Pará, the most important in wealth, population, and commerce of the northern States of Brazil, is a name familiar to all, to many simply as rubber, to others rather as a city than a State: improperly so indeed, as the city by its residents is termed Belem. Founded at the mouth of the Amazon in January, 1616, it is younger than the other important coast cities, while the State, formerly a part of Maranhão, is little more than a century old. The date of July 31, 1867, when the great river, previously closed to all but Brazilian steamers, was opened to the navigation of the world, is that of the beginning of Belem’s prosperity and wonderful growth. Today a city of 150,000, it lies on the edge of a tranquil lagoon called Guarujá Bay, formed by the Pará River, one of the several mouths of the great Amazon. Along the city front is a forest of masts and smokestacks, and vessels of every size and character pass to and fro. Fine docks and warehouses have recently been constructed, the work, begun in 1907, to be continued by the Port of Pará Co., according to the requirements which are rapidly increasing, since facilities must ultimately be provided for a traffic from an area of the more than three million square miles embraced in the Amazon Valley. A channel 30 feet deep leading from the outer river to the port is marked by 26 modern buoys, illumined by acetylene gas, with lights of 120-candle power intensified by a lens. The port works are equal to the best at Liverpool and Hamburg, having three-quarters of a mile of quay wall with water 30 feet deep for ocean steamers, 722 feet of wall with 12 feet of water for river steamers, and 1500 feet more for smaller boats with 9 feet 6 inches of water. The wall of huge blocks of concrete is of the most substantial character. On a roadway 60 feet wide are electric cranes and railways, back of which are large warehouses. Beyond these is a granite-paved boulevard, then the city itself, with the Custom House, market, banking houses, stores, and all forms of commercial activity.
On the large square, Frei Caetano Brandão, in the center of which is a statue of the bishop after whom the square is named, the founder of the first hospital in the city, stands the Cathedral erected in 1710, elegant and harmonious, of rather severe exterior, but within brilliantly decorated in high colors. On the bay side of this square are the ruins of an old fort called Castello, preserved for historic interest. The principal plaza is the Independencia, adorned with flower beds, with lawns, bushes, and trees; but the people here loving nature and flowers, no one ever steps on the lawns or plucks a blossom, which indeed is the case in the other cities of Latin America. In the center of the square is a monument to General Gurjão, a superb bronze statue of a soldier who died fighting, while he exclaimed, “See how a Brazilian General dies!” At the side of the plaza, Parque Affonso Penna, is the Government Palace erected in 1776, and near by the blue tinted City Hall of colonial days, containing in the main hall a beautiful painting of the death of the great musician, Carlos Gomez, who died here.
In the square, Visconde de Rio Branco on a marble base is the most artistic monument of the city, a bronze statue of the Brazilian patriot, José da Garma Malcher, with the figure of a beautiful young girl below writing the name of the hero. Another garden, Baptista Compos, is a little paradise with fountains, lakes, bridges, plants, etc.
A unique public recreation ground at the other end of the city is a tract of primitive woods, called O Bosque, dense and somber with great trees which as the city grew in that direction was with wonderful foresight preserved by the Municipality. Driveways were opened disclosing its poetic beauty, greenhouses, cascades, fountains and other embellishments added, making it a resort of which the people are proud.
The usual Praça da Republica contains a beautiful marble monument with bronze figures commemorating the proclamation of the Republic. On this square, the heart of the city, is the Paz Theater of white marble, imposing and austere, of the Corinthian order of architecture, with a tranquil grandeur unlike any other in South America. The interior is decorated with paintings by De Angelis surrounded by high gold reliefs, contains a foyer with a beautiful inlaid floor, and has everything in lighting and mechanical devices of the most modern type. The Paz Hotel is near.
Notable churches are Santa Anna, built in 1761, and Our Lady of the Carmo, about the same date, and Our Lady of Nazareth, built in 1802, where seamen especially bring offerings, wax miniatures of boats and other objects of maritime life, forming a curious museum of nautical art.
