Cape Frio.--Rio Janeiro.--A Splendid Harbor.--Various
Mountains.--Botafogo Bay.--The Hunchback.--Farewell to the
Vigilancia.--Tijuca.--Italian Emigrants.--City
Institutions.--Public Amusements.--Street
Musicians.--Churches.--Narrow Thoroughfares.--Merchants'
Clerks.--Railroads in Brazil.--Natural Advantages of the
City.--The Public Plazas.--Exports.
After a three days' voyage down the coast, between Bahia and Rio
Janeiro, the tall lighthouse of Cape Frio--"Cool Cape"--was sighted.
This promontory is a large oval mass of granite, sixteen hundred feet in
height, quite isolated from other highlands, protruding boldly into the
Atlantic Ocean. It forms the southeastern extremity of the coast of
Brazil, and in clear weather can be seen, it is said, forty miles or
more away. Here the long swell of the open sea is unobstructed and finds
full sway, asserting its giant power at all seasons of the year.
Experienced travelers who rarely suffer from seasickness are apt to
succumb to this trying illness off Cape Frio. It is situated in latitude
22 deg. 59' south, longitude 41 deg. 57' west, which is particularly specified
because the line of no magnetic variation touches on this cape,--that
line which Columbus was so amazed at discovering one hundred leagues
west of Flores, in the Azores, nearly four hundred years ago. We had
been running almost due south for the last eight hundred miles, but in
doubling Cape Frio, and making for Rio harbor, the ship was headed to
the westward, while the mountains on the coast assumed the most
grotesque and singular shapes, the range extending from west to east
until it ends at Cape Frio. The continent of South America here forms a
sharp angle, but we were too full of expectancy as to the king of
harbors towards which we were heading, to speculate much about Cape Frio
and its ocean-swept surroundings.
Rio Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, is also the largest, if not the most
important city in South America, situated about twelve hundred miles
north of Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, just within the borders of the
southern torrid zone. The distance of Rio from New York direct is five
thousand miles, but most voyagers, on the way through the West Indies,
stop at three or four of these islands, and also at some of the northern
ports of the continent of South America, the same as in our own case, so
that about five hundred miles may be fairly added to the distance we
have just named. Though the vessel was a month in making the voyage to
this port, had we sailed direct it might have been done in two thirds of
the time.
After doubling the cape and sailing some sixty or eighty miles, we
steered boldly towards the mouth of the harbor of Rio. For a few moments
the ship's prow pointed towards Raza Island, on which stands the
lighthouse, but a slight turn of the wheel soon changed its relative
position, and we entered the passage leading into the bay. After passing
the "Sugar Loaf," a rock twelve hundred feet in height, the city lay off
our port bow. All is so well defined, the water is so deep and free from
obstructions of any sort, that no pilot is required and none is taken,
and thus we crept slowly up towards our moorings. As the reader may well
suppose, to eyes weary of the monotony of the sea, the panorama which
opened before us was one of intense interest. Everything seemed matured
and olden. There was no sign of newness; indeed, we recalled the fact
that Rio was an established commercial port half a century before New
York had a local habitation or a name. The town lies on the west side of
the port, between a mountain range and the bay, running back less than
two miles in depth, but extending along the shore for a distance of some
eight miles, fronting one of the finest and most spacious harbors in the
world, famous for its manifold scenic beauties, which, from the moment
of passing within the narrow entrance, are ever changing and ever
lovely. The most prominent features are the verdure-clad hills of
Gloria, Theresa, and Castello, behind which extend ranges of steep,
everlasting mountains, one line beyond another, until lost among the
clouds. Few natural spectacles can equal the grand contour of this
famous bay. People who have visited it always speak in superlative
language of Rio harbor, but we hardly think it could be overpraised. It
is the grand entrance to a tropical paradise, so far as nature is
concerned, amid clustering mountains, abrupt headlands, inviting inlets,
and beautiful islands, covered with palms, tree-ferns, bananas, acacias,
and other delights of tropical vegetation, which, when seen depicted in
books, impress one as an exaggeration, but seen here thrill us with
vivid reality. It is only in the torrid zone that one sees these lavish
developments of verdure, these labyrinths of charming arboreous effect.
