“American Amazon”? - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 124

Amazon cut its banks as the Mississippi did? The exotica Herndon was to note were
not very exotic: chinchona bark for quinine and reports on the rubber industry. Herndon
himself remarked that that the Amazon itself was really just like the Mississippi at high
flood. 43 Maury was at pains to reiterate that the Amazon and the Mississippi were more
or less analogues and commercial complements of each other. He relied heavily on
Herndon's reports and repeated that though the river itself might be enormous, a jungly
Amazon of swamps and snakes, the mighty Mississippi with its bayous and water moc-
casins was not so different. The Amazon would not be beyond the scope of Southern
skills and practices. Rather justifying territorial occupation based on the taming of “eco-
logical otherness,” the claims here were based on similarity , an unusual characterization
for tropical colonial ambitions. They were wedded to the congruence of their economic
systems (slavery), their markets, and the potential new outlets for American products.
Herndon was obedient to the wishes of his kinsman. His travelogue of 1853 refers
constantly to the similarities of pasture, of fruits (though he does note the exceptional
deliciousness of the native guanabana and of course cacau), of cuisine and how local
foods could substitute for North American staples. He comments on what he sees as the
excellent fertility of the soils. He notes approvingly that Richmond wheat could be pur-
chased all the way from the Andes to the mouth of the Amazon. While there is plenty of
theusualAmazontropicalia (turtleeggs,closecallswithalligators,irritatingbugs,some
rough rapids, etc.), Herndon's account has less heavy breathing than the usual “darkest
Amazon” narratives: for him, the natives are basically not so bad, though they could
benefit from military colonies and compulsory work; Herndon's rowers seem relatively
tractable compared to those mentioned in other reports, including that of his compatriot
Gibbon, who languishes on the Beni and fears abandonment by his guides. All the of-
ficialdom that Herndon meets yearns for American know-how. The weather is pleasant,
insects are not great but not impossible, the place is healthy, and the potential for nat-
ive products both collected and cultivated is much greater than Herndon had realized,
although he emphasizes possibilities of coffee and chocolate, already powerhouses of
the global commodity economy. Herndon is at pains to describe the general approval
he finds everywhere for US colonization and free trade. The implicit argument is that
if any foreign power were to have colonies there, by far the most “pre-adapted” would
be Southern slavocrats and their chattel, who had done it all before. Maury hinted to
HerndontolookforlargeareastoacquireonPeru'supperHuallaga(todayamajorcoca-
producing zone), what Maury would describe as the “New Tennessee.” 44
Herndon's account amply fulfilled the instructions and desires of his brother-in-law
for the trip: possibilities for colonization, relative ease of travel (he mostly stayed with
the Catholic missions), the widely positive view of Americans. He was aided enorm-
ouslybyaterrific“fixer,”hisPeruviantravelingcompanionIjurra,whomediated,trans-