CHAPTER IX. 



CHILI. 

 I. 



HE southernmost republic of the Andean regions occupies on the 

 Pacific seaboard an elongated zone, extending a total distance of no 

 less than 3,000 miles in a straight line, and comprising over one- 

 half of the South American seaboard between the Gulf of Panama 

 and Cape Horn. Bat its breadth is far from corresponding to 

 this enormous expansion in the direction of the meridian. Before the recent 

 annexations of Bolivian and Peruvian territories. Chili proper was everywhere 

 bounded inland by the crest of the Andes, which here especially run close to the 

 coast. Towards the tapering extremity of the continent its domain is even still 

 reduced to a few uninhabited escarpments of the Cordilleras between the Pata- 

 gonian plains and the archipelagoes fringing the seaboard. 



In the interior no state of this slender elongated form could possibly be held 

 together under any circumstances ; at the first shock it would necessarily break 

 into fragments, each with its special centre of attraction. Even the Italian 

 peninsula, although a maritime region with a perfectly defined geographical 

 unity, was nevertheless till recently broken into a number of distinct states, and 

 even territories distributed amongst foreign powers. 



Recent Conquests. 



The persistence of Chili as a homogeneous state, possessing even more close 

 cohesion than most of the other South American political communities, is explained 

 by the vicinity of the sea. To the oceanic waters, traversed along the whole 

 length of the Chilian coast by the Antarctic current, this region is indebted for its 

 distinct physical unity. All the most distant points of the seaboard are brought 

 into almost close proximity by the vessels plying in these waters. They also enjoy 



