RIO DE JANEIRO, IN THE LAND OF LURE 



191 



tary regulations, and are the despair of 

 the Department of Hygiene. Too bad to 

 tear down the old church, but better for 

 public health if all these hills by the 

 waterfront were leveled." I marveled 

 that just at the foot of this hill lies a 

 business thoroughfare which compares 

 favorably with Fifth Avenue. 



The next name on our roll of honor 

 is that of Gomes Freire de Andrade, 

 Count of Bobadella, who, as governor of 

 the colony from 1733 to 1763, introduced 

 the first printing-press and completed the 

 famous Carioca aqueduct. He was in- 

 strumental in moving the capital here 

 from Bahia, although he died shortly be- 

 fore the realization of his dream. 



Carioca, pronounced "Kar-e-awk'-ah," 

 is an Indian word meaning ''a descend- 

 ant of the whites," in contrast with mix- 

 tures between Indians, Africans, and 

 Europeans. Thus the "Cariocas" repre- 

 sent Rio'3 aristocracy. 



I love the old Carioca aqueduct, long 

 the city's main source of mountain water, 

 with its lichen-covered gray arches wind- 

 ing up the hill to Sylvestre, on the slopes 

 of Corcovado. I grieve that it is being 

 destroyed in part to widen the road for 

 motorists. To its upper reaches I have 

 followed, along the side of the mountain, 

 where the great feathery paineiras trees 

 grow, to its very beginning, high up in 

 Fern Land. 



A CITY OF ENTRANCING VISTAS 



Can any other city offer such entranc- 

 ing vistas as those from the mountain 

 heights back of Rio? I have traveled far 

 and have yet to find it. Turning bay- 

 ward, we look down, through a frame of 

 tangled vines and branches, on to the 

 tree-tops of the sloping virgin forest. A 

 scarlet-winged bird flits to a near-by tree- 

 fern ; a big blue butterfly zigzags lazily 

 by. There are purple orchids within 

 reach and waxen begonias at our feet. 

 Far below, set in verdure, gleams the 

 kaleidoscopic city, with its crescent 

 shores. 



The beaches have such euphonious 

 names — Formosa, Santa Luzia, Lapa, 

 Gloria, Flamingo, Botafogo, Vermelha ! 

 The bay, set in its amphitheater of hills, 

 sparkles like a sapphire. To and fro 

 among the ships at anchor ply the busy 



paddle-wheel ferry-boats to the islands 

 and to Nictheroy, the little sister city 

 across the way. In the distance tower 

 the blue spires of the lofty Organ Moun- 

 tains. Today we can see the sharp crag 

 called "The Finger of God." Often it i.-, 

 veiled in mist. 



where brazie's first martyr was 

 Executed 



Oceanward we look down on titanic 

 granite mountains rising sheer from the 

 sea. There is bulky Babylonia, and 

 flat-topped Gavea, like a great sail un- 

 furled. Between them lie Rio's suburban 

 beaches — Leme, Copacabana, Ipanema. 

 Leblon — in a glistening chain, their white 

 villas nestling between hill and shore. 

 The Avenida Atlantica, which connects 

 them, is equaled only by boulevards along 

 the Mediterranean. 



We can motor from the city to these 

 beaches and on to Gavea over a new road 

 cut in the rock high above the sea, climb 

 to the divide at Tijuca, and drop down, 

 on the bay side of the range, to our start- 

 ing place in the city — a wonder circuit of 

 forty miles or more. 



Returning to the city through Rua 

 Conde de Bomfim, we pass the little park 

 known as Praca Tiradentes, where, in 

 1792, the first martyr of Brazilian liberty, 

 Sublieutenant Joaquin Jose da Silva Xa- 

 vier, nicknamed "Tiradentes," or Tooth- 

 Puller, was executed. Some say he was 

 beheaded ; others that he was drawn and 

 quartered. It was in the neighboring 

 State of Minas Geraes that this young 

 officer, inspired by the success of the 

 American Revolution, headed a band of 

 patriots bent on throwing oft the Portu- 

 guese yoke. 



Tiradentes was tried and sentenced to 

 death ; his companions were exiled to 

 Portuguese Africa ; yet in 1922. when 

 Brazil celebrates her centenary of inde- 

 pendence, these brave men will be fea- 

 tured in the splendid historical pageant 

 even now being staged. 



ARRIVAL OF PORTUGUESE ROYALTY INAUGU- 

 RATED NEW ERA 



Brazil swung into a new cycle in 180S, 

 when Portuguese royalty arrived from 

 Lisbon to set up its court in Rio de 

 Janeiro. Dom Joao and his mother came 



