304 NAVIGATION OF THE AMAZONS. Chap. XVIII. 



Arica. But of this a portion is in coined money and chafa- 

 lonia, or old plate. 



Besides the raising of the various valuable products 

 suitable to the coast valleys and the sierra, the vast forests 

 to the eastward of the Andes, and the great fluvial high- 

 ways which flow through them to the Atlantic, offer an 

 inexhaustible field for Peruvian enterprise. The incredible 

 resources of this portion of Peru are only now beginning 

 to be fully appreciated, though ten, and even twenty 

 years ago, there were evident symptoms of the first early 

 pulsations of life and commerce on the mighty river Ama- 

 zons and its tributaries. Petty traders, the pioneers of 

 a stirring future, were then busy, each in his little traffic ; 

 canoes laden with hammocks, hats, wax, sarsaparilla, copaiba, 

 and other products of the forest, found their way to Para at 

 the mouth of the Amazons, and returned with European 

 manufactured goods. 



But of late years an immense stride in advance has been 

 taken ; and in 1857 a Brazilian company was working eight 

 steamers on the Amazons and its tributaries, conveying pas- 

 sengers, and bearing up and down a ceaseless ebb and flow of 

 commerce. Measures were adopted in 1853 to connect the 

 Brazilian line of steamers with a Peruvian line navigating the 

 upper waters, and two small steam-vessels were sent out from 

 New York for the purpose, called the " Tirade " and " Hual- 

 laga." The revolution of 1854 temporarily put a stop to these 

 efforts, and the two steamers were left to rot at Nauta, 2300 

 miles up the Amazons. Latterly, however, steps have again 

 been taken to supply the Peruvian tributaries of the Amazons 

 with steam navigation, and thereby to encourage settlement, 

 attract commerce, and thus develop the incalculable wealth 

 of Peru's Amazonian provinces. 



In October 1858 a fluvial convention was signed between 

 Brazil and Peru, establishing the free navigation of the 



