A NEW SETTLER IN THE JUNGLE.
The great state of Amazonas, which is more than two-thirds as large as the United States east of the Mississippi, is an empire in itself. It is difficult to predict what may be its future. Some scientific men say that civilization will again be centred in the tropics; if so, then here will be the future Europe. Any prediction would be only guesswork, for no man with only human foresight could look into the future and foretell the development. The possibilities are visible to even the shallow observer; the uncertain trend of civilization no one can with certainty prognosticate. Nature is kind, if her laws are obeyed, and the white man endures the climate better than his copper-coloured brother. It would be the lazy man’s paradise, for it takes little labour to provide the simple wants. The only difficult task is to fight nature in her prodigal growth. The struggle of the northern farmer with weeds is an infantile task in comparison with the constant fight against every kind of growth in this climate. It would be a hopeless task for one man, lone handed and without means, to locate in this wilderness and attempt to carve out his fortune. Goodly sized colonies would do better, and, by their energetic and united efforts, nature would be conquered and compelled to contribute of her bounty to the welfare and support of man.
Outside of Manaos and a few small towns and settlements the population of the state of Amazonas consists almost entirely of Indians. One industrious writer has listed nearly four hundred separate and distinct tribes. Many of these are extinct, or practically extinct, but a large number of distinct tribes are still found on the different rivers that have widely divergent habits and physical characteristics. A few of these tribes live a retired existence in the forests, but most of them mingle with the white people, and are employed by them in gathering rubber or other products of the forests. The skin of the Indians is a coppery-brown colour. They are of a medium height, but have not the high cheek bones of the North American Indian. Like the latter, however, they are undemonstrative, and do not betray their emotions of joy and grief, wonder or fear. They will undoubtedly be driven out and disappear as the white race settle in the tropics, for their inflexible character prevents them from adapting themselves to changed conditions.
Although these Indians have dropped cannibalism, and other inhuman practices, they are still simple children in their customs and beliefs. They live as their ancestors have lived for centuries, have adopted few of the conveniences or luxuries of civilization, and live a hand-to-mouth existence. Religious holidays are observed with a strange mixture of superstition. Their idea of a holiday, whether religious or secular, is “bonfires, processions, masquerading, confused drumming and fifing, monotonous dancing kept up hour after hour without intermission, and, the most important part of all, getting gradually and completely drunk.” They are kindly disposed toward aliens, and are as hospitable as their circumstances permit. The Tupi-Guarini language is generally spoken, or at least understood, and this has been reduced to written form by the Jesuit clergy.
CHAPTER X
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
The Brazilian people are made up of three distinct races: Europeans of every nationality, but most of Latin origin, Indians and negroes, the latter two nationalities being more or less mixed in the process of assimilation, and distributed all along the seaboard and the rivers, from the Amazon to the Paraná. In Brazil there is no race problem or antagonism between white and black, or Indian, and the hopeful ones say that in course of time not only all race distinctions, but even colour distinction, will disappear, and be merged in the new Brazilian type.
The pure Indians are now found only on the Amazon, the headwaters of the Paraguay, and the sections remote from the railways of such states as São Paulo, Paraná, Bahia and others. Most of them were never the bloodthirsty race that our own redskins were, although a number of the tribes were cannibalistic in their practices. The number still existing is placed at about six hundred thousand. There was no regular spreading of civilization and population, but it was done through the sporadic settlement of advancing posts which were pushed out into the wilderness. They were at first armed against the Indians, who were then hostile, but most of the aborigines were finally subjugated, and gathered into settlements by the conquerors. These settlements formed the nuclei about which the towns began to grow. As there were few European women in the country, the Portuguese took wives from among the conquered people, and such a connection was not considered a mesalliance, even by those of good birth.