. The earth and its inhabitants .. . MATERIAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL. ULTHOUGTI no accurate returns have yet been made, approximate calculations show that the population of Brazil continues to in- , crease at a rapid rate, having advanced from about 2,000,000 in 1776 to seven, perhaps even eight, times that number in 1894. Should this rate of increase be maintained, long before the middle of the twentieth century Brazil will comprise as many inhabitants as France. jSTo attempt at an official census can be entirely successful in Brazil, owing to the susj)icious dread of all interrogatio
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . MATERIAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL. ULTHOUGTI no accurate returns have yet been made, approximate calculations show that the population of Brazil continues to in- , crease at a rapid rate, having advanced from about 2,000,000 in 1776 to seven, perhaps even eight, times that number in 1894. Should this rate of increase be maintained, long before the middle of the twentieth century Brazil will comprise as many inhabitants as France. jSTo attempt at an official census can be entirely successful in Brazil, owing to the susj)icious dread of all interrogations, and the difficulty of getting the ignorant natives to sign papers. The printed forms for the census of 1890, which has not yet been completed in some States, comprise a long list of inquisitorial questions regarding physical defects, income, and so forth, which even the public function- aries refuse to till in. Everywhere the returns are known to be below the actual figures ; whole parishes have escaped altogether, and even in the State of Rio de Janeiro one-third of the inhabitants appear to have been overlooked. Two fresh attempts were made to remedy the defect, and evt-n then the final result (1,050,000) was believed to be at least 350,000 short of the truth. In many instances statisticians prefer rough estimates to " official " figures, which are known to be grossi}^ inaccurate. In many cases the population, in which the European and African elements greatly outnumber the aborigines, is vpry unequally distributed over the country. The immigrants h;ive naturally been mainly concentrated on the seaboard, where the whites have tended to gravitate towards the more temperate southern provinces; while the blacks, introduced originalh^ as slaves, are most numerous in the tropical northern States. In this movement the boundless regions of Amazonia and Matto Grosso have hitherto taken scarcely any share. Hence while some of the more favoured coast districts are relativ
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