Mining is carried on in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
The commerce of South America is important. Coffee, rubber, hides, mate, cotton and sugar are exported from Brazil; sugar, silver, copper and gums from Peru; and nitrate and copper from Chile. Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay export cattle products; Chile and Argentina, wheat and wool. The imports are manufactured articles, particularly flour.
For Recitation.—What are the chief mineral products of South America? Name some of the animals found in the lowland forests. Name some of the animals found among the mountains. What are the chief exports of South America?
LESSON L.
1. The inhabitants of South America are native Indians and descendants of Spanish and Portuguese settlers.
The Indians are usually ignorant and degraded. Yet those who live among the Andes are very ingenious. They make bridges of rope to cross the deep gorges among the mountains.
On the Pampas and Llanos we find half-wild people, whose occupation is to take care of the cattle that feed on the plains.
The people of Patagonia are very tall and noted for their bravery.
The language of South America, like that of Mexico and Central America, is Spanish. In Brazil, Portuguese is the chief language.
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A pack-mule train at a halting- place in Brazil. | ||
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Native Indians and their homes in Bolivia. | ||
| A feast day, or holiday, in a village in Brazil. | |||
2. Government.—The countries of South America are all republics, except the three colonies of Guiana (ghe-ah'-nah), which belong to England, France, and the Netherlands.
Brazil is the largest and most powerful country of South America. It was first a colony of Portugal, then an empire. In 1889 it became a republic, with a government like ours.
3. Early History.—In 1500, Cabral, a Portuguese, discovered Brazil, and so, until 1822, Brazil belonged to Portugal.
In 1532, Pizarro, a Spaniard, went with a fleet to Peru. It was a splendid empire. The kings were called Incas. They ate and drank from vessels of silver and gold. The one then on the throne was named Atahualpa (at-a-hwhal'-pah).
