SHADOWS OF COMING TROUBLES 119 



sent to sink so much industrial capital by emancipation 

 or any other voluntary act?" 



With characteristic energy Maury pressed the ques- 

 tion upon the notice of the public. Lieutenant Lewis 

 Herndon's report of his exploration of the Amazon 

 Valley was submitted to Congress on January 26, 1853, 

 and soon afterwards there appeared in the National 

 Intelligencer and the Union of Washington at irregular 

 intervals seven articles signed "Inca", in which the 

 commercial, mineral, and agricultural potentialities of 

 the Amazon region were painted in glowing colors. The 

 free navigation of the Amazon River was demanded of 

 Brazil by Maury in these "Inca" articles; and at the 

 meeting of the Memphis Convention in June of the same 

 year resolutions were adopted urging the same proposi- 

 tion. These resolutions were then reported to the House 

 of Representatives in the form of a "Memorial of 

 Lieutenant Maury in behalf of the Memphis Convention 

 in favor of the free navigation of the Amazon River". 



This propaganda made at first a very unfavorable 

 impression on the Brazilians, and caused them to suspect 

 that a scheme of annexation by the United States was 

 the real reason for the insistence on the opening of their 

 great river to free navigation. One Brazilian newspaper 

 asserted that ''this nation of pirates, like those of their 

 race, wish to displace all the people of America who are 

 not Anglo-Saxon". So strong was the feeling thus 

 aroused that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs 

 reported on February 23, 1855 that further action on 

 the Maury memorial was for the present inexpedient. 

 However, at last, on December 7, 1866, an agreement 

 was signed providing that after September 7 of the 

 following year the Amazon should be free to the mer- 



