THE CAUCASIAN IN BRAZIL. 551 



races can not live and multiply in the fertile regions near the equator. 

 It is assumed as a self-evident truism that the blacks or colored races 

 can better resist the climatic conditions. The statescraft of to-day, 

 acting upon this assumption, is bending its energies to laying the 

 foundations of an external dominion over the hot regions of the earth. 

 Spheres of influence, not fields for emigration, are the subjects of the 

 preoccupation of European cabinets; trade and political control are 

 more sought than opportunities for colonization. 



The popular impression as to the suitability of the tropics for 

 white settlement rests upon two commonly observed phenomena: The 

 places most visited by travelers, and therefore best known, are inhab- 

 ited principally by colored races; the white man loses vigor when sud- 

 denly transported into winterless regions from the more vigorous 

 climates where his ancestors have been living for unnumbered genera- 

 tions. Besides, the white emigrant usually dislikes the social, indus- 

 trial and political surroundings, becomes discouraged, and in most 

 cases returns strongly prepossessed against the tropics. 



As to permanent powers of reproduction and survival, the existing 

 predominance of colored races and the ill health and dissatisfaction of 

 newly arrived whites only create a presumption — they do not conclu- 

 sively prove anything. The negroes may predominate in Jamaica, 

 because black immigration to that island was vastly more numerous 

 than white, and not because the whites that did go there died out. 

 The Caucasian newly arrived in Eio de Janeiro is susceptible to yellow 

 fever, but his children born in Brazil may not be less immune than 

 the offspring of black slaves. 



Many things I have seen during a long residence in tropical Brazil 

 and in journeys through the states of that republic and of neighboring 

 countries have led me to doubt the correctness of the general impres- 

 sion. Personal observations unaided by adequate statistics are notori- 

 ously untrustworthy, and one should be slow in drawing conclusions 

 from them. However, no one can long travel and reside in Brazil 

 without noticing that white families are large and their children 

 healthy. A large proportion can trace their descent to colonial times. 

 Whites are preferred to negroes, mulattoes or Indians as laborers on 

 the railroads and coffee plantations, not only because they are more 

 intelligent, but because they are stronger, healthier and more energetic. 

 The white may be more susceptible to certain climatic diseases, but the 

 negro is less able to resist others, and is decimated by such communi- 

 cable maladies as smallpox and consumption. The white eats more 

 and better food, lives more hygienically and protects himself more 

 effectually against the weather. 



A study of the population statistics of Brazil leads to some sur- 

 prising conclusions. The returns of marriages and births show that 



