When approaching Rio de Janeiro the coast line at the southward of the entrance to the harbor gives the appearance of a giant lying asleep on his back, head and body made by Gavea, Tijuca, and Corcovado mountain chain and the feet by Sugar Loaf. For many years the “sleeping” giant was quite emblematic. Now, however, the giant is awake, and while still held down, Gulliver-like by pygmy conditions, from these, which are daily recognized as needing reform, he will struggle and free himself.
Let us see what the giant has. To begin with, the giant is Brazil, a country, in area, greater than the United States of America, and containing already discovered natural resources just as great, with who knows what undiscovered resources in the great unexplored regions. Already the world’s greatest coffee and rubber producing country and fast coming to the front in cotton, tobacco, sugar and fruits, in agriculture alone Brazil has the proper soil and climate to lead the world.
Its timber resources are the greatest of any country and only await transportation facilities to be exploited to the amazement of the civilized world. Briefly, there are such woods as the massaranduba, the enduring qualities of which make it almost imperishable for railroad ties. The beautiful jacaranda (palli-sander), mahogany, and ebony, are woods used in furniture and cabinet making. The so-called cedar of Brazil is found extensively throughout the vast Amazon region, and is used in cabinet work and internal fittings of houses. The peroba, a single trunk of which often weighs over twenty-five tons, and is frequently eighteen feet in diameter, is very durable and may be used in boat making, pier building, and structures exposed to wind and weather. In Parana, are found hundreds of millions of the araucarias, which wood is more than 20 per cent stronger than pine and can be used in the same manner as pine. There are also several woods in tremendous quantities, which are suitable for paper pulp. Besides those already mentioned, there are various other woods suitable for many purposes, and no doubt still others, undiscovered.
Incidentally it might be mentioned that the loofa, so much used in our navy feed tanks, is found in many parts of Brazil. In Sao Paulo it is raised for hat making. It is an edible fruit in its early stages. The bambonassa (Panama hat palm) grows wild in Brazil. Some dozen or more trees, producing a red dye, including three kinds of dragon’s blood red, grow in Brazil; also two anils, with fine blue colors, and the indigo plant itself. Certain of the fuchsias give a black, and some of the bromeliaceas a brilliant yellow. Gum arabic is obtained, and resins are produced. The vanilla plant is found nearly all over Brazil and cinnamon grows readily in Para and Maranhao. It may be furthermore asserted that there are many plants producing essential oils and extracts that will repay a hundredfold, when cultivated in a scientific manner. Such agronomical studies are now in progress.
In the pastoral industry, also, Brazil needs only proper transportation facilities to become one of the world’s leaders. There are vast expanses of pasturage available for cattle raising, and a large and growing business is already developing. This will, of course, mean tremendous hide and leather business. In South and Central Brazil, there are vast districts well suited to sheep raising, comparing favorably with those of Argentina and Australia. Goats may be easily raised anywhere, in Brazil. Swine flourish and already the state of Rio Grande do Sul has nineteen lard factories, supplied with over twelve thousand tons of fat. Horse raising is progressing and considerable scientific study of this industry has resulted in the improvement of a national race of horses derived from the Arab. The Brazilian Cavalry is already mounted on national equines. Poultry raising is a branch of farming which will be most lucrative. Premiums for the introduction of animals for breeding purposes are now being paid by the Government Agricultural Department.
As in most tropical countries, fish is a favorite article of food. The greatest market is the capital and the supply is exceeded by the demand. Fresh water fish in the Amazon country are very numerous and take the place of meat. Agassiz stated not many years ago that there were more varieties of fish in the Amazon alone, than in the Atlantic Ocean. For many years the sleeping giant did nothing to protect the fish, but now he has awakened to that necessity and much study and work has been done to protect and improve the fishing industry. Incidentally in passing, it may be of interest to seamen to mention that the shark and dog-toothed barracuda are not the only fish to be feared by a man in the water. The fresh water river fish called the piranha, although averaging only a foot in length and two or three pounds in weight, is a terribly dangerous customer. A school of these have been known to kill and completely devour a large steer attempting to cross the river. I saw a large leg bone of a steer, covered by perhaps ten or twelve pounds of raw meat, thrown into the Paraguay River from a gunboat. It was assailed by dozens of these vicious fish rising from all directions and before it could sink out of sight it was picked as white as a soup bone. However, unless they are very hungry due to poor feeding conditions, it is mainly red meat and blood which makes them vicious, and a man with his clothes on can often swim unmolested across a small river. Off the coast of Bahia there is a small whale fishing industry. The whale is a roqual ranging from thirty to seventy feet in length and is harpooned and killed in much the same manner as elsewhere from boats which put off in the morning and return at night, but, after it is killed, one of the boat crew must dive under it and pass a rope around its mouth to keep the latter closed; otherwise the whale would fill with water and sink. In Para there is a small fish glue industry. The cat fish is the one which is mostly used for this purpose.
