the third of the children of Henry and Harriette Wickham, was born in Croydon, Surrey, in 1850, according to the Census of 1871. Quoted in Campbell, “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham,” pp. 6 and 14, ff42.

  29. 25 Fitzroy Road in Marylebone The 1871 census is quoted in Campbell, “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham,” pp. 5-6.

  29. “set up a not very successful millinery business in Sackville Street” Edward V. Lane, “The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wickham: Part I,—Ancestry and Early Years” p. 15. Lane is the only historian to write at length about Wickham, and this in a nine-part series spanning his life, in 1953-54, in a trade journal called the India Rubber Journal. Unfortunately, according to the fashion of the time, he did not cite sources. It is obvious that much of his material came from Wickham’s two works and also from Violet Wickham’s memoir. Much that is quoted, however, was probably gotten from surviving extended family. Lane was writing thirty years after Wickham’s death, so although he neglects to say it, there still would have been people around who knew him personally.

  30. the case of a destitute, seventy-two-year-old milliner Jack London, The People of the Abyss (London: Pluto Press, 2001, first published in Great Britain in 1903), p. 134. The economics of millinery are discussed in Helena Wojtczak’s Women of Victorian Sussex—Their Status, Occupations, and Dealings with the Law, 1830-1870, reviewed on the page “Female Occupations C19th Victorian Social History” at www.fashion-era.com/victorian_occupations_wojtczak.htm.

  30. Henry Alexander, deprived of a father’s guidance Lane, “The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wickham: I—Ancestry and Early Years,” p. 16.

  30. “The Rape of the Glances” Lynda Nead, Victorian Babylon: People, Streets and Images in Nineteenth-Century London (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 62-65.

  31. The voices of critics rose with it Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (London: Penguin, 1971, first published 1921), p. 119.

  31. “the working bees of the world’s hive” Asa Briggs, Victorian People (London: B. T. Batsford, 1988), p. 41.

  31. “industry and skill, countries would find a new brotherhood” Briggs, Victorian People, p. 41.

  31. “a vegetable wonder” Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief (New York: Ballantine, 1998), p. 72.

  31. entire fortunes were spent on forty rare tulips Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (New York: Harmony, 1980, first published in 1841 and 1852), pp. 90-91.

  32. “thegreatestday in our history” Strachey, Queen Victoria, p. 121, quoting The Letters of Queen Victoria, vol. 2, pp. 317-318.

  33. “strange and neglected races” Journalist Watts Phillips’ The Wild Tribes of London is quoted in John Marriott, The Other Empire: Metropolis, India and Progress in the Colonial Imagination (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 122.

  33. “a clash of contest, man against man” Charles Booth, Charles Booth’s
London, Albert Fried and Richard Ellman, eds. (London: Hutchinson, 1968), p. 37.

  33. “there is a bitter struggle to live” Charles Booth, Charles Booth’s London, p. 207.

  Chapter 2: Nature Belongs to Man

  34. the explorers of this period were seen as self-effacing, duty-driven civil servants Robert A. Stafford, “Scientific Exploration and Empire,” in The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, Andrew Porter, ed., vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 307.

  36. “chills the heart, and imparts a feeling of loneliness” MacGregor Laird and R.A.K. Oldfield, Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1837), vol. 1, p. 181.

  36. died at a rate of three hundred to seven hundred per thousand Philip D. Curtin, “The White Man’s Grave: Image and Reality, 1780-1850,” Journal of British Studies, vol. 1 (Nov. 1961), p. 95.

  37. during Victoria’s reign it was the most powerful antimalarial medicine known to man Quinine is coming back into favor with the recent increase of new strains of malaria resistant to the more widely produced synthetic drugs.

