New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-07

The latest information which comes to us from
South America distinctly states that the govern
ment of Brazil has removed most of the restrictions
on Peruvian vessels navigating the Amazon, and
what is most important to us, that the whole com
merce of that great river will be thrown open to
the world the current year.
We have no fuller or further intelligence The
fact is one of too much importance, 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 explorations. The unwillingness of Bra
I'll to open her interior trade to foreign commerce
has been q barrier to American efforts and the
entreaties of Peru to be allowed an outlet have
failed So the whole interior has remained closed
to commerce.
stream which drains $500 900 square miles of the
richest equatorial land. 1t rises 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 fakes of the Andes, re-
CeiVes seventeen principal and more than two
hundred lesser tributaries; takes every stream of
the Eastern Andes for more than two thousand
miles, and flowing through as fertile lands as the
Mississippi, the Ganges the Nile, is discharged
by mouth as grand as itself. The river is nearly
1000 miles long, is 500 yards wide, 1880 miles from
the sea, and $50 miles wide at its mouth. 1t is AZ
feet deep in its beginning, and increases to 3l2
feet at the sea- There are no hayOus along its
coast and no falls in its course. Steamers of from
one to two thousand tons can navigate not less
than 10 900 miles of the main and tributary streams
and smaller steamers 10 900 more miles.
The throwing open of the Amazon to commerce
offers trade to Matte Crosse rich in herds, and to
the very heart of Bolivia the fountains of the
Parana and Pilcomayo The whole eastern and
northern borders of Peru and Ecuador the southern
and eastern borders of Colombia, and the southern
limits of British Guiana and of Venezuela are
drained by the ailments of the Amazon Its system
envelopes region of sixteen hundred miles long
by twenty-five hundred broad; rich in every vege-
to mir Of s1St tain in
cess, and of becoming as the valleys of the Ganges
or Nile. Every year sees more additional pOpula-
ton flowing thither, from Germany, France and
America, and now the disposition of Pedro to en-
courage immigrants, coupled with the migratory
feeling of some late Confeds and the tendencies of
Europeans bids fair to open the richest valley in
the world to the worlds business
At this time the imports of the Amazon are as
rude as the exports. Only the simplest articles are
wanted, and these in limited amounts But when
line of steamers has begun to ply the river, as
| they surely will do the moment the Brazilian re-
strcon enables Peru to use the river the business
and the population will both grow as they do every
where under similar circumstances. 1t is to be
| hoped that we shall stand ready to improve the
occasion, one which the growing foreign as well as
| the domestic enterprise of the country warrants
us in believing will be cultivated.
| We are one-third nearer to Para at Phladelphj
/ than the merchants and manufacturers of EnglRu
have pleasant sea to sail against Atlantic stOrT
and ought certainly to render the navigation OF s
great and rich stream most important addi.tio
to our commerce. Our coastwise lines of st can
ships could be easily increased to meet the grow
ing business of Peru and Brazil and river steamer
will undoubtedly be found running the lepg 9Th q
the Amazon at an early day. They would hay
been there long ago but for the prejudices {
} Brazil The opening of the Amazon is one of tn
events of the time, and while it will exert greI
r and speedy influence on South America, its il
f fluence upon other countries, particularly Il
0 United States, must be early and powerful,
e PHILADELPHIA American