THE SOUTH AMERICAM GOLDTHOSE BARMAIDS AGAIN.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1871, 22 July 1874, Page 3

THE SOUTH AMERICAM GOLDTHOSE BARMAIDS AGAIN.

Under the heading of "A Rival for California and Australia," an American paper says: Tho upper valley of the Madeira River contains, approximately, 400,000 square miles, marvellously rich in every product of value in South America. Its eastern and central parts, the Bolivian provinces of Cordillera, Chiquitos, aud the Beni, were first settled by the Jesuits, who penetrated northward from their settlements in the valley of the .Rio de la Plata, and organised numerous 'reductions ' of tiie native tribes', and founded many prosperous towns. These, however, were always either upon the banks of navigable streams or within easy reach of them. Situated iu the extreme eastern part of the Madeira Valley is the mineral Brazilian proviuce of Matto-Groaso, abounding in" valuable agricultural products, gold aud diamond washings. It is, owing to its inaccessibility, very thinly populated, but promises to be in the future one of the most prosperous States of the limpire of Brazil. It is also one of the, at the present, most unprotected frontiers of that country, being almost at the mercy of the Sates of the Plata Valley in the case of war. Ascending the upper central and western rivers of tiie Madeira Valley, we reach the richest of all the slopes of the Andes, well populated by the Spanish race, mixed with Quichua and Ayrnara Indians; the Indian elemont being probably the best which can be fouud upon the Western Continent, and capable of a .high degree of civilization. Its power of increase is extraordinary, surpassing even that of the Mexican Indian races, which are so fecund. The Bolivian part of the Madeira Valley contains about 2,500,000 people, the Lndian blood slightly predominating. At the date of Bolivian independence, in 1825, the population was loss than 1,000,000. Out of the present inhabitants sorao 2,000,000 are in the valley of which we treat, living within comparatively easy reach of the navigable streams which swell the volume of the river Madeira. The country in which they live is, without exception, the richest on the globe, in everything that Nature gives to man. Its mineral wealth cannot lie equalled within any area upon the Western Continent.

Hie number of silver mines opened there during the rule of >p<iin might appear fabulous were they not registered in the archives of the State.