[68] Vast, many, and great, doubtless, are the varieties of climates, soils, and productions within such a range. The importance to the world of settlement, cultivation, and commerce in the Valley of the Amazon cannot be over-estimated. With the climates of India, and of all the habitable portions of the earth, piled one above the other in quick succession, tillage and good husbandry here would transfer the productions of the East to this magnificent river-basin, and place them within a few days’ easy sail of Europe and the United States. Only a few miles back we had first entered the famous mining districts of Peru. A large portion of the silver which constitutes the circulation of the world was dug from the range of mountains upon which we were standing, and most of it came from that slope of them which is drained off into the Amazon. Is it possible for commerce and navigation up and down this majestic water-course and its beautiful tributaries to turn back this stream of silver from its western course to the Pacific, and conduct it, with steamers, down the Amazon to the United States, there to balance the stream of gold with which we are likely to be flooded from California and Australia?—Herndon’s Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.
[69] On the subject of climate, I refer to the annexed chapter by my valued friend, Dr. Dundas, who has kindly complied with my solicitation to enrich this volume with a contribution in which he has epitomised, for popular use, and in a most simple form, some of the results of his great professional experience and scientific research; and I am sure I only anticipate the verdict of the reader, whether medical or otherwise, in declaring the annexed pages to be as completely exhaustive of the subject treated of as any reasonable limits of a work of this nature would possibly admit.
[70] Mr. Wallace, in his ‘Travels on the Amazon and the Rio Negro,’ observes—‘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 igaripès 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 capabilities of this fine country from being developed till European or North American colonies are formed. There is no country where people can produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries of life.… And then what advantages there are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations during 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.
[71] Its capacities for trade and commerce are inconceivably great. Its industrial future is the most dazzling; and to the touch of steam, settlement, and cultivation, this rolling stream and its magnificent water-shed would start up into a display of industrial results that would make the Valley of the Amazon one of the most enchanting regions on the face of the earth. From its mountains you may dig silver, iron, coal, copper, quicksilver, zinc, and tin; from the sands of its tributaries you may wash gold, diamonds, and precious stones; from its forests you may gather drugs of virtues the most rare, spices of aroma the most exquisite, gums and resins of the most useful properties, dyes of hues the most brilliant, with cabinet and building woods of the finest polish and most enduring texture. Its climate is an everlasting summer, and its harvest perennial.—Herndon.
[72] Comte-rendu de l’Académie des Sciences de Juillet, 1843, and Les Mémoires des Savants étrangers de 1843.
[73] Within the last few years this censure does not so strongly apply.
[74] Since the above lines were written, we have had later intelligence (14th January, 1854,) from Brazil, stating the important fact that the disease had totally disappeared from all the seaports of the empire.
[75] By late accounts from Pernambuco we notice the death of Anna Vieira, aged 150.
[76] Since the above was written, we have learned incidentally that a letter exists from a near relative of the late Sir William Ouseley, who took a great interest in genealogical studies, and had traced the Ouseley family to a high antiquity, in which the writer, after relating how he had been foiled in endeavouring to trace a particular ancestor, adds, ‘I have proved our descent lineally from the Carlovingian, Merovingian, and Capetian monarchs of France, the Saxon and Norman kings of England, and the ancient kings of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. I think that is enough in all conscience, in addition to nineteen of King John’s twenty-five barons.’
[77] Gold (coined or in bullion,) is admitted duty free; wrought gold and silver at an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent.; wools and furs, 10 per cent.; raw and sewing silk, 12 per cent.; woollen, flax, cotton, hardware, and paper manufactures, 15 per cent.; clothes, boots and shoes, saddlery, sugar, coffee, tobacco, tea, olive oil, and generally all edibles, 20 per cent.; spirituous liquors, 25 per cent.; wheat and Indian corn, small fixed duties. By chapter 2nd, relating to maritime exports, horse skins are charged with a duty of one dollar each; sheep skins, three dollars a dozen; other skins 4 per cent. on their marketable value; salt tongues four reals a dozen; tallow 12 reals an arroba; hair and wool, two dollars an arroba; horns, 4 per cent. on their value. All other products of the province of Buenos Ayres, and in general all the fruits and production of the Argentine provinces, duty free. The introduction landwards of foreign merchandise is prohibited. The tariff is subject to annual revision.