(HIM. 



CHINA. 



i of any size may anchor with the greatest safety. San Carlos 

 u laid by Captain Kitzroy to be an excellent harbour. On the wt 

 coast ii the Lagoon of Cucao, which u upward* of 20 mile* in length, 

 and connected with the sea. Though frort and mow an hardly 

 known the climate of the ialand u chilly. The air is so damp that 

 fogs occur almost daily during the rainy season, which laxU ton 

 months ; yet the ialand U considered to be healthy. The domestic 

 animals are cattle, homes, sheep, and swine. Some hides are exported, 

 and about 10,000 hams annually, of excellent quality. These, with 

 about 250,000 planks, and occasionally grain and potatoes, constitute 

 the export*. The soil being of excellent quality produces rich crops 

 of wheat and barley and great quantities of potatoes. A good deal 

 of butter is made. Fish, as wall as oysters and other shell-fish, are 

 very abundant, and in some parts are the chief food of the inhabitant*. 

 The interior of the country is little known, the inhabitant* all living 

 Jong the Ma-shore, or only at a little distance from it The northern 

 and eastern coast* are settled by Europeans, but at the southern 

 extremity only Indians in small numbers are found. The people are 

 in appearance more like northern Europeans than Spaniards, being 

 athletic and robust, and having a fair complexion and light flaxen 

 hair. The principal towns are Son Carlot, on the Strait of Ckacao, a 

 small town with about 2000 inhabitant*, and Cadre, which contains two 

 dilapidated churches, and a small and poor population. The most 

 remarkable of the numerous smaller islands of the archipelago are 

 Quinchao, Lemuy, Calbuco, and Llaicha. On Lemuy very good 

 ponchos are made from the wool of the country. The population of 

 the province is 48,876. 



The capital of Chili is SANTIAGO ; the chief port and centre of 

 commerce is VALPARAISO ; both of these will be described under 

 their respective titles. The few other towns of any size or conse- 

 quence have mostly been enumerated in speaking of the provinces ; 

 what further notice seems necessary we add here. Host of the towns 

 of Chili, as mentioned under ACONCAGUA (voL i. col 66), are built on a 

 regular plan, and are similar in their general appearance : the 

 churches and other public buildings, and the principal shops, occupy 

 the sides of a central plaza, the area of which serves by day as a 

 market-place, and in the evening as the public promenade ; while the 

 main streets diverge from the plaza at regular interval*, and are of 

 uniform width. The houses are generally of a single story. 



Conception, the capital of the province of the same name, and the 

 seat of a bishopric, stands on the right bank of the Biobio, about 8 

 miles from the Bay of Concepcion : population about 7000. The 

 town was built after the destruction of the old city of Penco by an 

 earthquake in 1763. Concepcion itself, after enduring many shocks 

 of more or less violence, was entirely overthrown by a similar visita- 

 tion in 1835. It was a well-built town, and contained many fine 

 buildings, among others a massive cathedral, which, like the 

 more fragile structures, was reduced to a mere ruin. The city has 

 not yet recovered from the effects of so serious a calamity, but it 

 appears to be making steady progress. It has little trade and no 

 manufactures. Ships generally lie off the Port of Talcahuano, at the 

 head of Concepcion Bay, a poor town of about 1000 inhabitant*. 

 Conoepcion Bay is 6 miles long and 4 miles wide, affords ample secure 

 and well-sheltered anchorage, and is said to be the finest port on this 

 coast. Constitution is a small town on the left bank of the Rio 

 Haule, about a mile from it* embouchure. As the port of an exceed- 

 ingly rich agricultural and mining district, and on the line of the 

 best pas* across the Andes, Constitucion appears destined to rise into 

 considerable importance. At present a sand-bar prevents vessels of 

 much burden ascending to the town ; but there appears to be no insu- 

 perable engineering difficulty in the way of its removal, if the 

 inhabitants possessed sufficient capital and enterprise. Copiap6, 

 population about 4000, on the right bank of the river of the same 

 name, i* the principal port of the mining district of Atacama, but 

 appear* likely to give place to the superior facilities of the neighbour- 

 ing harbour of Caldera. The town suffered very severely from an 

 earthquake in 1819 and again in 1822, and on some subsequent occa- 

 sions. Copper smelting is carried on in the vicinity. Coqvimbo, popu- 

 lation about 8000, the capital of the province of Coquimbo, was 

 founded in 1544 by Valdivia, who named it Serena; it stands near the 

 mouth of the Chuapa, about 7 miles from Coquimbo Bay. The town 

 b regularly laid out with houses of one story, having gardens attached, 

 but has few public buildings of any mark. The district abounds in 

 mine*) of gold, silver, copper, and iron. There is no import trade. 



g < \, f PP er and copper-ore is exported. The port is a 

 i collection of hovels. Jluatm, is the small port-town of a mining 

 district in the province of Coquimbo, of some local consequence, but 

 not requiring further notice here : it stand* at the mouth of the 

 Hnasco Ilivi-r. Otorno (40' 20' a lat) is one of the most southern 

 towns in the republic. Petorco. [AcoscAOBA.] Rancagva, near the 

 southern boundary of Santiago, U a place of some importance. Son 

 Peltpt dt Aconragua. [AcosCAOCA.1 Ban Fernanda, the capital of 

 Colchagua, stands new the base of the Andes, and i* a tolerably Urge 

 and flourishing town, and the centre of a rich and fertile district 

 Talea, the capital of the province of the name name, itand* near the 

 right bank of the Kio Maule in the upper part of it* course, and i* 

 also a town of considerable note. The district abounds in forest* of 

 fine Umber. Valdina, the capital of the province of the same name, 



stand* on the lelt bank and at the actuary of the Calacalla, at the 

 head of the Port of Valdivia (39' 49' 8. lat, 73 18' W. long.) : popu- 

 lation about 2000. Owing to a bar at the mouth of the Calacalla, 

 only vessels of light burden can asorod to the town. Although the 

 district i* extremely fertile the town ha* little trade. The export* 

 are chiefly of plank* and staves. The town, which consist* of a 

 number of scattered wooden houses, surrounded by a forest of apple- 

 trees, bean a poor and neglected aspect ; the many costly fortifica- 

 tions, erected by the Spaniard* with a view to rendering the harbour 

 impregnable, have been suffered to fall into decay. 



