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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 







prn \ \ 



© Publishers' Photo Service 



BALES 0E JUTK BAGS FROM INDIA FOR THE NITRATE El ELDS 



The northern ports of Iquique and Antofagasta are open roadsteads, ships anchoring well 



offshore. 



qui, with his victorious army, to subju- 

 gate the tribes of northern Chile. 



The Inca's trail from Peru led down 

 the backbone of the snow-clad Andes and 

 across the burning desert. In 1535 Diego 

 de Almagro, a colleague of Pizarro, 

 traveled the same road with a great army 

 of Spaniards and Peruvians, horses and 

 llamas, two Incan princes acting as guides. 



Old Spanish chronicles tell of the ter- 

 rible suffering from cold and thirst en- 

 dured by Almagro's men on the six 

 months' march. The desert was strewn 



with their bones. Alluring were Co- 

 piapo's meadows to those who survived ! 



Almagro failed to subdue the southern 

 natives, and five years later a Spanish 

 army was again encamped in Copiapo, 

 led this time by Pedro de Valdivia, who 

 kept on south to found Santiago. 



In the halcyon days of '49, when Cali- 

 fornia's gold lured men round the Horn, 

 Valparaiso became the great mart of the 

 Pacific coast, supplying flour and other 

 commodities to the California miners. 

 My pioneer grandfather used to tell me 



