None of these schemes is less justified than the Transandine line farther south, the transcontinental lines across the United States and Canada or that conception of Cecil Rhodes, the Cape-to-Cairo road of Africa. In no case were those pioneer tracks built to serve an existing population—they brought population and consequent production along their trail over the prairie and the veldt, and these new Brazilian lines would bring people and agriculture into the sertão. The climate is unhealthy only in the swamp regions, and railroad construction with accompanying drainage accomplishment would be the best means of sanitizing the country; it is no worse than many parts of India, East and West Africa, and the low-lying borders of the Caribbean where successful railroads have brought malarial jungle into such a condition that white men dwell there with safety, and a hardy native race can cultivate the rich soil. Engineering difficulties are probably least in the Cuyabá-Santarem plan. There is less _matto_ (thick woodland) country, no important system of _serras_ to climb; much of the track would run on the high level land of the Matto Grosso interior. The regions served could be expected to produce meat and hides from the enormous pastures of the State; minerals from the mountains of Goyaz; hardwoods from the northerly forests; rubber from the same forestal lands, together with dyes and drugs; the line would greatly encourage cattle-raising and cereal planting. The packing industry is yet in its infancy in Brazil, for the first _frigorificos_ were only opened in the latter part of 1914, and the world has not yet realized the extent to which it may attain. Brazil has more head of cattle than has the Argentine, and almost illimitable space for scientific breeding; she has areas for cereals which could make her a rival granary of the world. She has room and to spare for one hundred million population. But her two great interior states, Matto Grosso and Goyaz, the heart of Brazil, with their two million, one hundred and twenty-five thousand square kilometers of land, are traversed by less than five hundred kilometers of railroad. Small wonder that their combined population is only about half a million. A new influx of bandeirantes is needed. They need the same big imagination of their antecessors, the same grit and indomitable will: they should carry gold in their pockets, surveying instruments in their hands, and behind them they should bring an army of workmen, in lieu of the earlier bandeirante’s sword and slaves. Some day the task will be accomplished: it rests with the capitalist of today to say whether he or his successors will take it up. _III. Shipping_