Brazilian newspaper, the Jornal do Commercio – years later he was to become its editor. He also wrote articles for The Nation about Latin America. With the aid of a New Yorker in the Amazon rubber business, he started his own monthly magazine O Novo Mundo (New World) which reached a circulation of 8000 in Brazil and informed his countrymen “of American ingenuity and progress in all fields”. It ran from 1870 to 1879 and was the only one of nearly 400 foreign language journals published in the United States which was intended not for immigrants but for readers in another country. His secretary and collaborator was the pioneering Modernist poet Joaquim de Sousa Andrade. In 1876 he helped with the Brazilian exhibit at the great international Philadelphia Exposition. Emperor Pedro II of Brazil visited the United States for it. Rodrigues had called for him to abdicate and establish a republic in articles which were reprinted in Brazil. Nevertheless in recognition for José Carlos’ help over the years for relations between Brazil and the US the emperor climbed the stairs to the humble office of O Novo Mondo to thank its editor in person. Over the New Year of 1880 Ferdinand de Lesseps made a triumphal tour to see how the work on the Panama Canal was going. José Carlos, as a reporter for the New York World, was part of an American party including the boss and members of the already built Panama Railroad and two army engineers which accompanied him. What Rodrigues wrote in the New York World interested the American President Rutherford B. Hayes so much that he was invited to the White House later in 1880 to discuss the matter. In 1885 Rodrigues wrote articles on the canal for the London Financial News which were reprinted as The Panama Canal: its History, its Political Aspects and Financial Difficulties. After the Americans had completed the canal, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Rodrigues “You were a prophet! And I fulfilled your prophecy.” Based in Brazil again In 1882 José Carlos accepted an invitation to raise capital for Brazilian enterprises, especially railway construction. This meant moving to the great world financial centre of London. He there, at the age of 38, met the 15-year-old girl who became his wife. On his return to Rio in 1890 he bought with the aid of loyal friends the Jornal do Comercio, for