60 



REFLECTIONS. 



river basin, and place them within a few days' easy sail of Europe and 

 the United States. 



Only a few miles back we had first entered the famous mining district 

 of Peru. A large portion of the silver which constitutes the circulation 

 of the world was dug from the range of mountains upon which we are 

 standing; and most of it came from that slope of them which is 

 drained off into the Amazon. Is it possible for commerce and navi- 

 gation up and down this majestic water-course and its beautiful 

 tributaries to turn the flow of this silver stream from its western 

 course to the Pacific, and conduct it with steamers down the Amazon 

 to the United States, there to balance the stream of gold with which 

 we are likely to be flooded from California and Australia ? 



Questions which I could not answer, and reflections which I could 

 not keep back, crowded upon me. Oppressed with their weight, and 

 the magnitude of the task before me, I turned slowly and sadly away, 

 secretly lamenting my own want of ability, and sincerely regretting 

 that the duty before me had not been assigned to abler and better 

 hands. 



