VOLUME IV SLICE IV Bradford, William to Brequigny, Louis (continued 8)

The pastoral industries, which date from early colonial times, have suffered many vicissitudes, and their development has failed to keep pace with the country’s growth in population. Horses are used to some extent for riding, but very little for carriage and draught purposes, consequently there has been no great incentive for their breeding. They are largely used and raised in Rio Grande do Sul, but in the warmer regions of the north only to a limited extent. The hardier mules are generally employed for draught, carriage, and saddle purposes in every part of the country, and their breeding is a lucrative industry in the southern states. Cattle-raising is the principal industry in Rio Grande do Sul, and receives considerable attention in Minas Geraes, Matto Grosso, Santa Catharina, Paraná, Piauhy and Rio Grande do Norte. It was estimated that there were 30,000,000 head of cattle in the republic in 1904, but the estimate was unquestionably too large. A very large part of the jerked beef consumed in Brazil is imported from Argentina and Uruguay, and some beef cattle also are imported. These importations at Rio de Janeiro in 1906 were 12,464,170 kilograms of jerked beef and 12,575 head of cattle. In the Rio Branco region of Amazonas and in Piauhy, where the national government has long been the owner of extensive cattle ranges, the industry is in a state of decadence. This is partly due to such pests as the vampire bat and bush ticks (carrapatos), and partly to the unprogressiveness of the cattlemen. Cattle-raising was once a flourishing industry on the island of Marajó, at the mouth of the Amazon, and it is followed to some extent at Alemquer and other points along the Amazon, but the cattle are small, and commonly in bad condition. In southern Bahia the industry has been nearly extinguished through increasing aridity and droughts, but in the state of Rio de Janeiro the planters are increasing their herds. Minas Geraes produces cheese, butter and milk, as well as beef cattle for neighbouring cities. Matto Grosso classifies cattle-raising as a principal industry, but under present conditions the accessible markets are too small for any large development. In Rio Grande do Sul, where it has attained its greatest development, about 400,000 beeves are slaughtered annually for the manufacture of jerked beef (xarque), beef extract, &c. Little attention has been given to sheep in Brazil except in the southern states, and even there the flocks are small. They were to be found in Ceará and Piauhy in colonial times, and small flocks are still to be seen in the latter state, but no use is made of their wool, and the market for mutton is extremely limited because of popular prejudices. Woollen manufactures have been established in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. The exportation of wool amounted to 1,130,160 ℔ in 1906. Goats have been found highly profitable in many of the middle Atlantic states, where the long dry seasons render the campos unsuitable for cattle pasturage. The export of goat skins from these states is large. Swine do well in all parts of the country, especially in Minas Geraes, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, and domestic pork and lard are slowly supplanting the heavily-taxed foreign products.

Although the coast and river fisheries of Brazil are numerous and valuable, cured fish is one of the staple imports, and foreign products are to be found even along the Amazon. In the Amazon valley fish is a principal article of food, and large quantities of pirarucú (Sudis gigas) are caught during the season of low water and prepared for storage or market by drying in the sun. This and the collection of turtle eggs for their oil, or butter, are chiefly Indian industries, and contribute largely to the support of the native population of that region. Along the coast the best known fisheries are among the Abrolhos islands and in the shallow waters of Espirito Santo, where the garoupa, pargo and vermelho (species of Serranus) abound in great numbers.

The extractive or forest industries of Brazil were among the first to engage the attention of Europeans, and have always been considered a principal source of colonial and national wealth. The varied uses of india-rubber in modern times, however, have given them a greatly enhanced importance and value. Of the exports of 1905, 36% were of this class, while those of the pastoral and mining industries combined were not quite 6½%. In 1906 the percentages were 31 and 6.67, showing a considerable loss for the former and a slight gain for the latter. The principal products of this class are india-rubber, maté, Brazil nuts, vegetable wax, palm fibre, cabinet woods, and medicinal leaves, roots, resins, &c. Before the discovery of the cheaper aniline colours, dye-woods were among the most valuable products of the country; in fact, Brazil derives her name from that of a dye-wood (Brazil-wood—Caesalpinia echinata), known as bresill, brasilly, bresilji, braxilis, or brasile long before the discovery of America (see Humboldt’s Géographic du nouveau continent, tom. ii. p. 214), which for many generations was the most highly prized of her natural productions. Of the total exports of this group (1905) very nearly 90% was of india-rubber, which percentage was reduced to 85 in the following year. The exportation for 1906 was 69,761,123 ℔ of Hevea, 5,871,968 ℔ of maniçoba, and 1,440,131 ℔ of mangabeira rubber, the whole valued at 124,941,433 milreis gold. The dried leaves and smaller twigs of maté (Paraguayan tea—Ilex paraguayensis) are exported to the southern Spanish American republics, where (as in Rio Grande do Sul) the beverage is exceedingly popular. The export in 1906 amounted to 127,417,950 ℔, officially valued at 16,502,881 milreis gold. The collection of Brazil nuts along the Amazon and its tributaries is essentially a poor man’s industry, requiring no other plant than a boat. The harvest comes in January and February, in the rainy season, and the nut-gatherers often come one or two hundred miles in their boats to the best forests. The nuts are the fruit of the Bertholletia excelsa, one of the largest trees of the Amazon forest region, and are enclosed, sixteen to eighteen in number, in a hard, thick pericarp. Another nut-producing tree is the sapucaia (Lecythis ollaria), whose nuts are enclosed in a larger pericarp, and are considered to be better flavoured than those first described. The crop is a variable one, the export in 1905 having been 198,226 hectolitres, while that of 1906 was 96,770 hectolitres. It could undoubtedly be largely increased. Vegetable wax, which is an excellent substitute for beeswax, is a product of the carnahuba palm (Copernicia cerifera), and is an important export from Ceará. Palm, or piassava fibre, derived from the piassava palm, is used in the manufacture of brooms, brushes, &c. It is found as far south as southern Bahia, and the export could be very largely increased. The export of cabinet woods is not large, considering the forest area of Brazil and the variety and quality of the woods. This is principally due to the cost and difficulties of transporting timbers to the coast. The export is confined principally to rosewood. Of the medicinal plants, the best-known products are ipecacuanhá, sarsaparilla, copaiba, jaborandi and cinchona, but this is only a part of the list. Besides these, tonka beans, anatto, vanilla, and castor-oil seeds form a part of the exports.

The mineral exports are surprisingly small. Gold was discovered by the Portuguese soon after their settlement of the coast in the 16th century, but the washings were poor and attracted little attention. The richer deposits of Minas Geraes were discovered about 1693, and those of Matto Grosso early in the following century. Abandoned placer mines are to be found in every part of the unsettled interior, showing how thoroughly it had been explored by gold-hunters in those early days. Some good mines, like Morro Velho and the abandoned Gongo Soco, have been developed in Minas Geraes, but the great majority are small and not very productive. Diamonds were discovered in Minas Geraes, near the town now called Diamantina, during the first half of the 18th century, the dates given ranging from 1725 to 1746, but the productiveness of the district has greatly decreased. Diamonds have also been found in Bahia, Goyaz and Paraná. Other precious stones found in Brazil are the topaz, ruby aquamarine, tourmaline, chrysoberyl, garnet and amethyst. Among the minerals are silver, platinum, copper, iron, lead, manganese, chromium, quicksilver, bismuth, arsenic and antimony, of which only iron and manganese have been regularly mined. The copper deposits of Minas Geraes are said to be promising. Manganese is mined in Minas Geraes for export. Iron ores have been found in most of the states, and are especially abundant in Minas Geraes. The Ypanema mine and ironworks, near Sorocaba, São Paulo, which belong to the national government, have been in operation since 1810 and small charcoal forges were in operation in colonial times and supplied the mines with a considerable part of the iron needed by them. Many of the richer deposits have never been developed because of a lack of fuel and limestone. Bituminous coal of an inferior quality is mined to a limited extent in Rio Grande do Sul, and another mine has been opened in Santa Catharina. These coal deposits extend from Rio Grande do Sul north into the state of São Paulo. Salt, which does not figure in the list of exports, is produced along the coast between Pernambuco and Cape St Roque. The annual production is about 240,000 tons.

To illustrate the comparative productiveness and relationship of these sources of national wealth and industry, the following official returns of export for the years 1905 and 1906 are arranged in the four general classes previously discussed, the values being in Brazilian gold milreis, worth 2s. 3d. or 54.6 cents to the milreis:—

Agricultural.

1905. Milreis, gold. 1906. Milreis, gold.

Coffee 190,404,576 245,474,525

Cotton 10,290,790 14,726,492

Cacau 9,240,313 12,323,922

Tobacco 7,335,163 8,283,150

Sugar 3,608,476 5,388,596

Bran7 1,490,312 1,128,761

Cottonseed 964,074 1,084,742

Mandioca flour 692,079 789,913

Fruits 606,678 714,332

Castor-oil seeds 214,016 333,250

———— ————

224,846,477 290,247,683

Natural and Forest.

Rubber:

Mangabeira 1,286,672 1,376,014

Maniçoba 7,418,559 7,335,870

Hevea (Pará) 119,434,947 116,229,549

Maté (Paraguay tea) 11,088,108 16,502,881

Brazil nuts 2,064,049 1,190,177

Palm wax (Carnahuba) 1,847,273 3,733,478

Cabinet woods 390,070 318,873

Piassaya fibre 336,668 347,323

Medicinal leaves, roots, resins, &c 191,534 263,137

———— ————

143,331,142 147,297,302

Pastoral and Animal.

Salted hides 7,010,498 9,691,180

Dry hides 5,330,440 7,675,715

Skins 4,117,590 4,639,512

Horse hair 307,505 403,541

Horns 276,172 277,488

Wool 142,414 354,045

Beef extract, &c 81,607 110,925

———— ————

17,266,226 23,152,406

Mineral Products.

