Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-18
VALP A r Also.

| COHllDps al COuctuc tudt he Is q WOnQe1Iui
| organizer and that he still retains the best of
the situation. 1.-THE situation" is briefly this:
The rebcllious navy at the north has murdered
| thousands of people, destroyed millions of
dollars worth OF property and crippled the
| revenues of the country to an appalling extent,
but have really accomplished little to their
own advantage. Balmaceda retains the army
| and the treasury. and the capital is compare
lively safe. But the country is in most
| deplorablc condition. Crops cannot be har-
! vested for lack of laborers, and business of
every kind is completely paralyzed.
WAR PRICES RULE.
Exchange has been as low as 161S pence, and
! today ii is at the ruinous rate Of IS pence. On
a letter Of credit which calls for American gold
or its equivalent one may now receive here
three times Its face value In Gillian currency.
But that circumstance In the traveller favor is
offset by the absurdly steep war prices that
prevail Fancy paying from 81 to SIP per diem
I for scanty food and Indifferent lodging in one
| of these decidedly unpalatial hotels. The Hotel
Colon is the best in Valparaiso. as good. per-
haps. a fourth-rate house i'll New York, but
the charges are tremendous. 1t is kept by an
aged Hebrew named kerbernhardt-an uncle,
SO he tells me, of the illustrious actress. Madam
Sarah, who dropped the ker from her cognomen
| when she went on the stage in defiance of the
wishes Of her family.
The Gillian elections have been set for the
last Sunday in this month-church going in the
numbering and rioting by moonlight. Congress
has been called for April 20 instead of Nav l,
as the constitution expressly provides. That
yenerated document, the constitution, does not
recelTe much attention In these unsettled
days, but frequent edicts and proclamations
begin with the significant words: The exigen-
cies Of the occasion demand" &c.
BETWEEN rAcNA AND VALPARAISO.
As we shall not revisit northern Chill may
as well tell you something about the country
we passed through between Tacna and Valpa-
raise. The first port south of Africa and the
principal one In the famous Iarapaca province
Is Pisagua- Its bay is the largest on the north
ern coast, and in times of peace dozens of ships
may always be seen at anchor on it. awaiting
freight; but now the blockade has driven them
ali away During the war between Peru and
Chill the town was entirely destroyed, and has
since been rebuilt In rather more modern style
us wooden houses are perched upon a range of
nils 80 steep that one wonders what binders
them from sliding of into the sea. The most
conspicuous object in the place is a big marble
monument, upon a conical hillock in the CEN
tral plaza. erected In memory of the soldiers
OF both sides who fell in the Peru-Chili con-
nict- Pisagua has about $500 inhabitants.
and two daily papers published-one of
them a society journal. There are also two
free schools and seminary, public library
containing more than 1000 volumes, q club, q
benevolent association. a hospital and one Of
the finest mercantile plazas in all Chilli A
railway connects the town with Iquiqui and
the interior. But the great drawback is lack
OF fresh water, none being found anywhere in
the neighborhood. Much of the supply is
brought IN boats from africa, sixty-fve miles
away, and stored in a public reservoir; and
there Is also a machine in operation for con-
densing sea water, the product of which sells
Tor three-fourths OF a centavo per gallon, and
Is considered much better than that from
AFRICA
rQUIoUI BEFORE ITS DESTRUCTION.
Before its recent destruction by the rebels
Iquiqui had the most foreign aspect of any of
Chilis coast cities, having broad. macadamized
streets, wide sidewalks and shop signs in
English more numerous than those in Spanish
Though grotesque INTELLECTUALLY, with huts of
mud and bamboo sandwiched between more
substantial houses, it was well lighted by gas
and exceptionally clean Besides the prepond-
Grating English element there were more
French and German residents than Chilians to
the manor born. Having been several times
destroyed In the past by earthquakes and con-
hagrations 1t had been almost entirely rebuilt
OF pine wood and plates of galvanized iron, and
had the general look of San Francisco CAL
in the early days of the gold fever. There was
a fine new custom house, all of stone, several
churches, schools and colleges. theaters,
banks, club houses, hospital, gas works,
extensive mills, machinery for making thread,
condensing water, amalgamating metals.
&c, all of which, together with most Of the phi
yate residences, were reduced to ashes the other
day by this causeless revolution. A few weeks
ago the population of Iquiqui was something
over twelve thousand-and out of that number
1ve thousand were killed in the recent battles.
This port. which is COG miles north of Valpa-
raise, was known in the earliest years of the
conquest. and as far back as 1856 was celebrated
for its adjacent silver mines. In the summer
OF 11l2 the great engineer, Mr.. Francis Frazier,
came here, and made the waters of the Rio
Pisagua available for the use OF the people
This laudable enterprise first brought into
notice the valuable guano deposits on the near
by lsls de lquiqui, which in those days was
used only by the Indians, who transferred a
little Of the fertilizer on the backs of uamas to
their ranches in the mountains.
THE PORT OF ANToFoaAsrA
Sailing due south from Iquiqui some two
hundred miles, and having crossed the Tropic
OF Capricorn, one comes to Antofogasta. the
capital and principal port Of the rich depart
ment OF the same name. Its architecture is
also grotesque and its streets irregular, but its
green gardens and fowery plaza present a
beautiful contrast to the arid hills that environ
five thousand, yet the value of property IN IL
including the nitrate works, is estimated at
three million dollars. There is an immense nj
trate factory, some extensive copper and smelt-
ing works, three hotels, two newspapers, free
schools, private seminaries. night school for
artisans, philharmonic society, town band &c.
The freight commonly taken at this port il A
quantity of silver in large bars. railway runs
TO Caraco,es, the celebrated mining district.
coBJA NOW DEAD BEYOND RESURRECTION.
Then there is Cobija, the little seaport that
formerly belonged to Chill, now dead beyond
hope Of resurrection. Caldera il another
ocean-side hamlet, and from it a railroad RIM.
inland about fifty miles to Copiapo. This
railway Is interesting from being the oldest in
South America, yet it dates back only forty-one
years Copiapo is the capital Of the depart
ment OF Atacama, and has tweiye thousand
people. 1t was once one of the vealthiest
cities in Chill. and has many elegant casas and
magnificent public edifces In the DAYS of tine
lncas this valley called Copayapu. and
about the year li20 the Inca Yupanaaui caused
a road to be built through ii, running from
the Interior beyond the mountains to the sea.
In 1850 Don Diego de Almargro tarried here
awhile, and hve years later all the neighboring
tribes we're sabdued by the conqueror Pedro
de 'aldivia- The Spaniards dubbed il "Ei
Vale de Posessian." and afterward it was
known as the Valley Of Turquoises on account
OF some blue-green pebbles that we're found in
the neighborhood,
Coqulnoo comes next with the first bit of
green coast We have seen since leaving Guva-
gull, thousands of miles to the northvard. and
In Few hours more We reach Valparaiso.
FANNIE b WAxD.