Being joined by him, you will commence to make such arrangements as may be necessary for crossing the Andes and descending the Amazon; and having completed them, you will then proceed on your journey without further orders.
The route by which you may reach the Amazon river is left to your discretion. Whether you will descend the Ucayali, or the Huallaga, or any other of the Peruvian tributaries, or whether you will cross over into Bolivia, and, passing through the province of Yongas, embark on the Mamoré or Ytenes, or whether you will try the Beni or any other route to the Madeira, and thence to the Amazon, the state of the information which you have collected, under a former order, will enable you to decide more judiciously than it is possible for the department, with the meagre state of its information upon the subject, to do.
It is not desired that you should select any route by which you and your party would be exposed to savage hostility, beyond your means of defence and protection.
Neither is it desirable that your party should be so large, on the one hand, as to excite the suspicion of the people, or give offence to the authorities, of the country through which you may pass, nor so small, on the other, as to endanger its success.
You are, therefore, authorized to employ a cook, servant, guide, and interpreter, and to provide them with such arms as it is customary only for travellers generally, in that part of the world, to carry for their own protection. And these arms you will have returned to you at Pará.
The Navy Agent at Lima has been instructed to furnish, upon your requisition, the necessary articles for the outfit of yourself and party, and to honor your draft for a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, to cover your expenses by the way. As these expenses will be mostly for mules and arrieros, boats and boats' crews, it is supposed that the sum named will be much more than sufficient. You will use of it only for the necessary expenses of the party.
The geographical situation and the commercial position of the Amazon indicate the future importance, to this country, of the free navigation of that river.
To enable the government to form a proper estimate as to the degree of that importance, present and prospective, is the object of your mission.
You will, therefore, avail yourself of the best sources of information that can be had in answer to any or all of the following questions:
What is the present condition of the silver mines of Peru, and Bolivia—their yield; how and by whom are they principally wrought?