The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-31
Commerce of the Amazon.

4De laI6St information which cone
to US from South America, distincHs
states that the government of Bsazi
has removed most of the restrictions
on Peruvian vessels navigating the
Amazon, and what is most important to
US, that the whole commerce Of thai
great river viii be thrown open to the
world the current year.
We have no fuller nor further intelli.
gence. The fact is one of too much i'm
4 portance, however, to be overlooked or
postponed We have anxiously sought
this commerce from before the time
when Commodore Page took the Water
Witch part of the way up the stream
and Captain Herndon made his exolo-
rations. The unwillingness of BEazil
to open her interior trade to foreign
commerce has been q barrier to Ameri-
can efforts, and the entreaties of Perm
TO be allowed an outlet have failed
SO the whole interior has remained
closed to commerce. The remoyel of
restrictions by Brazil opens q stream
which drains 100000 square miles of
the richest equatorial land. 1t fises
within less than one hundred miles of
the Pacific; has its springs rolled with
the ashes of Cotopaxi, and its current
enriched by the golden flakes Of the
Andes; receives seventeen principal
and more than two hundred lesser tri-
butaries; takes every stream of tbs
eastern; Andes for more than two
thousand miles, and flowing through as |
fertile lands as the Mississippi. the |
Ganges or the Nile, is discharged by a I
mouth as grand as itself The river is
nearly 1000 miles long, is 500 Yards
wide, 1880 miles from the sea. ana IS0
miles wide at its mouth. 1t is AZ feet
deep In its beginning, and increases to
9IZ feet at the sea. There are nc bay
GUS along its coast and no falls IN its
course. Steamers of from one to two
thousand tons can navigate not less
than 10000 miles of the main and tri-
Dutary streams, and smaller steamers
10000 more miles.
The throwing open of the Amazon to
commerce offers trade TO Matto Crosse,
rich IN herds, and 70 the very heart of /
Bolivia, near the fountains of the Par
ana and Pilcomayo. The whole east
ern and northern borders of Pera and
Ecuador; the southern and eastern
borders of Columbia, and the southern
limits of British Guiana and of Veue- {
zuela are drained by the sffluents Of {
the Amazon. Its system envelopes .
region Of sixteen hundred miles long by
twenty-five hundred broad rich in !
every vegetable and mineral, capable of T
life in excess, and of becom- 8
ing as rich as the valleys of the Ganges '
Or Nile. Every year sees some addi- :
tional population flowing thither, from
Germany, France and Americo, and
now the disposition of Pedro to encour- {
age immigrants, coupled with the mi 4
gratory feeling of some late rebels and a
-he tendencies of Europeans. bids fair :
10 open the richest valley in tie world 2
10 the worlds business.
At this time the imports of the ANA
ion are as rude as the exports Only
he simplest articles are wantod, and Z
.hese in limited amounts. But when a j
inc of steamers has begun to ply the
liver, as they surely will do the moment :
he Brazilian restriction enables Peru ! !
o use the river, the business \
md the population will both ii
,ASH oo AhCy Nu DNCI muCf6 uI- l u
Ter similar circumstances. 1t
5 to be hoped that we shall stand c
eady to improve the occasion, one 4,
which the growing foreign ss well as y
he domestic enterprise of the country "
us in believing will be culti-
-ated. We are one-third nearer to n
Para at Philadelphia than he mer- g
sa5sI.ts and =az1-ztarturo-a ef ERnqlsl.z5-. "
AVE pleasant sea to sail against At =
sntic storms, and ought certainly TO :
ender this navigation of 30 great and h
ich a stream a most important addi- a
ion to our commerce. Our coastwise a
ines of steamships could be easily III.
reased to meet the growing business y
{ Peru and Brazil, and river steamers :, :,
7ill undoubtedly be found running the Z
ength Of the Amazon at an early day.
hey would have been there long ago d
ut for the prejudices of Brazil The Il
pening of the Amazon is one of the 81
vents of the time, and while it will y y
xert great and speedy influence on ,;
outh America. its influence upon other ia
particularly the United to
tates, must be early and powerful b
Americdm