SOUTH AMERICA : ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires
In Tobias Smollett’s Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) Chapter 66 the hero tells us I began to enjoy myself, and breathe with pleasure the pure air of Paraguay, this part of which is reckoned the Montpelier of South America, and has obtained, on account of its climate, the name of Buenos-Ayres. This appears to been written before present national boundaries came into existence.
SOUTH AMERICA : BRAZIL
Santa Catarina
An island called St Catherine’s off the coast of Brazil was ‘justly called the Montpelier of Brazil’ in an account published in the Nautical Magazine, 1833. This is presumably identical with the present-day island of Santa Catarina, south of Sao Paulo.
Rio de Janeiro
Another account of the same era, in Bentley’s Miscellany, vol 8 (1840) recounts that ‘The climate of the Serra, in comparison with Rio de Janeiro, is so healthy that it has obtained the name of the Montpelier of Brazil. Scattered about the estate were several pretty cottages built à la Suisse, and inhabited by the English families who were obliged to leave Rio during the intense heat that prevails in the months of January and February.’