Though so well known and so often written about, the harbor of Rio is
less famous than beautiful. The bay is said to contain about one hundred
islands, its area extending inland some seventeen or eighteen miles. The
largest of these is Governor's Island, nearly fronting the city, being
six miles long. Some idea of the extent of the bay may be had from the
fact that there are fifty square miles of good anchorage for ships
within its compass. Into the bay flows the water of two inconsiderable
rivers, the Macacu and the Iguacu, the first named coming in at the
northeast and the latter at the northwest corner of the harbor.
The Organ Mountains,--Serra dos Orgaos,--capped with soft, fleecy
clouds, formed the lofty background of the picture towards the north, as
we entered upon the scene, the immediate surroundings being dominated by
the sky-reaching Sugar Loaf Rock,--Pao d'Assucar,--which is also the
navigator's guiding mark while yet far away at sea. This bold, irregular
rock of red sandstone rises abruptly from the water, like a giant
standing waist-high in the sea, and forms the western boundary of the
entrance to the harbor, opposite to which, crowning a small but bold
promontory, is the fort of Santa Cruz, the two highlands forming an
appropriate portal to the grandeur which is to greet one within. The
distance between these bounds is about a mile, inside of which the water
widens at once to lake-like proportions. Clouds of frigate birds, gulls,
and gannets fly gracefully about each incoming ship, as if to welcome
them to the harbor where anchorage might be had for the combined
shipping of the whole world. We have lately seen the harbor of Rio
compared to that of Queenstown, on the Irish coast, twenty times
magnified; but the infinite superiority of the former in every respect
makes the allusion quite pointless.
The Organ Mountains, to which we have referred, and which form so
conspicuous a portion of the scene in and about Rio, are so called
because of their fancied resemblance in shape to the pipes of an organ;
but though blessed with the usual share of imagination, we were quite
unable to trace any such resemblance. However, one must not be
hypercritical. The gigantic recumbent form of a human being, so often
spoken of as discernible along this mountain range, is no poetical
fancy, but is certainly clear enough to any eye, recalling the likeness
to a crouching lion outlined by the promontory of Gibraltar as one first
sees the rock, either on entering the strait or coming from Malta.
One of the most beautiful indentures of the shore, earliest to catch the
eye after passing into the harbor of Rio from the sea, is called the Bay
of Botafogo. The word means "thrown into the fire," and alludes to the
inhuman _autos-da-fe_ which occurred here when the natives, on refusing
to subscribe to the Roman Catholic faith, were committed by the priests
to the flames! This is the way in which the Romish creed was introduced
into Mexico and South America, and the means by which it was sustained.
The principal charm of this lovely bay within a bay--Botafogo--is its
flowers and exposition of soaring royal palms. The attractiveness of the
handsome residences is quite secondary to that of nature, here revealed
with a lavish profusion. This part of Rio is overshadowed by the tall
peak of the Corcovado, "the Hunchback," one of the mass of hills which
occupy a large area west of the city, and the nearest mountain to it.
From its never-failing springs comes a large share of the water supply
of the capital. The aqueduct is some ten miles long, crossing a valley
at one point seven hundred feet in width, at a height of ninety feet,
upon double arches. Another large aqueduct is in contemplation, besides
which some other sources are now in actual operation, as Rio has long
since outgrown the capacity of the original supply derived from the
Corcovado. The drainage of the town suffers seriously for want of
sufficient water wherewith to flush the conduits, which at this writing,
with the deadly fever claiming victims on all hands, are permitted to
remain in a stagnant condition! And yet there are hundreds of hills
round about, within long cannon range, which would readily yield the
required element in almost limitless quantity.
We left the Vigilancia, and our good friend Captain Baker, with regret.
The noble ship had borne us in safety thousands of miles during the past
month, through storms and calms, amid intense tropical heat, and such
floods of rain as are only encountered in southern seas. Watching from
her deck, there had been revealed to us the glories of the changing
latitudes, and particularly the grandeur of the radiant heavens in
equatorial regions. A sense of all-absorbing curiosity prevailed as we
landed at the stone steps, overlooked by the yellow ochre walls of the
arsenal, in the picturesque, though pestilential city. The nauseous
odors which greet one as he steps on shore are very discordant elements
in connection with the intense interest created by the novel sights that
engage the eye of a stranger.
