We have given a general description of South America, but three
countries--Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Peru--require further
notice: Brazil, because it is the largest country, occupying
three-sevenths of South America, and the only considerable state that
was not settled by the Spaniards; the Argentine Republic, because it
is the largest and most populous of the Spanish states and, with Peru,
illustrates the political and financial phases through which the
Spanish republics have passed.
The valley of the Amazon makes Brazil the most fertile region of the
world. The tropical woods are so thick and the creepers and
undergrowth so luxuriant that animal life is almost entirely confined
to the trees above and the waters below.
The valley is not unhealthy, and, though under the equator, the
climate is tempered by the trade winds and the evaporation from the
vast Amazonian waters. Beyond the valley is the montaña district,
where the land is higher and the climate semi-tropical, where there
are few creepers, little underbrush, and open forests, and where both
animal and vegetable life is less abundant. Southward, beyond the
montaña district, are the evergreen pampas, where no trees grow and
where the animal and vegetable life are unlike either that of the
valley of the Amazon or that of the {18} montaña. As in Africa, so
here, men who live in the dark forest, die in the open. Mr. Stanley
selected thirty dwarfs from the tropical forests of Africa to take to
England, but as soon as they came into the grass-lands, the clear air
and bright sun, they languished and died before the coast was reached.
Northeast of the pampas, on the Atlantic coast, south of the Amazon,
is a province bounded on the south by a range of high mountains, where
rain is abundant; at Maranhao, its seaport, there are 280 inches of
rainfall in the year. South of Maranhao there is much less rain; and
instead of two seasons, the wet and the dry, which prevail in the
valley of the Amazon, there are the four seasons of the year, but
without extremes of heat and cold.
Over the greater part of Brazil grows the coffee tree, the
sheet-anchor of Brazilian prosperity, since it furnishes 60 per cent.
of all the coffee grown in the world. The plant is not indigenous to
Brazil, but was brought there about one hundred years ago from the old
world.
Brazil, inhabited by the Portuguese, with an imperial government, has
been saved from the anarchy and insolvency of the Spanish republics.
Her railroads have been built with economy and have been generally
successful. It had a population in 1885 of 11,000,000; two-thirds of
whom were Indians and negroes, and many of the negroes were slaves.
Slavery existed longer in Brazil than in any other civilized country;
the lash was commonly used on the plantation, and work continued from
early in the morning until late at night until 1888, when a law was
passed finally emancipating 1,300,000 slaves. It was opposed by the
planters, who said freedmen would not work, but would let the coffee
and sugar plantations fall to ruin. It was probably this act which
caused the overthrow of the empire, for in revenge the planters joined
the insurgents in establishing the Republic.
The Portuguese and Brazilians are more peaceable and orderly than the
Spaniards or Spanish-Americans; we may therefore reasonably hope that
Brazil will not repeat the history of the Spanish republics, which has
been one of disintegration, for these republics have separated into
two or more States. The greatest difficulty in maintaining its immense
domain will arise from the enormous distances and the time required to
travel between different parts of the country. From Rio de Janeiro to
Matto Grosso is 140 days' journey by land, and by water the distance
is 3000 miles. Communication is maintained by steamer {19} through the
Argentine Republic up the Rio de la Plata and its branches. Although
the country has many long and navigable rivers, yet the means of
intercommunication are very poor; for the rivers are little used, and
the forests, creepers, and undergrowth are so dense that the country
back of the river-banks is impenetrable, and even if roads should be
opened the soil is so luxuriant that they would be quickly overgrown
and soon become impassable.
Lines of steamers have been subsidized by the Brazilian government and
run up the Amazon 2000 miles to Tabatinga, at the boundary line of
Peru; there connecting with lines subsidized by the Peruvian
government, which run 1500 miles farther up the river. These vessels
carry supplies to the settlers and bring back India rubber,
Brazil-nuts, cacao, quinine, and the beautiful woods of the forest.
Yet steamers are rarely seen on the Amazon; they have few passengers,
and have not opened the country; we are told that the Mississippi
carries more vessels in a month, and the Yang-tse-kiang in a day, than
the Amazon in a year.