Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . money was wanting, he put his hand inhis own pocket, or bought on his own credit. Fifteenthousand people took refuge here, and many more passedthrough, on their way to the coast. The first rush was toogreat, even for his generosity ; his credit was exhausted, andprovisions could not be brought in fast enough, so that evenhere, men died in the streets. Still he worked on. TheGovernment paid for the provisions that he had bought in hisown name in March and April, so he had wealth and poweryet; they might have paid for his private charities, but hewould not let
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . money was wanting, he put his hand inhis own pocket, or bought on his own credit. Fifteenthousand people took refuge here, and many more passedthrough, on their way to the coast. The first rush was toogreat, even for his generosity ; his credit was exhausted, andprovisions could not be brought in fast enough, so that evenhere, men died in the streets. Still he worked on. TheGovernment paid for the provisions that he had bought in hisown name in March and April, so he had wealth and poweryet; they might have paid for his private charities, but hewould not let them. This gentleman, who did not bluster, was a practical man,and had the gift of government. To the unwieldy mass ofhalf-wild peasants, he brought order and law, so that thiswas the best-governed camp in the province. Already, in CEARA AND THE DROUGHT. 429 1877, he had made a great step in advance of the other aidcommissioners. He saw the refugees coming in every day,begging in the streets or receiving food from the commission,. and settHng into con-firmed mendicant saw that what wascharity to a starving man,was moral poison to astrong one. He foresaw Refugees working on the Roads. that these refugees must be fed through long months, before they could return to their fields. And he set them at work. He was Proinotor Publico, as I have said. He set fivethousand refugees to building a new town hall, a new church,a prison, cleaning streets, cutting roads, what not, to givethem honest work. When the exodus came he enlarged hisworks, paying always with rations and a little money. Therewere political cries against him, of course ; he could afford tolaugh at them. He made the men build thatched houses;I found that these barracks were even better than thoseI had seen along the railroad—large, well ventilated, and a 430 BRAZIL. sufficient protection. They were set around great squares,and in the middle of every square there was a larger build-ing which served as a kind of
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