Surinam, from the river of that name, at the mouth of which stands Paramaribo, population 15,000. Dutch Guiana is inferior in population and progress to British Guiana, but still a thriving colony with a solvent and peaceful government.

Sect. LX. FRENCH GUIANA.

684. French Guiana is another strip of Guiana extending from the sea-coast back to the mountains, in its natural circumstances exactly similar to British and Dutch Guiana. But the French have little taste for colonization, and regard with horror this colony, used mainly as a place for transporting political criminals to; known better under the name of Cayenne, from the chief town of that name on a sandy flat by the sea. Its population is 5,000 and the climate very unhealthy.

Among other things capsicums are cultivated, whence is made red-pepper, often called therefore in England cayenne

pepper.

Sect. LXI. BRAZIL.

685. Brazil is as large as Europe, and it has been estimated that it could feed all the population now living in the world, such are its powers of vegetation and its climate. But only very small portions of it are inhabited at all. The Amazon in general flows through a gigantic forest; at each of the few distant spots where the steamboats call is a small clearance and an Indian village managed by a Roman Catholic priest: the boundless forest closes the village in on every side, nor is there any road or approach to it other than by the river.

The capital Rio Janeiro on the Atlantic coast, separated by 1,000 miles of uninhabited country from the Amazons, contains 300,000 inhabitants, and the country round it for some distance is well peopled. Bahia, the other chief port,

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population 125,000, is also a centre of population and imperfect civilisation. Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, contains 20,000 inhabitants. But the vast area of Brazil is in general absolutely uninhabited and very imperfectly known.

Besides the Amazon basin, the head-waters both of the Parana and the Paraguay are in Brazil. The chief mountains are the Organ mountains west of Rio, and the ranges west, of them; also the Parimè mountains, which form the northern boundary of Brazil.

The greater part of Brazil lies at a low level, and is intensely moist and hot with a profuse vegetation. Sugarcane, cotton, rice, and tobacco, are grown. On the middlelevel pastures vast herds of cattle roam. Gold and diamonds are the chief mineral produce.

There are 420 miles of railway open in Brazil; all short lines near the larger ports on the Atlantic coast.

The population, stated at about 9,000,000, is supposed to consist of 2,500,000 of whites, nearly 5,000,000 negroes and mulattoes, and 1,000,000 Red Indians. There are considerable numbers of German and Swiss emigrants settled in Brazil. Of the negroes 1,000,000 are still slaves, but the laws have arranged for the extinction of slavery in a few years.

Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese in A.D. 1500, and colonised by them about A.D. 1550. In 1808, when Portugal was overrun by Napoleon Buonaparte, the royal family of Portugal sailed away to Brazil for refuge. In 1822, the head of the Portuguese royal family remained in Brazil as Emperor, and allowed a representative in the female line to resume the crown of Portugal. In this way Brazil became completely independent without a revolution. Brazil has not suffered by civil war; and though the national debt is large, it is not bankrupt.

Sect. LXII. PERU.

686. Peru is bounded on the North by Ecuador; on the East by Brazil and Bolivia; on the South by Bolivia; on the West by the Pacific.

The Andes Cordillera runs through Peru parallel with its western frontier. Peru consists mainly of the narrow Pacific sea-board and the high plateau east of the Andes watershed, but there also belongs to Peru a densely-wooded slope to the banks of the Upper Amazon and its tributaries. The Pacific region west of the Andes is nearly rainless, and consequently nearly bare of trees. The valley of the Upper Amazon is, on the contrary, very rainy, and a vast jungle.

The population of Peru is chiefly collected at the temperate levels, and the principal agricultural produce is maize, potatoes, and yams. Cinchona bark is commonly called Peruvian bark, the Upper Amazon forests containing several species of Cinchona-trees that yield quinine. Peru is also the native country of the potato, and is the home (at high levels of the Andes) of the llama and alpaca.

