San Vicente is situated in a volcanic region abounding in hot springs and geysers. The volcano of San Vicente, the highest in the department, reaches an altitude of more than 7000 ft. The city is surrounded by indigo and tobacco plantations, and has considerable commerce, a large portion of which is transacted at the All Saints' fair, held annually on the 1st of November. Shoes, hats, cloth, silk, spirits and cigars are manufactured here. San Vicente was founded in 1634 on the site of Tehuacan, an ancient Indian city. For one year (1839–1840) it was the capital of the republic.
SÃO FRANCISCO, a river of eastern Brazil rising in the S.W.
part of the state of Minas Geraes, about 20° 30′ S., 46° 40′ W.,
near the narrow valley of the Rio Grande, a tributary of the
Parana, and within 240 m. of the coast W. of Rio de Janeiro.
It flows in a general N.N.E. direction across the great central
plateau of Brazil to about lat. 9° 30′ S., long. 42° W., where it
turns N.E. and then S.E. in a great bend, entering the Atlantic
in lat. 10° 29′ S. It has a total length of about 1800 m. and
a fall of 2700–2800 ft. It is navigable from the Atlantic to
Piranhas (148 m.) and is nearly 1 m. wide at Penedo, 22 m. from
the sea. Above Piranhas, about 193 m. from its mouth, are the
falls of Paulo Añonso where the river plunges through a narrow
gorge—in one place only 51 ft. wide—and over three successive
falls, all together 265 ft. The obstructed part of the river is
about 190 m. long and consists of a series of rapids above the
falls and a deep canon with whirlpools for some distance below.
The Brazilian government has built a railway around these falls
from Piranhas (151 ft. elevation) to Jatobá (978 ft.) with an
extension of 71 m. Above Jatobá there is another series of
rapids called the Sobradinho nearly 90 m. above the lower rapids,
which are navigable at high water, and above these an unobstructed
channel for light-draught river boats up to Pirapora
a little above the mouth of the Rio das Velhas, a distance of
984 m. Here the river runs through a barren, semi-arid region,
sparsely settled. There are no tributaries of consequence along
a large part of this region, and the few people living beside the
river are dependent on its annual floods for the fertilization
of its sandy shores on which their scanty plantations of Indian
corn and beans are made. The rapids of Pirapora are 17 m.
above the mouth of the Rio das Velhas, and this point, the head of
navigation on the river, and 1742 ft. above sea-level, is the
objective point of the Central do Brazil railway, the purpose being
to create by rail and river a central route from Rio de laneiro to
the northern ports of Bahia and Recife. The principal tributaries
of the Sao Francisco are: on the right, the Para, Paraopeba,
Velhas, and Verde-Grande; on the left, the Indaya, Abaeté,
Paracatú, Urucuya, Carinhanha, Corrente and Grande. Several
of these tributaries are navigable for long distances by small
boats—the aggregate being a little over 1000 m. Some authorities
give the aggregate navigable channels of the São Francisco as
4350 m. The upper valley of the São Francisco is partly forested,
has a temperate climate, with a mean annual temperature of
85° and a rainfall of 1637 millimetres. The rainy season is
from December to March, but on the lower river the rainfall is
light and the season much shorter, sometimes varied by, droughts
covering several years.
An admirable description of this great river is given by Richard Burton in The Highlands of Brazil (2 vols., London), and a more technical description by E. Liais in Hydrographie du Haut San-Francisco et du Rio das Velhas (Rio de Janeiro, 1865).
SÃO LEOPOLDO, a city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, on the left bank of the Rio dos Sinos, 20½ m. by rail N.
of Porto Alegre. It is the chief town of a municipio (commune)
of the same name, having an area of about 347 sq. m. and inhabited
chiefly by German colonists. Pop. (1900) of the city,
11,015; of the municipio, 32,600. São Leopoldo has river and
railway communication with Porto Alegre. It is a prosperous
industrial town, with broad straight streets and substantial
buildings. It has good schools, and its Jesuits' college ranks high
throughout northern Rio Grande. Among its manufactures are
matches, hats, boots and shoes, soap, liqueurs and artificial
drinks, leather and leather-work and earthenware. In the surrounding
districts cattle and hogs are raised, and jerked beef,
hides, pork, lard, potatoes, beans, farinha de mandioca (cassava
flour), Indian corn, tobacco and a great variety of vegetables and
fruits are produced.
