512 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
like our Mississippi, were made the boundary between a 
succession of independent provinces on either side of it ; 
suppose that on the southern banks of the Amazons the 
province of Teffe should extend from the borders of Peru 
to the banks of the Madeira, the province of Santarem from 
the Madeira to the Xingu, and that of Pard be reduced 
to the country east of the Xingu, including the Island of 
Marajo ; each of these separate provinces would then be 
at once bounded and traversed by great streams, securing 
the double activity of competition and the stimulus of in- 
ternal conveniences. In like manner should the lands on 
the northern banks of the Amazons form several indepen- 
dent provinces ; that of Monte Alegre, for instance, ex- 
tending from the Rio Trombetas to the sea ; that of Ma- 
naos, from the Rio Trombetas to the Rio Negro ; and per- 
haps that of the Hyapura, enclosing the present wilder- 
ness between the Rio Negro and the Solimoens. It will, no 
doubt, be objected that such a change would involve an 
administrative staff quite disproportionate to the present 
population ; but the government of such provinces, even 
with the few inhabitants they might number, if organized 
upon the plan of the territorial governments of our infant 
States, would only stimulate local energies, and develop 
local resources, without interfering in the least with the 
central government. Moreover, any one familiar with the 
working of the present system in the valley of the Amazons 
must be aware that all the cities started during the past 
century along the great river and its tributaries, far from 
progressing, are going to ruin and decay ; and this is un- 
questionably owing to the centralization at Para of all the 
real activity of the whole country. 
Without a much denser population, the best efforts of 
