LIFE AT MANAOS. 



191 



office, the custom-house, the President's mansion, &g. The 

 position of the city, however, at the junction of the Rio 

 Negro, the Amazons, and the Solimoens, is commanding ; 

 and, insignificant as it looks at present, Manaos will no 

 doubt be a great centre of commerce and navigation at 

 some future time.* 



But when we consider the vast extent of land covered 

 by almost impenetrable forest and the great practical diffi- 

 culties in the way of the settler here, arising from the cli- 

 mate, the insects, the obstacles to communication, the day 

 seems yet far distant when a numerous population will 

 cover the banks of the Amazons, when steamers will ply 

 between its ports as between those of the Mississippi, and 

 when all nations will share in the rich products of its 

 valley. f One of my greatest pleasures in Manaos has been 

 to walk toward the neighboring forest at nightfall, and see 

 the water-carriers, Indian and negro, coming down from the 

 narrow pathways with their great red earthen jars on their 



* Some English travellers have criticised the position of the town, and re- 

 gretted that it is not placed lower down, at the immediate junction of the Rio 

 Negro with the Solimoens. But its actual situation is much better, on account 

 of the more quiet port, removed as it is from the violent currents caused by 

 the meeting of the two rivers. — L, A. 



t When this was written there was hardly any prospect of the early opening 

 of the Amazons to the free commerce of the world. The circumstance that 

 since the 7th of September last this great fresh- water ocean has been made 

 free to the mercantile shipping of all nations will, no doubt, immensely acceler- 

 ate the development of civilization in these desert regions. No act could have 

 exhibited more unequivocally the liberal policy which actuates the Brazilian 

 government than this. To complete the great work, two things are still want- 

 ing, — a direct high road between the upper tributaries of the Rio Madeira 

 und Rio Paraguay, and the abolition of the subsidies granted to privileged com- 

 panies, that the colossal traffic of which the whole basin is susceptible may 

 truly be thrown open to a fair competition. — L. A. 



