TRADE. 



311 



large vessel to the boats. This would probably take off the extra 

 forty-four per cent., leaving a clear profit of two hundred. This is 

 on the upward voyage. His return-cargo of hides, with what gold 

 dust and diamonds he has been able to purchase, will also pay 

 the trader one hundred per cent, on his original outlay, increased by his 

 profits. 



Let us suppose a man sends a cargo from Para, which cost him there 

 three hundred and fifty dollars. His two hundred per cent, of clear profit 

 in Diamantino has increased this sum to one thousand and fifty. One 

 hundred per cent, on this, the return-cargo, has made it two thousand 

 one hundred dollars ; so that he has pocketed a clear gain of seventeen 

 hundred and fifty dollars, making a profit of five hundred per cent, in 

 eight months. 



Although there seems, from the accounts we have of the Tapajos, 

 no chance of a steamer's reaching the diamond region by that river, 

 yet I have very little doubt but that she may reach it by the rivers 

 Plata, Parana, and Paraguay. Should this be the case, and should 

 Brazil have the magnanimity to throw open the diamond region to all 

 comers, and encourage them to come by promises of protection and 

 privileges, I imagine that this would be one of the richest places in the 

 world, and that Brazil would reap enormous advantages from such a 

 measure* 



The place at present is too thinly settled, and the wants of the 

 people too few, to make this trade (profitable as it appears to be on 

 the small scale) of any great importance. 



Captain Hislop monopolized at one time nearly all the trade of the 

 Tapajos. He told me that some years ago he sent annually to Cuiaba 

 goods to the value of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars, and supposes 

 that all other commerciantes together did not send as much more. He 

 complains, as all do, of the credit system, and says that the Cuiabanos 

 now owe him twenty thousand dollars. 



The trade now is almost nothing. The Cuiabanos themselves come 

 down to get their supplies, which they pay for principally in hides. 



I made several pleasant acquaintances in Santarem. One of the most 

 agreeable was a young French engineer and architect, M. Alphonse 

 Maugin De Lincourt, to whom I am indebted for some valuable pres- 

 ents, much interesting conversation, and the following notes of a voyage 

 on the Tapajos, which, as describing the manners and customs of the 

 Indian tribes occupying the borders of that river, I am persuaded will 

 not be uninteresting. 



