The population in 1872 amounted to 10,108,291 negroes, mulattoes, and Europeans, besides about 1.000,000 aboriginal Indians, who are here proportionally fewer than in most parts of South America. Of the total pop. 1,510,806 were slaves. The Africans continued to be imported till 1834, and their amalgamation with the Europeans pro duced perhaps the finest variety of the mulatto in the world. A law for the gradual emancipation of the slaves was passed in 1871. It enacts that henceforth the children born of slave women shall be "considered of free condition," but bound to serve the owners of their mothers for the term of 21 years, under the name of apprentices. Roman Catholicism is the prevailing religion. Notwithstanding the recent efforts of the legislature for the advancement of education, it is still very defective. In 1874, the attendance at the public schools was only 140,000.
But physically, as well as politically and socially, B. differs in many respects from most of the other divisions of the new continent. It knows nothing of the volcanoes and earthquakes of the Pacific coast ; with winds blowing constantly from the Atlantic ocean, it is exempted from those droughts which are always blighting one or other of the slopes of the Andes, the remoter slope in Peru and Chili, and the nearer in Buenos Ayres and Patagonia; its mines, again, are as famous for gold and diamonds as those of the western Cordilleras for silver. In its hydrography, B. contrasts unfavorably with the other divisions. While the Amazon and the Plata, the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence— not to mention countless rivers of inferior magnitude on both shores—are for the most part practicable almost to their sources, the streams of B., with the exception of the Amazon, are mostly impeded throughout by cataracts and shallows, thus counterbalanc ing, as it were, its matchless seaward facilities by the deficiencies of its inland communi cations. Further, the most navigable of these streams, instead of entering the open sea, mingle their waters with those of the Plata or of the Amazon—the Parana and the Uruguay joining the former, and the Madera, the Tapajos, the Zingu, and the Tocan tins, the latter; and even among those that do send their tribute at once to the ocean, a similar direction is sometimes impressed by the dividing ridges—the San Francisco, for instance, by far the largest of them, running to the northward parallel with the s.e.
coast through 11° of lat., and leaving only 4' of long. for its remaining course to the Atlantic. A humid surface and a luxuriant vegetation conspire to render ordinary roads all but impassible. B. possessed, at. the commencement of 1878, railways of a total length of 791 m., and it has also a system of telegraphs, the lines at the same date being 3875 m. in extent. Telegraphic communication has been established between B. and Europe; the first message was despatched by the cable to Lisbon, June 23, 1874.
Among the mineral treasures, besides gold and diamonds already mentioned, iron of superior quality is abundant; and salt, also, is extensively produced in saline marshes by the alternate processes, according to the season, of inundation and evaporation. The productions of the soil, which are, of course, equally various and rich, will be more satisfactorily considered under the heads of the respective localities. Suffice it to say, that the cotton is naturally excellent, and that the tea-plant of China has been intro duced, though hitherto with indifferent success. The exports are necessarily different from the different sections of the country. From the n., they are coffee, cotton, cocoa, sugar, and tobacco; from the s., hides, tallow, horns, etc.; and from the middle, drugs, diamonds, gold-dust. dyes, rice, manioc, tapioca, spirits, and rosewood. Their total value in five years, 1873-77, averaged £17,500,000; the corresponding imports averaging £17,000,000. The chief centers of foreign trade, and, along with San Paulo in the inte rior, the principal cities of the empire, are Para, Maranhao, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Rio de Janeiro. This last-named port, which is likewise the seat of government, is the favorite halting-place of the outward-bound vessels for India, China, and Australia.