Gold, in bars 3,734,469 4,379,160

Manganese ore 2,958,462 1,594,486

Monazite sand 889,231 881,289

Precious stones 633,916 1,480,260

———— ————

8,216,078 8,335,195

Miscellaneous.

Old metals8. 263,506 382,073

Sundry products 2,177,512 2,225,163

———— ————

2,441,018 2,607,236

————— —————

Total, all products 396,827,679 471,639,822

Manufactures.—Before the establishment of the republic very little attention had been given to manufacturing industries beyond what was necessary to prepare certain crude products for market. Sugar and rum were essentially plantation products down to the last ten years of the empire, when central usines using improved machinery and methods were introduced as a means of saving the sugar plantations from ruin. The crude methods of preparing jerked beef were also modified to some extent by better equipped abattoirs and establishments for preparing beef extract, preserved meats, &c. There were also mills for crushing the dried maté leaves, cigar and cigarette factories, small chocolate factories, hat factories, brick and tile yards, potteries, tanneries, saddleries, and many other small industries common to all large communities. Considerable protection was afforded to many of these industries by the customs tariff of that time, but protection did not become an acknowledged national policy until after 1889. After that time the duties on imports were repeatedly and largely increased, both as a means of raising larger revenues and as an encouragement to manufacturing enterprise. Although the protective tariffs thus imposed have resulted in a large increase in manufacturing industries, some of them have been antagonistic to the productive interests of the country, as in the case of weaving mills which use imported yarns. Other industries are carried on entirely with imported materials, and are national only in name. Among these are flour mills, factories for the cutting of wire nails and making hollow ware from sheet iron, and factories for the manufacture of umbrellas, boots and shoes, &c. The greatest progress has been made in the manufacture of cotton fabrics, principally of the plainer and coarser grades used by the common people. There were 155 of these factories in 1895, but in 1905 only 108 were in operation, with 715,000 spindles, and about 37,000 operatives. Nearly one-half of these were weaving mills, using imported yarn. The factories are widely distributed, and some are favoured by state legislation in addition to the national tariff. The largest and best equipped of them are located in the federal states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, though the greater part of the raw cotton used comes from the northern states and pays high freight rates. The manufacture of woollen blankets, cashmeres, flannels, &c., had also undergone noteworthy development and is carried on in fifteen factories, located principally in Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Biscuit-making is represented by a large number of factories, for the most part in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and there are a number of breweries of the most modern type in the same two states. The manufacture of boots and shoes has also received much attention, but the materials used are for the most part imported. Among other manufactures are butter and cheese, canned fruits and vegetables, glass and earthenware, printing and wrapping paper, furniture, matches, hats, clothing, pharmaceutical products, soaps and perfumery, ice, artificial drinks, cigars and cigarettes, fireworks and candles.

Government.—The overthrow of the monarchy by a military revolt in Rio de Janeiro on 15th November 1889, resulted in the creation of a federal republic under the name of United States of Brazil (Estados Unidos do Brazil). The constitution under which the republic is governed was drafted by a constituent assembly convened on the 15th of November 1890, and was adopted on the 24th of February 1891. The supreme powers of the nation are vested in three partially independent branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial—represented by the president and his cabinet, a national congress of two chambers, and a supreme tribunal. The states forming the federation consist of the twenty provinces and municipal district of the empire, but the number may be increased or diminished by the states concerned with the approval of the national congress. The states are self-governed, and have exclusive control of the public lands, mines, industries, and all local affairs. They have the sole right also to impose duties on exports and taxes upon real estate, industries and professions, and transfers of property. Among other things they are charged with the supervision and support of primary education, with the maintenance of order, and with the organization and support of a system of state courts. Both the national and state governments exercise the right to impose stamp and consumption taxes, and the municipalities likewise are permitted to impose licence and consumption taxes. The national government reserves for itself the exclusive right to direct the foreign affairs of the republic, to maintain an army and navy, to impose duties on imports, to regulate foreign commerce, to collect port dues, to issue money and create banks of issue, and to maintain a postal and national telegraph service. It also supervises secondary and superior education, issues patents, and provides federal courts for the trial of cases amenable to federal laws. The national government is forbidden to interfere in the peculiar affairs of the states except to repel foreign invasion, to maintain a republican form of government, to re-establish order at the request of a state, or to enforce federal laws and sentences. The states are forbidden, likewise, to tax federal property, to tax inter-state commerce, to impose duties of their own on foreign imports, or to resist the execution of judicial sentences originating in other states. The separation of church and state is provided for by the constitution, and both the nation and the states are forbidden to establish, subsidize or restrict the exercise of any religious worship. Foreigners are eligible to Brazilian citizenship, and the right of suffrage is conferred upon all male citizens over twenty-one years of age, except beggars, illiterates, the rank and file of the armed forces, members of monastic orders, &c., bound by private vows, and all unregistered citizens.

The executive power of the nation is vested in a president, elected for a term of four years by a direct vote of the electors. He must be a native Brazilian over thirty-five years of age, in the full enjoyment of his political rights, and is ineligible for the next succeeding term. A vice-president is elected at the same time and under the same conditions, who is president of the senate ex officio, and succeeds to the presidency in case the office becomes vacant during the last two years of the presidential term. Should the vacancy occur during the first two years of the term, a new election must be held. The president receives a salary of 120,000 milreis and the vice-president of 36,000 milreis. The president is advised and assisted by a cabinet of six ministers, viz. foreign affairs; finance; agriculture, industry and commerce;9 communications (Viacao) and public works;9 war; and marine. The ministers are appointed and removed by the president, take no part in the sessions of congress, and are responsible to the president alone for their advisory acts. The president sanctions and promulgates, or vetoes, or ignores the laws, and resolutions voted by congress, and issues decrees and regulations for their execution. His veto may be over-ridden by a two-thirds vote in each chamber, and permitting ten days to pass without signing an act is considered as acquiescence and it is promulgated by congress. The president is charged with the duties (among others) of commanding the armed forces of the republic, appointing the prefect of the national capital, designating members of the supreme tribunal and diplomatic representatives for the approval of the senate, to negotiate treaties, &c., ad referendum to congress, and maintain relations with foreign powers, to declare war in case of invasion and to declare martial law in case of grave internal disorder, and to advise congress at the opening of the annual session of the progress and state of public affairs. He may be impeached before the senate for his official acts and suspended from office, or tried by the supreme tribunal for criminal offences.

The legislative power is vested in a national congress of two chambers, elected by direct suffrage, and convened on the 3rd of May each year. The regular annual sessions are of four months’ duration, but they may be extended to complete necessary legislation. The senate consists of sixty-three members (three from each state and the federal district) elected for a period of nine years, one-third of each delegation being renewed every three years. The senators must be not less than thirty-five years of age, and are exempt from all legal processes not previously authorized by the senate during their term of office, except in cases of arrest in flagrante delicto for a capital crime. The chamber of deputies contains 212 members, the membership being distributed among the states on a basis of one for each 70,000 of population, but with a minimum representation of four for each state. The deputies are elected by direct suffrage for the legislative session of three years, and have the same immunities from legal process as the senators. The chamber has the right of initiative in the organization of the annual budget laws and those relative to the numerical strength of the army and navy. The members of both houses receive a per diem subsidy.

The judicial system of the republic consists of a supreme federal tribunal of fifteen judges in the national capital, and a district tribunal in the capital of each state, which forms a federal judicial district. The judges are appointed for life and can be removed only by judicial sentence and impeachment. One member of the supreme tribunal holds the position of solicitor-general of the republic. The judges and solicitor-general are appointed by the president with the approval of the senate, but the tribunal chooses its own presiding officers and secretaries and, nominally, is independent of executive control. The supreme tribunal has original and appellate jurisdiction, but its power to pass on the constitutionality of federal laws and executive acts seems to fall short of that of the United States Supreme Court. It has authority, however, to review the acts and laws of state governments and to decide upon their constitutionality. The district federal court has but one judge (juiz de secção) and a solicitor of the republic, and has original jurisdiction in federal causes. Each state has its own local laws and courts, independent of federal control, but subject to the review of the supreme tribunal, and with rights of appeal to that tribunal in specified cases. The federal district, which has a municipal council instead of a legislature, has a system of municipal and higher courts peculiar to itself. Limited judicial powers are exercised by chiefs of police, and by certain department commissions, or boards, of an executive character. The members of the army and navy are governed by special laws, enjoy immunities from civil process, and are subject to the jurisdiction of military courts. The civil code of the republic is based upon Roman law.

Army.—The nominal strength of the army in 1906 was 29,489, including the officers of the general and subordinate staffs and the officers and cadets of the military schools. This total represents the nominal strength of the army in times of peace. Its actual strength, however, is about 15,000 men, some of the regimental and battalion organizations being skeletons. Its organization consists of 40 battalions of infantry with one transport and one depot company, 14 regiments of cavalry of 4 squadrons each, 6 regiments of field artillery with 24 batteries and 6 battalions of heavy artillery with 24 batteries, and two battalions of engineers. Efforts to organize a national guard have been unsuccessful, although officers have been appointed and the organization perfected, on paper. The police force, however, is organized on a military footing and armed, and is available for service in case of necessity. It is credited with 20,000 men. According to law military service is obligatory, but the government has been unable to enforce it. Impressment is commonly employed to fill the ranks, and in cases of emergency the prison population is drawn upon for recruits. The president is nominally commander-in-chief of the army, but the actual command is vested in a general staff in the national capital, and in the general commanding each of the seven military districts into which the republic is divided. The most important of these districts is that of Rio Grande do Sul, where a force of 11,226 men is stationed. The principal war arsenal is in Rio de Janeiro. The rifle used by the infantry is a modified Mauser of the German 1888 model. Military instruction is given at the Eschola Militar of Rio de Janeiro. The military organization is provided with an elaborate code and systems of military courts, which culminate in a supreme military tribunal composed of 15 judges holding office for life, of which 8 are general army officers, 4 general naval officers and 3 civil judges.