With a population, including the immediate suburbs, of over half a
million,--estimated at six hundred and fifty thousand,--Rio has most of
the belongings of a North American city of the first class, though we
cannot refrain from mentioning one remarkable exception, namely, the
entire absence of good hotels. There is not a really good and
comfortable public house in all Brazil. Those which do exist in Rio
charge exorbitantly for the most indifferent service, and strangers are
often puzzled to find a sleeping-room for a single night on first
arriving here. Tijuca, situated in the hills a few miles from the city,
is perhaps the most desirable place of temporary sojourn for the newly
arrived traveler, who will find at least one large and comfortable
public house there, favorably known to travelers as Whyte's Hotel. It is
some little distance from the city, but is easily reached by tramway,
which takes one to the foot of the hills of the Tijuca range, whose
tallest peak is thirty-four hundred feet above tide-water. This place
abounds in attractive villas, tropical vegetation, and beautiful
flowers, both wild and cultivated. From here also one gets a most
charming view of the distant city, the famous bay, and the broad
Atlantic; indeed, the view alone will repay one for making this brief
excursion. The loftiest village in these hills is called Boa Vista.
There are mountains, however, on either side, which are five or six
hundred feet higher than the village containing the hotel. American
enterprise is engaged at this writing in constructing a narrow gauge
electric tramway to the summit of Tijuca. The driving road from the base
to the top is an admirable piece of engineering, and is kept in the very
best condition possible.
The objectionable character of the Italian emigrants, who come hither as
well as to our own States, was demonstrated by a party of them robbing
and nearly murdering a resident of Tijuca who happened to be a short
distance from his own house, the evening previous to the day which we
spent at this resort. These Italians are mostly employed as workmen upon
the railroad, though some are gardeners on the neighboring estates. In
town they act as porters and day laborers on the wharves, as boatmen,
and so on, but, as we were assured, are a lawless, vagabond element of
the community, giving the police force a great deal of trouble.
Rio has many large and commodious public buildings and some elegant
private residences, the latter generally of a half Moorish type of
architecture. Some of the edifices date back a couple of centuries. The
early Portuguese built of stone and cement, hence the somewhat
remarkable durability of these houses. The large edifice devoted to the
department of agriculture and public works is one of the most noticeable
in the city. The Bank of Brazil occupies a building which is classic in
its fine architecture, being elaborately constructed of hammered
granite. There is no more superb example of masonry in the country. The
National Mint, on the Square of the Republic, is also a fine granite
building; so is that devoted to the Bourse, where enormous values change
hands daily. Educational institutions are numerous, well organized, and
generally availed of by the rising generation. The National College is
of notable influence in the dissemination of general intelligence, and
the same may be said of the Polytechnic College, an excellent and
practical institution. It should be observed that any well organized
educational establishment is called a college in this country.
The public library of Rio contains some two hundred thousand volumes,
besides many valuable Spanish and Portuguese documents in manuscript. It
is liberally conducted; black and white people alike, as well as all
respectable strangers, have free access and liberal accommodations
within the walls. This institution is an honor to Brazil.
Rio has a new and well organized navy yard, a large arsenal, cotton
mills, and several extensive manufacturing establishments. Among the
latter is the largest flour mill we have ever seen. This is an English
enterprise; but so far as we could learn, it had been found impossible
to compete profitably with the American flour, as now landed at Rio. A
foundling hospital on the Rua Everesta de Veiga is worthy of mention.
Here, as already described in relation to another Brazilian city,
infants are freely received and cared for, without any inquiry being
made of those who deposit them. These little ones at the outset become
children of the state, and are registered and numbered as such.
Oftentimes the mother pins to the little deserted one's clothes the name
she desires should be given to it, and the wish is usually regarded by
the officials of the institution. The authorities put each child out to
nurse for a year, but receive it back again at the expiration of that
time, and at a proper period send it to school, and endeavor to rear it
to some useful employment or trade. While the child is thus disposed of,
the payment for its board and care is very moderate in amount, and is
also contingent upon its good health and physical condition. Thus the
deserted one is likely to have good attention, if not for humanity's
sake, then from mercenary motives. This plan is copied from that which
is pursued by the great foundling hospitals of St. Petersburg and
Moscow, which are certainly the best organized and largest institutions
of the sort in the world. Where so large a percentage of the children
born are illegitimate, such a hospital becomes a real necessity. There
has been no year since this establishment was opened, in 1738, as we
were told, in which less than four hundred infants were received.
