COLONIZATION. • 321 



a vast storehouse, wliicli is destined, when fully opened, 

 to change the commercial relations of the world. 



Closely allied to the question of the commerce of the 

 Amazons, is the one of its colonization ; for, although the 

 exports of the valley at present are, and for decades must 

 continue to be, in the natural products of its exhaustless 

 forests and great streams, still, the larger part of its trade 

 Tnust ultimately consist in cultivated productions, as cacao, 

 coffee, cotton, tobacco, and sugar, all of which can be 

 successfully raised within the limits of the valley, and 

 with even better returns than in our Southern States, 

 Xow, while the native population can be largely depended 

 upon for the collecting of the products of their virgin 

 forests, still, the indolent, unenterprising Indo-Portuguese 

 inhabitants of the valley cannot be hoped to develop the 

 full agricultural capabilities of the country. This, if done 

 at all, must be effected by European or North- American 

 colonists. There are fewer discouragements to a well- 

 conducted scheme of colonization than generally supposed. 

 The climate of the valley is not excessively warm, nor is it 

 insalubrious ; the mean annual temperature at Para is 80°, 

 and Wallace found the greatest variation during four years 

 to be only 25°. One thousand miles inland from Para it is 

 but one or two degrees Avarmer than at that point. The 

 opennature of the valley to the east allows the equatorial 

 trade-Avinds to sweep its entire length, which, while miti- 

 gating the heat, render comparatively salubrious the 

 bi'oad river-channels that feel tlieir influence. Our party 

 never enjoyed better health than while upon the Amazons 

 and its tributaries. Intermittent fevers are less frequent 

 on these rivers than on our ov>i\ Western and Southern 

 waters. The wide tract of forest along the rivers, that is 

 subject to inundation, frequently pushes blufls above high- 

 water mark, as if purposely to provide sites for villas and 

 towns. The districts periodically flooded receive a rich 