The city was originally a German colony founded by the emperor Pedro I. in 1824 and established at a place known as the Feitoria Real de Canhamo (Royal flax factory). The first colonists (26 families and 17 unmarried persons, or 126 souls) arrived on the 25th of June 1825, and were followed a few months later by another party of 909 colonists. These were the first German colonists in Rio Grande do Sul. Up to 1830 the arrivals numbered 3701, but the civil war which broke out in 1835 checked further arrivals and nearly ruined the colony, its inhabitants being forced to serve in the contending forces and their property being seized. São Leopoldo was occupied by the revolutionists for some years and was practically ruined at the termination of the war in 1844. The introduction of colonists was immediately resumed, however, and the colony was soon as prosperous as ever. The early colonists were engaged in Germany by a representative of the Brazilian government, and were given free transportation, 130 acres of land each, farming implements, seeds, and a subsidy of 320 reis a day for the first year and half that for the second year. Subsequent settlers received less, but the system of assisting colonists and making contracts with companies and individuals for their introduction became the settled policy of the national and provincial governments.
SÃO LUIZ, or in full, São Luiz de Maranhão (also spelt
Maranham), a seaport of northern Brazil, capital of the state of
Maranhão, on the W. side of an island of the same name, in
2° 30′ S., 44° 17′ W., about 300 m. E.S.E. of Belem (Pará).
Pop. of the whole island (1890) 29,308; (1908, estimate) 32,000.
An important part of the population is made up of the planters
of the state, who live in town and leave their estates to the care
of overseers. The island of Maranhão lies off the mouths of the
rivers Mearim and Itapicurú, between the Bay of São Marcos
on the W. and the Bay of São José on the E., and is separated
from the mainland by a small channel called the Canal do
Mosquito. It is irregular in outline, its greatest length from
N.E. to S.W. being 34 m., and its greatest breadth 19 m. Its
surface is broken by a number of low hills and short valleys. The
city is built upon a tongue of land between two small estuaries,
Anil and Bacanga, which unite and open upon the Bay of São
Marcos. It covers two low hills and the intervening valley,
the transverse streets sloping sharply to the estuary on either
side. These slopes make it difficult to use vehicles in the streets,
but they afford a natural surface drainage which makes São Luiz
cleaner and more healthy than the coast towns of tropical
Brazil usually are. The city is regularly laid out with comparatively
wide longitudinal, and steep, narrow transverse
streets, roughly paved and provided with sidewalks. The buildings
are of the old Portuguese type, with massive walls of broken
stone and mortar, having an outside finish of plaster or glazed
tiles and roofs of red tiles. The principal public buildings are
the cathedral, a large and severely plain structure, the episcopal
palace, the Carmelite church, the government palace, town hall,
custom-house, hospital, and a number of asylums, convents and
charitable schools. An excellent lyceum and a church seminary
are the most important educational institutions, and São Luiz long
enjoyed a high reputation in Brazil for the culture of its inhabitants.
The trade of São Luiz was once very important, but
the commercial activity of Pará and Fortaleza, the decay of
agricultural industry in the state, and the silting up of its harbour,
have occasioned a decline in its commerce. Its exports comprise
cotton, sugar and rice. Communication with the mainland and interior towns is by means of small steamers.
São Luiz was founded in 1612 by La Rivardière, a French officer commissioned by Henri IV. to establish a colony in this vicinity. The French colony was expelled in 1615 by the Portuguese, who, in turn, surrendered to the Dutch in 1641. In 1644 the Dutch abandoned the island, when the Portuguese resumed possession, and held the city to the end of their colonial rule in Brazil. The city became the seat of a bishopric in 1679.