Negro. For two
hundred and fifty miles above its mouth it averages half a mile in
width, and has a current of three miles an hour. At Sarayacu it is
twenty feet deep. The Ucayali is navigable for at least seven hundred
miles. The "Morona," a steamer of five hundred tons, has been up to the
entrance of the Pachitea in the dry season, a distance of six hundred
miles, and in the wet season ascended that branch to Mayro. A small
Peruvian steamer has recently ascended the Tambo to within sixty miles
of Fort Ramon, or seven hundred and seventy-three miles from Nauta.

Leaving the Ucayali, we pass by six rivers rising in the unknown lands
of Northern Bolivia: the Javari, navigable by steam for two hundred and
fifty miles; the sluggish Jutahi, half a mile broad and four hundred
miles long; the Jurua, four times the size of our Connecticut, and
navigable nearly its entire length; the unhealthy, little-known Teffe
and Coary; and the Purus, a deep, slow river, over a thousand miles
long, and open to navigation half way to its source. Soldan and Pinto
claim to have ascended the Javari, in a steamer, about one thousand
miles, and it is said Chandlers went up the Purus one thousand eight
hundred miles. The Teffe is narrow, with a strong current. Of all these
six rivers, the Purus is the most important. It is probably the
Amaru-mayu, or "serpent-river," of the Incas, and its affluents enjoy
the privilege of draining the waters of those beautiful Andes which
formed the eastern boundary of the empire of Manco Capac, and
fertilizing the romantic valley of Paucar-tambo, or "Inn of the Flowery
Meadow." The banks of this noble stream are now held by the untamable
Chunchos; but the steam-whistle will accomplish what the rifle can not.
The Purus communicates with the Madeira, proving the absence of rapids
and of intervening mountains.

Sixty miles below the confluence of the Negro, the mighty Madeira, the
largest tributary of the Amazon, blends its milky waters with the turbid
king of rivers. It is about two thousand miles in length; one branch,
the Beni, rising near Lake Titicaca, drains the fertile valleys of
Yungus and Apollo, rich in cinchona, chocolate, and gold; the Marmore
springs from the vicinity of Chuquisaca, within fifteen miles of a
source of the Paraguay, traversing the territory of the brave and
intelligent Moxos; while the Itinez washes down the gold and diamonds of
Matto Grosso. Were it not for the cascade four hundred and