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20 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIUA RIVERS. 
raraguay, together witli the La Plata, have their full share of eurrents, 
crags, and obstructions. 
If the Parana, with its large affluents that rcach^ to the heart of 
Minas, the Sao Francisco, the Rio Doce, the Jeqnitinhonha and the 
affluents of the Amazon, the Tocantins, Araguaya, Xingu, Tapajos, 
Madeira, &c., were perfectly navigable, Brazil would not indeed have 
to look out for railways and roads just yet. Unfortunately all these 
rivers have, at different points of their course, either real falls— as the 
Sao Francisco, not far above its month, has the grand fall of Paulo 
Affouco or currents that scarcely allow a canoe or a flat boat to pass ; 
and thus thousands of square miles of the richest soil have continued 
for ages to remain unexplored, uncultivated, and almost totally unin- 
habited. 
Iiuii’cdible as it may appear at first sight, it is nevertheless true 
that the fate of the Southern provinces of Brazil, the western parts 
of Sao Paulo, Parana, and the south of Minas and Mato Grosso, would 
be a very different one if strong currents and the lofty falls of Sete 
Qnedas, nnvisited by any European for two hundred years since the 
mis.sionary expeditions of the Jesuits, did not render the Parana unfit 
for navigation. If on that chief arm of the La Plata Brazilian men-of- 
war had been stationed, if men and war material could have come by its 
affluents, the Iguacu, Paranapanema, and Tieto, the war with Paraguay 
would have come to an end much sooner, or probably would not have 
been begun at all. 
Notwithstanding the magnificent water-net of the South American 
(!ontineut, that strikes any one on the map, as yet only the La Plata 
and the Paraguay, and the Amazon, with the Lower Madeira, are 
])longhed regularly by steamers ; and, in all likelihood, steam navigation 
in the interior will, for many years to come, be limited to these chief 
arteries, unless the upper navigable parts of the Araguaya (a tributary 
of the Tocantins) and the Amazon are connected by some economical 
railroad Avith its lower course, as is proposed to be done on the 
Madeira. 
If, from the preceding pages the reader has gathered that in Brazil 
there is a wide field for human intelligence and energy, the folloAving 
short historical sketch Avill show Avhy the country has as yet failed 
to reach a higher degree of development, with all its great gifts of 
Nature. 
