in communication with the leading European ports. The navi- 
gation line for the United States, served by an English company, 
is not yet of the required progress to insure all the necessary 
comfort to the passengers who venture to undertake the long 
trip. Furthermore, it is served by steamers that do not possess 
the modern requirements of speed, which at present is of first 
interest not only for the passengers who look for a pleasure 
resort as well as for the intercourse of commercial relations with 
the world’s markets. That is the reason why the interchange 
between Amazonas and New York has been rather slow, which 
interchange could be of greater magnitude than it is to-day if 
there was a more intimate knowledge between the parties. 
I would not want to end this information about the capital 
of the State of Amazonas without quoting some paragraphs 
from the excellent work, “The Rubber Country of the Amazon,” 
written by Mr. Henry C. Pearson, Editor of the “India Rubbei 
World”: 
“When one considers that this city is a thousand miles from 
the seacoast, in the heart of a vast tropical jungle, with wild 
Indians within a hundred miles of it, its presence seems incred- 
ible. In a way, it is as modern as New York or Chicago. The 
latest Parisian fashions are there, and almost anything that 
civilized man desires is obtainable. Prices are high, to be sure, 
because both luxuries and necessities are imported and subject 
to a duty of 100 per cent. But when something besides rubber 
is produced by the magnificently fertile lands that surround it, 
Manaos will be one of the great and beautiful cities of the world 
and living as reasonable as anywhere.” 
That progress, although it has been made principally in 
Manaos, in some form is also affecting the interior of the State. 
The river navigation is made quicker than before and on elegant 
and up-to-date steamers, which navigate throughout all the tribu- 
taries of the Amazon River. 
Furthermore, the Madeira~-Mamoré railroad has produced a 
great improvement in the transportation facilities adopted in the 
State for the quick delivery of merchandise in the interior. 
‘The most distant points of the territory are now connected 
by wireless telegraphy. The news of the world can be trans- 
mitted daily to the capital of the State by means of double river 
cable and by wireless telegraphy of the Marconi system. 
The climatic conditions are not so terrible as pictured in 
the minds of the outside people, who do not know the real facts 
and the true geographic situation of the State. 
Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his “Narrative of Travels on the Ama- 
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