For all that
these millions know, the Gospel is non-existent and Jesus Christ has
never visited and redeemed the world." [Footnote: The Neglected
Continent]
BRAZIL
The Republic of Brazil has an area of 3,350,000 square miles. From
north to south the country measures 2,600 miles, and from east to
west 2,500 miles. While the Republic of Bolivia has no sea coast,
Brazil has 3,700 miles washed by ocean waves. The population of this
great empire is twenty-two millions. Out of this perhaps twenty
millions speak the Portuguese language.
"If Brazil was populated in the same proportion as Belgium is per
square mile, Brazil would have a population of 1,939,571,699. That is
to say, Brazil, a single country in South America, could hold and
support the entire population of the world, and hundreds of millions
more, the estimate of the earth's population at the beginning of the
twentieth century being 1,600,000,000." [Footnote: Bishop Neely's
"South America."]
Besides the millions of mules, horses and other animals, there are,
in the republic, twenty-five millions of cattle.
Brazil is rich in having 50,000 miles of navigable waterways. Three
of the largest rivers of the world flow through its territory. The
Orinoco attains a width of four miles, and is navigable for 1,400
miles. The Amazon alone drains a basin of 2,500,000 square miles.
Out of this mighty stream there flows every day three times the
volume of water that flows from the Mississippi. Many a sea-captain
has thought himself in the ocean while riding its stormy bosom. That
most majestic of all rivers, with its estuary 180 miles wide, is the
great highway of Brazil. Steamboats frequently leave the sea and sail
up its winding channels into the far interior of Ecuador - a distance
of nearly 4,000 miles. All the world knows that both British and
American men-of-war have visited the city of Iquitos in Peru, 2,400
miles up the Amazon River. The sailor on taking soundings has found a
depth of 170 feet of water at 2,000 miles from the mouth. Stretches
of water and impenetrable forest as far as the eye can reach are all
the traveller sees.
Prof. Orton says: "The valley of the Amazon is probably the most
sparsely populated region on the globe," and yet Agassiz predicted
that "the future centre of civilization of the world will be in the
Amazon Valley." I doubt if there are now 500 acres of tilled land in
the millions of square miles the mighty river drains. Where
cultivated, coffee, tobacco, rubber, sugar, cocoa, rice, beans, etc.,
freely grow, and the farmer gets from 500 to 800-fold for every
bushel of corn he plants. Humboldt estimated that 4,000 pounds of
bananas can be produced in the same area as 33 pounds of wheat or 99
pounds of potatoes.
The natural wealth of the country is almost fabulous. Its mountain
chains contain coal, gold, silver, tin, zinc, mercury and whole
mountains of the very best iron ore, while in forty years five
million carats of diamonds have been sent to Europe. In 1907 Brazil
exported ten million dollars' worth of cocoa, seventy million
dollars' worth of rubber; and from the splendid stone docks of
Santos, which put to shame anything seen on this northern continent,
either in New York or Boston, there was shipped one hundred and
forty-two million dollars' worth of coffee. Around Rio Janeiro alone
there are a hundred million coffee trees, and the grower gets two
crops a year.
Yet this great republic has only had its borders touched. It is
estimated that there are over a million Indians in the interior, who
hold undisputed possession of four-fifths of the country. Three and a
quarter million square miles of the republic thus remains to a great
extent an unknown, unexplored wilderness. In this area there are over
a million square miles of virgin forest, "the largest and densest on
earth." The forest region of the Amazon is twelve hundred miles east
to west, and eight hundred miles north to south, and this sombre,
primeval woodland has not yet been crossed. [Footnote: Just as this
goes to press the newspapers announce that the Brazilian Government
has appropriated $10,000 towards the expenses of an expedition into
the interior, under the leadership of Henry Savage Landor, the English
explorer.]
Brazil's federal capital, Rio de Janeiro, stands on the finest harbor
of the world, in which float ships from all nations. Proudest among
these crafts are the large Brazilian gunboats. "It is a curious
anomaly," says the Scientific American, "that the most powerful
Dreadnought afloat should belong to a South American republic, but it
cannot be denied that the Minas Geraes is entitled to that
distinction." This is one of the vessels that mutinied in 1910.
Brazil is a strange republic. Fanatical, where the Bible is burned in
the public plaza whenever introduced, yet, where the most obscene
prints are publicly offered for sale in the stores. Where it is a
"mortal sin" to listen to the Protestant missionary, and not a sin
to break the whole Decalogue. Backward - where the villagers are tied
to a post and whipped by the priest when they do not please him.
Progressive - in the cities where religion has been relegated to women
and children and priests.
Did I write the word religion? Senhor Ruy Barbosa, the most
conspicuous representative of South America at the last Hague
Conference, and a candidate for the Presidency of Brazil, wrote of
it: "Romanism is not a religion, but a political organization, the
most vicious, the most unscrupulous, and the most destructive of all
political systems.
