ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



ARIZONA. 



the occupation by Chili on April 21, 1843, of Port 

 Famine, where Sarmiento's colony starved to death, 

 and the proclamation of Chilian sovereignty over 

 the Straits of Magellan. Chili maintained a penal 

 settlement there till Nov. 10, 1877, when the con- 

 victs and their guards mutinied and fled across the 

 desert to the Argentine settlements, half of them 

 perishing on the way. Although the penitentiary 

 was not re-established, the colony of Punta Arenas 

 was revived and became a port of call for steamers 

 running between Europe and the western coast of 

 South America and the headquarters for the an- 

 tarctic whaling and sealing fleets. After placer 

 gold was discovered in the stream on which the 

 town stood, and after the land of Patagonia proved 

 to be suitable for the support of cattle and sheep, 

 especially the latter, the place prospered still more. 

 The Argentine people from the first resented sorely 

 this occupation of territory in Patagonia, although 

 it was on the western side of the main range of the 

 Andes. They argued from old documents that in 

 Spanish colony times the Argentine viceregal gov- 

 ernment had included all Patagonia down to the 

 strait and all the islands to the south, while 

 Chili was entitled only to the narrow strip of soil 

 between the mountains and the sea down to the 

 strait and no farther. Chili meanwhile enlarged 

 the territory occupied by sending troops up the 

 eastern Patagonian coast as far as Santa Crux, 

 river. The station established there was described 

 in the beginning as a mere guardhouse to prevent 

 the escape of convicts from the penal colony. 

 Later it figured as a definite settlement, and Chili 

 formally took possession of all Patagonia east of 

 the Andes up to the old Argentine settlement near 

 the mouth of the Rio Negro. In 1876 the Argen- 

 tine Government began to assert its claims. Under 

 a concession obtained in Buenos Ayres, a French- 

 man established a fish-oil factory on an island 

 in Santa Cruz river, but before long a Chilian 

 war ship arrived and drove him away. An Ameri- 

 can shipmaster next obtained a concession to a 

 guano island near Rio Santa Cruz. As soon as 

 he had loaded his vessel it was seized and carried 

 off as a prize to Chili. The feeling excited in the 

 Argentine Republic became so intense that war 

 seemed inevitable, when the treaty of 1881 was made 

 to avert such a catastrophe. This was a compro- 

 mise, fully satisfactory to neither party. The line 

 was to follow the Andes down to the last peak, and 

 thence was to run across to the crest of a hill 

 on Cape Virgin. Tierra del Fuego was to be di- 

 vided by a line running south from the termination 

 of the boundary on Cape Virgin to a monument 

 planted on the shore of Ushnaia Bay, in Beagle 

 channel. Besides getting all that lay west of this 

 line, Chili was to have all the islands south of Ti- 

 erra del Fuego, while Staten island, off the east 

 coast of the island, went to the Argentine Repub- 

 lic. The Chilians were disappointed when they 

 found out that the boundary line crossed one of 

 the bays on the strait, giving to the Argentine Re- 

 public an excellent harbor, and depriving them of 

 the entire control of the strait, which they looked 

 upon as theirs by right of possession. The treaty 

 they interpreted to mean that the Andean boundary 

 line was not to follow the crests of the highest 

 peaks, but the springs where the water of the rivers 

 flowing east took their source, while the Argentini- 

 ans iiisisted from the beginning that the main di- 

 vide, not the water-parting, was intended. The 

 new treaty of 1893 was made to put a stop to 

 the bitter controversy. By this the Argentinians 

 were deprived of the port on the straits, but they 

 believed that in return for this concession the An- 

 dean line was definitely located on the crest of the 

 continental divide, not at the sources of the Argen- 



tine rivers. When commissioners were appointed 

 to set up monuments in the passes of the Andes to 

 mark the boundary line, the Chilians raised a 

 clamor against the Argentine interpretation and 

 still insisted on claiming the whole watershed. In 

 February, 1896, a special envoy was sent by Chili 

 to the Argentine capital to arrange for a settlement 

 of the dispute, the boundary commissioners having 

 separated after setting up a few of the pillars. An 

 agreement was finally reached and a new protocol 

 was signed on April 17, whereby all difficulties 

 arising in the course of the delimitation that could 

 not be adjusted by the two governments concerned 

 are to be submitted for arbitration to Queen Vic- 

 toria of England. The British Government ac- 

 cepted the office of arbitrator. 



