270 The Andes and the Amazon. 



It is about two thousand miles in length ; one branch, the 

 Beni, rising near Lake Titicaca, drains the fertile valleys 

 of Yungus and Apollo, rich in cinchona, chocolate, and 

 gold ; the Maraore springs from the vicinity of Chuqui- 

 saca, within fifteen miles of a source of the Paraguay, 

 traversing the territory of the brave and intelligent Moxos ; 

 while the Itinez washes down the gold and diamonds of 

 Matto Grosso. Were it not for the cascade four hundred 

 and eighty miles from its mouth, large vessels might sail 

 from the Amazon into the very heart of Bolivia. When 

 full, it has a three-mile current, and at its junction with 

 the Amazon it is two miles wide and sixty-six feet deep. 

 Five hundred miles from its mouth it is a mile wide and 

 one hundred feet deep. It contains numerous islands, and 

 runs in a comparatively straight course. It received its 

 name from the vast quantity of drift-wood often seen float- 

 ing down. The value of Brazilian commerce with Bolivia 

 by the Madeira was, in 1867, $43,000.* 



At Santarem the Amazon receives another great tribu- 

 tary, the Tapajos (or E.io Preto, as the Portuguese call it), 

 a thousand miles long, and, for the last eighty miles, from 

 four to twelve miles in breadth. It rises amid the glitter- 

 ing mines of Matto Grosso, only twenty miles from the 

 head-waters of the Eio Plata, and flows rapidly down 

 through a magnificent hilly country to the last cataract, 

 which is one hundred and sixty miles above Santarem, 

 and is the end of navigation to sailing vessels. Thence to 

 the Amazon it has little current and no great depth. From 

 Santarem to Diamantino it is about twenty-six days' travel. 

 Large quantities of sarsaparilla, rubber, tonka beans, man- 

 dioca, and guarana are brought down this river. 



* In the map of Friar Fritz, published in 1 707, the Madeira is one of the 

 most insignificant of the tributaries, and the Ucayali and Putumayo are the 

 largest. 



