CHAPTER XIV

“_The Land of Nitrates_”

Valparaiso is the principal seaport of the most remarkably shaped country in the world. A narrow strip of land, lying between the Andes and the Pacific, having a length of two thousand eight hundred miles, and a width varying from forty to one hundred and sixty miles, it has not inaptly been compared to a serpent couched on the south-western verge of the continent. When you have voyaged down the coast from Panama, and have experienced the changes from the tropical verdure of the Ecuadorian coast to the arid monotony of the Peruvian seaboard and the dusty, dry melancholy of such Chilian seaports as Iquique, Antofagasta, Tattal, and Coquimbo, the soft grey atmosphere of Valparaiso comes as a welcome relief. One might almost imagine that an English climate had found its way down south, as well as English trade, manners, and customs. Valparaiso--the “Vale of Paradise”--hardly justifies its presumptuous title, for although trees and verdure are plentiful enough, the bay cannot for a moment be compared for beauty with the magnificence of Rio de Janeiro on the other side of the continent. The impressions received are entirely different from any others to be obtained in other parts of South America.

The languorousness of equatorial regions is left behind, and on every hand a virile activity is apparent. This note of virility, which is quite unusual in Latin-American communities, at first excites surprise, and many theories have been advanced to account for the phenomenon. If climate and environment have a great influence on the moulding of racial character, it is not unnatural to suppose that the exceptional characteristics of Chili have had their due effect upon the inhabitants. The Chilians have been called the “English of South America,” and it has been put forward that they derive their origin from the natives of Northern Spain, whereas other South American States were colonised by adventurers from the southern part of the Peninsula. But the precise localities from which the early conquistadors came are lost in the mists of antiquity, and it is therefore much safer to attribute the extraordinary energy and enterprise of the Chilian to his environment, to the harsh experiences he has undergone, and to the strain of Araucanian blood which runs through the whole people. The Spanish colonists from Peru who effected the conquest of the country, had a much tougher proposition to deal with than their compatriots in other parts of the continent, for the natives they found in possession of the soil were not the usual docile type of Indian, but a race of hardy fighters, who were prepared to contest the advance of the invader to the last ditch, as it were. The Araucanian Indians were the most valorous of all the South American aborigines, and it cannot be said with truth that they were ever entirely subjugated, a portion of independent territory being granted them, on honourable terms, after a long struggle. Intermarriage with the Araucanians undoubtedly did much to stiffen the Spanish fibre, and many of the best families in the country to-day are proud to claim descent from this dominant and manly race.

In Valparaiso, and in Santiago the capital, which lies about fifty miles inland as the crow flies, but over double that distance by rail, the Englishman finds himself very much at home. In nearly all the shops he can hear his native tongue spoken, and at the social functions many of the fashions and customs of his country

are followed and observed. At the watering-places Vina do Mar and Miramar, not far from Valparaiso, the beach scenes might well be likened to those on the shores of retiring English watering-places, whilst the sturdy children who romp upon the sands display a healthy vitality that only temperate climates seem to develop. Valparaiso is a busy town, where the inhabitants are all on business bent; and although they live upon an earthquake zone, they have expressions free from the anxiety which one might expect to see upon their faces. Many of the buildings, both in the city and suburbs, have many scars and cracks, received during the great upheaval of 1906, and nervous persons prefer to live in structures that are light and low, than to trust to the higher though solidly built buildings that offer little chances of escape in the terrible moments of a shock.

Horses are cheap in Chili; and the beautifully situated racecourse, near Vina do Mar, is well patronised by all classes. Though not so imposing or so ostentatious as the famous course at Buenos Ayres, it is more fortunate in its setting, and the beauty of the surrounding scenery, with the great background of the Cordillera towering into the sky, gives it a character which many race-courses lack. In some respects it might be compared with the one at Rio, but, if anything, it has a more distinguished loveliness. Many tennis courts and a golf course are well patronised by both sexes, and riding is an almost universal form of exercise. In Santiago the government classes make the society more brilliant in its display, and although the city still retains many characteristically Spanish buildings, its inhabitants are cosmopolitan in their tastes and education. The Alameda, an avenue over five miles in length and lined with beautiful trees, is a promenade much affected by the fashion of the capital, and the horses and carriages are only exceeded in elegance and beauty by the women, who are as beautiful as their distant cousins in Argentina. In the evenings the Plaza is a blaze of light and life, and no one can dispute the Chilians’ capacity for social enjoyment. Public monuments to illustrious natives are numerous, and one to O’Higgins, seated on his prancing steed and flourishing his sword, is strongly reminiscent of the numerous replicas of the San Martin monuments which are scattered through the neighbouring republic of Argentina.

These two men had a large share in the emancipating of the continent from the degenerate government of Spain, and their deeds of valour, ever fresh in the minds of their countrymen, continue to animate the spirit of independence.

When the Spaniards first set foot in Chili they found a large portion of the country under the sway of the Incas, for although that dynasty is generally associated with Peru, at the height of its power it exercised domination over Ecuador and Chili in addition. Almagro, the gallant General who fell a victim to the insatiable ambition of his former comrade Pizarro, was the first of the conquerors to enter the country, but his stay was not prolonged, for the climate was inhospitable, and there was no gold to be had for the seeking. It remained for Valdivia, a lieutenant of Pizarro’s, to carry on the work which Almagro had attempted in a half-hearted fashion. He found the task a particularly perilous one, and before he could complete it he was captured by the Araucanians and slain by the war club of an old chief. Spain, however, persisted in her project, and her eventual conquest of Chili certainly makes one of the proudest records in the variegated page of her exploits in the New World. In the early years of the nineteenth century Chili went through an experience which was common to every other South American country--it battled for its independence. The struggle was long and desperate. The resemblance of the Chilians to the English has already been noted, and it was therefore appropriate that two men of British descent should have lent incalculable aid to Chili in securing her enfranchisement. The names of Bernardo O’Higgins and Lord Thomas Cochrane are deservedly honoured in the country to-day.

