CHAPTER XIV. 



MATERIAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL. 



ULTHOUGTI no accurate returns have yet been made, approximate 

 calculations show that the population of Brazil continues to in- 

 , crease at a rapid rate, having advanced from about 2,000,000 in 

 1776 to seven, perhaps even eight, times that number in 1894. 

 Should this rate of increase be maintained, long before the middle 

 of the twentieth century Brazil will comprise as many inhabitants as France. 



jSTo attempt at an official census can be entirely successful in Brazil, owing to 

 the susj)icious dread of all interrogations, and the difficulty of getting the ignorant 

 natives to sign papers. The printed forms for the census of 1890, which has not 

 yet been completed in some States, comprise a long list of inquisitorial questions 

 regarding physical defects, income, and so forth, which even the public function- 

 aries refuse to till in. Everywhere the returns are known to be below the 

 actual figures ; whole parishes have escaped altogether, and even in the State of 

 Rio de Janeiro one-third of the inhabitants appear to have been overlooked. Two 

 fresh attempts were made to remedy the defect, and evt-n then the final result 

 (1,050,000) was believed to be at least 350,000 short of the truth. In many 

 instances statisticians prefer rough estimates to " official " figures, which are 

 known to be grossi}^ inaccurate. 



In many cases the population, in which the European and African elements 

 greatly outnumber the aborigines, is vpry unequally distributed over the country. 

 The immigrants h;ive naturally been mainly concentrated on the seaboard, where 

 the whites have tended to gravitate towards the more temperate southern 

 provinces; while the blacks, introduced originalh^ as slaves, are most numerous in 

 the tropical northern States. In this movement the boundless regions of Amazonia 

 and Matto Grosso have hitherto taken scarcely any share. Hence while some 

 of the more favoured coast districts are relatively thickly peopled, more than half 

 of the whole territory has less than one person to four or five square miles. In 

 general, Brazil is still 36 times less peopled than France, and 109 times less than 

 Belmum. 



