86 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



they were afterwards persecuted by the Inquisition, burnt by the hundred, and 

 compelled to abjure their national religion, they are now returning in greater 

 numbers than ever, especially from Germany and Russia. The gypsies, descen- 

 dants of those transported by Portugal to Brazil about the middle of the eigh- 

 teenth century, still wander in small groups over the inland plateaux, while the 

 Chinese have begun to make their appearance in the towns and on the plantations. 



In general the Brazilians have not degenerated physically, and on the 

 plateaux they are distinguished by their tall stature, skill, and energy. Despite 

 the frequent wars into which they have been dragged, they are not a bellicose 

 people, but rather of peaceful disposition, patient and long-suffering. Although 

 far from ambitious, they are endowed with considerable intelligence and, like the 

 Hispano-Americans, are " a nation of orators." 



Even in colonial times Brazil had produced numerous writers and independent 

 thinkers, amongst others Antonio José de Silva, burnt by the Inquisition at Lisbon 

 in 1739. José de Lacerda, the first explorer to penetrate far into the interior of 

 equatorial Africa, was a Brazilian, as was also Gusmao, first of modern physicists 

 to send up a balloon (1709). 



Main Physical Divisions. 



Viewed as a whole, Brazil forms a geographical unit characterised by an almost 

 insular mass of crystalline and archœan mountains disposed in the direction 

 from north to south, steeply inclined towards the Atlantic Ocean, and developing 

 broad plateaux between the fluvial slopes. But despite this general simplicity 

 of structure the country is so vast that within its limits are still comprised several 

 distinct physical divisions of great extent. Hence nearly all of its most dis- 

 tinguished explorers have been fain to confine themselves to a single region, or 

 even to a single section, as, for instance, some particular river basin of that region. 

 It will accordingly be convenient to spread the detailed description of Brazil over 

 a number of separate chapters, in which may be summed up the special geo- 

 graphical and biological features of each physical division. 



The natural limits of these physical divisions coincide in no way with those 

 of the old administrative "provinces," which correspond with the States at present 

 constituting the federal rejjublic. In fact, these provinces had for the most part 

 a purely artificial origin. They were carved by royal or ministerial caprice out 

 of the coast region, and then extended inland in total ignorance of the configura- 

 tion of the interior. These ancient " captainries," which varied from time to time 

 in number and extent, have become the political and administrative divisions of 

 East Brazil, while new provinces were afterwards created from the western terri- 

 tories, which stretched away to the unknown regions inhabited by independent 

 wild tribes. Here, also, as on the seaboard, fictitious frontiers were traced on 

 the map long before any knowledge had been acquired of the natural frontiers. 



Amongst the broad phj'sical divisions Amazonia alone comprises about one- 

 half of the whole republic. It would even be doubled in size were it made to 

 include all those parts of Venezuela, Culombiu, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia which 



