The Thief at the End of the World

by Joe Jackson

  ———. Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree into British India, 1861,” Geographical Journal, vol. 128 (Dec. 1962), pp. 431-442.

  Wilson, Colin. The History of Murder (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1990).

  Wilson, W. Arthur. “Malaya—Mostly Gay: All About Rubber: A Guide for Griffins,” British Malaya, February 1928, pp. 261-265.

  Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 (London: Viking, 2003).

  Wolf, Howard, and Ralph Wolf. Rubber: A Story of Glory and Greed (New York: Covici, Friede, 1936).

  Woodroffe, Joseph F. The Upper Reaches of the Amazon (London: Methuen, 1914).

  Woshner, Mike. India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha in the Civil War Era: An Illustrated History of Rubber and Pre-Plastic Antiques and Militaria (Alexandria, VA: O’Donnell Publications, 1999).

  “Wrecked Emigrants,” New York Times, March 28, 1867, p. 2.

  Wright, Herbert. Hevea Brasiliensis, or Para Rubber: Its Botany, Cultivation, Chemistry and Diseases (London: Maclaren, 1912).

  ———. Rubber Cultivation in the British Empire: A Lecture Delivered Before the Society of Arts (London: Maclaren, 1907).

  Wright, Ronald. A Short History of Progress (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004).

  Wycherley, P. R. “Introduction of Hevea to the Orient,” Planter, March 1968, pp. 127-137.

  Young, H. E. “South American Leaf Blight of Rubber,” Report to the Rubber Research Institute of Ceylon, January 4, 1954. Warren Dean collection, New York Botanical Gardens archives.

  Yungjohann, John C. White Gold: the Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon, 1906-1916 (Oracle, AZ: Synergetic Press, 1989).

  Zahl, Paul A. “Seeking the Truth About the Feared Piranha,” National Geographic, vol. 138, no. 5 (Nov. 1970), pp. 715-732.

  Zilles, John A. “Development of Disease Resistant High Yielding Clones in Brazil Through Work of Ford and Goodyear Plantations,” Apr. 25, 1983. Warren Dean collection, New York Botanical Gardens archives.

  Ziman, John. The Force of Knowledge: The Scientific Dimension of Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).

  II. Archival Sourcebooks

  National Archives, Kew. “Articles of Association, Tapajos Para Rubber Forests Ltd.,” BT 31/8165/59032.

  National Archives, Kew. Colonial Office: British Honduras, Register of Correspondence, 1883-1888, CO 348/10. Despatch No. 5: “Mission of Mr. J. B. Peck of New York to British Honduras,” Sir Roger Goldsworthy, Jan. 17, 1888.

  ———. Despatch No. 11, Enclosure 2: “A Statement by the Santa Cruz Indians,” Jan. 8, 1888.

  National Archives, Kew. Colonial Office and Predecessors: British Honduras, Original Correspondence 1744-1951. CO 123/200. “Mr. H. A. Wickham’s Temash Concession, (Pleadings in court case),” 1892.

  ———. CO 123/204. “Damage Caused by Gale,” 1893.

  ———. CO 123/281 “State of Wickham’s Case,” 1893.

  National Archives, Kew. Honduras Gazette, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1893. CO 127/6, 7, 8.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, May 7, 1887, p. 78.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, Dec. 17, 1887.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, May 12, 1888, p. 81.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, Dec. 15, 1888, p. 215.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, May 4, 1889, p. 75.

  ———. Honduras Gazette, May 6, 1893, p. 154. Notice of the forfeit of Wickham’s lease of 2,500 acres along the Temash River.

  National Archives, Kew. “Map Showing Portion of the Republic of Yucatan Shewing the Occupation of the Chan Santa Cruz Indians.” FO 925/1288.

  Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew. J. D. Hooker Correspondence, vol. 21. file folder 120: Wickham to Hooker, Aug. 10, 1906, London.

  Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew. Miscellaneous Reports: Brazil: Jequié Maniçoba and General, 1879-1913: file folder 3: Memos in the Inwards and Outwards Book, 1873, regarding the purchase of hevea seeds from James Collins in 1873.

  ———. file folder 4: D. Prain to Ivor Etherington, editor of “The Tropical Agriculturist,” re: Collins’s seeds, May 17, 1907.

  ———. file folder 30-32: “The Rubber Growers’ Association Third Annual Report of the Council: Transactions of the year, June 1910-June 1911.”

  ———. file folder 388-389: Wickham to D. Prain, director of Kew, on the cultivation of the Piquia tree, Aug. 11, 1906.

  ———. file folder 389: Wickham to D. Prain, notes on location of “the forest of the Piquia,” Aug. 21, 1906.

