INTRODUCTORY. 



25 



Bolivia, and, passing through the province of Yongas, embark on the 

 Mamore or Ytenes, or whether you will try the Beni or any other route 

 to the Madeira, and thence to the Amazon, the state of the information 

 which you have collected, under a former order, will enable you to decide 

 more judiciously than it is possible for the department, with the meagre 

 state of its information upon the subject, to do. 



It is not desired that you should select any route by which you and 

 your party would be exposed to savage hostility, beyond your means of 

 defence and protection. 



Neither is it desirable that your party should be so large, on the one 

 hand, as to excite the suspicion of the people, or give offence to the 

 authorities, of the country through which you may pass, nor so small, 

 on the other, as to endanger its success. 



You are, therefore, authorized to employ a cook, servant, guide, and 

 interpreter, and to provide them with such arms as it is customary only 

 for travellers generally, in that part of the world, to carry for their own 

 protection. And these arms you will have returned to you at Para. 



The Navy Agent at Lima has been instructed to furnish, upon your 

 requisition, the necessary articles for the outfit of yourself and party, and 

 to honor your draft for a sum not exceeding five thousand, dollars, to 

 cover your expenses by the way. As these expenses will be mostly for 

 mules and arrieros, boats and boats' crews, it is supposed that the sum 

 named will be much more than sufficient. You will use of it only for 

 the necessary expenses of the party. 



The geographical situation and the commercial position of the Ama- 

 zon indicate the future importance, to this country, of the free navigation 

 of that river. 



To enable the government to form a proper estimate as to the degree 

 of that importance, present and prospective, is the object of your 

 mission. 



You will, therefore, avail yourself of the best sources of information 

 that can be had in answer to any or all of the following questions : 



What is the present condition of the silver mines of Peru and 

 Bolivia — their yield: how and by whom are they principally wrought? 



What is the machinery used, whence obtained, and how transported? 



Are mines of this metal, which are not worked, known to exist? 

 What impulse would the free navigation of the Amazon give to the 

 working of those mines ? What are their capacities; and if the naviga- 

 tion of that river and its tributaries were open to commerce, what effect 

 would it have in turning the stream of silver from those mines down 

 these rivers? With what description of craft can they be navigated 

 respectively? 



