William Henry Edwards provides a personal account of his journey up the Amazon River in the mid-1800s. Along the way, he describes the region's flora and fauna, as well as the people he meets and the challenges he faces. This book is a fascinating glimpse into a largely unexplored part of the world during a time of great change. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from A Voyage Up the River Amazon, Including a Residence at Par IN these stirring times, when all anglo-saxondom is on the qui-vive for novelty, and the discovery of a new watering place is hailed with more enthusiasm than the discovery of a new planet - when the universal Yankee nation has so nearly exhausted all the whereabouts which modern facilities for locomotion have brought so conveniently within its reach; -when the Old World has become also an old story, and Summer excursions to St. Petersburg and Tornea, and Winter sojourns in Australia and Types, have afforded amusement, not only to travelers themselves, but to those who, at their own fire-sides, like equally well to take a trip to the ends of the Earth in their comfortable arm-chairs; it has been a mat ter of surprise to me, that those who live upon the excitement of seeing and telling some new thing, have so seldom betaken themselves to our Southern continent. Promising indeed to lovers of the marvelous is that land, where the highest of Earth's mountains seek her brightest skies, as though their tall peaks sought a nearer acquaintance with the most glorious of stars; where the mightiest of rivers roll majestically through primeval forests of boundless extent, concealing, yet bringing forth the most beautiful and varied forms of animal and vegetable existence; where Peruvian gold has tempted, and Amazonian women have repulsed, the unprincipled adventurer; and where Jesuit missionaries, and luckless traders, have fallen victims to cannibal Indians, and epicurean anacondas. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXII. Want of emigrants and laborers--Inducements to settlers, and disadvantages--Citizenship--Import and export duties and taxes--Want of circulating medium--Embarrassments of government--Capabilities of the Province--Effect of climate on the whites --The blacks--Inducements to the formation of a steamboat company--SeasonsTemperature--Health--Superior advantages to invalids--Farewell to Para--Voyage home. The want of emigrants from other countries, and of an efficient laboring class among its population, are the great obstacles to the permanent welfare of Northern Brazil. It never was the policy of Portugal to encourage emigration excepting from her own territory, and althopgh. by the indomitable enterprise of her sons, she secured to herself the finest Empire in the world, yet for want of other assistance, this Empire is impoverished, and the millions of square miles that should now be teeming with wealth, are entirely unproductive. With the nobler qualities of the old Portuguese, to which popular history has never done justice, was mingled a narrowness of mind, that was natural enough in the subjects of an old and priest-ridden monarchy. The Brazilians have not entirely thrown off this prejudice of their ancestors, and still entertain somewhat of the old jealousy of foreigners, but very naturally, in a newly liberated government, they dislike the Portuguese above all others. Much of the wealth of the country is in the hands of the Portuguese, who, coming over when young, with habits of shrewdness, and economy, almost always accumulate fortunes. The Brazilians are no match for them in these qualities, and therefore hate them most cordially. For the same reason, this feeling is continually excited, although in a lesser degree, ..

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.