Ouro Preto, the center of the manganese industry, yields annually 250,000 tons of 55 per cent ore. Iron, found in every part of Minas, for lack of fuel, is not exploited. Platinum has been found and there is a great variety of granite and marble, agates, onyx, and rock crystal, mica, graphite, cinnabar, and asbestos. Ouro Preto, the former capital, has a mining school, organized in 1903, said to be one of the best in the world, with instruction free; the museum contains a rare collection. The State is thought to have a future rivaling that of Australia and Kimberley.
The old capital, of which Diaz says: “In six squares everything is in the horizontal plan, but the 52 streets and lanes go through tortuous and accidented places as if they were acrobats,” was at length deemed unsuitable; the State was investigated for a new one; the site of a hamlet in a beautiful valley was chosen, and a branch line was built 10 miles from the Central Railway. In 1894 private houses began to be erected. Bello Horizonte has fine wide streets, with arborization said to be the most artistic of any South American city. It has water supply, sewerage, illumination, and electric tramways, of the best type, a Government Palace which cost half a million, the finest of the State buildings of Brazil, the Department of the Interior, of Finance, and of Agriculture, each with handsome buildings, also the City Hospital. A small river with pretty cascades running through the valley forms the vertebra of a beautiful park, which with great trees, shrubs, and vines, a broad driveway, and picturesque paths rivals in extent and natural beauty all others in Brazil.
An Agricultural School with a model farm is an important educational feature on account of the great fertility of the region. Sugar cane, corn, rice, bananas, tobacco, fruits, cotton, cereals, and many other things are here cultivated, with coffee as the chief product, the State being second to São Paulo in its culture. A concession was made to a North American Company for growing hemp and other fibres, one million trees to be planted within four years. Viticulture and the silk worm industry are suitable to the region. Vast pasture lands support great herds of cattle, nearly 300,000,000 head being exported in a single year. The dairy produce of butter, cheese, and milk, is very important, and eggs also. It is thus evident that Brazil possesses other industries beside rubber and coffee, and regions with agreeable climate. The San Francisco River flowing north through this section, while navigable at intervals, has a series of cascades, among the most picturesque in the world. Also there are famous mineral springs at Caxambu, altitude 3000 ft., with waters resembling those of Baden and Spa, with chalets, hotels, and sanatoria, in summer crowded with guests; and other springs in various other resorts.
The next Coast State to Rio is Espirito Santo, though small, the third coffee producer, raising also sugar cane, rice, and splendid tropical woods; a good climate up on the plateau. The capital and seaport, Victoria (20,000 pop.), has an excellent harbor, now being improved with docks, warehouses, etc., soon to be a port of call for large steamers. The next State, Bahia, will be mentioned later in the chapter.
Following Bahia is Sergipe, smallest of the States (a little larger than Maryland), 15,000 square miles, but the most thickly settled. Another small State is Alagoas; then comes the large and important Pernambuco, its capital so called, but more properly Recife; with its population of 150,000, the fourth city of Brazil, it is of great commercial importance. The name Recife arises from a substantial reef off shore forming a fine natural breakwater, to which the Dutch made some artificial addition, also erecting at its extremity a strong lighthouse tower, the light visible for 20 miles. The city, built on marshy ground, by quays and filling in redeemed from the sea, from its canals and peninsulas, is called the Brazilian Venice. Founded in 1536 by Duarte Coelho, it was in the seventeenth century occupied many years by the Dutch, who were finally expelled in 1654 by the patriotic Portuguese. From the pretty bridges are many lovely panoramas. Several fine markets, two theaters, a handsome Congress Hall, and the Governor’s Palace on the foundations of that of the Prince of Nassau facing the Praça de Republica are noteworthy. Two handsome churches are those of Nossa Senhora da Penha of the Corinthian order of architecture and the Boa Vista. The chief exports are cotton and sugar; the imports exceed those of any Brazilian city except Rio.
The next State on the north is Parahyba, reputed to have vast mineral wealth of coal, iron, gold, precious stones, etc., as yet lying tranquil in the soil. Then comes Rio Grande do Norte, whose enormous saline deposits along the shore partly compensate for its barren stretches of land and frequent droughts. The following state, Ceará, is closely connected with the rubber industry, for the reason that on account of the barren sands along the coast, and the inland droughts the male portion of the inhabitants is in large numbers driven to the rubber districts of Amazonas. Seasons not visited by drought are characterized by immense crops and bountiful dairy products. Fortaleza, the capital, with over 50,000 inhabitants, among other nice buildings possesses a great public market of cast-iron. Waterworks, planned on a large scale to alleviate the effects of the droughts, will be highly beneficial.
The adjoining state of Piauí, with similar low and melancholy shores, also suffers from lack of rain. A town is spoken of as “having taken the name of a river that was so poor it ought not to have one to give away.” Maranhão, the last state before reaching Pará and the Amazon, with a large population of negroes, like Bahia, and of Indians in their primitive condition, has as its capital San Luiz, a city founded by the French, and, like Bahia, noted for its literary taste and culture. An indication of this is that the squares, in other cities named after military events and heroes, are here called after poets and other writers.
Pará and the Amazon
The great Amazon River, we all know, is the largest in the world, yet its immensity is hardly realized. In size of basin and volume of water it far exceeds the Mississippi. For a distance of 180 miles from shore the Atlantic is freshened by its waters, which vary in depth in the estuary from 90 to 900 feet. Among its 1100 tributaries, great and small, there are seven more than 1000 miles long, not counting the Marañon and Ucayali, by which it is formed. One, the Madeira River, has a length of 3000 miles. In the great region which it drains there are 1200 varieties of birds and 8000 animals not found elsewhere, to say nothing of the plants. The soil is so rich that corn is returned 800 fold.
The best time to visit the Upper Amazon is in the dryer season, from June to the middle of October, or in January; the worst is from February to June. The climate of this section is attractive only to those who enjoy heat and rain; the heat is not excessive, but continuous; the rain is often 200 inches annually. Still the climate is called fairly healthy for the most part, with small sections very bad.