Yes, that is true.

But the people of Brazil are not well off.

They have everything that is necessary to make a great nation; but we are not a great nation, far from it." The hermit sighed deeply as he ceased speaking, and fell into an abstracted frame of mind.
"It's a great country intirely," said Barney, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, and placing that much-loved implement carefully in his pocket; "a great country, but there's a tremendous big screw loose somewhere." "It seems curious to me," said Martin, in a ruminating tone of voice, "that people should not get on better in a country in which there is everything that man can desire to make him rich and happy.

I wonder what it wants; perhaps it's too hot, and the people want energy of character." "Want energy!" shouted the hermit, leaping from his seat, and regarding his guests for a few moments with a stern expression of countenance; then, stretching forth his hand, he continued, in an excited tone: "Brazil does not want energy; it has only one want,--it wants the Bible! When a country is sunk down in superstition and ignorance and moral depravity, so that the people know not right from wrong, there is only one cure for her,--the Bible.

Religion here is a mockery and a shame; such as, if it were better known, would make the heathen laugh in scorn.
The priests are a curse to the land, not a blessing.