The first time Erick von Roesler saw Brazil was in June, 1939. He crossed on a special summer cruise of the Hamburg Line, ostensibly the managing director of a large company manufacturing agricultural machinery. He dined at the captain's table, contributing little to the stilted conversation, watched the swimming pool antics from the lonely height of the deck rail above, the evening dancing from a comfortable chair in one corner of the spacious salon, and spent most of his deck hours either calmly contemplating the pulsing sunlit waves, or jotting notes in his voluminous diary.

They docked at Rio de Janeiro on a cool misty morning, with the famed heights of the city lost in a bank of fog that blanketed the mountains and drifted down to muffle the waterfront sounds and clothe the tall buildings with eerie mystery. The ship was scheduled to spend a day in port, unloading machinery from Europe, wines from the Rhine and the Madeiras, tin plate from Spain, and all the miscellaneous welter of cases, casks, boxes and crates that make up the lifeblood flowing along the arteries of commerce. Von Roesler spent the greater part of the morning on deck, leaning curiously over the rail as disembarking passengers dashed back and forth, screaming to their friends on the dock below, or brusquely commanding blue-jacketed porters doubled under towering loads of luggage. His shipboard acquaintances would trot up for a hasty goodbye, a self-conscious handclasp, and immediately forgetting him, dash down the gangplank to be kissed by women and hugged fiercely by men clustered on the dock. Children indeed, he thought, with some satisfaction; children indeed.

The fog was burning away and the sun now glistened from the white buildings and lit the bay. The giant cranes creaked and groaned as they dipped their snouts into the hold, swaying gently under the tension of the rising loads, and laying them gracefully upon the cobblestones of the dock. People below ran back and forth, searching the railing for familiar faces; a vendor of pineapple had opened his stand at the foot of the gangplank, and was busily slicing his wares and spreading them out. The purser, a hulking blond man in his late twenties, leaned on the rail beside von Roesler, frowning.

"A circus!" he said bitterly. "What we load in Hamburg in four hours, we must fight in order to unload in a full day here!" He pointed below; a playful wrestling match had developed among the stevedores, laughter rose from the group. Some had gone to the pineapple stand and were eating and talking; the crane-load waited patiently for someone to unhitch the ropes. "Schnell!" the purser screamed, leaning over the rail perilously. No one paid any attention; the purser slapped the rail in disgust. "Brazilians!" he said bitingly, and stamped back to the hold cover shaking his head.

After lunch von Roesler carefully locked his diary away and left the ship to walk about the nearby streets. The tropical sun burned, even in the winter month of June. He was sorry he had come with vest and jacket, but reminded himself that a person in his position could scarcely appear otherwise. He also reflected that his regular uniform would have been even more uncomfortable. The beggars about the Praça Mauá instinctively withdrew their hands as he passed. They knew authority and coldness when they saw it, as well as the futility and danger of importuning such authority.

He crossed the bustling square and walked slowly along Avenida Rio Branco, staring curiously in shop windows at the myriad temptations for tourists there; the butterfly trays, the inlaid cigarette boxes, the badly tinted postal cards, the rough wood carvings, the colorful handkerchiefs printed with scenes of the beaches, of swaying palm trees, of Pão de Açúcar and Corcovado, of all gay Rio de Janeiro. The broad sidewalks were crowded; people pushed past him, jostling him as he stood and watched the scene. A man, speaking rapidly in Portuguese, waved a fountain pen in his face, obviously attempting to make a quick sale; he turned away, and immediately found himself beset by another with a string of lottery tickets. He shook his head coldly and continued his walk.

The excited chatter from a group at a sidewalk cafe caught his attention and he turned to watch them with interest. This was not the relaxed pause of Paris, an apéritif and a moment's contemplation of the passing scene; nor was it the calculated minute's rest with a cool drink of bustling Berlin, when past actions were studied and future ones planned. This had a feeling of now in it; the laughing group flung money on the table, hugged each other enthusiastically, and hurried apart, calling and shouting back over their shoulders. The complete divorce from Europe suddenly struck him; the patterned sidewalks, the predominance of black faces in the crowds about him, the shop windows filled with gay but useless bric-a-brac.

He turned back to the ship, walking slowly, pondering his thoughts. Children, true, and decadent children. But with a certain vitality; yes, a definite vitality. Which someday we shall turn to an advantage, he concluded. For children can be led, and we have the destiny to lead.