Across Unknown South America | Page 7

oleracea L.), the burity (Mauritia vinifera M.), the
carnahuberia (Copernicia cerifera M.), the palmito (Euterpe edulis M.),
and many others. I shall give a more detailed description of the most
important of these plants as we proceed on our journey and find them
in their habitat.
Where, perhaps, Brazil's greatest richness lies is in its hundreds of
thousands of square miles of wonderful pasture lands--perfectly ideal,
with plenty of excellent water and a delicious climate--capable of some
day fattening enough cattle to supply half the world with meat.
All these wonderful riches are absolutely dormant; more than that,
absolutely wasted for lack of population, for lack of roads, trails,
railways, or navigation of the rivers. The coast of Brazil is highly
civilized, and so, more or less, is the immediate neighbourhood of large
cities; but the moment you leave those cities, or the narrow zone along
the few hundred kilometres of railways which now exist, you
immediately relapse into the Middle Ages. When you get beyond the
comparatively narrow belt of semi-civilization, along the coast, Brazil
is almost as unknown as Mars or the moon. The people who know least
the country are, curiously enough, the Brazilians themselves. Owing
greatly to racial apathy, they care little for the trouble of developing
their beautiful land. They watch with envy strangers taking gold,
diamonds, platinum, and precious stones out of their country. They
accuse foreigners of going there to rob them of their wealth; yet you
seldom meet a Brazilian who will venture out of a city to go and help

himself. The Brazilian Government is now beginning to wake up to the
fact that it is the possessor of the most magnificent country on earth,
and it is its wish to endeavour to develop it; but the existing laws, made
by short-sighted politicians, are considered likely to hamper
development for many years to come.
Brazil is not lacking in intelligent men. Indeed, I met in Rio de Janeiro
and S. Paulo men who would be remarkable anywhere. Councillor
Antonio Prado of S. Paulo, for instance, was a genius who had done
wonders for his country. The great development of the State of S. Paulo
compared with other States is chiefly due to that great patriot. Then the
Baron de Rio Branco--the shrewd diplomatist, who has lately died--has
left a monument of good work for his country. The cession of the
immensely rich tract of the Acre Territory by Bolivia to Brazil is in
itself a wonderful achievement. Dr. Pedro de Toledo, the present
Minister of Agriculture, is a practical, well-enlightened, go-ahead
gentleman, who makes superhuman efforts, and in the right direction,
in order to place his country among the leading states of the two
Americas. Dr. Lauro Severiano Müller, the new Minister of Foreign
Affairs, is a worthy successor of Baron de Rio Branco. There are many
other persons of positive genius, such as Senator Alcindo Guanabara, a
man of remarkable literary ability, and one of the few men in Brazil
who realize thoroughly the true wants of the Republic, a man of large
views, who is anxious to see his country opened up and properly
developed. Another remarkable man is Dr. José Carlos Rodriguez, the
proprietor of the leading newspaper in Rio--the Jornal do
Commercio--and the organizing genius of some of the most important
Brazilian commercial ventures. Having had an American and English
education, Dr. Rodriguez has been able to establish in Rio the best
edited and produced daily newspaper in the world. Its complete service
of telegraphic news from all over the globe--on a scale which no paper,
even in England, can equal or even approach--the moderate tone and
seriousness of its leading articles, its highly reliable and instructive
columns on all possible kinds of subjects by a specially able staff of the
cleverest writers in Brazil, and the refined style in which it is printed,
do great honour to Dr. Rodriguez. Then comes another man of
genius--Dr. Francisco Pereira Passos, who, with Dr. Paulo de Frontin,

has been able in a few years to transform Rio de Janeiro from one of
the dirtiest and ugliest cities in South America into the most beautiful.
The great drive around the beautiful bay, the spacious new Avenida
Central--with its parallel avenues of great width--the construction of a
magnificently appointed municipal theatre, the heavenly road along the
Tijuca mountains encircling and overlooking the great harbour, and a
thousand other improvements of the city are due to those two men. Dr.
Paulo Frontin has also been active in developing the network of
railways in Brazil. Whatever he has undertaken, he has accomplished
with great judgment and skill.
[Illustration: Rio de Janeiro as it was in 1903.]
It would be impossible to enumerate here all the clever men of Brazil.
They are indeed too numerous. The