Sometimes parents, whose worldly conditions have greatly improved, come
forward after the lapse of years and claim their children. This right on
their part is duly respected by their properly proving the relationship
beyond all possible doubt, and paying a sum of money equal to that which
has been actually expended by the state in the child's behalf.
In the line of public amusements there is a large and well-appointed
opera house besides eight other fairly good theatres, together with an
excellent museum. The performances at the theatres are given in French,
Spanish, and Portuguese. Italian opera is presented three times a week
during the season. This year the performances were summarily stopped by
the principal tenor dying of yellow fever. The theatre bearing the name
of the late emperor is a sort of mammoth cave in size, and is capable of
seating six thousand people, not one half of whom can hear what is said
or sung upon the stage by the performers. Street bands of German
musicians perform here as they do in Boston and New York; the mass of
the people, being music loving, patronize these itinerants liberally.
One band posted themselves daily before the popular Globe Restaurant, at
the hour of the midday meal (breakfast), and performed admirably,
reaping a generous response from the habitues. Most of the patrons of
this excellent establishment were observed to be American, English, and
French merchants, who attended to business in Rio during the day, but
who went home to the elevated environs to dine and to sleep. "I have
been here in business nine years," said one of these gentlemen to us,
"and have been down with the fever once; but I would not sleep in Rio
overnight for any amount of money, at this season of the year." This was
early in June. He added: "The fever should have disappeared before this
time, which is our winter, but it seems to linger later and later each
succeeding year." This was a conclusion which we heard expressed by
other observant individuals, but all joined in ascribing its persistency
in no small degree to the imperfect drainage, and the vile personal
habits of the mass of the common people, who make no effort to be
cleanly, or to regard the decencies of life in this respect.
As to churches, Rio has between sixty and seventy, none of which are
very remarkable, all being dim, dirty, and offensive to the olfactories.
The cause of the foul air being so noticeable in all of these Romish
churches is the fact that no provision whatever is made for proper
ventilation, and this, too, in places of all others where it is most
imperatively necessary. The offense is created by exhalations from the
bodies of the least cleanly class of the population. It is such who
mostly fill these churches all over the continent of Europe, Mexico,
South America, and the United States. Precisely the same disgusting odor
greets the senses of the visitor to these edifices, be it in one
hemisphere or another, but especially in Italy and Spain.
The cathedral of Rio is a large, showy edifice, surrounded by narrow
streets, and thus hidden by other buildings, so that no general and
satisfactory outside effect can be had. The front and sides are of solid
granite, and the whole is known to have cost a mint of money, yet the
safety of the foundation is more than questionable. Like the grand
church of St. Isaacs, in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg, great
expense will doubtless have to be incurred to renew and strengthen it in
this respect. It is believed that the site upon which Rio stands was
once under the sea, and, geologically speaking, at no very remote
period, which accounts for considerable trouble being experienced in
obtaining secure and solid foundations for any heavy superstructure. At
this writing, the cathedral is undergoing extensive repairs, inside and
out, but in spite of the noise of workmen, the disagreeable lime dust,
and the interference of a network of interior staging, it is still very
striking in its architectural effect.
In the old part of the town, two prominent cupolas dominate the
surroundings. These belong respectively to the churches of Candelaria
and San Luigi. The most popular church in Rio is undoubtedly that which
crowns the Gloria Hill, called the Igreja da Gloria do Onterio, which
overlooks the bay. Its commanding situation is very remarkable. In shape
it is octagonal, and seems to be very solidly built. In front of the
church there is a broad terrace, from whence a fine view may be enjoyed.
On a moonlight night the picture presented from the Gloria Hill is
something worth going miles on foot to behold. This church was the
favorite resort of the late royal family when they were in the city,
though much of their home life and all of their summers were passed in
the hills of the Organ Mountains at the emperor's favorite
resort,--Petropolis.
