306 



TRADE IN GUANO, 



Chap. XVIII. 



haustible source of riches/ The three Chincha islands, in the 

 bay of Pisco, contained a total of 12,376,100 tons of guano in 

 1853, and, as since that time 2,837,365 tons have been ex- 

 ported up to 1860, there were 9,538,735 tons remaining in 

 1861.^ In 1860 as many as 433 vessels, with a tonnage of 

 348,554, loaded at the Chincha islands ; so that, at the above 

 rate, the guano will last for twenty-three years, until 1883. 

 The guano monopoly brings in a revenue to the State of 

 14,850,000 dollars. 



In Peru even the arid deserts are the sources of enormous 

 wealth ; for while the desolate Chinchas pour millions into 

 the treasury, the pampa of Tamarugal, in the Tarapaca pro- 

 vince, contributes its nitrate of soda (salitre) and borate of 

 lime to swell the riches of this favoured land. It is calculated 

 that the nitrate of soda grounds in this district cover fifty 

 square leagues, and, allowing one hundred pounds weight of 

 nitrate for each square yard, this will give 63,000,000 tons, 

 which, at the present rate of consumption, will last for 1393 



1 The use of giiauo as a manure was 

 well known to the ancient Peruvians 

 long before the Spanish conquest. 

 Garcilasso de la Vega, the historian of 

 the Incas, thus describes the use made 

 by them of the deposits of guano on 

 the coast of Peru : — 



" On the shores of the sea, from be- 

 low Arequipa to Tarapaca, which is 

 more than 200 leagues of coast, they 

 use no other manure than that of sea- 

 birds, which abound in aU the coasts 

 of Peru, and go in such great flocks 

 that it would be incredible to one who 

 had not seen them. They breed on 

 certain uninhabited islands which are 

 on that coast ; and the manure wlucli 

 they deposit is in such quantities tliat 

 it would also seem incredible. From 

 afar the heaps of manure appear like 

 the peaks of some snowy mountain- 

 range. In the time of the kings, who 

 were Incas, such care was taken to 

 guard these bhds in the breeding sea- 

 son, that it was not lawfid for any one 

 to land on the isles, on pain of deatli. 



that the birds might not be frightened, 

 nor driven from then' nests. Neither 

 was it lawful to kUl them at any time, 

 either on the islands or elsewhere, also 

 on pain of death. Each island was, 

 by order of the Incas, set apart for the 

 use of a jiarticular province, and the 

 guano was fiiirly divided, each village 

 receiving a due portion. Now in these 

 times it is wasted after a diiTerent 

 fashion. There is much fertility in 

 this bird-manure." — II. lib. v. ca}). iii. 

 p. 134-5. (Madrid, 1723.) 



Frezier mentions that, when he was 

 on the coast in 1713, guano was brought 

 from Iquique and other ports along the 

 coast, and landed at Arica and Ylo, 

 tor the aji-pepper and other crops. — 

 Frezier's South Sea, p. 152. (London, 

 1717.) 



^ Informes sobre la existencia de 

 Huano, en las Islas de Chincha, por 

 la comision nomhradn por el Gobieriio 

 Peruana, 1854. A small pamphlet, 

 with plans. 



