Rio Grande do Sul. By a coasting steamer, one will first visit the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern in Brazil, well away from the tropics, hence with a temperate climate, much like that of Georgia, and largely settled by Germans. For a State with considerable seaboard, the location of its three chief cities on a fresh water lake or lagoon may at first appear curious, yet of course there is a reason. The coast being flat and generally sandy the best harbor is the lagoon, separated from the sea by a sandy spit of land only a few miles wide. The entrance, a narrow strait near the south end, has a considerable sand-bar on which engineers have been at work to secure a passage 33 feet deep, affording ingress to large ocean steamers. This will greatly augment the present important commerce. The larger steamers now entering go only to the city Rio Grande do Sul at the southern extremity of the Lagõa dos Patos, Lagoon of the Ducks, named from one of the tribes earlier inhabiting this region. The town has fine wide streets, many handsome buildings, and in the Praça Tamandaré, on which stands the Post Office and Public Library, one unique feature: the only monument in Brazil, it is said, commemorating the freeing of the slaves. The citizens are justly proud of their Library of 40,000 volumes, probably the best south of São Paulo, and of the fact that they possess the oldest newspaper in Brazil except the Jornal do Comercio of Rio.
Porto Alegre. As the Lagoon is 150 miles long (30 wide), it is a long sail, 12 hours, to Porto Alegre, the capital and chief town of the State at the northern end. Three hours from Rio Grande a call is made at the pleasant town of Pelotas, beyond which there is little to see on account of the width of the lagoon. The beef industry in the form of salt beef factories is a chief feature of the prosperity of Pelotas, and rows of beef strips hung up in the sun to dry, with an occasional factory, may be seen for miles along the shore. Porto Alegre, settled in 1742 by colonists from the Azores, after the Prussian Revolution in 1848 received many Germans, so that one-fourth of its 100,000 inhabitants are now of German descent. The town has some handsome public buildings, including a City Hall with marble columns from native quarries, and some that are old and ugly. A large stone building near the quay houses the public market, where fruit, vegetables, dairy products, etc., are sold at modest prices in comparison with those at Buenos Aires and Rio. The climate is healthful, with some freezing weather in the winter, and snow in the mountainous section inland. Minerals are found in the State, including coal, but the chief wealth is cattle; not the blooded stock of Argentina but good enough for jerked beef. Also agricultural products are important, one settlement, chiefly of Italians, exporting annually a million dollars’ worth. A beautiful waterfall 400 feet high called Herval may be visited a few hours from Sapyranga on the railway between Porto Alegre and Taquara.
Going north from Rio Grande the steamers of the Brazilian Lloyd and the Costeira lines call in the next State, Santa Catharina, at its capital Florianopolis, one of the most picturesque of Brazilian cities, on an island of the same name. Facing the mainland five miles across the Strait, with a background of hills rising from 1000 to 3000 feet, it is a charming contrast to the more level country previously visited. 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 evenings 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.
Paranaguá. In the State of Paraná, one of the most beautiful of Brazil, detached in 1858 from the State of São Paulo, a call is made at Paranaguá, its chief seaport, from which yerba mate, grown in the interior, is an especially important export. In this State and the next, the larger and pleasanter cities are on the high land in the interior. The low semi-tropical strip along the shore is separated from the plateau region within by the Serra do Mar or Coast Range, extending far north very near the shore. Rivers, like the Iguassú and Paraná, rising almost within sight of the Atlantic, flow thousands of miles to increase the waters of La Plata. The capital city, Curytiba, with 50,000 inhabitants, may be visited by rail from Paranaguá, a delightful four hours’ journey of 60 miles, among the valleys and up the slopes of the hills and mountains of the Serra do Mar, the climb to an altitude of 3000 feet being made without cogs or cables, by means of high trestles, bridges, and 17 tunnels. The journey is said to surpass in beauty the better known ride from Santos to São Paulo, presenting a variety of natural scenery seldom found in so short a trip, along with rich semi-tropical vegetation, pine forests, and manifestations of industrial development. The State spends more in proportion upon education than does any other in Brazil. It possesses unlimited resources in cattle, agriculture, mines, and forests. The pine tree of Brazil, the Araucaria brasiliensis, especially prominent in this State, differs greatly in appearance from pines in the United States. They are a striking feature of the landscape, growing with a single straight trunk, sometimes 125 feet, with a diameter of six feet. Thus they somewhat resemble a palm, though crowned at the top with branches in shape like a bowl, bare to the end, where globes of dark crispy green leaves recall a candelabrum. All parts of the tree are useful; the fruit is edible, the nut is used to manufacture buttons, and the wood, for building and other purposes.
Beyond Curytiba the road goes on to meet the through line from Montevideo at Ponta Grossa. Not far from the junction is a curiosity called Villa Velha, old village, reminding of the Garden of the Gods, but even more remarkable. The reddish rocks of sandstone have had part of their formation cut away by time and water, leaving rocks which resemble houses, walls, or ruins, some, 300 feet high like castles and towers, with low bushes growing among them, the whole having the appearance of an abandoned city. Curytiba, like São Paulo, though much smaller, is a wide-awake, modern city with handsome buildings, hotels, etc., and a boarding and day school conducted by two American ladies. An important industry is the preparation of yerba mate for market, 20 large mills existing for this purpose in various parts of the state. The mate profits sometimes reach 100 per cent.
In the vicinity of Antonina, a pretty town on the same bay as Paranaguá, is a curiosity called sambaquys, mounds, 71 in number, the work of a prehistoric race containing skeletons, pieces of pottery and of polished stone of varying aspect, apparently indicating a progress in culture through generations. Unfortunately many of these remains have been put to the prosaic use of making lime, but some near Lagõa Santa still await the archæologist and the ethnologist.
CHAPTER XXVIII
SANTOS AND SÃO PAULO
The State of São Paulo, called the most progressive, if not the most important in Brazil, has for its chief seaport the city of Santos, to which the majority of tourists will have come by express steamer from Montevideo. Every ship calls at Santos, even coming up to the docks, so that all must see this city. The only question is whether or not to go up to São Paulo, distant two hours by rail. This should be no question. Every one must go if only for the ride and a glimpse of this prosperous and busy capital, returning the same afternoon. Fare one way 12$900. Should the steamer’s schedule not permit of this excursion, one should still go, and either wait over until the next steamer, a ticket on the Lamport and Holt serving also on the Royal Mail, or proceed from São Paulo by rail to Rio, fare 54$500. Or if preferred, one may continue in the same steamer to Rio, thence return later by rail to São Paulo, and embark at Santos on his homeward journey, an arrangement which affords certain advantages. In this way one has the great pleasure of twice entering the magnificent harbor of Rio, which it were a pity to miss altogether. On the other hand, journeying by rail from São Paulo one may, if on the right train, enjoy a wonderful view of the city and harbor while descending from the plateau above down to sea level. But as somewhat similar views may be had from Corcovado, Tijuca, and the road to Petropolis, this is less important and desirable than the view of Rio from the sea, peculiarly entrancing at early dawn. To stay over from one weekly steamer to the next is not too much if one cares to visit a coffee plantation and see a little of the country; a day or two is better than nothing.
The name of São Paulo, the greatest coffee-producing region of the world, is less familiar to people generally than that of its seaport, Santos, as the name Santos is attached to a very small portion of the coffee thence dispatched to all quarters of the globe. 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.