186- 



COMMERCE. 



regarding the one confined to the Peruvian territory (could not fail to 

 enrich their owners ; for they would entirely monopolize the trade of 

 the river, which is fairly measured by the imports and exports of Para, 

 which amounted in 1851 to two millions of dollars. 



These two millions are now brought down to Para, and carried away 

 from Para, (with the exception of what is consumed in the city,) by 

 clumsy, inefficient river-craft, which would vanish from the main stream 

 at the first triumphant whistle of the engine. These would, however, 

 until the profits justified the putting on of more steamers, find ample 

 employment in bringing down and depositing upon the banks of the 

 main stream the productions of the great tributaries. 



I can imagine the waking-up of the people on the event of the estab- 

 lishment of steamboat navigation on the Amazon. I fancy I can hear 

 the crash of the forest falling to make room for the cultivation of cotton, 

 cocoa, rice, and sugar, and the sharp shriek of the saw, cutting into 

 boards the beautiful and valuable woods of the country ; that I can see 

 the gatherers of India-rubber and copaiba redoubling their efforts, to be 

 enabled to purchase the new and convenient things that shall bejpre- 

 sented at the door of their huts in the wilderness ; and even the wild 

 Indian finding the way from his pathless forest to the steamboat depot 

 to exchange his collections of vanilla, spices, dyes, drugs, and gums, for 

 the things that would take his fancy — ribbons, beads, bells, mirrors, and 

 gay trinkets. 



Brazil and Peru have entered into arrangements, and bound them- 

 selves by treaty, to appropriate money towards the establishment of 

 steamboat navigation on the Amazon. This is well. It is doing some- 

 thing towards progress ; but it is the progress of a denizen of their own 

 forests — the sloth. Were they to follow the example lately set by the 

 republics of the La Plata, and throw open their rivers to the commerce 

 of the world, then the march of improvement would be commensurate 

 with the importance of the act; and these countries would grow in 

 riches and power with the rapidity of the vegetation of their own most 

 fertile lands. 



We, more than any other people, are interested in the opening of this 

 navigation. As has been before stated, the trade of this region must 

 pass by our doors, and mingle and exchange with the products of our 

 Mississippi valley. I am permitted to take extracts bearing upon this 

 subject from a letter of an eminent American citizen residing in Lima 

 to the Superintendent of the National Observatory, whose papers upon 

 the Amazon, its resources and future importance, have attracted the 

 attention, not only of our own people, but that of those who dwell or 



