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stated, must be the force to be employed in order to give an effi cient protection to the Gulf. All the wants required by this description of vessels are to be found there in the greatest abundance, and of every variety. What is remarkable, too, is that nearly all the States bordering on the Ohio and the Mississippi can supply respectively all the different materials required for naval steamers. Western Pennsylvania can furnish the iron in all its varieties of workmanship; Western Virginia, timber and coal ;* Kentucky and Missouri, hemp; Illinois, lead; Ohio and Indiana, flour and pork; Tennessee from her foundries can supply cannon and ball. At New Orleans, too, all the persons required for steamers can always at the shortest notice be procured, from the coal heaver and fireman, including deck hands, to the engineers who direct the machinery. The numerous steamboats on the Mississippi afford the best school for training persons to all the various duties required on board of steamers. These men are known to be the bravest, hardiest anywhere to be found. Even for the purposes of building vessels of war, New Orleans is most advantageously situated, for she is in close proximity to the live-oak of Florida, and the western part of Louisiana can furnish the best kinds of cedar and other varieties of wood useful in the construetion of vessels.

"Hitherto many difficulties existed at New Orleans which were unfavorable for the purposes of a naval station; and probably this is one cause why that city has been overlooked by the General Government. But these difficulties have passed away, and the committee cannot possibly conceive any reason why New Orleans should not be a naval station, but on the contrary they think there are strong and controlling considerations why there should be one there. Formerly the insalubrity of the climate was one reason operating against the establishment of a navy yard at New Orleans; now it is different, for not only is the city not annually visited with the usual yellow fever, but the disease, when it does appear is robbed of its former terrors by the skill of the modern practitioner. Formerly it was difficult to obtain even ordinary laborers except at very high rates of wages. The difficulty of obtaining mechanics was still greater, and some species of that kind of labor could not be procured at all. Now laborers can be procured not only in abundance, but also at very low rates of wages. Artisans, too, of every variety of mechanic skill, can be obtained at prices probably comparing with northern cities.

"Formerly the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi presented a difficulty which is now obviated; for modern skill has applied to naval architecture the happy combination of increased capacity of hull, with diminution of draft. This remark particularly applies

*The bituminous can be furnished at $4 50 per ton or load, cheaper by $2 50 than is paid by the Cunard steamers for an inferior article, and very nearly the price at which anthracite is supplied on the Atlantic seaboard.

to steamers, of which many have entered New Orleans-crossing the bar with ease-of sufficient size to bear all the armament required in a war steamer. Formerly the distance of New Orleans from the seat of government was a serious objection on account of the length of time required to communicate from Washington to that city. Now that difficulty is removed, for by means of railroads already in operation, and by means of others in process of construction, which will soon be finished, New Orleans, can be reached in four days from the seat of government. Besides which we have that greatest of modern inventions, the telegraph-by which the orders of the Secretary of the Navy can be instantaneously communicated to the officers in the station at New Orleans. The advantages of the telegraph ought of themselves to suggest the immediate establishment of a navy yard at New Orleans, for many occasions may arise as have already occurred-where promptitude of action in relation to our affairs with Cuba-with Mexico and with other powers having possessions in the Caribbean sea, would be every thing to accomplish the objects of the Government. With a permanent naval force in the Gulf, and with a navy yard at New Orleans for its rendez-vous, a few hours only would be required to communicate the orders of the Government, a few hours more would be all sufficient to place our vessels at the required point. The committee have reason to think that it can be satisfactorily demonstrated, that had there been a navy yard at New Orleans during the late war with Mexico, the saving alone in the cost of transporting munitions of war would have been more than sufficient to have established a navy yard there, besides the great advantage of giving more efficiency to our naval military forces employed against Mexico.

