There are upon this water-shed, in BoJust as we are concluding this chapter, livia, the cities of Chuquisaca, Cochawe receive a communication from South bamba, and Santa Cruz; in Peru, the America, stating that in all probability famous city of Cuzco, Huancavelica, Bolivia will make, in the month of (celebrated for the richest quicksilver December, 1852, Exaltacion, on the mines in the world,) Tarina, Caxamarca, Madeira, and Reyes, on the Beni-both and Moyabamba; and in Ecuador, the belonging to the Amazonian water-shed celebrated city of Quito, besides nume and to the tributaries of the Madeira- rous other towns, villages, and hamlets free ports to the commerce of the world; in them all. and that the sum of $10,000 will be offered as a reward to the first steamer that shall arrive at either one of these places.

About one-half of Bolivia, two-thirds of Peru, three-fourths of Ecuador, and one-half of New-Granada are drained In May, 1851, Lieut. Herndon set out by the Amazon and its tributaries. For from Lima, on his way to explore the the want of steamboat navigation on Amazon; and it is through him that we these water-courses, the trade of all these derive most of the following information parts of those countries goes west by concerning the Peruvian water-shed of caravans of mules to the Pacific. There, that river.

Peruvian Water-shed-Trade to the Pacific-Herndon's Report. 563

We therefore introduce the reader upon that water-shed by an extract from his journal, which he has kindly permitted us to make. Standing in view of three beautiful lakes-one of them, Morococha, or “Painted Lake," being that from which the head waters of the Amazon flow-he remarks:

meeting in the Florida Pass, and speaking through a trumpet louder than the tempest, with sprites sent down by the naiads of Lake Itaska with greetings to Morococha.

"I was now for the first time fairly in the field of my operations.

"Before us lay this immense field, dressed in the robes of everlasting summer, and embracing an area of thousands upon thousands of square miles, on which the foot-fall of civilized man had never been heard. Behind us towered, in forbidding grandeur, the crests and peaked summits of the Andes, clad in the garb of eternal winter.

"I had been sent to explore the val"Though not yet sixty miles from the ley of the Amazon, to sound its streams, sea, we had crossed the great divide' and to report as to their navigability. Í which separates the waters of the Paci- was commanded to examine its fields, fic from the waters of the Atlantic. The its forests, and its rivers, that I might last steps of our mules had made a stri- guage their capabilities, active and dorking change in our geographical rela- mant, for trade and commerce with the tions-so suddenly and so quickly had states of Christendom, and make known we been cut off from all connection with to the spirit and enterprise of the age the Pacific, and placed upon waters that the resources which lie in concealment rippled and sparkled joyously as they there, waiting for the touch of civilizadanced by our feet on their way to join tion and the breath of the steam-engine the glad waves of the dark blue ocean to give them animation, life, and palthat washes the shores of our own dear pable existence. land. They whispered to me of home, and my heart went along with them. I thought of Maury, with his researches concerning the currents of the sea; and recollecting the close physical connection pointed out by him as existing between these the waters of the Amazon and those of our own majestic Mississippi, I musingly dropped a bit of green moss, plucked from the hill-side, upon the bosom of the placid Morococha, and as it floated along I followed it, in imagination, down through the luxurious climes, the beautiful skies, and enchanting scenery of the tropics, to the mouth of the great river that this little lake was feeding; thence across the Caribbean Sea, through the Yucatan pass into the Gulf of Mexico; thence along the gulf stream, and so out upon the ocean off the shores of our own land of flowers.' Here I fancied it might have met with silent little messengers cast by the hands of sympathizing friends and countrymen high up on the head-waters of the Mississippi, or away in the Far West, upon the distant fountains of the Missouri.

"The contrast was striking and the field inviting. But who were the labourers? Gibbon and I. We were all. The rest were not even gleaners. But it was well. The expedition had been planned and arranged at home with admirable judgment and consummate sagacity; for had it been on a grand scale, commensurate with its importance, or even larger than it was, it would have broken down with its own weight.

