CHILI. 



99 



The leading European nations, on the other 

 hand, take nearly all the copper, the bulk of 

 the nitrate and wool, and all the wheat and 

 barley shipped abroad by Chili, leading to an 

 extensive trade by both direct steamship lines 

 with some of those nations, and by sailing-ves- 

 sels, thus reducing the freight rates, and ren- 

 dering American competition extremely diffi- 

 cult in anything but specialties produced better 

 and cheaper in the United States than else- 

 where. Our heaviest export to Chili is made 

 up of plain cotton fabrics. 



The re-establishment of peace is not likely 

 to produce much of change in this respect, but 

 it will by degrees restore to us a valuable Pe- 

 ruvian trade. 



The Chilian export movement in 1881 em- 

 braced the ensuing items : 



Products of the mines $47,145,757 



Agricultural products 9,967,780 



Manufactures 107,593 



feundry other articles 262,801 



Merchandise ... ... $577483^981 



Specie 1,582,277 



Total $59,066,208 



Re-exported merchandise $1,327,041 



Specie 132,610 



1,459,651 



Total $60,525,859 



There has been a falling off, as compared 

 with 1880, of $1,000,000 in copper exporta- 

 tion, and $2,000,000 in that of silver; but ni- 

 trate of soda has been rapidly on the increase 

 since Chili occupied TarapacA, and its export 

 amounted, in 1881, to $22,891,000. 



EXPORT OP ALL KINDS OP COPPER PROM CHILI, DURING 

 TWENTY YEARS, IN FINE COPPER, IN TONS OP 2,240 

 POUNDS. 



The decrease in the production of copper is 

 due to the drafting of miners into the army. 

 As soon as a treaty of peace between the bel- 

 ligerents shall have been signed, it is expected 

 that Chili will be able to withdraw from Peru 

 and Bolivia 20,000 of the 32,000 soldiers form- 

 ing the present army of occupation, and that 

 the output of the Chilian copper and silver 

 mines will gradually recover from its recent 

 comparative decline. 



CHILIAN WHEAT EXPORTATION. 

 YEAR. Ton.. 



1872 878,400 



1878 459,900 



1874 856,800 



1875 889,100 



1876 845,000 



Total 1,929,200 Total 1,718,800 



Scarcity of hands, through drafting into the 

 army, and less abundant crops, have caused 

 the falling off noticeable above. 



As for the vicissitudes of the war in 1882, 



YEAR. Tons. 



1877 299,600 



1878 273,800 



1879 875,000 



1880 411,400 



1881 859,000 



we refer to the details given in this volume 

 under " PERU." Negotiations for the re-estab- 

 lishment of peace, with and without mediation, 

 both American and European, have followed 

 each other in rapid succession without lead- 

 ing to any practical result. The retention of 

 Tarapaca by Chili, the latter makes a condition 

 sine qua non, the latest proposition in addi- 

 tion thereto on her part being that Tacna and 

 Arica be given to Bolivia, so that the latter 

 may form a barrier between the Chilian ac- 

 quisition of Tarapaca, and Peru, and at the 

 same time restore to Bolivia an outlet to the 

 Pacific, which she possessed before the war, 

 though of less magnitude and value than the 

 one now proposed by Chili. 



THE COUNTRY. Count Eugene de Robiano, 

 who traveled throughout the republic in 1882, 

 has just published a book on Chili, entitled " Le 

 Chili, 1'Araucanie et le detroit de Magellan " 

 (the house of Plon, Paris, publishers), in which 

 we find the ensuing introductory passage: 

 " Chili, together with Brazil, is of all South 

 American countries the one whose progress has 

 been most astonishing the last twenty years, 

 and the state of civilization there reached places 

 Chili in the first rank among those nations liv- 

 ing at a great distance from us whose future 

 seems safest." 



The fertile plateau stretching through a great 

 portion of Chili parallel with the coast, be- 

 tween the Cordilleras of the Andes and the 

 coast-range of mountains, Count Robiano de- 

 scribes in about the following words: "This 

 central valley, as may be supposed, varies a 

 good deal in breadth, and does so to an equal 

 extent as regards its products, which embrace 

 mineral ores, cattle, vines, and cereals. Irri- 

 gation is, however, necessary, there being 

 hardly any rain, but plenty of streams from 

 the Cordilleras. Chili produces not only the 

 cereals, etc., of Europe, but also tropical fruits. 

 The climate is probably the most healthy on 

 earth, while in point of minerals its deposits 

 are almost inexhaustible." 



The vigor and enterprise with which Chili 

 pushes into the country of the semi-barbarous 

 Araucanian Indians, one of its possessions, 

 Count Robiauo dwells on at great length, and 

 so does a correspondence from Chili we find 

 in the " Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung." 

 A passage from the latter reads about as fol- 

 lows: "Our readers are probably aware that 

 of the eighteen provinces into which Chili 

 is divided, the two southernmost Valdivia 

 and Llanquihue have, since 1848, become 

 prosperous German settlements. These two 

 provinces are separated from the north of 

 Chili by Araucania, a strip of land where 

 hitherto the Pehuenches, a tribe of wild In- 

 dians, held exclusive sway. While Spain has, 

 during three centuries, been unable to subdue 

 these barbarians, Chili has not been more suc- 

 cessful than the mother-country in this re- 

 spect till within the past few years, for the 

 Araucanians restricted their defense to a guer- 



