The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-01


culent leaves that Is somehow able to
fnd sustenance from air and moisture
only, its roots anchored into some
slight roughness OF the rock. When
a patch OF wood has been cut down
to the very ground, five years suf'ice
to cover the soil again with a growth
Of trees and shrubs 80 rank that the
spot can scarcely be distinguished
from the uncut forest all round.
| But this swift activity Of life ID
hardly more wonderful than IL the
variety of forms. Each Ct the great
forests OF Europe and North Ameri-
| ca consists of few species OF trees.
| But on this Brazilian coast the diver
sity Is endless. Those who have ira
versed the Amazonian forests have
made the same remark. There as
eighty yards, forty kinds Of trees grow
ing side by side. species belonging to
different families with myriad shapes
and hues Of leaf and flower.
| A City of Blacks.
The coast for some way north from
Rio continues high. Before one APP
proaches Bahia (S00 miles north) the
mountains have receded. and at that
city, though picturesque heights are
still visible, they lie further back, and
scarcely figure in the landscape. The
bay Of Bahia is singularly beautiful
in its vast sweep, as well as in the
verdure that fringes its inlets, and the
glimpses Of distant sunlit hills. Nor
is the city, long the capital OF Brazil.
wanting in interest. There lie quaint,
old fashioned look about the streets
and squares. with many house that
has stood unchanged SINCE the eigh-
teenth century.
| The upper city runs along the edge
| Of a steep bluff, sixty or eighty feet
above the lower town. which Is a sim
| gle line Of street, even more dirty than
/ 1T Is picturesque, occupying the mar
row strip between the harbor and the
cliff. Here, far more than in Parisian-
ICED Rio, one finds the familiar fea-
lures of a Portuguese town repro
duced, irregular and narrow streets,
! houses, often high, rooted with red
tiles, and colored with all sorts OF
washes, pink, green, blue and yellow.
| Sometimes the whole front or side OF
house is covered with blue or yell
/ lowish brown tiles. characteristic
! of Portuguese cities which has come
down from Moorish times.
But a still greater contrast between
! this and Southern Brazil is found in
the population. In Sac Paulo there
are few negroes, in Rio not very many,
but here In Bahia all the town seems
black. One might be in Africa or
the West Indies. It is the same in
Pernambuco and indeed all the way
| to the mouth OF the Amazon.
Finding this to be region filled
with colored people as Sac Paulo was
with white people, and knowing that
a thousand miles further west one
would come into a region entirely In
dian, one began to realize what vast
country Brazil Is, big enough to be
carved up into sixteen countries each
as large as France.
Greatly Diversified Country.
/ Were there natural boundaries. such
! physical features as mountain ranges
or deserts, to divide this immense re-
gion into sections, the settled parts
of Brazil might before now have split
apart into different political communi-
ties Nevertheless. though Brazil Is
physically all one country, it contains
| regions differing in climate, in eco
nomic resources. and in population.
/ The most northernly part along the
frontiers Of Gualana and also along a
good deal of the coast between the
ROGUE 1,100 miles to the east) IL
the least valuable, for large tracks are
stony and protracted droughts are not
uncommon. The extreme north has
been hardly at all settled.
The east central part, consisting OF
the mountain ridges and table-lands
referred to. together with slopes which
descend on all sides from these high
lands. Is a region Of great natural re-
( sources where all tropical crops and
fruits can be produced. Most of II
Is healthy, much Of it not too hot for
white men to work and thrive, and
the magnificent forests. no less than
the mines, will make the mountains
1 for many years to come no less a
source of wealth than are the more
level tracts. It's weak point is the
want of white labor and the ineffl-
cieny of black labor.
This tropical region passing imper-
ceptibly into the temperature country
which couples the state of Soa Paulo
Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio
Grande, a section of the country nc
less fertile than the last and better
fitted for European constitutions. Here
all sub-trepical products can be rails
ed; here also are forests and here
where the land has not yet been
| brought under tillage, there Is abund-
ant and excellent pasture for all sorts
| OF live stock AS the east central re-
gion Is the land OF cotton and sugar
Il so this southern region Is the land OF
coffee and cattle-coffee in its norther-
ly parts, cattle and the cereals in it3
| southern.
L There remains the vast spaces OF the
/ west and northwest, still so imper-
fectly explored that it is hard to es-
innate their econimic value: The
Amazonian forests, the Selvas, are the
land OF another great Brazilian staple
rubber. Most parts of the region
where Brazil adjoins Bolivia a vast
level or slightly undulating country
partly grassy. partly covered with
wood or scrubs. Is believed to be
/ available either for cultivation or fol-
ranching. At present access IL diff
| cult and markets are far away. but
/ when the districts of Brazil. Uruguay
| and Argentine that lie between this
| region and the coast have been more
/ fully settled, its turn will come.
Where Brazil Leads the World.
/ Taking Brazil as a whole. no grea
country in the world owned by I
European race possesses so largo q
proportion OF land available for thu
support of human life and produc
tive industry In the United States
there are deserts, and OF the gigantic
Russian Empire much is desert. and
4 much is frozen waste. But on the Por.
tuguese Of Brazil nature has bestowed
nothing for which man cannot hnt
use.
The material prosperity OF coun'
fry hOweyer dependS less on its ma.