South America. A line drawn due north from this point would pass
through the Atlantic midway between Europe and America. If we had
sailed directly south we should have touched the western instead
of the eastern coast, for the reason that practically the entire
continent of South America lies east of the parallel of longitude
which passes through New York.

After sighting land we sailed along the coast three days before we
cast anchor at Bahia, our first landing place. Two days more were
required to reach Rio de Janeiro. When we afterwards sailed from
Rio to Buenos Aires, Argentina, we spent three and one-half days
skirting along the shore of Brazil. For eight and one-half days we
sailed in sight of Brazilian territory, and had we been close
enough to shore north of Cape St. Roque, we should have added
three days more to our survey of these far-stretching shores.
Brazil lies broadside to the Atlantic Ocean with a coast line
almost as long as the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards of the United
States combined. Its ocean frontage is about 4,000 miles in
length.

This coast line, however, is not all the water front of Brazil.
She boasts of the Amazon, the mightiest river in the world. This
stream is navigable by ships of large draught for 2,700 miles from
its mouth. It has eight tributaries from 700 to 1,200 miles and
four from 1,500 to 2,000 miles in length. One of these, the
Madeira, empties as much water into the larger stream as does the
Mississippi into the Gulf. No other river system drains vaster or
richer territory. It drains one million square miles more than
does the Mississippi, and in all it has 27,000 miles of navigable
waters.