Santos, São Paulo

“ The capital city, São Paulo, 310 miles from Rio and 50 from Santos, while lacking the charm of Rio’s scenic beauty, is preferred by many as a place of residence on account of its cooler climate, the greater business activity apparent, and the cosmopolitan society, more than one third of the population being of foreign birth and another one third direct descendants of Europeans. ”

“ It not only emphasizes Brazil’s greatest industry, but it is also thoroughly typical of Santos.
Most of the coffee is grown in the mountains to the north, and comes to Santos from Saõ Paulo on a splendidly equipped British-built railway. The line is one of the finest in South America. It rises rapidly through a beautiful tropical valley by a{24} gradient so steep as to necessitate the use of a cable and cogs for a large part of the distance. The powerhouses scattered at intervals along the line are models of cleanliness and mechanical perfection. ”

“ I was rather interested to watch in the station restaurant the wonderful mixture of people who had assembled: priests, monks, railway porters, commercial travellers—some black, some white, some a combination of the two—all sitting together in a jovial manner sipping coffee or devouring a meal.
The city of Franca itself, 2 kil. away from the station, 617 kil. from the sea at Santos, 528 kil. from São Paulo, was in the most remote northerly corner of the State of São Paulo, and had a population of 9,000 people or thereabout. ”

“ Cattle and pigs are raised. The city dwellings are for the most part constructed of rough wooden frames covered with mud, called taipa by the natives, and roofed with curved tiles. The São Paulo branch of the Brazilian Central railway passes through the city, by which it is connected with Rio de Janeiro on one side and São Paulo and Santos on the other. ”

“ A few days later I saw a couple of hundred more of the same varied nationalities landed at Santos, and loaded on a special train for São Paulo. I always pity these poor immigrants who come to a new country with no money, few clothes, many children, and nothing else but a big hope of something, or faith in [122] somebody, in their breast. The total number of immigrants reaching all Brazil in the past year, the excess over those leaving, would not exceed eighty thousand.
The government of São Paulo has established a number of colonies in the state, one or two of which I visited. ”

“ The São Paulo-to-Santos line is world famous: it is the channel through which the bulk of the coffee of the whole world is carried, and is for its length one of the notable money earners of the railroad world. The road crosses the coastal swamps following the old Jesuit road as far as Cubatão, and thence climbs the granite wall of the Serra on one of the steepest grades known in railway construction, rising two thousand five hundred feet within a distance of ten kilometers. ”

“ Kier gave me some tea with brandy, groomed me down with brandy and water, and put me between blankets. They think me a wonderful person here for being so independent, as all the ladies are namby-pamby. To go up and down by myself between Santos and São Paulo is quite a masculine feat. ”

“ This state maintains a splendid immigration office in the city of São Paulo, which is strictly up to date. The immigrants upon landing at Santos are taken by special train to this station, and here they are kept for a week or ten days at government expense. During this time they are housed in excellent quarters, given good food, and kept under the supervision of doctors. Many have had their entire expenses from their homes paid by the government. In these buildings are offices where immigrants are secured employment on the various fazendas. ”

“ The whole of the next eighteen months was spent between São Paulo and Santos, varied at long intervals by a trip to Rio, or a visit to Barra, the watering-place, or excursions in the country round São Paulo. Burton was often away on his consular duties or on expeditions to far-away places, and his wife was necessarily left much alone at São Paulo, where she led a life more like “farmhouse life,” to use her own phrase, than anything else. There were many and great drawbacks arising from the unhealthy climate, the insects and vermin, and the want of congenial society. ”

“ These people are frequently very self-sacrificing in their courtesies to others, and though it has been said to me that their civilities are only the outward show of politeness, I must say to their credit, that nowhere can there be found more of the reality of accommodation, and hearty readiness in rendering any required aid, than among the people of this province.
Upon reaching São Paulo, I found that our baggage had been sent to the office of the diligence to be forwarded to Santos, and tickets were secured for us to proceed to-morrow morning. ”

“ São Paulo was feverishly planting all over her best red lands, and the only outlet for the 131crop was the steep mountain road to Santos. An English company took up the work of building a railroad, completed it after surmounting a series of difficulties and opened it to traffic in 1867. It is a triumph of engineering, and has never had a competitor ”

“ When they wanted to move a car up or down the track, about 50 men would surround it and push, and slowly she would begin to roll. At 11 a.m. the city siren blew and everybody quit work right then and there until 2 p.m. That gave us two full daylight days in Santos.
I had been told in Rio that another representative of one of the companies would meet and take care of us at Santos. The first day we drove to Sao Paulo, referred to by Brazilians as the "Chicago" of Brazil. ”

“ Leaving São Paulo, a ride of two hours over a unique railroad carries the traveller to the busiest port in Brazil. The ride down the Serro is delightful on a clear day. The train is divided into small sections, each with its own powerful little engine, which are attached to a cable. One section is always taken up while another is going down in order to balance the load. Through tunnels, over tressels and along shelves cut out of the solid rock, the train gradually descends until the coast level is reached, and a short ride carries the traveller into the splendid station at Santos. ”

“ The great industries are agricultural, and the most conspicuous is coffee production. São Paulo produces more than one-half the total Brazilian crop and its one great port, Santos, is the largest coffee-shipping port in the world. ”

“ None of the native trees of the United States are found growing in the forests examined.
The province of São Paulo may be divided into four different sections, as follows:
1st. Coast land, including the land lying between the sea and the neighboring serra adjacent to Santos, Conceicão, Ignape and Cananea.
In this the soil has rotten-shell combined with sand to a large extent. Rice is the chief product of this region.
2d. Table land, including the territory lying south of the Serra Nigro, and lying adjacent to Campinas, Lemeira, Rio Clara, Araraquara, Brotas, Jahu, and Botacatu. ”

