May 25, 1857.] SOUTH AMERICA. 467 



lished * On the Exploration and Survey of the Rio de la Plata and its 

 Tributaries,' noticed in Admiral Beechey's Address last year. 



The United States' steamer Waterwitch was employed on the 

 service -in question for more than three years, during which the 

 Parana and Uruguay, the principal affluents of the Plata, were 

 explored, and the river Paraguay ascended as high as the Brazilian 

 fort of Coramba, in lat. 19° S. From that point the further progress 

 of the vessel was not permitted by the ruling powers, much to the 

 disappointment of Lieut. Page, who hoped to have led the way in 

 opening a communication by steam for the first time with the rich 

 provinces of Matto Grosso and Cuyaba, on the higher waters of this 

 magnificent river. 



There must, doubtless, be a great mass of new information to be 

 collected respecting those countries which, under the Colonial rule 

 of their old masters, were closed to all the rest of the world ; and 

 we cannot, therefore, but join in anticipating a rich harvest of 

 interesting matter respecting them whenever the further details of 

 the expedition shall be published in extenso, as no doubt they will 

 be ere long, conformably to the liberal and enlightened practice of 

 the Government of the United States. 



It is, however, but due to others, when treating of this subject, 

 to mention that the rivers Parana and Uruguay have been already 

 very carefully surveyed by our own officers, and that Captain 

 Sulivan's admirable charts of them, upon a large scale, were long 

 ago published by the Admiralty under the superintendence of that 

 eminent hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort. 



Those rivers, as well as the Paraguay throughout its course, had 

 been also previously mapped (and, it may be inferred, with some 

 accuracy) by commissioners eminently qualified for the purpose, 

 who had been chosen by the Courts of Spain and Portugal to settle 

 and define their respective rights and limits, in virtue of the 

 treaties of 1750 and 1777, and whose labours on the last occasion 

 extended over a period of no less than twenty years. 



The portion of them best known, perhaps, is that connected with 

 Paraguay, in which every place of any importance was fixed by 

 astronomical observation, as may be seen in the well-known work of 

 Azara, who was one of the Spanish commissioners. 



Copies of many of the maps of that part of this grand survey 

 were purchased some time ago by the British Museum, and may bo 

 referred to in the MS. Department. 



The most important result of Lieut. Page's expedition as yet 



