Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)
BRAZIL AND HER PEOPLE OF TO-DAY
Works of NEVIN O. WINTER
Mexico and Her People of To-day $3.00
Guatemala and Her People of To-day 3.00
Brazil and Her People of To-day 3.00
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE.
(_See page 267_)]
BRAZIL AND
HER PEOPLE
OF TO-DAY
AN ACCOUNT OF THE
CUSTOMS, CHARACTERISTICS, AMUSEMENTS,
HISTORY AND ADVANCEMENT
OF THE BRAZILIANS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT
AND RESOURCES OF
THEIR COUNTRY
BY
NEVIN O. WINTER
Author of “Mexico and Her People of To-day,”
“Guatemala and Her People of To-day,” etc.
ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL AND SELECTED
PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
[Illustration]
BOSTON
L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY
MDCCCCX
_Copyright, 1910_,
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
_All rights reserved_
First Impression, September, 1910
_Electrotyped and Printed by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A._
PREFACE
The favourable reception given by the public to the two previous books,
“Mexico and Her People of To-day” and “Guatemala and Her People of
To-day,” induced the writer to continue his studies of the Latin-American
countries and people. To this end an extensive trip was made through
several of the republics on that great continent to the south of us, and
this work is the first result of that journey. Like the previous books it
is presented as a study of the country and people from the most reliable
authorities, as well as a record of impressions. In its preparation many
books have been read and scores of people, Americans, Europeans and
Brazilians, have been consulted and interviewed. The author’s purpose has
been to present this treatise upon a neighbouring republic and study of
our fellow Americans from a broad viewpoint, and avoid the narrowness of
some writings in which everything different or unfamiliar is deemed a fit
subject for caustic criticism. With this brief explanation of the purpose
of this book, and method of its preparation, “Brazil and Her People of
To-day” is given to the public.
The author desires to acknowledge his sense of obligation to Hon. Irving
B. Dudley, Ambassador of the United States of America to the United
States of Brazil, for courtesies and favours extended to the author; to
Hon. John Barrett, Director of the International Bureau of the American
Republics for kindly words of introduction; and to the Bulletin, issued
by the Bureau, for permission to use three or four photographs as
illustrations in this book.
TOLEDO, OHIO, August, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE COUNTRY 1
II. ALONG THE COAST TO THE CAPITAL 23
III. THE CITY OF BEAUTIFUL VIEWS 48
IV. AROUND AND ABOUT THE BAY 77
V. MINAS GERAES AND MINING 91
VI. A PROGRESSIVE STATE 109
VII. AN AMERICAN COLONY UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS 134
VIII. THE TEMPERATE ZONE 142
IX. THE AMAZON 164
X. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 192
XI. EDUCATION AND THE ARTS 214
XII. RAILWAYS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 236
XIII. COFFEE 260
XIV. THE LAND AND SEA FORCES 277
XV. RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES 287
XVI. THE EMPIRE 304
XVII. THE REPUBLIC 330
XVIII. A LAND OF PROMISE 353
APPENDICES 371
INDEX 383
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PICKING COFFEE (_see page 267_) _Frontispiece_
MAP 1
FALLS OF IGUASSÚ 10
THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE, PERNAMBUCO 26
THE BOAT LANDING, BAHIA 30
RIO DE JANEIRO. LOOKING ACROSS THE BAY AT SUGAR LOAF 41
THE PAULO AFFONSO FALLS 46
AVENIDA CENTRAL, RIO DE JANEIRO 53
ONE OF THE BENDS OF THE BEIRA MAR, RIO DE JANEIRO 55
THE LANDING AT RIO DE JANEIRO 57
CARIGADORES MOVING A PIANO 65
THE TREASURY BUILDING, RIO DE JANEIRO 67
THE CITY HALL, RIO DE JANEIRO 69
THE “WHITE HOUSE” OF BRAZIL 71
CLUSTER OF BAMBOOS IN THE JARDIM BOTANICO 83
AN OX TEAM OF MINAS GERAES 92
RUA DIREITA, SÃO PAULO 114
BUZZARDS AT THE MARKET, SÃO PAULO 116
THE YPIRANGA 118
GENERAL VIEW OF THE IMMIGRANT STATION AT SÃO PAULO 120
THE PICTURESQUE FAZENDA DA LAPA AT CAMPINAS 126
“MONTE ALEGRE” FAZENDA 129
A RUBBER PLANTATION OF MANIÇOBA RUBBER TREES 133
VIEW IN VILLA AMERICANA 136
A BRAZILIAN FRUIT MARKET. MELONS FROM VILLA AMERICANA 138
