File:Brazil, the Amazons and the coast (1879) (14596663980).jpg

Identifier: brazilamazonscoa00smit (find matches)
Title: Brazil, the Amazons and the coast
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Herbert H. (Herbert Huntington), 1851-1919
Subjects: Folklore -- Brazil Brazil -- Description and travel Brazil -- Economic conditions Amazon River Valley -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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mills spring up, this localdemand will be over-supplied, and the sugar will have to besold at a reduced price. The commercial importance of Pernambuco dependslargely on the sugar industry. All day you may see trainsof horses coming down to Recife, each with two sacks ofsugar slung from its back, a sticky mass. In the ware-houses, negro porters are employed to carry the sacks (eachcontaining one hundred and sixty-six pounds) on their heads.They work naked to the waist, the perspiration and molassesmingling in little streams on their shoulders. Great moundsof sugar are formed in the storehouses, over which the por-ters climb, until a squeamish man is ready to abjure sugar 448 BRAZIL. for the rest of his life. It must be remembered, however,that most of this mass is cleansed and refined before itreaches the consumer. From Pernambuco to Bahia, the coast-line becomes moreirregular and picturesque. After passing the mouth of theSao Francisco, hills begin to appear ; the land is higher, and
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Bahia, from the Hill. there are little bays and head-lands, taking the place of themonotonous sand-beaches which extend from Maranhao toPernambuco. The harbor of Bahia is only inferior to that of Rio. It isvery extensive, deep enough for the largest steamers, andthe entrance is wide and unobstructed. On either side thereare low hills, with green woods and meadows, and curiousbuildings and forts here and there. The city itself is on theeastern side of the bay, near the entrance ; the main business DOWN THE COAST. 449 portion is built on the ground, by the water-side ; the restof the town is on a bluff, three or four hundred feet abovethe bay. Of all Brazilian cities this is the most picturesque. In thelower town the streets are narrow, with antiquated buildings,dating back to the sixteenth century, and covered with themould of years. Lazy negroes lounge at every corner ; fruit-women, with gayly-colored shawls over their shoulders, nodin the sun before their heaped-up trays ; queer litt

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