"Though the waters where I stood were bound on their way to meet the streams of our northern hemisphere, and to bring, for all the practical purposes of commerce and navigation, the mouth of the Amazon and the mouth of the Mississippi into one, and place it before our own doors; yet from the head of navigation on one stream to the head of navigation on the other, the distance to be sailed could not be less than ten thousand miles.

"It was indeed but a bit of moss that was floating upon the water while I mused. But fancy, awakened and stimulated by surrounding circumstances, had already converted it into a skiff manned by fairies, and bound upon a "Vast, many, and great, doubtless, mission of high import, bearing messages are the varieties of climates, soils, and of peace and good-will, and telling of productions within such a range. commerce and navigation, of settlement importance to the world of settlement, and civilization, of religious and politi- cultivation and commerce in the valley cal liberty, from the King of Rivers' of the Amazon cannot be over-estimated. to the Father of Waters,' and possibly With the climates of India, and of all the

The

habitable portions of the earth, piled one tion from the sea, is one hundred and

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.

thirty leagues from the city of Huanuco, and twenty-four from Moyabamba. Climate very healthy, and free from all annoying insects.

It is situated on a beautiful plain of from twenty to twenty-five leagues in "Only a few miles back we had first circumference, which is intersected by entered the famous mining districts of many rivulets. The soil is fertile, proPeru. A large portion of the silver which ducing in great abundance cotton, cofconstitutes the circulation of the world, fee, sugar, indigo, and cocoa, as well as was dug from the range of mountains everything else to which the climate is upon which we were standing, and most adapted. Here the plantain continues, of it came from that slope of them which without any other care than that reis drained off into the Amazon. Is it quired to remove the noxious weeds, to possible for commerce and navigation produce in full vigor from fifty to sixty up and down this majestic water-course years. Cotton gives a crop in six months and its beautiful tributaries, to turn back from the seed; rice in five months; and 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.

66

Questions which I could not answer, and reflections which I could not keep back, crowded upon me. Oppressed with their weight and the magnitude of the task before me, I turned slowly and sadly away, secretly lamenting my own want of ability for this great undertaking, and sincerely regretting that the duty before me had not been assigned to abler and better hands."

The Amazon, in Peru, is called the Maranon. It takes its rise in about 11 deg. south, and flows N. N. W. for about five hundred miles; thence turning east, and constituting, according to the maps, (but the maps are wrong,) the boundary line between Peru and Ecuador for about eight hundred miles by its windings. Crossing in Peru the head-waters of the main stream, Lieut. Herndon reached the banks of the Huallaga, a noble tributary, and embarked upon it at TingaMaria. He descended it to its junction with the main stream, and thence to the mouth of the latter by a river navigation of not less than three thousand five hundred miles.

At Tarapoto he fell in with a clever New-England blacksmith, who had been in that country for many years, and from whose valuable notes concerning the commercial resources of the places visited by him, we derive the following: Tarapoto, situated on the left bank of the Huallaga, six leagues above Chauta, the head of uninterrupted naviga

indigo grows wild. Neat cattle and sheep thrive here and multiply most rapidly. Population of the town and its two ports in 1848, 5,350; annual births about 235; deaths, 40. Principal branch of industry, cotton cloth, of which they manufacture between thirty-five and forty thousand yards. It is made by hand, and one yard of our common coarse cotton is worth there two of that.

The currency is white wax and this coarse cotton stuff of the country, which in Chachapoyas is worth twelve cents the yard.

One pound of white wax is worth four yards of cotton; a good-sized bull one hundred yards; a well-grown fat hog, sixty yards; a big sheep, twelve yards; twenty-five pounds of coffee, six yards; twenty-five gallons of rum, twelve yards; a laying hen, four ounces of wax; a chicken, two ounces; twenty-five pounds of rice in the husk, a half pound of wax; twenty-five pounds of corn, two ounces; twenty-five pounds beans, four ounces; a basket of yucas, weighing from fifty to sixty pounds, two ounces; twenty-five pounds seed cotton, eight ounces; a bunch of plantains, weighing from forty to fifty pounds, three needles. Storax, cinnamon, milk of trees, gums, and other products of the forests have no fixed value; but they may be had in quantity from the Indians at merely nominal prices.