Navy.—The naval strength of the republic consisted in 1906 of a collection of armoured and wooden vessels of various ages and types of construction, of which three armoured vessels (including the two designed for coast defence), four protected cruisers, five destroyers and torpedo-cruisers, and half a dozen torpedo boats represented what may be termed the effective fighting force. The loss of the armoured turret ship “Aquidaban” by a magazine explosion in the bay of Jacarepagua, near Rio de Janeiro, in 1905, had left Brazil with but one fighting vessel (the “Reachuelo”) of any importance. Many of the wooden and iron vessels listed in the Naval Annual, 1906, though obsolete and of no value whatever as fighting machines, are used for river and harbour service, and in the suppression of trifling insurrections. The Annual describes 21 vessels of various types, and mentions 23 small gunboats used for river and harbour service. Besides these there are a number of practice boats (small school-ships), transports, dispatch boats and launches. A considerable part of the armament is old, but the more modern vessels are armed with Armstrong rifled guns. The naval programme of the republic for 1905 provided for the prompt construction of 3 battleships of the largest displacement, 3 armoured cruisers, 6 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats and 3 submarine boats; and by 1909 the reorganization of the navy was far advanced. The principal naval arsenal is located at Rio de Janeiro. The government possesses dry docks at Rio de Janeiro. The naval school, which has always enjoyed a high reputation among Brazilians, is situated on the island of Enxadas in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. There are smaller arsenals at Pará, Pernambuco, São Salvador and Ladario (Matto Grosso) and a shipbuilding yard of considerable importance at the Rio de Janeiro arsenal.

Education.—Education is in a backward condition, and it is estimated that 80% of the population can neither read nor write. The lowest rate of illiteracy is to be found in the southern half of the republic. Public instruction, is, by constitutional provision, under secular control, but religious denominations are permitted to have their own schools. Primary instruction is free but not compulsory, and the schools are supported and supervised by the states. An incomplete return in 1891 gave 8793 schools and 376,399 pupils. Secondary and higher education are under both federal and state control, the former being represented by lyceums in the state capitals, and by such institutions as the Gymnasio Nacional (formerly Collegio Dom Pedro II.) in Rio de Janeiro. Many of the states also maintain normal schools of an inferior type, that of São Paulo being the best and most modern of the number. Higher, or superior, instruction is confined almost exclusively to professional schools— the medical schools of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, the law schools of São Paulo and Pernambuco, the polytechnic of Rio de Janeiro, and the school of mines of Ouro Preto. There are many private schools in all the large cities, from the primary schools maintained by the church and various corporations and religious associations to schools of secondary and collegiate grades, such as the Protestant mission schools of Petropolis, Piracicaba, Juiz de Fóra, São Paulo and Paraná, the Lyceu de Artes e Ofiicios (night school) of Rio de Janeiro, and the Mackenzie College of São Paulo. Perhaps the best educational work in Brazil is done in these private schools. In addition to these there are a number of seminaries for the education of priests, where special attention is given to the classics and belles-lettres.

Religion.—The revolution of 1889 and the constitution adopted in 1891 not only effected a radical change in the form of government, but also brought about the separation of church and state. Before that time the Roman Catholic Church had been recognized and supported by the state. Not only are the national and state governments forbidden by the constitution to establish or subsidize religious worship, but its freedom is guaranteed by a prohibition against placing obstructions upon its exercise. The relations of the state with the disestablished church since 1889 have been somewhat anomalous, the government having decided to continue during their lives the stipends of the church functionaries at the time of disestablishment. The census of 1890 divided the population into 14,179,615 Roman Catholics, 143,743 Protestants, 3300 of all other faiths, 7257 of no religious profession, and 600,000 unchristianized Indians. The increase of population through immigration is overwhelmingly Catholic, and the nation must, therefore, continue Roman Catholic whether the church is subsidized by the state or not. The moral character of churchmen in Brazil has been severely criticized by many observers, and the ease with which disestablishment was effected is probably largely due to their failings. The church had exercised a preponderating influence in all matters relating to education and the social life of the people, and it was felt that no sweeping reforms could be secured until its domination had been broken. The immediate results of disestablishment were civil marriage, the civil registry of births and deaths, and the secularization of cemeteries; but the church retains its influence over all loyal churchmen through the confessional, the last rites of the church, and their sentiment against the profanation of holy ground. Formerly Brazil constituted an ecclesiastical province under the metropolitan jurisdiction of an archbishop residing at Bahia, with 11 suffragan bishops, 12 vicars-general and about 2000 curates. In 1892 the diocese of Rio de Janeiro was made an archbishopric, and four new dioceses were created. Three more have been added since, making twenty dioceses in all. In 1905 the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro was made a cardinal. The church has eleven seminaries for the education of priests, and maintains a large number of private schools, especially for girls, which are patronized by the better classes. The church likewise exercises a far-reaching influence over the people through the beneficent work of its lay orders, and through the hospitals and asylums under its control in every part of the country. A Misericordia hospital is to be found in almost every town of importance, and recolhimentos for orphan girls in all the large cities. In no country have these charities received more generous support than in Brazil. The Protestant contingent consists of a number of small congregations scattered throughout the country, a few Portuguese Protestants from the Azores, a part of the German colonists settled in the central and southern states, and a large percentage of the North Europeans and Americans temporarily resident in Brazil. The Positivists are few in number, but their congregations are made up of educated and influential people.

Art, Science and Literature.—The Brazilian people have the natural taste for art, music and literature so common among the Latin nations of the Old World. The emperor Dom Pedro II. did much to encourage these pursuits, and many promising young men received their education in Europe at his personal expense. Still earlier in the century (1815) the regent Dom John VI. brought out a number of French artists to educate his subjects in the fine arts, and the Escola Real de Sciencias, Artes e Officios was founded in the following year. From this beginning resulted the Academia de Bellas Artes of a later date, to which was added a conservatory of music in 1841. The institution is now called the Escola Nacional de Bellas Artes. Free instruction in the fine arts has been given in this school. The higher results of artistic training, however, are less marked than a widespread dilettantism. The Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes (1839-1896) is the best known of those who have adopted music as a profession, his opera Il Guarani having been produced at most of the European capitals. The most prominent among Brazilian painters is Pedro Americo, and in sculpture Rodolpho Bernardelli has done good work. In science Brazil has accomplished very little, although many eminent foreign naturalists have spent years of study within her borders. João Barbosa Rodrigues has done some good work in botany, especially in the study of the palms of the Amazon, and João Baptista de Lacerda has made important biological investigations at the national museum of Rio de Janeiro. There are several scientific societies and institutions in the country, but they rarely undertake original work. The most active are the geographical societies, but very little has been done in the direction of scientific exploration. Some interesting results have been obtained from the boundary surveys, from Dr E. Cruls’s exploration of a section of the Goyaz plateau in 1892 in search of a site for the future capital of the republic, and from some of the river and railway surveys. In 1875 a geological commission was organized under the direction of Professor Charles Frederick Hartt, but it was disbanded two years later. In 1906 Congress resolved to undertake a national geological survey under the direction of Mr Orville A. Derby, one of Professor Hartt’s assistants. The coal resources of the southern states were investigated in 1904, under the auspices of the national government, by Dr J.C. White, of the U.S. Geological Survey, who found strata of fairly good coal at depths of 100 to 200 ft. extending from Rio Grande do Sul north to São Paulo. The more important contributions to our present knowledge of Brazil, however, have been obtained through the labours of foreign naturalists. Beginning with the German mineralogist W.L. von Eschwege, who spent nineteen years in Brazil (1809-1828), the list includes A. de Saint-Hilaire (1816-1820 and 1830), J.B. von Spix and C.F. von Martins (1817-1820), Prince Max zu Neuwied (1815-1817), P.W. Lund (1827-1830, and 1830 to 1880, the year of his death), George Gardner (1836-1841), A.R. Wallace (1848-1852), H.W. Bates (1848-1859), Hermann Burmeister (1850-1852), Louis Agassiz (1865-1866), Charles Frederick Hartt (1865-1866, 1872 and 1875-1878) and Karl von den Steinen (1884-1885 and 1887-1888). These explorations cover every branch of natural science and resulted in publications of inestimable scientific value. There should also be mentioned the monumental work of C.F.P. von Martius on the Flora Braziliensis, and the explorations of Agassiz and Lund. Among other scientists of a later date who have published important works on Brazil are the American geologists O.A. Derby and J.C. Branner, the Swiss naturalist E.A. Goeldi, the German botanist J. Huber, the German ethnologist H. von Ihring, and’the German geographer Fried. Katzer. The Instituto Historico e Geographico Brazileiro, though devoted chiefly to historical research, has rendered noteworthy service in its encouragement of geographical exploration and by its publication of various scientific memoirs. The Museu Nacional at Rio de Janeiro, which has occupied the imperial palace of São Christovão since the overthrow of the monarchy, contains large collections of much scientific value, but defective organization and apathetic direction have rendered them of comparatively slight service. The Observatorio Nacional at Rio de Janeiro is another prominent public institution. The botanical gardens of Brazil are developing into permanent exhibitions of the flora of the regions in which they are located. That of Rio de Janeiro is widely celebrated for its avenues of royal palms, but it has also rendered an important service to the country in the dissemination of exotic plants.

