80 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. \_Se])tember, 
In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, 
coffee, and rice might be grown, in any quantity and of 
the finest quality. The navigation is always safe and 
uninterrupted, and the whole country is so intersected 
by igaripes and rivers that every estate has water-carriage 
for its productions. But the indolent disposition of the 
people, and the scarcity of labour, will prevent the capa- 
bilities of this fine country from being developed till Eu- 
ropean or North American colonies are formed. There 
is no country in the world where people can produce for 
themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries of 
life. Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, sugar, coffee, and 
cotton, beef, poultry, and pork, with oranges, bananas, 
and abundance of other fruits and vegetables, thrive with 
little care. With these articles in abundance, a house 
of wood, calabashes, cups and pottery of the country, 
they may live in plenty without a single exotic produc- 
tion. And then what advantages there are in a country 
where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations du- 
ring winter, but where crops may be had, and poultry 
be reared, all the year round ; where the least possible 
amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a 
hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether 
superfluous. With regard to the climate I have said 
enough already ; and I repeat, that a man can work as 
well here as in the hot summer months in England, and 
that if he will only work three hours in the morning and 
three in the evening, he will produce more of the neces- 
saries and comforts of life than by twelve hours’ daily 
labour at home. 
Nothing more of importance occurred, and we arrived 
