Note 70 — Chapter X · THE AMAZON.

Mr. Wallace, in his ‘Travels on the Amazon and the Rio Negro,’ observes—‘In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee, and rice might be grown in any quantity, and of the finest quality. The navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and the whole country is so intersected by igaripès and rivers that every estate has water carriage for its productions. But the indolent disposition of the people, and the scarcity of labour, will prevent the capabilities of this fine country from being developed till European or North American colonies are formed. There is no country where people can produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries of life.… And then what advantages there are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations during winter, but where crops may be had, and poultry be reared, all the year round; where the least possible amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether superfluous.