CHAPTER Ylir. 



EQUATORIAL SEABOARD. 



States of MaranhIo, Piauhy, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Parahyba, 



Pernambuco, and Alagoas. 



ETWEEX the Para estuary and the mouth of the Rio S. Francisco 

 the seaboard is disposed in the direction from north-west to south- 

 east and comprises numerous relatively small river basins, all 

 resembling each other in their general incline, their soil, climate, 

 and products. The whole region presents a transitional character 

 between Amazonia and the more thickly-peopled parts of Brazil, and towards 

 the south it is limited by extensive mountainous solitudes. 



Owing largely to the lack of communications all the States ot this seaboard 

 are still in a backward condition, and the population averages scarcely more than 

 eight or ten to the square mile — 4,320,000 in a total area of about 470,000 square 

 miles. In normal years, when the rainfall is abundant, there is a tendency to 

 increase ; but in unfavourable seasons the enterprising people of Ceara emigrate 

 in large numbers to Amazonia, although even this movement has at least the 

 advantage of promoting more intimate relations with the remote provinces of the 

 republic. 



Geographical Researcti. 



Our knowledge of the interior is also rapidly advancing, thanks to the labours of 

 the engineers and speculators engaged in laying down the traces of future high- 

 ways or in the quest of mineral treasures. Geographical exploration had already 

 begun in 1594 by the arrival of Jacques Briffault in the island where now stands 

 the town of San Luiz do Maranhâo. The missionaries, Yves d'Evreux and Claude 

 d Abbeville, have left us descriptions of the savages with whom they sojourned in 

 the early days of the discovery, and during the Dutch occupation of Pernambuco 

 (1680 — 16-54), other districts were described by Johannes van Laet, Barlœus, and 

 Nieuhof. 



Various expeditions into the soiao for the capture of slaves gradually revealed 

 the trend of the river valleys and mountain ranges; but of the Brazilian regions 

 these have been least visited by naturalists and geographers. In 1809 and the 

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