No. 59.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
Rio de Janeiro , May 19, 1874. (Received June 20.)
Sir: The Brazilian government is constant in its efforts to promote the construction of railways into the interior, and lately several decrees have [Page 91] been published guaranteeing 7 per cent, (net) dividend for a term of years to the stockholders of various companies about to undertake these enterprises from various points along the coast into the agricultural regions of the interior, from which the produce still comes by the slow, expensive, and insufficient means of carriage on the backs of mules.
With these government guarantees it has not been, hitherto, difficult to find, in England, the capital and to organize the companies, which have already, upon similar grants, constructed railways from Santos, (St. Paul,) Pernambuco, and other points.
Efforts have been made also to induce this government to issue bonds, or guarantee interest on new bonds of the Madeira and Marmoré Railway Company, (Bolivian Navigation Company,) but there has been no disposition hitherto here to assist (financially) the enterprise.
In this connection it may be interesting to the Department to know that the Trans-Andine Railway, from ports of Peru to the head of navigation on the southern affluents of the Amazons, is steadily progressing, and will, in all probability, shortly be consummated, through the energy of Mr. Henry Meiggs, an American citizen, who builds it under contract with Peru.
Annexed is a (clipping from an Argentine newspaper) letter from Pará, which gives some account of this work. It states the whole distance from the port of Callao, on the west coast, to the head of navigation (down the Peruvian affluents) at Oroya, within the Brazilian frontier, to be only one hundred and sixty-seven miles, (which must be a mistake, perhaps “leagues” is meant,) passing, in that short distance, the great Cordillera of the Andes through a tunnel at the height of 15,000 feet above the sea.
In this connection, also, it may be stated that the Amazons Navigation Company, having (virtually) a monopoly under a grant to Baron Maná, and by him transferred to an English company, have lately much improved their steamers, engaged in the navigation from Para up the river, both in speed and accommodation. Several new iron steamers of very light draught, with well-ventilated cabins, &c., on the American (western) model, have been built in Wilmington, Del., and sent out for that company.
Even when the Trans-Andine Railway shall be completed to Oroya, and the navigation service of the upper affluents be organized, it will be, probably, for some time a question whether freight will be cheaper to Peru by that route than as at present by the steamers of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which run from Liverpool to Callao in forty days, touching at Lisbon, Pernambuco, Rio, Montevideo, thence through the Straits of Magellan to Valparaiso and Callao.
I am, &c.,