Nathaniel Holcomb Explores the Amazon, 1872

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Well, be still my heart. Continued poking around has turned up another letter written by Nathaniel Holcomb in 1872, detailing his trip to the Amazon and the conditions there. It was picked up and republished in the Jefferson Democrat of Hillsboro, Missouri, on 21 February 1873 because someone associated with the paper was a relative of Nathaniel's. The question, of course, is who. A quick check of the editorial page reveals that the editor at that time was R.W. McMullin. He was Richard Watson McMullin, the son of John T. and Elizabeth Mariah (Jamison) McMullin. His mother was the daughter of Esther (Holcomb) Jamison, and a niece of the letter writer, Nathaniel Holcomb. It is, of course, convenient for me that R.W. McMullin edited a newspaper. Maybe more family information will come to the surface through that source. 

What I find important about the publication of Nathaniel Holcomb's letter in this Missouri newspaper, is that it reveals that editor R.W. McMullin knew who his relations were and took an interest in them. The letter itself reveals that Nathaniel Holcomb was well educated for his generation. That hints at the educational level of his parents and the possibility that he attended school. 

It is a long letter, so I am going to just clip the beginning and end of it, and then transcribe it below.

October 10th, 1872

Dear Sir: This is the first opportunity I have had of fulfilling my promise.

I left San Francisco the twenty-sixth of December, 1866, and landed in Callao, March 27th, 1867; thence I went to Tacna, from Tacna to Cochambamba. I arrived at Cochambamba the 16th of June, 1867. I have examined the country from the town of Oruro to Pelechuco--distance about 120 leagues. This is a mineral country; gold, silver, copper and other metals abound.

I entered upon the headwaters of the Tipuany, the last of August 1867. We prospected all the way to its mouth--distance 40 leagues. We found gold at every place, (it is on this river where so much mining has been done). The Tipuany, Chiana and Coereco flow into the Mapiri, within half a league of Each-other, and the town of Guany is situated on the Mapiri at the mouth of the Tipuany. Wherever they have succeeded in getting to the ledge they have always found it very rich and mostly coarse. It is about the same in the Chyena and also in the Coereco. It is in these rivers and the mountains drained by them, where so much mining has been done, and are known as the Surata mines.

The Surata mountains rise in the neighborhood of Bochambamba and extend north to the Amazon. They are gold-bearing for the entire distance, and it has been found in many places immensely rich. They also contain much silver and copper, as well as other metals.

I remained in this vicinity from the 13th of September, 1867, till the 15th of August, 1869. I examined the country, the timber, the soil, the products, the rivers, the climate, the health of the people, the capacity of the rivers for navigation. The Tipuany, the Chyana, and the Coereco can be navigated with boats of six to twelve tons, for a distance of eight to twelve leagues. The Mapiri is sufficient for steamboats, from 80 to 100 tons. The mountains drained by these rivers contain gold, and in many places are very rich. When these mines are worked as they work the California mines, immense fortunes will be realized.

On the 15th of August, 1869, we had our canoe ready and started down the Mapiri. We examined it to its confluence with the Urigus--distance about forty leagues. There is but one place in that stream boats cannot pass, that place is called Petarna. This obstruction consists of five large boulders, that have broken from a precipice just above and fallen into the river, and there is not room for a steamboat to pass between them, but small boats can. From the confluence of these rivers we passed down to the town of San Buenaventuro, at which place we arrived September 5th, 1869. This place is situated in the great valley of the Beni, just at the foot of the mountain, where the river passes through a deep canon. The valley of the Beni is about two hundred miles in width and the length is not known. It is an immense plain, covered with an immense forest of the finest timber that is to be found upon the whole earth. It is interspersed with prairies. The climate is generally healthy, the thermometer ranging from 60 to 90. The lands of the Beni and its tributaries are the most fertile of any country I have ever seen; its timber of the best quality, suitable for any purpose that man requires; its products are the richest and of the most value, to-wit: coffee, sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, chocolate, all kinds of fruits, corn, wheat, barley and oats, vegetables, potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, peas, melons; in fact, I know of nothing that is useful to man, either for food or raiment, but what can be produced in the valley of the Beni and its tributaries, in luxuriant abundance, and of the best quality, and I am perfectly astonished to see such country as this, situated in the centre of the commercial world, an uninhabited wilderness, for that is just what it is, as the present incumbents are a perfect nuisance. That is the only word that can be used to describe them correctly.

This country will be settled, and I think the time is not far distant with an industrious, energetic and a scientific people, and they will soon make it the garden spot of the world--the paradise of the earth. And why not come to it? I know of no reason why men should not avail themselves of the present advantage.

The best and surest way to get into the country is to come up the Amazon and thence up the Madeira, the end of the railroad is now in construction; thence make their way to the mouth of the Beni, and if there is no steamboat on the Beni, they can soon build small boats and make their way into the country and bring all their baggage. Colonel Church assures us that the company will render the immigration all the assistance their circumstances will allow, to facilitate their progress.

Yours truly, as ever,

Nathaniel Holcomb