The daily gazette., 1879-02-15
THIRD EDITION
AFFLICTED BRAZIL.

= Greatest Calamity IN Too Hundred
Years-DrOught, Fdmine, Pest1encs
-Starring Pedsdnts Eating Their
O,pn Ofspring-Deoths Tsrrors-
Unburied Bodies Torn md Depoured
.oy Wild Ani,ndts-SmaltpoI Victims
-Thousands in Open Trenches Bot
tening at Lagod- Funda.
CEARA, Brazil, Dec. 80, 1878.
l question If one American in ten has
ever devoted more than passing thought
to this famine in Northern Brazil. Most
people do not know oil it at all. How
should they when the newspapers have
contained no more than brief notices
little pa agrsphs to be remembered
dreamily as something that is occurring
IN another planet? A month or two past
here were notices of the smallpox epi-
demic, mortuary figures SO large that
they forced themselves on the bulletin
boar ds, but suppose that hardly any
body connected these accounts with those
of the previous drought and famine. Be
sides, all notices come indirectly by way
of Rio, and | know from experience that
no correct idea can be obtained there.
What did learn at RIO was enough to
,
beyond that nothing but moItuary ststis-
tics and vague accounts from men who
had passed through Ceara. | determined
therefore, to visit the famine district and
get my inform alton at fist hand. Now,
God nows do not exaggerate, but | can
hardly believe myself the horr rs that l
write. l can hardly believe that the
world has been so Indifferent to one OF
the greatest caianities in her history.
The Chinese and Indian famines will not
compare With this one when We consider
the proportion of population. Our yell
low fever dead would hardly have been
noticed i'll the great cemetery al Ceara
The plague of London is the only COM
parison tina. know of for these pesti.
lences in Brazil, but the plague was q
dwarf to this giant, What OF a petty
European war that changes boundary
perhaps, and carries off two or three hun
dred thousand men out of 10000, 900
What is 1t to a scodrge which has de-
stIoyed a province as large as France Ode
stroyed it, for nothing but the ground i.
left), swept a whole population from the
earth, with death volleys Of hunger and
disease and murder?
DROUGHT IN THE sERTAo.
The famine of 1S777S is confined tc
that part OF Brazil known as the Seuao
This region is utterly unlike The matted
forest fats Of the Amazon or the gueiss
mountains of Rio. Ii is rolling plai1
ascending gradually from the sea eoas
and divers fled everywhere with ISOLATED
hills and mountains. There is a fores
growth, bu. it is low and not thics, much
more like our Northern woods than one
is apt to imagine fer tropical growth
Portions of the land are open plains, with
only scattered trees in other places the
woods have been cut away over extensive
tracts. In the Ser,ao the seasons a {
very sharply divided. The rainy month.
proper extend from January to June OF
Jaly the remainder of the year is dry Sc
dry that the trees shed their leaves all,
the grass is all withered. People cal
only obtain water by digging for it in tn
dry beds Of streams, for there are no le
renniai rivers i'll the Seftao. Only i
some districts there are light showers i
October, the so-called churdr de cQju, c
cdchen rains, when the tree OF that lam
is III bloom. 1t sometimes happens tha
the winter months remain dry like III
others-a terrible calamity for the poort
people, because they depend for lviu
on the produces of their little plantat OIL
aud the crops can snly be raised durin
the rains. The droughts have left blac
marks on the history OF Northern Braz
Hardly one OF the dozen or more on rec
ord has failed to count its victims by hun
dreds or thousands, and the ma erial 10.
is immense. We understand this bette
If we consider the peculiar status Of IL
population.