The Washington times., 1901-10-12
AN INTER-RIVER CANAL.
The Proposed Plan to Connect
South American Waterways.


system VIII Unite All Cou.trie,
Save Chile - General Reyes, Vice
President of Colombia, to Submit
Details to Congress mt Mexico
Among the visitors who saw President
Roosevelt before he was closeted with the
| Cabinet yesterday was Gen. Rafael Reyes.
Vice President of Colombia, Minister OF
that country to France. and delegate to
the Pan-American Congress.
General Reyes will bring before the
Congress a plan which he asserts will
make the great waterways of South
America so entirely navigable that ocean
going vessels will be able to reach every
country except Chile President Roose-
welt was sufficiently impressed with the
scheme to direct that the American del
egation give it closest attention.
General Reyes, together with two broth
ers, spent number of years of his early
life in exploring the valley of the Anna
zon and it's tributaries There is scarce
a watercourse of any size in South Amer
lea with which he is not familiar His
two brothers lost their lives in explora-
tions which demonstrated that. by the
construction of short canal through the
o.
Parana. tributary OF the Rio de la
Plata, which pours its great volume into
the sea thirty-tive degrees south of the
equator, and the Tocantin, which flows
into the Amazon. can be navigably con-
nected. Tributaries Of these streams and
the Amazon extend from the most west
erly point of Peru to the most easterIy
of Brazil, and from Colombia, on the
north to Argentina and Uruguay on the
south. One of General Reyes brothers
was victim to fever, while the other
was killed by cannibals.
All the countries OF South America will
be placed in communication by the con-
structioH of the canal, a most difficult
engineering feat, excepting alone the Re-
public of Chile, entirely cut off as It is
by the Andes. Brazil, by means of the
Amazon, will be connected with the other
states of South America, with BOLIVIA by
means of the Madeira and Purus: with
Peru by the Amazon, the Jdvary, the
Hualaga. and the Ucayaii. By ascending
the latter, the Fambo river is reached.
which communicates with a railroad
operating to Callao. Ecuador is crossed
by Asbara, and the Napo Colombia
General Reyes, native country, win be
ura, and Venezuela Is linked 70 the great
system of watercourses by the Negro,
which connects with the Oriloco.
There will also be available all the ter
ritory of the rich valley of the Rio de la
Plata. Travellers starting from Buenos
Ayr@s will be able to go clear to the
Amazon by water. and can visit the north
ern countries of South America without
having to make use of railways or sta &c
coaches
The territory watered by the streams
mentioned, and by others is covered with
forests OF rare woods, india rubber trees
cocoa trees. etc, of which the CONNER
cial world has never been able to take
advantage, owing to the lack Of transpor-
tation facilities.
General Reyes is a man of high intel
lectuality. with large share of executive
ability. After the Pan-American Congress
he VIII probably return to Colombia, and
IL is not improbable will succeed to the
Presidency. He feels sure that internal
tional war between his country and Vene-
zuela will be averted. Invaders, he says,
are not considered as representing the
Government, and now that General Tribe
Tribe has been apparently repulsed the
country Will settle once more peaceably to
commercial pursuits
The question of the suppression of an
a-chy is one which General Reyes thinks
should, and feels sure will, find a place
in the deliberations OF the Pan-American
Congress. The intermittent South Amer
ican revolutions are not uncommonly in
stigated by leaders of anarchistic tenden-
cies.