=Area.= Brazil covers a surface of 3,112,453 square miles. Its length, 2750 miles, is about that of Chile; its extreme width, 2560 miles, is ten times at great. The coast-line is much longer, 4140 miles. A considerable portion of this immense area is still but superficially explored. =Population.= According to the cabled report of the census of 1920, Brazil has 30,553,509 inhabitants. Its population, therefore, exceeds that of any other South American Republic even more largely than its area. =Boundary.= The boundary of the country, though familiar from that of the others, may be rehearsed. On the north we find Colombia, Venezuela, and the three Guianas with the Atlantic beyond; on the east and southeast the Atlantic only, on the south Uruguay, a speck of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, a bit of Peru; on the west a small corner of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The only countries of the continent not touching its border are Ecuador and Chile. However, a few writers mention Ecuador on the west, as the southeast boundary line of that country is still undetermined. HISTORY The first of the South American countries to be discovered after Colombia and Venezuela, it was to the region of Brazil that the name America was first applied. It is therefore especially unbecoming for us to appropriate to ourselves in any exclusive sense the title of Americans; though having no other name, with apologies to the others, it may be pardonable for us to employ it when necessary. In the year 1500 the first landing on this part of the continent was made by Pedro Alvares Cabral, then on his way from Portugal to the West Indies. In commemoration of that event, May 3rd is a Brazilian national holiday and the date of the assembling of Congress. As soon as the news was received in the home country, an expedition was sent out under Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the coast from its eastern extremity almost to La Plata, nearly 2000 miles. Fifteen Captaincies, each 150 miles along the coast, were later allotted and settlements were begun. The earliest of these which rose to importance were São Vicente in the neighborhood of Santos, and Pernambuco; a little later, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. These were the first agricultural colonies to be founded in South America, gold and silver being the attraction elsewhere. The French also had an eye to this country, making a settlement at Rio de Janeiro; the Dutch as well, who about a century later captured Bahia and Pernambuco; but both were ultimately expelled, the whole country remaining in the hands of the Portuguese. Conflicts with the Indians took place, at first with some who were unfriendly, and afterwards through attacks made by the invaders upon those Indians who had been christianized by the Jesuits. Their settlements were destroyed, 300,000 are said to have been slaughtered, and the rest were driven by the Paulistas from the region of the upper Paraná.