One such peril frequently mentioned is the risk of mosquito-born illnesses. The tropical climate of the rainforest provided a year-round habitat for these dangerous disease vectors, which threatened both residents and visitors to Brazil with many ailments including malaria and yellow fever. The narrator comments as they approach the junction of the Amazon River and its tributary, the Madeira River, “In the almost unexplored region of the Rio Madeira the fever is certain to every traveller, though the land is largely without inhabitants; and it is almost equally certain that it will be of the malignant type” (Tomlinson, Location …show more content…
When I was there it was renewing its old importance, because the Madeira-Mamoré railway undertaking had placed a depôt a little to the west of the village” (Tomlinson, Location 1806)
In this case rubber was the natural resource which played a key role in the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railroad. After a series of misfortunes caused by some of the factors inherent to the region such as tropical disease, and poor management, the project was eventually handed over to an American man by the name of Percival Farquhar, who was hoping to move rubber from Bolivia to the Atlantic coast, where it could then be distributed from ports with greater ease (Sherwood).
Even after the implementation of measures such as a hospital and some medical structures to reduce the risk of malaria epidemics and other diseases claiming so many of the railroad’s workers, the project continued to struggle. On top of everything else, resources were thin as the narrator comments: “The enterprise became a lingering disaster… The doctors continued the daily round of the host of the fever-stricken, giving them quinine, which was a deceit made of flour” (Tomlinson, Location