EASE OF ACCESS. 161 



would be worth while for one who is familiar with the various 

 branches of industry which would be benefited by a new supply 

 of materials, to visit that country and examine its resources 

 from an industrial point of view. All I have told you of these 

 things, I have gathered incidentally. It was not the object of 

 my journey. I observed these things when I had nothing else 

 to do ; or rather, as I could not help seeing them while I was 

 doing other things. I have no doubt that any one who would 

 go there for the purpose of ascertaining what are the various 

 useful materials which might be gathered there, what are the 

 places where the gathering might be done to the greatest advan- 

 tage, what are the places where settlements could be made 

 which would be most appropriate for the objects in view, would 

 render an immense service to our community. For these things 

 are used ; we receive them only accidentally, as it were, because 

 they have never been regularly cultivated, and because the 

 supply which comes to us is one which cannot be regndarly 

 depended upon. As soon as cultivation should replace this 

 accidental gathering — as soon as the endless variety of products 

 to which I have not even made an allusion should be brought 

 into the market — I have no doubt that the valley of the Amazon 

 would be one of great interest to us. Remember, that it will 

 bo more advantageous for our northern population to go there 

 to gather this wealth than to any other parts of the tropical 

 region, on account of its proximity, to begin with, and on 

 account of the character of the climate. In eleven days from 

 New York you can be in Para ; in a fortnight after leaving New 

 York you can be at the junction of the Rio Negro with the 

 Amazon, a tliousand miles above the mouth of the Amazon ; so 

 that it is at our door, and the facilities of communication are so 

 great, that we should take advantage of this source of valuable 

 traffic, now that it is thrown open to all nations, before others 

 have taken the cream from the field. And it is because I see 

 tlie immense advantages to be derived from this opportunity 

 that I have ventured to introduce here a subject so foreign, on 

 the whole, to the regular occupations of the members of this 

 Board. #• 



Let mo only add, that besides the articles to which I have 

 alluded, there is a variety of dyestutfs as great as the various 

 kinds of wood of which I have spoken. There is a variety of 

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