O Baron of Ladário and the handwritten letters of the Amazon River

Abstract

The Cartography Division of the National Library of Brazil has four maps of the Amazon River surveyed by Baron of Ladário, from 1861 to 1866. These documents refer to the works of the Mixed Commission (Comissão Mista) which had to recognize and established the boundairies marked in the 7th clause of the 1851 Treaty – the Trade, Navigation, Boundaries and Extradition Treaty (Tratado de Comércio, Navegação, Limites e Extradição). The heads of this Commission were Capitain José da Costa Azevedo, and later on, Baron de Ladário, and the Rear Admiral Ignácio Muriategui, the respective representatives of Brazil and Peru. These documents – “Primeiros traços da planta Solimões”; “Carta hidrográfica do Rio Amazonas Brazileiro; “Esboço do rio Amazonas: Belem no Brazil a Loreto no Perú”, o rio Amazonas do Brazil – should be studied for the hydrographic detail of the Amazon River from Tabatinga City to the river’s mouth of the Amazon. This also includes a short history of some towns and villages.