The land transportation from Tarapoto to Moyabamba, with its population of 15,000, is done on the backs of Indians. Seventy-five pounds make a load, and the freight is six yards of cotton, valued at three yards of our common "fi'penny bit" stuff.

The pay of a common labourer is four

Notes of a New-England Blacksmith-Towns-Population, &c. 565

ounces of wax a day and found, "with chicha at discretion."

This is the most important town in the province of Mainas, on account of its proximity to navigable waters, and its connection with such a large extent of territory that is not liable to overflow.

head of uninterrupted navigation on that river.

It therefore becomes a place of im

It is to this place that Brazil, by treaty with Peru, has just contracted for a line of steamers, under the Brazilian flag, from Para, at the mouth of the Amazon. This line is to have a monopFrom Tarapoto to Chasula you pass oly of steamboat navigation on the the villages of Juan Guerra and Shapaya. Amazon for thirty years, with a bonus Chasuta is at the head of uninterrupted of 100,000 per annum for the first fifnavigation on the Huallaga. Lieutenant teen. Herndon, coming down at low water, met between this place and the mouth portance; and, as I shall have occasion of the Amazon with nowhere less than to allude to it again in connection with five feet of water. The high-water this steamboat line, under the Brazilian mark is forty feet above the stage in flag, we will here take no more notice which the river was when he was there. of it. From Chasuta to the mouth of the Amazon the distance by water is upwards of 3,000 miles; and for half the year the Pennsylvania, seventy-four, would find water enough to reach that village from the sea.

Population of Chasuta 1,031; distance to Tarapoto by land six leagues; cost of transportation, one pound of wax the Indian load, one pound of wax being equivalent to four yards of cotton. Cows, sheep, horses and hogs thrive well. Productions those of Tarapoto.

Yunimaguas, twenty-four leagues below Chasuta; population 319; country fertile. A good road can be cut from this place almost in a straight line to Moyabamba, distance thirty leagues.

Santa Cruz is thirty-five leagues below Chasuta. Here white wax is worth one and a third yards cotton, and five pounds wax are sold for one white-handled knife. Population 300.

Chamicuros, thirty-nine leagues below Chasuta, with a population of 331. Valuable resins and gums abound in the woods.

Laguna, forty-four leagues below Chasuta, and four above the mouth of the Huallaga, has a population of 742, and a fertile soil.

Urarinas, on the Amazon, five leagues below the mouth of the Huallaga-population forty-three. This is an important place on account of the immense quantities in its vicinity of the tree which produces the gum-copal.

Passing by the villages of Paranari and San Regis, we come to Nauta, the capital of the district. It is situated on the right bank of the Amazon, fortysix leagues below the mouth of the Huallaga, and ninety-four below the

Nauta is also only half a league above the mouth of the Ucayali, another tributary of the Amazon, and larger than the Huallaga-population 810.

Here one yard of English or American cotton is worth two and two-thirds yards of the cotton cloth of the country; and thirty-four pounds of sarsaparilla are given for eight yards of the latter; a full-grown hen is worth six needles; a chicken three; and fifty or sixty pounds of yucas six. A Portuguese merchant has established a house here.

Amaguas, seven miles below Nauta, is an important point, (though at present it has but 240 inhabitants,) on account of its great extent of fertile lands.

Passing Amaguas with its 240 inhabitants, Iquitos with its 127, and Arau with its 80, we arrive, twenty-seven leagues below the mouth of the Ucayali, which comes from the south, at the mouth of the Rio Napo, a tributary from Ecuador. There is here a settlement consisting of one family of Mitos Indians and one fugitive slave from Braziltotal thirty-one.

This river is two hundred yards broad at its mouth, and is navigable for three hundred miles. It is rich in gold; its banks are inhabited by hostile tribes of Indians, and covered with sarsaparilla and other valuable products of the forests. These Indians make the finest and most beautiful hammocks that are found in the Pampa del Sacramento; price of a hammock two yards of cotton. The trade in poisons makes this an important place.

