COMMUNICATIONS. 47 



From Bogota to Santiago o£ Chili, no one ever dreams of taking the direct 

 route by the upland Andes valleys. Travellers have to turn first north to take 

 ship for Colon, then cross the isthmus of Panama, and set sail on the broad 

 Pacific in order to reach Chili, and so ultimately arrive at their destination. So 

 also an inhabitant of Ecuador wishing to visit east Brazil will not follow the 

 great watercourse which he sees flowing at his feet and descending straight to the 

 Atlantic. He finds it more convenient to circumnavigate the continent either by 

 the northern route by the Caribbean Sea, or by the south round Cape Horn or 

 through Magellan Strait. To get from one point to another in South America 

 many travellers save time and money by first crossing the Atlantic to Europe. 

 The Brazilian proceeding to Colombia will gladly make Paris the chief stage on 

 his roundabout voyage. 



None of the unavoidable land journeys from the periphery to the central 

 provinces can be called easy except those across the contracted southern extremity 

 of the continent between Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres, Everywhere else the 

 goal can be reached only at the cost of great hardships and even dangers, and 

 with the loss of much time — weeks, or even months. Certain Brazilian and east 

 Bolivian cities, although situated in civilised lands, are as inaccessible as many 

 wild regions in Central Africa and Asia. The trip round the globe has become 

 much easier than the journey from plain to plain across the parallel ranges of the 

 Cordilleras. 



The Spanish and Portuguese Domains. 



The natural dividing zone between the eastern and western sections of South 

 America is indicated by the spuce almost exclusively occupied by aboriginal 

 tribes, which is disposed in the direction from north to south along the foot of 

 the Andes between the Orinoco and Parana affluents. This zone of separation 

 between the regions inhabited by civilised man may also be regarded in a general 

 way as the parting-line between Spanish and Portuguese- America. The two un- 

 equal sections of the continent present a contrast in their distinctive features, 

 which is all the more striking that the respective regions actually settled are still 

 more remote, and have, so to say, no present points of contact. 



In fact, to the existence of this intermediate neutral zone must be attributed 

 the ease with which the Portuguese element has been able to expand westwards 

 without encountering any serious obstacle on the part of the Spaniards. When 

 Alexander VI., " slicing the world in two like an apple " (Oscar Peschel), shared 

 it between the two conquering powers, Spain and Portugal, the latter state found 

 itself endowed with a mere fragment of the present Brazil. But the very next 

 year (1494) the Treaty of Tordesillas assigned it a much larger slice of the 

 recently discovered continent. Even this frontier, however, was soon encroached 

 upon by Brazilian adventurers, and especially by the intrepid " Paulistas," that is, 

 the half-castes of the province of Sao Paulo, dwelling near the conventional 

 parting-line. Such a frontier could, in fact, have been maintained only by a 

 military cordon to defend it from encroachments. But at that time the Spanish 



