William Lewis Herndon, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ The government of the United States had scarcely begun to entertain the idea of sending a commission to explore the valley of the Amazon, with a view to ascertain what benefits might accrue to its citizens by the establishment of commercial relations with the people who dwell upon its banks, when the fact became known to Brazil. That government, thus awakened to its own (more apparent, however, than real) interests, immediately cast about for means to secure for itself any advantages that might arise from a monopoly of the trade of the river. ”

“ It is again (as in the case of the country at the foot of the Andes) sad to think that, excluding the savage tribes, who for any present purposes of good may be ranked with the beasts that perish, this country has not more than one inhabitant for every ten square miles of land; that it is almost a wilderness; that being capable, as it is, of yielding support, comfort, and luxury to many millions of civilized people who have superfluous wants, it should be but the dwelling place of the savage and the wild beast. ”

“ Such is the country whose destiny and the development of whose resources is in the hands of Brazil. It seems a pity that she should undertake the work alone; she is not strong enough; she should do what we are not too proud to do, stretch out her hands to the world at large, and say, “Come and help us to subdue the wilderness; here are homes, and broad lands, and protection for all who choose to come.” She should break up her steamboat monopoly, and say to the sea-faring and commercial people of the world, “We are not a maritime people; we have no skill or practice in steam navigation ”

“ The subjects and citizens of other nations which have treaties with Peru, by virtue of which they may enjoy the rights of those of the most favored nation, or to whom those same rights, as regards commerce and navigation, in conformity with said treaties, may be communicable, shall, in case of obtaining entrance into the waters of the Amazon, enjoy, upon the Peruvian shores, the rights conceded to the vessels and subjects of Brazil by the foregoing article. ”

“ No man would be willing to undergo the exposure, privations, and hardships of a dwelling in the wilderness whilst he was clearing his lands, unless with the prospect of having a large and valuable estate, if not available for himself, at least for his children. The government should make legal titles to each adult male settler of a tract of land at least a mile square.
The decree says nothing in relation to toleration of creeds in religion. The President could not grant toleration, for it would be contrary to the constitution of Peru ”

“ Amongst the most urgent national obligations is that of procuring the civilization of the savage tribes who dwell on the borders of the Ucayali and in other parts of Eastern Peru; and also that which binds the republic to lay the foundations of the prosperity which may be expected from commerce and communication with the rest of the world, by means of the navigation of the Amazon and its confluents. ”

“ Were she to adopt a liberal instead of an exclusive policy, throw open the Amazon to foreign commerce and competition, invite settlement upon its banks, and encourage emigration by liberal grants of lands, and efficient protection to person and property, backed as she is by such natural advantages, imagination could scarcely follow her giant strides towards wealth and greatness. ”

“ It will be thus seen that our citizens have a legal right, by express grant and decree, to trade upon the interior waters of Peru and Bolivia, and it is presumed that Brazil will not attempt to dispute the now well settled doctrine, that no nation holding the mouth of a river has a right to bar the way to market of a nation holding higher up, or to prevent that nation’s trade and intercourse with whom she will, by a great highway common to both. ”

“ On the top and eastern slope of the Andes lie hid unimaginable quantities of silver, iron, coal, copper, and quicksilver, waiting but the application of science and the hand of industry for their development. ”

“ Immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, and before the exchange of ratifications, Brazil gives a practical illustration of the wisdom of a remark attributed to her wily minister in Lima, which was probably intended only for Peruvian ears, and directed rather at another government than his own, viz: “that it was not expedient for a weak nation to treat with one more powerful than itself; because, in the interpretation of treaties, the stronger party always enforced its own construction, and the weaker, as invariably, went to the wall.” ”

“ The active, the industrious, and the enterprising, will be here, as elsewhere, in advance of his fellows; but this is the very paradise of the lazy and the careless. Here, and here only, such an one may maintain life almost without labor. ”

“ The Governor-General (resident in Loreto) is empowered to concede gratuitously to all, whether Peruvians or foreigners, who wish to establish themselves in those countries under the national rule and in subordination to the laws and authorities, titles of possession to land (in conformity with the law of November 21, 1832,) from two to forty fanegadas, in proportion to the means and ability of cultivation, and number of individuals who may constitute the family of those who shall establish themselves. ”

“ The man accustomed to this climate is ever unwilling to give it up for a more bracing one, and will generally refuse to exchange the abandon and freedom from restraint that characterizes his life there, for the labor and struggle necessary even to maintain existence in a more rigorous climate or barren soil. ”

“ Here trees, evidently young, shoot up to such a height that no fowling piece will reach the game seated on their top-most branches, and with such rapidity that the roots have not strength or sufficient hold upon the soil to support their weight, and they are continually falling, borne down by the slightest breeze, or by the mass of parasites and creepers that envelop them from root to top. ”

