URUGUAY 



6006 



URUGUAY 



Cathedral. Montevideo 



RUGUAY, u ' roo gwa, or oo ' TOO gwi, the 

 smallest republic of South America, and one of 

 the most progressive. It is officially known as 

 the EASTERN REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY, and takes 

 its name from the great river which borders it 

 on the west. The length and breadth of the 

 roughly-oval country are approximately equal 

 350 miles and the area is 72,168 square miles 

 slightly less than the combined areas of the 

 New England states and New Jersey. The 

 population on December 31, 1916, was esti- 

 mated to be 1,340,000. 



Physical Features. Uruguay's situation, in 

 the south temperate zone, with an ocean bor- 

 der, gives it a mild, moist and delightful cli- 

 mate. The temperature ranges from 35 to 86. 

 Its coast cities, Maldonado and Montevideo, are 

 passed by ocean vessels bound for Buenos Aires, 

 and are nearly due east of La Plata, in Argen- 

 tina. Lakes Merim, Castillos and Rocha lie 

 near the coast in the southeast. The Uruguay 

 River, forming the western boundary, unites 

 with the Parana to form the great Rio de la 

 Plata. The coast is low and sandy. In the 

 western part the country is gently rolling, and 

 in the north and east the land rises to form a 

 spur of the coast range of Brazil. There are no 

 large forests, though timber grows in the val- 

 leys where there is running water, and includes 

 valuable hard woods. For the most part the 

 land is prairie. 



The People and Their Cities. The people 

 may be classified as white, Guarani, and mixed, 

 the two latter classes coming under the desig- 

 nation "colored," which has no reference to 

 negroes or to negro mixtures, since the country 

 has never had any negro population. The 

 Guarani are the same as the Indians of Para- 

 guay. The aborigines are described by his- 

 torians as strangely yellow, with no trace of 

 red. These men were beardless, and the people 

 were peculiarly silent and secretive. The white 

 and colored elements have long been quite 

 evenly balanced. The foreign-born population 

 is overwhelmingly Spanish and Italian, though 



there are many Germans and French. The 

 purely Spanish element, long dominant, has 

 impressed the speech and manners of Spain 

 upon the white and mixed population. The 

 color line was drawn in politics long ago, but 

 the names of the political parties, the Whites 

 and the Colored (Blancos and Colorados) have 

 lost much of their original significance. 



The whites of pure blood, with their immi- 

 gration and natural increase, will steadily gain 

 upon the aboriginal and mixed elements. Of 

 the 6,073 men who married in Uruguay in 1914, 

 nearly one-fifth were Spaniards, Italians, Ar- 

 gentines, and Brazilians, the Spaniards and 

 Italians alone constituting nearly one-sixth of 

 the whole number. 



The census taken at the opening of the twen- 

 tieth century showed the discouraging fact that 

 half the population of the country was illiter- 

 ate, and that more than a quarter of the births 

 in that year were illegitimate. Education 

 means much to 

 the man or 

 woman of Euro- 

 p e a n ancestry, 

 but is less appre- 

 ciated by the 

 servile class of 

 the native race, 

 who, as shep- 

 herds, herders, or 

 ranchers, find less 

 occasion to read, 

 though they may 

 be keen observers 

 and skilled in 



many manual LOC ATION MAP 



ar te. Showing Uruguay's posi- 



First amone the tlOH In the continent and its 



size in comparison with the 



Cities is Monte- other South American repub- 



video, the capital, lics> 



which is beautifully situated on a central point 

 of the sea coast, and possesses attractions as a 

 resort. It had a population of 378,466 in Jan- 

 uary, 1916. Paysandu, on the western boundary 