The greatest interest and admiration may be excited by the Goeldi Museum, one of the most famous in South America, and now under the direction of Dr. Jacques Huber. The building is surrounded by fine specimens of the Amazonian forests with the finest collection in the world of the Hevea brasiliensis, the best of the many varieties of rubber trees; and the experimental garden probably contains every species of rubber known, with many other plants of commercial value. Of equal or greater interest are the archæological, ethnological, and zoological departments. Here are collections of pottery of extinct Indian tribes inhabiting this region at the time of the Portuguese discovery, with funeral urns and pottery from mounds of the Island of Marajó. Weapons and utensils of the Amazonian Indians are shown. The collection of Brazilian fauna comprises a complete series of Amazonian monkeys, a great variety of birds, the larger mammals, as the tapir, jaguar, etc., and insects. Many living creatures, aquatic birds, parrots, toucans of gorgeous plumage, alligators, anacondas, boa constrictors, electric eels, and many others, safely caged, enchain the attention.
The Lauro Sodré Institute for industrial and agricultural training, a School of Commerce, a Fine Arts Academy, and other establishments for education, for the sick, and the poor are liberally provided. A fine new Market is not of small importance. The broad, clean, well shaded streets are often lined with beautiful villas and gardens; though but a degree and a half from the equator the heat is not excessive, rarely above 90° Fahr.
Manaos. The visitor to Pará, is likely to be on his way up the Amazon to Manaos or Iquitos; if a bit of an explorer, perchance to Bolivia by the newly practicable Madeira and Mamoré route, or to the rubber regions in any one of five countries. The city of Pará, is about 80 miles from the pilot station Salinas; and a further journey of 24 hours, nearly 200 miles, is required, across a bay, then for nine hours through a narrow channel, before one really enters the broad stream of the great Amazon. Along the narrows the landscape is charming; clearings with huts and children are frequent; canoes with fishermen, and small steamers calling at the barracas (plantations) for rubber or to bring provisions are numerous. The luxuriant vegetation is fascinating. But from the remoteness of the shores, on the immense wide river the four or five days to Manaos may be somewhat monotonous. The greater will be the surprise of the uniformed traveler when after 900 miles through the enormous wilderness of forest he arrives at this new city, with a population of 80,000, truly a wonder of wonders. Its location is at the junction of the Rio Negro with the Amazon; one writer says on a large bay, another that it is on the left bank of the Negro eight miles from the Amazon. At all events it has a safe and quiet harbor with excellent port works arranged to fit the rise and fall of the river, about 50 feet. A floating roadway extends into the river, a platform and pontoons supporting warehouses; and ocean steamships come alongside. Hills have been lowered, shallow places filled in, and waterworks and drainage systems supplied; so that a remarkable city indeed is here in the forest. It is said to be the best lighted city in Brazil. The Municipal street, 100 feet wide, is lined with handsome buildings. The Eduardo Ribeiro avenue in the afternoon and evening is thronged with people of wealth and fashion. The Amazonas Theater, on this avenue and S. Sebastião Square, is of astonishing magnificence, having cost $2,000,000; its beautiful colored dome is a conspicuous feature from the harbor. The interior compares with the splendid exterior, allegorical paintings by De Angelis, the celebrated Italian artist, ornamenting the ceilings of foyer and auditorium. The Palace of Justice, a white marble building in Roman style, with a bronze and marble staircase, is also imposing. The Cathedral is a vast temple of simple architecture. There are excellent school buildings, a public library, a museum with curious Amazonian specimens, a spacious market cool and well ventilated, and a public garden with music from six till midnight. Electric fans are everywhere in evidence, ice here manufactured is supplied in abundance, and excellent sanitation makes the capital surprisingly free from sickness.
Iquitos. By ocean steamers, the Booth Line from New York and from London, the journey may be pursued up the Amazon as far as Iquitos in Peru, a city of 15,000 population, where the Amazon, over 2000 miles from its mouth, still has a width of nearly three miles and an average depth of 25 feet, twice that in the rainy season. The city is a few leagues below the junction of the Marañon and the Ucayali, by which the Amazon is formed. Iquitos is quite cosmopolitan with representatives from various European and American nations. It has many warehouses, and commercial and other modern buildings of brick and iron. One hundred and fifty feet above the river and surrounded by dense forests, the climate is not so bad as it might be, though the temperature averages 85° to 90° all the year around; as a rule the place is not unhealthy.