ginning of the 19th century the white colonists were
almost exclusively Portuguese. The immigration from countries other than
Portugal during the first half of that century was small, but before its
close it increased rapidly, particularly from Italy. Fully nine-tenths
of these immigrants, including those from the mother country, were of
the Latin race. The introduction of African slaves followed closely upon
the development of agricultural industries, and continued nominally
until 1850, actually until 1854, and according to some authors until
1860. About 1826 it was estimated that the negro population numbered
2,500,000 or three times the white population of that period. The
unrestricted intermixture of these three races forms the principal basis
of the Brazilian population at the beginning of the 20th century. Brazil
has never had a "colour line," and there has never been any popular
prejudice against race mixtures. According to the census of 1872 the
total population was 9,930,478, of which 1,510,806 were slaves; the race
enumeration gave 3,787,289 whites, 1,959,452 Africans, 386,955 Indians,
and 3,801,782 mixed bloods. The Indian population certainly exceeded the
total given, and the white population must have included many of mixed
blood, the habit of so describing themselves being common among the
better classes of South American mestizos. The census of 1890 increased
the total population to 14,333,915, which, according to an unofficial
analysis (_Statesman's Year Book_, 1905), was made up of 6,302,198
whites, 4,638,495 mixed bloods, 2,097,426 Africans, and 1,295,796
Indians. This analysis, if correct, indicates that the vegetative
increase of the whites has been greater than that of the Africans and
mixed races. This is not the conclusion of many observers, but it may
be due to the excessive infant mortality among the lower classes, where
an observance of the simplest sanitary laws is practically unknown. The
census of the 31st of December 1900 was strikingly defective; it was
wholly discarded for the city of Rio de Janeiro, and had to be completed
by office computations in the returns from several states. The
compilation of the returns was not completed and published until May
1908, according to which the total population was 17,318,556, of which
8,825,636 were males and 8,492,920 females. Not including the city of
Rio de Janeiro, whose population was estimated at 691,565 in conformity
with a special municipal cen