GERMAN COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS. 309 



country ; but on hearing from the driver a demand 

 for several thousand rees, we indignantly resolved to 

 walk, and engaged a man to convey our luggage to 

 the hotel. We were favourably impressed by the 

 appearance of this provincial capital. In the space of 

 a mile we passed through several good streets, well 

 lighted with gas, and better paved than any I had 

 seen in South America. Many handsome houses 

 with adjoining gardens were passed on the way, and, 

 on reaching the Grand Hotel, nice clean rooms, and 

 good food provided for the evening meal, further 

 conduced to favourable first impressions of Brazil. 



My young German companion, a traveller for a com- 

 mercial house, was returning from a visit to the interior 

 of Brazil. By steamer on the Parana and Paraguay 

 he had gone from Buenos Ayres to Cuyaba, the capital 

 of the province of Matto Grosso, a vast region with 

 undefined boundaries, probably larger than most of 

 the European states. I have often been struck by 

 the results of superior education among Germans 

 engaged in business, as compared with men of the 

 same class in other countries. It is not that they often 

 merit the designation of intellectual men, and still 

 more rarely do they show active interest in scientific 

 inquiry ; but they retain a respect for the studies they 

 have abandoned, are ready to talk intelligently on 

 such subjects, and, as a rule, have a regard for 

 accuracy as to facts which is so uncommon in the 

 world, as much because the majority are too ignorant 

 to appreciate their importance as owing to deliberate 

 disregard of truth. I did not learn much as to the 

 progress of inner Brazil, but my fellow-traveller 



