Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

The capital and chief city, Victoria, population 20,000, is the first port of importance north of Rio. On a fine bay 2¹⁄₂ miles wide with a narrow entrance of less than ¹⁄₂ a mile, it is the outlet of the eastern part of the State of Minas, which contains the richest mineral deposits so far exploited in Brazil. A railway connects the port with interior cities. Works of importance have been planned, a quay ⁵⁄₈ of a mile long with 28 feet of water and with suitable equipment; the widening and deepening of the channel entrance, and the building of a steel bridge to the main land from the island on which the city stands. Over 500 steamers and 200 sailing vessels clear yearly.

Bahia, an important and well known State, the largest yet considered, exceeding California in area, touches three smaller States on the north, Piauhy, Pernambuco, and Sergipe; it has Espirito Santo and Minas on the south and Goyaz west. All kinds of tropical and subtropical products are found here, cacao, sugar, and coffee in large quantities, rubber of the maniçoba and mangabeira varieties, cotton, vanilla, the finest kind of oranges and pine apples, and other fruits. Bahia has the principal whale fisheries of the country and the best grounds for table fish. Its mineral wealth includes even the sand, monazite, the most important supply in the world.

The capital and chief port, 720 miles northeast of Rio, about 60 hours sail, is generally called by the name of the State, though its proper title is São Salvador. It has an excellent and beautiful harbor, though over-shadowed by the more remarkable picturesqueness of Rio. The bay, Bahia de Todos os Santos, about 25 miles wide (three at the entrance), and 20 miles deep, provides good anchorage for large steamers, 40 feet close in shore. It is a port of call for Trans-Atlantic liners and for steamers from North America, the only one north of Rio for some of the Lines. A company has undertaken port works which will greatly advance the prosperity of City and State, the works to include three breakwaters and two quay walls, the levelling of a large wharf space, erection of store-houses, laying railway lines, installing electric cranes, and constructing a floating dock and a lighthouse. Over 1000 large steamers with 2,300,000 tonnage enter the port annually. The imports are $13,000,000, the exports $20,000,000. The city is connected by rail with various cities in the interior of the State, and with the São Francisco River at a point above the Falls, from which there is navigation upstream a distance of 990 miles. The river has a length in the State of 850 miles. Bahia is a great cocoa port, shipping about one-fifth of the world’s supply; the State produces about as much tobacco as Cuba.

Sergipe, the smallest of all the States, is larger than nine of ours, a trifle bigger than Maryland and Delaware together. The São Francisco River separates it from Alagôas on the north, it has Bahia on the west and south. Its chief products are cotton, sugar, and rice; the cattle industry is important; the State has profitable manufacturing industries; cotton mills, sugar, shoes, soap, and other factories, and unworked mineral deposits.

The capital, Aracajú, population 40,000, is a small port with 95,000 tons of shipping yearly; but it suffers the disadvantage of receiving ships of no more than 8 feet draft, and needs the improvements now planned.

Alagôas, of triangular shape, has Sergipe on one side and Pernambuco on the other, the ocean on the third. Its main products are sugar and cotton; the cattle industry is prosperous; it has copper, lead and iron deposits, not operated, and very important milling industries, particularly of cotton. The São Francisco River is regularly navigated 175 miles to the Paulo Affonso Falls, around which there is a railway 52 miles long to navigation above.

The capital, Maceió, is a modern city; its suburb, the port, Jaraguá, with a tonnage of 600,000. The State is the most thickly populated next to Rio de Janeiro.

Pernambuco, the twelfth State in size, with area equal to that of New York, extends well into the interior, though with a coast line of 112 miles only. Ceará and Parahyba are on the north, Alagôas and Bahia on the south, and Piauhy on the west. The State leads in the production of cotton and sugar, sometimes exporting 150,000 tons of the latter, and raw cotton worth $5,000,000. Other agricultural products are secondary, but cattle and dairying are important, still more the milling industry. Minerals, coal, iron, saltpetre, kaolin, and manganese exist in paying quantities. There are two good ports besides the capital; railways connect Recife with Maceió and with cities inland.

Recife (often called Pernambuco), capital of the State, is a port protected by a coral reef parallel to the shore, where fine works are being constructed: these include a breakwater three-fourths of a mile long, a stone jetty one-half a mile; quays, one with 33 feet of water, one with 28-30, together three-fourths of a mile long, also other equipment. One thousand steamers are its annual quota, with tonnage of 1,750,000; the city has obviously great commercial importance, exporting especially cotton and sugar, also rum, hides, and cereals. Its imports surpass those of any other Brazilian city except Rio. The cost of living is high.

Parahyba has on the north Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco south, Ceará west, and 72 miles of coast east. Cotton is the chief product, and mandioca is important. Vast coconut groves of trees, growing wild, should be taken advantage of. The pastoral industry is important, with goats a specialty as with its neighbors.