gation of its waters and all that pertains to it-with features that are very engaging to the true spirit of enterprise."

"The people of this country contemplate with especial and lively interest all that concerns the speedy settlement and future well-being of the beautiful Atlantic slopes of South America. They see in the future of those river basins the wealth of India and the productions of the East brought to their own doors, and spread out in the commercial lap of the ocean, where the winds and the currents and geographical position all conspire to make dominant American trade. They perceive that the settlement of the Atlantic slopes of South America, and the cultivation of its fields, and the navigation of its rivers, would lift India up, as it were, with all its productions and capabilities, and set it down here in this Amazonian water-shed, before our own doors, and so bring it within four weeks (instead of four months) easy sail of our seaport towns. Commerce, they know, is a great civilizer, and has been a great christianizer of the earth. With them commerce is king, and to commerce, carefully fostered and wisely encouraged, they look for the accomplishment of those vast achievements upon the Amazon and along the Atlantic slopes of South America, which is to invest that country with all the fabled wealth of the Indies."

"To unlock the Amazon, to open it to that commerce and navigation, with their influences, is the measure which the Memphis convention has so much at heart. It was one of the objects for which that convention was called, and it is the earnest prayer of this, the memorial of that most wise and patriotic assemblage."

"Such a body of men as that which met together there would scorn to put up a petition asking for anything that is wrong."

"They believe the free navigation of the Amazon is an achievement which the relations of peace and friendship which so happily exist between this government and all the riparian states of this river, are entirely competent to accomplish."

"They believe that all that is wanted is light, and an announcement, in the name of the people of the United States, of a doctrine which, in America, should obtain, and which ought, by the everlasting principles of right, to obtain with regard to the navigation of rivers that flow in natural and navigable channels through the territories of more nations than one."

"In order to set forth the grounds of their petition in their true light, to prevent misapprehension as to the doctrines maintained, and to do justice to the memorialists, the attention of your honorable bodies is invited to the present condition of the Amazon and its navigable tributaries, and to those principles of the international code which are applicable to the case in hand."

"The Amazon, whether it be considered in respect to the volume of water discharged by it, or to the extent of its navigability, or the area of country drained by it, is the largest, the most majestic, and mighty river in the world. The red man of the forest calls it the king of rivers."

"The main stream itself is in the southern hemisphere, just the other side of the line, but its tributaries take their rise in both hemispheres ;

those on one side of the equator flowing to the south, and those on the other to the north, until they reach the main stream and swell its tide."

"The basins of its tributaries are so many steppes, leading from the habitat of mosses and lichens on the Andes, down to the pampas of the temperate, and the plains of the torrid zone, in the regions below."

"The Mississippi runs south; at every turn it crosses new parallels of latitude. There is a change of climate for every parallel, and every climate enriches the commerce of the main stream with its own peculiar truits."

"Its tributaries drain the same parallels that the main stream drains traverse the same climate that the main stream traverses. They therefore swell the amount, not the variety, of the agricultural products that the main stream bears on its bosom to the sea."

"On the other hand, the Amazon runs east; and though the main stream itself may be said to cross no parallels, it descends from steppe to steppe, and traverses, as it descends from the mountains, climate after climate, and that, too, in such quick succession-for they are literally piled up one above the other that one is astonished rather with the variety than the quantity of the many productions that delight upon its banks."

"But its tributaries, unlike those of the Mississippi, which come from the east and the west, flow from the north and the south. They are innumerable; each one drains its own plateau, which, in the first place, has a soil and climate peculiar to itself and its elevation. On its way to the main stream, it crosses parallels of latitude, and at each crossing there is a new climate and a virgin soil, which teems with the richest and rarest of fruits in great profusion."

"With this physical arrangement and these double tides of climates, those of each tributary differing from the rest, and those of the main stream differing from all, the great Amazonian water-shed is endowed with a capacity and capability for production and commerce such as the world has never yet seen realized, and to which there is on the face of this earth no parallel."