LOADING COFFEE AT SANTOS DOCKS 145
CUTTING RICE WITH AN AMERICAN HARVESTER 146
SELLING CATTLE IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL 156
VIEW OF PORTO ALEGRE 159
A SCENE ON THE AMAZON NEAR ITS MOUTH 174
A NEW SETTLER IN THE JUNGLE 189
NEGROES IN BRAZIL 195
LABOURERS’ HOMES ON A PLANTATION 201
THE FIFTEENTH OF NOVEMBER IN SÃO PAULO 212
A SCHOOL FOR BOYS IN SÃO PAULO 216
A SCHOOL FOR GIRLS IN SÃO PAULO 219
STUDENTS AT THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, PIRACICABA 225
THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE, RIO DE JANEIRO 233
THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE, SÃO PAULO 234
THE SÃO PAULO RAILWAY, NEAR SANTOS 256
DRYING COFFEE 268
CHURCH AT NICTHEROY 295
THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCH AT JUIZ DE FORA. A SHRINE ON TOP OF THE
MOUNTAIN 299
A TYPICAL BRAZILIAN STREET 308
A MUD AND THATCH COTTAGE 316
A GENERAL VIEW OF BAHIA 323
A RURAL HOME 330
A BRAZILIAN CRUISER 342
A FARMER’S HOME 353
BRAZIL AND HER PEOPLE OF TO-DAY
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY
“Norte-Americano,” politely suggested a Brazilian to me in the course of
a conversation, and I accepted the correction.
“We also are _Americanos_,” he continued. After that I was very careful
to make the distinction, although in an unguarded moment it would
sometimes appear. “_Ingles_” or “_Norte-Americano_,” would sometimes be
asked, although the most of the Brazilians can spot the “_Yanqui_,” as he
is called with all due respect. It is said that our former Secretary of
State, during his circular tour around South America, was very careful in
all his speeches to call himself a North American, and this one little
distinction aided in increasing his popularity. It is often the delicate
little recognition that pleases these Latin people, who are themselves
full of flattery and compliments. It is time for the people of the United
States, especially as they are now entering upon an era of commercial
conquest, to recognize that these people of the great continent south
of us are just as much entitled to the use of that term, of which they
are likewise proud, as we ourselves are; that though these people are
Brazilians, Argentinians, Chileans, etc., they consider themselves first
and foremost as Americans, in order to distinguish themselves from
Europeans, Asiatics and Africans. We can say to them: “We are North
Americans, you are South Americans; but we are all Americans, and proud
of our homes in this great, glorious and promising continent.”
The vastness of Brazil is not fully realized. The geographical maps
of South America are usually drawn on a smaller scale than those of
the United States, so it is not generally known that the United States
of Brazil are larger than the United States of America, exclusive of
Alaska and the island possessions. From the most northerly point to the
extreme southerly boundary is a distance of two thousand six hundred and
seventy-five miles. For the sake of comparison one might say that if
our own Atlantic coast line was prolonged in the same way it would reach
from the southernmost extremity of Florida to the Hudson Bay region of
upper Canada. It extends from four degrees twenty minutes North Latitude
to thirty-three degrees forty-five minutes South, or thirty-eight degrees
in all. The last ten degrees are below the Tropic of Capricorn and in
the temperate zone. From a point near the city of Recife, or Pernambuco,
to the most westerly point, is a distance of two thousand seven hundred
and twenty-nine miles. From there the country to the south narrows
continuously, until it is but a few hundred miles wide in the state of
Rio Grande do Sul. A line drawn west from near the city of Bahia, or
São Salvador, would give about the medium width. Rio de Janeiro is in
longitude nearly half-way across the Atlantic from New York to London,
while the easternmost land, Cape San Roque, is still seven hundred miles
farther to the east. Within these confines is a territory of three
million three hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hundred and thirty
square miles, according to the best estimates, and this makes it the
fifth country in the world, being exceeded in extent only by China, the
British Empire, the United States of America and Russia.
