GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 515 
bnild a shelter against the heavy rains, allow their wet 
clothes to dry upon their skin, and expose themselves to 
constant alternations of heat and cold. Add to this, that 
they do not hesitate to drink stagnant water, if it be nearer 
at hand than spring water, and we have causes enough 
for the prevalence of intermittent fever and malarious 
diseases, without attributing them to a climate which is 
in the main salubrious, and far more moderate in tem- 
perature than is generally supposed. The false notions 
generally current, even in Brazil, in regard to the climate 
of the Amazons might have been removed long ago, were 
the public officers of the northern provinces of the Empire 
not interested in keeping up the delusion. The Ama- 
zonian provinces are made stepping-stones to higher em- 
ployments. The young candidates who accept these posts 
claim a reward for the disinterestedness they have shown 
in exposing themselves to disease, and make the reputed 
fatality of the climate an excuse for leaving these remote 
stations after a few months' sojourn. The northern prov- 
inces of Brazil need an administration less liable to change, 
and based upon patient study of their local interests, and 
a faithful adherence to them. It is impossible that the 
president who comes for six months, and is daily longing 
for his return to the society and amusements of the larger 
cities, should even initiate, far less complete, any systematic 
improvements. Like every country struggling for recogni- 
tion among the self-reliant nations of the world, Brazil has 
to contend with the prejudiced reports of a floating foreign 
population, indifferent to the welfare of the land they tem- 
porarily inhabit, and whose appreciations are mainly in- 
fluenced by private interest. It is much to be regretted 
that the government has not thought it worth while to 
