SANTOS

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 196 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAC-SAR

SANTOS , a city and seaport of Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo, about 230 M. W.S.W. of Rio de Janeiro, and 49 M. by rail S.E. of Sao Paulo city. Pop. (189o) 13,012; (1902 estimate) 35,000. Santos covers an alluvial plain on the inner side of an island (called Sao Vicente) formed by an inland tidal channel sometimes called the Santos river. The commercial part of the city is some miles from the mouth of the channel, but the residential sections extend across the plain and line the beach facing the sea. The city is only a few feet above sea-level, the island is swampy, and deep, cement-lined channels drain the city. The Santos river is deep and free from obstructions, and in front of the city widens into a bay deep enough for the largest vessels. The water front, formerly beds of mud and slime, the source of many epidemics of fever, is now faced by a

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

of stone and cement. Vessels moor alongside this. quay, which is lined with warehouses and provided with railway tracks, &c. Formerly coffee was transported in carts from the railway station to the warehouses, thence loaded into lighters by porters, and from these transferred to vessels anchored in midstream. The improvements were planned by an American engineer, William Milnor Roberts (1810-1881). The thorough drainage of the city has made Santos comparatively healthy. The heavy rainfall (882 in. per annum), neighbouring swamps, rank vegetation and

great

GREAT

heat give rise to malarial and intestinal disorders, rheumatism and other diseases. Bert-beri and smallpox are also common, and bubonic plague has appeared since 1900. The temperature ranges from 410 to Io1.3 F. in the shade.
The development of coffee production in the state of Sao Paulo during the closing years of the 19th century has made Santos the largest coffee shipping port in the world, the exports amounting to 5,849,114 bags, of 1321b each, in 1900, and 8,940,144 bags in Igo8. The other exports include sugar,

rice

, rum, fruit, hides and manufactured goods. Bananas are grown in the vicinity for the River Plate markets. The most popular suburb in the vicinity of Santos is the bathing resort of Guaruj5,. The Sao Paulo railway, an English

double

-track line, provides communication with the interior, ascending the steep wooded slopes of the Serra do Mar by a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of inclines up which the cars are

drawn

DRAWN

by stationary engines on the old line, 4nd by a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of gradients on the new line.
The first

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

on the Sao Paulo coast was that of Sao Vicente in 1532, about 6 m. S. of Santos on the same island. Other settlements soon followed, among them that of Santos in 1543-1546, and later on the small fort at the entrance to its harbour, which was used for protection against Indian raids from the north.. Sao Vicente did not prosper, and was succeeded (1681) by Sao Paulo as the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

and by Santos as the seaport of the colony. It was captured by the English privateer,

Thomas

Cavendish, in 1591, when Sao Vicente was burned. The growth of the town was slow down to the end of the 19th century, because of insanitary conditions and epidemics.

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