Chapter VII: Brazil

King John of Portugal, to whom Columbus first made offer of his project of discovery, was grievously chagrined when the success of the great navigator revealed the magnificence of the rejected opportunity. Till then, Portugal had occupied the foremost place as an explorer of unknown regions. She had already achieved the discovery of all the western coasts of Africa, and was now about to open a new route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope. Suddenly her fame was eclipsed. While she occupied herself with small and barren discoveries, Spain had found, almost without the trouble of seeking, a new world of vast extent and boundless wealth.

Portugal had obtained from the Pope a grant of all lands which she should discover in the Atlantic, with the additional advantage of full pardon for the sins of all persons who should die while engaged in the work of exploration. The sovereigns of Spain were equally provident in regard to the new territory which they were now in course of acquiring. They applied to Pope Alexander Sixth, who, as vicar of Christ, possessed the acknowledged right to dispose at his pleasure of all territories inhabited by heathens. From this able but eminently dissolute pontiff they asked for a bull which should confirm them in possession of all past and future discoveries in Western seas. The accommodating Pope, willing to please both powers, divided the world between them. [Sidenote: 1493 A.D.] He stretched an imaginary line, from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the Cape de Verd Islands: all discoveries on the eastern side of this boundary were given to Portugal, while those on the west became the property of Spain. Portugal, dissatisfied with the vast gift, proposed that another line should be drawn, stretching from east to west, and that she should be at liberty to possess all lands which she might find between that line and the South Pole. Spain objected to this huge deduction from her expected possessions. [Sidenote: 1494 A.D.] Ultimately Spain consented that the Papal frontier should be removed westward to a distance of two hundred and seventy leagues from the Cape de Verd Islands; and thus the dispute was happily terminated.

[Sidenote: 1500 A.D.] Six years after this singular transaction, by which two small European States parted between them all unexplored portions of the Earth, a Portuguese navigator--Pedro Alvarez Cabral--set sail from the Tagus in the prosecution of discovery in the East. He stood far out into the Atlantic, to avoid the calms which habitually baffled navigation on the coast of Guinea. His reckoning was loosely kept, and the ocean currents bore his ships westward into regions which it was not his intention to seek. After forty-five days of voyaging he saw before him an unknown and unexpected land. In searching for the Cape of Good Hope, he had reached the shores of the great South American Continent, and he hastened to claim for the King of Portugal the territory he had found, but regarding the extent of which he had formed as yet no conjecture. Three Spanish captains had already landed on this part of the continent and asserted the right of Spain to its ownership. For many years Spain maintained languidly the right which priority of discovery had given. But Portugal, to whom an interest in the wealth of the New World was an object of vehement desire, took effective possession of the land. She sent out soldiers; she built forts; she subdued the savage natives; she founded colonies; she established provincial governments. Although Spain did not formally withdraw her pretensions, she gradually desisted from attempts to enforce them; and the enormous territory of Brazil became a recognized appanage of a petty European State whose area was scarcely larger than the one-hundredth part of that which she had so easily acquired.

For three hundred years Brazil remained in colonial subordination to Portugal. Her boundaries were in utter confusion, and no man along all that vast frontier could tell the limits of Portuguese dominion. Her Indians were fierce, and bore with impatience the inroads which the strangers made upon their possessions. The French seized the bay of Rio de Janeiro. The Dutch conquered large territories in the north. But in course of years these difficulties were overcome. [Sidenote: 1654 A.D.] The foreigners were expelled. The natives were tamed, partly by arms, partly by the teaching of zealous Jesuit missionaries. Some progress was made in opening the vast interior of the country and in fixing its boundaries. On the coast, population increased and numerous settlements sprang up. The cultivation of coffee, which has since become the leading Brazilian industry, was introduced. [Sidenote: 1750 A.D.] Some simple manufactures were established, and the country began to export her surplus products to Europe. There was much misgovernment; for the despotic tendencies of the captains-general who ruled the country were scarcely mitigated by the authority of the distant Court of Lisbon. The enmity of Spain never ceased, and from time to time burst forth in wasteful and bloody frontier wars. Sometimes the people of cities rose in insurrection against the monopolies by which wicked governors wronged them. Occasionally there fell out quarrels between different provinces, and no method of allaying these could be found excepting war. [Sidenote: 1711 A.D.] Once the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked by the French. Brazil had her full share of the miseries which the foolishness and the evil temper of men have in all ages incurred. These hindered, but did not altogether frustrate, the development of her enormous resources.

During the eighteenth century the Brazilian people began to estimate more justly than they had done before the elements of national greatness which surrounded them, and to perceive how unreasonable it was that a country almost as large as Europe should remain in contented dependence on one of the most inconsiderable of European States. The English colonies in North America threw off the yoke of the mother country. The air was full of those ideas of liberty which a year or two later bore fruit in the French Revolution. A desire for independence spread among the Brazilians, and expressed itself by an ill-conceived rising in the province of Minas Geraes. But the movement was easily suppressed, and the Portuguese Government maintained for a little longer its sway over this noblest of colonial possessions.

During the earlier years of the French Revolution, Portugal was permitted to watch in undisturbed tranquillity the wild turmoils by which the other European nations were afflicted. At length it seemed to the Emperor Napoleon that the possession of the Portuguese kingdom, and especially of the Portuguese fleet, was a fitting step in his audacious progress to universal dominion. [Sidenote: 1807 A.D.] A French army entered Portugal; a single sentence in the _Moniteur_ informed the world that “the House of Braganza had ceased to reign.” The French troops suffered so severely on their march, that ere they reached Lisbon they were incapable of offensive operations. But so timid was the Government, so thoroughly was the nation subdued by fear of Napoleon, that it was determined to offer no resistance. The capital of Portugal, with a population of three hundred thousand, and an army of fourteen thousand, opened its gates to fifteen hundred ragged and famishing Frenchmen, who wished to overturn the throne and degrade the country into a French province.

