TTie Scourge of Revolution. 17 



country. The hope for the future is that the English, German, 

 and French population will increase and become permanently 

 identified with the country ; they will then take an active interest 

 in politics and direct the policy and administration of the gov- 

 ernment. 



Commercial and banking business is in the hands of the 

 French, Germans, and English. The Italians carry on a small 

 trade at corner groceries and fruit stores ; the French keep the 

 hotels and restaurants ; the English and Germans are the ship- 

 pers, merchants and bankers. 



Regular lines of English, French, and German steamers run 

 from Europe to Panama and thence along the western coast of 

 South America, stopping at ports en route ; some return by 

 Panama, others sail around Cape Horn to Europe by Buenos 

 Ayres and Rio Janeiro. Other lines run direct from Europe to 

 Brazil, and twenty-four lines connect Euroj^e and the Argentine 

 Republic ; while there are only four lines of American steamers 

 trading to South America. 



Brazil. 



We have given a general description of Sonth America, but 

 three countries — Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Peru — 

 require further notice : Brazil, because it is the largest country, 

 occupying three-sevenths of South America, and the only con- 

 siderable state that was not settled by the Spaniards ; the Argen- 

 tine Republic, because it is the largest and most populous of the 

 Spanish states and, with Peru, illustrates the political and finan- 

 cial phases through which the Spanish republics have passed. 



The valley of the Amazon makes Brazil the most fertile region 

 of the world. The tropical woods are so thick and the creepers 

 and undergrowth so luxuriant that animal life is almost entirely 

 confined to the trees above and the waters below. 



The valley is not unhealthy, and, though under the equator, the 

 climate is tempered by the trade winds and the evaporation from 

 the vast Amazonian waters. Beyond the valley is the montana 

 district, where the land is higher and the climate semi-tropical, 

 where there are few creepers, little underbrush, and open forests, 

 and where both animal and vegetable life is less abundant. 

 Southward, beyond the montana district, are the evergreen pam- 

 pas, where no trees grow and where the animal and vegetable life 

 are unlike either that of the valley of the Amazon or that of the 

 3— Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. Ill, 1891. 