"The main stream itself affords an uninterrupted navigation for vessels of the largest class from the sea to the foot of the Andes, a distance of more than 3,000 miles, while its tributaries, some of which are larger than our own Mississippi, branch off far away among the spurs of the mountains, and afford water for steamboat navigation to an unknown extent, and to places in unexplored regions of fabulous wealth." “Travellers in that country find themselves at a loss what most to admire the brilliancy and variety of the animal, the wealth and profusion of the vegetable, or the riches and splendor of the mineral kingdom."

"The fauna and the flora in those regions-for they are owned by many nations—so vie with the jewels there, the precious stones and metals, that each, when seen alone, is thought by the beholder to be more dazzling than 'either of the other two."

This wilderness of wealth is interlaced by thousands of miles of navigable streams, whose majestic currents have never yet been stemmed by the first steamboat.

A few years ago Lieutenant Maury, in the course of his investiga

tions concerning the winds and currents of the sea, invited the attention of the government to the Amazon, and its physical relations to this country.

The investigations of that officer enabled him to show how the winds and currents bring, practically, for all purposes of business and commerce, the mouth of the Amazon towards the north, and place it hard by the Florida Pass, in conjunction with that of the Mississippi.

He referred to the great want of reliable information touching its resources, its commercial capabilities and capacities, both present and prospective.

In consequence of these suggestions, an officer of the navy was dispatched from Lima, with instructions to cross the Andes, and descend the eastern slopes thereof until he should reach the navigable waters of the Amazon; there, he was to embark, and descend to the sea, sounding the river by the way, gauging its capacities for navigation, and measuring, as well as he might, its capabilities for the future.

Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon, of the United States navy, accomplished this journey, and has submitted the result of his exploration in a volume abounding in useful and valuable information. It has been extensively circulated through the country, and has tended still more to impress the public mind with the importance of the commercial relations which, as soon as that country is fairly opened up to navigation and settlement, must arise between the United States and that portion of Brazil.

It may be worth while to mention that Lieutenant Herndon had not travelled 60 miles from the shores of the Pacific before he found himself upon the borders of the fountain which sends its waters down the Atlantic slopes towards the east, destined, perhaps, to meet in the Gulf of Mexico the waters from other fountains on the slopes of the Rocky

mountains.

These "water-sheds" of South America embrace a vast region of country, and such, says Lieutenant Maury, is their position and the machinery of the winds and currents of the sea that the Gulf of Mexico may be regarded as the common receptacle of the drainage of the greater part, both of North and South America.

"The Amazon and its navigable tributaries wash the shores of five republics and one empire-the empire owning below and at the mouth on both banks, the republics owning, in part, the main stream and both of its confluents."

"These streams afford the only practical channel of communication between the Amazonian provinces of these republics and the sea. The Andes effectually cut off all commercial intercourse between them and the Pacific."

"Peru has offered lands, seeds, and implements of husbandry, with a free passage across the mountains to any emigrant who will agree to cross over and settle in that country."

"But when the emigrant, toil-worn and frosted by the way, reaches this wilderness of wealth he finds himself in the condition of the sailor in his valley of diamonds. Transportation back over the mountains is simply an impossibility; and as to his descending that mighty river with the hard-earned fruits of honest, patient labor, the ordinances of

Brazil deny him the privilege, contravening thereby the benificent de-cree of the great Law-giver of the universe, which wise men tell us made the air, the sea, and running water the common property of the whole world. Thus the Amazon is not only shut out from commerce, but the nation holding its mouth shuts it out from all settlement and civilization."

"In the valley of the Amazon four crops of corn are produced inthe year, and the harvest of many other fruits is perpetual."

"It is computed that the territory which the policy of Brazil thus shuts up against man's use is capable of sustaining, even with one round of harvests, a population nearly as large as that which inhabits the whole earth."

"With the population of Belgium to the square mile the valley of the Amazon would support 601,660,000 inhabitants."

The

"The dry land was placed here by the Creator for man's use. policy which shuts man out from it is an anomoly and a monstrosity.. As for the laws of nations and their application to the Amazon, that river presents a case altogether peculiar, strong, clear, and trumpettongued."