On the South American continent Brazil easily ranks first, as it
occupies almost one-half of the entire surface of the continent, and is
three times as extensive as its next largest neighbour, the Argentine
Republic. The other republics of South America follow in the following
order: Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and
Uruguay. The frontiers of this immense republic join those of all the
other republics, except Chile, and also touch the borders of British,
French and Dutch Guiana, the only foreign possessions on the mainland of
this great continent. With one or two little exceptions the boundaries
have now been settled by arbitration, so that the future will probably
make little change in the limits as now outlined. It is shut off from
communication with the Pacific coast by the lofty Andes, and that at
least partly accounts for the lack of development in the western part of
Brazil. In all, Brazil’s coast line amounts to about four thousand miles,
all of which is on the Atlantic, and this includes nearly two-thirds of
her entire boundary line. It would take a fifteen knot steamer ten days
of continuous steaming to travel along this entire coast.
It was a surprise to me to find that it is next to impossible, except
in the basin of the Amazon, to get away from the mountains. Hill and
valley alternate everywhere, rarely rising to great heights, however,
except along the coast, and seldom sinking into great crevasses or
cañons. The highest mountain in Brazil, Itatiaia, between Rio de Janeiro
and São Paulo, has an altitude of only nine thousand eight hundred and
twenty-three feet, while the extreme height of the peaks in most of the
ranges seldom exceeds four thousand five hundred feet. The highest range
is in general confined to a belt, or chain of mountains, which follows
the Atlantic shore, lying at the most but a few miles from the coast, and
at times reaching clear to the water’s edge, which is known as the Serro
da Mar. This range runs from Pernambuco to the borders of Uruguay, so
that the coast, wherever seen from the sea, presents only an outline of
mountains and serrated peaks, although at the extreme south they scarcely
exceed the dignity of hills. The rise from the water’s edge is frequently
very abrupt, and this has made the problem of railroad construction
from the seaports to the interior a difficult as well as expensive
proposition.
The broadest plains are probably in the states of Paraná and Rio Grande
do Sul, where they assume the appearance of pampas, and it is on
those plains that the stock-raising industry has assumed its greatest
proportions. Much of the states of Matto Grosso and Amazonas has been
practically unexplored, so that the maps of those regions are, for the
most part, guesswork, made up from the reports of travellers and amateur
scientists, who have written reports of their travels through them. On
the government maps one will find the outlines of rivers which are many
miles away from the location given them, and the names of towns will
appear in the heavy type given only to places of great importance; and
yet, if any settlement exists at all at that point, it consists only of
a few huts or a little Indian village. Although travellers have visited
those sections, the land is untouched by the hand of man, and as virgin
as our own western prairies were a half century ago. This land is mostly
claimed by families who have never set foot upon it, and yet it has been
the cause of deadly feuds among rival claimants; some basing their title
upon ancient Portuguese grants, and others upon more recent ones by the
republic. There are no roads that can be utilized by commerce, and only
the waterways exist to give access to the outside world.
Brazil is a land of great water-courses. It not only has within its
borders the greatest river in the world, but it also possesses several
rivers which form the chief tributaries of the Rio de la Plata, another
of the most extensive fluvial systems in the world. Because of the coast
range of mountains nearly all of the water, even from within a few miles
of the Atlantic coast, runs hundreds and even thousands of miles north to
the Amazon, or south to the La Plata, before finally reaching the ocean.
The great amount of the rainfall has made these streams numerous, as well
as very broad, as they near their outlet. Between the sources of the two
great systems there intervene but two short leagues of swampy ground,
which are the common source of the Amazon and the La Plata, the “river of
silver,” as it is named. The basin of the Amazon is larger than the basin
of the Mississippi, the Missouri and many others together. It is as large
as two-thirds of our own great land. The amount of water discharged
is almost incredible. For hundreds of miles from its mouth the depth
sometimes reaches one hundred and fifty feet, and in no place in the
channel is it less than sixty feet. Its mouth is wider than the entire
length of the lordly Hudson. Ocean steamers run between Iquitos, two
thousand five hundred miles from its mouth, and European ports, as well
as New York; and many of its tributaries, such as the Madeira and Negro,
are mighty rivers in themselves. The Paraná, with its wonderful cascades,
and the Uruguay, have their origin in Brazil, and the Paraguay drains
many thousands of square miles of her territory. These three rivers
form the principal sources of the Rio de la Plata, which carries to the
Atlantic Ocean a volume of water exceeded by few rivers in the world.