  ———. file folder 390: D. Prain to Wickham, notes on location of the Piquia nut, Aug. 14, 1906.

  ———. file folder 391: Reply by the British vice-consul in Manaus to earlier letter by the Director of Kew, Sept. 18, 1906. Note that the Piquía trees in Manaus are different than those in Para and Maranhão, so he passes Kew’s request to the Consul at Pará.

  ———. file folder 392: Wickham to Director of Kew, Feb. 7, 1907. Types of Piquiá tree and estimation of economic importance to the British Empire.

  ———. file folder 393: Letter from Wickham to Director of Kew, March 14, 1907. Request to send Piquiá seeds to A. W. Copeland, director of the Malacca Rubber Plantations, and a description of the fruit of the Piquiá.

  ———. file folder 398: Letter from Wickham to Director of Kew, June 8, 1911. Urges introduction of Piquiá tree to plantations in Malaya.

  Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew. Miscellaneous Reports: Congo Region Miscellaneous, 1883- 1928: file folder 25: from “Congo Rubber,” The India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha Journal, and Electrical Trades Journal, Sept. 8, 1893, p. 46.

  Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew. Miscellaneous Reports: India Office: Caoutchouc I. file folder 1: “Introduction of Hevea brasilensis into India,” a memo calculating costs of the Wickham transfer.

  ———. file folder 2: Letter, May 7, 1873, from India Office to Director of Kew, J. D. Hooker, inquiring into possibility of sending hevea plants to India after raising them from seeds at Kew.

  ———. file folder 4: Reply, Hooker to India Office, May 15, 1873. Reply to May 7th letter.

  ———. file folder 5: Letter from Clements Markham to “my dear Hooker,” June 2, 1873, regarding the purchase by James Collins of 2,000 hevea seeds from a “Mr. Ferris” of Brazil.

  ———. file folder 9: Markham to “my dear Hooker,” Sept. 23, 1873, regarding Wickham’s proposal to start a nursery in Santarém for rubber trees.

  ———. file folder 10: Letter from Henry Wickham in Santarém to Hooker, Nov. 8, 1873, regarding the collection and shipment of rubber seeds.

  ———. file folder 12: Markham to Hooker, Oct. 1874, regarding Lord Salisbury’s paltriness concerning costs of obtaining and transporting rubber seeds.

  ———. file folder 13: Markham to Hooker, Dec. 4, 1874.

  ———. file folder 14: Letter dated Oct. 15, 1874, Wickham at Piquiá-tuba, near Santarém, to Hooker, regarding transport of seeds.

  ———. file folder 15: Letter Wickham at Piquiá-tuba, Santarém, to Hooker, April 18, 1875, regarding the fact that it is too late in the season to collect seeds.

  ———. file folder 17: Wickham at Piquiá-tuba, to Hooker, Jan. 29, 1876. “I am just about to start for the ‘ciringa’ district in order to get you as large a supply of the fresh India Rubber seeds as possible.”

  ———. file folder 18: Markham to Hooker, April 1, 1876. Robert Cross is sent to the Amazon to collect hevea seeds.

  ———. file folder 19: Wickham to Hooker, March 6, 1876 , informing Hooker that he is “now collecting Indian Rubber seeds.”

  ———. file folder 20: Unsigned note, dated July 7, 1876: “70,000 seeds of Hevea brasiliensis were received from Mr. H. A. Wickham on June 14th.”

  ———. file folder 21: “Expenses to send 2,000 seeds from Kew to Ceylon.”

  ———. file folder 43: Evening Herald, Aug. 20, 1876, describing growth of seeds at Kew.

  ———. file folder 59: Letter from Markham to “My dear Mr. Dyer
,” Sept. 18, 1876, complaining about treatment of seeds after being shipped to the East.

  ———. file folder 78-93: Robert Cross, “Report on the Investigation and Collecting of Plants and Seeds of the India-rubber Trees of Para and Ceara and Basalm of Copaiba,” (March 29, 1877).

  ———. file folder 131: Letter from Wickham to Sir Thistleton-Dyer at Kew, Sept. 4, 1901.

  Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew. Miscellaneous Reports 5: Madras-Chinchona, 1860-97. file folder 131 & 132: “Letter from Robert Cross to Clements Markham, July 21, 1882.”

  Royal Commonwealth Society Archives, University of Cambridge Library. Cuttings from The Field. GBR/0115/RCMS 322.

  ———. “Life on a Malayan Rubber Plantation.” RCMS 322/11: Malaya.

  ———. “Sporting and Other Notes of the Amazon.” RCMS 322/1: 1888-1894.

  ———. “Travel and Colonisation,” May 13, 1905, p. 10. RCMS 322/3: 1905-1907. Royal Commonwealth Society Archives, University of Cambridge Library. Cuttings of the Queensland Sugar Industry. GBR/0115/RCMS 294.

