Twee groote steden in Brazilië / De Aarde en haar Volken, 1908

A travelogue contrasts two major Brazilian cities through vivid harbor and landscape descriptions and close observations of urban life, commerce, and public institutions. It chronicles municipal sanitation and public-health advances that reduced yellow fever, charts rapid population growth fueled by European immigration—highlighting German settlements in the south—and surveys domestic customs, the military, education, the press, and cultural life. The account emphasizes explosive urban expansion and economic development while also reflecting on the vast, still-unexploited interior, the persistence of indigenous peoples, and how railways and colonization are reshaping the country’s social and geographic frontiers.