ABSTRACT
For the sad fact is that the whole north-east corner of Brazil, part of seven states, lacks rainfall. The drought of 1958 brought two million people to the brink of starvation. The government brought in relief at the rate of two shillings a day per working man. Today the north-east weighs heavily on the Brazilian conscience. The obvious is being done: irrigation and a development agency, centred on Recife in Pernambuco. Fortaleza has no adequate port, and recently a long jetty was built. The centre of the city is as small and busy as a provincial market town, unimpressive and amorphous.
