Nevin O. Winter

“ I would like to see the United States adopt the policy of encouraging a line of boats to the South American ports either by subsidy or payment for better mail service, so that there would be not only a more frequent but a quicker service. It is a mistaken economy to refuse this means of extending our commerce to the “other Americans,” who naturally, and Brazil in particular, are favourably inclined, and appreciate the fraternal tie of Americanism.
Furthermore, it is necessary for American manufacturers to study the people and the market, more than has been done in the past. ”

“ Here beautiful views meet the gaze of the traveller in every direction; mountains on one side, the sea and beautiful bay on the other. On a clear day a panorama of fifty square miles may be seen with the unaided eye. Sheer precipices of more or less bare rock extend down for a distance of fifteen hundred feet or more. A stone merely dropped over the crowning walls would descend to the plains below. It is to the bay that one will turn with most interest. There, in the distance, is the seemingly narrow channel through which all boats must pass on their way to the city. ”

“ It is a very wide river at its mouth, and the steamer turns up into its black waters. Just ahead may be seen a haze of white buildings with their red tile roofs. Here, in the midst of this vast wilderness, where the forest stretches out for hundreds of miles in each direction, and where a monkey could travel for days by jumping from branch to branch, is located a live, hustling town with fine public buildings, electric lights, electric tram lines and a theatre that would be a credit to any town. ”

“ The blossoms grow in great abundance in the axils of the branches, and a field in blossom is most entrancing. In the early morning, after a refreshing shower, or while the dew still lingers, the fields with their small, white blossoms are not only a beautiful sight to the eye, [266] but an aroma arises from them that fills the air with a sweet perfume. The fruit usually grows in clusters of from a half dozen to a dozen berries, which surround the joints almost like a necklace just over the leaves. ”

“ Through windows, where lovers have whispered sweet words to willing ears for centuries, there comes the busy clatter of the American sewing machine; on the coffee plantations, and even in the rubber camps, Indians, negroes and whites listen to the quavering, and ofttimes grating tones, of the American phonograph; in stores where the shopkeeper and clerk sit listlessly, as though not caring whether you buy or not, the cash is guarded by the unerring treasurer, the American cash register, and the goods are oftentimes weighed on an American computing scale ”

“ To the west there are trees and trees, set close together, and mingling their boughs with the intertwining vines into a vegetable infinity. Much of it is still an unknown land, untrodden by the foot of white man. The tangle has been threaded at different places by exploring expeditions and the rubber gatherers, but to the world it is still an unconversant wilderness. A traveller finds vegetation of one kind on one river, and the same form on another stream a hundred miles away. ”

“ In the distance the horizon is everywhere bounded by the hills, which seem to form a frame for the picture. The city itself is clean and attractive, with wide streets, and beautiful plazas. It is situated on a knoll with all the streets slightly sloping down, so that in the distance one can see the green fields and boundary of mountains. It has a good sugar factory, owned by a French syndicate, a cotton mill and other industries. The finest sight is the falls on the Piracicaba River, which are within the city itself. ”

“ The visitor to the Rio of a decade ago, with its antiquated streets, old-fashioned architecture and foul-smelling open-sewered public thoroughfares, which more nearly resembled alleys than streets, would scarcely recognize the new capital of broad avenues, clean, well-swept pavements and the beautiful boulevard which follows the sweep of the bay for many miles. ”

“ The possibilities are visible to even the shallow observer; the uncertain trend of civilization no one can with certainty prognosticate. Nature is kind, if her laws are obeyed, and the white man endures the climate better than his copper-coloured brother. It would be the lazy man’s paradise, for it takes little labour to provide the simple wants. The only difficult task is to fight nature in her prodigal growth. The struggle of the northern farmer with weeds is an infantile task in comparison with the constant fight against every kind of growth in this climate. ”

“ These are the “catamaran” fishing boats, from the port of Pernambuco. The adventurous boatmen will sometimes venture out a hundred miles to sea in these simple and frail-looking crafts, and they are seldom lost.
Pernambuco, or Recife, is the first port at which the transatlantic steamers stop, and it is either here, or at Bahia, that the American traveller down the east coast first sets his foot on Brazilian soil. It is the second city of importance in northeastern Brazil, and the state of Pernambuco, of which it is the capital, is second in importance only to Bahia. ”

“ When the early navigators sailed up the island-studded bay, which leads to the present site of the capital of Brazil, they thought it must surely be the mouth of a broad river, and, as it was in the month of January, they named it, for want of a better name, Rio de Janeiro, the River of January, and the name has clung to the bay and settlement, which has grown into a thriving city, during the succeeding four centuries. ”