The shops of Rio, notwithstanding they are generally small and situated
upon streets so narrow that they would be called only lanes in North
America,--close, confined, half-strangled thoroughfares,--will compare
favorably in many respects with those of continental Europe. The larger
number of the merchants here are French, together with a considerable
sprinkling of German Jews. Indeed, can any one tell us where we shall
not find this peculiar race represented in the trade centres of the wide
world? In many of the fancy-goods stores the famous Brazilian feather
flowers are exhibited for sale, but the best place to purchase these is
at Bahia, where they are a specialty, and where their manufacture is
said to have originated. The narrow streets, traversed by tramways, are
at times almost impassable for pedestrians, and are often blocked by
heavy mule teams for fifteen minutes at a time. By and by some lazy
policeman makes his appearance and quietly begins to unravel the snarl,
which he at length succeeds in doing, and the ordinary traffic of the
thoroughfare is once more resumed. An unsightly gutter runs through the
middle of some of these thoroughfares, which adds to the annoyances
incident to ordinary travel. All are regularly laid out, chess-board
fashion, very ill smelling, and harbor an infinite number of beggars and
mangy dogs.
It is customary for local merchants who employ European clerks--and
there are many English, French, and Brazilians in Rio who do so,--to
give them a fixed salary, quite moderate in amount, and to furnish them
with lodgings also. The latter are of a very rude and undesirable
character, in the business establishment itself, either over the store,
or in the back part of it. The bedding which is furnished is of a
makeshift character, rarely changed, and never properly aired.
Exceedingly uncleanly domestic arrangements, or the entire absence of
them, are also a serious matter in this connection, from a sanitary
point of view. The clerks get their food at some neighboring restaurant,
and contract irregular habits, all of which is both mentally and
physically demoralizing. It is among this class of foreigners that the
yellow fever finds the most ready victims. To sleep in these crowded
business centres, in ill-ventilated apartments, with far from cleanly
surroundings, is simply to provoke fatal illness, and during an epidemic
of fever these places furnish fuel for the flames. Neatness and
cleanliness among domestic associations in this city are entirely lost
sight of and are totally disregarded by men and women.
The Rua Direita is the State Street or Wall Street of Rio; a new name,
which escapes us at this moment, has been given to it, but the old one
is still the favorite and in common use. Here brokers, bankers, and
commission merchants meet and bargain, and fiercely speculate in coffee.
The principal shopping street is the Rua de Ouvidor, where the best
stores and choicest retail goods are to be found. In the Rua dos
Ourives,--"Goldsmith's Street,"--the display of fine jewelry, diamonds,
and other precious stones recalls the Rue de la Paix of Paris. Diamonds
are held at quite as high prices as in London or New York, and those of
the best quality can be bought better at retail out of this country than
in it. A poor quality of stone, off color, is imported and offered here
as being of native production, and careless purchasers are not
infrequently deceived by cunning dealers in these matters.
Two vehicles cannot pass each other in this avenue without driving upon
the narrow sidewalk. At times a deafening uproar prevails along these
circumscribed lanes. The rough grinding of wheels, noisy bootblacks,
whooping orange-sellers, screaming newspaper boys, howling dogs, the
rattle of the street peddler, lottery ticket venders, fighting street
gamins, all join to swell the mingled chorus. And yet these crowded
thoroughfares would lose half of their picturesqueness were these
elements to be banished from them. They each and all add a certain crude
element of interest to this every-day picture of Vanity Fair.
In their ambition to copy European and North American fashions, the
gentlemen of Rio utterly disregard the eternal fitness of things,
wearing broadcloth suits of black, with tall, stove-pipe hats, neither
of which articles should be adopted for a moment in their torrid
climate. Nothing could be more inappropriate. Linen clothing and light
straw hats are the true costume for the tropics, naturally suggesting
themselves in hot climates to the exclusion of woolen, heat-brewing
costumes, which are necessary articles of wear in the north. Fashion,
however, ignores climate and is omnipotent everywhere; comfort is
subsidiary. Wear woolen clothing by all means, gentlemen of Rio, even
when the thermometer hangs persistently at 95 deg. Fahr. in the shade, and
the human body perspires like a mountain stream.
The tramway system of Rio is excellent in a crude way. Statistics show
that fifty million passengers are annually transported by this popular
means from one part of the city to another, and into the suburbs. The
street railway was first introduced here by North American enterprise,
the pioneer route being that between the city proper and the botanical
garden. The prices of passage vary according to distances, as is the
case with the London omnibuses. The cars are all open ones, of cheap,
coarse construction, and far from inviting in appearance, being entirely
unupholstered, and affording only hard board seats for passengers to sit
upon. They are usually drawn by one small donkey, whose strength is
quite overtasked, but the ground in the city is so nearly level that the
cars move very easily and rapidly.
