Rua Barão da Victoria, Pernambuco.
Inauguration of Avenida 7 de Setembro, Upper Town, Bahia.
Proceeding northward past the mouth of the São Francisco river no railway is encountered between Aracajú and the coconut-embowered port of Maceió (Jaraguá), capital of the State of Alagôas: construction of such a link would involve engineering difficulties in crossing the wide river delta and, north of it, negotiating the chain of picturesque lagoons (“lagôas”) which give the State its name. Alagôas, wedged under the shoulder of Pernambuco, is a fine sugar country: the lower, business section of Maceió literally runs and drips with sugar; the warehouses along the waterfront are piled with bags from which cane juice leaks, and the heady smell of it permeates the streets. From this busy, hot little city the most southerly arm of the Great Western’s series of linked lines reaches, a branch penetrating sugar lands by way of Atalaia and Viçosa, while a more northerly track connects with Garanhuns, runs thence north-east, and, with a sea-ward branch to Barreiros, connects with the fan-handle of the system at Recife (Pernambuco).
The Great Western of Brazil Railway was formed in London in 1872; the first work done was the construction of one hundred and eighteen kilometers from the port of Recife to the town of Timbauba with an extension to Limoeiro; in 1901 connection was carried on to the Conde d’Eu line in Parahyba, and in the same year the company leased seven other disconnected lines of the north-east promontory, with the object since attained of forming a linked system. Of the seven thus controlled three had been built by, and still belong to, the Government, while four were English built.[[9]] As operated today the Great Western line includes more than eleven hundred miles of track, links and penetrates the four States of Alagôas, Pernambuco, Parahyba and Rio Grande do Norte, and serves the ports of Maceió, Recife, Parahyba, Cabedello and Natal, an independent line extending north of this point to the town of Pedra Preta. The system has done excellent work in developing sugar, tobacco and cotton country, but it has suffered from the financial difficulties of the last three years, droughts reducing the agricultural product of northerly regions and adding to troubles consequent upon fallen exchange: the company has asked the Federal Government for relief from the onerous financial obligations of the original contract, and, with this revision accomplished, will be in a better position.
North from Natal, with the land sloping sharply east towards the Amazon delta, no more railroads are encountered until almost midway along the shore-line of the State of Ceará the port of Fortaleza is reached. From this point a line runs south-west into the interior to the town of Iguatú, the track with a couple of little branches including four hundred and twenty-three kilometers. Ceará is unenviably famous for the terrible droughts which from time to time scourge and depopulate it, but when rains visit this territory it is extraordinarily fertile, crops are abundant, the fecund Cearenses return and cattle-raising is resumed. A second strip of line runs inland, almost due south, from sea-margin Camocim to Granja at the head of the bay and thence to Cratheus, three hundred and thirty-five kilometers distant. Exports of carnauba wax, of a special class of rubber (maniçoba = manihot), and of hides, go out from the ports of Ceará, and since the last drought of 1914–15 broke in abundant rainfall there has been unprecedented planting of fine cotton which is said to promise well. The next state northward is Piauhy, with but a span of coast and no railroad as yet, although one is projected to connect with Ceará. Maranhão has two lines: one, planned from São Luis to Caxias, of which some separate sections are already in operation, and the other running from Caxias to Cajazeiras, serving interior country. An important branch, to penetrate the sertão, is projected from a point along the first-named line to Barra do Córdoba.
The last strip of railway which serves the north Brazilian coast extends from Pará city (Belem), which is situated inside the mouth of the Amazon about one hundred and sixty miles from the sea, to the seacoast town Braganza, three hundred kilometers away. The country traversed produces Brazil nuts, tobacco, cotton and sugar, and free grants of land have been given beside the track to settlers.
For the extreme north of Brazil the great fluvial network with the Amazon as the great main channel serves as the only means of communication: it will probably remain the sole highway for a long time to come. There is a total of over forty thousand miles of navigable waterways in the Amazon valley, with service by steamers and small embarcações which suffice for the present needs of this immense but sparsely populated territory. The waterways of Brazil are of such extent and size that it is not possible as yet to foresee the time when they will be superseded either by rail or road.
There are in the Brazilian interior several strips of railroad which serve no other purpose but that of supplementing riverine ways; the most spectacular and important of these is the renowned Madeira-Mamoré, one of the most costly railroads in the world and the imposer of the highest tariffs. Planned for the purpose of passing the dangerous falls blocking the Madeira-Mamoré river, outlet for rubber districts of Peru and Bolivia as well as of the Brazilian State of Matto Grosso, the line was completed in 1912 by the engineers of the Brazil Railways Company. Work was originally started more than forty years ago by the initiative of Colonel Church, two or three attempts ending in failure; when the last relay of American engineers took up the task in 1908 many relics were found of previous effort, one a locomotive imported by the Collins expedition of 1878: it was cleaned up and put into use. The line as completed has a length of two hundred and ninety-two kilometers; the chief enemy to construction was the deadly climate which took a terrible toll of lives both of engineers and labourers until sanitation measures similar to those enforced in Panama were taken.
The line is said to be paying its way, but its success depends very largely upon the fate of Amazonian rubber in world markets. With the price of “hard fine” reduced by the competition of the rubber of Eastern plantations, it is difficult to see how freight rates over the railroad can be maintained at the present very high scale, necessary in order to give a return on cost; and, rich as the tributary country is in drugs, dyes and hardwoods there would have to be a great deal of development in production before the place of rubber could be filled. It will be extremely regrettable if this remarkable line, a band of steel in the middle of a country of deep wild forests cannot succeed financially: it is one of the world lines which are life as well as time savers, for before its inauguration the annual loss in the falls of both freight and men was twenty-six per cent.[[10]]
