At 7.50 p.m. punctually—as she was due—the engine steamed into the Franca station, where the train was to halt for the night. The passenger traffic was not yet sufficiently extensive on that line to allow trains to travel continuously during the twenty-four hours. Passenger trains ran only in the daytime.
I was treated with the greatest consideration while travelling on the Mogyana. Not only was the Administration saloon car, containing a comfortable bedroom, placed at my disposal, but telegrams had been sent all along the line with orders to supply me with anything I required. At Franca, much to my surprise, I found an imposing dinner of sixteen courses waiting for me in the station hotel—with repeated apologies that they were distressed they could not produce more, as the telegram announcing my arrival had been received late. On no account whatever was I allowed—as I wished—to pay for anything. 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. The electric light had been installed in the town, and there was a theatre. Much difficulty was experienced in obtaining sufficient water for the needs of the population. In the municipality there existed a number of machines for use in the rice and the coffee culture, as well as two steam saws, a butter, and a sugar factory.
There were several trails—so-called roads—branching off from this town and leading to Borda de Matta, Garimpo das Canoas, Potrocinio do Sapucahy, S. José da Bella Vista, etc.
The climate was healthy and delightful. While I was there the Fahrenheit thermometer registered 76° at an elevation of 3,450 feet. With a fairly good soil, the municipality could produce cereals in plenty under proper cultivation. Land was cheap enough in that region—150 milreis per alqueire for good land for cultivation, and 25 to 30 milreis per alqueire for campos.
We proceeded on our journey north the next morning, passing through Indaya, 3,450 ft. above the sea level—a settlement boasting of two houses upon the highest point of the railway line in the State of São Paulo. We were nearing the Rio Grande, or Great River, which, flowing in a westerly direction, formed in that region the northern boundary of the State of São Paulo with the State of Minas Geraes. As we got near the river a greater lack of cultivation was noticeable, with more extensive zones of wooded country, especially in the depressions of the land. The undulations of the landscape were more accentuated as we approached the Minas Geraes province. Clouds hung low in the valleys, and we occasionally went through banks of mist not unlike those of Scotland. At Chapadão the ground was more "accidenté"—to use an appropriate French expression—with deep depressions and indentations in the surface soil caused by erosion.
The high land on which we had been travelling between Franca and Igaçaba, the station after Chapadão, gave birth on the west to several important tributaries of the Rio Grande, enumerated below, from south to north; the Rio Salgado, the Rio do Carmo, Riberão Ponte Nova, Rib. Bandeira, Rio da Soledade, Rib. S. Pedro; on the east was the Rib. S. Jesus, also a tributary of the Rio Grande.
As the train sped down the incline towards the Rio Grande we were now treated to magnificent scenery on our right. An isolated hill stood at the bottom of the valley with higher mountains on either side of it, and, beyond, a high flat-topped plateau. The railway line skirted snake-like along the hill-side. The hill-tops were getting more rounded and fairly thickly wooded. As we got to a lower elevation the isolated hill assumed the appearance of an elephant's back. A grassy valley several miles wide opened up before us.
At Rifaina Station we had reached the level of the banks of the Rio Grande, that is to say, 1,950 ft. above the sea level. The valley of the river was formed, in this case also, by erosion which had left isolated hills in terraces, one with as many as six distinct terraces, others with rounded backs, but all plainly showing in their stratification, which was identical with that of the surrounding elevations, that in former days there stood, where the valley was now, a plateau which had subsequently been gradually eroded by the action of water and wind.
Having crossed the river, we arrived at Jaguara—we were now travelling in the Minas Geraes Province—where a breakfast awaited us of rice, pork, dried beef, as hard as leather, omelette with shrimps (a much cherished dish in those parts), beans, mandioca, and coffee. Black railway porters, firemen and engine drivers all sat round the table and ate heartily, the meal costing 2 milreis, or about 2s. 8d.