world, rather than take it on her own shoulders by a useless exclusiveness; and she therefore issued a decree on the 27th of January, 1853, declaring several ports on each and all of her rivers which communicate with the Atlantic, whether by the La Plata or the Amazon, free and open to the commerce of the world. This was a very important document; it put the Northern republics on their guard, and excited a spirit of emulution in their governments. I have heard nothing of the result of Lisboa's mission; but I know that some of the most distinguished citizens of those republics have declared themselves favorable to the project of opening their rivers and ports to foreign trade, and are disposed to urge their respective governments, if necessary, to demand of Brazil the right of way to the ocean. azon. Independently of the action of the Spanish American republics concerning the free navigation of their tributaries of the Amazon, we have a special treaty with Peru, negotiated by J. Randolph Clay, our present minister, in July, 1851, which entitles us, under the present circumstances, to the navigation of the Peruvian AmThe second article of that treaty declares that, "The two high-contracting parties hereby bind and engage themselves not to grant any favor, privilege, or immunity whatever, in matters of commerce and navigation, to other nations, which shall not be also immediately extended to the citizens of the other contracting party, who shall enjoy the same gratuitously, or on giving a compensation as nearly as possible of proportionate value and effect, to be adjusted by mutual agreement, if the concession shall have been conditional." The concession to Brazil is conditional, but we shall find no difficulty in "giving a compensation as nearly as possible of proportionate value and effect;" that is a matter for Peru to decide, and there is little doubt but that she will consider the presence of our people and our vessels in her country, and upon her streams, as being of proportionate value. It will be thus seen that our citizens have a legal right, by express grant and decree, to trade upon the interior waters of Peru and Bolivia, and it is presumed that Brazil will not attempt to dispute the now well-settled doctrine, that no nation holding the mouth of a river has a right to bar the way to market of a nation holding higher up, or to prevent that nation's trade and intercourse with whom she will, by a great highway common to both. But Brazil has effectually closed the Amazon by her De Souza contract; she gives him the exclusive privilege for thirty years, with a bonus of $80,000 per annum, besides guaranteeing to him the $20,000 of Peru. This of course defies competition, though I very much doubt if the contract will endure; the Brazilians are so little acquainted with river steam navigation that De Souza will run his boats at great cost; the conditions of the contract are also stringent and oppressive, and under such circumstances, even with the bonus of $100,000, I doubt If the trade of the river for several years to come will support the six steamers that he contracts to keep on the line. Brazil, too, will soon see that in this matter she is standing in her own light. The efforts of this company, though partly supported by the government, will make little beneficial impression upon so vast a country, in comparison with that which would be made by the active. competition of the commercial nations of the world. Were she to adopt a liberal instead of an exclusive policy, throw open the Amazon to foreign commerce and competition, invite settlement upon its banks, and encourage emigration by liberal grants of lands, and efficient protection to person and property, backed as she is by such natural advan'ages, imagination could scarcely follow her giant strides towards wealth and greatness. She, together with the five SpanishAmerican republics above named, owns in the valley of the Amazon more than two millions of square miles of land, intersected in every direction by many thousand miles of what might be called canal navigation. As a general rule, large ships may sail thousands of miles to the foot of the falls of the gigantic rivers of this country; and in Brazil particularly, a few hundred miles of artificial canal would open to the steamboat, and render available, thousands of miles more. This land is of unrivalled fertility; on account of its geographical situation and topographical and geological formation, it produces nearly everything essential to the comfort and well-being of man. On the top and eastern slope of the Andes lie hid unimaginable quantities of silver, iron, coal, copper, and quicksilver, waiting but the application of science and the hand of industry for their development. The successful working of the quicksilver mines in Huancavelica would add several millions of silver to the annual product of Cerro Pasco alone. Many of the streams that dash from the summits of the Cordilleras wash gold from the mountain-side, and deposit it in the hollows and gulches as they pass. Barley, quinua, and potatoes, best grown in a cold, with wheat, rye, maize, clover, and tobacco, products of a temperate region, deck the mountain-side, and beautify the valley; while immense herds of sheep, llamas, alpacas, and vicunas feed upon those elevated plains, and yield wool of the finest and longest staple. Descending towards the plain, and only for a few miles, the eye of the traveller from the temperate zone is held with wonder and delight by the beautiful and strange productions of the torrid. He sees for the first time the symmetrical coffee-bush, rich with its dark-green leaves, its pure white blossoms, and its gay, red fruit. The prolific plantain, with its great waving fan-like leaf, and immense pendant branches of golden-looking fruit, enchains his attention. The sugarcane waves in rank luxuriance before him, and if he be familiar with Southern plantations his heart swells with emotion as the gay yellow blossom and white boll of the cotton sets before his mind's eye the familiar scenes at home. Fruits, too, of the finest quality and most luscious flavor, grow here; oranges, lemons, bananas, pine-apples, melons, chirimoyas, granadillas, and many others which, unpleasant to the taste at first, become with use exceedingly grateful to the accustomed palate. The Indian gets