Before this humiliating submission was accomplished, the Royal Family had gathered together its most precious effects, and with a long train of followers,[57] set sail for Brazil. The insane Queen was accompanied to the place of embarkation by the Prince Regent and the princes and princesses of the family, all in tears: the multitudes who thronged to look upon the departure lifted up their voices and wept. Men of heroic mould would have made themselves ready to hold the capital of the State or perish in its ruins; but the faint-hearted people of Lisbon were satisfied to bemoan themselves. When they had gazed their last at the receding ships, they hastened to receive their conquerors and supply their needs.

The presence of the Government hastened the industrial progress of Brazil. The Prince Regent (who in a few years became King) began his rule by opening the Brazilian ports to the commerce of all friendly nations.[58] [Sidenote: 1815 A.D.] Seven years later it was formally decreed that the colonial existence of Brazil should cease. She was now raised to the dignity of a kingdom united with Portugal under the same Crown. Her commerce and agriculture increased; she began to regard as her inferior the country of which she lately had been a dependency.

[Sidenote: 1820 A.D.] The changed relations of the two States were displeasing to the people of Portugal. The Council by which the affairs of the kingdom were conducted became unpopular. The demand for constitutional government extended from Spain into Portugal. The Portuguese desired to see their King again in Lisbon, and called loudly for his return. The King consented to the wish of his people reluctantly; for besides other and graver reasons why he should not quit Brazil, his majesty greatly feared the discomforts of a sea-voyage. [Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] His son, the heir to his throne, became Regent in Brazil.

The Brazilians resented the departure of the King. The Portuguese meditated a yet deeper humiliation for the State whose recent acquisition of dignity was still an offence to them. There came an order from the Cortes that the Prince Regent also should return to Europe. The Brazilians were now eager that the tie which bound them to the mother country should be dissolved. The Prince Regent was urged to disregard the summons to return. After some hesitation he gave effect to the general wish, and intimated his purpose of remaining in Brazil. [Sidenote: 1822 A.D.] A few months later he was proclaimed Emperor, and the union of the two kingdoms ceased. Constitutional government was set up. But the administration of the Emperor was not sufficiently liberal to satisfy the wishes of his people. [Sidenote: 1831 A.D.] After nine years of deepening unpopularity, he resigned the crown in favour of his son, then a child five years of age, and now (1881), although still in middle life, the oldest monarch in the world.

Brazil covers almost one-half the South American Continent, and has therefore an area nearly equal to that of the eight States of Spanish origin by which she is bounded. She is as large as the British dominions in North America; she is larger than the United States, excluding the untrodden wastes of Alaska. One, and that not the largest, of her twenty provinces is ten times the size of England. Finally, her area is equal to five-sixths that of Europe.[59] She has a sea-coast line of four thousand miles. She has a marvellous system of river communication; the Amazon and its tributaries alone are navigable for twenty-five thousand miles within Brazilian territory. Her mineral wealth is so ample that the governor of one of her provinces was wont, in religious processions, to ride a horse whose shoes were of gold; and the diamonds of the Royal Family are estimated at a value of three million sterling. Her soil and climate conspire to bestow upon her agriculture an opulence which is unsurpassed and probably unequalled. An acre of cotton yields in Brazil four times as much as an acre yields in the United States. Wheat gives a return of thirty to seventy fold; maize, of two hundred to four hundred fold; rice, of a thousand fold. Brazil supplies nearly one-half the coffee which the human family consumes. An endless variety of plants thrive in her genial soil. Sugar and tobacco, as well as cotton, coffee, and tea, are staple productions. Nothing which the tropics yield is wanting, and in many portions of the empire the vegetation of the temperate zones is abundantly productive. The energy of vegetable life is everywhere excessive. The mangrove seeds send forth shoots before they fall from the parent tree; the drooping branches of trees strike roots when they touch the ground, and enter upon independent existence; wood which has been split for fences hastens to put forth leaves; grasses and other plants intertwine and form bridges on which the traveller walks in safety.

But the scanty population of Brazil is wholly insufficient to subdue the enormous territory on which they have settled and make its vast capabilities conduce to the welfare of man. The highest estimate gives to Brazil a population of from eleven to twelve million.[60] She has thus scarcely four inhabitants to every square mile of her surface, while England has upwards of four hundred. Vast forests still darken her soil, and the wild luxuriance of tropical undergrowth renders them well-nigh impervious to man. There are boundless expanses of wilderness imperfectly explored, still roamed over by untamed and often hostile Indians. Persistent but not eminently successful efforts have been made to induce European and now to induce Chinese immigration. The population continues, however, to increase at such a rate that it is larger by nearly two million than it was ten years ago. But these accessions are trivial when viewed in relation to the work which has still to be accomplished. It is said that no more than the one hundred and fiftieth part of the agricultural resources of Brazil has yet been developed or even revealed. The agricultural products of the country, in so far as the amount of these can be tested by the amount exported, do not exhibit any tendency to increase.[61]

Brazil is afflicted not merely by an insufficient population, but still more by the reluctance of her people to undergo the fatigues of agricultural labour in the exhausting heat of her sultry plains. The coloured population choose other occupations, and flock to the cities. Once they were held by compulsion to field-work. Slavery was maintained in Brazil after it had been abandoned by all other Christian States. Not till 1871 was Brazil shamed out of the iniquitous system. In that year it was enacted that the children of slave women should be free--subject, however, to an apprenticeship of twenty-one years, during which they must labour for the owners of their mothers. Since that law was passed, there has been voluntary emancipation to a considerable extent; and the slaves in Brazil, who numbered at one time two and a half million, are now about one million.[62] The freedmen shun field-work, and the places which they quit are scarcely filled by immigration or natural increase. Agricultural progress is thus frustrated--an evil which will probably be felt still more acutely as the emancipation of the negroes draws towards its completion. No sufficient remedy for this evil can be hoped for so long as any remnants of slavery linger on the soil.

