33d CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session. APPRENTICESHIP IN COMMERCIAL MARINE. FEBRUARY 23, 1855. ! Mr. FENTON, from the Committee on Commerce, made the following REPORT. The Committee on Commerce, to whom were referred several petitions of divers citizens of the United States, praying that a law may be passed providing for a system of apprenticeship in the merchant service of this country, having had the same under consideration, make the following report : It has long been the favored policy of the United States to require the employment of American citizens, as well in the merchant service as in their vessels of war. More than forty years since, during the existence of the last war with Great Britain, the "act for the regulation of seamen on board the public and private vessels of the United States," (approved March 3, 1813,) declared, that from and after the termination of that war, it should "not be lawful to employ on board any of the public or private vessels of the United States, any person or persons except citizens of the United States, or persons of color, natives of the United States." The requirements of this act of Congress, so far from having been complied with, have, of necessity, as it appears, been constantly disregarded. A sufficient number of seamen who are citizens of the United States cannot be found to man the vessels employed in our national commerce; but their crews are, for the most part, composed of foreigners. The soundness of the policy which would require the employment of American citizens as seamen on board of American vessels cannot, in the opinion of your committee, be successfully disputed, and any proper measures which can be devised to promote so desirable a result deserve the favorable consideration of the national legislature. The petitions which have been presented on this subject are not confined to any particular locality, nor do they originate with any single class of persons; they come from the various portions of our extended seaboard, from Maine to Georgia: from marine societies, chambers of commerce, merchants, ship-owners, ship-masters, underwriters, and others engaged or interested in navigation; and they specify, with clearness and accuracy, the evils which exist in the present state of affairs, and indicate the means to be adopted to remove them. In addition to the advantages which it is believed would accrue to CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (REPORT AMAZON RIVER. FEBRUARY 23, 1855.-Laid upon the table and ordered to be printed. Mr. INGERSOLL, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, made the fol lowing REPORT. The Committee of Foreign Affairs, to which was referred the memorial of Lieutenant M. F. Maury, United States navy, in behalf of the Memphis convention, and in favor of the free navigation of the river Amazon, have had the same under consideration and beg leave to report: That the navigation of this river and its tributaries, the settlement of its banks, and the cultivation of its valleys, would, in every point of view, prove highly beneficial to the interests of the United States. The country through which these waters flow is great in its resources; it possesses diversity of climate; and its geographical relations to this country are such that, if these resources can be called forth by the energies of the settler, a large and profitable trade between the two greatest river basins in the world would certainly be established. In the language of the memorial: "The Amazon is the largest river in the world, and the great hydrographic basin, which includes it and its tributaries, is unsurpassed for fertility; nor is there anywhere, on the surface of the earth, a region of country of the extent which can compete with this, in capacity of production, or vie with it as to the variety, extent, or wealth of its mineral resources. It teems with animal life; its soil is most prolific; and the display of riches in its vegetable kingdom is truly magnificent." The tributaries of the Amazon inosculate with those of the Rio de la Plata at the south, and unite with those of the Oronoco at the north. The Casquiari connects, by a natural channel, the waters of the Oronoco with those of the Amazon, and Count Castelnau saw the head streams of the Amazon and those of the Rio de la Plata running through and watering the same gentleman's garden in Brazil.” "The country drained by these rivers extends from the parellel of ten degrees of north latitude to that of thirty-six degrees of south lati tude." "In its Atlantic slopes intertropical and extratropical, it therefore embraces all the climates and includes all the varieties of production that are to be found within the range of forty-six degrees of latitude." "Again: the country drained by these rivers extends from the meridian of 34° to that of 80° of west longitude, another 46°." "From the sea shore under the line to the region of perpetual snow on the mountains, it therefore embraces all the climates that are spread out over the plains that lie between the equator and the poles, but which are here condensed, crumpled up, and brought within the compass of forty-six degrees of longitude when measured at the equator." "From the head of navigation on the waters of the Amazon to the head of navigation on the waters of the Rio de la Plata, the natural canalization to connect the two is so nearly completed, that only three leagues of artificial canal, it is said by explorers, are wanting to pass the vessels of one river into the other." "Settlement would accomplish this among its first achievements, and thus turn the Mississippi river of the southern hemisphere upside down, and bring the mouth of the Rio de la Plata from the parallel of 36° south, and place it, for all the practical purposes of commerce under the line, whence its wealth will be poured into our lap with that of the Amazon." "The great commercial marts of the world and the centres of trade, in all ages have been and will ever be in the northern hemisphere.” "Four-fifths of all the dry land are in it. It is the seat of human knowledge, of wealth, civilization, and enterprise. The shipping of the world belongs to it, and the seamen are natives of it. And the beneficence of Providence has so arranged the seasons that the seed time of the northern hemisphere occurs when the fruits of the southern are just ripe for the harvest." "There are physical conditions which will ever compel the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere to look north, as they do now, for their chief market places. "Produce, as it descends the La Plata, goes south, consequently every mile it travels in that direction is a mile the further from market, and when it reaches the mouth of the river it then has to turn about and come north again, by sea, on its way to our northern markets, and, after many days, it is only as far on its way as the mouth of the Amazon, which this canal, of a span in length, will, in the fullness of time, enable it to reach direct, and by inland navigation. "Considering the valleys of these three rivers-the La Plata, the Amazon, and the Oronoco-as one great hydrographic basin, we have a region embracing the enormous area of not less than 2,900,000 square miles, affording an inland navigation of not less than 80,000 miles, through climates of much diversity, and upon soils of all the variety and capacity of production that are common to India. Such are the Atlantic slopes of South America. "The valleys of these rivers are for the most part a wilderness, and their channels unknown to steam. "The Amazon is the largest river in the world; tributaries flow into it from both hemispheres. The Mississippi is the largest river in the northern, and the Rio de la Plata the largest river wholly in the southern hemisphere. "The following table shows, according to the best physical geogra |