ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
“ In the heart of Brazil ... in the very heart of 
Brazil? . . . Oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu /" (More 
laughter and a look of compassion at me.) “ Mais 
nous avons une de nos maisons tout d fait pres de la !" 
(“ Why, indeed, we have one of our factories quite close 
to there.”) 
It was then my turn for hearty laughter and the 
look of compassion. 
“ Pray,” I inquired, “ tell me more exactly. Where 
is your factory close to the heart of Brazil? ” 
“ It is quite, quite close. It is in Montreal, Canada. 
. . . You will send your films there . . . two or three 
days’ journey. ... It will take us a week to develop 
them . . . two or three days for their return journey. 
In a fortnight you will have them back again.” 
Quite close, indeed: only a distance of some 65° of 
latitude — or some 7,170 kilometres as the crow flies — 
with no direct communication by land or water! 
That was the Frenchman’s knowledge of geography; 
but I find that the average Englishman, unless he is 
directly interested in those countries, knows little better, 
and perhaps even less. Time after time I have been 
asked in London if Brazil were not a province of Mexico, 
and whether it is not through Brazil that the Americans 
are cutting the Panama Canal! There are many who 
have a vague idea that Brazil is a German colony; 
others, more patriotic, who claim it as an English 
possession. Many of those who have looked at the map 
of the world are under the impression that Spanish is 
spoken in Brazil, and are surprised when you tell them 
that Portuguese happens to be the local language. 
Others, more enlightened in their geography by that great 
play Charley's Aunt, imagine it a great forest of nut trees. 
Others, more enlightened still, believe it to be a land 
where you are constantly walking in avenues adorned 
with wonderful orchids, with a sky overhead swarming 
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