The Brazilian Legislature is elected by the people, the qualification of a voter being an annual income of twenty pounds. Three candidates for the office of Senator are chosen by each constituency, and the Emperor determines which of the three shall gain the appointment. The members of the Lower House are chosen by indirect election. Every thirty voters choose an elector, and the electors thus chosen appoint the deputies. The exercise of the right of voting is compulsory; neglect to vote is punished by the infliction of penalties. Each of the twenty provinces into which the empire is divided has its own Legislature, with a President appointed by the general Government. The powers exercised by the provincial governments are necessarily large.

The constitution confers upon the Emperor a “moderating power,” which enables him, when he chooses, to frustrate the wishes of his Chambers. He may dismiss a minister who has large majorities in both Houses; he may withhold his sanction from measures which have been enacted by the Legislature. Brazil has no hereditary nobility; but there is a lavish distribution of distinctions which endure only for the lifetime of the recipient. It is held that the power of bestowing these coveted honours invests the Emperor with a measure of authority which is not unattended with danger to the public liberties.

But the career of the Brazilian Empire has been marked in large measure by tranquillity and progress, and the masses of the people manifest no desire for change. They have suffered from foreign war[63] and from domestic strife; but their sufferings have been trivial when compared with those of the Spanish States which adjoin them. Thus far their quiet and unadventurous Government has given them repose, and thus far they are satisfied. Three-fourths of the Brazilian people are of mixed race, the leading elements in which are Indian and Negro. They are profoundly ignorant; for although compulsory education has been enacted, its progress is yet inconsiderable.[64] What the awakened intellect of the Brazilian nation may in future years demand is beyond human forecast. It is not probable that the political combinations which an ignorant and indolent people have accepted at the hand of their rulers will continue to satisfy when the national mind casts aside its apathy. Brazil will be more fortunate than other States if she attain to a stable political condition otherwise than by the familiar path of civil contention and bloodshed.

* * * * *

It has been said by Mr. Bright that there is no event in history, ancient or modern, which for grandeur and for permanence can compare with the discovery of the American Continent by Christopher Columbus. This is a large claim, but indisputably a just one. The discovery of America ushered in an epoch wholly different from any which had preceded it. Nearly one-third of the area of our world was practically worthless to the human family--wandered over by savages who supported their unprofitable lives by the slaughter of animals scarcely more savage than themselves. Suddenly the lost continent is found, and its incalculable wealth is added to the sum of human possessions. Europe supported with difficulty, by her rude processes of agriculture, even the scanty population which she contained; here were homes and maintenance sufficient for all. Europe was governed by methods yet more barbarous than her agriculture; here was an arena worthy of the great experiment of human freedom on which the best of her people longed to enter. Europe was committed to many old and injurious institutions--the legacy of the darkest ages--no one of which could be overthrown save by wasteful strife; here, free from the embarrassments which time and error had created, there could be established the institutions which the wants of new generations called for, and Europe could inform herself of their quality before she proceeded to their adoption. The human family was very poor; its lower classes were crushed down by poverty into wretchedness and vice. At once the common heritage was enormously increased, and possibilities of well-being not dreamed of before were opened to all. The brave heart of Columbus beat high as he looked out from the deck of his little ship upon the shores of a new world, and felt with solemn thankfulness that God had chosen him to accomplish a great work. We recognize in this lonely, much-enduring man, the grandest human benefactor whom the race has ever known. Behind him lay centuries of oppression and suffering, and ignorance and debasement. Before him, unseen by the eye of man, there stretched out, as the result of his triumph, the slow but steadfast evolution of influences destined to transform the world.

It fell to three European States, whose united area was scarcely larger than one-fortieth part of the American Continents, to complete the work which Columbus had begun; to preside over and direct the vast revolution which his work rendered inevitable. England, Spain, and Portugal were able to possess themselves of the lands which lie between the Atlantic and the Pacific; and they assumed the responsibility of shaping out the future of the nations by which those lands must ultimately be peopled. They entered upon the momentous task under the influence of motives which were exclusively selfish. A magnificent prize had come into their hands; their sole concern was to extract from it the largest possible advantage to themselves. These enormous possessions were to remain for ever colonial dependencies; their inhabitants were to remain for ever in the imperfect condition of colonists--men who labour partly for their own benefit, but still more for that of the mother country. The European owners of America were alike in the selfishness of their aims, in their utter misconception of the trust which had devolved upon them. But they differed widely in regard to the methods by which they sought to give effect to their purposes; and the difference of result has been correspondingly great.

The American colonies of England were founded by the best and wisest men she possessed--men imbued with a passionate love of liberty, and resolute in its defence. These men went forth to find homes in the New World, and to maintain themselves by honest labour. England laid unjust restrictions upon their commerce, and suppressed their manufactures, that she herself might profit by the supply of their wants. But so long as her merchants gathered in the gain of colonial traffic, she suffered the government of the colonies to be guided by the free spirit of her own institutions. The colonists conducted their own public affairs, and gained thus the skill and moderation which the work of self-government demands. In course of years they renounced allegiance to the mother country, and founded an independent government, under which no privileged class exists, and the equality of human rights is asserted and maintained. To-day the English colonies form one of the greatest nations on the Earth, with a population of fifty million, educated, in the enjoyment of every political right, more amply endowed than any other people have ever been with the elements of material well-being.

In the progress by which the English colonies in America have advanced to the commanding position which they now occupy, they have given forth lessons of inestimable value to Europe. At a very early period in her history there came back from America influences powerful to overthrow the evils which men had fled there to avoid. The liberty of conscience over which the early Pilgrims never ceased to exult, not only drew many to follow them, but emboldened those who remained for the successful assertion of their rights. The vindication by the colonists of their political independence quickened all free impulses in Europe, and prepared the fall of despotic government. Europe watched the rising greatness of a nation in which all men had part in framing the laws under which they lived; in which perfect freedom and equality of opportunity were enjoyed by all; in which religion was becomingly upheld by the spontaneous liberality of the individual worshippers; in which standing armies were practically unknown, and the substance of the people was not wasted on military preparations. Throughout the long and bitter contest in which Western Europe vanquished despotism, the example of America confirmed the growing belief that liberty was essential to the welfare of man, and strengthened every patriot heart for the efforts and the sacrifices which the noble enterprise demanded.

