28 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



made necessary. Thither flocked colonists, soldiers, and priests ; and there commerce and 

 territorial wealth centred and accumulated. Moreover, their experience with the buccaneers 

 was by no means a pleasant one. Cities on the coast were too accessible to men like Dampier, 

 Morgan, et id genus omne; and on this account, if no other, they would have found it expe- 

 dient to place their wealth at such distance from the ocean as would give them time to prepare 

 for the reception of freebooters. Thus we find that every city of importance in South America, 

 with one exception, is at a distance from the port through which it communicates with the 

 world abroad ; and there, also, until within very recent periods, were their principal custom- 

 houses. A few officers, and a store or two at the ports, nominally prevented smuggling, and 

 afforded temporary shelter to the goods which bad weather or want of conveyance delayed in 

 despatching to the capital ; but in those days contraband and douceurs were scarcely regarded 

 criminal acts, and merchants and officers seemed to make common cause to prevent government 

 from collecting a sum larger than a regard for outward appearances rendered indispensable. 

 Scarcely any employe was too elevated to be bribed, and smuggling was carried on in the face 

 of day, facilitated by the very fact alluded to at the commencement of the paragraph the tran- 

 quillity of the Pacific. 



At that epoch, Spain permitted commerce with her colonies only to national vessels, or others 

 under licenses ; none ever purchased who did not intend to repay themselves by fraud. Even 

 vessels distressed for provisions, or damaged by stress of weather, were prohibited from enter- 

 ing the ports of her colonies ; and when forced in by necessity, they were often refused assist- 

 ance, or if assistance was granted as a favor, no other intercourse was permitted between the 

 crews and the people on shore. Under these circumstances, towns built at the ports often 

 remained mere villages ; and Chile, being but a dependency of Peru, was traded with only from 

 the great depot at the "City of the Kings." Even Valparaiso, the entrepot for all the agricul- 

 tural products supplied to the coasts of Bolivia and Peru, remained an insignificant town, 

 inhabited principally by agents whose employers resided at Santiago, until the first quarter of 

 the present century had passed. As late as 1820 not even good blacksmiths were to be found 

 at Valparaiso, and those who built houses there were obliged to resort to the capital for such 

 iron-work as they needed ; nor is it yet fifteen years since government transferred the principal 

 custom-house from the centre of the republic to the seashore. From that moment a new 

 impetus was given commercial life at the port ; merchants deserted the capital, property rapidly 

 increased in value, new streets were opened, more elegant and commodious houses arose in 

 every direction ; and now, beyond dispute, Valparaiso is the greatest city bathed by the waters 

 of the Pacific. 



Of its port, in latitude 33 2', every writer on Chile has more or less to say; and the accurate 

 plan of it given in Maps and Plans, No. 6, renders unnecessary here more than a few words. It 

 is a semi-circular bay, nearly two miles wide across the mouth, which is wholly open to winds 

 from the northward, and whose bottom also seems to partake of the hemispherical form, as deep 

 water extends to within quite a short distance of the shores on all sides. These last rise rapidly 

 to lofty encircling hills and precipices, broken by deep ravines filled with stunted though ever- 

 green vegetation. As southwest winds prevail by day during the greater portion of the year, 

 and the holding-ground is good, it offers a secure anchorage, and danger is to be apprehended 

 only in the northerly gales occurring in winter months. It has usually been regarded safer 

 for vessels to lie on the southwest side of the bay, when it is possible to get there ; and in sum- 

 mer, the closer in-shore the better for the rapidity of discharging cargoes. This is also the most 

 advantageous berth in winter ; because, when the northers commence, the steepness of the bottom 

 prevents ships from dragging far, and the undertow, or reaction of the surf from the rocks, 

 greatly relieves the strain on their cables. But, in this place, as many vessels seek it, there 

 is danger of their dragging down on each other, and, in the heavy sea that sets in, these 

 collisions are fatal as the rocks. Sometimes northers pass over without doing much damage ; 

 at others, their effects are most disastrous, and all badly found or ill-placed vessels are driven 

 ashore^ or upon others, which they not unfrequently involve in their own destruction, At 