Pebas is thirteen leagues below the mouth of the Napo; has a population of 387, and a fine country round about.Its productions are white and black wax,

sarsaparilla, vanilla, poisons, storax, "chambira," hammocks, pitch, copal, incense, India rubber, milk of the cowtree, and many curiosities, which the Indians, who, though wild and savage, are friendly to the white man, usually bring in exchange for beads, trinkets, &c., White wax is worth two yards of cotton; black, one and a half; thirty-four pounds sarsaparilla, twenty-four yards; hammock, two yards; a little pot of poison, four yards; one pound vanilla, eight yards.

Liverpool it arrives at the mouth of the Ucayali, where it is sent up by boat, which occupies three hundred working hours in going up three hundred miles to Sarayacu and the sarsaparilla country. Here this piece of four yards is exchang ed in barter, according to Hacket, the New-England mechanic, from whom we have been quoting, for one hundred pounds of that drug. A shipment of the return cargo is then made in the rude river raft of the country, and this one hundred pounds of sarsaparilla, bought Thence to Loreto, the frontier town of with four yards of "fi'-penny-bit" cotton, Peru, we have five small villages. Lo- when it reaches the Amazon, is worth reto is 160 leagues below the head of $9 in Nauta, $10.50 in Tabatinga, $25 uninterrupted navigation of the Hualla- at Para, and $50 at New-York or Liverga: population, 122. In this village you find a preparation from the wild yuca, which is very palatable, wholesome, and nutricious. It is a good substitute for bread.

Sarayacu, situated on the right bank of the Ucayali, 300 miles above its junction with the Amazon, has a population of 1,270.

This is an important point in the midst of a fertile region. Eight or ten miles above this town the Ucayali receives the Ahuaytia, which takes its rise almost on the banks of the Huallaga. A few miles up this tributary bring you to a great sarsaparilla country. This drug costs here eight yards of the cotton cloth of the country the one hundred pounds; which one hundred pounds are worth $25 in Para, and from $40 to $60 in Europe, according to the markets. These eight yards of cotton for the one hundred pounds of sarsaparilla, according to the statement of this clever blacksmith, are worth four yards only of our coarse cotton.

Let us, therefore, for the sake of illustration, trace this trade through its entire course.

The American or English peddler to the Amazon-for trader he is not-buys in New-York or Liverpool, as the case may be, four yards of cotton, for which he pays twenty-five cents. He ships it thence around Cape Horn to Callao.Here it pays duty at the Peruvian custom-house, and is sent thence to Lima by mule. By this time, what with freight, transportation, and commissions, it has cost the purchaser fifty cents. It is then packed on mules, carried across the Andes, and in about twelve months from the time of its leaving New-York or

pool. The voyage has been a long and a tedious and a roundabout one, but the profits are enormous.

Now, if Peru and Brazil, instead of forcing commerce with their interior provinces to go around "Robin Hood's barn" to get there, would open ports of entry to all nations and permit them to use the navigation of the Amazon, the citizens and subjects of Peru and Brazil, instead of getting four yards of cotton for their one hundred pounds of sarsaparilla, would get three or four hundred yards for it.

It would be difficult to quote any example more strikingly illustrative of the advantages to Peru of that "policy of commerce" which calls for the establishments of ports of entry at the head of navigation on the Maranon, as the main trunk of the Amazon is here called; at Chasuta, the head of navigation on the Huallaga; at the head of navigation on the Ucayali; and at Nautau, which is at the junction of this last with the Ama

zon.

So Ecuador might establish ports of entry on her side of the Amazon, at Borja, if the navigation be uninterrupted that far, and if Borja belong to her; and at the head of navigation at each one of her Amazonian tributaries, as the Pastaza, the Napo, the Putomayo, and the Japura; though the head of navigation of the last is perhaps in New Granada.

Now, if one of these republics should declare such places free ports to all the world, or ports of entry to the commerce of all nations at peace with her, surely Brazil would not in this enlightened day, if an American or an Englishman should wish to wear his own flag and go up in his own bottom under it on a trading voy