52 



VIEW OF THE LOWLANDS. 



large enough to insert a thermometer, and the height of the mountains 

 determined by boiling water. 



The day is pleasant, and we take our last blow and rest ; the clouds 

 lift, and while seated on the smooth top of a peak of the Andes, we see 

 afar off to the east the magnificent view we have been anxiously expect- 

 ing. The rich lowlands are looked down upon from a height of over 

 nine thousand feet. It is like looking upon the ocean; those regular 

 ridges trending northwest and southeast, decreasing in height as they 

 increase in distance, seem like the waves of the sea rolling towards the 

 mountains. The whole surface is covered with a beautiful growth of 

 forest trees, whose foliage appears of a deep-blue color. Looking at the 

 compass, following the direction of the northeast point, we see interrup- 

 tions in the ridges, where the Madre-de-Dios cuts her way through the 

 rollers towards the Atlantic ocean, striking them at right-angles. Upon 

 looking at our map on the east, the river Beni flows in an easterly direc- 

 tion into the Madeira ; and again on the west, as our previous remarks 

 go to show, the Santa Ana empties into the Ucayali. We know that 

 a great river pours from its four mouths a large quantity of water into 

 the Amazon in latitude 4° south, and longitude 61° west, where it is 

 called the river Purus. The geographical position of the Madre-de-Dios 

 forces us to believe it to be the same as the Purus. This is a matter of 

 importance. If it is navigable for steamboats to where we now see, it 

 forms the natural highway to South Peru. All the silver and gold of 

 Peru are not to compare with the undeveloped commercial resources of 

 that beautiful garden. The wealth, strength, and greatness of a nation 

 depends upon a well-cultivated and productive soil and people, aided by 

 commerce and manufactures. Veins of gold or silver run out ; without 

 other industry, poverty follows, particularly where the people have been 

 principally schooled in poetry and Latin grammar, as, found to be the 

 case on some parts of our route. 



Leechler tells me he has not heard his own language spoken for ten 

 years ; that he wDuld like much to go with me ; "but," said he, "I have 

 a wife and two fine boys in Porcotambo." He has been of so much 

 service and stood by me in my troubles, that I feel inclined to sit still 

 and talk with him in plain English. The cascarilleros have seen islands 

 in the bed of the Madre-de-Dios. During the rainy season the moun- 

 tain torrents wash away the soil about the roots of large trees ; a tree 

 falls into the stream, and is carried away by the waters ; that tree is 

 borne rapidly down until it reaches the level country, where the current 

 of the larger river runs slow ; there it turns up-side down, the branches 

 sink, and the roots stick oui of the water ; the branches evidently hold 



