The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-08-08
Cur Q4lio.
Peru's Immense Wealth.

In letter from Lima Peru to the New
York Sun, the writer says: Prescott and
Robertson and other historians tell fabu-
lous stories of the wealth of the Incas, and
we know it was enough to restore financial
prosperity to Spain, and give every cut
throat who came to the coast fortune.
The name of Peru was Synonymous for
boundless riches, and this country was the
only III Dorado which the Spanish adven-
turers ever succeeding in finding.
After they had expended the wealth
they found in the hands of the Indians,
the Spaniards worked the mines of Potosi
and Cerro del Pasco, and found them won
derfully productive. Millions after mill
ions were secured from each of these de-
posits, and they were abandoned only when
as great a source of wealth was discovered
in the guano islands of the sea. This was
so much more readily obtained and paid
such an immensely greater profit that the
silver mines in the Andes, $4,000 feet
above the sea, were left for the patient,
plodding Indians, and Peru commenced
to sell fertilizing material to the world.
Guano is only found in rainless regions,
and while there is said to be some on the
coast of Mexico and in the islands of the
Gulf of California, it is only along the arid
deserts west of the Andes, where the
clouds never precipitate moisture that the
deposit has been a source of wealth. Gu
ano is mixture of the excrement of birds
and seals, the decomposed bodies of both,
and the bones of the fishes which they
have taken upon the land for food. Along
the coast of Peru are to-day, as there have
been for centuries, myriads Of sea birds
The sky is often darkened with them, and
their heavy shadows fall upon the oceans
surface as they fly from one to another of
the islands upon which they roost and
breed. These islands are swarming with
sea lions also, and the rocky shores are
fringed with them in multitudes beyond
the power of man to number. They live
on the islands with the birds. Here both
live, die, and decay with the other animal
life they bring from the ocean, and the
guano commerce is the filth they have left
upon the Tocks. There has never been
any rain to wash it away, aud the wind
scarcely ever rises above gentle breeze,
so it has been allowed to accumulate for
countless ages, until it is in some places
hundreds of feet deep, dried and baked by
tropical sun,
The amount of money which Peru has
made from her guano deposits cannot be
estimated any more accurately than the
| i. ho TDanc Tbo
ports have continued from 1916 to the
present day, and the annual shipments
have amounted to millions of tons, valued
between $2O,OOO,000 and s3Q,000,000,
and this to the profit Of a state whose pop
ulation has never reached 100000,
three-fourths of whom were Indians who
have had no share in its benefits The
exhausted lands Of the old world required
this manure to revive them, and their
owners paid high prices for what cost Peru
nothing. The result of this revenue was
to continue the extravaganza among the
people which was praoticed by their fore
fathers when the mountains poured out
streams of silver. 1t was an epidemic of
riches and instead of wisely boarding this
source of wealth and protecting it, the gov
ernment of Peru plunged into a system of
reckless expenditure, until the end of the
war found its reYenues cut OH and the
country hurdened with a debt of $780,
100000, which it can never pay.
But even if Peru had been robbed of all
her guano, the deposits of nitrate of soda,
in the deserts along her southern coasts
would have made her rich again, but Chill
has stolen these also. The whole coast,
from the twenty-third to the twenty-ffth
parallel of latitude, appears to be one solid
mass of this valuable mineral fit for hun
dred different uses, and worth in the
market from forty to sixty dollars a ton.
1t was discovered in 1888 by an accident,
the hero of the discovery being forlorn
old Englishman by the name of George
Smith. There is no telling how much lies
in these mines, but it il the opinion of
those who have explored the country that
at the present rate Of excavation 1t will
take eight or ten centuries to dig it away.
Under the surface of drifting sand is
crust of clay three to five inches thick,
This crust covers bed Of crude nitrate
from three to six feet deep, the limits of
which have not been measured. Years
ago, when its value was net fully reeog-
nized, private parties, mostly Englishmen
aud Germans, went into the nitrate beds,
and by the self-enacted laws which exist
among all mining settlements each waa al
lowed his claim. Then the government of
Peru and Bolivia stepped in and prohib-
tied further locations, but not until enough
had been taken up to supply the market
for the rest of this century, The cost Of
mining is not much greater than the cost
of digging ditch in ordinary clay, and the
deposits are fifteen and twenty miles from
the seaports.
The nitrate is shipped crude 10 the
market for fertilising purposes, but there
are factories along the coast in which the
raw product is purified for chemical uses.
This publication is accomplished by boil
ing in water. The impurities rise to the
surface, and are removed by skimming,
and the heavy nitre settles at the bottom
of the vat and crystallizes at certain de-
gree of heat. Then the water is drawn off
and distilled, producing the iodine of COM
merce, an article so valuable as to be
measured by the ounce and selling at So
or 81.
The nitre is shipped in bags of 100
pounds each and the iodine in casks made
Of hard wood, which are protected by hav-
ing hide covers shrunk around them,
Most of the product goes to Europe, and
but small proportion to the United States.
The harbors of Iquique, Pisagua and An
tofagasta, which are nearest to the nitrate
beds, are full of the ships of all the Euro
pean nations, but the product is under
the control of monopoly, the producers
having formed combination Or POOL to
keep up the price.
1t was this product that caused the war
between Chill and Peru. The motive was
the Jealousy of Chill and her desire to ac-
quiFe this rich territory, which belonged
to Bolivia and Peru; but the ostensible
casus belli was the act of the Bolivian gov
ernment in imposing an export duty of ten
cents per cwt, upon nitrate. At the port
| of Antofapasta a Chilian company had