plain. The first two have a breadth of about 200 m. each, and are
arid, barren and inhospitable, except at the dividing ridges where the
clouds from the sea are deprived of some of their moisture. The third zone
loses its arid character as it approaches the coast, and is better clothed
with vegetation. The coastal plain varies in width and character: in some
places low and sandy, or swampy, filled with lagoons and intersecting
canals; in others more elevated, rolling and very fertile. The climate
corresponds closely to these surface features, being hot and dry throughout
the interior, hot and humid, in places unhealthy, along the coast.
Cattle-raising was once the principal industry in the interior, but has
been almost extinguished by the devastating droughts and increasing aridity
caused by the custom of annually burning over the campos to improve the
grass. In the agricultural regions sugar, cotton, tobacco, cacao, coffee,
mandioca and tropical fruits are produced. The exports also include hides,
mangabeira rubber, piassava fibre, diamonds, cabinet woods and rum. The
population is largely of a mixed and unprogressive character, and numbered
1,919,802 in 1890. There is but little immigration and the vegetative
increase is low. The capital, Sao Salvador or Bahia (_q.v._), which is one
of the principal cities and ports of Brazil, is the export town for the
Reconcavo, as the fertile agricultural district surrounding the bay is
called. The principal cities of the state are Alagoinhas and Bom Fim
(formerly Villa Nova da Rainha) on the main railway line running N. to the
Sao Francisco, Cachoeira and Santo Amaro near the capital in the Reconcavo,
Caravellas and Ilheos on the southern coast, with tolerably good harbours,
the former being the port for the Bahia & Minas railway, Feira de Santa
Anna on the border of the _sertao_ and long celebrated for its cattle
fairs, and Jacobina, an inland town N.W. of the capital, on the slopes of
the Serra da Chapada, and noted for its mining industries, cotton and
tobacco. The state of Bahia includes four of the original captaincies
granted by the Portuguese crown--Bahia, Paraguassu, Ilheos and Porto
Seguro, all of which reverted to the direct control of that government in
1549. During the war with Holland several efforts were made to conquer this
captaincy, but without success. In 1823 Bahia became a province of the
empire, and in 1889 a state in the republic. Its government consists of a
g