There is one delightful excursion from Rio which nearly all strangers
are sure to enjoy. We refer to the ascent of Corcovado, the mountain
which looms over Botafogo Bay to the height of twenty-two hundred feet,
and to the summit of which a railway has been constructed. The grades
are extremely steep, and the road is what is called a centre line,
worked upon the cog-wheel system, the ascent being very slow and
winding. The principle is the same as that of the railway by which Mount
Washington is ascended, in New Hampshire, or the Righi, in Switzerland.
This road was built by the national government, but as a pecuniary
speculation it does not pay, though it is of considerable indirect
benefit to the city. We will not dilate upon the grand outlook to be had
from the summit of the Hunchback, which takes in a bird's-eye view of
the harbor and its surroundings, but will add that no one should come
hither without ascending Corcovado. The top consists of two rounded
masses of bare rock, and is walled in to prevent accident, there being
on one side a perpendicular descent of a thousand feet. It gives one at
first a dizzy sensation to look down upon the vast city spread out over
the plain, from whence a hum of mingled sounds comes up with singular
distinctness. Even the bells upon the mules which are attached to the
tram-cars can be distinguished, and other sounds still more delicate and
minute. Just so balloonists tell us that at two or three thousand feet
in mid-air they can distinguish the voices of individuals upon the earth
below them. The experienced traveler learns to be astonished at nothing,
but there are degrees of pleasure induced by beautiful and majestic
views which mount to the apex of our capacity for admiration. One can
safely promise such a realizing sense to him who ascends the Corcovado.
A tramway which starts from the centre of the city will take the
traveler to the base of the hill, through roads lined by palms of great
age and beauty, finally leaving him near the point from whence the steam
road begins the upward journey.
Nictheroy, just across the harbor of Rio, on the east side of the bay,
is a sort of faubourg of the capital, with which it is connected by a
line of steam ferry-boats, as Chelsea is with Boston, or Brooklyn with
the city of New York. It is the capital of the province of Rio Janeiro,
and has broader streets, is more reasonably laid out, and is kept more
cleanly than Rio itself. Space is found for a profusion of attractive
gardens, and the senses are greeted by sweet odors in the place of
needlessly offensive smells, which attack one on all sides in the
metropolis so near at hand. It is quite a relief to get on to one of the
ferry-boats and cross over to Nictheroy occasionally, for a breath of
pure air. This is the native Indian name of the place, and signifies
"hidden water," particularly applicable when these land-locked bays were
shrouded in dense tropical woods.
Unlike Para, Montevideo, and Buenos Ayres, this city has no special
river communication with the interior, but her commerce is large and
increasing. Railroads are more reliable feeders for business than either
rivers or canals. It is a fact which is not generally realized, that
Brazil has over six thousand miles of well-constructed railways in
operation, besides having a telegraph system covering seven thousand
miles of land service. In the construction of the railroads, the cost,
so far as the ground work and grading was concerned, was reduced to the
minimum, owing to the level nature of the country. As was the case in
New Zealand, many of these railways were constructed at great expense,
in anticipation of the wants of a future population, who it was hoped
would settle rapidly upon the route which they followed. That is to say,
many of these roads did not open communication between populous
districts already in existence. This would have been perfectly
legitimate. They run to no particular objective point, and seem to stop
finally nowhere. The natural sequence followed. After being built and
equipped with borrowed money, they were anything but self-supporting,
and pecuniary aid from the government was freely given to enable them to
be kept in operation.
There must always come a day of reckoning for all such forced schemes,
and the Brazilian railways were no exception to the rule. This is
largely the primary cause of the present monetary troubles in this
country, as well as in the Argentine Republic. The capital for the
construction of these roads came mostly from England, and that country
has been accordingly a heavy pecuniary sufferer. The rates charged for
transportation upon most of the lines are also exorbitant, if we were
rightly informed; so much so, in fact, as to prove nearly prohibitory.
Scarcely any species of merchandise brought from a considerable distance
inland will bear such freight charges and leave a margin for profit to
the producer and shipper. Would-be planters of coffee and sugar-cane
dare not enter upon raising these staples for the market, unless
situated very near the shipping point, or near some available river's
course, the latter means being naturally much cheaper than any form of
railway transportation.
