mentioned roots, gums, woods, and vege- of his hands; and his decrees for the fur tables enough. We have found the forests spontaneously producing every thing necessary for the comfort and luxury of mankind, from the beautiful cotton-tree that affords him clothing, to the colors which suit his fancy as a dye; and from the woods that furnish his ship and house, or ornament his escritoire, to the herb that cures his sickness, or the incense that delights his olfactories. It is only necessary to add, that the climate is favorable to all the useful grains and table vegetables, with delicious fruits to support the frame and gratify the palate. POPULATION AND CHARACTER OF PARAGUAY. Of the Anthropology of Paraguay I have said nothing. Blumenbach himself would be puzzled to tell the original of some of the mongrel breeds to be found there. But the upper classes have ever been more regardful of their blood than in any part of Spanish or Portuguese America. They are brave, stout, and healthy, hospitable and simplehearted in the ordinary relations of life, and exceedingly intelligent and keen in business affairs. Perfect confidence in the government and subordination to the laws, are two of their cardinal virtues; and security for life and property is the blessed consequence. Tyranny enough they have already suffered to have learned to escape its toils in future; and their chief desire is to learn those arts which may conduce to their comfort and happiness, and elevate their country to its proper position among the nations of the world. In return for that knowledge their commerce will bring to us much that we have never seen, and will cheapen, for our manufactures, what we already import from other parts of South America; while to the naturalist and the historian the most extensive fields, of undeveloped richness and inexpressible beauty, will open at command. As for the character of Carlos Antonio Lopez, the President of Paraguay, I must not quit his country without passing a just eulogium upon his talents and patriotism. For a man who has never passed the frontier of his country, he is really remarkable. He has been stained by no arbitrary bloodshed; and even under the circumstances which I described, of isolation from all the world, he has reformed and advanced his country in no ordinary degree. Its whole constitution, civil, political, and religious, is the work therance of commerce and agriculture, show a spirit of enlightenment rarely exhibited under similar circumstances. However much remains to be done, he knows that it must be done slowly; that too rapid an improvement must stand upon an insecure basis, which may crumble away and leave but its ruins behind. Pursuing our route from Paraguay down the river Paranà, we pass the provinces of Corrientes and Entre-Rios, pastoral regions, whose development has been retarded, or rather stopped, by the Dictator of Buenos-Aires. In subjecting them to such custom-house regulations as he wished; in forcing them to carry their produce to Buenos-Aires, and there to receive his worthless paper money in return, he has driven them to understand the exclusiveness of a system which, under the name of "Federal," he has made more despotically centralized than his worst opponent of the Unitarian party ever desired. OPENING FOR TRADE.-Under a free navigation for these delightful regions, their exports must double within six months, and a new impulse be given to all their affairs. The commercial tendencies of all this section of country lean toward the United States, for many reasons. In the first place, we are, for our numbers, beyond all comparison the greatest consuming people of the earth. Whilst commerce with us adds to their wealth and comfort, that of England, our only rival, drains from them their very life-blood. We sell on barter or exchange, and many times have to pay the difference in specie, whilst the English sell their manufactures for good paper on time, and when the hard money is paid, it is not long in leaving the country and becoming embalmed in the vaults of the Bank of England. Again, we are undoubtedly better acquainted with the wants and the means of development of new countries, than the older nations of Europe. It is also certain, we presume, that our manufactures, machinery, and agricultural implements, are better adapted for the wants of nascent communities, where labor is excessively dear, than can be the case in the old world, where the overcrowded masses are struggling for employment, and for the right to exist. Population and Character-Opening for Trade. 247 Furthermore, these regions produce confusion, and creating a natural hatred spontaneously many valuable articles and distrust of other governments. Yet, of commerce, for which we are now al- whilst the conduct of the British has most exclusively dependent upon the produced a strong feeling against indiBritish East-Indian possessions, paying viduals of that nation, the conduct of the for them such a price as the English French has produced a strong sympathy choose to demand. It is for this reason for them, assisted by similarity in relithat the British Government has regulated its policy so as to support the barbarous system of Rosas; whilst, at the same time, she has endeavored to make such treaties as would secure her the precedence, should he ever fall from power. Again, all those productions of these valleys which European commerce requires, could be furnished to Europe by way of the United States, in less time, and consequently at less expense, than they can be by going direct, no matter whether we use steam or sailing vessels. But so long as England uses steam, and we use only sails, then we can communicate in less time (that is to say, once a month with Monte-Video and BuenosAires), by way of England, than direct from this city. A study of the wind and current charts of my distinguished friend, Mr. Maury, of the National Observatory at Washington, as well as the statistics of voyages from the Rio de la Plata to New-York, and any point of Europe, will amply prove this assertion. Then, again, all the productions of Bolivia which reach any Atlantic market, are obliged to be carried across the Andes on mules, and exported at Cobija, the only port which she possesses; and, doubling Cape Horn, at length they reach us, loaded with such expenses as almost completely kills any attempt of that fertile country to produce anything which may compete with similar productions in the commerce of the world. Upon political grounds, also, I hope to convince you that the commercial tendencies of South America set strongly in our favor, though our government has much to do to make up for. the faults of the past.. The world contains only three great commercial nations, one of which is rapidly being swallowed up by the other two. Two of these nations, England and France, have constantly interfered in the Rio de la Plata; and though from different motives, they have both contributed in producing one monotonous result: that of continuing a state of anarchy and gion, language, and philosophy. The high-handed capture of the Falkland Islands by the British, and the English settlements in the Straits of Magellan; the singular manner in which England withdrew from the combined intervention against Rosas, as if striving to throw upon France the odium of its failure; the servility of her representatives in Buenos-Aires and Monte-Video, together with her loans of money to starving governments at an exorbitant interest,all these things have ruined her hopes of commercial success, save when backed by the cannon of her fleets. In the mean time, men's minds are convinced of the great mistake which was made in listening to the enticing words of Mr. Canning; and they are anxiously desiring to strengthen those bonds of commercial communication with us, long ago formed by Messrs. Clay, Monroe, and Adams, and afterwards so unfortunately neglected by their successor, General Jackson. They are awakening to the fact, that with us they have no political intrigues to fear, and that our commercial competition is most for their advantage; and that though we have pursued a timid, irresolute, and timeserving policy with General Rosas, we have never injured, save by sins of omission, any party or any man. In fact, our only sources of complaint have been against General Rosas; and our complaints have been legitimate and just, although circumstances have held them in abeyance; whilst European attacks against him, always misrepresented in this country by his mendacious press, have produced among us a feeling of sympathy for the position of the man. He has refused to pay or arrange the American claims, which have been pending against Buenos-Aires ever since 1828. He has placed such a duty upon American flour as amounts to a prohibition; he has forbidden our vessels to carry passengers from Buenos-Aires; and he has constantly refused to make treaties with us, under pretence that he did not possess the requisite power of ratification. Yet, in the face of all this, he has made mous mélange of the Jew and the Arab." and signed treaties with England and (Lavallée Hist. des Français, vol. ii., p. France; he has given to the British 340.) Yet it must be recollected that packets an exclusive right of carrying passengers from Buenos-Aires; and he has permitted those vessels to delay the delivery of their mails, except to interested parties, even for as long as three days after their arrival. At the same time, he has cajoled the American government, by throwing himself upon their generosity; he has procured the trial of Captain Voorhies, of the United States frigate Congress, and had him suspended for an act which was a noble vindication of our national honor against his arrogant extortions; and he has managed to prevent all attention being paid, by the American government or people, to the cause of Paraguay. This American sympathy has been the only one which has sustained him among the nations of the earth,-he, whose power, built upon constant war and agitation as an occupation for his Gaucho soldiers, has never known a moment's peace,-he is the one to whom we can trace, infallibly, all the difficulties of the last twenty years on the Rio de la Plata. popes have not always spoken the truth; and, besides, what might have been true then, is not necessarily true now. Nations change through time and circumstances; and there are decided signs that the state of the Spanish race on the shores of the Plata is changing at the present moment. I confess myself a believer in the philosophical truths of history, which convince us that the universal laws of decay and reproduction, belong alike to individuals and to nations, as well as to the whole animate and inanimate creation besides. But, as yet, the unmistakable signs of decadency which belong to the old world, have no The very home among us of the new. necessities of mankind must fill up our boundless wastes sooner or later. As also in the lives of individuals, so in those of nations, crises occur over which man himself has no control. Now, Europe labors under the weight of the most terrible that has ever fallen to her lot since the creation of the world. Her oppressed millions will not all stand in hopeless However, I trust that the time has anguish, whilst the New World opens to come when these subjects will be better their longing gaze its countless acres for understood