  37. Cinchona belongs to the Rubiaceae Cinchona gets its name from the legend of the Countess of Chinchón, which was later shown to be suspect, since her actual stay in Peru did not correspond with the period described in the legend. However, romance often wins out over fact, especially when an angel of mercy is involved. The spelling of her name, Chinchón, and the tree’s (cinchona) have been confused ever since, especially by the English, as we shall see. The legend is recounted in Anthony Smith, Explorers of the Amazon (New York: Viking, 1990), pp. 260-61; and Charles M. Poser and George W. Bruyn, An Illustrated History of Malaria (New York: Parthenon, 1999), p. 78.

  37. the mountainous forests of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia A few members of the species live in the mountainous regions of Panama and Costa Rica, but the alkaloid content of their bark is not as high as in the Andes.

  38. “with every necessary for men’s wants” T. W. Archer’s Economic Botany, a highly influential book for its time and one that seemed to echo Kew’s vision of its mission, is quoted in Richard Drayton, Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the “Improvement” of the World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), p. 198.

  39. “waltz through life in a dream” Botanist Gustav Mann is quoted in Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 233.

  39. “the very existence of [tropical] colonies as civilized communities” Ibid., pp. 233-234.

  39. “to prevent the utilization of the immense natural resources” Benjamin Kidd is quoted in Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 233.

  40. “the Mother Country in everything that is useful” William J. Bean, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Historical and Descriptive (London: Cassell, 1908), p. xvii.

  40. “the founding of new colonies” Ibid.

  40. By 1854, Hooker could boast Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 195.

  41. “essential to a great commercial country” Ibid.

  41. In 1830, Britain imported 211 kilograms Warren Dean, Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber: A Study in Environmental History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 220.

  41. Brazil was becoming the world center Ibid., p. 169.

  41. “in Jamaica and the East Indies” Thomas Hancock is quoted in “On Rubber,” Gardener’s Chronicle, vol. 19 (1855), p. 381.

  41. “render any assistance in his power to parties disposed to make the attempt” Ibid.

  41. shrink less during transport Water in cured latex tends to dry out during shipment, often at substantial rates. Such shrinkage occurred as much as 15-20 percent in “Pará fine,” but up to 42 percent in other species or coarser grades.

  42. “gutta-percha” Although India rubber and gutta-percha were often used as interchangeable terms, thus confusing everyone, the Scientific American of January 22, 1860, called gutta-percha “similar, though inferior” to the Amazon breed. The two shared many physical characteristics when vulcanized, and both gums had a chemical composition of seven-eighths carbon to one-eighth hydrogen, but gutta-percha also contained oxygen, while “Pará fine” did not. Given enough moisture, warmth, and time, especially during shipping, unvulcanized gutta-percha would deteriorate rapidly, growing discolored, then brittle, and finally turn to powder.

  42. The Dutch were already mounting a campaign to secure and control cinchona In 1853-54, the Dutch in Java moved first: Justus Charles Hasskarl, superintendent of the Buitzenzorg Garden, traveled to South America in disguise to collect seeds.

  43. “irritatingly destined for high office” Smith, Explorers of the Amazon, p. 264.

  43. “My qualifications for the task” Smith, Explorers of the Amazon, p. 262; Donovan Williams, “Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree Into British India, 1861,” Geographical Journal, vol. 128 (Dec. 1962), p. 433.

  43. he showed a keen understanding Donovan Williams, “Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree Into British India, 1861,” p. 433.

  43. “double forcing house” Drayton, Nature’s Government, p. 208.

  44. “narrow-minded jealousy” Donovan Williams, “Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree into British India, 1861,” p. 434.

  45. “all the clerks in public offices are changed in every revolution” Williams, “Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree into British India, 1861,” p. 435.

  46. “Its consistency is that of good cream” Richard Spruce, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and the Andes, Alfred Russel Wallace, ed., 2 vol., (Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark, 1908), vol. 1, pp. 50-51.

  47. “It is a vulgar error that in the tropics the luxuriance of the vegetation” Alfred Russel Wallace’s Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (London, 1853), quoted in Roy Nash, The Conquest of Brazil (New York: AMS Press, 1969, originally published 1926), pp. 385-386.

