GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 515 



build 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 



