102 



BRAZIL. 



whole of the coal from the various seams can 

 be worked by means of adits driven in from 

 the face of the hills. There is on the spot an 

 abundant supply of good water and magnifi- 

 cent timber, and there is a well-built railway at 

 their very entrances. 



Army. Pursuant to the law of Feb. 27, 1875, 

 military service is obligatory on Brazilian 

 subjects, though there are numerous exemp- 

 tions and substitutions. The period of service 

 in the regular army is six years, and in the 

 reserve three years. The actual strength of 

 the army in 1884, including 1,900 officers of all 

 ranks, was 13,704 ; in time of war it is raised 

 to 30,000 men. 



The gendarme corps comprises 10,792 men, 

 1,063 of whom are at Kio. The National 

 Guard has been disbanded, to be reorganized 

 after the new census shall have been taken. 



Navy. In 1885 Brazil had eleven armored 

 vessels. The most powerful are the Ria- 

 chuelo and the Aquidaban. The latter was 

 built near London, and launched in the sum- 

 mer of 1885. She is the sister ship of the 

 former, and measures 280 feet in length, 

 having a width of 52 feet, and a draught of 18 

 feet, with a displacement of 5,000 tons. The 

 engines have an indicated horse-power of 4,500 ; 

 the bunkers are large enough for 800 tons of 

 coal, and the speed of the vessel is 15 knots. 

 The armament of the Aquidaban consists of 

 four 9-inch 20-ton guns, four 5J-inch Arm- 

 strong . guns, and fifteen Nordenfeldt guns. 

 "When the Riachuelo was ready to sail on her 

 first trip, she was pronounced the most per- 

 fectly constructed ship-of-war afloat, possessing 

 in respect to speed, coal, endurance, and ar- 

 rangement, as well as fire of guns, special ad- 

 vantageSj such in fact as are not contained in 

 any other ship except the Aquidaban. The 

 Riachuelo is a twin-screw turret-vessel of 6,000 

 tons and 6,000 horse-power, built of steel, 305 

 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. She 

 can make 15 knots an hour, and run at that 

 speed 4,500 miles without re-coaling. Her 

 armor-plates are 10 and 11 inches thick, and the 

 armament consists of five 9-inch 20-ton breech- 

 loading rifled guns in two revolving turrets, 

 and six 6-inch breech-loaders, besides fifteen 

 Nordenfeldt machine-guns. The vessel is also 

 provided with Whitehead torpedoes. The Ria- 

 chuelo reached Brazil in 1884. There were in 

 the Brazilian Navy, in 1885, five sea-going iron- 

 clads, of which the two most noticeable are 

 the Javany and the Sotimoes. These are 

 double-turreted monitors, built in France, 

 having a speed of twelve knots, with thirteen 

 inches of armor on the turret, and each carry- 

 ing a battery of four 10-inch Whitworth rifles, 

 besides Nordenfeldts, and there are three other 

 ironclads of speed and several cruisers build- 

 ing in Brazil's own yard at Rio de Janeiro. 

 The largest of these will have a speed of 15 

 knots, and will carry four very heavy Arm- 

 strong breech-loaders, besides ten smaller ones 

 and a dozen Nordenfeldts. A feature not to 



be omitted in Brazil's floating war array in 

 1885 is the group of five fast Yarrow torpedo- 

 boats, the first installment of a fleet of twenty. 



Postal Service. There were in operation in 

 1883 throughout the empire, 1,678 post-offices, 

 dispatching 36,767,325 letters, against 35,816,- 

 869 in 1882 ; the receipts being 1,647,959 mil- 

 reis, and the outlay 2,154,440. 



Telegraphs. According to the report of the 

 Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and Pub- 

 lic Works, submitted on July 25, 1885, there 

 were in operation in Brazil at the time, 9,299 

 kilometres of telegraph lines, with 15,263 kilo- 

 metres of wire and 159 stations. The number 

 of messages sent during the year was 331,884, 

 for which there were collected altogether 

 1,039,032 milreis, 315,078 being for Govern- 

 ment dispatches and 724,854 for private tele- 

 grams. The expenditure was 1,779,378 mil- 

 reis. United States Minister Osborn, acting in 

 accordance with instructions from the State 

 Department at "Washington, concluded a con- 

 tract securing to the Central and South Ameri- 

 can Telegraph Company a concession to estab- 

 lish cables between Buenos Ayres and Rio de 

 Janeiro, and land lines between Buenos Ayres 

 and the Pacific side, thus securing to an Ameri- 

 can company continuous and independent tele- 

 graphic communication between the United 

 States and Brazil. The Brazilian Submarine 

 Company had protested against this privilege 

 being conceded, but the Imperial Government, 

 by a decision dated Jan. 24, 1885, rejected the 

 protest as not having any legal foundation. 

 The minister also alluded in his report to the 

 popularity that telephones were gaining in 

 Brazil, and the success which the combining of 

 the telegraphic and telephonic services in the 

 country has been attended with. 



Railroads. In 1885 the decree was issued for 

 the construction of two lines of narrow-gauge 

 railroad in the province of Pernambuco, hav- 

 ing a total length of 158 miles. Thirty-two 

 locomotives, valued at $296,113, were shipped 

 to Brazil from the United States in 1883-'84. 



In accordance with the statement published 

 at Rio by the Inspector-General of Lands and 

 Colonization, the Brazilian railroad system 

 stood, at the close of the year 1884, as given 

 in the table on page 103 ; the capital of the 

 various lines being given in thousands of mil- 

 reis, and the length of each in kilometres. 



Emancipation. In May, 1885, the condition 

 of affairs in the Parliament of Brazil was very 

 much like that of the British Parliament early 

 in August. Premier Saraiva, chief of the Lib- 

 eral party, with a small majority in the lower 

 house, was depending on the Conservative 

 vote to carry out the desired reform of the 

 emancipation of slavery. The more advanced 

 wing of this party, led by Senhor J. Nabuco, 

 which desired immediate abolition, and the 

 most backward wing of the Conservative 

 party, which was opposed to any step toward 

 emancipation, refused their votes to the Gov- 

 ernment, and compelled it to seek the Conserv- 



