334 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



pass befoi-e it vanishes. The first settlers came to Brazil 

 a century before the first settlers came to the United 

 States and Canada. For three hundred years progress 

 was very slow — Portuguese colonial government at that 

 time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the last half- 

 century and over there has been a steady increase in the 

 rapidity of the rate of development ; and this increase bids 

 fair to be constantly more rapid in the future. 



The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, 

 were the first native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, 

 played a great part in opening to settlement vast stretches 

 of wilderness. The rubber hunters have played a similar 

 part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled them, 

 as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven 

 them forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of 

 the world. Searching for rubber they made highways 

 of rivers the very existence of which was unknown to 

 the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers. 

 Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left 

 behind them settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up 

 children. Settlement began ; the conquest of the wilder- 

 ness entered on its first stage. 



On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we 

 bought, of course at a high price, sugar and tobacco for 

 the camaradas. In this land of plenty the camaradas 

 over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as ever. 

 In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the 

 only men who paddled strongly and continuously. The 

 storekeeper's stock of goods was very low, only what he 

 still had left from that brought in nearly a year before; 

 for the big boats, or batelaos — ^batelons — had not yet 



