NAVIGATION OF THE AMAZON BY STEAM.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 97, 4 July 1846, Page 4

NAVIGATION OF THE AMAZON BY STEAM.

Expedition of Captain John S. Klausse, of Philadelphia, up the River Maranon, as far as the Port of "Banos," in the Republic of the Equador. — Senor Klausse left Lima on the 16th of September, 1844, and 'directed his course to the river Guallaga, by the mountain of Pas Ico. Arrived at the village of Tongo, he embarked in a canoe with the object of exploring the river to see if it was practicable to navigate it by steam, four steamers having for that purpose arrived from North America. Following the stream, he approached a' small hamlet called Yurimaguas, which is the port of the city of Moyobama, where he took in provisions. From Yurimaguas he prosecuted his downward course to Laguna, the point of confluence of the Maranon and Guallaga; here he entered the Maranon, and proceeded to the frontiers of Peru and Brazil, arriving at a settlement called Our Lady of Loretto, where he saw several Brazilian schooners. From Loretto he sent on a person to Jabatinga, a town of Btazil, with orders to the four steamers there to ascend the river as far a%Xoretto, and in a few days the whole four arrived, saluting-lhe Brazilian battery, which mounted seven guns. In Loretto there is a large lake, in which three of the steamers anchored to await orders, and in the other, called the Peruvian, of 140-horse power, Captain Klausse embarked, taking on all the machinery necessary to clean out the river Guallaga, and to construct landing places, &c. &c. He then proceeded against the stream to the mouth of the Guallaga and port of Laguna, where he anchored in three fathoms. Here he discharged the machinery into canoes, and, assisted by 350 Indians he ascended the river, clearing it of every obstruction as far as Pachisa, at which place he was obliged to augment the number o£, hands to 700, from the increase of the work and labour they had to perform. He thence continued his course the current to the village of Tingo, the utmost point of steam navigation in the

river Guallaga, distant from Lima seven or | eight days by land. From Tingo he returned back on foot, with 25 soldiers, by the Pampa del Sacramento, to the Laguna, where he found the steamer he had there left at anchor. He again embarked in the steamer and proceeded in her up to Guallaga (now cleared of all obstruction), until he again reached Tingo, without the slightest accident.' From Tingo Captain Klaiisse forwarded despatches to Lima, notifying the arrival of the steamer, and without loss of time he retraced bj^steps in a canoe, with the intention of sendingmp to Tingo the other steamers which were awaiting orders in the lake of Our Lady' of Loretto ; but at the port of Yuriraaguas he received a letter from the firm at Lima, directing him to proceed immediately to explore the river Pastaza, as far as it may be navigable by steam, and, in case the navigation should prove to be practicable, to propose a contract to the Government of the Equador. In effect the exploration was performed, and the river found perfectly navigable fpr steam-vessels, save a few obstructions which could be cleared away on the Government consenting to a contract. From the point of confluence of the Pastaza with the Maranon, to the boundaries of Peru and the Ecuador as far as ihe village of Andoas, Captain Klausse did not meet with any obstacle except a sandbank, which, with ordinary caution, may be easily evaded ; the current is paid. From Andoas upwards, there are many obstructions, which can only be removed by means of the machinery brought by the steamers for that purpose. Near Andoas Captain Klausse discovered two mountains of rock salt, one very white and the other reddish ; and along the banks of the Pastaza, above Andoas, he saw a number of little hamlets and settlements of wild Indians, called Zaparos, from which he obtained provisions ; finally he reached within two or three leagues of the river Jopa, where he landed and arrived at the town of Bando, in two days. From Bando he proceeded to Pelileo, where he remained four days, and saw several good mines of silver and platina ; from Pelileo he arrived at the city of Quito on the 23rd April. Capt. Klausse .says he was truly amazed at the quantity of minerals, dyewoods of various sorts, and other valuable woods, coffee, cocoa — white and common, of excellent quality ; ! cotton, very fine and long, like wool ; spices, balsams, resins, wax, and other rich produc- | tions, which he met with in great abundance, everywhere during his travels. — Colonial Gazette, Dec. 6th, 1845. War. — So much has been well said against war, that it has the air of a plagiarism when any of its unavoidable evils are alluded to. Yet there is a short passage in Dr. Aitken's Life of Howard the Philanthropist, placing one of them in so striking a light, that it must excite the most painful reflections in a reader of common humanity. In one of his benevolent journeys, he writes from Moscow, that "no less than 70,000 recruits for the army and navy have died in the Russian hospitals during a single year." He was an accurate man, incapable of saying anything but the truth, and, therefore, this horrible fact eaunot but heighten our detestation both of war and of despotism. It has, however, been scarcely spoken of in Europe ; while other hateful crimes, though affecting only individuals, have justly become the perpetual objects of pity and indignation. For instance, the cruel murder of the Princess de Lamballe, and Louis the Sixteenth. The truth is, that despotism is ever destroying its millions silently and unnoticed, while sedition is generally tumultuous, and always dreaded and detested. So many are interested in painting exaggerated pictures of its mischiefs, that the world is kept in perpetual alarm, and even the writers themselves become unable to judge impartially between oppression and resistance, as an artist is said to have drawn the devil so hideous, that he lost his senses by looking at his own colours. There are few riots without some grievance. "Jupiter," says Lucian, " seldom has recourse to his thunder, but when he is wrong ;" and at the close of a long military life, Mons. de Vindoine owned that "in the eternal disputes between the mules and the muleteers, the mules were generally in the right." All our praiseworthy toil and expense in building infirmaries and asylums, cannot save a hundredth part of the afflictions brought upon the human race by one unnecessary war.' " Next to the calamity of losing a battle, is that of gaining a victory," is reported to have been said by our great commander on the evening of the bloody day of Waterloo.