“ The climate of this country is pleasant and healthy; it is entirely free from the annoyance of sand flies and musquitoes, which infest the lower part of the tributaries, and nearly the whole course of the Amazon. There is too much rain for agreeability from August to March; but
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nothing could be more pleasant than the weather when I was there in June. ”

“ The climate of this country is salubrious and the temperature agreeable. The direct rays of the sun are tempered by an almost constant east wind, laden with moisture from the ocean, so that one never suffers either from heat or cold. ”

“ She, together with the five Spanish American republics above named, owns in the valley of the Amazon more than two millions of square miles of land, intersected in every direction by many thousand miles of what might be called canal navigation. As a general rule, large ships may sail thousands of miles to the foot of the falls of the gigantic rivers of this country; and in Brazil particularly, a few hundred miles of artificial canal would open to the steamboat, and render available, thousands of miles more. ”

“ Barley, quinua, and potatoes, best grown in a cold, with wheat, rye, maize, clover, and tobacco, products of a temperate region, deck the mountain-side, and beautify the valley; while immense herds of sheep, llamas, alpacas, and vicunas feed upon those elevated plains, and yield wool of the finest and longest staple. ”

“ But whilst Tirado is penning this courtly caveat in Lima, Gomez Sanchez, in Rio Janeiro, is giving his assent to the De Souza contract, extending it in all its force to Peru, and entering into an agreement with De Souza by which he gives him the right of exploring the Ucayali, and other rivers of the west, from Rio, besides other privileges, which, if acceded to by the Peruvian government, would give Brazil all power over the navigation of those rivers, as well as over that of the main stream. ”

“ It shall be permitted in the new settlements that the individuals who form them may unite themselves in municipal corporations, under the presidency of the governors of the respective districts or territories, for the purpose of making laws relative to the local administration, without giving the governors created by this decree any power to interfere with rights, of whatever nature, in respect to individual liberty; they only taking care for the preservation of public order, and of the national authority, in conformity with the laws. ”

“ Fruits, too, of the finest quality and most luscious flavor, grow here; oranges, lemons, bananas, pine-apples, melons, chirimoyas, granadillas, and many others which, unpleasant to the taste at first, become with use exceedingly grateful to the accustomed palate. ”

“ This land is of unrivalled fertility; on account of its geographical situation and topographical and geological formation, it produces nearly everything essential to the comfort and well-being of man. ”

“ The second article of that treaty declares that, “The two high-contracting parties hereby bind and engage themselves not to grant any favor, privilege, or immunity whatever, in matters of commerce and navigation, to other nations, which shall not be also immediately extended to the citizens of the other contracting party, who shall enjoy the same gratuitously, or on giving a compensation as nearly as possible of proportionate value and effect, to be adjusted by mutual agreement, if the concession shall have been conditional.” ”

“ The country will afford room for every shade of opinion and every form of worship; and men will be too busy there for years to come to find leisure for quarrelling on such trifling yet mischievous subjects. The decree refers in several places particularly to Catholics, as if in contradistinction to, and tacit acknowledgment of, a Protestant interest. ”

“ The other articles divide the territory proposed to be settled into districts: four on the Amazon, from Loreto upwards to Nauta; two on the Ucayali, from the mouth to Sarayacu; and four on the Huallaga, from the mouth to Tingo Maria — all under the direction of a governor general established at Loreto. The Intendente general of the missions of Pozuzu, which are near the sources of the Pachitea, a confluent of the Ucayali, is directed to observe the conditions of the decree ”

“ The new population shall pay no contribution for the space of twenty years; nor shall the Catholics pay obventional or parochial dues, the cures that shall be there established being at the expense of the State. ”

“ He will commence by calling over industrious men of all professions and creeds, of all ages, nations, and conditions, with the sole condition that they shall be moral and laborious; he will endow them with those fertile lands, with which you are familiar, to the eastward of the Andes ”

“ Larger grants of lands for founding colonies, towns, and estates, will be made by the government gratuitously, but by means of agreements with contractors, in which the conditions of this colonization shall be established. ”

“ All concession of lands made to individuals or families, in conformity with articles 10 and 11, shall be void, if, at the end of eighteen months, no attempt has been made to cultivate or to build upon them. ”

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and in which, probably, an abundant emigration, and an extensive traffic, will create towns of important commerce and a field for the efforts of civilization and industry.”
These are patriotic and statesmanlike views, which give ample testimony to the truth of Ijurra’s estimate of the character of this wise minister, contained in a recent letter to me. He says:
“The minister Tirade is the man for the age in Peru. ”