"The St. Lawrence has been made free, and the Amazon is the only river in the world the navigation of which is denied to the riparian States by the nation commanding its outlet; and here the case is peculiarly strong, because that river is not only shut to commerce, but its banks to civilization, and even to man's use."-Lieutenant Maury.

Since the exploration of the Amazon by the authority of the United States the attention of the world has been very much directed towards. that river and its basin. Further explorations and examinations have been made by the States riparian to it, and European science has been employed in the same direction. The testimony of all scems clearly to establish the fact that it is a region full of resources, but at present an almost impenetrable wilderness of wealth.

Some of the republics at its headwaters have thrown open their rivers to the world, and, making the navigation of the same as free as that of the sea, have invited immigration from the citizens and subjects of all friendly nations, offering to such as will come and settle a homestead.

Parties of citizens of the United States, attracted by the reports of gold in the Amazon valley, have crossed the mountains, but as soon as they entered this wilderness they found the means of subsistence so scanty, because the civilized population was so sparse, that it became at once a question with them not of gold, but of life; and, after almost incredible suffering, some of them found their way in the rude craft of the river down to Para.

It is, therefore, to be hoped, for the sake of humanity, that the navigation of this river will be thrown open not only to the free competition of the citizens and subjects of the States bordering upon it, but also of

the world.

Since these explorations by Lieut. Herndon, the commerce of the United States with the mouth of that river, according to the last reports of the American consul at Para, is estimated at $5,000,000 the year. Both the banks of this river, for many hundreds of miles from its

mouth, are owned by Brazil, and with her rests the ability to bring all that fertile country which is drained by it under the influence of commerce, settlement and cultivation. And your committee have viewed with satisfaction the steps recently taken by Brazil towards the accomplishment of this object. She has broken up a grievous monopoly, and given to her own citizens the right to navigate and trade there, under some restrictions, which it could be wished did not exist; but considering that there are five republics holding navigable streams that discharge their waters into this river, considering that three of these republics have thrown open these streams and made their navigation free to all nations; considering that the citizens of all nations are invited to come there and develop the country; considering all these circumstances, it would seem that the United States have a claim with regard to the navigation of the Amazon which no other river has ever presented; because, heretofore, in the case of the navigation of rivers, as the Rhine and others, the question was one of commercial convenience; but here it is more. It is not only a question of commerce, but also a question of civilization.

Waste places, places that are capable of sustaining a population greater than that in all Europe, and which have been untenanted, and even unvisited by civilized man, are now free to his use.

"Straits," says Wheaton, "are passages communicating from one sea to another. If the navigation of the two seas thus connected is free, the navigation of the channel by which they are connected ought also to be free. Even if such strait be bounded on both sides by the territory of the same sovereign, and is at the same time so narrow as to be commanded by cannon shot from both shores, the exclusive territorial jurisdiction of that sovereign is controlled by the right of other nations to communicate with the seas thus connected. Such right may, however, be modified by special compact, adopting those regulations which are indispensably necessary to the security of the state whose interior waters thus form the channel of communication between different seas, the navigation of which is free to other nations. Thus, the passage of the strait may remain free to the private merchant vessels of those nations having the right to navigate the seas it connects, whilst it is shut to all foreign armed ships in time of peace."

"So long as the shores of the Black sea were exclusively possessed by Turkey that sea might with propriety be considered a mare clausum; and there seems no reason to question the right of the Ottoman Porte to exclude other nations from navigating the passage which connects it with the Meditterranean; both shores of this passage being at the same time portions of the Turkish territory. But since the territorial acquisition made by Russia, and the commercial establishments formed by her on the shores of the Euxine, both that empire and other maritime powers have become entitled to participate in the commerce of the Black sea, and consequently to the free navigation of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. This right was expressly recognized by the seventh article of the treaty of Adrianople, concluded in 1829, between Russia and the Porte, both as to Russian vessels and those of other European states in amity with Turkey."-(Wheaton's Elements of International Law, page 229.)