On the western side of the Atlantic ridge the country forms a series of
ridges, or plateaus, making, as some one has characterized it, a colossal
stairway. These sudden drops make many fine waterfalls as the waters rush
onward toward the Paraná River. The states of São Paulo and Paraná are
especially rich in these cascades and rapids, and thus furnish unlimited
water power awaiting development. They are no less interesting to the
tourist, for nothing in nature is more interesting or fascinating than
a fine waterfall, where the waters rush headlong in their precipitous
course. The Tieté River alone furnishes many of those cascades, one of
them, the Itapura, having a height of forty-four feet. Another is the
Urubuhunga, near the former, the water passing over the two being of
great volume.
All of these waterfalls, however, are overshadowed by the wonderful falls
of the Iguassú, situated on the river of the same name, near its junction
with the Paraná River, and on the borders between the republics of Brazil
and Argentina. A dozen miles away the smoking columns of mist which crown
the falls are plainly visible, and its thunderous roar may sometimes
be heard for twenty miles. As one approaches nearer, the mist is more
plainly seen and the roar of the waters is heard. The first view of these
magnificent falls in their solitary grandeur is inspiring. They have the
same general shape as Niagara, and are fifty feet higher. The entire
falls are more than two miles in width, with a number of islands dividing
the cataract. This may be divided into two sections, the Brazilian and
Argentine falls. The head falls are on the Brazilian side and occur on
an acute horseshoe bend, somewhat similar to that at Niagara, which is
caused by the unequal erosion. Below the falls are depths which a hundred
fathom line has failed to sound, and the natives call them bottomless.
There is a triple leap of three hundred and twenty feet, the last one
alone being a drop of two hundred and thirteen feet over sheer precipices
of dark rock. At the present time it is difficult of access, because it
is reached by ascending the Rio de la Plata and Paraná River, a journey
of almost two weeks, or by a several days’ journey overland from Ponta
Grossa, in the state of Paraná. Some day, when the means of communication
become better, it will no doubt be visited by thousands of people each
season. It still remains in all its primitive beauty, for the hand of man
has as yet done nothing to detract from or add to what nature herself
created. It is like another Niagara set out in the midst of a wilderness,
with dense lines of waving bamboo or other trees marking the boundaries
of the stream. Like Tennyson’s _Brook_, the Iguassú might say:
“For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.”
[Illustration: FALLS OF IGUASSÚ.]
Above these falls on the Paraná are the wonderful Guayra falls, one
hundred and twenty-five miles above the junction with the Iguassú; and
four hundred miles still farther up are the Uberaponga falls, with many
smaller cataracts intervening. Below Guayra cataract the current piles
up in the centre with a corkscrew action, and then dives down again into
midstream. It returns to the surface in eddies which leap up twelve or
fifteen feet in the air, making, as one scientific investigator terms it,
“rapids with which the whirlpool rapids of Niagara are a quiet duckpond
in comparison.” One is lost in considering this frantic water power here
awaiting the harnessing by man.
Of the climate of Brazil much has been said in a disparaging way. It
has been classed as a tropical country, and therefore subject to all
the ills supposed to be connected with such a climate. And yet the
climate is so varied that the subject can not be dismissed in a single
paragraph. It is hot in places, but even in Rio de Janeiro the evenings
are generally very pleasant and comfortable, the thermometer usually
going down to about sixty degrees Fahrenheit. At least one can always
find it so by establishing his home a few hundred feet above the sea
level, on one of the adjacent hills. I doubt if the people of Rio suffer
from the oppressively hot nights as much as New Yorkers or Chicagoans,
and I was there in December, supposed to be one of the hottest months.
Fifteen hundred to two thousand feet above the sea level the climate is
really delightful, and one need not pity the people who dwell there. Some
one has said that the whole country might be compared to a beautiful
Tennessee, without the rigours of winter. Along the Amazon it is hot and
humid, and yet I have met Englishmen who had lived in Manaos and Pará
for years, and who sighed to go back to those places because they loved
the climate. In the southern states of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul the
climate is about the same as Argentina, which is regarded as temperate.
There is plenty of rainfall everywhere except in two or three states,
almost underneath the equator. On the Atlantic coast it ranges from one
hundred to two hundred inches annually. Along the Amazon it is much
greater, and on the inland plateaus it will probably average seventy-five
inches per year. Thus, in the vast area of Brazil, almost every variety
of climate will be found, except the extreme cold, which is absent. It
used to be thought that people could not live so near the equator, but
proper hygiene takes away all danger of the so-called tropical diseases,
so dreaded by most people from colder climes.