  ———. “Britons in the South Seas,” European Mail, Sept. 24, 1880.

  ———. “The Esperanze Tragedy in the South Seas,” European Mail, Sept. 24, 1880.

  ———. “Idiosyncracies,” MacKay Mercury, Dec. 1878.

  ———. “Kanaka Labor,” Queenslander, Nov. 16, 1879.

  ———. “Kidnapping in the South Sea Islands,” Sydney Mail, Apr. 23, 1881.

  ———. “The Labour Question,” Queenslander, May 14, 1881.

  ———. “Letters to the Editor,” Queenslander, Aug. 30, 1870.

  ———. “Queensland Sugar Industry,” MacKay Mercury, Sept. 25, 1878.

  Royal Commonwealth Society Archives, University of Cambridge Library. A 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. GBR/0115/RCMS 240/27. Introduction by S. L. Canger.

  Royal Commonwealth Society Archives, University of Cambridge Library. News cuttings on Colonial Relations with England, March 11, 1869-July 23, 1870. GBR/0115/RCMS 18.

  ———. “Problems in the Colonies,” Evening Standard, Aug. 31, 1869.

  Royal Commonwealth Society Archives, University of Cambridge Library. Sir Henry Wickham, sketch for chart of Conflict Group. GBR/0115/RCMS 278/58.

  III. World Wide Web

  1871 Census of London, in www.Ancestry.com.uk, citing the National Archives, Kew, RG10/133, ed. 2, folio 30.

  Adams, Patricia. “Probe International: Odious Debts,” Part 1, Chapter 2, www.probeinternational.org/probeint/OdiousDebts/OdiousDebts/chapter2.html.

  Annual Register for 1928,http://historyonline.chadwyck.co.uk.

  “Antipodes,” Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org.

  “Atrocities in the Congo: The Casement Report, 1903,” http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien.

  “Canaries, Singing, and Talking Birds,” Illustrated London News, Feb. 15, 1868, www.londonancestor.com.

  “Caste War of the Yucatán,” www.answers.com.

  “Chan Santa Cruz,” www.absoluteastronomy.com.

  “Cockneys,” Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org.

  “Coconuts and Copra,” www.msstarship.com/sciencenew.

  “The Conflict Islands,” www.conflictislands.com.

  Conrad, Joseph. “The Planter of Malta,” www.readbookonline.net.

  “The Cornish in Latin America,” www.projects.ex.ac.uk/cornishlatin/anewworldorder.htm.

  Cross, William. “Robert McKenzie Cross: Botanical Explorer, Kew Gardens,” http://scottishdisasters.tripod.com/robertmckenziecrossbotanicalexplorerkewgardens/.

  Cruikshank, Dan. “The Wages of Sin,” in BBC Online-History, www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/zone/georgiansex3.html.

  “Danger of Street Crossings in London,” Illustrated London News, Jan. 3, 1857. www.londonancestor.com.

  Dempsey, Mary A. “Fordlandia,” Michigan History Magazine, Jan. 24, 2006, www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/fordlandia/fordlandia.html.

  Dornan, Jennifer L. “Document Based Account of the Caste War,” www.bol.ucla.edu/~jdornan/castewar.html.

  “Finchley Road and Haverstock Hill,” www.gardenvisit.com/travel/london/finchleyroadhaverstockhill.html.

  Gaston, Robert. “Edgar B. Davis and the Discovery of the Luling Oilfield,” www4.drillinginfo.com.

  “Genuki: Hampstead History,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/HampsteadHistory.html.

  “Genuki: Hampstead History, Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki.

  “Genuki: Middlesex, Hampstead,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Hampstead/index.html.

  “Genuki: St. Marylebone History,” http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StMarylebone/StMaryleboneHistory.html.

  Grieve, Mrs. M. “Violet, Sweet,” in Botanical.com, A Modern Herbal, www.botanical.com.

  “Hampstead: Chalcots/British History Online,” www.british-history.ac.uk.

  “Hampstead—MDX ENG,” http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alan/family/G-Hampstead .html.

  “Hampstead: Social and Cultural Activities/British History Online,” www.british-history.ac.uk.

  “Handbook of Texas Online: Edgar Byrum Davis,” www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook.

  “Handbook of Texas Online: Luling Oilfield,” www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook.

  “Historic Folk Saints,” http://upea.utb.edu/elnino/researcharticles/historicfolksainthood.html.

  Iacocca, Lee. “Henry Ford,” in Time 100: Henry Ford,www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/ford.html.

  “Jos. D. Hooker: Hooker’s Biography: 4. A Botanical Career.” www.jdhooker.org.uk.