Brazilian literature has been seriously prejudiced by partisan politics and dilettantism. The colonial period was one of strict repression, the intellectual life of the people being jealously supervised by the church to protect itself against heresy, and their progress being restricted by the Portuguese crown to protect its monopoly of the natural resources of the country. The arrival of Dom John VI. in 1808 broke down some of these restrictions, and the first year of his residence in Rio de Janeiro saw the establishment of the first printing press in Brazil and the publication of an official gazette. There was no freedom of the press, however, until 1821, when the abolition of the censorship and the constitutional struggle in Portugal gave rise to a political discussion that marked the opening of a new era in the development of the nation, and aroused an intellectual activity that has been highly productive in journalistic and polemical writings. In no country, perhaps, has the press exercised a more direct and powerful influence upon government than in Brazil, and in no other country can there be found so high a percentage of journalists in official life. Some of the political writers have played an important part in moulding public opinion on certain questions, as in the case of A.C. Tavares Bastos, whose Cartas do Solitario were highly instrumental in causing the Amazon to be thrown open to the world’s commerce and also in preparing the way for the abolition of slavery; and in that of Joaquim Saldanha Marinho, whose discussions in 1874-1876 of the relations between church and state prepared the way for their separation. The personal element is conspicuous in the Brazilian journalism, and for a considerable period of its history libellous attacks on persons, signed by professional sponsors, popularly called testas de ferro (iron heads), were admitted at so much a line in the best newspapers.

The singular adaptability of the Portuguese language to poetical expression, coupled with the imaginative temperament of the people, has led to an unusual production and appreciation of poetry. The percentage of educated men who have written little volumes of lyrics is surprisingly large, and this may be accounted for by the old Portuguese custom of reciting poetry with musical accompaniment. The most popular of the Brazilian poets are Thomaz Antonio Gonzaga, Antonio Gonçalves Dias and Bernardo Guimarães. Among the dramatists and novelists may be mentioned Joaquim Manoel de Macedo, José Martiniano de Alencar, Bernardo Guimarães, A. de Escrangnolle Taunay and J.M. Machado de Assis. José M. de Alencar is usually described as the greatest of Brazilian novelists. The most popular of his romances are Iracema and O Guarany. In historical literature Brazil has produced one writer of high standing—Francisco Adolpho Varnhagen (Visconde de Porto Seguro), whose Historia Geral do Brazil is a standard authority on that subject. The two English authorities, Robert Southey’s History of Brazil, covering the colonial period, and John Armitage’s History of Brazil, covering the period between the arrival of the Braganza family (1808) and the abdication of Dom Pedro I. (1831), have been translated into Portuguese. Another Brazilian historian of recognized merit is João Manoel Pereira da Silva, whose historical writings cover the first years of the empire, from its foundation to 1840. Among the later writers João Capistrano de Abren has produced some short historical studies of great merit. In the field of philosophic speculation, Auguste Comte has had many disciples in Brazil.

Finance.—The national revenue is derived largely from the duties on imports, the duties on exports having been surrendered to the states when the republic was organized. Other sources of revenue are stamp taxes on business transactions, domestic consumption taxes (usually payable in stamps) on manufactured tobaccos, beverages, boots and shoes, textiles, matches, salt, preserved foods, hats, pharmaceutical preparations, perfumeries, candles, vinegar, walking sticks and playing cards, and taxes on lotteries, passenger tickets, salaries and dividends of joint-stock companies. Formerly import duties were payable in currency, but in 1899 it was decided to collect 10% of them in gold to provide the government with specie for its foreign remittances. The revenues and expenditures have since then been calculated in gold and currency together, to the complete mystification of the average citizen, and the gold percentage of the duties on imports has been increased to 35 and 50% (in 1907), the higher rate to apply to specified articles and rule when exchange on London is above 14 pence per milreis, and the lower when it is below. The service of the national debt absorbs a very large part of the expenditure, about 45% of the estimates for 1907 being assigned to the department of finance. The department of industry, communications and public works takes the next highest proportion, but about half its expenditures are met by special taxes, as in the case of port works and railway inspection, and by the revenues of the state railways, telegraph lines and post office. The depreciation and unstable character of the paper currency render it difficult to give a clear statement of receipts and expenditures for a term of years, the sterling equivalents often showing a decrease, through a fall in the value of the milreis, where there has been an actual increase in currency returns. This was most noticeable between 1889 and 1898, when exchange, which represents the value of the milreis, fell from a maximum of 27¾ pence (27d. being the par value of the milreis) to a minimum of 55⁄8 pence. Since 1898 there has been an upward movement of exchange, the average rate for 1905 having been very nearly 16 pence. In this period the increase in the sterling equivalents would be proportionately greater than that of the currency values. The gold and currency receipts and expenditures for the six years 1900 to 1905, inclusive, according to official returns, were as follows:—

Year. Average Rate of Exchange. Revenue. Expenditure.

Pence. Gold Milreis. Currency Milreis. Gold Milreis. Currency Milreis.

1900 9.50 49,955,522 263,687,253 41,892,150 372,753,986

1901 11.38 44,041,302 239,284,702 40,493,241 261,629,212

1902 11.97 42,904,844 266,584,912 34,574,643 236,458,862

1903 12 45,121,844 327,370,063 48,324,642 291,198,960

1904 12.28 50,566,572 342,782,191 48,476,413 352,292,147

1905 15.89 64,207,004 243,355,396 51,606,272 265,699,281

Reducing gold to a currency basis at 15d. per milreis (the official valuation adopted in 1906), the budget for 1907 provided for a revenue of 353,590,593 milreis and an expenditure of 409,482,284 milreis, showing a deficit of 55,891,691 milreis. These deficits were common enough under the monarchy, but they have become still more prominent under the republic. According to the “Retrospecto Commercial” for 1906 of the Jornal do Commercio (Rio de Janeiro, March 5, 1907), the aggregate deficits for the eleven years 1891 to 1904 were 692,000,000 milreis, or, say, £43,250,000.

The natural result of such a regime is increasing indebtedness. In 1888, a year before the republic was proclaimed, the internal and external national debts amounted to £74,000,000 sterling, with the currency at par. Ten years later, when the currency had fallen to 55⁄8 pence per milreis, the government found itself unable to meet the interest obligations on its debt and railway guarantees, and an arrangement was made with its creditors in London for the issue of a 5% funding loan to an amount not to exceed £10,000,000, and the suspension of all amortization for thirteen years. On the other hand the government agreed to withdraw currency, which had reached a total of 788,364,614 ½-milreis, pari passu with the issue of the loan, the milreis being computed at 18 pence. The purpose of this condition was in order to improve the value of the paper milreis in order to increase the specie value of the revenues. The scheme came into operation in June 1898, and not only was a complete suspension of payments avoided but the financial situation was greatly improved. The government even withdrew more of its currency issues than required by the agreement, and the value of the milreis steadily improved. At the same time the government carried out the forced conversion of the national loans into lower interest-bearing issues, which greatly reduced the annual interest charges. These measures would have put the financial affairs of the nation on a solid footing in a very few years had the government been able to keep its expenditure within its income. The naval revolt of 1893-1894, however, had aroused the spirit of militarism in the ruling classes, and the effort to perfect the organization and equipment of the army, strengthen the fortifications of Rio de Janeiro, and increase the navy, have kept expenditures in excess of the revenues. The purchase of guaranteed railways owned by foreign companies likewise added largely to the bonded indebtedness, though the onus was in existence in another form. The result of these measures was a large addition to the public debt, which on 31st December 1906 was approximately as follows (apolices being the name given to bonds inscribed to the holder):—

External debt: £ s. d.

Loans of 1883, 1888 and 1889. 26,478,500

Oestede Minas R.R. loan 3,388,100

Loan of 1898 7,331,600

Funding loan of 1898 8,613,717 9 9

Railway rescission loan of 1901 15,467,015 16 1

Port works loan of 1903 8,500,000

———————

£69,778,933 5 10

==============

Internal debt, funded: Milreis

5 % apolices, Law of 1827 483,546,600

4½% ” ” 1879 20,548,000

6 % ” ” 1897 37,082,000

5 % ” ” 1903 17,300,000

—————

Total, funded 558,476,600

(at 15d. £34,904,787) =========

Internal debt, not funded: Milreis

Paper money 664,792,960

Savings bank and other deposits:

In paper 246,812,407

In gold, 19,053,861 r (say) 34,296,950

Floating indebtedness (a/cs current, bills, &c.) ?

—————

Total, not funded, approx. 945,902,317

(at 15d. £59,118,895 stg.) =========

Approximate total indebtedness £163,802,675

In addition to these, the government was still responsible for interest guarantees on fourteen railways, or sections of existing lines, with an aggregate capital of about £4,900,000 held in Europe and 12,055,440 milreis held in Brazil, on which the national treasury paid in interest £191,324 and 1,398,493 milreis.

The paper currency of Brazil consists of both treasury issues and bank-notes, the latter issued under government supervision. Its fluctuations in value have been not only a serious inconvenience in commercial transactions, but also the cause of heavy loss to the people. Under the provisions of the funding loan of 1898 a scheme for the withdrawal of the paper money was carried into effect, and by the end of December 1906 the amount in circulation had been reduced from 788,364,614 ½-milreis (the outstanding circulation 31st August 1898) to 664,792,960 ½-milreis. Two funds were created for the redemption and guarantee of paper issues, the latter receiving 5% of the import duties payable in gold. Up to 1906 the Caixa da Amortisação (redemption bureau), which has charge of the service of the internal funded debt, superintended the redemption of the currency, but in that year (December 6, 1906) a Caixa de Conversão (conversion bureau) was created for this special service. It is modelled after the Argentine Conversion office, and is authorized to issue notes to bearer against deposits of gold at the rate of 15 pence per milreis although exchange was above 17d. when the scheme was proposed. The notes are to be redeemable in gold at sight, the Caixa de Conversão to keep the gold paid in for that express purpose. The coffee producers of São Paulo and other states found that the appreciation in value of the milreis was reducing their profits, and they advocated this measure (at first with a valuation of 12d.) to check the upward movement in exchange. Metallic money is limited to nickel and bronze coins, but in 1906 the government was authorized to purchase bar silver for the coinage of pieces of the denomination of two milreis, one milreis and 500 reis (½-milreis). Gold is the nominal standard of value, the monetary unit being the gold milreis worth 2s. 2½d. at par. The 10-milreis gold piece weighs 8.9648 grammes, 916 fine, and contains 8.2178 grammes of pure gold. There is no gold in circulation, however, and gold duties are paid with gold cheques purchased at certain banks with paper money. The banking facilities of the republic have undergone many changes under the new regime. A fruitful cause of disaster has been the practice of issuing agricultural and industrial loans under government authorization. Commercial business at the principal ports is largely transacted through foreign banks, of which there are a large number.

