GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 



495 



CHAPTER XVI. 



GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 



Religion and Clergy. — Education. — Law, Medical, and Scientific 

 Schools. — High and Common Schools. — Public Library and Museum 

 IN Rio de Janeiro. — Historical and Geographical Institute. — Social 

 AND Domestic Relations. — Public Functionaries. — Agriculture. — 

 Zones of Vegetation.— Coffee. — Cotton. — Timber and other Products 

 OF the Amazons. — Cattle. — Territorial Subdivision of the Great 

 Valley. — Emigration. — Foreigners. — Paraguayan War. 



I CANNOT close this book, written for the most part by 

 another hand, without a few words as to my general impres- 

 sions of Brazil. No one will expect from me an essay on 

 the social and political aspects of the whole country, even 

 had I remained there long enough to acquire the right 

 of judgment on these matters. I- am so unaccustomed to 

 dealing with them that my opinions would be entitled to 

 little weight. There is, however, another point of view, 

 more general, but perhaps more comprehensive also, from 

 which every intelligent man may form an estimate of the 

 character of a people which, if sincere, will be in the main 

 sound and just, without including an intimate knowledge 

 of their institutions, or the practical working of their laws. 

 My scientific life has brought me into relations with a world 

 wholly unknown to me before ; under conditions more favor- 

 able than were possible for my predecessors in the same 

 region, I have studied this tropical nature, so rich, so 

 grandiose, so instructive ; I have seen a great Empire 

 founded in the midst of unlimited material resources, and 

 advancing to higher civilization under the inspiration of a 



