The valley of the Amazon makes Brazil the most fertile region of the world. The tropical woods are so thick and the creepers and undergrowth so luxuriant that animal life is almost entirely confined to the trees above and the waters below.
The valley is not unhealthy, and, though under the equator, the climate is tempered by the trade winds and the evaporation from the vast Amazonian waters. Beyond the valley is the montaña district, where the land is higher and the climate semi-tropical, where there are few creepers, little underbrush, and open forests, and where both animal and vegetable life is less abundant. Southward, beyond the montaña district, are the evergreen pampas, where no trees grow and where the animal and vegetable life are unlike either that of the valley of the Amazon or that of the montaña. As in Africa, so here, men who live in the dark forest, die in the open. Mr. Stanley selected thirty dwarfs from the tropical forests of Africa to take to England, but as soon as they came into the grass-lands, the clear air and bright sun, they languished and died before the coast was reached.
Northeast of the pampas, on the Atlantic coast, south of the Amazon, is a province bounded on the south by a range of high mountains, where rain is abundant; at Maranhao, its seaport, there are 280 inches of rainfall in the year. South of Maranhao there is much less rain; and instead of two seasons, the wet and the dry, which prevail in the valley of the Amazon, there are the four seasons of the year, but without extremes of heat and cold.
Over the greater part of Brazil grows the coffee tree, the sheet-anchor of Brazilian prosperity, since it furnishes 60 per cent. of all the coffee grown in the world. The plant is not indigenous to Brazil, but was brought there about one hundred years ago from the old world.
Brazil, inhabited by the Portuguese, with an imperial government, has been saved from the anarchy and insolvency of the Spanish republics. Her railroads have been built with economy and have been generally successful. It had a population in 1885 of 11,000,000; two-thirds of whom were Indians and negroes, and many of the negroes were slaves. Slavery existed longer in Brazil than in any other civilized country; the lash was commonly used on the plantation, and work continued from early in the morning until late at night until 1888, when a law was passed finally emancipating 1,300,000 slaves. It was opposed by the planters, who said freedmen would not work, but would let the coffee and sugar plantations fall to ruin. It was probably this act which caused the overthrow of the empire, for in revenge the planters joined the insurgents in establishing the Republic.
The Portuguese and Brazilians are more peaceable and orderly than the Spaniards or Spanish-Americans; we may therefore reasonably hope that Brazil will not repeat the history of the Spanish republics, which has been one of disintegration, for these republics have separated into two or more States. The greatest difficulty in maintaining its immense domain will arise from the enormous distances and the time required to travel between different parts of the country. From Rio de Janeiro to Matto Grosso is 140 days' journey by land, and by water the distance is 3000 miles. Communication is maintained by steamer through the Argentine Republic up the Rio de la Plata and its branches. Although the country has many long and navigable rivers, yet the means of intercommunication are very poor; for the rivers are little used, and the forests, creepers, and undergrowth are so dense that the country back of the river-banks is impenetrable, and even if roads should be opened the soil is so luxuriant that they would be quickly overgrown and soon become impassable.
Lines of steamers have been subsidized by the Brazilian government and run up the Amazon 2000 miles to Tabatinga, at the boundary line of Peru; there connecting with lines subsidized by the Peruvian government, which run 1500 miles farther up the river. These vessels carry supplies to the settlers and bring back India rubber, Brazil-nuts, cacao, quinine, and the beautiful woods of the forest.
Yet steamers are rarely seen on the Amazon; they have few passengers, and have not opened the country; we are told that the Mississippi carries more vessels in a month, and the Yang-tse-kiang in a day, than the Amazon in a year.
THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.
The history of South American republics is illustrated in the Argentine republic.