OPENING OF THE AMAZON.

Southland Times, Issue 746, 6 November 1867, Page 3

OPENING OF THE AMAZON.

Truly this an age of " progress " and before its resistless march the exclusive ideas of generations past, yield and are overwhelmed. The onward tide of commerce is every day opening new fields for her sons, whose enterprise ghe r rewards in proportion to their industry. "We have now to record the opening to the free commerce of the world, of the vast and fertile valley drained by the Amazon. On the 7th of September, instant — the anniversary of the independence of Brazil, and a day very fitly chosen for such an event — the great river Amazon, or king waters, as the Indian name Para signifies, was thrown open to the commerce of the world from the Atlantic to the boundaries of Peru. The proclamation for this purpose was issued in December last, and now all nations may freely use this highway of commerce, which is navigable for steamboats of large tonnage, from the Atlantic coast to within three hundred miles of Lima on the Pacific. Peru, by treaties with Brazil and the United States, granted the free use of her Amazon waters, and navigation thus extends almost across the continent, or upwards of two thousand miles in a direct line from the Atlantic. The Valley of the Amazon is a vast and vertile wilderness, with here and there only, at far intervals, a town or village on the borders of the great stream. The river has been estimated together with its tributaries, to afford from 40,000 to 50,000 miles of inland navigation, and to drain a country comprising 2,400,000 square miles, rich in timber, minerals, dyes and medicinals, and producing with little labor the great staples, coffee, sugar, cotton, rice and india rubber. Here indeed is a vast and magnificent field for enterprise, which the policy of the Government of Brazils-impressed with the progressive ideas of the age — has opened to all comers ; and we hope that the liberal measures adopted by the Brazilian Parliament, in regard to grants of lands to emigrants, may induce emigration from the old countries, and the opening up of the resources of the salubrious and equiable valley of the Amazon, — Panama Star and Herald.