Inhabitant*. The population of Chili, north of the Rio Biobio, is 

 almost entirely composed of descendants of Europeans. There are 

 no Indians north of the Biobio, except in the valleys of the Andes 

 south of 34 S. lat Negroes are few in number. The Indians who 

 inhabit the country south of the Biobio are known by the name of 

 Araucanians, and have obtained some celebrity by the high degree of 

 civilisation attributed to them by Molina. [AHAUCAXA.] They 

 appear to consist of several tribes, who speak different dialects of the 

 same language, and are divided by the Chilenos into 'Indios Costinn*,' 

 or Indians inhabiting the coast, and into 'Moluchos,' who inhabit the 

 extensive wooded plains stretching along the foot of the Andes, and 

 have resisted all attempts to conquer them. These nation* derive 

 their principal subsistence from agriculture, cultivating maize, 

 potatoes, beans, and some other articles. In the valley* of the Andes 

 between 34 and 37 S. lat, are the Pehuenches, who seem rather to 

 be addicted to a wandering life. All these tribe* still enjoy virtual 

 independence. 



Hittory, Governtntni, Financet, <tc. When Francisco Pizarro had 

 overthrown the empire of the Incas in Peru, he sent Almagro to sub- 

 jugate Chili. With great loss of men, Almagro passed over the 

 Andes and through the desert of Atacama, and entered the northern 

 provinces without resistance, these districts having previously been 

 dependent on the Peruvian empire. But farther south he met the 

 more warlike tribes, and made no great progress. His successor, 

 Valdivia, advanced to the Biobio, and founded the town of Santiago 

 in 1541. For more than 200 yean the Spaniards tried to establish 

 their authority in the south, but without permanent success ; and in 

 1771 they were obliged to abandon that country, with the exception 

 of Valdivia, Osoroo, and a few small fortresses on the banks of the 

 Biobio. 



The first disturbances tending to a separation from the Spanish 

 dominion occurred in 1810. Chili declared itself independent 

 Sept 18, 1810, but the strife so far from being ended went on increas- 

 ing till the Chilenoa were defeated in 1814 at Roncagua, by the 

 Spanish general Osorio. In 1817 San Martin entered Chili with an 

 army from La Plata, and liberated the country by the battles of 

 Chacabuco (12th February, 1817) and Maypu (6th April, 1818). Since 

 the establishment of the constitution, which wa* proclaimed in 1830, 

 there have been frequent conflict* between political parties, but the 

 country has on the whole been more peaceable than moat of the other 

 South American states, and not less successful. 



By the constitution the government received a republican form, 

 with a central legislature and executive. The executive power is in 

 the hands of a president, elected every five year* ; and a council of 

 state consisting of the ministry, two members of the court of Justine, 

 an ecclesiastical dignitary, a general, two'cx -ministers, Ac. The legis- 

 lature consists of a Congress composed of a senate of 20 member* 

 retaining their functions fur nine yean, and a House of Representative* 

 elected triennially, to which a deputy is sent for every 20,000 of the 

 population. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of appeal, 

 three other cdVrU of appeal, and inferior courts. 



The army consisted in 1852 of 2661 men, besides the militia, which 

 numbered 66,241. The navy consisted of 7 vessels carrying 88 

 guns. 



The revenue of the republic from 1825 to 1832 averaged about 

 1,700,000 Spanish dollars, and the expenditure exceeded the receipt*. 

 In 1861, according to the report presented to Congress 20th August, 

 1852, the revenue amounted to 4,427,06 doUan(968,604<.), the expen- 

 diture in 1851 ttos 4,712,147 dollars (1,030,7822.); but this excess of 

 expenditure was covered by the excess of revenue in the preceding 

 year. The amount of foreign debt (chiefly English) was 1,493,0001. ; 

 of home debt 467,8351. 



(Molina ; Mien ; Meyen ; Poppig ; Schmidtmeyer : Sutcliffe ; Oer- 

 staecker ; Fitzroy and King ; Darwin, Ac.) 



CHILKEAH. IBARXII.LT.] 



OHILOB ISLAND. [Ciiiu.1 



< HIMAY. [HAIXAULT.] 



('HIM BOR AZO. [AKDES, voL L coL 855.] 



CHINA i* an extensive country in Eastern Asia, constituting tlio 

 principal portion of the Chinese empire. It is situated on the borden 

 of the Pacific, and extends from 20 N. lat, (or, if the island of 

 Hainan is included, from 18) to 41* N. lat, and if the tract of land 

 projecting on the north-west toward* the centre of Asia be added, to 

 46 N. lat It* eastern extremity, where it borden on Corea, is cut 

 by 124 E. long., and its western, where it borden on the Birman 

 empire, by 98 E. long. ; but if the projecting tract be added, it 

 reaches to 85 E. long. It* greatest length, from the harbour of 

 Aiuoy, opposite the island of Formosa, taken in a north-western 