As one writer has well said: “Diseases in cold climates are always looked
upon as calamities quite independent of climatic conditions; even if
ignorant of their causes, pathologists always had an explanation ready.
In the case of warm countries, it is otherwise. Without any further
inquiry the climate has been blamed as the enemy. The European nations
drew around themselves sanitary cordons of quarantine and disinfection
against cholera, yellow fever and plague, and for a long time never
thought of going right to the source of trouble and improving sanitary
conditions in the countries where these diseases had their origin.”
It has really been a base libel upon these countries to blame everything
upon the climate and climatic conditions. The heat and humidity may
make some diseases more fatal, but at the same time they seem to act
as preventative to others which are far more fatal in colder climates.
The United States taught the world this lesson at Havana and in Panama,
and it has been a valuable one for the world. Brazil has wakened up
to this necessity, and now Santos, Bahia, and other cities, as well as
the capital, have followed a cleaning-up policy that has brought the
death-rate down to where it will compare favourably with other cities of
the world.
The United States of Brazil is a republic very much like the United
States of America in form. Its constitution is modelled after that
of the United States, a Portuguese translation of which was made for
them. It differs, however, in some respects. A president, for instance,
is ineligible to succeed himself; and even a vice-president, who has
succeeded to the presidency, can not be a candidate for that office
without a term intervening. The power of the national government is
less than that of our own, and the state has greater importance. This
condition was made almost necessary in the formation of the republic
in order to gain the adherence of many of the states, as they aimed to
get as far away from the centralization idea as possible. The great
distances separating them likewise, and slow communication between them,
has encouraged these differences. In many respects the state governments
are too powerful, and the national government too weak. Each state has
its own army, although in a measure subject to the national government,
but this local militia is more loyal to the state than the national
government. The unoccupied land is the property of the various states,
instead of the national government as with us, and this has contributed
in making the state governments of unusual importance.
The republic is composed of twenty states, one territory and the Federal
District, in which is situated the national capital. The states are very
uneven in size, the largest being Amazonas, with more than a million
square miles of territory, one-third of the whole, and Sergipe having
only about twenty-five thousand square miles. Out of the total population
of about eighteen million, more than one-fifth live in the state of
Minas Geraes, while the great state of Amazonas contains only about
one person for each five square miles of territory. The state of Matto
Grosso, second in size and also colossal, has even a smaller ratio of
population, according to the statistics, which are probably not very
accurate on these little known states. São Paulo has heretofore been the
most powerful state, and Rio Grande do Sul has had the most checkered
history, for its German inhabitants have not always been in harmony or
sympathy with the Latins, who predominate in the other states, and they
have maintained several uprisings on their own account.
The republic was established on the 15th of November, 1889, and there
have been six presidents elected. The term of office is four years.
A vice-president is elected who serves in the event of the death or
incapacity of the President; the present President having succeeded
to the office on the death of Dr. Affonso Augusto Moreira Penna, in
June, 1909. The National Assembly is composed of a Senate and House
of Deputies. Each state and the federal capital are entitled to three
senators who serve for nine years, and a deputy is allowed for each
seventy thousand inhabitants, with a minimum of four for any state. The
congress now consists of sixty-three senators and two hundred and fifteen
deputies, one-third of the former being elected every three years. Each
state has its own president, congress, cabinet and other officials,
almost identical with the federal officials. The qualifications for
suffrage are quite generous; but only a small proportion of those
qualified actually vote at the elections, which are always held on
Sunday, and generally in the churches. It is safe to say that on
those days the religious services do not claim much attention. There
is generally a clique, or oligarchy, in each state, which dominates
political affairs. These men absolutely dictate the matters of the state
and represent the affairs of that state in national politics. Corruption
is quite a common thing, but that the farther up one goes the less of it
is to be found is my belief. The several presidential administrations
have been good, but many of the municipal administrations have followed
crooked paths openly.
“_Ordem e Progreso_,” order and progress, is the motto of the Republic
of Brazil. The flag consists of a green rectangle, representing the
vegetable kingdom, with a diamond-shaped yellow block in the centre,
representing the mineral wealth. In the centre is a blue circle, which
corresponds with the blue of the skies, with the above motto across it.
Within the blue circle are twenty-one stars, representing the twenty
states and federal district, five of which are grouped to represent the
constellation of the Southern Cross. The coat of arms contains the same
colours and emblems arranged in an artistic design, and with some other
insignia added.
