Cairo evening times. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1865-1866, 1865-11-14

who these people were who l.ui!t i: lofty the
! eternal pyramids, and lett be..is!j such marked
| evidences Of an lmmeEsa 10 ,lii,::..nn; and in
| greater astOx ishmeut he as. It from the
short and contracted Valley o: the Nile that
! the teeming millions who have ce,:Ilp csi it re-
| ceved their daily sus:enHl:t:I is ;-ct:lc land
not more than twenty nes i, - 2:>;;.,st width,
| and not more 1h. four l.'!'It.:y. mics long,
StiScc Dtibic OF irrigation and t!:G iIg1St cult
! vation. Then turning 10 i!!- native valley,
j asks. with exrtant pride t! hope Of what 1t
! is not capahie. if 80 small /, spice OF arabic
soil could su;,lor, so VAST Il po|,t..u;ion-a pop
! u!ation who in tleir history have left records
of their superior know ledge Of government,
t : model for the rest of mankind, and the basis
+: Of all civ il law. lu science they laid the sub
! stratum Of the know led 9e Of tie civilized
world. lighted the lamp aud held it up for ages
to the bcnighted wandercr, in thought and
conjecture searching after tie truth.
! In after time, when sciences exercising
! their sway AID civil Republican government
metes out to each individual his honest gain,
and navigation and railroads are in full and
successful action, what vast pOpu.atlon Will
this rich aliuvial area support what myriads
will Our mountains OF mineral already known
and others still undiscovered employ; what a
vast population will crowd our broad land Of
freedom and plenty what improvements in
arts, what pyramids of moral grandeur will
stand among us, what records Of Il pcoplc ca
pable OF seltgOVernment free. enlightened and
cultivated, records that will exist while science
and elf-goverEment are known Epon the earth.
The Kings Of Egypt supplied the surrounding
In,,ions with corn from the time Of Joseph and
! his brethren down 10 the captivity Of the
! Greeks. and the Emperor of the Romans looked
i upon Egypt as the granary that supplied Con
| st;ntinope and the rest OF the Empire in time
! of need. The Emperor Constantine menaced
! Egypt with war when one of her Bishops ad-
| viscd that no more corn should be sent from
! that country. He considered the Valley Of the
! Nile as the nursing mother of the worlds me-
{ tropolis. Egypt boasted that, Notwithstanding
| she conquered, she fed her coEquerors,
/ and it is surprising that SO small portion Of
! soil should have produced in such abundance.
| But with our millions of arabic acres and all
4, the modern improvements in agriculture, what
| can we not do? When fifty millions of people
| crowd our glorious valley, and the earth yields
up its minerals and its oils, and the earth teens
| with abundance, Illinois may become the Egypt
Of the continent When the cotton OF our
fields is manufactured by ourselves, as it should
be. when our shipping expands to L hundred
times greater than now, and our railroads null
tpiy in proportion, the valley of tic Msss-
sippi can feed, clothe and whip the world. BY
the accession of laborers drawn from the
crowded nations Of Europe, our artiticers will
drawn from other nations will build up our
future capita, which will be made to surpas5
the wonders OF the Nile in grandeur Of archi-
lecture
In making u comparison between the valleys
Of the great rivers Of Asia, whose position is
| directly on the opposite side Of our globe, we
are struck with the fact, that although the
| Burampootra and the Ganges from the
| Himmaaya Mountains aud those OF Afghanis-
same diversity OF climate, they have not the
capacity to grow the agricultural. products that
| the Mississippi Valley has. Their corn and
| wheat are far inferior to ours. anl the cotton
| plant although native Of India, is infinitely
! inferior, both in the height OF the plant, and
| length of fiber. andis also much coarser, and
/ Of a dugy yellow color. This | know from
/ having compared, in the docks of Liverpool,
| hundreds of bales from every country whore
cotton is grown. Tie rice and teas of these
countries constitute their main articles of eX-
port and the vast mOuu,ains that lntersect the
valleys which run into the Bay OF Bengal, are
so ruge ed and abrupt that their nav cation can
never be compared with ours, and railroad
transportation is rendered impossible. Besides,
johnson. in the Medical and Chirogical Bureau,
saws that all the iniaoit$uts that can, leave the
low iungles and flee to the mountains every
summer TO escape diseases which are fatal to a
foreigner and can scarcely be endured by the
natives without dePopulation. The cholera IS
a yearly visitant, and has been since 1876, and
probably will ever continue to be
We now turn to the mighty Valley Of the
Amazon and consider it land for cutIva-
ton, its resources in wealth, Its climate its
soil, aud its prospects OF colonization aud future
! development. This great valley, said to con
| tain more square acres than any othor on the
globe, including all It's tributaries, all its vast
mountains, its wild and sterile plains, its vast
salt meadows ih only for cattle growing, has
not half the soil for cultivation the Mississippi
Valley has. Lien Henderson, an officer in the
e. S. Navy, in IL most interesting volume owes
an account Of his travels over this valley with
! Mr.. Roman, one of them taking oae great
! tributary and the other another, until they
| reached the lower Amazon. Both bear wit
ness that there are tracts of fertile land in
is area, but as the river runs with Its main
stream right under the equinoXial INc. and is
scorched in Its entire length by Il tropical sun,
| its only diversity of climate and OF products
! must depend upon the elevation OF its noun
tainS. Cotton can be grown III the ioWland5 OF
| tie Amazon, but under burning sun, al III
h; companionsl p with the terocious beasts Of uh.
| junges and the innumerabie reptiles and insects
that nfest It, To compare oar beautiful valley
With that OF the Amazon is to draw 4 parallel
| between the Ely sian fields and Tophet. In
| truth the Mississippi Valley has equal in
| arabic area, none in navigable waters, none in
I mineral and agricultural resources, none in s;t
| lubrly of climate Oar rivers and bayOliS nav
| igable Tor steamboats, have an aggregate length
| Of not less than sixty thousand miles, and our
| railroads checker It's suffice III every dirGc-
| ton, and the rising population OF Europe is
rushing to it IL numbers ulequalled in the his
| tory OF man II
| TIE DISCOVERY OF TIE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ITS
/ OCCUPANTS AND IT'S RESOURCES.
| Ia 1910 Fernando D, Soto embarked from
Cuba under the auspices OF the Spanish Gov
| ernment with 900 steel clad warriors on an
| exploring expedition. AMI a.ter travelling
| through wilderness and swamps, to their as
tonshment stood on the banks cf the MasSs.-
shoba, or Great Water, as 1t were called by the
native Indians, Or, by some other tribes, the
! Endless River. As he assembled tile river he
found innumerabIe tribos Of! Indians the most
numerous and powerful being the Na.chcz.
then capable of mastering into service %, coo
warriors, now extinct. lie found the Shawnee,
Creek, Seminole, and higher up the Pan
chesha andCaho. Crossing the Ohio river he
foun1 the immense plains of illinois, covered
bs &c Iiline Indians. AL Of those trioes are
now gone forever. Spain being then intoxica
ted with the idea Of boundless wealth in the
precious metals on this continent these wan
derng explorers rambled over the mountains
of tie Mcrrimac III search Of gold and silver
| and the EldOradO OF the new world, bat after
wears of toll and most hazardous adventure
the leader of the party expired at the mouth OF
| 4 81 rod i,,t,.D = AZ