448 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



European by descent, but Spanish by their speech, the Chilians have a very 

 marked personality amongst the South American populations. They are cooler 

 and more collected than their fiery neighbours of the central and northern Andean 

 regions, less impulsive but also more steadfast and tenacious of purpose. They 

 often speak of themselves as the English of the southern continent, by contrast 

 with the Peruvians, or rather the people of Lima, whom they assimilate to the 

 French. They are described as reserved, harsh and even cruel, and in the last 

 war with Peru, they certainly showed little pity for the vanquished. 



While largely of Araucanian lineage, the Chilians are not evea pure Castillans 

 in speech, the Spanish language having undergone more changes in Chili than in 

 any of the other Iberian colonies in the New World. The European Spaniard 

 landing at Valparaiso cannot at first understand the current speech, not only 

 because of some Araucanian terms introduced into the local dialect, but also owing 

 to the habit the Chilians have of dropping the last syllables of the words. 



YIL 



Topography. 



Tacna, till lately included in Peru, became the northernmost town of Chili in 

 1892. Lying no less than 1,260 miles to the north of Santiago, it differs greatly 

 in the character of its inhabitants, who comprise a considerable negro element, 

 from the urban groups of Chili proper. Standing at an altitude of about 1,870 

 feet, the town stretches along the banks of a stream whose bed is nearly always 

 dry, being exhausted by the irrigation canals ramifying amid the surrounding 

 gardens and orchards. 



Before the construction of the railway between Mollendo and Puno, Tacna was 

 the emporium for nearly all the produce and metals forwarded from La Paz and 

 Oruro towards the Pacific. The Tacora pass, the approach to which was com- 

 manded by Tacna, served as the main outlet for the trade of Bolivia. 



ArICA — PiSAGUA. 



Arica, which lies on the coast near the point where the waterless bed of the 

 liio Lluta reaches the sea, occupies a position of great interest in the physical 

 structure of the continent. In this district, at the intersection of the main axes 

 of the Peruvian and Chilian Andes, frequent vibrations of the ground are caused 

 by the subterranean disturbances. Occasionally the shocks are extremely violent, 

 and Arica, which was destroyed in 1605, suffered much in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. The earthquakes of 1868 and 1877 were still more disastrous, 

 because it had become a flourishing trading place. But so strongly built are the 

 low houses that they run little risk of being overthrown, and the chief danger 

 comes from the sea, which first retires, leaving the shipping stranded on the beach, 