The developed part of Brazil is only a small part of the whole country.
It constitutes a fringe along the Atlantic coast, and bears about the
same relation to the whole country as the original thirteen states do to
the United States as at present constituted. There are few large cities,
but numerous small towns of from five to twenty thousand, and many
villages are scattered over the land. No part is overpopulated, the most
densely populated being the states of Alagoas and Rio de Janeiro, with
an average of perhaps twenty-three to the square mile, and there is no
danger of even those states being overpopulated for some time yet. In a
land where all the year around is a growing season this is a very small
population, even considering the mountainous character of most of the
country. If peopled as densely as France, Brazil would have a population
of not less than three hundred and twenty million. It is almost purely
an agricultural country, although some advancement has been made in
manufactures through government encouragement and high customs duties.
Especially has this been true in cotton goods, and there are many small
factories of these textiles scattered over the land, most of them run
by the water power which is so abundant in most sections. Some other
factories have been started through concessions being granted, but by far
the greatest part of the goods used are imported from the manufacturing
nations of the world. This governmental assistance causes many of the
factories to feel that to some extent they are government enterprises.
The same policy has been followed with railroads of guaranteeing returns
instead of making grants of lands, which would be an incentive to the
railroad to aid in development. The São Paulo-Rio Grande Railway is one
exception to this rule, and it is prospering. The Central Railroad, which
has over a thousand miles of main track, is owned and operated as a
government institution, and this method has not been a success any more
than the Lloyd Brazilian line of national steamers. Money goes in from
all sources, but the government treasury is compelled every year to make
up deficits.
Brazil was discovered in the year 1500 by the Portuguese navigator
Pedro Alvares Cabral, who took possession of it in the name of his
sovereign. It was first named Terra de Santa Cruz, the Land of the Holy
Cross, but the name was changed to that of the dyewood which had been
in use before. The French soon after began to trade with the natives,
but they were driven off by the Portuguese. The Huguenots of the country
likewise attempted to establish a free religious colony at what is now
Rio de Janeiro, but this attempt was also frustrated, and Rio did not
become an important place until the middle of the eighteenth century. The
Jesuits sought to make a religious settlement out of São Paulo, but the
energetic “Paulistas” rose in their might and drove them into the Spanish
territories.
The Portuguese began to colonize the country, and established a number of
settlements along the coast. Pernambuco was founded in 1526 and Bahia in
1549, as compared with New York in 1614 and Boston in 1621. The country
was divided into fifteen capitancias, each with fifty leagues of coast,
and stretching inland in parallel lines to the westernmost limits of the
country. These were granted by the king to Portuguese nobles. Numerous
struggles took place with the Spaniards, who tried to seize all of South
America, and were in actual control of nearly all of the rest of the
South American coast. The political outline was finally determined by
natural configurations. The Portuguese kept in control of the district
penetrated by the Amazon and its tributaries, as far as they were
navigable, and the Spaniards got control as far as the Rio de la Plata
was navigable on the south; and between these two boundaries the land
was kept in the hands of the Portuguese. Where navigation was impeded on
the Paraguay, Paraná and Uruguay Rivers, there Spanish domination ended.
On the remainder of the coast the Spaniards maintained their supremacy,
except the small Dutch, French and English settlements in Guiana. It
speaks well for the indomitable perseverance of a small country like
Portugal that they acquired and maintained for three centuries such a
vast empire, when the mother country is smaller than one island at the
mouth of the Amazon.
When King John brought his court over to Brazil, in 1809, a national
spirit was engendered. After he returned to Portugal, it was not long
until an independent spirit arose and revolution was in the air. Then
came a new-world empire, during which the Dom Pedros, I and II, reigned.
Each was expelled from the country; the first with rejoicing, the
second with sadness, and, perhaps, many a tear. When one considers that
the republic only reaches its majority in this year of 1910, and that
slavery was abolished only twenty-two years ago, both of these changes
being accomplished without bloodshed, the progress of the country can be
better understood, and many of its shortcomings more easily overlooked.
Furthermore the early advance of the country was stunted by the lust for
gold of the first Portuguese colonists. Everything was sacrificed to
immediate results, in order that they might return to the homeland and
live in luxury. It was different from the motive that influenced either
Puritan or Cavalier in our own land, for they sought liberty. The evil
effects of this early exploitation have been felt during the intervening
centuries, not alone in Brazil, but throughout all of South America.