into the bluffs which form the terrace margin of that river valley. The next high land on the north side is Obidos, a bluff, 56 ft. above the river, backed by low hills. From Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, to near the mouth of the Rio Negro, the banks are low, until approaching Manãos, they are rolling hills; but from the Negro, for 600 m., as far up as the village of Canaria, at the great bend of the Amazon, only very low land is found, resembling that at the mouth of the river. Vast areas of it are submerged at high water, above which only the upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. At Canaria, the high land commences and continues as far as Tabatinga, and thence up stream.
On the south side, from the Tapajos to the river Madeira, the banks are usually low, although two or three hills break the general monotony. From the latter river, however, to the Ucayali, a distance of nearly 1500 m., the forested banks are just out of water, and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood-line. Thence to the Huallaga the elevation of the land is somewhat greater; but not until this river is passed, and the Pongo de Manseriche approached, does the swelling ground of the Andean foot-hills raise the country above flood-level.
The Amazon is not a continuous incline, but probably consists of long, level stretches connected by short inclined planes of extremely little fall, sufficient, however, owing to its great depth, to give the gigantic volume of water a continuous impulse towards the ocean. The lower Amazon presents every evidence of having once been an ocean gulf, the upper waters of which washed the cliffs near Obidos. Only about 10% of the water discharged by the mighty stream enters it below Obidos, very little of which is from the northern slope of the valley. The drainage area of the Amazon basin above Obidos is about 1,945,000 sq. m., and, below, only about 423,000 sq. m., or say 20%, exclusive of the 354,000 sq. m. of the Tocantins basin.
The width of the mouth of the monarch river is usually measured from Cabo do Norte to Punto Patijoca, a distance of 207 statute m.; but this includes the ocean outlet, 40 m. wide, of the Pará river, which should be deducted, as this stream is only the lower reach of the Tocantins. It also includes the ocean frontage of Marajo, an island about the size of the kingdom of Denmark lying in the mouth of the Amazon.
Following the coast, a little to the north of Cabo do Norte, and for 100 m. along its Guiana margin up the Amazon, is a belt of half-submerged islands and shallow sandbanks. Here the tidal phenomenon called the bore, or Pororoca, occurs, where the soundings are not over 4 fathoms. It commences with a roar, constantly increasing, and advances at the rate of from 10 to 15 m. an hour, with a breaking wall of water from 5 to 12 ft. high. Under such conditions of warfare between the ocean and the river, it is not surprising that the former is rapidly eating away the coast and that the vast volume of silt carried by the Amazon finds it impossible to build up a delta.
The Amazon is not so much a river as it is a gigantic reservoir, extending from the sea to the base of the Andes, and, in the wet season, varying in width from 5 to 400 m. Special attention has already been called to the fourteen great streams which discharge into this reservoir, but it receives a multitude of secondary rivers, which in any other part of the world would also be termed great.
For 350 years after the discovery of the Amazon, by Pinzon, the Portuguese portion of its basin remained almost an undisturbed wilderness, occupied by Indian tribes whom the food quest had split into countless fragments. It is doubtful if its indigenous inhabitants ever exceeded Population, trade, &c.one to every 5 sq. m. of territory, this being the maximum it could support under the existing conditions of the period in question, and taking into account Indian methods of life. A few settlements on the banks of the main river and some of its tributaries, either for trade with the Indians or for evangelizing purposes, had been founded by the Portuguese pioneers of European civilization. The total population of the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin in 1850 was perhaps 300,000, of whom about two-thirds were white and slaves, the latter numbering about 25,000. The principal commercial city, Pará, had from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, including slaves. The town of Manãos, at the mouth of the Rio Negro, had from 1000 to 1500 population; but all the remaining villages, as far up as Tabatinga, on the Brazilian frontier of Peru, were wretched little groups of houses which appeared to have timidly effected a lodgment on the river bank, as if they feared to challenge the mysteries of the sombre and gigantic forests behind them. The value of the export and import trade of the whole valley in 1850 was but £500,000.
On the 6th of September 1850 the emperor, Dom Pedro II., sanctioned a law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon, and confided to an illustrious Brazilian, Barão Mauá (Irineu Evangilista de Sousa), the task of carrying it into effect. He organized the “Compania de Navigação e Commercio do Amazonas” at Rio de Janeiro in 1852; and in the following year it commenced operations with three small steamers, the “Monarch,” the “Marajo” and “Rio Negro.” At first the navigation was principally confined to the main river; and even in 1857 a modification of the government contract only obliged the company to a monthly service between Pará and Manãos, with steamers of 200 tons cargo capacity, a second line to make six round voyages a year between Manãos and Tabatinga, and a third, two trips a month between Pará and Cametá. The government paid the company a subvention of £3935 monthly. Thus the first impulse of modern progress was given to the dormant valley. The success of the venture called attention to the unoccupied field; a second company soon opened commerce on the Madeira, Purús and Negro; a third established a line between Pará and Manãos; and a fourth found it profitable to navigate some of the smaller streams; while, in the interval, the Amazonas Company had largely increased its fine fleet. Meanwhile private individuals were building and running small steam craft of their own, not only upon the main river but upon many of its affluents. The government of Brazil, constantly pressed by the maritime powers and by the countries encircling the upper Amazon basin, decreed, on the 31st of July 1867, the opening of the Amazon to all flags; but limited this to certain defined points—Tabatinga, on the Amazon; Cameta, on the Tocantins; Santarem, on the Tapajos; Borba, on the Madeira; Manãos, on the Rio Negro; the decree to take effect on the 7th of September of the same year. Pará, Manãos and Iquitos are now thriving commercial centres. The first direct foreign trade with Manãos was commenced about 1874.
The local trade of the river is carried on by the English successors to the Amazonas Company—the Amazon Steam Navigation Company. In addition to its excellent fleet there are numerous small river steamers, belonging to companies and firms engaged in the rubber trade, navigating the Negro, Madeira, Purús and many other streams. The principal exports of the valley are india-rubber, cacao, Brazil nuts and a few other products of very minor importance. The finest quality of india-rubber comes from the Acre and Beni districts of Bolivia, especially from the valley of the Acre (or Aquiry) branch of the river Purús. Of the rubber production of the Amazon basin, the state of Pará gives about 35%. The cacao tree is not cultivated, but grows wild in great abundance. There is but one railway in the whole valley; it is a short line from Pará towards the coast. The cities of Pará and Manãos have excellent tramways, many fine public buildings and private residences, gardens and public squares, all of which give evidence of artistic taste and great prosperity.
The number of inhabitants in the Brazilian Amazon basin (the states of Amazonas and Pará) is purely a matter of rough estimate. There may be 500,000 or 600,000, or more; for the immigration during recent years from the other parts of Brazil has been large, due to the rubber excitement. The influx from the state of Ceará alone, from 1892 to 1899 inclusive, reached 98,348.
As Commander Todd, in his report to the United States government, says: “The crying need of the Amazon valley is