The history of Spanish America presents, in nearly every respect, a striking and gloomy contrast to that of the Northern Continent. The Spanish conquerors were men of unsurpassed capability in battle; but they were cruel, superstitious, profoundly ignorant. They went to the New World with the purpose of acquiring by force or by fraud the gold and precious stones in which the continent was rich, and then of hastening homeward to live splendidly in Spain. In their greedy search, they trampled down the native population with a murderous cruelty which is a reproach to the human name. The natives, on the other hand, were oppressed by the home Government. Their commerce was fettered; no influence was permitted to them in the conduct of their own public affairs; no action was taken to dispel the ignorance which brooded over the ill-fated continent. They learned to hate the Government which thus abused its trust; and when they rose in arms for its overthrow, they disclosed an untamed ferocity which the conquerors themselves scarcely surpassed. Their half century of independence has been filled with destructive civil wars, which have hindered and almost forbidden progress.

In Spanish hands this fair region has failed to contribute, in any substantial measure, to the welfare of mankind. This portion of the gift which Columbus brought fell into incapable hands, and has been rendered almost worthless. It may reasonably be hoped that a better future is in store for Spanish America; but its past must be regarded as a gigantic failure. Its people have taught the world nothing. They have served the world by a history which is rich in warning but void of example.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES

[23] The great cypress-tree, behind which Cortes hid himself at one period during the Noche Trista, still retains some measure of vitality. Beside it stands “The Church of the Sad Night.” A tramway line runs to the temple at Tacuba, where he is said to have reviewed his troops next day. Part of the temple was removed to give space for the tramway.

[24] Bernal Diaz.

[25] See page 434.

[26] It has been estimated that the ransom paid by the Inca would be equal, when the greater value of money at that time is allowed for, to three or four million sterling at the present day. It yielded a sum equal for each foot-soldier to £4000, and for each horseman to £8800.

[27] The prisoner was charged with having usurped the crown and assassinated his brother; with having squandered the revenues of the country; with idolatry and polygamy; with attempting to incite insurrection against the Spaniards.

[28] The gallant De Soto, in later years the discoverer of the Mississippi, was absent from the camp when Atahualpa was put to death. On his return he reproached his chief for the unhappy transaction, and maintained that the Inca had been basely slandered. Pizarro, seemingly penitent, admitted that he had been precipitate.

[29] No Inca inhabited the palace of his predecessor; each built for himself.

[30] In this, however, the Mexicans were not greatly more savage than the Spaniards. After the fall of Mexico, Cortes dismissed his Indian allies with various gifts, among which were many bodies of slain enemies, carefully salted for preservation.

[31] A regulation laid down by the Royal Order of 1601 illustrates the spirit which pervades Spanish legislation. Leave is given to employ Indians in the cultivation of coca. But inasmuch as coca is grown in rainy districts and on humid ground, and the Indians in consequence become ill, the master of the plantation is forbidden, under penalties, to allow Indians to begin work until they are provided with a change of clothes.

[32] This neglect was continued almost to the close. The Duke of Newcastle, who had charge of the colonies during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration, neglected his duties so entirely that he ceased even to read the letters which came to him from America. “It would not be credited what reams of paper, representations, memorials, petitions from that quarter of the world lay mouldering and unopened in his office.”

[33] This intolerable exaction was in course of time reduced to one-fifth, and finally to one-twentieth.

[34] These were increased to four, and finally to six, as the colonies became more populous.

[35] This tribute varied in the different provinces. In Mexico it was about four shillings annually, levied on every male between eighteen and fifty years of age. It produced latterly about half a million sterling from all the colonies, and was collected with difficulty, owing to the extreme poverty of the Indians.

[36] A suggestion of which the good man bitterly repented, when the enormous evils which sprang from it began to develop themselves.

[37] Cromwell interested himself much in the welfare of this island. Thirty years after the Pilgrim Fathers had settled in Massachusetts, he invited them to remove to Jamaica. But the Fathers declined to renew their pilgrimage; they wisely elected to remain where Providence had led them, and where their descendants were destined to become a great nation.

[38] A Bill was, however, passed in 1873 for the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.

[39] This was the population according to the enumeration of 1867. It has been seriously diminished by the war which began in the following year; but the amount of loss has not been accurately ascertained.

[40] The expenditure of 1878 was £16,000,000, while the revenue did not exceed £11,000,000.

[41] The Cuban paper currency amounts to £13,000,000. Great Britain would be in the same position if she had an inconvertible and depreciated currency of £450,000,000.

[42] In Venezuela, where writing was almost unknown, it was necessary to allow votes to be given orally. For weeks before an election the priests taught their list of candidates as a school exercise to Indians and other ignorant persons who were under their influence.

[43] An incident in this defeat reminds us of one of the remarkable conditions of tropical warfare. The routed Conservatives were driven towards a broad river swarming with alligators. These savage creatures were probably less terrible than the victorious Liberals. The fugitives took to the river, where, it is told, they suffered heavy loss from the alligators.

[44] President Blanco asks from his Congress (May 1876) a law which shall “declare the Church of Venezuela independent of the Roman Episcopate, and order that parish priests shall be elected by the faithful, the bishops by the rectors of parishes, and archbishops by Congress, returning to the usage of the primitive Church, founded by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.” Congress replies: “Faithful to our duties, our convictions, and the holy doctrines of the religion of Jesus, we do not hesitate to emancipate the Church of Venezuela from that Episcopate which pretends, as an infallible and omnipotent power, to absorb the vitality of a free people.” The leading newspaper of Venezuela discriminates with equal accuracy between the Papacy and Christianity--between “the genuine religion of Christ and those adulterations of his law which substitute the reign of vanity, pride, and contempt for mankind, for the doctrine of gentleness, meekness, and love.”

[45] Amounting in value to forty million sterling.

[46] The depth of this ignorance is illustrated by the circumstance that the Mexican post-office carries annually one letter for each five of the population. The English post-office carries thirty-five letters for each of the population.