O’Higgins was the natural son of an Irish Captain-General, who under the old Spanish regime had played a part in the making of modern Chili, thus illustrating yet once more the statement that there has never been a conflict in modern times but an Irishman has taken part in it. A gallant fighter, a consummate strategist, his exploits on Chilian soil have quite eclipsed those of his father. He outwitted the Spanish generals, harried their forces, and did more than anyone else, with the exception of San Martin, to break the power of Spain in that corner of the globe. He subsequently became dictator of the new republic, but his record as a statesman is by no means so clean or so brilliant as his career as a soldier. His own rapacity and his ministers’ corruption led to his downfall in 1823. Lord Thomas Cochrane was one of those sailors of fortune in which the British Navy has been so prolific. He was almost as great a terror to the Spanish captains as Drake had been some hundreds of years before. His daring bombardment of Valdivia, and subsequent rushing of the forts, demoralised the Spaniards and led to the surrender of the city, and deprived Spain of her last base of operations on the Chilian mainland. Chili has been called “the school of arms” for South America, and, judging from the number of conflicts which have taken place on her soil, the name is more than justified.

The war with Peru and Bolivia, in which Chili came out the undoubted victor, and the civil war, out of which José Balmaceda

emerges a romantic and heroic figure, are events of more recent occurrence, but sufficient time has elapsed to bring the character of Balmaceda into clearer relief. There is no doubt that his motives were pure and high, and under his administration Chili grew and prospered. A thorough democrat in every fibre of his being, he hated the Church party because he believed it to be the inveterate foe of enlightenment and progress.

His great mistake was in imagining that he and his ministers could rule a fretful realm without the co-operation of Congress, a mistake also made by Charles I, and with similar results. This it was that led to the civil war which brought along Balmaceda’s defeat, and culminated in his dramatic suicide in the residence of the Argentine minister in August, 1890. Since then the country has been comparatively quiet, for luckily the dispute with Argentina over territory on their respective frontiers has been amicably settled by arbitration. Thus out of much stress and turmoil the Chilians have developed into a prosperous and dominant nation, with a sea power which gives them the command of the Pacific coast of the whole sub-continent.

Not only concerned with war, they have brought the industries of agriculture to a high level of perfection. The Chilian farmers are among the most prosperous in the world, and have been likened to “feudal barons, with hacienda in lieu of castle, with broad acreage, and thousands of sheep, cattle, and horses.”

Nitrate is the chief source of Chili’s prosperity, and the deposits of this invaluable product are found in the great plains of Tamarugal in the two northern provinces. The salty earth called “caliche” which contains the nitrates is found some three to six feet below the surface, and all the principal “oficinas” lie upon a plateau at an altitude of about two thousand feet. The railway which connects these “oficinas” with the coast runs from Iquique and Pisagua, and these two towns are the great shipping ports for the product. The exportation of commercial nitrate known as “Chilian nitre” began in 1830, when something less than nine thousand gross tons were shipped. The quantity has steadily risen until now over two million gross tons are exported annually, the figures for 1911 being over two million three hundred thousand tons. Of this quantity approximately seventy-five per cent is used for fertiliser purposes. The “oficinas,” which are situated on the Pampas, are busy centres of industry,

employing many men who live in the villages belonging to the works--and stores, schools, and other useful institutions exist to make life upon these bare plains endurable. The “caliche” is worked locally in these factories, where it is first crushed, then dissolved in boiling water, the insoluble matter precipitated, the solution containing the nitre being allowed to crystallise, and the product after being roughly dried is exported in bags. Curious remains of birds and animals and human beings are frequently discovered in the “caliche” deposits, all well preserved, and many of these specimens of the earlier fauna of the country are found in the museum at Lima and elsewhere. The deposits of “caliche” are of course limited, and there is great difference of opinion as to when the beds will be exhausted. But some time ago the Collector of Customs at Valparaiso estimated that thirty-five million metric tons remain at present in private properties--and about thirty million metric tons in the Government properties--and, in his opinion, by 1923 the remaining deposits upon private properties will have been exhausted, whilst the Government properties may last fifteen years longer. Although the Government receive a large revenue from the sale of their stock of this valuable deposit, by the time it is exhausted other sources of wealth will have been developed, for the agricultural possibilities are practically unlimited. Chili also possesses the largest guano deposits in the world, and here is another source of wealth. The material, which consists of the droppings of pelicans, is the most valuable manure known. It is found along the hills that lie near the seashore, and helps to give those weird effects of dirty snow lying on brown earth. Precisely when its use was first discovered is not known, but there is evidence to show that its value was understood by the subjects of the Incas, and it helped to give them that expertness in agriculture which so astonished the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Humboldt introduced it into Europe early in the nineteenth century, and since then its employment has increased among farmers everywhere, and has been greatly fostered by the improvements which chemists and inventors have brought about in the methods of preparing it for use. Unlike nitrates, there is little possibility of the supplies of this fertiliser ever becoming exhausted.