Situated on the border of two zones, Rio Janeiro has the products of
both within her reach, and thus possesses peculiar advantages for
extensive trade and general commerce. It is in this latter direction
that her progressive and enterprising merchants are endeavoring to
extend the facilities of the port. The passenger landings--not
wharves--which border the water front of the city here and there are of
solid granite, from which at suitable intervals broad stone steps lead
down to the water's edge, as on the borders of the Neva at St.
Petersburg. We have few, if any, such substantial landing-places in our
North American ports. We know of no harbor on the globe which enjoys a
more eligible situation as regards the commerce of foreign countries,
both of the New and the Old World. The one convenience so imperatively
demanded is proper wharves for the landing and shipping of cargoes, thus
obviating the necessity of the expensive and tedious lighter system. It
is her many natural and extraordinary advantages which has led to so
steady a growth of the city, notwithstanding the very serious drawback
of an unwholesome climate, aggravated by the indolence and incapacity of
the local authorities in sanitary matters. Both consumption and yellow
fever have proved more fatal here than at any other port in South
America, so far as we could draw comparisons.
The well-equipped marine arsenal of Rio is of considerable interest and
importance, as there is no other port on the Atlantic coast, between the
Gulf of Mexico and Cape Horn, where a large modern vessel can go into
dry dock for needed repairs. This receptacle is ample in size, and is
substantially built of granite. Such an establishment as a national
shipyard is a prime necessity to a commercial country like Brazil, which
has eleven hundred leagues of seacoast.
In the Plaza Constitution, which is a very grand and spacious park in
the heart of the city, there is an elaborate and costly statue of the
father of the late emperor, of heroic size. The pedestal is surrounded
by four bronze groups, representing typical scenes of early Indian life
in this country. The Paseo Publico is also a garden-like spot, extending
three or four hundred feet along the bay. This is a cool and favorite
resort of the populace. On the corners of the principal streets and
squares there are little octagonal structures called kiosks, gayly
painted, where hot coffee, lottery tickets, and bonbons are sold, as
well as newspapers and flowers. Here, as in Havana, the city of Mexico,
Naples, and many European cities, the lottery proves to be a terrible
curse to the common people, draining their pockets and diverting them
from all ideas of steady-going business. It is customary also for the
regularly organized business establishments to patronize the lottery
with never-failing regularity, charging a certain monthly sum to expense
account, but the money is nevertheless paid out for lottery tickets. The
bad moral effect of this upon clerks and all concerned is very obvious.
When by chance any prize, be it never so small, is awarded, a great
flurry is made of the fact, and advertisements emphasize it, thus to
incite fresh investments in this organized public swindle. Tickets are
sold by boys and girls, men and women, and half the talk of the
thoughtless multitude is about the lottery, how to hit upon lucky
numbers, and so on.
It is a mistaken though popular idea that our New England consumptives
have only to seek some tropical locality to alleviate their special
trouble. Rio seems to be particularly fatal to persons suffering from
pulmonary troubles. The same may be said of many other tropical regions.
When consumption is developed in the Bahamas, Cuba, or the Sandwich
Islands, for instance, it runs its fatal course with a speed never
realized in the Northern States of America. Physicians do not send
patients to foreign localities so indiscriminately as they used to.
Almost every sort of climate is to be found within the borders of the
United States, where also civilized comforts are more universally to be
obtained than abroad. Besides which, an invalid does not have to brave
seasickness and other ocean hardships, if sent to some eligible locality
within our own borders.
Though Brazil has long been, and is still, famous for its production of
diamonds, precious stones, and gold, yet these are as nothing when
compared with her exports of sugar, coffee, and hides, not taking into
account her product of rice, cocoa, tobacco, dyewoods, and other
important staples. A large portion of the abnormal growth of her forests
is valuable for its timber, resins, fibre, and fruits. It is naturally a
very rich country, with a world of wealth in its soil, but miserable
financial mismanagement has caused the national treasury to become
utterly bankrupt, and at this writing mercantile credit is an unknown
quantity, so to speak. The natural resources of the country are
unlimited; therefore it must be only a question of time when a healthy
reaction shall set in, and a period of sound prosperity follow.
It should be remembered in this connection that the immediate country of
which we are speaking, that is, Brazil as a whole, is as large as the
United States, leaving out the territory of Alaska.