[47] In twenty-two years (from 1855 to 1877) her foreign commerce--imports and exports together--had doubled, rising from seven and a half to fifteen million sterling.

[48] Chili was wise enough to offer the command of her fleet during this struggle to an English hero whom a less wise but scarcely more ungrateful English Government had wronged and cast out. Lord Cochrane, who combined in a singular degree prudence with daring, performed so many marvellous achievements that the terror of his name seemed to paralyze the enemy. Ultimately, with the inconsiderable force under his command, he drove the Spanish fleet away, and was supreme on the Chilian coast.

[49] The debt of Paraguay is £117,000,000.

[50] The Dictator himself perished by the lance of a Brazilian soldier.

[51] Some of his achievements were eminently fitted to bind to his cause a rude and daring people. Standing once over a gateway, through which a troop of wild horses were being driven at full speed, he dropped on to the back of one previously selected. He bore in his hand a leathern rein, which he fastened securely round the mouth of the terrified and madly-galloping horse; and in half-an-hour he rode back, the animal now trembling and subdued.

[52] Rosas made his way to England, where he spent the remaining twenty-six years of his life.

[53] It has been said, with pardonable exaggeration, that “the Argentine Republic consists of the province of Buenos Ayres and thirteen mud-huts.” The thirteen provinces are so poor that for many years regular monthly remittances have been sent them from Buenos Ayres to defray the expense of the local governments.

[54] So soon as the rebuilding of the city of Mexico was accomplished, in 1524, Cortes applied to the Emperor to send him godly men who should instruct the natives in the truths of religion. He makes it a special request that sumptuous ecclesiastics, who wasted the substance of the Church in riotous living, should not be inflicted on him. Twelve Dominican and twelve Franciscan friars were sent, and Cortes was able to convene a synod of thirty-one persons to take counsel regarding the spiritual welfare of his subjects.

[55] Peter reported of his pupils that “they learn quickly, fast precisely, and pray fervently.”

[56] It is the same with the great mass of the coloured population of Hayti. While avowedly Catholic, they are in reality faithful to the superstitions which their forefathers brought from Africa. They worship the great serpent without poison, and withdraw secretly into the forest to celebrate religious festivals at which human victims are sacrificed and eaten.

[57] There were in all fifteen thousand persons; and it was said that they carried with them one-half the coinage then in circulation in Portugal.

[58] He also ordered a printing-press to be purchased in England at a cost of £100. No such apparatus had heretofore existed within Brazilian territory.

[59] The area of Europe is 3,848,000 square miles; that of Brazil is 3,287,000 square miles, although some estimates place it much higher.

[60] Of these, it is officially estimated that one million are untamed Indians without any fixed place of abode.

[61] The imports of Brazil are £19,000,000; her exports, £21,000,000.

[62] This is the statement made by Government. The Abolitionists, however, accuse the Government of acting in bad faith regarding emancipation, and assert that the number of slaves has not diminished.

[63] The Paraguayan War cost Brazil £50,000,000.

[64] In 1874 the public schools were attended by only one hundred and forty thousand pupils.

INDEX.

Abraham, Heights of, 79, 344, 345.

Acts of the English Parliament, Burning of, 84.

Adams, Samuel, 90.

Agriculture in Canada, 429.

Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 73.

Alabama, The, 279;
Settlement of the Dispute, 280, 281.

Alatamaha, The, 55.

Alexander, William, Lord Stirling, 115.

Alexandria, 75, 76, 211, 212.

Almagro, 451, 458, 459, 464.

Alvarado, Pedro de, 447, 450.

America, British, The Six Colonies of, 394.

America, Discovery of, by Columbus, 13;
by the Cabots, 14.

Amsterdam, New, 48.

Anderson, Major, 206.

André, Major, 124.

Annapolis (Port Royal), 401.

Anna, Santa, Mexican Commander, 174.

Antietam, Battle of, 228.

Anti-Slavery Society, Formation of, 167.

Argall, Samuel, 337.

Argentine Confederation, The, 531.

Arkansas, 184.

Arkwright, Richard, 81, 155, 288.

Arlington Heights, 212.

Arnold, Commander of West Point, 123.

Atahualpa, Inca of Peru, 455, 460.

Atlanta, Capture of, 247.

Augustine First, Emperor of Mexico, 516.

Ayacucho, Battle of, 506.

Baptists, Persecution of, 40.

Barbadoes, 506.

Beauregard, General, 212.

Bladensburg, 148.

Blanco, Guzman, 515, 516.

Bland Silver Bill, The, 303.

Blockade of Southern Ports, 212, 231.

Board of Trade, Government of the Colonies by the, 360.

Bolivar, Don Simon, 501, 505, 514.

Booth, Murderer of Pres. Lincoln, 257.

Boston, 29, 38, 45;
Boston Common, 86, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 146, 167, 209.

“Boston Massacre,” The, 89.

Braddock, General, 75, 339, 340.

Brandywine River, 115.

Brébœuf, Jean de, 326, 328, 332.

Brewster, 29, 36.

Brock, General, 369.

Broke, Captain, 146.

Brooklyn, Engagement at, 108.

Brown, The Honourable George, 395, 396.

Brunswick, Duke of, 107.

Buccaneer, Origin of the word, 489.

Buchanan, President, 200.

Buenos Ayres, 528, 529.

Buena-Vista, Battle of, 174.

Bunker Hill, fortified by the Americans, 97;
taken by the English, 99, 100.

Burgoyne, General, 97, 117.

Burke, Edmund, 72, 86, 91.

Burnside, General, 229.

Cabot, John and Sebastian, 14, 311, 440.

Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, 545.

Calhoun, John C., 161.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 98, 99, 100.

