. The earth and its inhabitants .. . ETWEEX the Para estuary and the mouth of the Rio S. Francisco the seaboard is disposed in the direction from north-west to south- east and comprises numerous relatively small river basins, all resembling each other in their general incline, their soil, climate, and products. The whole region presents a transitional character between Amazonia and the more thickly-peopled parts of Brazil, and towards the south it is limited by extensive mountainous solitudes. Owing largely to the lack of communications all the States ot this seaboard are still in a backward c
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . ETWEEX the Para estuary and the mouth of the Rio S. Francisco the seaboard is disposed in the direction from north-west to south- east and comprises numerous relatively small river basins, all resembling each other in their general incline, their soil, climate, and products. The whole region presents a transitional character between Amazonia and the more thickly-peopled parts of Brazil, and towards the south it is limited by extensive mountainous solitudes. Owing largely to the lack of communications all the States ot this seaboard are still in a backward condition, and the population averages scarcely more than eight or ten to the square mile—4,320,000 in a total area of about 470,000 square miles. In normal years, when the rainfall is abundant, there is a tendency to increase ; but in unfavourable seasons the enterprising people of Ceara emigrate in large numbers to Amazonia, although even this movement has at least the advantage of promoting more intimate relations with the remote provinces of the republic. Geographical Researcti. Our knowledge of the interior is also rapidly advancing, thanks to the labours of the engineers and speculators engaged in laying down the traces of future high- ways or in the quest of mineral treasures. Geographical exploration had already begun in 1594 by the arrival of Jacques Briffault in the island where now stands the town of San Luiz do Maranhâo. The missionaries, Yves d'Evreux and Claude d Abbeville, have left us descriptions of the savages with whom they sojourned in the early days of the discovery, and during the Dutch occupation of Pernambuco (1680—16-54), other districts were described by Johannes van Laet, Barlœus, and Nieuhof. Various expeditions into the soiao for the capture of slaves gradually revealed the trend of the river valleys and mountain ranges; but of the Brazilian regions these have been least visited by naturalists and geographers. In 1809 and the 43
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