Brazilian Sketches | Page 5

shore of Brazil. For eight and one-half days we sailed in sight of
Brazilian territory, and had we been close enough to shore north of
Cape St. Roque, we should have added three days more to our survey
of these far-stretching shores. Brazil lies broadside to the Atlantic
Ocean with a coast line almost as long as the Pacific and Atlantic
seaboards of the United States combined. Its ocean frontage is about
4,000 miles in length.
This coast line, however, is not all the water front of Brazil. She boasts
of the Amazon, the mightiest river in the world. This stream is
navigable by ships of large draught for 2,700 miles from its mouth. It
has eight tributaries from 700 to 1,200 miles and four from 1,500 to
2,000 miles in length. One of these, the Madeira, empties as much
water into the larger stream as does the Mississippi into the Gulf. No
other river system drains vaster or richer territory. It drains one million
square miles more than does the Mississippi, and in all it has 27,000
miles of navigable waters.
The land connections of Brazil are also extensive. All the other
countries on the continent, save Chili and Ecuador, border on Brazil.
The Guianas and Venezuela, on the north; Colombia and Peru on the
west; Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on the south--eight
countries in all.
It is indeed a vast territory. The United States could be placed within its
borders and still there would be left enough Brazilian territory to make
a State as large as Texas.
Almost from the time we sighted land until we rounded the cape near
Montevideo, we could see the mountains along the shore. The
mountains extend far interior and up and down the length of the
country. The climate of the tropical Amazon Valley is, of course, very
hot, but as soon as the mountains are reached on the way south the
climate even in the tropical section is modified. The section south of
Rio, on account of the mountains and other forces of nature, has a
temperate climate, delightful for the habitation of man. Each of these
great zones, the tropical, the subtropical and the temperate, is marked
more by its distinctive leading products than by climate. Each of these
sections yields a product in which Brazil leads the world. The largest
and most inexhaustible rubber supply in the world is found in the

Amazon Valley region. The central section raises so much cocoa that it
gives Brazil first rank in the production of this commodity. The great
temperate region produces three-fourths of all the coffee used in the
world. Of course, there is much overlapping in the distribution of these
products. Other products, such as cotton, farinha, beans, peas, tobacco,
sugar, bananas, are raised in large quantities and could be far more
extensively produced if the people would utilize the best methods and
implements of modern agriculture. The mountains are full of ores and
the forests of the finest timber, and the great interior has riches
unknown to man. It has the most extensive unexplored region on earth.
What the future holds for this marvelously endowed country, when her
resources are revealed and brought to market, no one would dare
predict. Few countries in the world would venture a claim to such
immense riches.

CHAPTER II
.
THE CAPITAL, RIO DE JANEIRO.
The city of Rio is the center of life in Brazil. We entered the Bay of Rio
after nightfall on the sixth of June. The miles and miles of lights in the
city of Rio on the one side, and of Nietheroy on the other, gave us the
impression that we were in some gigantic fair grounds. Missionaries
Entzminger, Shepard, Maddox and Mrs. Entzminger came aboard to
welcome us and bring us ashore. We were taken to the Rio Baptist
College and Seminary, where we were entertained in good old
Tennessee style by the Shepards. This school building was built in
1849 by Dom Pedro II. for a school which was known as the "Boarding
School of Dom Pedro II." It accommodated two hundred students. The
Emperor supported the school. In 1887 the school was moved to larger
quarters. Dr. Shepard is renting the property for our college, but our
school like Dom Pedro's has outgrown these quarters and we are
compelled to rent additional buildings some distance away to
accommodate the increasing number of students. There are about three
hundred students in all departments.
As we studied the situation at close range, we had it driven in upon us
that one of the greatest needs in Brazil is the one Dr. Shepard and his

co-laborers are trying to meet in this school. Three-fourths of the
population of Brazil cannot read. We need, above all things now,
educated