356 The Andes and the Amazons. 



colis, the richest silver-mines in the world, yielded in 1872 

 $6,750,000. The Beni region is a favorable field for emi- 

 gration ; the climate is good, the land very fertile, the riv- 

 er abounds with game, and there are no savages between 

 Exaltacion and Trinidad. 



On the Rio Negro a steamer makes six trips a year, as 

 far as Santa Isabel (546 miles) for piassaba and sarsapa- 

 rilla. The value of the trade on this tributary, in 1872, 

 was $62,586; it is now on the increase. The rich cacao 

 and coffee, once raised in this region, are no longer culti- 

 vated ; and no one can be found to cut the celebrated 

 moira-pinima — the most beautiful wood in the world. Not 

 a stick can be found for sale in the city of Manaos ; while 

 every body confesses that there is an abundance of it up 

 the Negro, especially on its bi-anch, the Branco, near the 

 boundary-line of Guiana. A regular monthly steamer (and 

 often an extra one) goes up the Puriis, one thousand miles 

 to Hyutanahan, bringing down rubber, copaiba, sarsaparil- 

 la, nuts, turtle-oil, and fish. The commerce on this river is 

 rapidly increasing. Its value in 1872 was $627,602. There 

 is a monthly steamer, likewise, on the Jurua, ascending to 

 Marary (500 miles), and the trade is similar to that on the 

 Puriis. The Peruvian steamers, plying between Loreto and 

 Yurimaguas, take up dry goods and hardware in exchange 

 for Moyabamba hats and sarsaparilla. Their rate down- 

 stream is eighteen miles an hour, and from ten to twelve 

 up, while the Brazilian steamers descend at the rate of 

 twelve or fifteen miles an hour, but make only eight up- 

 stream. 



Such is this great fluvial highway, as thus far devel- 

 oped. Imagine a river rising in the Lake of the Woods, 

 and emptying into the Atlantic with a mouth stretching 

 from New York to Baltimore. Unless checked by blind 

 legislation, the commerce of the Amazons, leavened by 