Canada, 73;
Invasion of, 78;
ceded to England, 80;
appealed to by the States, 93;
invaded by the Americans, 145;
the Founder of, 318;
Original Extent, 321;
Climate and Animals, 322;
Early Inhabitants, 323;
a British Possession, 346;
Revenue and Exports, 349;
Progress of, 355;
Government, 359, 374;
Population, 359 _n._;
the Quebec Act, 360;
Invasion of by Americans, 362;
Increase of Population, 366, 373;
Pitt’s Bill, 367;
another American Invasion, 368;
Education in Lower, 374;
in Upper, 375;
Union of the Two Provinces, 387;
Effects of Free Trade, 389;
Grand Trunk Railway, 393;
Financial Position, 393;
The Dominion, 397;
its Political Constitution, 398;
Area and Population, 426;
Commerce, 427;
the Lumber Trade, 428;
Agriculture, 429;
Fisheries, 430;
Mercantile Navy, 430;
Taxation, 430;
the Educational System, 433.

Cape Breton, taken by the English, 341, 401.

Cape Cod Bay, 31.

Carabobo, Bolivar’s Victory at, 502.

Carleton, Governor of Canada, 362.

Carolina, North, 54, 81, 96, 121.

Carolina, South, 54, 61, 81, 121, 159, 196.

Cartier, Jacques, 314, 315.

“Carting, The Inconvenient Habit of,” 84.

Carver, John, 32.

Cassamarca, a City of Peru, 460.

Census, The American, of 1860, 190;
of 1870, 275;
of 1880, 303.

Census of Canada, 1831, 378.

Champlain, Samuel de, 317-321.

Chancellorsville, Fighting at, 235.

Charles I. of England, 33.

Charles II. of England, 65.

Charles V. of Spain, 59.

Charleston, 196.

Chesapeake Bay, 127.

_Chesapeake_, The Frigate, 146.

Chili, 523, 524.

Cholula, Massacre at, 444.

Christian Commission, The, 268.

Civil Service Reform, 304.

Clay, Henry, 177, 184.

“Clergy Reserves,” The, 376, 391.

Clinton, General, 97, 123, 127.

Coalition Government, The Canadian, of 1864, 396.

Cochrane, Lord, 523 _n._

Colombia, The Republic of, 514.

Colonial Department of English Government, 360.

Colonies, The Four United, of New England, 37.

Colonization, American, the Result of Oppression in Europe, 21.

Columbia, British, 423, 424.

Columbus, Christopher, 12, 439, 475, 479, 486, 553.

Commerce, American, Restrictions on, 85.

Compass, The Mariner’s, 12.

Concord, The Village of, 94, 95.

Confederacy, The States of the, 197.

Congress, 87, 92, 101, 105, 110, 111, 118, 122, 129, 130, 132, 138.

Connecticut, 37, 54, 96, 168.

Convention of Delegates from the Thirteen Original States, 134.

Cook, James, the Navigator, 78.

Cornwallis, Lord, 115, 127, 128.

Cortes, Hernando, 442-446, 448, 449.

Cromwell, Oliver, 33, 38, 65.

Crown Point, The Capture of, 362.

Cuba, 507-510.

Cusco, the Capital of Peru, 460, 462, 463.

Darien, The Spanish Settlement of, 440.

Davis, Jefferson, 197, 201, 202, 252, 253, 262.

Debt, The War, of the General Government and of the States, 139;
at the Close of the Federal War, 276.

Debtors and the English Law, 55.

Declaration of Independence, 72, 152.

Delaware, Lord, 26.

Delaware River, 52, 53.

Delaware State, 54, 105.

De Leon, Ponce, Expedition of, 15.

Delfthaven, 30.

De Luque, 451, 453.

De Soto, Ferdinand, Expedition of, 15-17.

Dickenson, John, 93.

Dorchester, The Heights of, 102.

Dufferin, Lord, Viceroy of Canada, 434.

Du Quesne, Fort (Pittsburg), taken, 341.

Early, General, 247.

East India Company sends Tea to America, 89;
The Tea thrown into the Sea, 91.

Ebenezer, The Town, 56.

Ecuador, 514.

Education, Progress of, in New England, 36, 82;
in Southern States, 82;
in the Union, 293-298;
in Canada, 351, 374, 375, 433.

Elgin, Lord, Governor-General of Canada, 388, 390.

Eliot, John, Apostle of the Indians, 47.

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 60.

English, Early Settlements of the, 333;
Wars with French Settlers, 338, 340;
Conquests of, 342.

Erie, Lake, Naval Fight on, 370.

Exports, American, Restrictions on, 85.

Exports of America, The, 291, 292.

Falmouth, 44.

Family Compact (Canadian), 376, 381.

Farming, American, 284.

Farragut, Admiral, 222.

Federal Army, Disbanding of the, 263.

Feudalism in Canada, 350;
Abolished, 391.

Fisheries of Canada, 430.

Florida, its Discovery, 15;
ceded to England, 80.

Fort Detroit, 145.

Fort Du Quesne, 75.

Fort Necessity, 74.

Fort Pitt, 76.

Fort Sumpter, Bombardment of, 206.

Fox, George, 42.

France, American Possessions of, 15, 73;
her Sympathy with America, 112;
her Treaty with America against England, 120;
her Aid to America, 127;
Surrender of her Possessions, 346.

Francia, Dr., Dictator of Paraguay, 526.

Franklin, Benjamin, 71, 72, 76, 84, 86, 115, 120, 134, 159.

Frederick of Prussia, 107.

Fredericksburg, Disaster at, 229.

Freedmen’s Bureau, 249.

Fremont, General, 225.

French, The, in Canada, 315, 316, 320, 321, 341, 342.

Frobisher, Martin, 312.

Gage, General, 91, 94, 97, 98, 101.

Garfield, President James, 303-308.

Garibaldi, Defender of Monte Video, 529.

Garrison, William Lloyd, 167.

Gates, General, 118.

General Government, Powers of the, 136.

George II., 55.

George III., 87, 94, 129.

Georgia, 54, 61, 81, 92, 96, 121, 159.

Germantown, 115.

Gettysburg, Battle of, 237, 238.

Ghent, Treaty of, 150.

Gibraltar, besieged by Spain, 121.

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 313.

Goree, 121.

Gourlay, Robert, 377.

Granada, 121.

Grant, General, 174, 222, 232, 243, 252, 254;
President, 273, 304.

Greene, General, 127.