In addition to the indebtedness of the national government, the individual states have also incurred funded debts of their own. The aggregate of these debts in 1904 was £20,199,440, and the several loans made during the next two years, including those of the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Bahia and Manáos, add fully two and a half millions more to the total.

(A. J. L.)

History

Brazil was discovered in February 1499 (o.s.) by Vicente Yañez Pinzon, a companion of Columbus. He descried the land near Cape St Augustine, and sailed along the coast as far as the river Amazon, whence he proceeded to the The Portuguese in Brazil. mouth of the Orinoco. He made no settlement, but took possession of the country in the name of the Spanish government, and carried home, as specimens of its natural productions, some drugs, gems and Brazil-wood. Next year the Portuguese commander, Pedro Alvares Cabral, appointed by his monarch to follow the course of Vasco da Gama in the East, was driven by adverse winds so far from his track, that he reached the Brazilian coast, April 24, and anchored in Porto Seguro (16° S. lat.) on Good Friday. On Easter day an altar was erected, mass celebrated in presence of the natives, the country declared an apanage of Portugal, and a stone cross erected in commemoration of the event. Cabral despatched a small vessel to Lisbon to announce his discovery, and, without forming any settlement, proceeded to India on the 3rd of May. On the arrival of the news in Portugal, Emanuel invited Amerigo Vespucci to enter his service, and despatched him with three vessels to explore the country. The navigator’s first voyage was unsuccessful; but, according to his own account, in a second he discovered a safe port, to which he gave the name of All-Saints and where he erected a small fort. Vespucci’s narrative is, however, suspected of being apocryphal (see Vespucci, Amerigo).

The poor and barbarous tribes of Brazil, and their country, the mineral riches of which were not immediately discovered, offered but few attractions to a government into the coffers of which the wealth of India and Africa was flowing. For nearly thirty years the kings of Portugal paid no further attention to their newly-acquired territory than what consisted, in combating the attempts of the Spaniards to occupy it, and dispersing the private adventurers from France who sought its shores for the purposes of commerce. The colonization of Brazil was prosecuted, however, by subjects of the Portuguese monarchy, who traded thither chiefly for Brazil-wood. The government also sought to make criminals of some use to the state, by placing them in a situation where they could do little harm to society, and might help to uphold the dominion of their nation.

The first attempt on the part of a Portuguese monarch to introduce an organized government into his dominions was made by John III. He adopted a plan which had been found to succeed well in Madeira and the Azores,— First organization in Brazil. dividing the country into hereditary captaincies, and granting them to such persons as were willing to undertake their settlement, with unlimited powers of jurisdiction, both civil and criminal. Each captaincy extended along fifty leagues of coast. The boundaries in the interior were undefined. The first settlement made under this new system was that of São Vicente Piratininga, in the present province of São Paulo. Martim Affonso de Sousa, having obtained a grant, fitted out a considerable armament and proceeded to explore the country in person. He began to survey the coast about Rio de Janeiro, to which he gave that name, because he discovered it on the 1st of January 1531. He proceeded south as far as La Plata, naming the places he surveyed on the way from the days on which the respective discoveries were made. He fixed upon an island in 24½° S. lat., called by the natives Guaibe, for his settlement. The Goagnazes, or prevailing tribe of Indians in that neighbourhood, as soon as they discovered the intentions of the new-comers to fix themselves permanently there, collected for the purpose of expelling them. Fortunately, however, a shipwrecked Portuguese, who had lived many years under the protection of the principal chief, was successful in concluding a treaty of perpetual alliance between his countrymen and the natives. Finding the spot chosen for the new town inconvenient, the colonists removed to the adjoining island of São Vicente, from which the captaincy derived its name. Cattle and the sugar-cane were at an early period introduced from Madeira, and here the other captaincies supplied themselves with both.

Pero Lopes de Sousa received the grant of a captaincy, and set sail from Portugal at the same time as his brother, the founder of São Vicente. He chose to have his fifty leagues in two allotments. That to which he gave the name of Santo Amaro adjoined São Vicente, the two towns being only three leagues asunder. The other division lay much nearer to the line between Parahyba and Pernambuco. He experienced considerable difficulty in founding this second colony, from the strenuous opposition of a neighbouring tribe, the Petiguares; at length he succeeded in clearing his lands of them, but not long afterwards he perished by shipwreck.

Rio de Janeiro was not settled till a later period; and for a considerable time the nearest captaincy to Santo Amaro, sailing along the coast northwards, was that of Espirito Santo. It was founded by Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, who having acquired a large fortune in India, sank it in this scheme of colonization. He carried with him no less than sixty fidalgos. They named their town by anticipation, Our Lady of the Victory (Victoria); but it cost them some hard fighting with the Goagnazes to justify the title.

Pedro de Campo Tourinho, a nobleman and excellent navigator, received a grant of the adjoining captaincy of Porto Seguro. This, it will be remembered, is the spot where Cabral first took possession of Brazil. The Tupinoquins at first offered some opposition; but having made peace, they observed it faithfully, notwithstanding that the oppression of the Portuguese obliged them to forsake the country. Sugar-works were established, and considerable quantities of the produce exported to the mother country.

Jorge de Figueiredo, Escrivam da Fazenda, was the first donatory of the captaincy Ilhéos, 140 m. south of Bahia. His office preventing him from taking possession in person, he deputed the task to Francisco Romeiro, a Castilian. The Tupinoquins, the most tractable of the Brazilian tribes, made peace with the settlers, and the colony was founded without a struggle.

The coast from the Rio São Francisco to Bahia was granted to Francisco Pereira Coutinho; the bay itself, with all its creeks, was afterwards added to the grant. When Coutinho formed his establishment, where Villa Velha now stands, he found a noble Portuguese living in the neighbourhood who, having been shipwrecked, had, by means of his fire-arms, raised himself to the rank of chief among the natives. He was surrounded by a patriarchal establishment of wives and children; and to him most of the distinguished families of Bahia still trace their lineage. The regard entertained by the natives for Caramuru (signifying man of fire) induced them to extend a hospitable welcome to his countrymen, and for a time everything went on well. Coutinho had, however, learned in India to be an oppressor, and the Tupinambas were the fiercest and most powerful of the native tribes. The Portuguese were obliged to abandon their settlement; but several of them returned at a later period, with Caramuru, and thus a European community was established in the district.

Some time before the period at which these captaincies were established, a factory had been planted at Pernambuco. A ship from Marseilles took it, and left seventy men in it as a garrison; but she was captured on her return, and carried into Lisbon, and immediate measures were taken for reoccupying the place. The captaincy of Pernambuco was granted to Don Duarte Coelho Pereira as the reward of his services in India. It extended along the coast from the Rio São Francisco, northward to the Rio de Juraza. Duarte sailed with his wife and children, and many of his kinsmen, to take possession, of his new colony, and landed in the port of Pernambuco. To the town which was there founded he gave the name of Olinda. The Cabetes, who possessed the soil, were fierce and pertinacious; and, assisted by the French, who traded to that coast, Coelho had to gain by inches what was granted him by leagues. The Portuguese managed, however, to beat off their enemies; and, having entered into an alliance with the Tobayanes, followed up their success.

Attempts were made about this time to establish two other captaincies, but without success. Pedro de Goes obtained a grant of the captaincy of Parahyba between those of São Vicente and Espirito Santo; but his means were too feeble to enable him to make head against the aborigines, and the colony was broken up after a painful struggle of seven years. João de Barros, the historian, obtained the captaincy of Maranhão. For the sake of increasing his capital, he divided his grant with Fernão Alvares de Andrade and Aires da Cunha. They projected a scheme of conquest and colonization upon a large scale. Nine hundred men, of whom one hundred and thirteen were horsemen, embarked in ten ships under the command of Aires da Cunha. But the vessels were wrecked upon some shoals about one hundred leagues to the south of Maranhão; the few survivors, after suffering immense hardships, escaped to the nearest settlements, and the undertaking was abandoned.

By these adventures the whole line of Brazilian coast, from the mouth of La Plata to the mouth of the Amazon, had become studded at intervals with Portuguese settlements, in all of which law and justice were administered, however inadequately. It is worthy of observation, that Brazil was the first colony founded in America upon an agricultural principle, for until then the precious metals were the exclusive attraction. Sufficient capital was attracted between the year 1531 (in which De Sousa founded the first captaincy) and the year 1548 to render these colonies an object of importance to the mother country. Their organization, however, in regard to their means of defence against both external aggression and internal violence, was extremely defective. Their territories were surrounded and partly occupied by large tribes of savages. Behind them the Spaniards, who had an establishment at Asuncion, had penetrated almost to the sources of the waters of Paraguay, and had succeeded in establishing communication with Peru. Orellana, on the other hand, setting out from Peru, had crossed the mountains and sailed down the Amazon. Nor had the French abandoned their hopes of effecting an establishment on the coast.

