THE GENESEE FARMER. 



301 



to have been lately discovered, and the Pastaza ; 

 Peru by the Ucayale and the Iluallager ; and Boli- 

 via reaches the Amazon below Barra by the Madeira 

 — a large river runuiug for several hundred miles 

 through Brazil. 



British, Dutch and French Guiana are also indi- 

 rectly interested in tlie opening of its navigation, and 

 the settlement of its banks ; for then the country 

 back of Guiana, and toward the river settlements, 

 would be exposed. The whole world in fact is in- 

 terested in the navigation of a river which has no 

 rival save the Mississippi or the Yaug tse Kiang. 



Of the Mautana of Carabaya, Lieut. H. says : 



" Its lands are so rich that they give three crops 

 a year, and produce fine coca, coffee that rivals that 

 of Mocha, superior cocoa, potatoes, maize, fruits, 

 raisins of every kind, the vanilla, superior and most 

 abundant woods, and the cascarilla bark, called ca- 

 lisaya, with all the other classes." 



His reflections upon entering the main channel, 

 called by the Peruvians Maranon, are given as follows: 



"She [Brazil], together with the five Spanish 

 American republics above named, owns in the valley 

 of the Amazon more than two millions of square 

 miles of land, intersected in every direction by many 

 thousand miles of what might be called canal navi- 

 gation. As a general rule, large ships may sail 

 thousands of miles to the foot of the falls of the gi- 

 gantic rivers of this country ; and in Brazil particu- 

 larly, a few hundred miles of artificial canal would 

 open to the steamboat, and render available, thou- 

 sands of miles more. 



"This land is of unrivaled fertility ; on account of 

 its geographical situation and topographical and geo- 

 logical formation, it produces nearly everything essen- 

 tial to the comfort and well-being of man. On the 

 top and eastern slope of the Andes lie hid unimagi- 

 nable quantities of silver, iron, coal, copper and 

 quicksilver, waiting but the application of science and 

 the hand of industry for their development. The 

 successful working of the quicksilver mines of Huan- 

 cavelica would add several millions of silver to the 

 annual product of Oerro Pasco alone. Many of the 

 streams that dash from the summits of the Cordilleras 

 wash gold from the mountain-side, and deposit it in 

 the hollows and gulches as they pass. Barley, quinua 

 and potatoes, best grow in a cold, with wheat, rye, 

 maize, clover and tobacco, products of a temperate 

 region, deck the mountain-side, and beautify the val- 

 ley ; while immense herds of sheep, llamas, alpacas 

 and vicunas feed upon those elevated plains, and yield 

 wool of the finest and longest staple. 



" Descending toward the plain, and only for a few 

 miles, the eye of the traveler from the temperate zone 

 is held with wonder and delight by the beautiful and 

 strange productions of the torrid. He sees for the 

 first time the symmetrical coffee bush, rich with its 

 dark-gi-een leaves, its pure white blossoms, and its 

 gay, red fruit. The prolific plantain, with its great 

 waving fan-like leaf, and immense pendant branches 

 of golden-looking fruit, enchains his attention. The 

 sugar cane waves in rank luxuriance before him; and 

 .if he be familiar with Southern plantations, his heart 

 swells with emotion as the gay yellow blossom and 



white boll of the cotton sets before his mind's eye the 

 familiar scenes of home. 



'■ Fruits, too, of the finest quality and most luscious 

 flavor, grow here ; oranges, lemons, bananas, pine- 

 apples, melons, chirimoyas, granadillas, and many 

 others which, unpleasant to the taste at first, become 

 with use exceedingly grateful to the accustomed 

 palate. The Indian gets here his indispensable coca, 

 and the forests at certain seasons are redolent with 

 the perfume of the vanilla. 



* * -x- * * * 



"The climate of this country is pleasant and healthy; 

 it is entirely free from the annoyance of sand flies and 

 musquitoes, which infest the lower part of the tribu- 

 taries, and nearly the whole course of the Amazon. 

 There is too much rain for agreeability from August 

 to March ; but nothing could be more pleasant than 

 the weather when I was there in June. 



" The country everywhere in Peru, at the eastern 

 foot of the Andes, is such as I have described above. 

 Farther down we find the soil, the peculiar condition, 

 the productions of a country which is occasionally 

 overflowed, and then subjected, with still occasional 

 showers, to the influence of a tropical sun. From 

 these causes we see a fecundity of soil and a rapidity 

 of vegetation that is marvelous, and to which even 

 Egypt, the ancient granary of Europe, affords no 

 parallel, because, similar in some other respects, this 

 country has the advantage of Egj-pt in that there ia 

 here no drouth. Here trees, evidently young, shoot 

 up to such a height that no fowling piece will reach 

 the game seated on their topmost branches, and with 

 such rapidity that the roots have not strength or suf- 

 ficient hold upon the soil to support their weight, 

 and they are continually falling, borne down by the 

 slightest breeze, or by the mass of parasites and 

 creepers that envelop them from root to top. 



"This is the country of rice, of sarsaparilla, of 

 India-rubber, balsam copaiba, gum copal, animal and 

 vegetable wax, cocoa, Brazilian nutmeg, Tonka beans, 

 ginger, black jieppcr, arrowroot, tapioca, annatto, 

 indigo, sapucaia, and Brazil nuts; dyes of the gayest 

 colors, drugs of rare virtue, variegated cabinet woods 

 of the finest grain, and susceptible of the highest 

 polish. The forests are filled with game, and the 

 rivei-s are stocked with turtle and fish. Here dwell 

 the anta or wild cow, the peixi-boi or fish-ox, the 

 sloth, the ant-eater, the beautiful black tiger, the mys- 

 terious electric eel, the boa constrictor, the anaconda, 

 the deadly coral snake, the voracious alligator, mon- 

 keys in endless variety, birds of the most briUiant 

 plumage, and insects of the strangest forms and gay- 

 est colors. 



" The climate of this country is salubrious, and the 

 temperature agreeable. The direct rays of the sun 

 are tempered by an almost constant east wind, laden 

 with moisture from the ocean, so that one never suf- 

 fers either from heat or cold. The man accustomed 

 to this climate is ever unwilling to give it up for a 

 more bracing one, and will generally refuse to ex- 

 change the abandon and freedom from restraint that 

 characterises his life there, for the labor and struggle 

 necessary even to maintain existence in a more rigorous 

 climate or barren soil. The active, the industrious, 

 and the enterprising, will be here, as elsewhere, in ad- 

 vance of his fellows ; but this is the very paradise of 



