The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-03-18
The Great Famine IN Brazil.

No famine of late years has been 50
severe and protracted as that which
has existed in the northern provinces
of Brazil, and of which we have from
time to time had distressing accounts.
The " famine district" lies between
the Rivers Parahyba and San Fran
cisco, and is known as the Sertao.
The seasons are divided into the dry
and rainy, but the country is subject to
periodic droughts. Mr.. Herbert H.
Smith. of Brooklyn, has recently
visited this now almost deserted cOun-
try, once as thickly populated as Ohio
or Indiana, and both fertile and pros
porous, and he gives the results of his
observations in an exceedingly graphic
communication to the New York
Tribune.
The present dTought-for it has not
yet ended--began in 1877, with
the entire failure of the usual rains.
The crops failed, and the cattle died for
want of food and water. By July of
that year one-third of the population
were without sustenance; by Noyem-
Der nine-tenths of the cattle in that
vast pastoral region had died, and the
furnishing poor were without number.
"The whole country was dried up so
that not a green leaf or blade of grass
could be seen, except along a few fer
tile hillsides." The drought continued
through the year 1873. and then the
people who had survived became
frightened, and there was a great exo-
dus, 100000 leaving one province
o1ono opJ NJ looS< S6 O0O If fho,,, do,
ing on the road. Great camps of fugi-
tives were formed along the coast, and
particularly about Fortaleza, a city of
$4,000 inhabitants. More than 100000
refugees crowded into it. Fever and
smallpox broke out among them, and
they died by scores and hundreds, the
death-rate from smallpox alone foot
ing up as high as SOS per day.
This tremendous exodus and the in
describable sutferings of the wretched
fugitives at last woke up the sleepy
Government, and an extraordinary
credit of $50, 1000, 900 was voted for their
relief, and was met by an issue of pa
per money, not worth much, because
of the poor financial condition of Bra
iii. Mr.. Smith visited Fortaleza and
the deserted Province of Ceara, and
confirms all that has been reported of
this unprecedented calamity. and now
he is in receipt of letters from a Bra
lillian nobleman, now Secretary of the
Province-and to whose phi!anthropical
work alone the saving of 10000 lives is
credited-in which he says the drought
continues, and the state of things is
worse than it was when Mr.. Smith was
there. The Government is still feeding
100000 people, who are employed in
various public works, laboring for the
mere subsistence it can give them.
Out of a population of 100000 in the
Province of Ceara alone 100000 have
died of starvation and 800, 600 of pesti-
lence. Of the survivors two-thirds are
fed at public expense.
But the worst is to come if Govern
ment aid is withdrawn, as it is reported
it soon will be. The Treasury has been
drained and credit exhausted. The fu-
ture for the surviving population OF
Ceara, and of other famine-stricken
Provinces, is appalling, and unless the
drought is broken, or relief comes from
abroad. the entire population will per-
Chicago Tribune.