Diamonds of fine quality and semi-precious stones are found in commercially paying quantities in the states of Minas Geraes and Goyaz, yet prospecting has hardly well begun. There are also places where quartz crystal can be picked up and carried off for the asking. Much of this is large and of fine quality, and as our radio experts can testify, this material has come into extensive use, and, no doubt, the output will soon be controlled and regulated in such a manner as to increase the monetary wealth of the giant and make the price of radio quartz higher.
Coal of two kinds is mined in Brazil and while neither is a first class steaming coal, owing to the high volatility, high ash content and low carbon content, it nevertheless is being more extensively used every day, and when used on a proper type of grate (this has been already designed and experiments successfully made), cleaned or briquetted, it gives about normal results. This will furnish opportunities for commercial endeavors, and who knows when a field of high quality coal will be discovered? Petroleum is found in the states of Sao Paulo and Parahyba, in the form of shale and low grade asphalt, and the surveys for better oil fields are now underway and may any day result in an oil boom that will put Signal Hill among the “has beens.”
Manganese deposits of tremendous value only await proper transportation facilities to make the metal an export to all parts of the world. Remember the ill-fated Cyclops was loaded with Brazilian manganese ore when she sailed from Rio to—the Port of Missing Ships. A North American steel corporation has the controlling interest of the largest and richest manganese deposit known in the world, about three hundred twenty-five miles from Rio.
The giant has already discovered most of the usual minerals in greater or less quantities and it can be asserted that somewhere within his broad territories he will in the future find them in sufficient quantities to make him independent of supply from other countries, if he should then find it necessary to stand by himself. So generous was nature in the wealth of minerals that one large state takes its name, Minas Geraes (general mines), from its mines.
Brazil got away to a poor start in the matter of people, as the mixture of black and Indian blood with the early white Portuguese did not tend to improve the people. However, this is better now and Brazil, with a population nearly as great as that of France, is a nation of many races just as our own great nation is. Immigration is encouraged but at the same time regulated, and the population resulting from it is good and new settlements and colonies are leading toward greater and greater exploitation and commercial progress. Since the restriction of immigration by the United States the immigration to Brazil from Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Japan has increased tremendously and some of the states of Brazil by their immigration rules and regulations have profited greatly by it. The effect of the new blood began to be felt almost at once. Among the old Brazilian families there are many patriotic, earnest, far-seeing men and women who have worked and are working for the best interests of the giant, in the improvement of sanitation and health, cleaning of politics, broadening of industrial activities, and teaching of national patriotism. Brazil is, in brief, undergoing much the same sort of evolution which our own great country did, and, like it, has to deal with the grafter, the bad politician, the foreign fortune hunters, the state disputes, and all the other evils that beset a young republic. The greatest progress has been made in the improvement of sanitation and health. No longer is the dreaded yellow jack feared by seamen. It is practically stamped out. Likewise malaria and other river fevers have been so fought and studied that the danger therefrom has been largely eliminated.
The outdoor sports are becoming more popular each day and already soccer, rowing, and swimming have produced athletes in these events who will compare well with the world’s best. True, there are thousands too poor in pocket or health to take any interest in sports; and still others whose toil and drudgery tie them too closely to the grindstone to take interest, but, as said before, the giant is awake and this will all be improved. There are still many laborious and obsolete customs and ways of doing things which are very slow in being overcome, but they will be, nevertheless. The need for schools is recognized, and progress along this line is being made daily and will be even greater as the need becomes more generally felt.
