The check in facile borrowing of very large sums on easy terms has undoubtedly acted as a cold shower upon South America in general, somewhat accustomed to financial sunshine; the result has been salutary in awakening the people all over the continent to the need for unprecedented personal effort. It has, too, brought about a new sense of North American relations, created and needed, with South America. The European War has turned the United States from the position of a debtor to that of a creditor country, and while up to the end of 1922 her loans to the whole of South America have not exceeded two hundred million dollars, chiefly short-time State borrowings, caution is mutually beneficial. There is, however, much work to be done which calls urgently for gold supplies, and it is but logical that the country accumulating money rapidly should be willing to take up a due share of the development work waiting; European interests need not and should not be ousted, but can be readily and happily supplemented. The United States of Brazil today contain over 24,000,000 people, still largely concentrated upon the sea coast, in a score of thriving cities. She is at peace with her neighbours, with no shadow upon her political horizon; her only great problem is the industrial, financial one, and this, with the concentrated effort of Brazilians and the right kind of external help, can be solved. The entry of Brazil into the War upon the side of the Allies, after the torpedoing of the Brazilian vessels and the declaration of war by the United States against Germany, brought about a new international comradeship, and has awakened the world to a better understanding of the spirit and power of the country. CHAPTER II COLONIZATION IN BRAZIL The story of colonization in Brazil is unique in the annals of the human movement across the world that has been going on ever since man began to multiply and to seek elbow-room; it is one of the phenomena of exodus. Arrival upon the shores of Brazil of an extraordinary variety of races was not a voluntary immigration in most instances. It was the result of a studied policy, inaugurated by the Emperors of Brazil, and carried on to the present day by the Federal Government and certain of the separate States; experiments in various kinds of people were made on a concerted plan, the colonies were grouped, in many cases isolated, retained their language and customs, still produce the food to which they were accustomed in the home land, and only become assimilated as their populations leave them or touch in time the fringe of others. The official mothering which they received tended rather to keep them grouped than to spread them in the earlier years.