114 



CHILI. 



per in bars showed $1,237,745 decrease, and 

 silver in bars, $202,187, all due to the decline 

 in values, and reduced quantities shipped, so 

 far as copper is concerned. Products of agri- 

 culture, of the mills, and stock farms showed 

 the following items of increase: Wheat, $917,- 

 514; wool, $425,816; barley, $124,068; oats, 

 $127,398; flour, $37,907. During the first 

 nine months of 1887, Chilian copper exporta- 

 tion did not exceed 22,872 tons, against 30.212 

 tons during the corresponding period of 1886. 

 The Chilian exportation of nitrate of soda has 

 been as follows: 



The American trade with Chili has been as 

 follows : 



In August, 1887, the Chilian Chambers 

 passed a law exempting from import duties 

 articles introduced for mining and other indus- 

 trial purposes. 



Merchant Marine. There were afloat under 

 the Chilian flag, on May 1, 1886, 37 steamers, 

 with a joint tonnage of 18,525 ; 7 ships, with 

 8,461 tons; 88 barks, with 44,343 tons; 5 

 brigs, with 1,514; 7 schooner-brigs, with 2,- 

 148; 11 schooners, with 1,182; and 18 sloops 

 with 1,112 ; together, 173 vessels, with 77,285 

 tons, being an increase for the year of 2 steam- 

 ers and 5 sailing-vessels. 



Railroads, The Eepublic of Chili, which will 

 soon be in intimate connection by transconti- 

 nental railways with the Argentine Republic, 

 is rapidly developing its great resources. The 

 geographical configuration of the country, long 

 and narrow, with a great coast-line, and more 

 than fifty seaports, makes it unusually inde- 

 pendent of railroads as means of communica- 

 tion. But Chili was the first of the South 

 American nations to introduce railroads and 

 telegraphs, and while Brazil, Peru, and the Ar- 

 gentine Republic have a greater mileage, Chili, 

 in proportion to population, still stands at the 

 head, both in railways and telegraph lines. 

 Of the latter she has 15,000 kilometres in op- 

 eration ; of railways, 2,500 in operation, and 

 3,000 more in process of construction. The 

 Chilian Senate has unanimously voted a sub- 

 sidy to be used in completing the gap of 140 

 miles to connect the Chilian system with that 



of the Argentine Republic. The Chilian Gov- 

 ernment has caused surveys to be made with a 

 view to the extension of the Palmilla and San 

 Fernando Railroad to the coast. It was found 

 that the extension would have to be 85 kilo- 

 metres long, and would cost 3,000,000, It is 

 probable that the work will be taken up in sec- 

 tions, the first and most practicable of which, 

 from Palmilla to Alcones, is fully half of the 

 entire proposed extension, estimated not to ex- 

 ceed in cost $750,000. 



In December, 1886, the Arauco Company 

 was incorporated in London for the purpose 

 of carrying out a concession granted by the 

 Chilian Government in October, 1884, to build 

 a railroad from Concepcion to Rios de Curan- 

 clahue, and undertake certain public works in 

 the province of Arauco, and other portions 

 of Chili. 



In 1887 tramways were laid in the principal 

 streets of Concepcion. The new viaduct be- 

 tween Concepcion and Curanclahue, in course 

 of construction, will be the third highest in the 

 world. 



The Grace Contract. The Chilian Government 

 having taken umbrage at certain clauses of the 

 Grace- Aranibar contract between Peru and 

 her bondholders, the Peruvian Government 

 abstained from carrying out the agreement. 

 Chili based her objections on two of the princi- 

 pal clauses of that document. First, the im- 

 plied assertion that she is responsible for half 

 of the Peruvian foreign debt, as she has seized 

 the property by which that obligation was 

 guaranteed, whereas, by the treaty of peace 

 she declared that she Avould hand over to the 

 bondholders half of the net proceeds of the 

 guano she might sell abroad, and the Peruvian 

 debt was never alluded to. The second objec- 

 tion is based on the immigration of Europeans 

 to Peru, proposed in the contract, and the 

 large grants of land to be given to the Grace 

 Company. Chili declared that this was noth- 

 ing but handing over the independence of Peru 

 to a foreign power, and that the Monroe doc- 

 trine, established by the United States, would 

 forbid such concession. 



Telephones. Communication by telephone 

 was opened during the summer between San- 

 tiago and Valparaiso. 



Electric Light. The city of Coquimbo adopted 

 and received in 1887 the electric light for illu- 

 minating its thoroughfares. 



New Lazaretto. The Chamber of Deputies 

 passed a bill, early in 1887, creating a lazaretto 

 and provisioning station of infected vessels at 

 the Islands of Juan Fernandez. 



New Colony. During the latter part of 1885 

 a colony was founded by agricultural immi- 

 grants at Ercilla, in Araucania, and in less 

 than a year the village had all the appearance 

 of a civilized community, and the adjoining 

 farms were in a prosperous condition. 



Cholera. The cholera invaded Chili by land 

 from the Argentine Republic toward the close 

 of 1886, the sanitary cordon having been 



