The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-26
An IMPORTANT EXPEDITION.

The New York Courier, Of Saturday an
nounces the expected departure on 'na' e IT, n
,hs steamer Ell Paraguay, for the kepoo'o '.
Paraguay, a destination which II &C. ca, an
never We, had by any vessel sa'''ps ,., .f her
.u.-;c.n or European port. The oDIec' % ~
- n carry on regular trade o, NV
$500 and Rio de Ia Plata, between moa'
"a .ecsnscien, a distance oil eleven
.s-sa n,;,es. never yet traversed by any
$50, If any description. Her trips De-
So - two cities will be monthly and regu-
=, with passengers ! and the Courier says she
Ill, he the means of opening trade that has
.r xet existed with all tine tributaries Oft
ri, de Ia Plata, comprising an extent OF three
hundred thousand square leagues OF territory,
rich in articles of commercial exchange
The new steamer is described as two hum
dred feet long, by twenty broad, having
a cylinder of forty-eight feet, with eleven feet
stroke. She is to be commanded by Lieuten-
ant Baldwin, of the Navy, takes out twenty
five passengers, and has on board one hundred
and eighty tons Of coal. For farther supplies
of this material. she will stop at Grenada, in
the Windward Islands, at Pernambuco, and at
Mon,evideo, and her running time to Ascen-
scien will probably be about twenty-eight
days. The Courier says that the credit OF the
expedition is due, almost entirely, TO the
American Consul at Paraguay, Edward A.
Hopkins, Esq.
Taken in connection with the recent action OF
the Bolivian Government, this movement is OF
immense importance TO the commercial world.
1t is the beginning of a new era in the devel-
opment and introduction into the trade of the
world of those vast resources, with which the
countries washed by the waters OF the ANA
zon. the Rio de la Plata, the Paraguay, and
their tributaries, abound. The extent of these
j, is almost impossible for man to imagine TO
calculate them is altogether out of the ques-
ton. These mighty rivers and their tributa-
ries wash countries as large, and as fertile, as
India and China combined, and as they include
every variety of climate to be found in these
last, il is fair to presume that they are capable
of producing every comm odity OF which they
have heretofore been supposed to be the ex
elusive producers. Gold, silver, diamonds
and precious stones of every description, ale
TO be found in the bowels of the cal tn and
when modern machinery shall have supplied
the place of the rude expedients hitherto adopt
ed for bringing them to light, there can be nc
doubt that they will yield them up with pro-
fusion to which even India has been stran
ger. But these are not all. There is no coun
try in the world so prolific of every species oil
plant or tree, which ministers to the necessi-
ties of man. Tea, coffee, sugar, rice, indigo,
spices. silk, the gum out of which caouetchuc
or Indiarubber is made, every medicinal plant
known to the materia medica, here either grow
spontaneously. or may be introduced and ma
turalised without any fear of failure.
Brazil, we believe, has not yet thrown open
her ports, and as she commands the mouth oil
the Amazon, she may possibly occasion some
difficulty. But we should think it would be
very small and as the fashion seems to be.
lust now, TO force nations to trade when they
ere not disposed to do SO without force, it can
easily be surmounted. We look for~ar
therefore, to a mighty trade with the hitherto
dark and unexplored countries of South Anne