The railway would help to get the Bolivian rubber out of the jungle, past the rapids on the Madeira and then reach the navigable part of the river in Porto Velho, in the state of Rondônia.

The enterprise was first a British project but later was controlled by the American Percival Farquhar who had a Brazilian business empire.

This adventure in the Amazon brought about the death of about six thousand workers, caused by attacks from Indigenous Amerindian tribes, malaria and many other diseases.

It was a migration motivated by work, by the search for a new life, causing the rupture of family roots and culture as well as producing a feeling of displacement and lack of emotional ties.

Under the order of the English engineer, Collier, the Caribbeans worked hard for the American enterprise.