O’Higgins was the natural son of an Irish Captain-General, who under the old Spanish regime had played a part in the making of modern Chili, thus illustrating yet once more the statement that there has never been a conflict in modern times but an Irishman has taken part in it. A gallant fighter, a consummate strategist, his exploits on Chilian soil have quite eclipsed those of his father. He outwitted the Spanish generals, harried their forces, and did more than anyone else, with the exception of San Martin, to break the power of Spain in that corner of the globe. He subsequently became dictator of the new republic, but his record as a statesman is by no means so clean or so brilliant as his career as a soldier. His own rapacity and his ministers’ corruption led to his downfall in 1823. Lord Thomas Cochrane was one of those sailors of fortune in which the British Navy has been so prolific. He was almost as great a terror to the Spanish captains as Drake had been some hundreds of years before. His daring bombardment of Valdivia, and subsequent rushing of the forts, demoralised the Spaniards and led to the surrender of the city, and deprived Spain of her last base of operations on the Chilian mainland. Chili has been called “the school of arms” for South America, and, judging from the number of conflicts which have taken place on her soil, the name is more than justified.
The war with Peru and Bolivia, in which Chili came out the undoubted victor, and the civil war, out of which José Balmaceda
ARAUCANIAN GIRLS.
emerges a romantic and heroic figure, are events of more recent occurrence, but sufficient time has elapsed to bring the character of Balmaceda into clearer relief. There is no doubt that his motives were pure and high, and under his administration Chili grew and prospered. A thorough democrat in every fibre of his being, he hated the Church party because he believed it to be the inveterate foe of enlightenment and progress.
His great mistake was in imagining that he and his ministers could rule a fretful realm without the co-operation of Congress, a mistake also made by Charles I, and with similar results. This it was that led to the civil war which brought along Balmaceda’s defeat, and culminated in his dramatic suicide in the residence of the Argentine minister in August, 1890. Since then the country has been comparatively quiet, for luckily the dispute with Argentina over territory on their respective frontiers has been amicably settled by arbitration. Thus out of much stress and turmoil the Chilians have developed into a prosperous and dominant nation, with a sea power which gives them the command of the Pacific coast of the whole sub-continent.
Not only concerned with war, they have brought the industries of agriculture to a high level of perfection. The Chilian farmers are among the most prosperous in the world, and have been likened to “feudal barons, with hacienda in lieu of castle, with broad acreage, and thousands of sheep, cattle, and horses.”
Nitrate is the chief source of Chili’s prosperity, and the deposits of this invaluable product are found in the great plains of Tamarugal in the two northern provinces. The salty earth called “caliche” which contains the nitrates is found some three to six feet below the surface, and all the principal “oficinas” lie upon a plateau at an altitude of about two thousand feet. The railway which connects these “oficinas” with the coast runs from Iquique and Pisagua, and these two towns are the great shipping ports for the product. The exportation of commercial nitrate known as “Chilian nitre” began in 1830, when something less than nine thousand gross tons were shipped. The quantity has steadily risen until now over two million gross tons are exported annually, the figures for 1911 being over two million three hundred thousand tons. Of this quantity approximately seventy-five per cent is used for fertiliser purposes. The “oficinas,” which are situated on the Pampas, are busy centres of industry,