among us. They certainly their occupation, and whilst its cheerful will be, when our interests are more soil brings forth spontaneously all the widely extended in those parts of the wealth-bearing productions of every world. Then shall we feel that Paraguay -the richest of those countries in all that conduces to the comfort and happiness of mankind-is really the most powerful element in the affairs of the Rio de la Plata, from this time forward; and that, being the element of order, and peace, and progress herself, she will necessarily influence her neighbors for good, in no small degree. There are still other considerations of the greatest weight connected with this subject, which I must be excused for touching upon with freedom. I am aware that, throughout our community, great reluctance is felt to place property of value in the hands of the Spanish race upon this continent; and precedents are not wanting to prove that reclamations, pending before our government on this score, have dragged their weary length along, oftentimes leaving the claimants nothing to live upon but the empty deceptions of hope. Pope Paul IV. is reported to have said that the Spanish race was "the dregs of the earth,-an infa clime. The movement of French, Italian, and German emigration towards the region of the La Plata, already considerable, must augment, for many reasons, in a far greater ratio than we have ever known it with us. The sympathetic feelings of affection and protection will take out there thousands whose parents, relations, or friends, have already emigrated; whilst the price of land is much less than in this country, and the sympathies of race, religion, customs and language, for two of the three above-mentioned nations, naturally lead them thither. This emigra tion, composed of the best elements, for our purposes, which European society contains, must only increase by each domestic convulsion or despotic encroachment; and I know, from facts that came to my knowledge in Paris, that large arrangements are already entered into for emigration during the coming season. These emigrants will not, as many persons too hastily imagine, become elements of disorder in their new home; Foreign Emigration-Correspondence of Cass and Ellauri. 249 for those portions of the New World tween Senor Ellauri, the Oriental minisfurnish no incentives to anarchy, while ter, and General Cass, our minister at they offer every reward for honest labor. Paris, in which the former, in accordNor is it true that because they are often ance with special instructions and elements of anarchy at home, under the powers which he had received for that pressure of want and idleness, their con- purpose, offers to make a treaty of friendduct will be the same where no such ship, commerce, and navigation with pressure exists. On the contrary, I am the United States. This, be it remarked, satisfied that, as they have already pre- was in a time of profound peace for the served, so they will contribute to increase, Banda-Oriental, and whilst General the element of civilization in South Rosas was engaged in subduing the America; and I am equally convinced that they must absorb, in a few generations, the two or three millions of natives, who, proud and disdainful, with few exceptions, refuse to learn from others, and have no idea of advancing themselves. Thus, under proper management, we may expect to see a new nation truly republican, rising up on the shores of the La Plata, within a few years, founded upon the débris of liberty in the Old World, and without containing in its elements the only plague-spot to be found upon our own incomparable body politic. That the people and government of the United States may be properly represented in the future of these magnificent countries, now that they have the opportunity of so doing, they should move the first and foremost in the matter. The order of Providence seems to have constituted us the protector and teacher of the other parts of our hemisphere; and it is a duty which we have hitherto but poorly performed. Again, it is the evident policy of our government to protect all small states from the encroachments of their more powerful neighbors, as far as they can do so by diplomatic action; and the more especially, when they desire it themselves, as in the case of Paraguay and Monte-Video. In reference to this latter state, I have said nothing. But to make more evident still the great supineness of some of our past administrations, I will state that Monte-Video has always been the last refuge of civilization, and the only constant upholder of constitutional government on the shores of the La Plata. Yet, although such has been her character, as I am amply able to prove, she has never met with any notice or favor from us; but the contrary. I have now among my papers some records, procured from the files of the Oriental Legation at Paris during my late visit there, and which cannot be untrue. They are a correspondence, under date of December 14, 1841, be upper Argentine provinces. General Cass states his want of instructions, and applies to his government. His government-that is, the government of the United States-answers him, and he replies to the Oriental minister, under date of March 5th, 1842: "I have been instructed to inform you that, although the United States are desirous to extend and improve commercial and friendly relations with the governments of the Western Hemisphere, and to place them under the high sanction of conventional stipulations; yet, under existing circumstances, and particularly while war continues between the Argentine Republic and your Government, and while that region is in an unsettled and unquiet state, the moment does