  Kipling, Rudyard. “The Explorer” (1898). Every one of Kipling’s poems can be found, alphabetically arranged, at www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling.

  Kitchel, Jeanine. “Tales from the Yucatan,” www.planeta.com/ecotravel/mexico/yucatan/tales.

  “Living Rainforest: Cancer Cured by the Rosy Periwinkle,” www.livingrainforest.org/about/economic/rosyperiwinkle.

  Lovejoy, Paul E. “Gustavas Vassa, alias Olaudah Equiano, on the Mosquito Shore: Plantation Overseer cum Abolitionist,” www.lsc.edu/collections/economicHistory/seminars/Lovejoy.pdf.

  “MacGregor, Sir William,” www.electricscotland.com.

  Marx, Karl. “Marx and Engels in Manchester, 2 December, 1856,” www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1856/letters/56_12_02.htm.

  “The Milliner,” www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/almanack/life/trades/trademln.cfm.

  “Money from God,” Time (Sept. 2, 1935), www.TIME.com.

  “Moravian Civic and Community Values,” http://moravians.org.

  “Mosquitos, A Brief History,’ www.4dw.net/royalark/Nicaragua/mosquito2.htm.

  “My Name is Norval,” Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, www.abaa.org.

  “Northern Belize—The Caste War of the Yucatan and Northern Belize,” www.northernbelize.com.

  “Overview of Belizean History,” www.ambergriscaye.com/fieldguide/history2.html.

  “Patron Saints Index: Saint Ignatius of Loyola,” www.catholic-forum.com/saints.

  Reismiller, John. “Violet Traditions: Footnotes to the Violet,” in Chamomile Times and Herbal News,www.chamomiletimes.com/articles/violettraditions.htm.

  “Sackville Street: British History Online,” www.british-history.ac.uk.

  “Sanitation, Not Vaccination the True Protection Against Small-Pox,” www.whale.to/vaccine/tcbbl.html.

  “Sephardic Genealogy Resources; Indiana Jones Meets Tangier Moshe,” www.orthohelp.com/geneal/amazon.htm.

  Snow, John, M.D. “On the Origin of the Recent Outbreak of Cholera at West Ham,” www.epi.msu.edu/johnsnow.

  “Statistics of Wars, Oppression and Atrocities in the Nineteenth Century,” http://users.erol.com/mwhite28/wars19c.htm.

  “Vibrio cholerae and Asiatic Cholera,” Todar’s Online Textbook of Bacteriology,www.textbookofbacterio
logy.net/cholera.html.

  Wojtczak, Helena. “Female Occupations C19th Victorian Social History—Women of Victorian Sussex,” www.fashion-era.com/victorian_occupations_wojtczak.htm.

  IV. Interviews

  Alexander, Steven, owner of “Bosque Santa Lucia,” present site of Piquiá-tuba, Oct. 9, 2005.

  Campbell, Anthony (descendant of the Wickham family), via Internet, April 3, 2006.

  Cohen, Elisio Eden, postmaster and historian of Boim, Oct. 21, 2005.

  Cross, William, (descendant of Robert Cross), via Internet, April 2, 2006.

  Pereira Branco, Doña Olinda, Fordlandia, Oct. 21, 2005.

  Sena, Cristovao, regional rubber historian, Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Oct. 18, 2005.

  Serique, Gil, guide, Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Dec. 15, 2005.

  V. Films

  Kautschuk, dir. Eduard von Borsody, with René Deltgen, Gustav Diessl, and Roman Bahn. Ufa Studios, Germany, 1938.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The life of a writer would be impossible if not for the kindness of sympathetic strangers. For a project such as this, one can’t help but be humbled by the patience and generosity of those fascinated by the tale of a complicated, globe-trotting dreamer (and his long-suffering wife), whose ambitions changed the world. But where does one start? Henry Wickham was a true nomad, setting off from London to Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Queensland, Belize, and Papua New Guinea in a tortured quest for acceptance and respectability. His wife, Violet, added Bermuda to the list; other branches of the family drifted to the Caribbean and Texas.

  Yet the heart of Wickham’s fame, or infamy, rests in the Amazon Valley of Brazil, where the muddy “Father of Waters” meets the deep blue Tapajós River at Santarém. So we begin our acknowledgments there. This book wouldn’t be what it is without the help of Gil Serique, for my money the best guide on the Amazon: He anticipated my research, knew Wickham’s story like a scholar, and ushered me around as if the saga were his own. Although he is primarily a nature guide, he switched gears to history and exploration as if he were born to the trade; as we ranged up the river in an open boat, our stops at villages and towns along the route gave me greater insight into the realities of life on the Tapajós and Amazon.