"In connection with this view of the subject, there is another which is well set forth in the memorial of the councils, but which cannot too frequently be impressed on the attention of the Government. It is the great advantage which our naval force in the Pacific would derive from the establishment of a navy yard at New Orleans. There cannot be a doubt that war-steamers will be the kind of naval force, which before long will be the one which will be mainly relied on for our purposes in the Pacific. The Government very wisely has already ordered two or three of our steamers there. From New Orleans, whence, as has already been shown by the committee, supplies for victualing, for repairs, and in the shape of munitions of war, can be had in full abundance of every variety, our steamers could be readily supplied. From the Pacific terminus of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec information can be transmitted to Washington via New Orleans in less than five days. On this point, the memorial very properly says: 'It is difficult to over-estimate the importance to the Government of this facility connected. with the operations of our naval forces in the Pacific, for in the event of additional forces being required there, which will have to

be sent from this side, or for supplies, or for articles of repair, orders can be immediately transmitted from Washington on the same day to New Orleans, and from the supplies there, the wants of our Pacific squadron will at once be met. Over this very same route of Tehuantepec, which brought the quick intelligence demanding relief, can the materials required in the Pacific be transported in a short time at reasonable cost.'

"This view of the matter alone, without any other consideration, ought, in the opinion of the committee, to be sufficient to induce the Government to establish forthwith a navy yard at New Orleans. But when it is borne in mind, that in a very short time a large amount of trade from the Asiatic world, and a great value will pass over the various Isthmus routes, and will concentrate in the Caribbean sea and the Gulf, the necessity for an additional naval station in those waters will be apparent to all.

"In other respects New Orleans is most advantageously situated for all the purposes of a navy yard. Her distance from the ocean is sufficient for protection from sudden attack, and sufficiently near for prompt and efficient action to the vessels stationed there; in fact, a naval force stationed at New Orleans would prove the best protection to this city. A war-steamer placed at the English Turn below the city would successfully defy the approach of an enemy in that quarter.

"The committee think the time has arrived when it is the imperative duty of this section of the country to demand from the General Government an increase in the Gulf of a naval force, and of the kind suited to the improvement of modern naval armaments, with a navy yard at New Orleans. It has been the aim of the committee in the previous part of the report to show, that it is not only the States of the valley of the Mississippi and those bordering on the Gulf, which are interested in a navy yard at New Orleans; but that all the Atlantic commercial States are equally interested with them.

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Drawn by DAVID D. PORTER, Capt. U. S. N., and commanding Mail Steamship Georgia, and published by order of Committee Chamber of Commerce; Caldwell, Stanton, Owen, Skipwith and Sumner.

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The Middlesex and cargo got damaged (by collision) on the bar $30,000, and returned to repair. Many other, vessels than those above were aground at the same time, awaiting a swell from southeasterly gales.

ARTICLE III.

The Amazon and the Atlantic Slopes of South America.

In our issue of June, 1852, we published a Memorial to Congress from Lient. M. F. Maury, praying for such constitutional and rightful legislation as shall tend to encourage commerce and navigation with the great Amazonian Valley. The following article is the fifth of a series published in the "Washington Union," over the signature of INCA, which we attribute to the same author. The efforts of Lieut. Maury to enlighten the American people in respect to the wonderful resources of that extensive region, and to induce Congress to adopt active measures to obtain the privilege of navigating the Amazon, entitle him to the gratitude of the nation.

That the most extensive and perhaps most productive valley upon the globe should at this day be almost uninhabited by civilized men, and, in effect, closed against the commerce of the world, is more remarkable than even the selfish policy of Japan. The vessels of no nation, we believe, are allowed by the Brazilian government to enter the Amazon, and, consequently, the principal commerce between that region and the United States and Europe is transported across the Andes on animals, and shipped around Cape Horn. This exclusive policy, on the part of Brazil, should not be tolerated by the civilized world. We are no advocates of aggression upon the rights of other nations, but we hold that the human family at large have an interest in the natural wealth, and in the development of the resources of every part of the earth, and that no nation has the right to pursue a policy calculated to exclude all others from the benefits derivable from a region of sufficient capacity, as it is believed by some writers, to sustain the entire population of the globe. Our own government, some years ago, applied for permission to send a steamer up the Amazon, to explore it, but the Brazilian government refused to allow a foreign vessel to enter the river even for the benefit of science. Our government, however, ordered two officers of the Navy, (Lieut. Herndon and Lieut. Gibbon) to cross over the Andes from Lima, and descend the Amazon. We are informed that Lieut. Herndon has returned, and we trust, we shall shortly have his report of that interesting country.

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