78 



and first called attention to the value of the immense deposits 

 on the Chincha Islands. The importance of this announcement 

 was not realized at that time, but forty years later this same 

 guano revolutionized methods in agriculture in all civilized 

 lands, and furnished an immense source of revenue for exploit- 

 ing corporations and even for nations. The Peruvian govern- 

 ment depended largely for some years upon the revenue from 

 this industry for the payment of the interest on the national 

 debt. 1 



In 1843, when the great commercial extraction of guano from 

 these islands began, the material lay in beds, in some cases 

 more than 100 feet in depth. The supply seemed inexhaustible, 

 and according to a survey made by the Peruvian government in 

 1853, there were 12,376,100 tons then available. By 1850 the 

 price of Peruvian guano in the United States had advanced to 

 $50 per ton or more. It is said that from 1851 to 1872 more 

 than 10,000,000 tons of this excellent fertilizer were taken from 

 one small group of islands, representing an average annual ex- 

 portation valued at from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. 2 



During this period the destruction of the birds and the ex- 

 traction of the guano were carried on together. Sometimes as 

 many as fifty or seventy ships of different nations were gathered 

 around the islands. Slaves were employed to dig and load the 

 product, while the birds were wantonly killed or driven away. 

 At times thousands of young birds were driven over the cliffs 

 to their death merely to get them out of the way. Such a 

 campaign of destruction and exploitation could have but one 

 end. Dr. F. A. Lucas asserts that as early as 1879, when he 

 visited the islands, they had been swept clear of guano birds, 

 and that he saw no sign anywhere on that coast of the huge 

 flocks of those species of birds that had been responsible fir 

 the original guano deposits. 



By the close of the last century the deposits on the islands 

 were so reduced, that the agriculture of Peru itself was threat- 

 ened. The control of the small remaining supply was largely in 

 the hands of foreign creditors, and the future of the Peruvian 

 guano industry looked dark indeed. Since then, however, the 



1 Palmer, T. S.: Yearbook, United States Department of Agriculture, 1899, p. 274. 

 1 Coker, R. E.: Peru's Wealth-producing Birds, National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 

 XXXVII, No. 6, June, 1920, p. 543. 



