39 
children. We may hope that such will not be the case, and there¬ 
fore I thought that the subject of cotton-cultivation in Peru, and the 
probable restoration of those once vast plantations, would be worth 
at least your licaring. We are iuformed by the last mail, through 
The Times of Jan. 14, that the cultivation of cotton in Peru is now 
being carried on to a great extent. The shipments made to England 
this year are more than three times what they were in 1860, and 
next year the export will be mnch larger. In I860 there were 
exported 10,000 cwt. ; in 1862, 15,000 cwt. ; and in 1863 there 
had already been shipped 31,500 cwt. It is said, from the area of 
land now planted with cotton throughout Peru, the export of 1864 
should be 60,000 cwt. A small quantity from the eastern parts of 
Peru has been sent down the Amazons, but the expense attending 
this route is as yet too great to encourage exportation to any great 
extent. Now I know that even 60,000 cwt. are but a few threads 
in comparison with what is needed by the 28 millions of spindles of 
England, to say nothing of those of France. But there can be no 
doubt that tliis free-grown cotton will extend its supplies till the old 
plantations of the Incas are restored, and these, added to those of 
British India, not only make the cotton supply inexhaustible, but 
cotton slaves as great an impossibility as a slave chain round a white 
man’s wrist. The cultivation of cotton then in Peru, one of its 
original sources, is, though of no local iuterest to us, of intense 
interest to those who watch over the cultivation of the earth’s sur¬ 
face. I believe that the azequias, or canals of the old Incas, will 
be restored, and that they will fructify millions of acres of free grown 
cotton. I believe that the Meta aud the Amazons, the Plata and 
the Magdalena, will soon bear down their free streams many thou¬ 
sand bales of free-grown cotton every year. I believe that the 
amazing ocean of cotton trees which stretches from the confines of 
Atacama to the foot of the Andes will soon be made to yield their 
wealth to us. I believe all this, because I have seen it partially 
accomplished ; and because science, in the hands of practical men, is 
every day convincing the world more and more that to replenish the 
earth and subdue it is the service which the Creator requires at the 
band of man, and the only service by which the earth shall yield 
her increase, and the “ centuries behind ” us their fruits of peace. 
It is owing to such societies as this that cotton cultivation has been 
pushed forward with such proud success, not only in Peru and the 
East Indies, but these colonies also ; and I have ventured to broach 
this subject to you, who are labouring in the same cause, though 
not from the same pressure of circumstances, that you may be 
encouraged, take heart, and keep to your work, undismayed by any 
failure, uudaunted by any sneer. 