  47-48. “How often have I regretted that England” Richard Spruce is quoted in Peter Mason, Cauchu, the Weeping Wood: A History of Rubber (Sydney, Australia: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1979), p. 31.

  48. “Die, you English dog” Richard Spruce, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and the Andes, p. 465.

  49. “But during the night . . . they all got gloriously drunk and burst their balls” Spruce, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and the Andes, p. 196.

  50. “Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India has entrusted the Hon. Richard Spruce” Anthony Smith, Explorers of the Amazon, p. 256.

  50. “very able and painstaking” Clements Markham’s description of Robert Cross is quoted in Smith, Explorers of the Amazon, p. 256.

  50. “Matters are in a very unsettled state here” Spruce is quoted in Victor Wolfgang Von Hagen, South America Called Them: Explorations of the Great Naturalists (New York: Knopf, 1945), p. 289.

  50. “I find reason to thank heaven” Smith, Explorers of the Amazon, p. 258.

  51. “that withers every thing it meets” Edward J. Goodman, The Explorers of South America (New York: Macmillan, 1972), p. 291.

  51. “See how that man is laughing at us?” The tale told to Spruce by the pilgrim is recounted in Von Hagen, South America Called Them, p. 288.

  Chapter 3: The New World

  53. “I have been wandering by myself” Charles Darwin is quoted in Anthony Smith, Explorers of the Amazon (New York: Viking, 1990), p. 252.

  53. “the good and soft smell of flowers and trees” Christopher Columbus is quoted in Jose Pedro de Oliveira Costa, “History of the Brazilian Forest: An Inside View,” The Environmentalist vol 3, no. 5 (1983), p. 50.

  53. “lovely but sinister temptress called Xtabay” Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004), p. 81.

  54. “his many drawings with pen and ink” Lane, “The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wickham: I—Ancestry and Early Years,” p. 15.

  54. “traveling artist” The 1871 census is quoted in
Campbell, “Descendants of Benjamin Wickham,” pp. 5-6.

  54. “in which every class of society accepts with cheerfulness that lot” Lord Palmerston is quoted in Briggs, Victorian People, p. 98.

  54. “Of all the sources of income, the life of a farmer is the best” Cicero’s De officiis is quoted in Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 264.

  55. “typical of his generation, when the pioneering spirit, fired by a desire” Lane, “The Life and Work of Sir Henry Wickham: I—Ancestry and Early Years,” p. 16.

  55. “if anyone stated that he was six-feet tall” Ibid., p. 16.

  55. “unbounded energy” and “easy-going indolence” Ibid.

  55. “that neither Mouth, Nose, Eyes” Nicholas Rogers, “Caribbean Borderland: Empire, Ethnicity, and the Exotic on the Mosquito Coast,” Eighteenth-Century Life, vol. 26, no. 3 (Fall 2002), pp. 117-138.

  56. British presence in NicaraguaA Document of the Mosquito Nation: document signed Feb. 19, 1840, between Robert Charles Frederic, King of the Mosquito Nation, and Great Britain aboard HMS Honduras, with notes. Introduction by S. L. Canger, Royal Commonwealth Society Collection: GBR/0115/RCMS 240/27.

  56. The British in Latin America brought not only guns and money but such ideas Alan Knight, “Britain and Latin America,” in The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, Andrew Porter, ed., vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 125.

  56. “prepossessing . . . crowned with umbrella-shaped trees of great size” Henry Alexander Wickham, Rough notes of a journey through the wilderness from Trinidad to Para, Brazil, by way of the great cataracts of the Orinoco, Atabagao, and Rio Negro (London: W.H.J. Carter, 1872), p. 144.

  56. “handsome butterfly” Ibid.

  57. “altogether a very uninteresting place . . . in the most approved fashion” Ibid., p. 146.

  57. “numerous and beautiful, varying from the size of a bat” Ibid., p. 145.