STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE RIVER PLATE.
ERRATA.
Page 132.—For Club “El Temple” read “Del Parque.”
Page 167.—Transpose in table words “Revenue” and “Working.”
Page 169.—For “£150,000” read “£15,000.”
PREFACE.
This work makes no pretentions to literary merit, but, as its title indicates, is simply a narrative descriptive of the progress of the countries specially referred to, which, though England has long maintained intimate commercial relations with them, are still but very imperfectly known to the British public. In the Old World generations follow each other without any very perceptible alteration being observable in the characteristic surroundings, but in the New World, as America is still termed, a few years often effect changes of the most important and striking description. This is notably the case as respects Brazil and the River Plate, the growth of which has been very remarkable.
Since the year 1854, when my former work was published, a large amount of English capital has been invested in various enterprises connected with Brazil and the River Plate, and particularly for the construction of railways, the formation of banks, and the promotion of steam navigation on the great Rivers communicating with the interior. If the results have not, in several instances, proved wholly satisfactory as regards the distribution of dividends, the fact is in a considerable degree, if not entirely, owing to mismanagement of some kind or other; and I think there can be no doubt that a prosperous future yet lies before all the companies in question. On the other hand, large gains have been secured, showing that those regions present a profitable and wide field for the further employment of our surplus capital.
The commercial tendencies of Brazil and the Platine States are most liberal, and their policy is the very opposite of that pursued under the exclusive domination of Portugal and Spain. The Empire, not long since, received the approval of all civilised nations for its decree opening up the waters of the noble Amazon to free commerce, and the unrestricted navigation of the upper riverine streams will be one of the chief advantages the victory of the allies in the present war will confer upon mankind.
The extent of territory embraced within the limits of Brazil, and what are commonly called the Platine States, cannot easily be realised by those who have never travelled out of Europe; and it is equally difficult to convey any adequate idea of their wonderful fertility and productiveness. Nature has blessed them with her choicest gifts, and, to take the highest rank amongst the nations, their sole want is increased population; and this is precisely what overcrowded Europe can very well spare. I am glad to be able to state that the respective Governments are fully impressed with the necessity of adopting comprehensive and effective measures with a view to attracting emigrants to their shores.
My intended movements during my visit were much interfered with by the cholera in the Plate and the protracted duration of hostilities in Paraguay, but I was enabled to satisfy myself of the complete realisation in 1868 of my most sanguine predictions in 1853.
BRAZIL AND THE RIVER PLATE
IN
1868.
THE VOYAGE OUT.
A beaten track does not present the same novelty as a fresh one, except in the case of countries in what is still termed the New World, and which are again about to be described. It was in 1853 I last visited Brazil and the River Plate, and published my observations upon them. An interval of fifteen years has wrought many changes and produced wonderful progress there, and if the Southern portion of the American Continent has not kept pace with the Northern it may be chiefly ascribed to the continued great influx of emigrant population to the latter from all parts of Europe, but consisting chiefly of the Anglo-Saxon race. From this cause, even the loss of at least a million of American citizens by the great civil war has caused no perceptible diminution in the American census, because it is constantly replenished from Europe. The African race has, however, come to the surface in a most unlooked-for manner, their shackles having been removed by a violent shock, which has, for a time at least, caused great social disturbance, and left the Southern States more or less at the mercy of the “niggers,” as the blacks are generally termed. What may be the ultimate result, or how things will “settle down,” is yet a problem to be solved. Meantime, slavery in Brazil remains a domestic institution, but it is doomed to inevitable extinction. The process of emancipation will be watched with much interest by all who desire to see the Brazilian Empire rise to the position it is capable of attaining. The tide of emigration to Brazil, spite of this disadvantage, has, however, fairly set in, and the subject will be treated of in its proper place. Happily, in the River Plate there exists no such hindrance to the development of free labour, for which it also presents a boundless field, and it will be the study of the writer to show how a portion, at all events, of the surplus population of Europe can be located there, to the great advantage of those who embrace the opening as well as of the country itself, whose chief and most urgent want is labour. The Paraguayan war and the terrible ravages of the cholera have been a great drawback to internal improvement in the Argentine Republic, but it is gratifying to think that the encouraging picture drawn by the writer on his first visit to the Plate has been more than realised—the motto of the Platine States should now be “Peace and Progress.” The “log” of an outward-bound passenger on board an ocean steamer now possesses but little interest; still, a record of the changes which have taken place in the means of transit since my last voyage, made fifteen years ago, may be worthy of notice, and will also afford information to those who contemplate a trip to Brazil or the River Plate. Success does not always attend even the best organised and most promising enterprises, but all experience had even then proved that there was ample scope for the employment of capital in promoting intercourse by means of steam with those countries that can only be reached by crossing the ocean. The South American Company, with which at that time I was connected, started under unfortunate circumstances. Ships were high in price, and rates of fuel were exorbitant by reason of the Crimean War. They lost in addition two of their steamers in a most unlooked-for manner, which sadly deranged their operations; but emphatically the two grave errors committed by the company were, first, in building more ships than they could raise capital to pay for; and, secondly, in abandoning the line after their experience had thus been paid for, and at the very moment when the traffic was becoming lucrative; for there can be no question that had they continued to run their steamers, instead of being seduced by the tempting terms of charter offered by Government, they would now have been in existence as a powerful company, paying good dividends. This was not to be however, and on the abandonment of the line, the Royal Mail Company was left without a competitor, and so enabled to realise large profits. Had this latter company read rightly the signs of the times, or met the requirements of commerce by despatching a steamer once a month from Liverpool, alternately with their regular mail from Southampton, they would not only have made more money, but to a considerable extent rendered themselves independent of Government subsidies. Their monopoly was exercised injuriously for the interests of the countries they were trading
