SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL. 265 



steady immigration of Portuguese, Italians, Germans, and other European im- 

 migrants. It is noteworthy that many, both of the Portuguese and Italians, 

 marry négresses. 



It was long doubted whether Europeans could become acclimatised in Brazil. 

 But experience has placed the matter beyond doubt, as far as regards the southern 

 provinces from S. Paulo to Rio Grande do Sul, as well as the uplands of Minas 

 Geraes. Even North Europeans thrive better in their new homes than in their 

 native land, as shown by the birth-rate, which exceeds the mortality three, four, 

 five, or even six times. 



Immigration to the tropical regions is, on the other hand, attended by great 

 risks. Nevertheless, the numbers of full-blood whites who have perpetuated the 

 race in the Amazonian States, shows that here also they may become acclimatised. 

 Thus the coastlands from Maranhào to Bahia are inhabited by four millions, of 

 whom over one million are whites, showing no trace of mixture. These have 

 come chiefly from the Azores, Galicia, and the banks of the Minho and Douro in 

 Portugal. Some Basques, Spaniards and Provencals have also succeeded in 

 founding families, which have preserved the racial qualities of strength, activity, 

 and refinement. 



The healthiest districts appear to be the Bahia and Minas plateaux, the 

 Parana campos, and the elevated plains of Rio Grande do Sul. A specially 

 favoured district is that of Santa Anna de Contendas, on the east side of the Rio 

 S. Francisco, below the Rio das Velhas confluence. Here families have increased 

 a hundred-fold since the end of the eighteenth century, and many patriarchs have 

 seen gathered round their table hundreds of descendants. In some years the 

 mortality has fallen to one -twentieth of the births. 



With good reason European immigrants dread the yellow fever, which had 

 ceased to ravage Brazil after the close of the seventeenth, but again made its 

 appearance .towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Since then the coast 

 towns, especially Rio and Santos, have suffered terribly from its visitations. But 

 it appears to be confined. to the seaboard, and settlers on the plateaux, beyond 

 the Serra do Mar, 2,800 or 3,000 feet above the sea, are completely exempt 

 from its attacks. On the other hand, cholera, fatal especially to the negroes, 

 knows no limitations of altitude or climate. But its visits are rare, and it 

 certain]}^ makes less victims than either phthisis or beriberi. In the interior 

 goitre is prevalent, and on the seaboard elephantiasis and analogous diseases are 

 far from rare. 



Speaking generally, and excluding certain notoriously unhealthy cities 

 of the seaboard, the whites, whether native born or immigrants from Europe, 

 are less subject to maladies, and have a longer average life than either 

 the blacks or the Indians. Wounds and amputations of limbs heal far more 

 readily under these climates than in the west of Europe. Compared with 

 those of Paris, the hospitals of Pernambuco, where, however, most of the 

 patients live almost al fresco, seem to the doctors places of miraculous re- 

 covery. 