The obvious remedy for these evils was to concentrate the executive power, to render the petty chiefs amenable to one tribunal, and to confide the management of the defensive force to one hand. In order to this the powers of the several captains were revoked, whilst their property in their grants was reserved to them. A governor-general was appointed, with full powers, civil and criminal. The judicial and financial functions in each province were vested in the Ouvidor, whose authority in the college of finance was second only to that of the governor. Every colonist was enrolled either in the Milicias or Ordenanzas. The former were obliged to serve beyond the boundaries of the province, the latter only at home. The chief cities received municipal constitutions, as in Portugal. Thome de Sousa was the first person nominated to the important post of governor-general. He was instructed to build a strong city in Bahia and to establish there the seat of his government. In pursuance of his commission he arrived at Bahia in April 1549, with a fleet of six vessels, on board of which were three hundred and twenty persons in the king’s pay, four hundred convicts and about three hundred free colonists. Care had been taken for the spiritual wants of the provinces by associating six Jesuits with the expedition.

Old Caramuru, who still survived, rendered the governor essential service by gaining for his countrymen the goodwill of the natives. The new city, to which the name of São Salvador was given, was established on the heights above the Bay of All Saints (Todos os Santos), from which its later name of Bahia is taken. Within four months one hundred houses were built, and surrounded by a mud wall. Sugar plantations were laid out in the vicinity. During the four years of Sousa’s government there were sent out at different times supplies of all kinds. Female orphans of noble families were given in marriage to the officers, and portioned from the royal estates, and orphan boys were sent to be educated by the Jesuits. The capital rose rapidly in importance, and the captaincies learned to regard it as a common head and centre of wealth. Meanwhile the Jesuits undertook the moral and religious culture of the natives, and First Jesuit missions. of the scarcely less savage colonists. Strong opposition was at first experienced from the gross ignorance of the Indians, and the depravity of the Portuguese, fostered by the licentious encouragement of some abandoned priests who had found their way to Brazil. Over these persons the Jesuits had no authority; and it was not until the arrival of the first bishop of Brazil in 1552, that anything like an efficient check was imposed upon them. Next year Sousa was succeeded by Duarte da Costa, who brought with him a reinforcement of Jesuits, at the head of whom was Luis de Gran, appointed, with Nobrega the chief of the first mission, joint provincial of Brazil.

Nobrega’s first act was one which has exercised the most beneficial influence over the social system of Brazil, namely, the establishment of a college on the then unreclaimed plains of Piratininga. It was named São Paulo, and has been at once the source whence knowledge and civilization have been diffused through Brazil, and the nucleus of a colony of its manliest and hardiest citizens, which sent out successive swarms of hardy adventurers to people the interior. The good intentions of the Jesuits were in part frustrated by the opposition of Costa the governor; and it was not until 1558, when Mem de Sa was sent out to supersede him, that their projects were allowed free scope.

Rio de Janeiro was first occupied by French settlers. Nicholas Durand de Villegagnon, a bold and skilful seaman, having visited Brazil, saw at once the advantages which might accrue his country from a settlement there. In order to Settlement of Rio de Janeiro. secure the interest of Coligny, he gave out that his projected colony was intended to serve as a place of refuge for the persecuted Huguenots. Under the patronage of that admiral, he arrived at Rio de Janeiro in 1558 with a train of numerous and respectable colonists. As soon, however, as he thought his power secure, he threw off the mask, and began to harass and oppress the Huguenots by every means he could devise. Many of them were forced by his tyranny to return to France; and ten thousand Protestants, ready to embark for the new colony, were deterred by their representations. Villegagnon, finding his force much diminished in consequence of his treachery, sailed for France in quest of recruits; and during his absence the Portuguese governor, by order of his court, attacked and dispersed the settlement. For some years the French kept up a kind of bush warfare; but in 1567 the Portuguese succeeded in establishing a settlement at Rio.

Mem de Sa continued to hold the reins of government in Brazil upon terms of the best understanding with the clergy, and to the great advantage of the colonies, for fourteen years. On the expiration of his power, which was nearly contemporary with that of his life, an attempt was made to divide Brazil into two governments; but this having failed, the territory was reunited in 1578, the year in which Diego Laurenço da Veiga was appointed governor. At this time the colonies, although not yet independent of supplies from the mother country, were in a flourishing condition; but the usurpation of the crown of Portugal by Philip II. changed the aspect of affairs. Brazil, believed to be inferior to the Spanish possessions in mines, was consequently abandoned in comparative neglect for the period intervening between 1578 and 1640, during which it continued an apanage of Spain.

No sooner had Brazil passed under the Spanish crown, than English adventurers directed their hostile enterprises against its shores. In 1586 Witherington plundered Bahia; in 1591 Cavendish made an abortive attack on Santos; English and French aggressions. in 1595 Lancaster attacked Olinda. These exploits, however, were transient in their effects. In 1612 the French attempted to found a permanent colony in the island of Marajò, where they succeeded in maintaining themselves till 1618. This attempt led to the erection of Maranhão and Pará into a separate Estado. But it was on the part of the Dutch that the most skilful and pertinacious efforts were made for securing a footing in Brazil; and they alone of all the rivals of the Portuguese have left traces of their presence in the national spirit and institutions of Brazil.

The success of the Dutch East India Company led to the establishment of a similar one for the West Indies, to which a monopoly of the trade to America and Africa was granted. This body despatched in 1624 a fleet against Struggle with the Dutch. Bahia. The town yielded almost without a struggle. The fleet soon after sailed, a squadron being detached against Angola, with the intention of taking possession of that colony, in order to secure a supply of slaves. The fall of Bahia for once roused the Spaniards and Portuguese to joint action, and a great expedition speedily sailed from Cadiz and Lisbon for Bahia. Once more, though strongly garrisoned, the town was retaken without any serious fighting in May 1625. The honours bestowed upon the Indian chiefs for their assistance in this war broke down in a great measure the barrier between the two races; and there is at this day a greater admixture of their blood among the better classes in Bahia than is to be found elsewhere in Brazil.

In 1630 the Dutch attempted again to effect a settlement; and Olinda, with its port, the Recife-Olinda, was destroyed, but the Recife was fortified and held, reinforcements and supplies being sent by sea from Holland. The Dutch settlement in Brazil. Dutch were unable, however, to extend their power beyond the limits of the town, until the arrival of Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen in 1636. His first step was to introduce a regular government among his countrymen; his second, to send to the African coast one of his officers, who took possession of a Portuguese settlement, and thus secured a supply of slaves. In the course of eight years, the limited period of his government, he succeeded in asserting the Dutch supremacy along the coast of Brazil from the mouth of São Francisco to Maranhão. The Recife was rebuilt and adorned with splendid residences and gardens and received from its founder the name of Mauritstad. He promoted the amalgamation of the different races, and sought to conciliate the Portuguese by the confidence he reposed in them. His object was to found a great empire; but this was a project at variance with the wishes of his employers—an association of merchants, who were dissatisfied because the wealth which they expected to see flowing into their coffers was expended in promoting the permanent interests of a distant country. Count Maurice resigned his post in 1644. His successors possessed neither his political nor his military talents, and had to contend with more difficult circumstances.

In 1640 the revolution which placed the house of Braganza on the throne of Portugal restored Brazil to masters more inclined to promote its interests and assert its possession than the Spaniards. It was indeed high time that some exertion should be made. The northern provinces had fallen into the power of Holland; the southern, peopled in a great measure by the hardy descendants of the successive colonists who had issued on all sides from the central establishment of São Paulo, had learned from their habits of unaided and successful enterprise to court independence. They had ascended the waters of the Paraguay to their sources. They had extended their limits southwards till they reached the Spanish settlements of La Plata. They had reduced to slavery numerous tribes of the natives. They were rich in cattle, and had commenced the discovery of the mines. When, therefore, the inhabitants of São Paulo saw themselves about to be transferred, as a dependency of Portugal, from one master to another, they conceived the idea of erecting their country into an independent state. Their attempt, however, was frustrated by Amador Bueno, the person whom they had selected for their king. When the people shouted “Long live King Amador,” he cried out “Long live John IV.,” and took refuge in a convent. The multitude, left without a leader, acquiesced, and this important province was secured to the house of Braganza.

Rio and Santos, although both evinced a desire of independence, followed the example of the Paulistas. Bahia, as capital of the Brazilian states, felt that its ascendancy depended upon the union with Portugal. The government, thus left in quiet possession of the rest of Brazil, had time to concentrate its attention upon the Dutch conquests. The crown of Portugal was, however, much too weak to adopt energetic measures. But the Brazilian colonists, now that the mother country had thrown Revolt against the Dutch. off the Spanish yoke, determined even without assistance from the homeland to rise in revolt against foreign domination. The departure of Count Maurice, moreover, had seriously weakened the position of the Dutch, for his successors had neither his conciliatory manners nor his capacity. João Fernandes Vieyra, a native of Madeira, organized the insurrection which broke out in 1645. This insurrection gave birth to one of those wars in which a whole nation, destitute of pecuniary resources, military organization and skilful leaders, but familiar with the country, is opposed to a handful of soldiers advantageously posted and well officered. But home difficulties and financial necessities prevented the West India Company from sending adequate reinforcements from Holland. In 1649 a rival company was started in Portugal known as the Brazil Company, which sent out a fleet to help the colonists in Pernambuco. Slowly the Dutch lost ground and the outbreak of war with England sounded the knell of their dominion in Brazil. In 1654 their capital and last stronghold fell into the hands of Vieyra. It was not, however, till 1662 that Holland signed a treaty with Portugal, by which all territorial claims in Brazil were abandoned in exchange for a cash indemnity and certain commercial privileges. After this, except some inroads on the French expedition to Brazil, 1710. frontiers, the only foreign invasion which Brazil had to suffer was from France. In 1710 a squadron, commanded by Duclerc, disembarked 1000 men, and attacked Rio de Janeiro. After having lost half of his men in a battle, Duclerc and all his surviving companions were made prisoners. The governor treated them cruelly. A new squadron with 6000 troops was entrusted to the famous admiral Duguay Trouin to revenge this injury. They arrived at Rio on the 12th of September 1711. After four days of hard fighting the town was taken. The governor retreated to a position out of it, and was only awaiting reinforcements from Minas to retake it; but, Duguay Trouin threatening to burn it, he was obliged on the 10th of October to sign a capitulation, and pay to the French admiral 610,000 crusados, 500 cases of sugar, and provisions for the return of the fleet to Europe. Duguay Trouin departed to Bahia to obtain fresh spoils; but having lost in a storm two of his best ships, with an important part of the money received, he renounced this plan and returned directly to France.

