Chapter I: Foreword

“Industrial and Commercial South America” has been prepared, as was the descriptive guide, “The South American Tour,” with the desire to aid in promoting acquaintance with South America and, as a natural sequence, friendship and trade.

As far as possible the facts have been gleaned from publications of the various Governments, in a few cases from those of our own, from high officials of many large companies, and from a few authoritative works. While I can hardly hope that despite all care and effort I have made no slip anywhere, I devoutly trust that no errors will be discovered of such magnitude as I have often noted in my reading of important publications and that any here detected will receive lenient criticism.

The vast amount of labor involved in the collection of data and the effort made to attain accuracy has been such that no time remained for rhetorical embellishment unless with delayed publication.

Great pains have been taken with spelling and accents, the correct use of the latter discovered with difficulty, as they are altogether omitted in many works and in others by no means to be depended upon. Yet they are most important for correct pronunciation.

In this text the spelling of some names varies by intention because the two spellings are frequent and authorized, and should therefore be familiar. Thus _Marowijne_ is the Dutch and _Maroni_ the English name for the same river. So _Suriname_ is spelled with and without the _e_.

South American names ending in either _s_ or _z_ are found, the _z_ common in older publications. The _s_ is a more recent style, taking the place of _z_ even in the middle of a word. Thus _Huaráz_ is also written _Huarás_ and even _Cuzco_, _Cusco_. But I drew the line there, as _Cuzco_ is too well established in English to make the new and uglier form desirable.

My spelling of _Chilian_ is consistent throughout. Formerly so spelled by all, _Chile_ being earlier written _Chili_, when the Spanish form of the name was here adopted many imagined that the adjective should be changed also. For this no reason appears, but the contrary. The accepted ending for adjectives of this nature is _ian_, unless euphony demands a different, as _Venezuelan_. Where the ending _ean_ is correctly employed as in _Andean_ and _European_, also _Caribbean_, which unhappily is often mispronounced, the _e_ is long and receives the accent. This would be proper in _Chilean_ as the _e_ in _Chileno_ receives the accent; but as a change in our pronunciation is unlikely, it is better to drop the final vowel and add the suffix _ian_ as is done in many other cases; thus _Italy_, _Italian_.

The frequent writing of _maté_ in English is absolutely wrong. It is never so printed in Spanish, though naturally in French; but to copy their form for a Spanish word is absurd. The word of course has two syllables, but is accented on the first; not on the last as the written accent would imply.

_Iguassú_ in Spanish is spelled _Iguazú_, but the Portuguese form has the right, because it is a Brazilian river, nowhere flowing in Argentina, and for a short distance only on the boundary. The Brazilian spelling should therefore be followed by us, and it has the advantage that it is more apt to be correctly pronounced.

Persons not undertaking the study of Spanish should at least learn the simple rules of pronunciation; the vowels having the ordinary continental sounds, the consonants in the main like our own, though in the middle of a word _b_ is generally pronounced like _v_, _d_ like _th_ in _this_ and _ll_ like _ly_. The rules for accent are easily remembered, names ending in a vowel being accented on the penult, those in a consonant, except _s_, _z_, and _n_, on the ultima, unless otherwise indicated by an accent.

The heedlessness of many Americans on such matters is notorious and inexcusable. Knowing the correct pronunciation they continue to mispronounce even an easy word. A notable illustration is Panamá, which many former residents of the Canal Zone and others here persist in calling the ugly _Pánama_ instead of the correct and agreeable _Panamá_. Although in English the accent is not generally used on this word or on Colón, Panamá is repeated throughout the book to emphasize the correct pronunciation.

It is hoped that other accents given will in general be found correct. It may however be said on Brazilian authority that the accents on Brazilian names are less important than in Spanish.

A considerable divergence in the date of statistics may be noted, for which there are several reasons. In some cases pre-war figures, in others figures for 1917 or 1918, seem to afford a fairer valuation; or they might be the only ones available. Some figures (often in the nearest round number) are given as late as 1921, but to bring all at the same time up to the moment was quite impossible. Great difficulty has been experienced in choosing between conflicting statements and figures. In one case three sets of figures of areas were presented by the same person, before I finally secured the most accurate.

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My grateful appreciation is due and my hearty thanks are here expressed to all who in any degree have helped by supplying or verifying data of whatever nature. Officials of the various countries and of many large companies evinced kindly interest in the work and gave freely of their time, few being too busy to afford information. The names are too numerous to mention, but I trust that all will feel assured that their courtesy was recognized and that the remembrance will be cherished.

CONTENTS

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