LOADING COFFEE AT SANTOS DOCKS.
In the coffee season the docks, the streets of the shipping quarter and the warehouses have a busy appearance. The streets are almost rendered impassable by the wagons loaded with bags of coffee. Dozens of carigadores hurry back and forth between the wagons and warehouses, or between warehouses and boats, with two or three bags of coffee on their shoulders. Women dart here and there among the wagons, and pick, or scrape up, the berries which have been spilled upon the ground during the loading and unloading; and they sometimes realize a fair sum for a day’s work. In the warehouses the coffee is emptied out in immense piles, sorted and resacked in bags of uniform weight, and then stacked up in piles which number thousands of bags. From these docks the coffee is sent out to Europe and America, and from there distributed to all parts of the civilized world.
The through steamers to Argentina and Uruguay do not stop at any Brazilian ports south of Santos, so that it is necessary to take the national boats. It is a law of the country that coast steamers must fly the Brazilian flag. There are two lines that make the various stops, of which the Costeira Line of Lage Brothers is probably the best, as they have English captains.
After leaving Santos the tropical plants and palms grow less luxuriantly, and the vegetation more closely resembles our Gulf States. The first port at which the boat stops is Paranaguá, the only harbour, and the only port of any importance on the coast of the state of Paraná, a state about the size of Pennsylvania. There is a strip of lowland along the coast that is subtropical, being low, flat and marshy. On these marsh lands rice has been very successfully cultivated during the past few years. West of the coast range of mountains the climate is more temperate, and there are some fine plateaus that extend as far as the Paraná River on the western boundary.
CUTTING RICE WITH AN AMERICAN HARVESTER.
Paranaguá is a thriving town of ten thousand or more, and has one of the finest harbours on the coast. From this port a railway has been built to the capital, Curytiba, and Ponta Grossa, the second largest town in the state, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. This line is a triumph of engineering, for it climbs over the Serro da Mar without resorting to the aid of cogs or cables. A ride over it affords some magnificent views in the richness and variety of views to be seen as the train runs around bends, and bursts forth from the many tunnels along the line. This route is said to have been the scene of many tragic deaths during the revolution of 1893-4, when revolutionists were carried by train to the highest points along the line, and then brutally hurled into the depths below.
It is a journey of about four hours to Curytiba, which is a pretty little city of half a hundred thousand people, more or less. It is one of the largest cities south of São Paulo, and is situated at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, thus giving it a pleasant and equable temperature. The city is comparatively modern with the usual public buildings of a capital, plazas filled with shrubbery and flowers, and a Botanical Garden of which the people are very proud.
Paraná is a rich state in natural resources. It was formerly united with São Paulo as one province, and the original inhabitants have many of the same qualities as the Paulistas. Many foreign colonies have been established by state aid, and some of them have prospered. Italians, Poles and Germans constitute the colonists, of whom the Poles are probably the most numerous. There are large areas of forests, of which a tree known as the Paraná pine is the most common, as well as most useful. This tree grows to a lofty and imposing height, with a trunk several feet thick. It is used much the same as our own pine, and a great deal of it is exported to the other Brazilian states, as well as to Argentina and Uruguay.