Grenville, Lord, 85, 86.

Guatemala, 450.

Gulf Stream, 14.

Haerlem, 109.

Halifax, Foundation of, 402.

Hamilton, Alexander, 132, 133, 139, 159.

Hampden, John, 33.

Harper’s Ferry, 187, 188, 228.

Harvard College, 36.

Hawkins, Sir John, 60.

Hayes, President R. B., 303.

Henry, Patrick, 92, 159.

Henry VII. of England, 311.

Hochelaga, 314.

Homestead Act, The, 230.

Hooker, General, 234, 236.

House of Representatives, Composition of the, 136.

Houston, General, 171.

Howard, General, 249.

Howe, General, 97, 101, 103, 107, 121.

Howe, Lord, 107, 108, 110.

Hudson Bay Company, 411-416.

Hull, General, 145, 369.

Huron Mission, The, 328-331.

Imports of America, their Value before the Revolution, 82;
Restrictions on, 82, 86, 89, 290.

Impressment, Results of, 142.

Independence, Declaration of, 105, 106.

Indians, The Huron, 318, 328, 332;
the Iroquois, 318, 331, 338;
Canadian, present Condition of, 431-433;
Central American, 467;
Mexican, 467-469;
Peruvian, 469-472.

Jackson, General, 151, 167.

Jackson, General Thomas,--“Stonewall Jackson,”--217, 234, 235.

Jamaica, 506.

James II., 65.

Jamestown founded, 23.

Jefferson, Thomas, 159.

Johnson, President, 264;
Impeachment of, 272.

Johnston, General, 233.

Juarez, Benito, 518-520.

Kentucky, 160.

Labrador, Discovery of by the Cabots, 14.

Lafayette, Marquis de, 112, 113, 153.

La Galissonnière, Compte de, 335.

La Salle, Sieur de, 334.

Las Casas, Bartholomew de, “Protector of the Indians,” 476-478.

Laud, Archbishop, 33.

Lawrence, Captain, 146.

Lawrence, The Town, 180.

Lee, General Robert E., 174, 217, 228, 234, 238, 244, 254.

Lee, Richard Henry, 92.

Lexington, Skirmish at, 94.

Lightning, Franklin’s Discovery, 72.

Lima, founded by Pizarro, 462.

Lincoln, President Abraham, 174, 193-195, 200, 201, 204, 225, 241,
250, 256.

Lok, John, 60.

Long Island, 49.

Lopez, Carlos, Dictator of Paraguay, 527.

Louisburg, taken by the English, 341, 401.

Louisiana, 73, 157.

Lovejoy, Mr., 168.

Lumber Trade, 428.

Lundy’s Lane, Battle of, 371.

Luther, Martin, 14.

Mackenzie, William Lyon, 381, 384.

Manassas, Battle at, 213, 228.

Manhattan Island, 48.

Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 67.

Maryland, 54, 184.

Massachusetts, 37, 39, 45, 47, 54, 88, 91, 130.

_Mayflower_, The, 31, 32, 58.

Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 520-522.

M’Clellan, General George B., 216, 219, 225, 228, 229, 250.

M’Dowell, General, 213.

Meade, General, 236.

“Mean Whites” of the Southern States, 180.

Mexico, 175, 176, 445, 449, 473, 516, 519, 520-522.

Milton, John, 33, 38.

Miranda, Francis, 500, 501.

Mississippi, Discovery of the, 16.

Monetary Panic of 1873, 275.

_Monitor_, The Turret-Ship, 221.

Monopolies in Canada, 351.

Montcalm, Marquis de, 79, 340, 342, 343.

Monte Video, 529.

Montezuma, King of Mexico, 443, 446.

Montgomery, The City of, 216.

Montreal, Capture of, by the Americans, 362;
Evacuation of, 363;
Attempt by the Americans to seize, 369, 370;
Progress of, 379;
Political Disturbances at, 383;
ceases to be the Seat of Government, 388.

Mount Vernon, 131.

Navy, The Mercantile, of Canada, 430.

Neck, Boston, 97;
Charlestown, 97, 99.

New Brunswick, Progress and Resources of, 404;
Settlement of the Boundary, 405.

New England States, Early Government of, 65;
Commerce of, 81;
Educational System of, 82;
Riots in, 86;
Muster of Men at Boston, 96;
wrested from England, 103;
invaded by a British Army, 117.

Newfoundland, 311, 321;
taken Possession of by England, 406, 407;
Area and Population of, 407;
the Natives of, 408;
Resources of, 408.

New Granada, 514.

New Hampshire, 54.

New Haven, 37.

New Jersey, its Acquisition, 50, 54.

New Orleans, 150, 222.

New Plymouth founded, 31.

New World, The, 312, 313, 333.

New York, 48, 50, 53, 54, 66, 81, 87, 89, 107, 109, 121, 150.

North, Lord, 91.

Nova Scotia (Acadie), a Possession of France, 321, 400;
a Possession of England, 338, 401;
Progress and Resources of, 402, 403.

Oglethorpe, James, 54

Ohio, Valley of the, 73.

Ontario, Lake, 365.

Ordinance of the Convention of South Carolina, dissolving the Union, 196.

Ottawa, 389.

Pacific Ocean, Discovery of, 441.

Paez, General, 515.

Paine, Thomas, 105.

Pakenham, Sir Edward, 150.

Papineau, Louis Joseph, 383.

Paraguay, 526-528.

Paris, Mr., 44.

Paul Jones, 121.

Paul le Jeune, Father, 326.

Pea Ridge, Battle of, 222.

Peninsula, The, 219.

Pennsylvania, 54, 66, 81, 105, 130.

Penn, William, 51, 52, 66.

Penobscot Bay, 337.

Perrot, Nicholas, 334.

Peru, 455, 524-526.

Petersburg, Siege of, 245.

Philadelphia, 52, 53, 71, 89, 92, 110, 115, 121, 133, 168.

Pilgrim Fathers, their leaving England, 29;
Settlement in Holland, 29;
Removal to New England, 31;
their Hardships after landing, 32;
their Political Constitution, 32;
their Reinforcements from England, 34;
their Peculiarities, 35;
their Virtues, 35.