“ The São Paulo Railway has to carry the product but fifty miles to Santos port. On the other hand, the Barretos plant’s position has the advantages of being in the heart of the best cattle country, and of getting both animals and labour at low prices; the journey from Barretos to S. Paulo, by the Paulista line, takes about fourteen hours. Brazilian employees are used at both packing-houses, the industry occupying about a thousand workmen. ”

“ On the government railroad, the Central, the freight rates are so high between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a distance of only three hundred miles, that it is cheaper to ship goods from the former city to Santos at high rates, transship them to a steamer, and pay port dues as well as loading and unloading charges at each end, than to forward over the railroad. It is a condition that the government could and should regulate, and it has been talked about many times ”

“ N.W. of São Paulo; Limeira (21,605) , in a fertile thickly settled district; Rio Claro (20,843) , 135 m. N.W. of Santos, on a branch of the Paulista railway, in a fertile coffee-producing region, 2030 ft. above the sea; Taubaté (20,773) , one of the oldest cities of the state, on the Parahyba 80 m. E.N.E. of the capital, in a rich agricultural district, with works for refining oil from the petroleum bearing shales in the vicinity; Braganza, or Braganga (19,787) , 50 m. N. of São Paulo in a fertile country partly devoted to sugar production and stock; São José dos Campos (18,884) ”

“ From this nucleus run splendid avenues lined with a bushy species of shade-trees, and residence sections with dwellings of coffee kings, ranging all the way from sumptuous comfort to magnificent and palatial eyesores, spread away across town in various directions. São Paulo has more than half a million inhabitants, a municipal theater for opera, drama, and concerts scarcely second to any in the western hemisphere, and an up-and-coming manner which quickly establishes its claim to equality with modern cities of the temperate zone. ”

“ In common with S. Paulo, it owes its origin to the first shipwreck on the island of S. Vicente. The river or lagoon has three or four fathoms water and a muddy bottom. Santos is a place of considerable trade, being the storehouse of the great captaincy of S. Paulo, and the resort of many vessels trading to the Rio de la Plata. It is tolerably well built, and its population, consisting chiefly of merchants, shopkeepers, and artificers, amounts to six or seven thousand souls. ”

“ Although low-lying and steamy, Santos is to-day quite a healthy city of some 30,000 inhabitants, and the largest coffee emporium in the world. Situated in a fine harbour, its wharf front extends for nearly three miles, and is provided with hydraulic and other machinery for manipulating the freights of the ocean liners that lie alongside. The city to-day has spread itself across wide, flat land at the foot of the hills, and is well provided in the matter of water supply and sanitation, whilst its broad, straight streets are well paved and electrically lit. ”

“ As almost every one occasionally or regularly drinks coffee, under the name of Java, Mocha, or another, which has been grown in São Paulo, there is an especial interest in learning something of the country. São Paulo is an active flourishing State, not at all in accordance with the general idea of Brazil, chiefly associated with the hot Amazon basin; it is an upland temperate region of 75,000 square miles, a trifle larger than the whole of New England with New Jersey added. ”

“ The city is not only the capital and the seat of State Government, but a notable center of education and industry, and the home of many men of great wealth. It is an ancient city, going back to the middle of the sixteenth century, 1554, its name São Paulo, which had been previously applied to a Jesuit college here, being transferred to the new settlement by the Governor-General of Brazil, Mem de Sá. Though of greater age than any city in our own country, for three centuries it made small progress. ”

“ Around this triangle in the afternoons the ladies walk on their shopping tours; in the evening it is the promenade, and all the people who are down town at night may be seen somewhere on that route. São Paulo is not a typical Brazilian town, for it has outgrown many of those characteristics to be seen in the towns which are more peculiarly Portuguese. There is a large foreign element, and their influence is notable in every part of the city, and even in the life of the Paulistas themselves. ”

“ São Paulo is in the matter of public schools, as in commerce, the leader State; she is a wealthy State, and she has not hesitated to spend enormous sums on all kinds of public works, whether roads, water-supply, railways, drainage—or school buildings and service. ”

“ There are not so many negroes and mixed breeds among the laboring classes, and their institutions, business methods and social life more nearly resemble our own; and, as a consequence, they have certainly not been behind the rest of Brazil in development. As in Rio, enormous sums have recently been spent for sanitation, public buildings, and improvements.
São Paulo has thus been transformed into one of the most healthful cities in the world, and one of the handsomest. ”

“ All of the parks are characterized by luxuriant tropical verdure.
On the Praça, south of the Park, is an immense building, the Firemen’s Barracks.
To the northwest, facing a paved square, is the great Station of the Central Railway, with tracks running into three different states and to forty or more cities, including São Paulo. Its revenue is more than $10,000,000 a year. On another side of the Praça facing the Park is the Senate House, and the Mint with an imposing façade and some fine ornamentation in bronze. ”

“ São Paulo itself is a pretty, white, straggling town on a hill and running down into a high table-land, which is well-wooded and watered, and mountains all round in the distance. We are about three thousand feet above sea-level. ”

“ In the principal plaza a stone monument with a pyramid of cannon balls at the top commemorates those who, as Volunteers, perished in the Paraguayan War. Though a town of 30,000 people it is a quiet place where they mostly stay at home 294evenings and go to bed by ten o’clock. A little farther north, the port of São Francisco, called the best south of Santos, from the building of the Iguassú, Paraguay, and other railways is destined to be of great importance. ”