Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-08
II ulsaYoRI INDUSTRY.
oHI OF PKRUs PRINCIPAL SOURCES
OF WEALTH.
a Visit to the Guano Islands-How the
Birds of South America Have Re-
nswed the Lands of Europe.

A Visit to the Guano Islands-How the
Birds of South America Have Re-
nswed the Lands Of Europe.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNroN.l
Orr PERUVIAN COAST, July, 1890.
In the Bay of Fsco, about 100 miles south
Of Callao and IL miles out from the main
land, lie the celebrated Chincha Islands,
three in number, whereon the guano is
found that has been such an enormous
source of wealth to Peru. To form sonic
idea Of the extent of the deposit and the
magnitude of the industry, it may be stated
that between the years 1858 and 1873 nearly
5000, 900 tons of guano were shipped from
here. The amount of money which Peru
has derived from this one source of rev.
enue cannot be any more accurately esti-
mated than the value of the plumber
stolen from the Incas. The known ex-
ports have amounted to fully $4,000, GOO,
and this for country which never con-
tanned more than 100000 people, two
thirds of whom were Indians, who had no
share in the profits.
Yet in the midst of its prosperity the
improvident country managed somehow to
incur debt of $3.50, 100000, which could
never have been paid but for the saving
Grace Dononghmore Convention. This
treasure trove of the Chincha Islands, which,
when first discovered, had been accumu-
lating in an exhaustless deposit for unnum-
bered centuries, was even more easily
available than the gold and silver which
had made the Inca land the Ell Dorado of
the world, and contributed as much toward
its downfall, for the latter-day republic is
now about the poorest in all South Amer
lea. When plenty of money came without
effort to generation after generation, the
careless aristocrats took no steps toward
improving or preserving the source Of their
revenues; and when at last these springs
ran low and the country was pillaged dur
ing the late war of everything valuable
that remained, the helpless people, reared
in the idea of their ancestors that it had
been ordained from the beginning of the
world that they were to have no part in
the degradation of labor, did not know
how to set themselves at work.
In the matter of their guano the Peruvi-
ans have shown far less sagacity than the
Indians of the olden days, but have acted
as if the supply were literally without end.
They abolished taxes and relied entirely
upon guano for all the money required by
the Government, including enormous Sums
expended in railways. When the Chin
chas were nearly exhaused they turned
their attention to other groups, but none
of them proved so rich and extensive as
the original source of supply which their
ancestors SO carefully protected.
The word guano is corruption of the
Quichua Huano, meaning fish manure
The enlightened Incas understood well its
value as fertilizer. History tells us that
it was not only extensively used through
out their empire, but that the punishment
of death was inflicted upon anyone who
disturbed the birds during the breeding
season, or who killed one of them at any
time, either on the islands or elsewhere.
With such care were the Chinchas pro-
tected that it was not lawful to land upon
them at any time under pain of death, lest
Tue UlIuS suOulQ DC uIlfcu away duu
ened from the coast. Each island was set
apart for the use Of particular province
and the guano was carefully divided, every
village receiving its fair proportion.
Considerable guano is yet found in the
Taracopa islands, the Lobos and Guenope
groups, the Vieja islands of Independence
bay, the Lobilio and Huonillo groups in
Cheopana bay and others at Punta Alba
and Pabellion de Plea. The best of them,
however, all the workings of Pabellion,
Limos and Haanellos, go to the railroad
bondholders under the Grace Dononghmore
contract.
The legitimate guano bird is a kind of
tern. Its bill and legs are red; the top of
the head and tip of the tail and wings are
black, while the lower part of the head is
white, with long, whisker-like feather
curling from under each ear The body is
dark slate color and its length is about ten
inches. Divers, pelicans and variety of
crement is mixed with their eggs and the
remnants of shells, and also with the de-
cayed flesh and bones of thousands of seals.
1t is asserted, but with what truth do not
know, that when seal is about to die it
will invariably climb to the highest point
on the nearest rock. At any rate the Chin
cha Islands are covered with their re-
mains, although they have been hunted SO
much hereabouts during recent years that
they now add little to the deposit, which
makes the guano all the better for COM
mercial purposes, that of Bahia de Ferrol
being so full of seal bones as to be worth
less for export.
To form some idea of the vast accumla-
ton one must understand that an ordinary
little gull will deposit from four to six
ounces of guano every day, which during
the ten weeks of the breeding season :.
amounts to not less than twenty-eight
pounds per gull. Multiply this by millions
and then date the account back through
thousands of years and one may begin to
realize what these islands contain. Lying
within the rainless belt of the western
coast none of the deposit has been washed
away and when Humboldt first brought
the Chincha Islands to the attention of
Europe, in the year 1904, he said they
were covered with pure guano to the depth
of more than sixty feet, and were capable
of enriching all the worn-out lands of the
world
The islands are all of the same forma-
ton, bright-hued granite, composed of
red felspar and white quartz, mixed with
little mica. As felspar is decomposed by
the action of the air all the shores have