22 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



all used being exported from these docks. It is the un- 

 healthiest city in the Americas and the widest open town 

 on the coast. From here almost all the Brazilian coffee is 

 shipped, which until a few years ago was raised in excess 

 of consumption, until the valorization plan was devised, 

 whereby the Brazilian Government, backed by the specu- 

 lators of the world, took a hand and established itself as the 

 sole buyer of the whole crop, and has since been able to regu- 

 late both the amount produced and the price paid by the 

 consumer. 



The coffee is all put up in i8o-pound bags, which are 

 stored in the official warehouses, and finally walked aboard 

 the steamers on the shoulders of some of the most powerful 

 negroes to be found anywhere. Usually they carry two 

 sacks at a time, but in contests have carried seven. They 

 form a powerful union which has prevented the introduc- 

 tion of machinery for loading this product, put up in such 

 uniform packages. 



Throughout the city there are hosts of coffee houses, 

 where one sits down to a round table, draws up to himself 

 a tiny cup and saucer, puts in a large allowance of raw sugar, 

 and the waiter fills it up with the inky black syrupy coffee, 

 the finest flavored in the world, and drunk by all classes 

 several times a day. When any cafe in South America 

 gets the reputation of serving coffee equal to that of Santos, 

 it has reached the top notch. 



Formerly the town was considered the worst cholera 

 spot in the world, and no white man would spend the night 

 on shore, the boats even drawing away from the shore for 

 the night. Though still bad it is much improved, but the 

 Europeans engaged in trade there live some seven miles 

 away in a little colony on the seashore. 



Mail boats do not carry coffee, so our stay was short, 

 and we went on to Montevideo, the clean, active, modern 

 capital city of Uraguay. From here it is twelve hours up 

 the La Plata River to Buenos Aires, where we arrived 