here his indispensable coca, and the forests at certain seasons are redolent with the perfume of the vanilla. It is sad to recollect that in this beautiful country (I have before me the valley of the Chanchamayo,) men should have offered me title deeds in gratuity to as much of this rich land as I wanted. Many of the inhabitants of Tarma hold grants of land in the Chanchamayo country from the government, but are so distrustful of its ability to protect them in their labors from the encroachments of the savages, that they do not cultivate them. About half a dozen persons only have cleared and are cultivating haciendas. One of these, the brave old Catalan Zapatero, was building himself a fire-proof house, mounting swivels at his gate, and swearing in the jargon of his provinee that, protection or no protection, he would bide the brunt of the savages, and not give up what had cost him so much time and labor without a fight for it. It is a pity that there are not more like him. The Peruvian government, how. ever, should assure the settlers of efficient protection. It should not only keep up the stockade of San Ramon, but should open a road down the valley of the Chanchamayo to some navigable point on that stream, or to the Ucayali itself, establishing other stockades along the route for the protection from the Indians of those whom liberal offers may attract to the settlement and cultivation of that delightful country. I feel confident that she will pierce the continent and open a communication with the Atlantic with more facility and advantage by this route than by any other. The climate of this country is pleasant and healthy; it is entirely free from the annoyance of sand flies and musquitoes, which infest the lower part of the tributaries, and nearly the whole course of the Amazon. There is too much rain for agreeability from August to March; but nothing could be more pleasant than the weather when I was there in June. The country everywhere in Peru, at the eastern foot of the Andes, is such as I have described above. Further down we find the soil, the peculiar condition, the productions of a country which is occasionally overflowed, and then subjected, with still occasional showers, to the influence of a tropical sun. From these causes we see a fecundity of soil and a rapidity of vegetation that is marvellous, and to which even Egypt, the ancient granary of Europe, affords no parallel, because, similar in some other respects, this country has the advantage of Egypt in that there is here no drought. Here trees, evidently young, shoot up to such a height that no fowling piece will reach the game seated on their topmost branches, and with such rapidity that the roots have not strength or sufficient hold upon the soil to support their weight, and they are continually falling, borne down by the slightest breeze, or by the mass of parasites and creepers that envelop them from root to top. This is the country of rice, of sarsaparilla, of India-rubber, balsam copaiba, gum copal, animal and vegetable wax, cocoa, Brazilian nutmeg, Tonka beans, ginger, black pepper, arrow-root, tapioca, annatto, indigo, sapucaia, and Brazil nuts; dyes of the gayest colors, drugs of rare virtue, variegated cabinet woods of the finest grain, and susceptible of the highest polish. The forests are filled with game, and the homes, and broad lands, and protection for all who choose to come." She should break up her steamboat monopoly, and say to the sea faring and commercial people of the world, "We are not a maritime people; we have no skill or practice in steam navigation; come and do our carrying, while we work the lands; bring your steamers laden with your manufactures, and take from the banks of our rivers the rich productions of our vast regions." With such a policy, and taking means to preserve her nationality, for which she is now abundantly strong, I have no hesitation in saying, that I believe in fifty years Rio Janeiro, without loosing a title of her wealth and greatness, will be but a village to Para, and Para will be what New Orleans would long ago have been but for the activity of New York and her own fatal climate, the greatest city of the New World; Santarem will be St. Louis, and Barra, Cincinnati. The citizens of the United States are, of all foreign people, most interested in the free navigation of the Amazon. We, as in comparison with other foreigners, would reap the lion's share of the advantag tages to be derived from it. We would fear no competition. Our geographical position, the winds of Heaven, and the currents of the ocean, are our potential auxiliaries. Thanks to Maury's investigations of the winds and currents, we know that a chip flung into the sea at the mouth of the Amazon will float close by Cape Hatteras. We know that ships sailing from the mouth of the Amazon, for whatever port. of the world are forced to our very doors by the SE. and NE. trade winds; that New York is the half-way house between Para and Europe. We are now Brazil's best customer and most natural ally. President Aranha knew this. At a dinner-party given by him at Barra, his first toast was, "To the nation of America most closely allied with Brazil-the United States." And he frequently expressed to me his strong desire to have a thousand of my active countrymen to help him to subdue the wilderness, and show the natives how to work. I would that all Brazilians were influenced by similar sentiments. Then would the mighty river, now endeared to me by association, no longer roll its sullen waters through miles of unbroken solitude; no longer would the deep forests that line its banks afford but a shelter for the serpent, the tiger, and the Indian; but, furrowed by a thousand keels, and bearing upon its waters the mighty wealth that civilization and science would call from the depths of those dark forests, the Amazon would "rejoice as a strong man to run a race;" and in a few years we might, without great hyperbole, or doing much violence to fancy, apply to this river Byron's beautiful lines: "The casteled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine, Whose far white walls along them shine." Then might Brazil, pointing to the blossoming wilderness, the well cultivated farm, the busy city, the glancing steamboat, and listening to the hum of the voices of thousands of active and prosperous men, say, |