HISTORY AND GENERAL CONDITIONS 13 



to enforce public hygiene and adequate medical super- 

 vision throughout the districts of the Amazon and its 

 tributaries, is only to court disaster and waste immense 

 sums of money for no useful purpose. A large pro- 

 portion of the population suffers from anaemia, induced 

 partly by climatic causes, and partly by the poor 

 quality and little variety of the food. The result of 

 this widespread anaemic condition of the people is a 

 lack of energy in regard to all work, especially amongst 

 the European inhabitants, and a general apathy in 

 regard to all present or future development of the 

 great natural resources of the country. 



As an indication of the effect of climatic diseases 

 on the working population, the case of the Madeira- 

 Marmore* Railway may be cited. From June, 1907, to 

 December, 1912, the pay-rolls show 13,186 men em- 

 ployed, and 1,238 deaths, principally due to malaria. 



No proper census of the population of the Amazon 

 Valley has ever been taken, and the figures quoted in 

 official returns from time to time are guesswork made 

 by irresponsible persons at different points on the 

 principal rivers. Probably the total number of inhabi- 

 tants is about 900,000 approximately, comprising some 

 250,000 whites or their descendants, with a certain 

 mixture of Indian blood ; 450,000 negroes and mulat- 

 toes ; and 200,000 domesticated and wild Indians. The 

 white population comprises the descendants of Portu- 

 guese and Spanish settlers, and the results of inter-* 

 marriage with native Indian women ; Brazilians, 

 Bolivians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Peruvians, 

 who have drifted to the Amazon Valley from other 

 sections of South America ; and European immigrants 



