Oil the Navigation of the Maranon or Amazons. 45 



in the first instance, to obtain the sanction of, and perhaps a 

 charter from, the government of the country. The company 

 should, I think, consist partly of natives. The spirit of monopoli- 

 zation that has hitherto marked the general proceedings of Eu- 

 ropeans in and towards South America, and from which our 

 own countrymen have not been altogether exempt, has, I con- 

 ceive, been one very principal cause of the failures of many 

 South American speculations. There are several persons re- 

 sident in Para, who possess considerable property, and who, I 

 think, would be far from objecting to become shareholders in 

 such a company. By including them, it would not only be the 

 most just and honourable mode of proceeding, but most likely 

 to promote the interest of the company, as the natives would 

 naturally apply the interest which they possess in the country, 

 whilst they would derive the benefit of British or European 

 capital and intelligence. 



At first two vessels might be sent out, of about a hundred 

 or a hundred and fifty tons burden, to ply the Rio Negro and 

 Para, a distance that is estimated at about twelve hundred 

 miles. There would, I think, be employment sufficient for 

 two such vessels at present, and as they improved the commer- 

 cial relations of the country, which in all probability they very 

 soon would do, their places might be taken by vessels of a su- 

 perior class, and these might be sent to feel their way up the 

 higher Maranon or Rio Negro. 



The fewer Europeans sent out in the vessels the better, as 

 they are expensive and unaccustomed to the climate and coun- 

 try. Engineers would of course be required ; but there are per- 

 sons who are masters of some of the river-craft at Para, and 

 who being to a certain extent pilots for the river, would be the 

 best as mates or pilots, or whatever else they might be called, 

 perhaps letting the engineer have charge of the vessel. - The 

 river-craft at present working on the lower parts of the Mara- 

 non, have a sort of a house built above the deck, in which the 

 men live, and in which part of the cargo being bulky but light, 

 as for instance sarsaparilla, is stowed, and it would perhaps be 

 well that something similar should be fitted to the steam- vessels, 

 and taken out in frame, to be put up at Para. 



There is a bed of coal high up the country through which 



