Arica

“ Running alongst the coast till wee came within few leagues of Arica, nothing happened unto us of extraordinary noveltie or moment, for we had the brese favourable, which 168 seldome happeneth in this climate; finding ourselves in nineteene degrees, wee haled the shore close abourd, purposing to see if there were any shipping in the road of Arica. ”

“ After days and weeks of rocky coast without vegetation and of the long chain of the naked Andes farther inland, the clumps of green trees and the bushy fringe of verdure along the sandy beach are a seeming paradise and a close one too. The huge cliffs which beetle over Arica do not appear so barren as those farther north, and the flat-topped hills do not limit the vision so entirely as to shut out the thread of valley which marks the line of the railway back to Tacna and the desert. On the highest hill is a great cross, but down on the level are ancient and modern windmills. ”

“ The assault and capture of Arica was to bring the struggle close to its final scene—the last formal resistance on the part of Peru being made at Huamachuco under the command of General Cáceres—and this thrilling event proved a fitting climax to one of the saddest dramas in the history of republican America. Colonel Francisco Bolognesi was given command of the defence of Arica. With him were Captain Moore, Alfonso Ugarte, Colonel Inclan, Arias, Varela, and the Cornejo brothers, all prepared to die with their leader rather than surrender. ”

“ He spoke with a slobbering articulation, with the ghost of a lisp.
“What ship is this?” I said slowly, hoarse from my long silence.
“It's a little trader from Arica and Callao. I never asked where she came from in the beginning,—out of the land of born fools, I guess. I'm a passenger myself, from Arica. The silly ass who owns her,—he's captain too, named Davies,—he's lost his certificate, or something. You know the kind of man,—calls the thing the Ipecacuanha, of all silly, infernal names; though when there's much of a sea without any wind, she certainly acts according.” ”

“ Early on May 2 we cast anchor opposite Arica. There is nothing deserving to be called a harbour; but a projecting headland on the south side of the little town protects the roadstead from the southerly breeze and the swell, which was here scarcely perceptible. On landing, I hastened along the shore on the north side, where a fringe of low bushes and some patches of rusty green gave promise to the botanist, and broke the monotony of the incessant grey which is the uniform tint of the Pacific coast from Payta to Coquimbo. ”

“ The political division of Bolivia is a crying injustice to that lovely country and its industrious population. The harbour of Arica belongs by natural position to Bolivia and not to Peru; commercial interests and general intercourse unite it far more intimately with Northern Bolivia than with Peru. The chief exports of Arica are silver, copper, alpaca wool, cinchona bark, chinchilla furs, cotton, and tin. There are also two steam flour-mills within the little town in full operation; the grain comes from the interior, and is shipped as flour to the various harbours along the coast. ”

“ These so-called "crystallized human eyes," of which an Italian curiosity dealer of Arica possessed one or two sacks-full, belong to a species of mollusca (Loligo gigas) , and were used by the Indians to adorn their dead. To this circumstance must be attributed the great number that are to be found in the graves in the neighbourhood of Arica.
We continued to coast along during the entire night. The number of passengers, especially of those on the "'tween decks," had again increased. Among the late arrivals was an Austrian, a Tyrolese, from Iquique, who was travelling into the interior of Peru. ”

“ Arica is particularly interesting to Americans because it was here that the U. S. S. Wateree was carried inland by the great tidal wave of 1868. Not only has the port been devastated by earthquakes and tidal waves but also by fire. At present it has a very squalid appearance. Before the completion in 1871 of the Southern Peruvian railway from Mollendo to Puno, Arica was an important port of entry for Bolivia. When the Chileans finish the railway which they are building to connect this port with La Paz by a line that shall cross the mountains back of Tacna, this importance will be restored. ”