ARI/ONA, a Territory of the United States, or- 

 ganized Feb. 14, 1863; area, 113,020 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial census. 

 was 9,658 in 1870; 40,440 in 1880; and 59.620 in 

 1890. Capital, Phenix. 



Government. The following were the Terri- 

 torial officers during the year: Governor, Louis C. 

 Hughes, Democrat, removed by the President April 

 1, succeeded temporarily by Secretary Bruce, and 

 for the remainder of the term by Benjamin J. 

 Franklin, inaugurated April 23 ; Secretary, C. M. 

 Bruce ; Treasurer, P. J. Cole, succeeded by F. E. 

 Farish ; Auditor, C. P. Leitch; Adjutant General, 

 Ivhvard Schwartz; Attorney-General, F. J. Heney, 

 Superintendent of Instruction. F. J. Netherton ; 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Albert C. Baker; 

 Associate Justices, John J. Hawkins, Owen T. Rouse, 

 and James D. Bethune. 



Finances. The assessed valuation of all taxable 

 property in 1896 was $28,047,176; estimated actual 

 valuation, excluding mining property, $64,000,000; 

 and tax rate. $7.20 per $1,000. The total debt on 

 July 1, 1896, was $2,414,000, including a floating 

 debt of $300,000; county, city, and school-district 

 debt, $1,374,899 ; net Territorial debt, $1,039,101 ; 

 cash in treasury, $115,000. 



Banks. On Oct. 31, 1895, Arizona had 5 national 

 banks in operation and 3 in liquidation. The active 

 banks had a total capital of $400,000 ; amount of 

 United States bonds held to secure circulation, 

 $100,500; coin and coin certificates, $134,106.10; 

 notes issued for circulation. $266,090 redeemed 

 $172,380, outstanding $93,710; loans and discounts, 

 $667,097; deposits, $836,527; reserve, $287,623; 

 and ratio of reserve, 34*38 per cent. The Terri- 

 torial banks numbered 2, and had aggregate capital 

 of $40,200 ; resources, $838,039 ; deposits, $737,241 ; 

 and surplus and profits, $65,598. The combined 

 capital, surplus, undivided profits, and individual 

 deposits aggregated $2,328,940. or $34.76 per capita. 



Agriculture. The United States Department of 

 Agriculture reported (1896) as follows on the prin- 

 cipal crops of 1895: Corn, 5,105 acres, 132.730 

 bushels, value $99.548; wheat, 12.227 acres, 250,- 

 654 bushets, value $162,925 ; potatoes, 422 acres, 29,- 

 118 bushels, value $17,471 ; and hay, 34.408 acres, 

 63,655 tons, value $572,895 ; total value. $852,839. 



Live Stock. In January, 1896, the United States 

 Department of Agriculture estimated the number 

 and value of farm animals in the Territory as fol- 

 lows: Horses, 55,449, value $1,164,770; mules. 1,221, 

 value $33,605; milch cows, 15,622, value $390,550; 

 other cattle, 636,512, value $6,457,164 ; sheep, 746,- 

 546, value $930,196 ; and swine, 20,695, value $152.- 

 980 ; total value. $9,129,265. The wool clip of the 

 year was 6,678,603 pounds of washed and unwashed, 

 and 1,803,223 pounds of scoured. 



Mining'. During 1896 renewed activity was re- 

 ported in the old mining sections, and new and 

 valuable finds were opened. An examination of the 

 sand bars on Colorado river as far down as the 



