FROM RIO HE JANEIRO TO THE RAPIDS OF THE MADEIRA. 
33 
affluouts, wore almost a terra incagniia before steamers tlivifled the yellow 
floods of the former. There were oidy a few slave-dealing regatoes,* 
tempted by their illicit gains, or some clerks of mercantile houses at 
Para, who braved the diflEiculties of a weary voyage in small boats for 
throe or four months, to keep up a highly-lncrative trade in caoutchouc, 
cacao, Pard nuts, seveinl kinds of resin, and dried flsh. 
Some eight or ten years ago, all this began to improve. The fertility 
of the land became better known; and the trade gradually lost the 
character of slave-traftic and robbery, at least in the more peopled regions 
of the valley, free com])etition liaving been, at last, rendered possible. 
Tn the year 1.8t57, the Government of Brazil finally abandoned the 
old narrow-minded system of colonial exclusiveness, and declared the 
Amazon free to the flags of all nations. 
But the results of this measure will be of imaginary advantage only, 
until it is extended as well to the various branch streams ; for none of 
the neighbouring states, Peru, Bolivia, or Venezuela — which alone, even 
now, have the privilege of navigating them under their national colours — 
have the power to call into life a well-organised steam-fleet. The “ Stars 
and Sti’ipes ” only could effect a thorough change there ; but, as jp.t, they 
are floating on none of those mighty si reams, t , 
The city of Para does not yield a favourable impression, though there 
are some monumental edifices in the main streets that forineiiy might 
have had some pretensions to architectural beauty ; but they have gone 
to decay, and the commerce of to- day is of too recent a date to make any 
display in public buildings. 
The Cathedral, whose wide bare aisles are of striking grandeur ; the 
Episcopal Palace, and the Palace of the President, originally intended tor 
* Eegat-rto, flerivod from “ resgiitiir,” to lihvrnU tlio prisonors of war of tlie ImRaus, 
whose lives were forfeited. On this prete.vt the Regatoes, at the same time tJio pedlars 
of those i-egioiiB, not only IceiR up a vory flourishing and lucrativo slave-trade, but 
they practised all sorts of cruoltios and ciimes in the huts of the savage and half- 
eivilised inhahitants of these eounti’ies. On several occasions Liberal deputies have 
warmly spoken, iii the Chambers at Rio do Janeiro, against this inexcusable abuse, 
which .still continues, though on a minor scale ; but in vain. Tho distauce,s are too great, 
r and the political influence of the interested par-ties is too powerful for a successful prose- 
cution of the criminals in these out-of-the-way places. To tliis day Portuguese merchants 
keep, on the borders of the Japura, Punis, Telle, &o., a great number of aboriginal 
families in such a degree cd“ dependence that it ditfers from real slavei-y only by the cir- 
cimistanoe that their masters wisely i-ofrain from selling such useful domestic animals ! 
I I I have just learuod tliat tire Imperial (Jovornmont lias, as a special favour, 
' conceded permission to the Nor-th American Company can-ying out our railway pr-oject on 
the Madeira, to send an American schooner up to Sairto Antonio under her rrationalflag. 
U 
