favor. As a general rule, the
breeze is not so strong during the rise of the river. There are at least
six thousand miles of navigation for large vessels. It was lately said
that the Mississippi carries more vessels in a month, and the
Yang-tse-Kiang in a day, than the Amazon all the year round. But this is
no longer true. Steamers already ascend regularly to the port of
Moyabamba, which is less than twenty days' travel from the Pacific
coast. The Amazon was opened to the world September 7, 1867; and the
time can not be far distant when the exhaustless wealth of the great
valley--its timber, fruit, medicinal plants, gums, and dye-stuffs--will
be emptied by this great highway into the commercial lap of the
Atlantic; when crowded steamers will plow all these waters--yellow,
black, and blue--and the sloths and alligators, monkeys and jaguars,
toucans and turtles, will have a bad time of it.

Officially free to the world, the great river is, however, for the
present practically closed to foreign shipping, as it is difficult to
compete with the Brazilian steamers. For, by the contract which lasts
till 1877, the company is allowed an annual subsidy of $4,000,000, which
has since been increased by 250 milreys per voyage. In 1867 the steamers
and sailing vessels on the Amazon were divided as follows, though it
must be remembered that few of the foreign ships, excepting Portuguese,
ascended beyond Para:

Nationality. No. Tonnage
United States 37 39,901-1/2
Brazil 49 28,639
England 52 13,276-1/2
Portugal 24 7,871
France 18 5,344
Prussia 4 889-1/2
Holland 3 538
Denmark 2 525
Holstein 3 498
Norway 1 135
Spain 1 90

The vessels carrying the stars and stripes exported from Para to the
value of 3,235,073$950, or eight times the amount carried by Brazilian
craft, and 50,000 milreys more than England. While, therefore, the
Imperial Company has the monopoly of trade on the Amazon, our ships
distribute one third of the products to the world. The United States is
the natural commercial partner with Brazil; for not only is New York the
half-way house between Para and Liverpool, but a chip thrown into the
sea at the mouth of the Amazon will float close by Cape Hatteras. The
official value of exports from Para in 1867 was 9,926,912$557, or about
five millions of