Statement showing the navigation at the port of Santos, &c.-Continued. The clearances above include foreign (not Brazilian) steamers and sailing vessels in port on October 1, 1881. The above table does not include Brazilian steamers and sailing vessels engaged in the coasting trade, but does include foreigners from and to Brazilian ports with cargo, part cargo, or ballast, discharged or loaded here. Left in port October 1, 1882: 3 foreign steamers, 4,748 tons; 11 sailing vessels, 3,918 tons. WM. T. WRIGHT, Consul. URUGUAY. MONTEVIDEO. Report by Mr. Wilson, chargé d'affaires, on the commerce of Uruguay for the year 1882. I am unable to furnish the information desired by Treasury circular received with my instructions in regard to the amount of gold and silver productions of this Republic, and the amount exported and imported, as well as the amount in treasury and banks, for the reason, first, that there are no published statements officially reported as to the amount of gold and silver in the banks, or in the published reports of the finance department; so I am informed by the minister of finance to whom I made application for the proper information. He has kindly sent me the full report of the operation of the Government for the year 1881, just published officially, which contains all the information of the management of the respective departments of the Government. This report is in Spanish, and I have had a person thoroughly acquainted with the Spanish language go through it and tabulate and translate such matters as I thought desirable for the information of the Government. There are no productions from gold or silver mines in this Republic, and no reported amount of exports or imports of the precious metals. I have the pleasure to inclose herewith Table No. 1, of the total exports and imports for the calendar year 1881, carefully compiled from official sources; Table No. 2, showing total receipts of the Government revenue for 1881, and the expenses of the civil and military departments of the Govern ment for same period, also statement of the public debt on April 21, 1882; Table No. 3, showing amounts of bank paper in circulation on May 1, 1882, also territory and population, also foreign and coastwise trade, also passengers and emigrants for the year 1881, also the number of cattle that were slaughered in 1881. These tables are, I think, carefully compiled from official information as published, and correctly translated, and I trust will be of some benefit to the Government. You will discover that in the Table No. 1, of imports and exports, our Government imported to this Republic during the year 1881 $1,269,778, and this Government during the same period exported to the United States $3,867,494, showing a balance of trade against us of $2,597,716, while England during the same period imported to the Republic of Uruguay $5,381,054, and received from her exports only amounting to $3,091,959, showing a balance of trade in favor of England of the sum of $2,189,095. This, in my opinion, is largely accounted for from the fact that England has her weekly line of steamers to the River Plate and merchants can avail themselves of rapid transit in receiving supplies. The same also appears in the trade with France, Germany, Spain, and Italy; all of these have steamship lines reaching the River Plate weekly. I have no doubt but with a line of steamships direct from New York to the River Plate, making trips weekly, our trade with this Republic and the Argentine Republic would be largely augmented, and until that is done we cannot successfully compete for the trade of this part of South America with the Government whose steamship lines afford so much better and quicker transit for their productions. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Montevideo, October 17, 1882. W. WILLIAMS, No. 1.—Imports and exports of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, calendar year 1881. No. 2.-Total receipts of Government revenue for 1881, expenses of civil and military departments for the same period, and statement of the public debt on April 21, 1882. Total amount of revenue received from all sources, 1881.. Amount paid out on account of navy and army and pensions for the year 1881 $8,612, 357 41 1,803, 898 36 Amount paid out on account of treasury department Amount paid out on account of interior department. Amount paid out on account of legislative department Total amount of the public debt on the 21st of April, 1882, including domestic, funded and international of every description.... 605, 932 16 761,762 38 75,649 55 219,375 44 1,275, 107 88 57,520,866 62 No. 3.-Amount of bank paper in circulation, territory and population, foreign and coastwise trade, passengers and emigrants arriving and departing, and number of cattle slaughtered. Total amount of bank-paper circulation on May 1, 1831.................. $3,857,543 TERRITORY AND POPULATION. Total amount of territory, square miles .... Estimated population May 29, 1882, no accurate census having been made. Number of steamers and sailing vessels arriving in 1881 Number of steamers and sailing vessels departing in 1881.. Arriving in 1881 Departing in 1881 PASSENGERS AND EMIGRANTS. 70,000 438, 245 384 692 794, 443 378 493 713, 177 2,906 556,877 3, 101 644, 508 21,909 21, 216 CATTLE SLAUGHTERED. Number of cattle slaughtered in 1881 576, 170 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. Report by Consul Baker on the commerce and industries of the Argentine Republic for the year ending September 30, 1882. The consular year just closed has been one of uninterrupted peace and quiet throughout the Argentine Republic, while its relations with other countries have been all that could be desired. Since my last annual report the limits question with Chili, then in progress of accommodation, has been finally settled to the satisfaction of both countries. By the terms of the treaty arranged under the auspices of the United States ministers resident here and at Santiago de Chili, the dividing ridge of the Andes Mountains is made the line of separation between the two Republics through the length of Patagonia, until reaching Mount Aymond, whence it runs eastwardly until it strikes Mount Dinero, and from there carried along the land to Point Dungeness. In Terra del Fuego the line is drawn from Cape Espiritu Santo, in latitude 50° 40', and prolonged to the south, coinciding with the meridian west of Greenwich 68° 34', until it touches Beagle Channel, all to the west of this line belonging to Chili and all to the east to the Argentine Republic. As regards the islands, those belonging to the Argentine Republic shall be Los Estados and all in their vicinity; also those in the Atlantic lying east of Terra del Fuego and the eastern shores of Patagonia; and those belonging to Chili shall be the islands south of Beagle Channel, and all lying west of Terra del Fuego to Cape Horn. NEUTRALIZATION OF THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. The