Pitcairn, Major, 94.

Pittsburg, 76.

Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 78, 82, 87, 88, 91, 92.

Pizarro, Fernando, 462, 464.

Pizarro, Juan, 463.

Pizarro, Gonzalo, 464, 465.

Pizarro, Francisco, the Discoverer of Peru, 441, 451, 464.

Plymouth, 37.

Pocahontas, 24.

Polk, President, 173.

Pope, General, 228.

Port Hudson, Reduction of, 232.

Port Royal, Capture of, 222.

Potomac, 71.

Prescott, Colonel, 98.

President, Election and Powers of, 137.

Princeton, 111.

Protective Tariff, 289.

Providence, The City of, 39.

Puerto Rico, 507.

Putnam, Israel, 96, 98, 99, 108.

Quakers, Persecution of, 40, 41;
Beliefs and Character, 42;
Loyalty of, 105.

Quebec, 78-80;
First Occupants of, 315;
the French Capital, 318;
taken by England, 320;
regained by France, 321;
held by Montcalm, 342;
besieged by Wolfe, 343;
surrendered to the English, 346;
Population of, 349;
Siege of, by the Americans, 363;
Progress of, 379;
Meeting of Delegates at, 396.

Railway, The Atlantic and Pacific, 285.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 22.

Rapidan, Crossing of the, 244.

Rappahannock, The Heights of the, 229.

Reciprocity Treaty, The, 390.

Red River, The Settlement at, 414, 416, 418-420.

Rhode Island, State of, founded, 39, 54.

Richmond, City of, 217, 219, 253.

Riel, Louis, 416, 417, 421.

Rio de Janeiro, 546.

Rivadavia, President-General, 528.

Robinson, 29, 30.

Rosas, General, 529, and _note_.

Ross, General, 148.

Routledge, John, 92.

Russell, Lord John, and Canada, 385, 386.

Sacramento, The, 176.

Salem, 39, 44.

Sanitary Commission, 267.

San Miguel, 453.

Santa Anna, President of Mexico, 517.

Saratoga, The Surrender at, 117.

Savannah, The River, 55;
the Town of, 56, 57;
Capture of, 247.

Scott, General, 174.

Scrooby, The Town of, 28.

Selkirk, Lord, his Colony, 414.

Senate, Composition of the, 136.

Senegal, 121.

Seward, William H., 205, 257.

Shakamaxon, 53.

_Shannon_, The War-Ship, 146.

Shenandoah, Valley of the, 247.

Sheridan, General, 247, 252.

Sherman, General, 246, 252.

Sierra Leone, 60.

Slaves, English, sold in Virginia, 26.

Slave Law, The Fugitive, 178.

Slavery, forbidden in Georgia, but afterwards allowed, 57;
the first great Contest regarding, 165;
the second, 171;
the third, 180;
War in Defence of, 198;
Abolition of, 225, 226, 248, 249.

Slaves, Negro, First landing of, in America, 58;
Importation of, begun by Spain, 59;
carried on by Portugal, 60;
by England, 60;
Provision of the American Constitution regarding, 61;
English Legislation, regarding the Trade in, 62;
Declaration of English Bishops and Crown Lawyers regarding the
holding of, 63;
the sufferings of, 62;
Enactment of Congress regarding the Importation of, 61;
the Rights of, 265;
the Education of, 294.

Smith, John, 23.

Southern States recognized as a belligerent Power by England, 279.

Spain, Dominions of, in the West, 465, 488, 489, 495, 496, 499.

Spain, her Treaty with America against England, 120.

Springfield, Burial-place of President Lincoln, 258.

Stamp Act, The, 72, 86, 87.

Staten Island, 108.

States, The Secession, 197, 208.

St. Domingo, 60, 507.

Stephens, Alexander H, 202.

St. John, Island of, 341.

St. Lawrence, Discovery of the, 314.

Stuart, George H., 268.

Stuyvesant, Petrus, 49.

St. Vincent, Island of, 121.

Subjects, English and American, The Law relating to, 142.

Sumner, Charles, 191.

Taxation, American, 284, and _note_.

Taxation in Canada, 430.

Taxes imposed on the Americans by the English Parliament, 85, 88.

Taylor, General, 174.

Tiascalans, Overthrow of the, 444.

Ticonderoga, Capture of, 362.

Tobacco, 26, 190.

Townshend, Charles, 88.

_Trent_, British Mail-Steamer, boarded by the Americans, 279.

Trenton, 110.

Tripoli, Expedition against, 140.

Union Bill, The Canadian, 387.

United States, The, 54, 81, 133, 137, 152, 182, 273.

Valley Forge, 116.

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, 440.

Venezuela, the Confederation of, 500;
the State of, 514, 515.

Verazzani, John, 313.

Vicksburg, Reduction of, 232, 233.

Virginia, 54, 65, 74, 81, 96, 127, 160, 184, 212, 251, 337.

_Virginia_, Iron-clad Frigate, 220.

Wall Street, 49.

Walpole, Sir Robert, 54, 85.

Washington, Capital of the Union, capture of, by the British, 149;
threatened by the Confederates, 211, 228.

Washington, George, 68-70, 74, 75, 92, 93, 100, 101, 102, 106, 107,
108, 109, 110, 111, 116, 121, 122, 125, 128, 130, 131, 134, 138,
140, 159.

Watt, James, 155.

Wesley, Charles, 56.

Wesley, John, 56.

West Point, 123.

Whitefield, George, 57.

Whitney, Eli, Inventor of Cotton-Gin, 155.

Wilderness, Federal Disaster in the, 234.

William, Prince of Orange, 30.

Williams, Roger, 38;
his Views on Religious Toleration, 39;
President of Rhode Island, 40.

Winnipeg Valley, 421, 422.

Wolfe, General, 78, 343-346.

Wolseley, Sir Garnet, Expedition to the Red River, 418.

York, Duke of, 66.

Yorktown, 127, 219.