“ Taking him as a 77guide, and seizing his cargo, they sailed for the port of Arica, a village of only 20 houses, but at that time the chief point of embarkation of the silver from the interior mines. Brought from the mountains by Indians and llamas, the precious bars were sea-borne from Arica to Peru (Callao, for Lima) to await the yearly despatch of treasure to Panama City, and overland by Cruces to Porto Bello. ”

“ Long-pepper is also cultivated, and a thriving trade is carried on with this, and with cotton, sugar, olives, wines, and brandies. The mountains feed numerous herds of cattle, and are famed for the vicunas, llamas, &c.; but the climate is hot, and in the higher parts inclement.
The chief town is Arica, in 18° 26' south latitude, and 70° 18' west longitude, 210 miles north-west of La Plata, and 270 north-west of Atacama, in a beautiful valley on the shore of the Pacific, with a good port, much frequented by the coasting vessels. ”

“ Northward of Arica, I know nothing of the coast for about a space of five degrees of latitude; but near Callao, the port of Lima, there is abundant and very curious evidence of the elevation of the land. The island of San Lorenzo is upwards of one thousand feet high; the basset edges of the strata composing the lower part are worn into three obscure, narrow, sloping steps or ledges, which can be seen only when standing on them: they probably resemble those described by Lieutenant Freyer at Arica. ”

“ By the Indian they were informed that the coast was clear of king’s ships—that an armed merchantman from Old Spain had arrived at Arica (a fortified town still in the hands of the loyalists) a few days before, and that she was lying under the protection of the fort, ready to discharge a valuable cargo. ”

“ Arica is the port of the provincial capital, Tacna, but its present importance is due to the opening in 1913 of a railroad to La Paz, Bolivia, of which city it is also a port. A traveler is carried to the Bolivian metropolis in twenty-four hours over a pass thirteen thousand feet high. ”

“ It is the port for Tacna, the capital of the province, 38 m. distant, with which it is connected by rail, and is the outlet for a large and productive mining district. Arica at one time had a population of 30,000 and enjoyed much prosperity, but through civil war, earthquakes and conquest, its population had dwindled to 2853 in 1895 and 2824 in 1902. ”

“ Its smell is very offensive, yet it produces considerable gain, as several ships load here with it every year for Arica, where it is used as manure for growing capsicums. The only inhabitants of this island are negro slaves, who gather this dung into large heaps near the shore, ready for boats to take it off. The village where the lieutenant resides, and which our people plundered, is on the main land close by the sea, and consists of about sixty scattered ill-built houses, or huts rather, and a small church. ”

“ Santa Cruz may be called the frontier town of the Spanish race, who have swept over the country from the Pacific. The bay of Arica bears due west from Santa Cruz. As the coast of South America bends at Arica, so the Spanish have pressed far in towards the centre of the continent, placing those on the eastern border of Bolivia nearer to the Atlantic than the people of Peru; although they seem to be farthest from the markets of the world, they are the nearest, and are best prepared for entering into commercial relations with the United States of the North. ”

“ The principal wealth of the inhabitants consists in their large droves of mules, for the purpose of conveying the merchandize from Arica into the interior, and from some parts of Upper Peru to Lima. Tacna is to Arica what Piura is to Paita.
On the twenty-seventh of May we came to an anchor in the bay of Ilo, and immediately supplied Colonel Miller with everything that he wanted; he had removed his head-quarters from the town of Moquegua to a farm called Rinconada, judging that the climate of this place was better for his troops, as it was cooler here than in the town. ”

“ The most southerly district of the intendancy of Arequipa, and the last of the kingdom of Peru, is Arica; it is bounded on the north by Arequipa and Moquehua, west by the Pacific, east by the Cordillera and Charcas, and south by the desert and province of Atacama in the kingdom of La Plata. It is eighty-two leagues in length, north-west and south-east; and sixteen wide, east and west; composed of valleys commencing from the Andes and running to the Pacific. The ranges separating these valleys are arid and unfruitful, while the vales themselves grow maize, wheat, &c. ”

