ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
the native Indians, that I would not supply them 
with firearms of any kind, and that I would in no way 
ill-treat them. I had gladly promised all that. I had 
not even dreamt of doing any of those things to the 
natives, and naturally I strictly kept my promise. 
In a luxurious Administration car placed at my 
disposal by Dr. Paulo Frontin, I left Rio by the Central 
Railway, escorted as far as Sao Paulo by Dr. Carlo da 
Fonseca, a railway engineer, sent to look after my comfort 
by the Central Brazilian Railway Company. 
On approaching Sao Paulo in the early morning, I 
was much struck by the activity of the waking city as 
compared with Rio. Carts were dashing to and fro in 
the streets, the people walked along fast as if they had 
something to do, and numerous factory chimneys ejected 
clouds of smoke, puffing away in great white balls. The 
people stopped to chat briskly, as if they had some life 
in them. It seemed almost as if we had suddenly dropped 
into an active, commercial, European city. The type of 
people, their ways and manners, were different from those 
of the people of Rio — but equally civil, equally charming 
to me from the moment I landed at the handsome railway 
station. 
With a delicious climate — owing to its elevation — 
with a population of energetic people chiefly of Italian 
origin, instead of the apathetic mixture of Portuguese 
and negro, Sao Paulo is indeed the most flourishing city 
of the Brazilian Republic. Its yearly development is 
enormous. Architecturally it is gradually becoming 
modified and improved, so that in a few years it will be a 
very beautiful city indeed. Already the city possesses 
beautiful avenues and a wonderful theatre. 
Everybody knows what an important part the enter¬ 
prising people of Sao Paulo have played in the expansion 
and colonization of the central and southern regions of 
Brazil. The early activity of the Paulistas — it dates 
14 
