230 



VALPARAISO. 



Table showing the number of Interments in the Catholic cemetery at Valparaiso, from the year 1841 to 1850, 



inclusive. 



The records of adults and infants (under seven years), if kept separately prior to 1846, are 

 not now obtainable ; and from the great fluctuations in the different subsequent years, when 

 no epidemics are known to have occurred, as well as the extraordinary increase of mortality 

 since 1841, it is to be apprehended that very great reliance cannot be placed upon the returns. 

 One cannot but be surprised at the disproportion between the numbers of deaths among adults 

 of the two sexes a disproportion of no less than 20 per cent. But the same matter is referred 

 to at greater length in the account of Santiago ; and as like influences concur to produce anal- 

 ogous results here, it is unnecessary to pursue the subject farther. 



With its want of back-ground, its deficiency of supplies, its bad harbor, or, more properly 

 speaking, its want of a harbor, and its comparatively limited back population o furnish, it is 

 surprising how Valparaiso has continued to prosper as an entrepot for the coast, with such capa- 

 cious harbors as Concepcion and Coquimbo at moderate distances on either side of it. True, 

 the latter has not supplies for an extensive commercial marine ; but it offers admirably secure 

 anchorage at all seasons, ample facilities for constructing wharves, on which goods may be 

 landed without the hazardous impediment of surf, almost always in the bay of its neighbor,* 

 whilst the distance from ports at which provisions may be shipped is, at most, only two days' 

 sail farther. On the opposite side, Concepcion, in addition to all these advantages, is the 

 natural outlet of a district whose climate is unrivalled, and whose soil is capable of being made to 

 yield almost any product, to an extent unknown among agriculturists of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. Its herds of cattle and flocks of sheep multiply with like rapidity. Nor is it wanting 

 in mineral wealth gold, copper, and coal existing in more than one locality. Unless it be 

 that the greater wealth concentrated at Santiago is paramount to all these advantages, a reason 

 for this preference of Valparaiso is not obvious. Whatever it be, merchants actually force the 

 greater number of consumers to pay all the extra charges for landing and reshipment of goods 

 consumed by themselves. If we take the populations to be supplied directly and by subsequent 

 land carriage from each of the three ports, as given in the " Eepertorio Nacional" for 1850, 

 they are : 



* At Valparaiso, goods are deposited with the tackles of the ship into launches alongside, are thence conveyed as near to the 

 beach as the depth of water will permit, and, however heavy the package, it must be taken through the surf on the shoulders of 

 men. The only wharf for landing goods north of the Maule is at Caldera. 