After this the Portuguese governed their colony undisturbed. The approach of foreign traders was prohibited, while the regalities reserved by the crown drained the country of a great proportion of its wealth.

The important part which the inhabitants of São Paulo have played in the history of Brazil has been already adverted to. The establishment of the Jesuit college had attracted settlers to its neighbourhood, and frequent marriages had taken place between the Indians of the district and the colonists. A hardy and enterprising race of men had sprung from this mixture, who, first searching whether their new country were rich in metals, soon began adventurous raids into the interior, making excursions also against the remote Indian tribes with a view to obtaining slaves, and from the year 1629 onwards repeatedly attacked the Indian reductions of the Jesuits in Paraguay, although both provinces were then nominally subject to the crown of Spain. Other bands penetrated into Minas and still farther north and westward, discovering mines there and in Goyaz and Cuyabá. New colonies were thus formed round those districts in which gold had been found, and in the beginning of the 18th century five principal settlements in Minas Geraes had been elevated by royal charter to the privileges of towns. In 1720 this district was separated from São Paulo, to which it had previously been dependent. As early as 1618 a code of laws for the regulation of the mining industry had been drawn up by Philip III., the executive and judicial functions in the mining districts being vested in a provedor, and the fiscal in a treasurer, who received the royal fifths and superintended the weighing of all the gold, rendering a yearly account of all discoveries and produce. For many years, however, these laws were little more than a dead letter. The same infatuated passion for mining speculation which had characterized the Spanish settlers in South America now began to actuate the Portuguese; labourers and capital were drained off to the mining districts, and Brazil, which had hitherto in great measure supplied Europe with sugar, sank before the competition of the English and French. A new source of wealth was now opened up; some adventurers from Villa do Principe in Minas, going north to the Seria Frio, made the discovery of diamonds about the year 1710, but it was not till 1730 that the discovery was for the first time announced to the government, which immediately declared them regalia. While the population of Brazil continued to increase, the moral and intellectual culture of its inhabitants was left in great measure to chance; they grew up with those robust and healthy sentiments which are engendered by the absence of false teachers, but with a repugnance to legal ordinances, and encouraged in their ascendancy over the Indians to habits of violence and oppression. The Jesuits from the first moment of their landing in Brazil had constituted themselves the protectors of the natives, and though strenuously opposed by the colonists and ordinary clergy, had gathered the Indians together in many aldeas, over which officials of their order exercised spiritual and temporal authority. A more efficacious stop, however, was put to the persecution of the Indians by the importation of large numbers of negroes from the Portuguese possessions in Africa, these being found more active and serviceable than the native tribes.

The Portuguese government, under the administration of Carvalho, afterwards marquis of Pombal, attempted to extend to Brazil the bold spirit of innovation which directed all his efforts. The proud minister had been resisted Reforms of Pombal. in his plans of reform at home by the Jesuits, and, determining to attack the power of the order, first deprived them of all temporal power in the state of Maranhão and Pará. These ordinances soon spread to the whole of Brazil, and a pretext being found in the suspicion of Jesuit influence in some partial revolts of the Indian troops on the Rio Negro, the order was expelled from Brazil under circumstances of great severity in 1760. The Brazilian Company founded by Vieyra, which so materially contributed to preserve its South American possessions to Portugal, had been abolished in 1721 by John V.; but such an instrument being well suited to the bold spirit of Pombal, he established a chartered company again in 1755, to trade exclusively with Maranhão and Pará; and in 1759, in spite of the remonstrance of the British Factory at Lisbon, formed another company for Parahyba and Pernambuco. Pombal’s arrangements extended also to the interior of the country, where he extinguished at once the now indefinite and oppressive claims of the original donatories of the captaincies, and strengthened and enforced the regulations of the mining districts. The policy of many of Pombal’s measures is more than questionable; but his admission of all races to equal rights in the eye of the law, his abolition of feudal privileges, and the firmer organization of the powers of the land which he introduced, powerfully co-operated towards the development of the capabilities of Brazil. Yet on the death of his king and patron in 1777, when court intrigue forced him from his high station, he who had done so much for his country’s institutions was reviled on all hands.

The most important feature in the history of Brazil during the first thirty years following the retirement of Pombal was the conspiracy of Minas in 1789. The successful issue of the recent revolution of the English colonies in North America had filled the minds of some of the more educated youth of that province; and in imitation, a project to throw off the Portuguese yoke was formed,—a cavalry officer, Silva Xavier, nicknamed Tira-dentes (tooth-drawer), being the chief conspirator. But the plot being discovered during their inactivity, the conspirators were banished to Africa, and Tira-dentes, the leader, was hanged. Thenceforward affairs went on prosperously; the mining districts continued to be enlarged; the trading companies of the littoral provinces were abolished, but the impulse they had given to agriculture remained.

Removed from all communication with the rest of the world except through the mother country, Brazil remained unaffected by the first years of the great revolutionary war in Europe. Indirectly, however, the fate of this isolated Portuguese royal family in Brazil, 1807. country was decided by the consequences of the French Revolution. Brazil is the only instance of a colony becoming the seat of the government of its own mother country, and this was the work of Napoleon. When he resolved upon the invasion and conquest of Portugal, the prince regent, afterwards Dom John VI., having no means of resistance, decided to take refuge in Brazil. He created a regency in Lisbon, and departed for Brazil on the 29th of November 1807, accompanied by the queen Donna Maria I., the royal family, all the great officers of state, a large part of the nobility and numerous retainers. They arrived at Bahia on the 21st of January 1808, and were received with enthusiasm. The regent was requested to establish there the seat of his government, but a more secure asylum presented itself in Rio de Janeiro, where the royal fugitives arrived on the 7th of March. Before leaving Bahia, Dom John took the first step to emancipate Brazil, opening its ports to foreign commerce, and permitting the export of all Brazilian produce under any flag, the royal monopolies of diamonds and Brazil-wood excepted. Once established in Rio de Janeiro, the government of the regent was directed to the creation of an administrative machinery for the dominions that remained to him as it existed in Portugal. Reorganization on Portuguese model. Besides the ministry which had come with the regent, the council of state, and the departments of the four ministries of home, finances, war and marine then existing, there were created in the course of one year a supreme court of justice, a board of patronage and administration of the property of the church and military orders, an inferior court of appeal, the court of exchequer and royal treasury, the royal mint, bank of Brazil, royal printing-office, powder-mills on a large scale, and a supreme military court. The maintenance of the court, and the salaries of so large a number of high officials, entailed the imposition of new taxes to meet these expenses. Notwithstanding this the expenses continued to augment, and the government had recourse to the reprehensible measure of altering the money standard, and the whole monetary system was soon thrown into the greatest confusion. The bank, in addition to its private functions, farmed many of the regalia, and was in the practice of advancing large sums to the state, transactions which gave rise to extensive corruption, and terminated some years later in the breaking of the bank.

Thus the government of the prince regent began its career in the new world with dangerous errors in the financial system; yet the increased activity which a multitude of new customers and the increase of circulating medium gave to the trade of Rio, added a new stimulus to the industry of the whole nation. Numbers of English artisans and shipbuilders, Swedish iron-founders, German engineers and French manufacturers sought fortunes in the new country, and diffused industry by their example.

In the beginning of 1809, in retaliation for the occupation of Portugal, an expedition was sent from Pará to the French colony of Guiana, and after some fighting this part of Guiana was incorporated with Brazil. This conquest was, however, of short duration; for, by the treaty of Vienna in 1815, the colony was restored to France. Its occupation contributed to the improvement of agriculture in Brazil; it had been the policy of Portugal up to this time to separate the productions of its colonies, to reserve sugar for Brazil, and spices to the East Indies, and to prohibit the cultivation of these in the African possessions. Now, however, many plants were imported not only from Guiana but from India and Africa, cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden, and thence distributed. The same principle which dictated the conquest of French Guiana originated attempts to seize the Spanish colonies of Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Portugal being also at war with Spain. The chiefs of these colonies were invited to place them under the protection of the Portuguese crown, but these at first affecting loyalty to Spain declined the offer, then threw off the mask and declared themselves independent, and the Spanish governor, Elio, was afterwards defeated by Artigas, the leader of the independents.

The inroads made on the frontiers of Rio Grande and São Paulo decided the court of Rio to take possession of Montevideo; a force of 5000 troops was sent thither from Portugal, together with a Brazilian corps; and the irregulars Brazil declared an integral portion of the monarchy. of Artigas, unable to withstand disciplined troops, were forced, after a total defeat, to take refuge beyond the River Uruguay. The Portuguese took possession of the city of Montevideo in January 1817, and the territory of Misiones was afterwards occupied. The importance which Brazil was acquiring decided the regent to give it the title of kingdom, and by decree of the 16th January 1815, the Portuguese sovereignty thenceforward took the title of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves. Thus the old colonial government disappeared even in name. In March 1816 the queen Donna Maria I. died, and the prince regent became king under the title of Dom John VI.

