ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
the several railways which were in course of construction 
from various directions, enter the province. Not one of 
them had penetrated the province at the time of my visit, 
although the work of preparing the road had just been 
begun on Goyaz territory, as we have seen, for a few kilo¬ 
metres north of the Paranahyba River, on the extension of 
the Mogyana line from Sao Paulo. A second railway line 
in course of construction was a branch of the Western 
Minas Railway; and there was a third up the Araguaya 
from Para. Those railways will certainly revolutionize 
the country. The inhabitants of Goyaz, ultra-conserva¬ 
tive in their ideas, were not at all anxious to see a railway 
reach their capital. In their curious way of reasoning, 
they seemed to think that the railway would make life 
dearer in the city, that strangers would be coming in great 
numbers to reap the benefit of their country, and that 
the younger people who were satisfied to live there — 
because they could not get away — would all fly to the 
coast as soon as the railway was established, to enjoy the 
luxuries of Rio and Sao Paulo, of which they had heard, 
but could so far only dream of. They did not stop to 
think that the railways will certainly make Goyaz the 
richest country in the world. 
The financial condition of that beautiful State can 
perhaps best be shown by quoting the words of the 
Presidente himself, in his message to the Legislative 
Congress of Goyaz on May 13, 1910, on assuming the 
Presidency of the Province. 
“ On my assuming the Government of the Province, 
I ordered the Secretary of Finance to give an account 
of the balance existing in the State Treasury; and it 
was verified that up to April 30th last there existed a 
sum of Rs. 87,000,000 (£5,800 sterling), which became 
reduced to Rs. 50,000,000 (£3,334 sterling) after the 
payments made on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th of the present 
month (May, 1910). It must be understood that the 
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