Peru has for three centuries been famed for its mines of the precious metals, especially silver. Peru has, however, not produced silver very largely for some time, partly by reason of political anarchy, partly by reason that the best mines are in a desert region at high levels. The old Peruvian proverb runs, " He who mines for gold will be ruined ; he who mines for silver may live; he who mines for copper will make his fortune." Peru also owns the chief guano islands, and most of her public revenue has been derived of late years from an export duty on guano.

Peru has constructed some railways, mostly to connect the mines with the Pacific.

The chief town is Lima, population 70,000, distant only six miles from the port of Callao on the Pacific. Cuzco, population 45,000, the ancient capital of the Incas, is situated 11,400 feet above the level of the sea.

Three-fourths of the population of Peru is estimated to be Red Indian, the remainder Mestizo Spanish. Since the establishment of the Republic there has been much war in Peru The English agents estimate that the guano is now very nearly exhausted, and that when (within a year or two) this takes place nothing can hinder national bankruptcy.

Sect. LXIII. BOLIVIA.

687. Bolivia is bounded on the North by Peru; on the East by Brazil; on the South by the Argentine Republic; on the West by Peru and the Pacific. Bolivia possesses only a very narrow sea-border.

Bolivia in its situation and products greatly resembles Peru. The Andes traverse the country from north to south. West of their main range is a very large elevated plateau, 500 miles long, and averaging 13,000 feet above the sea. On the north and east the level of the country falls to the banks of the Madeira and La Plata, and here cacao and india-rubber are produced in a tropical climate.

The great plateau, in which is Lake Titiaca, is generally open, but in the lower levels are large forests, of the same character as the selvas of the Amazon.

Bolivia is, like Peru, rich in minerals, gold, silver, and especially copper. The mines of Potosi produced under Spanish rule 250,000,000l. of silver, but they have produced little under the anarchy of the Mestizo Republic. Bolivia also resembles Peru in possessing guano and cinchona-trees.

The population is supposed about 2,000,000, three-fourths of whom are more or less Indian, though 1,700,000 are returned as "white." No financial statement is attempted by the government, but the condition of the national purse is known to be very bad. Bolivia has had, however, rather less civil war than most of the Spanish Mestizo republics, and has executed one short railway from Lake Titiaca to the chief town La Paz, population 50,000. Oruro, population 8,000, has been made the political capital, because it is a fort.

Sect. LXIV. PARAGUAY.

688. Paraguay lies in the fork between the Paraguay and Parana rivers, and is thus bounded by Brazil on the East; by the Argentine Republic on the West and South. It is a low-lying country (compared with Bolivia or Peru), and produces sugar-cane, cotton, tobacco, manioc, and, in particular, Paraguay tea. This consists of the leaves of a kind of holly, which are dried like tea, and an infusion of them drunk in many parts of South America; though really a holly, the leaves contain theine.

The population is mainly Indian, and in the Spanish days Paraguay was celebrated as the seat of Jesuit missions. The Jesuits collected the Indians in villages, taught them the forms of Roman Catholic Christianity, and induced them to work as agricultural labourers, the Jesuit missionary himself, in fact, apportioning wages and food despotically.

Since Paraguay has become independent of Spain it has had a Republic and dictators, and has suffered from oppression and war to such an extent that the male population has been nearly swept away. The President was assassinated in April, 1877. The finances are in a hopeless state. The capital, Asuncion, contains 6,000 souls.

Sect. LXV. URUGUAY

689. Uruguay is bounded on the West by the River Uruguay; on the North by Brazil; on the East by the Atlantic; on the South by the Atlantic. It is a low-level country, and thus, while lying considerably outside the tropic, produces sugar-cane, cotton, and rice. But the interior, which is more elevated, consists of open plains, affording excellent pasturage, and the chief wealth of Uruguay is in cattle.

The capital is Monte Video, population 45,000. The inhabitants of Uruguay are mainly Mestizo. The government