Although Brazil had now become in fact the head of its own mother country, the government was not in the hands of Brazilians, but of the Portuguese, who had followed the court. The discontent arising among Brazilians from this cause was heightened by a decree assigning a heavy tax on the chief Brazilian custom houses, to be in operation for forty years, for the benefit of the Portuguese noblemen who had suffered during the war with France. The amiable character of the king preserved his own popularity, but the government was ignorant and profligate, justice was ill administered, negligence and disorder reigned in all its departments. Nor was the discontent less in Portugal on account of its anomalous position. These causes and the fermentation of liberal principles produced by the French Revolution originated a conspiracy in Lisbon in 1817, which was, however, discovered in time to prevent its success. A similar plot and rebellion took place in the province of Pernambuco, where the inhabitants of the important commercial city of Recife (Pernambuco) were jealous of Rio and the sacrifices they were compelled to make for the support of the luxurious court there. Another conspiracy to establish a republican government was promptly smothered in Bahia, and the outbreak in Pernambuco was put down after a republic had been formed there for ninety days. Still the progress of the republican spirit in Brazil caused Dom João to send to Portugal for bodies of picked troops, which were stationed throughout the provincial capitals. In Portugal the popular discontent produced the revolution of 1820, when representative government was proclaimed—the Spanish constitution of 1812 being provisionally adopted. In Rio, the Portuguese troops with which the king had surrounded himself as the defence against the liberal spirit of the Brazilians, took up arms on the 26th of February 1821, to force him to accept the system proclaimed in Portugal. The prince Dom Pedro, heir to the crown, who now for the first time took part in public affairs, actively exerted himself as a negotiator between the king and the troops, who were joined by bodies of the people. After attempting a compromise the king finally submitted, took the oath and named a new ministry. The idea of free government filled the people with enthusiasm, and the principles of a representative legislature were freely adopted, the first care being for the election of deputies to the Cortes of Lisbon to take part in framing the new constitution. As the king could not abandon Portugal to itself he determined at first to send the prince thither as regent, but Dom Pedro had acquired such popularity by his conduct in the revolution, and had exhibited such a thirst for glory, that the king feared to trust his adventurous spirit in Europe, and decided to go himself. The Brazilian deputies on arriving in Lisbon expressed dissatisfaction with the Cortes for having begun the framing of the constitution before their arrival, for Brazil could not be treated as a secondary part of the monarchy. Sharp discussions and angry words passed between the Brazilian and Portuguese deputies, the news of which excited great discontent in Brazil. An insulting decree was passed in the Cortes, ordering the prince Dom Pedro to come to Europe, which filled the Brazilians with alarm; they foresaw that without a central authority the country would fall back to its former colonial state subject to Portugal. The provisional government of São Paulo, influenced by the brothers Andrada, began a movement for independence by asking the prince to disobey the Cortes and remain in Brazil, and the council of Rio de Janeiro followed with a similar representation, to which the prince assented. The Portuguese troops of the capital at first assumed a coercive attitude, but were forced to give way before the ardour and military preparations of the Brazilians, and submitted to embark for Portugal. These scenes were repeated in Pernambuco, where Pedro proclaims the independence of Brazil, 1822. the Portuguese, after various conflicts, were obliged to leave the country; in Bahia, however, as well as in Maranhão and Pará, the Portuguese prevailed. In the agitation for independence continued. The two brothers Andrada were called to the ministry; and the municipal council conferred upon the prince regent the title of Perpetual Defender of Brazil. With great activity he set off to the central provinces of Minas and São Paulo to suppress disaffected movements and direct the revolution. In São Paulo, on the 7th of September 1822, he proclaimed the independence of Brazil. On his return to Rio de Janeiro on the l2th of October he was proclaimed constitutional emperor with great enthusiasm.

The Cortes at Lisbon chose Bahia as a centre for resisting the independence, and large forces were sent thither. But the city was vigorously besieged by the Brazilians by land, and finally the Portuguese were obliged to re-embark on the 2nd of July 1823. A Brazilian squadron, under command of Lord Cochrane, attacked the Portuguese vessels, embarrassed with troops, and took several of them. Taylor, another Englishman in Brazilian service, followed the vessels across the Atlantic, and even captured some of the ships in sight of the land of Portugal. The troops in Montevideo also embarked for Portugal, and the Banda Oriental remained a part of Brazil with the title of the Provincia Cisplatina. Before the end of 1823 the authority of the new emperor and the independence of Brazil were undisputed throughout the whole country.

Republican movements now began to spread, to suppress which the authorities made use of the Portuguese remaining in the country; and the disposition of the emperor to consider these as his firmest supporters much influenced the course of his government and his future destiny. The two Andradas, who imagined they could govern the young emperor as a sovereign of their own creation, encountered great opposition in the constitutional assembly, which had been opened in Rio in May 1823, to discuss the project of a new constitution. In July the emperor resolved to dismiss them and form a new ministry, but against this the brothers raised a violent opposition. In November the emperor put an end to the angry debates which ensued in the assembly by dissolving it, exiling the Andradas to France, and convoking a new assembly to deliberate on a proposed constitution more liberal than the former project. The proclamation of a republic in the provinces of Pernambuco and Ceará, with the rebellion of the Cisplatina province, favoured by Buenos Aires and its ultimate loss to Brazil, were the result of the coup d’état of November 1823. The Brazilians were universally discontented—on one side fearing absolutism if they supported the emperor, on the other anarchy if he fell. Knowing the danger of an undefined position, the emperor caused the councils to dispense with their deliberations, and adopt, as the constitution of the empire, the project framed by the council of state. Accordingly, on the 25th of March 1824, Constitution of 1824. the emperor swore to the constitution with great solemnity and public rejoicings. By this stroke of policy he saved himself and Brazil. Negotiations were opened in London between the Brazilian and Portuguese plenipotentiaries, treating for the recognition of the independence of Brazil; and on the 25th of August 1825 a treaty was signed by which the Portuguese king, Dom John VI., assumed the title of emperor of Brazil, and immediately abdicated in favour of his son, acknowledging Brazil as an independent empire, but the treaty obliged Brazil to take upon herself the Portuguese debt, amounting to nearly two millions sterling.

The rebellion of the Banda Oriental was followed by a declaration of war with Buenos Aires which had supported it, and operations by sea and land were conducted against that republic in a feeble way. Meanwhile the well-deserved popularity of the emperor began to decline. He had given himself up to the influence of the Portuguese; the most popular men who had worked for the independence were banished; and a continual change of ministry showed a disposition on the part of the sovereign to prosecute obstinately measures of which his advisers disapproved. His popularity was regained, however, to some extent, when, on the death of his father, he was unanimously acknowledged king of Portugal, and especially when he abdicated that crown in favour of his daughter, Donna Maria; but his line of policy was not altered, and commercial treaties entered into with European states conceding them favours, which were popularly considered to be injurious to Brazilian trade, met with bitter censure.

During the year 1827 the public debt was consolidated, and a department was created for the application of a sinking fund.

The year 1828 was a calamitous one for Brazil. It began with the defeat of the Brazilian army by the Argentine forces, and this entirely through the incapacity of the commander-in-chief; and misunderstandings, afterwards compensated by humbling money-payments on the part of Brazil, arose with the United States, France and England on account of merchant vessels captured by the Brazilian squadron blockading Buenos Aires. Financial embarrassments increased to an alarming extent; the emperor was compelled by the British government to make peace with Buenos Aires and to renounce the Banda Oriental; and to fill the sum of disasters Dom Miguel had treacherously usurped the crown of Portugal. It was under these unlucky auspices that the elections of new deputies took place in 1829. As was expected the result was the election everywhere of ultra-liberals opposed to the emperor, and in the succeeding year people everywhere exhibited their disaffection. During the session of 1830 the chambers adopted a criminal code in which punishment by death for political offences was abolished. It was openly suggested in the journals to reform the constitution by turning Brazil into independent federal provinces, governed by authorities popularly elected, as in the United States. Alarmed at length at the ground gained by this idea in the provinces, the emperor set off to Minas to stir up the former enthusiasm in his favour from recollections of the independence, but was coldly received. On his return to Rio in March 1831 scenes of disorder occurred, and great agitation among the Liberal party. Imagining himself sure of a brilliant destiny in Europe if he lost his Brazilian crown, the emperor attempted to risk a decisive attack against the Liberals, and to form a new Abdication of Pedro I., 1831. ministry composed of men favourable to absolutism. This step caused excited public meetings in the capital, which were joined in by the troops, and deputations went to ask the emperor to dismiss the unpopular ministry. He replied by dissolving the ministry without naming another, and by abdicating the crown in favour of the heir apparent, then only five years of age. Dom Pedro immediately embarked in an English ship, leaving the new emperor Dom Pedro II. and the princesses Januaria, Francisca and Paula. The subsequent career of this unfortunate prince belongs to the history of Portugal.

A provisional and afterwards a permanent regency, composed of three members, was now formed in Brazil, but scenes of disorder succeeded, and discussions and struggles between the republican party and the government, and a reactionary third party in favour of the restoration of Dom Pedro, occupied the succeeding years. In 1834 a reform which was well received consisted in the alteration of the regency, from that of three members elected by the legislative chambers, to one regent chosen by the whole of the electors in the same manner as the deputies; and the councils of the provinces were replaced by legislative provincial assemblies. Virtually, this was a republican government like that of the United States, for no difference existed in the mode of election of the regent from that of a president. The ex-minister Feijoó was chosen for this office. With the exception of Pará and Rio Grande the provinces were at peace, but these were in open rebellion; the former was reduced to obedience, but in the latter, though the imperial troops occupied the town, the country was ravaged by its warlike inhabitants. The regent was now accused of conniving at this rebellion, and the opposition of the chamber of deputies became so violent as to necessitate his resignation. Araujo Lima, minister of the home department, who strove to give his government the character of a monarchical reaction against the principles of democracy, was chosen by a large majority in his stead. The experiment of republican government had proved so discreditable, and had so wearied the country of cabals, that men hitherto known for their sympathy with democratic principles became more monarchical than the regent himself; and under this influence a movement to give the regency into the hands of the princess Donna Januaria, now in her 18th year, was set on foot. It was soon perceived, however, that if the empire could be governed by a princess of eighteen it could be managed better by the emperor himself, who was then fourteen.