Maranham

Maranham, or MARANHÃO, a maritime state of Brazil, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, with an area of 177,566 sq. m. and a pop. (1888) of 488,443. The surface is uneven, but there is no range of mountains. There are numerous rivers falling into the Atlantic, large forests, extensive plains where cattle are reared; the climate is fine, the soil fertile. Agriculture, however, has not prospered here, and the emancipation of the slaves, on whose labour it had depended, was followed by a period of great depression. Cotton and sugar are the principal products.—The chief city is Maranham, or San Luiz de Maranham, on an island between the mouths of the Mearim and the Itapicurú. It is a well-built town, clean, gay, hospitable, and has a pop. of 35,000. It contains a cathedral and bishop's palace, a hospital, a technical school, some sugar and spinning and weaving factories, and docks that admit ships drawing 14 feet. The chief exports (varying from £250,000 to near £500,000 in some years) are cotton and sugar; then come hides and goat and deer skins, gum, balsam, cotton-seed, india-rubber, &c. Portugal is the largest customer, followed by Britain, which sends three-fourths of the total imports (about £520,000 annually).