Transportation and communication leave much to be desired. In some parts of Brazil our “covered wagon” method would still be travel de luxe, but when the vast unexplored areas of virgin territory are realized this is not surprising. A Presbyterian missionary, Dr. Robert Daffin of Florida, who has been in Brazil upward of twenty years, told me that he thought he had traveled over fifty thousand miles on mule-back, over trails that permitted of no other method, but that much of this travel was through the finest country of which he had ever heard. Branch lines are shooting off from the main railroad lines, rivers are being bridged, and improved equipment is being obtained. A large bridge over the Parana River is nearing completion, which will when completed bring the great naturally rich state of Matto Grosso into closer contact with the world. Already scattered through that state are men of vision who are sowing the seeds of future greatness for the state. They comprise not only Brazilian born but many foreign born as well, including German, Italian, Turkish, English, and American. In the little town of Campo Grande, six hundred miles inland on the narrow gauge, wood-burning railroad which pitifully links that part of the country with the more advanced part, I came across a young Scotchman who served in the grand fleet of England and who, realizing the future possibilities, was putting his Scotch keenness into a cattle ranch. He predicted that Campo Grande with the coming of better transportation conditions would cease to be a cow town and grow to a great city, the “Chicago of Brazil.” And so it will be with the coming of railway transportation to other naturally rich sections of the giant’s territories. Any day the J. J. Hills and Harrimans of Brazil may begin to hit their pace. It is not the lack of vision that has held back railroad development. It is the solution of the financing problems which have given and are giving trouble. Many of these difficulties have been overcome already, and the law making bodies are hard at work now on laws and regulations which will make for easier solutions. A commission of the ablest men of the United States on the question of roads has just visited and inspected many parts of Brazil in order to make recommendation for automobile roads. Their recommendations are sure to be based on far-sighted practical reasons; so, in the future when it becomes too crowded for the tin-can tourist and the automobile bandit in the United States, there will be “new worlds to conquer” down where he can pick his coffee off the trees.
Water transportation has been the principal means of communication for years. The coast line of Brazil is nearly as long as that of the United States and the products of the country at one end as different from those at the other, as those of New England are from those of Florida. The various United States and European lines connect the sea ports from Para (Belem) at the mouth of the Amazon, to Rio Grande do Sul, with more or less regular arrivals and departures. In addition, there are Brazilian lines connecting not only the sea coast ports but the inland river ports as well, which are flourishing and carrying greater and greater tonnage each year. In fact, during the past year the demand for shipping space exceeded the facilities of two of the Brazilian companies, one of them being the largest Brazilian steamship company. Whenever the expansion of the interior warrants it the inland waterways of Brazil may be so developed as to exceed the Mississippi and Ohio river systems in their palmiest days. The rivers form a wonderful network of waterways not only in the North with the Amazon and all its innumerable tributaries, but in the South as well, where the Paraguay and Parana and their tributaries furnish a waterway system extending over sixteen degrees of latitude and twelve degrees of longitude. So far, however, river navigation has been more or less haphazard with little or no charting, beacons or aids to navigation such as we ordinarily consider proper. It may be of interest to North Americans to note that the seasonal rise and fall of the Amazon at Manaos, which is about one thousand miles up the river and the highest point which can be reached by ocean going steamers, is often as much as fifty feet. This makes docking a little unusual, but the problem is solved by the use of floating docks with hinged (ferry-boat style) bridges to the shore. The tidal rise and fall of water in the sea coast ports is normal for the latitudes and no maritime difficulties; are experienced from this. The sea coast has many splendid natural harbors, some of which have no port or railway. Some of these, little known to the maritime world, are of such area and depth that they would harbor the whole United States Navy. Others not so good naturally will permit of improvement to meet any necessary normal shipping requirements. Today these natural harbors are well known to the Brazilian Navy and their strategic and commercial future is being studied by the officers of the navy. When one considers the rapidity of the development of Japan, after it really awakened, it is not too sweeping a statement to predict that another fifty years will see these natural and artificial harbors of the giant teeming with his and the world’s merchant ships and guarded by a formidable fleet of war-gray ships which bear the emblazonment, Tudo pelo patria, of the Brazilian Navy.