Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-11-22
Geographic News
yHILE,s EARTHoUAKE VICTIMS
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society

lows:
"Copiapo is Chile's most historic
town." says the bulletin, which is
based on a communication to The
Society by Harriet Chalmers Adam.
william Wheelwright, an Amer
ican,-in 1851 built the first railroad
in South America from the port of
Caldera, SO miles inland to Copfapo.
The little stream which borders it,
now nearly dry, now in full flood,
was our first oasis after crossing the
parched desert of Atacama. To
travellers Of old, as to us, this strip
of meadow land was a God-given
sight.
ITO Copiapo, in the fifteenth CEN
tury, marched the Incan ruler, 1a-
pac Yupanqui, with his victorious
army. to subjugate the tribes of nor
thern Chile.
THE Inca's trail from Peru led
Gown the backbone of the snow-clad
Andes and across the burning des-
ert. In 1885 Diego de Almagro, a
colleague of Pizarro, Travelled the
same road with a great army of
Spaniards and Peruvians, horses and
llamas. two Incan princes acting as
guides.
"O1d Spanish chronicles tell Of
the terrible suffering from cold and
thirst endured by Almagro's men on
the six months march. The desers
WIS strewn with their bones. Al
Turing were Copiapo's meadows to
those who survived!
"Almagro failed to subdue the
southern natives, and five years lat
er a Spanish army was again en-
camped in Copiapo, led this tine
by Pedro de Valdivia, who kept on
south to found Santiago.
I'm the halcyon days Of 40, when
California's gold iured men round
the Horn. Valparaiso became the
great mart of the Pacific coast, sup
plying flour and other commodities
to the California miners. My pio-
neer grandfather used to tell me OF
those eventful days. When he was
,in Chile in the early fifties, Co
piapo was an important town, shar-
ing the European opera season with
Santiago and Valparaiso.
"Wheelwright's dream was of a
transcontinental railway across the
Andes to Tinogasta, in Argentina,
and on to the Atlantic; but the road
never got far beyond Copiapo.
This great American also gave
Chile it's Geographic system and,
after failing to interest American
capital in q steamship line between
Valparaiso and New York, turned to
England and inaugurated in tho
early sixties the first steamer SCR
vice between the west coast and Eu
rope.
an 1882 a donkey driver, Juan
Godoy, discovered a silver deposit
near Copiapo and put the long-ne-
elected town On the map.
story reads like a RI.
nance. Tired of loading his train
of donkeys with scanty brushwood
for town customers, he started
across the pampa to hunt the rowing
guaraco. Sitting on a rock to rest,
he discovered this his seat was of
silver. Returning home with speci-
mems, he shared the knowledge of
his discovery with an educated ac-
acquaintance, who aided the ignol-
ant man to make the most of his
find. Godoy became the Silver King
of that period.
ut was hard for us to visualize
Copiapo's past splendor in the for
lorn little town that we found. Half
the buildings were still in ruins, af-
ter the disastrous earthquake Of the
previous year. The hotel, kept by a
sad-faced Englishman, had q decid-
ed tilt. Doors and windows were
jammed and window-plnes nlls,ing.
Our host a~pologized for can1ie-light,
saying that the gas pipes were still
out of commission. The stone bath
tub, reached by a rickety flight of
steps, had a somewhat tipsy appear
ance.
But the Copiapinos have not lost
courage. More than once earth
quakes have completely demolished
the town. In this land where the
extreme infrequence of showers is
a hardship, they have come to be-
lievs that earthquakes are forerun-
ners of much-needsd rem. Between
quakes they lo3k to the cast, watch
ing for a neayy fall Of snow in the
Andes. Then TIE river runs full and
the fields smile.
From Copiaro a trail acros the
desert leads to the mountains, so
sterile, gaunt, and forbidding; yet
there is a majesty in the Andean
contour. From our bleak, upland
camp at the sunset hour, the color
ing of slopes and crags was go,.
geous beyond adjectives to describe.
Pink deepened to rose; rose to terra
Gotta; t~erra-cotta to purpil. Then
each towering peak beca re a SEN
tinel guarding a mysterious Prom
Used Lana beyond tho Andes.
I'VE passed the ruins of long
abandoned stone dwellings, occu-
pied, perhaps, in those remote days
of pre-Incan rule when .hese noun
tains had not risen to their present
height and this region was within
the corn belt.
Continuing south from Copiapo,
little by little the desert flora grew
from tufts of grass and stunted bush
to tall ~algarobas and cacti of many
varieties, one with a great red
bloom. At Vallenar we entered a
| wide, irrigated valley, emerald green
| with alfalfa, and vines heavy with
luscious white grapes whose equal l
have found in no ether part of the
world,
THE vine, brought originally from
| Spain in colonial days. is now cultl-
waited throughout an extensive range.
The French vine, popular in certain
provinces, was introduced in the fiji
| ties. Chilean wines are celebrated
throughout Spanish America. Here
the manufacture of wine is regarded
as a national industry and few advG-
Gates of prohibition place light wine
| and beer on the black list.
AT the River Elqui the longi-
(,tudinal railway gives a twist sea-
ward to serve the charmingly stu
ated town of La Serena and Coquim-
DO. its port.
"As you sail down the Pacific
coast, you say good-by to verdure
at Guayaquil; then follows the long
stretch of desert coast through Peru
| and northern Chile. 1t is only as
you near Coquimbo that green fields
again greet you.
| sEFnr q nnnf11rU and q half To-
quimbo has been famed as a mining