xviii Introduction. 



introdnced in 1853, subsidized by the government. But 

 it is to a young Brazilian statesman, Sr. A. C. Tavares Bas- 

 tos, tliat belongs the credit of having agitated, in the press 

 and in the national parliament, the opening of the Ama- 

 zon, until public opinion, thus acted upon, produced the 

 desired result. On another occasion, in May, 1868, 1 gave 

 several indices of a more enlightened policy in Brazil, and 

 stated^ that the opening of the Amazon, which occurred on 

 the 7th of September, 1867, and by which the great river 

 is free to the flags of all nations, fi-om the Atlantic to Peru, 

 and the abrogation of the monopoly of the coast-trade from 

 the Amazon to the Rio Grande do Sul, whereby 4000 

 miles of Brazilian sea-coast are open to the vessels of every 

 country, can not fail not only to develop the resources of 

 Brazil, but will prove of great benefit to the bordering 

 Hispano-American republics and to the maritime nations 

 of the earth. The opening of the Amazon is the most sig- 

 nificant indication that the leaven of the narrov;^ monopo- 

 listic Portuguese conservatism has at last worked out. 

 Portugal would not allow Humboldt to enter the Amazon 

 Yalley in Brazil. The result of the new policy is beyond 

 the most sanguine expectation. The exports and imports 

 for Para for October and Xovember, 1867, were double 

 those of 1866. This is but the beginning. Soon it will 

 be found that it is cheaper for Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and 

 'New Granada, east of the Andes, to receive their goods 

 from, and to export their India-rubber, cinchona, etc., to 

 the United States and Europe, via the great water high- 

 way which discharges into the Atlantic, than by the long, 

 circuitous route of Cape Horn or the trans-Isthmian route 

 of Panama. 



