76 



BRAZIL. 



1862, to January 2, 1863; again encountered 

 and defeated him at Chickamauga, September 

 19 and 20, 1863 ; but was decisively defeated by 

 General Grant at Chattanooga, November 23d- 

 25th. Shortly afterward he was relieved from 

 command and called to Richmond, where for 

 a time he acted as military adviser to President 

 Davis, with whom he was a favorite. In the 

 autarnn of 1864 he led a small force from North 

 Carolina to Georgia to operate against Sher- 

 man, but without success. 



BRAZIL (IMPEKIO DO BRAZIL), an empire of 

 South America, and the only monarchy in the 

 Western Hemisphere. It extends from lati- 

 tude 5 10' north to 33 46' south, and from 

 longitude 34 47' to 74 7' west.* It is bound- 

 ed on the north by the United States of Co- 

 lombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and the At- 

 lantic ; on the east by the same ocean ; on the 

 south by Uruguay, the Argentine Republic, 

 and Paraguay ; and on the west by Bolivia, 

 Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. 



The boundary-lines with Bolivia, Colombia, 

 the Guianas, and the Argentine Republic, have 

 not yet been officially defined. 



The territory of the empire is divided into 

 twenty provinces and one neutral municipality 

 (munisipio neutro), which, with their popula- 

 tions in 1876, and their capitals, are as fol- 

 lows : 



The area of Brazil has recently been esti- 

 mated at 8,337,218 square kilometres, or 3,- 

 219,001 square miles. The areas of the three 

 largest provinces Araazonas, Matto Grosso, 

 and Para are 732,054, 532,683, and 443.132 

 square miles, respectively; and that of Ser- 

 gipe, the smallest province, is 15,093 square 

 miles ; and that of the neutral municipality, 

 538 square miles. 



* The statistics piven in this article are, save where other- 

 wise expressed, taken from official returns for 1876. 



In the table above given, the figures corre- 

 sponding to the provinces marked thus, *, are 

 according to the recent census ; those for the 

 other provinces are merely estimated. It ia 

 presumed with reason that, as soon as the cen- 

 sus-returns shall have been completed, the to- 

 tal population of the empire will be found to 

 exceed 12,000,000. 



The number of uncivilized Indians, leading 

 a nomadic life in the wilds and virgin forests 

 of the interior, is reckoned to be about 1,000,- 

 000. The Government has constantly encour- 

 aged the efforts made to reclaim these savages 

 to civilization and Christianity; and, despite 

 the vast extent of territory over which they 

 are disseminated, and the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing an adequate corps of missionaries (there 

 are but sixty-three at present engaged in the 

 service), the results so far achieved are com- 

 paratively satisfactory. Many encampments 

 have been established, particularly in the val- 

 leys of the Araguaya and the Amazon proper, 

 for the performance of religious exercises, and 

 for the education of the young, who readily 

 acquire proficiency in reading, writing, and 

 other elementary branches. The encamp- 

 ments, formerly under the exclusive control 

 of the missionaries who founded them, are 

 now, for the most part, subject to secular di- 

 rectors. The indigenous inhabitants, with the 

 exception of a few small tribes, are of pacific 

 habits and proverbial sobriety; they are en- 

 dowed with great physical strength, are ex- 

 ceedingly agile and adroit, and easily trained 

 to till the ground, work in the mines, and man 

 the craft navigating the immense rivers of the 

 interior. Yet their native proneness to wan- 

 dering proves a serious obstacle to their fairly 

 settling down to sedentary occupations. 



The children are enticed to the encampments 

 by presents of useful tools and instruments of 

 iron, and there, simultaneously with the moral 

 and intellectual instruction of both sexes, the 

 males are prepared for carpenters, smiths, or 

 other trades, while the females are usually em- 

 ployed as domestics. 



There is a project on foot for the formation of 

 a regular corps of official interpreters, speaking 

 the principal Indian languages, and destined to 

 be attached to the various military colonies situ- 

 ated mainly in the great centres of the aborigi- 

 nal population. Several colleges have 'already 

 been organized for the education of the In- 

 dians, the most important being those of Santa 

 Isabel, in the valley of the Araguaya, and 

 Manaos, capital of the province of Amazonas, 

 and the Government intends to establish one 

 at Mucury, on the banks of the river Doce, in 

 the midst of the region mainly inhabited by 

 the Botocudos. 



The system of slavery, rendered necessary 

 by force of circumstances, from the time of 

 the foundation of the first European colonies 

 on Brazilian soil, will, in the course of a few 

 years, have altogether disappeared. By virtue 

 of the law of September, 1871, no child of any 