settlement of this protracted and difficult question is justly regarded as a great event, as it not only guarantees peace between the two countries, but enables the Argentine Republic to devote its energies to the development of its vast ulterior resources. One important arti cle of the treaty provides that the Argentine Republic renounces all her rights to the Straits of Magellan, but on the following conditions: First, that its navigation shall be free to all flags ad perpetuam; second, it shall be neutralized ad perpetuam; and, third, that Chili shall not erect fortifications or defensive works on either side of the straits. So that these waters are to remain henceforth an international highway, in the interests of trade, for the benefit of the whole world—a fact which must be appreciated by the Government of the United States. INTERNAL CONDITION OF AFFAIRS. Except an unimportant political outbreak in the province of Corrientes, which was speedily arranged, there have been no acts of open violence, even when party feeling was most excited, proving that as the years pass the Argentine people are making progress in the science of self-government, and learning to submit quietly to the will of the majority as expressed at the ballot-box; and that popular confidence in the stability of the Government, so essential to the successful movements of commerce, which in former years has at times been unsettled by internal disorders and election broils in the different provinces, seems, under the beneficent administration of President Roca, to be at last fully assured. It is a gratifying fact that even the Argentines, who in the past, owing to their frequent domestic troubles, have been the most hopeless of better things, now begin to feel that there are more patriotic ways of serving the Republic than by fomenting political discords, and they now, more generally than ever before, seem to be occupying themselves in the establishment of those industries which go to increase the wealth of the nation. The national Government, fully alive to all these great interests, has especially sought, during the past year, to give direction and encouragement to these movements of the people in the arts of peace, and to assist to the extent of its power and influence all such projects as have for their aim the industrial progress and commercial advancement of the country. Among other signs of this new order of things was the Argentine continental exposition, which was inaugurated in the city of Buenos Ayres last March, under the auspices of the Argentine Industrial Club, and towards which the Government granted a substantial subsidy. Besides attractive exhibits from nearly all the countries of South America and several of those of Europe, it was a very significant fact that all the fourteen provinces of the Argentine Republic, forgetting for the time their political animosities, were fully and handsomely represented with their various and distinctive products. The exhibition surpassed the expectations of all, in illustrating the industrial development which is to-day taking place throughout the length and breadth of the nation. I have already submitted a special report in regard to it. ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF MISIONES. The project of organizing the territory of Misiones, heretofore referred to by me, has become an accomplished fact, and that vast region is now in the enjoyment of a regular territorial government, a fact which gives great security to property and offers increased encouragement to immigration and settlement. As I have before said, nature has greatly favored the region of the Misiones, and its rapid development is confidently anticipated. This territory, it will be borne in mind, forms part of that once wonderful but now extinct empire of the Jesuits in South America, which in the early history of the country attained such a high degree of civilization and prosperity, but which, after the sudden expulsion of the Society of Jesus from all these regions by the Spanish Government, has again become such a howling wilderness that even the remains can now be scarcely discovered. I say remains, for it is stated that of the 30,000 inhabitants which composed the population of the Misiones at the end of the eighteenth century, hardly 3,000 halfbreed Indians now are to be found there. COMPLICATIONS WITH BRAZIL IN REGARD TO MISIONES. The organization of this new territory has given considerable offense to the Empire of Brazil, which claims that a portion of the territory included in the limits designated by the Argentine Congress is a component part of that Empire. The question has recently become the subject of a diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments, and the newspapers of the two countries are already busy predicting a breach of the friendly relations which the two countries have so long maintained with each other. According to the last Argentine census, the territory of Misiones has an area of 62,100 square kilometers, while Dr. Burmeister, the celebrated German naturalist, in his work on the Argentine Republic, places it at 700 German geographical square leagues. It has the Paranà River on one side and the Uruguay on the other, and abounds in water courses, with an undulating surface of alternate hills and dales. All the subtropical products may be grown there in the greatest perfection, and it is equally suited to sugar, cotton, tobacco, mandioca, rice, maize, wheat, beans, &c. Besides its timber trees, it has extensive forests of the yerba maté, or Paraguayan tea plant, an article of general use among all the South American people, and the demand for which seems to increase instead of diminish. That the Misiones is a delightful land is proved by the fact that the Jesuits, to whom nobody can deny perspicacity and precision, selected it for their favorite seat and the center of their dominions in the New World. Since its territorial organization considerable impetus has been given in that direction to immigration and settlement, and if the existing dispute with Brazil can be accommodated, it is destined to make one of the richest of the Argentine provinces. DEVELOPMENT OF PATAGONIA. The fostering care of the Government continues to be directed also to the territories of the Gran Chaco, the Pampa, and Patagonia, in regard to all of which I have spoken in former reports. The development which continues to take place in the latter territory is especially encouraging, and it gives promise of becoming noted for its agricultural productions. A hardy immigration is setting in from Europe, and new farms and estancias are constantly being opened along the arroyos and water-courses. There is now a regular line of steamers trading between Buenos Ayres and the ports of Patagonia, including Carmen, Chuput, and Santa Cruz, and is developing considerable trade, while the extension of the Buenos Ayres and Southern Railway will in another year |