not seem favorable to the development of its resources, nor to the formation of new diplomatic relations with other countries. The President of the United States, therefore, thinks it necessary to defer, to a more favorable opportunity, the further expression of his amicable disposition towards the Oriental Republic, and the negotiations for the regulation of its intercourse with the United States." In a letter to me, of October 30, 1851, Señor Ellauri says, "I ought to make you notice, a very especial circumstance it is, that the only nation with which my government has taken the initiative to invite them to celebrate treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation, has been that of the United States; with all others, we ourselves have been the invited parties, even by England.” Thus, then, we have seen that the Banda-Oriental sought our connection in 1842; Paraguay, in 1843-both of which states have been treated with complete indifference. For this we owe them at least some reparation; and to call the attention and speculation of all persons to beautiful and fertile South America, it is only necessary for the government of the United States to give to these countries that impulse which is the in- steamboat in those waters would increase dispensable element of civilization and our exportations to these regions a milof Christianity. With such friendly aid lion of dollars the first year, and that as it can supply, a sudden metamorpho- this amount would double every six sis will transform the face of these coun- months thereafter, for a considerable tries. The power of steam will reproduce period of time. This boat would proupon their waters the wonderful results cure the exclusive right for the navigawhich have marked its introduction tion of these waters, from Bolivia, Brazil, among ourselves, and which to our be- and Paraguay; and the company, dur nighted brethren of South America ap- ing the existence of their monopoly, pear but the phantasy of a dream. If could control, in every respect, all imwe lead them to adopt those modes of ports and exports. commerce for which they have such unsurpassed yet unexplored advantages, we shall open to them a new era of grandeur and happiness, of which they cannot form as yet any adequate conception. In four days a steamboat could run up from Monte-Video to Asuncion, and in eight days to the interior of Bolivia and Brazil. A shorter time will carry the return voyager to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, after having touched, in both trips, at the many cities and villages upon the banks, leaving in them the spirit of life and wealth, and through these the benefits of education and refinement. The time has arrived when all things tend, in the old world and in the new, to the realization of these most magnificent projects; in a word, to the opening of an entire new world to our enterprise. Why let the opportunity slip from our grasp, to be certainly seized upon, in a few months, by our only rivals, the English? The best commercial statistics fully prove what I advance. For, in 1842, when not half a dozen individuals in each port of the United States had a dollar invested in the Rio de la Plata, the American tonnage which had arrived in the port of Monte-Video for the seven previous years, amounted to 113,696 tons, and fell short of the British by only 57,586 tons. For the year 1842 a year of peace-the total of the imports and exports of Monte-Video, with only a small back country, and without any aid from Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Corrientes, or Entre-Rios, amounted to $22,558,762; of which the Americans had the third share. Thus, if under circumstances of governmental abandonment and general want of confidence we did thus much, what ought we to do now? I do not surpass probability when I say, that the appearance of an American river I have said that the attention of the English merchants is largely drawn to this important question. As far back as 1845, the South American merchants of that country petitioned the Queen to force open the navigation of the Paranà (in the same manner as their countrymen procured a trade with China); "because," said they, "in a few years its trade will be only second to that of your Majesty's East-Indian possessions." They said well; for the southern provinces of the empire of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and the other territories watered by the tributaries of the La Plata, offer to a legitimate commercial ambition nearly nine hundred thousand miles square of virgin lands, very much more profitably situated for commercial intercourse with the globe than the Chinese empire, owing to their superior geographical, as well as social position. In China we are obliged to struggle against a traditional policy which repels the foreigner, and against a high industrial development which rejects almost all our manufactured goods, with the exception of such as come from the national mint; besides which, the Chinese are generally short-lived, and infanticide is common among them. In South America, on the contrary, we find a fresh population, ignorant of the words economy, scarcity, because they know not want. These people, the reverse of the Chinese, expect the wants as well as they demand the benefits which civilization brings in its train. Therefore we ought not, cannot remain deaf to the appeal which they make us. Shame should hinder us from permitting the English to be considered, on any part of our own continent, as the head of civilization and all progress rather than ourselves. In vain has a third of a century passed since we conferred upon these people the blessings of national independence. In |