THE BRAZILS MAGNIFICENT
Robinson Crusoe, after escaping from Moorish slavery with the boy Xury, was rescued by a Portuguese ship bound for South America. He was carried by the ship’s captain to the Brazils.
There he settled, bought a plantation and made a fortune. Then, away from those same Brazils, he sailed and was wrecked and cast upon his Desert Island.
Magnificent and rich were Robinson Crusoe’s Brazils, or the Country of Brazil, stretching vast and unknown far westward into the interior of the continent. Near the sea-coast, in the parts inhabited by civilized men, were plantations of coffee, tobacco, and fruits. Primeval forests covered the shores of the rivers whose mighty waters rushed far out into the ocean. Fierce savages roved the forests. There were gold, spices, and diamonds in Robinson Crusoe’s Brazils, and rare woods, brilliant birds, butterflies, and flowers.
And so is the country of Brazil to-day—a magnificent land! Only there are cities there now, and towns and villages. And to-day, Brazil is a Republic with a Constitution like that of our own United States.
In Robinson Crusoe’s time, Brazil was owned and ruled by the Kingdom of Portugal, just as other parts of South America were owned and ruled by the Crown of Spain.
How Brazil won Independence and became a Republic, is a fascinating story.
THE EMPIRE OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Brazil, on which the Southern Cross of four bright stars, looks down, first became a Kingdom, then an Empire and after that a Republic.