“ At Rio, and in Northern Brazil, the women are subject to all the social restrictions that have ever been the lot of women in Latin countries. The young women can not go out unaccompanied by an older woman or the family servant, and in the social life there is nothing of what American women would term freedom. They perhaps do not miss this so much, for it has been the custom of the race for generations untold. At São Paulo, and some of the other southern states, there is a noticeable breaking away from the centuries-old traditions, due, perhaps, to foreign influence. ”

“ Many trees depend more on the air than soil [167] for sustenance. Cut a tree, and it will probably remain green and throw off new branches. Then further up one will see the green roof composed of the matted leaves and vines, which almost exclude the light from the ground below. Some of the largest trees spread over the others a wide, thick roof of verdure, like a vast umbrella. The mighty columnar stems, which bear aloft this solid roof of lofty green, would make the proudest of earth’s beings feel awed and humbled. The visitor to these forests feels his own insignificance. ”

“ Another branch is reaching out toward Diamantina, the famous diamond centre in Brazil. It seems to me that the government can not do better for itself, or for the people, than to spend just as much money as is possible in the development of these railway lines, for the land is already settled by a great many people, and easy communication will aid in inducing new settlers to locate there. Furthermore, railway communication is one of the best means in the world to unite the different sections of the country, and develop a national as well as patriotic spirit. ”

“ The Brazilian people are made up of three distinct races: Europeans of every nationality, but most of Latin origin, Indians and negroes, the latter two nationalities being more or less mixed in the process of assimilation, and distributed all along the seaboard and the rivers, from the Amazon to the Paraná. In Brazil there is no race problem or antagonism between white and black, or Indian, and the hopeful ones say that in course of time not only all race distinctions, but even colour distinction, will disappear, and be merged in the new Brazilian type. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A day’s run brings the traveller to the most important city in Brazil north of Rio de Janeiro. It is situated on a bay which is generally classed as one of the fine harbours of the world. When Americus Vespucius entered this beautiful and commodious harbour with a fleet, he named it Bahia da Todos os Santos, the Bay of All Saints, in honour of the feast day on which it was first seen. ”

“ To them great credit should be given, for, having it in their power to do absolutely as they wish, they have the courage and honesty to use this power in the interest of the people, just as much as if they had secured it from the people by a popular suffrage. Out of the eighteen million people in the country there are perhaps six hundred thousand qualified to vote, and there have never been more than four hundred thousand votes cast in any presidential election. ”

“ The republic is still in the process of creation, but, when all the latent possibilities are uncovered, it will be a towering giant. It is in the same condition that the United States was three-quarters of a century ago. Now we have about thirty inhabitants to the square mile, while Brazil has less than six. If the workers go there, Brazil will be one of the greatest sources of food supply in the whole world long before the end of this present century. There is scarcely an article, useful either for food or raiment, that cannot profitably be raised within its borders. ”

“ The tree which bears the Brazil nuts of commerce is one of the highest of the Amazonian trees and overtops the royal palm. Its foliage is of a deep green and spreads out on all sides. The nuts grow in a great pod as large as a good-sized apple, and inside the thick husk will be found fifteen or twenty of these rich and delicious nuts. Flowering trees are omnipresent in these forests, and some of them are covered with beautiful flowers ”

“ Science has provided means for overcoming the sources of pollution found in the tropics, and the development can now take place under healthful conditions. Brazil is awaiting that effort. Social conditions may seem to be an obstacle; but a colony can practically establish its own social conditions, and need not be bothered to any great extent by those surrounding it. Brazil is the only country in South America where church and state have been formally separated, and this is a good indication of progress, for any form of religion may be practised without fear of disturbance. ”

“ 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 only in the last few decades that this city has become very important, for no longer ago than the Civil War Pará was only a tropical trading port.
The docks are busy places, for steamers from all parts of the world, and flying many flags, come here. Men of all shades, from a dirty yellow to black and white, are busy handling the staple commodity of rubber. The rubber is all put up in sacks, and taken to the shipping [183] houses, of which there are scores near the wharves. Every one handles “caoutchouc” and the air smells of it, the hot sun giving it an odour of burnt rubber. ”

“ The upper classes of the Brazilians are a well educated and cultivated people. Most of them have been schooled in France, and speak the French language almost as fluently as their own. In Paris there is always a goodly sized Brazilian colony, and the boats passing between Rio and Europe always carry a number of Brazilians to and from that European capital. They find the atmosphere of the French capital more congenial, and full of the simpatica which means so much to the Latin people. ”