Jules Verne by Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon Read Free Book Online Page B

unchecked. The constancy of this refreshing breeze renders the
climate of the river Amazon agreeable, and even delightful."
    The Abbé Durand has likewise testified that if the temperature does not
drop below 25 degrees Centigrade, it never rises above 33 degrees, and
this gives for the year a mean temperature of from 28 degrees to 29
degrees, with a range of only 8 degrees.
    After such statements we are safe in affirming that the basin of the
Amazon has none of the burning heats of countries like Asia and Africa,
which are crossed by the same parallels.
    The vast plain which serves for its valley is accessible over its whole
extent to the generous breezes which come from off the Atlantic.
    And the provinces to which the river has given its name have
acknowledged right to call themselves the healthiest of a country which
is one of the finest on the earth.
    And how can we say that the hydrographical system of the Amazon is not
known?
    In the sixteenth century Orellana, the lieutenant of one of the brothers
Pizarro, descended the Rio Negro, arrived on the main river in 1540,
ventured without a guide across the unknown district, and, after
eighteen months of a navigation of which is record is most marvelous,
reached the mouth.
    In 1636 and 1637 the Portuguese Pedro Texeira ascended the Amazon to
Napo, with a fleet of forty-seven pirogues.
    In 1743 La Condamine, after having measured an arc of the meridian at
the equator, left his companions Bouguer and Godin des Odonais, embarked
on the Chinchipe, descended it to its junction with the Marañon, reached
the mouth at Napo on the 31st of July, just in time to observe an
emersion of the first satellite of Jupiter—which allowed this "Humboldt
of the eighteenth century" to accurately determine the latitude and
longitude of the spot—visited the villages on both banks, and on the
6th of September arrived in front of the fort of Para. This immense
journey had important results—not only was the course of the Amazon
made out in scientific fashion, but it seemed almost certain that it
communicated with the Orinoco.
    Fifty-five years later Humboldt and Bonpland completed the valuable work
of La Condamine, and drew up the map of the Manañon as far as Napo.
    Since this period the Amazon itself and all its principal tributaries
have been frequently visited.
    In 1827 Lister-Maw, in 1834 and 1835 Smyth, in 1844 the French
lieutenant in command of the "Boulonnaise," the Brazilian Valdez in
1840, the French "Paul Marcoy" from 1848 to 1860, the whimsical painter
Biard in 1859, Professor Agassiz in 1865 and 1866, in 1967 the Brazilian
engineer Franz Keller-Linzenger, and lastly, in 1879 Doctor Crevaux,
have explored the course of the river, ascended many of its tributaries,
and ascertained the navigability of its principal affluents.
    But what has won the greatest honor for the Brazilian government is
that on the 31st of July, 1857, after numerous frontier disputes between
France and Brazil, about the Guiana boundary, the course of the Amazon
was declared to be free and open to all flags; and, to make practice
harmonize with theory, Brazil entered into negotiations with the
neighboring powers for the exploration of every river-road in the basin
of the Amazon.
    To-day lines of well-found steamboats, which correspond direct with
Liverpool, are plying on the river from its mouth up to Manaos; others
ascend to Iquitos; others by way of the Tapajoz, the Madeira, the Rio
Negro, or the Purus, make their way into the center of Peru and Bolivia.
    One can easily imagine the progress which commerce will one day make in
this immense and wealthy area, which is without a rival in the world.
    But to this medal of the future there is a reverse. No progress can be
accomplished without detriment to the indigenous races.
    In face, on the Upper Amazon many Indian tribes have already
disappeared, among others the Curicicurus and the Sorimaos. On the
Putumayo, if a few Yuris are still met with, the Yahuas have