“ The population is not concentrated in large cities, but is well distributed through the cultivated parts of the country. The large number of small towns, important as ports, market towns, or manufacturing centres, is a natural result. Many of the foregoing towns are only villages in size, but their importance is not to be measured in this way. Arica is one of the oldest ports on the coast, and has long been a favoured port for Bolivian trade because the passes through the Cordilleras at that point are not so difficult. ”

“ The population is composed of whites, indians and a few slaves. Owing to some low swampy ground, produced by the annual overflowings of the river and the want of proper drainage, intermittent fevers are very common here, of [Pg 328] which many serranos, people from the interior, die, when they come down on business. All our people who slept on shore at Arica, including the admiral, suffered by them, and some died. The climate is similar to that of Lima, it seldom rains, but the fogs are very heavy. ”

“ The next important port south of Arica is Iquique, 156but between the two is Pisagua where many boats call, affording opportunity for any who desire, to disembark and go 124 miles by rail to Iquique, thus to see without loss of time something of the rich nitrate lands of Tarapacá. This part of the coast may not look very different from some of the Peruvian, yet it is still more of a desert; for the Peruvian will blossom like a rose, with a sufficient water supply, while this is less easily transformed. ”

“ The cables were immediately cut, the sails set, and the Minerva stood out to sea. The breeze was light, however, and before she was beyond the range of the fort, the Aricans, to their utter astonishment, for they could not conjecture what had happened, as no other vessel was in sight, saw the Mincrva bearing briskly down toward Moro-Blanco, a promontory on the south side of the bay, several miles distant from Arica. With the strong military force on board, they could not persuade themselves that there existed a possibility of hcr having been taken by an enemy. ”

“ It would never do to be laid up at Acri with heatstroke, and to have one’s last drops of life drained away by copious blood-lettings, relic of Hispano-Arabic practices and the favourite remedy for every complaint. Acri is a large place, and its air of prosperity contrasts with the slumberous decay of San Demetrio; there is silk-rearing, and so much emigration into America that nearly every man I addressed replied in English. New houses are rising up in all directions, and the place is celebrated for its rich citizens. ”

“ The primitive fisher-families of the coast gave way to a civilization which may have received its impetus, as traditions indicate, from tribes sailing southward in great balsas; at any rate it had developed, doubtless before the Christian era, important and characteristic culture centres—Truxillo in the north, Nasca to the south—and great shrines, Pachacamac and Rimac, venerable to the Incas; while long after its own acme, and long before the Inca conquest, the coastal civilization had had important commerce with the ancient culture of the highlands. ”

“ Again, it is perhaps a fanciful notion that the Atlantis of Plato was the northern part of the South American continent, projecting out towards Africa, and that the Antilles are the peaks and headlands of its sunken bulk. But there are evidences enough that the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were within historic periods the seat of a very considerable civilization—the seat of cities, of commerce, of trade, of palaces and pleasure—gardens—faint images, perhaps, of the luxurious civilization of Baia! and Pozzuoli and Capri in the most profligate period of the Roman empire. ”

“ All of South America save Brazil and the two Guineas, all Central America, Mexico, the entire territory west of the Mississippi, now embraced by the United States, beautiful Cuba, from whose eastern province of Santiago Ponce de Leon across the lucent waves of the tropical sea coveted the ambrosial forests and fertile meadows of Porto Rico, whence he was to sail to the floral empire of Florida. But this was not all of Spain's magnificent domain. Far across the waters of the South Pacific was the now famous cluster of islands bearing the name of the Spanish king. ”

“ Only some poor soldiers, and black slaves and dying Indians stayed behind, to build towns and make farms. After the gold and silver was all taken away, the Spanish king still kept soldiers and officers in Havana and other towns. He made all these poor people pay taxes. It was four hundred years before all these Spanish countries in America won their freedom from Spain. One of the big Spanish islands belongs to us, today. It is called Porto Rico. It is near Cuba, and very much like it, but smaller. ”