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1832.] PACIFIC STATION. 435 
command, arrived from Talcahuano, bringing the agreeable intel- 
ligence that the vessels in question had been released, and had, 
by that time, probably sailed for the United States. The amount 
of damages sustained by these vessels, with full cargoes of oil, 
lying so long, and subject to leakage, besides creating a subject 
for adjustment between the two countries, is probably greater 
than would be required to support an independent consul in that 
place for ten years. When wall our government look to and 
reform the defects in our consular system 1 
Proceeding to the north, the next port after leaving ChiH is 
Cobija, recently risen in importance from having been made a free 
port of entry for the Republic of Bolivia. This country,, contain- 
ing, as it does, twelve hundred thousand inhabitants, connected 
on the northwest with Peru, on the northeast and east with Brazil, 
on the south with the Argentine RepubKc, and washed by the 
Pacific Ocean on the west, opens a commercial field of consider- 
able importance to the enterprise of our merchants. The country, 
though mountainous, is in many places exceedingly productive. 
Many of its silver mines are among the richest in South America ; 
those of Potosi have been long celebrated. 
It was on this soil the Spaniards made their last effort, under 
the Viceroy la Serna, and suffered a signal defeat by the Patriot 
forces under Sucre, on the battle-gi-ound of Ayacucho, on the 
ninth December, eighteen hundred and twenty-four. This is now 
one of the best regulated repubhcs of South America ; its resour- 
ces are certainly less exhausted, and its government presents the 
anomaly of a surplus in the treasury ! The port of Cobija, there- 
fore, is not only important on these accounts, but would be ren- 
dered more so, at any moment, should something occur to inter- 
rupt our friendly relations with Chili or Peru ; as it would, in 
such case, become the port of deposite for our merchandise. 
The several ports of entry along the extensive coast of Peru 
will be noticed more in detail as we pass along. American inter- 
ests are extensive with them all, and require constant looking 
after. 
Leaving the coast of Peru, Guayaquil is the principal port of 
the Equador ; and then follows the port of Panama, the emporium 
of the old Spanish galleons, where were collected the treasures 
of Peru and Chili before they were sent to the mother country, 
E e 2 
