New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-07
ASCT- DING THE AMAZON.

We have come of late to regard so attentiVely
the militant potentially of all classes Of our
warships that we have almost forgotten that
any such vessels are ever employed otherwise
than in making war menace of war History,
il is true is filled with records to the contrary.
The names of the Beagle, the Challenger, the
Tuscarora and an innumerable fleet besides,
under more flags than one or two, should re-
mind US that peace has It's commissions for the
Navy no less than war. But we forget. For
that reason, as we'll as for others more potent
cordial welcome is to be given to thin PAM
phIet lust issued from the Government Printing
Office reminding us once more of the peaceful
services of the Navy by relating, all too briefly,
the story of the Voyage of the U. 3. :. winning
ton ND the Amazon River
There are those, whose name should be legion,
who formed in childhood their earliest concep-
ton of the Amazon from the fascinating and
not untruthful pages of Mayne Reid. II that
conception accurate at the time, has not been
modified by being brought down TO date 1t will
meet with a rude shock In the plain tale or a
modern steel warship "afoat in the forest Yet
the new conception which must be formed is as
true as the old one, and not less romantic. There
is something ndescribably impressive in the
simple fact of steamships entering Peruvian
waters from the Atlantic Ocean, fifteen hundred
miles away as the crow-or the condor-dies; OF
it's traversing threefourths of the width of the
continent, as though it had ploughed its way
from New-York across country to Denver or
from the Mississippi Delta up to Winnipeg; of
it's steaming from the Atlantic up the Amazon,
Solimoes, Orellana, Marafon-all one river-to
within the very shadow OF the Andes. There is
in that an appeal to the Imagination second only
10 that of the Pelican herself. And what shall
we say of the report that there is in the very
heart of the continent upon the bank of the
river where our memories Of Mayne Reid might
place a village of Indian huts in the treetops,
a modern city, with trolley cars, telephone ex-
change and streets paved with the latest patent
bricks!
The Industrial and commercial suggestiveness
of the report is not less marked. The Whining
ton assembled the Amazon for distance of
twenty-four hundred miles, and passed on the
way the mouths Of tributaries each offering
hundreds of miles of navigable water. We may
reckon that the Amazon and its tributaries COM
prise at least four thousand miles of inland
waterway available for seagoing steamships.
In truth. as this report says, it is the greatest
river system in the world. Nor is II unimproved.
At least half a dozen regular lines of steamers
are operated upon 1t, comprising more than sew
enty vessels besides many othef steamers used
in the rubber trade. The productive potential
ties Of the country in rubber cocoa, woods and
what not are simply inestmable. The needs OF
il are likewise enormous Actually it does not
produce at present sufficient foodstuffs TO feed
it's inhabitants, so that much has to be imported
and many OF the people are constantly suffering
from insufficient nourishment On the upper
reaches OF the river there are abundant deposits
of coal, yet so slack has been the enterprise of
the proprietors that these remain undeveloped,
and practically all the coal used is imported from
Europe!
Truly, there is promising field for capital,
for enterprise, for labor and for commerce
Rubber has become one Of the most necessary
articles in the world, ranking with wood and
iron, and the Amazon Valley is one OF the two
great fields wasre IL can be Rredlesd-ias bet.