Ulloa and Juan’s visit (1735–1745) was the result of the determination of the French Academy to settle the question of the shape of the earth by measuring two arcs, one upon the equator line and the other as far north as it was possible to travel. Asia and Africa offering no safe or conveniently approached region near the equator, the Academy applied to Spain for leave to enter the province of Ecuador for this object, while a second party went to Lapland. Consent was given, but with the proviso that Spanish officials should accompany the expedition, and eventually choice fell upon Captains Antonio Ulloa and Jorje Juan, naval officers already distinguished for their mathematical ability.
La Condamine had not completed his laborious task in the highlands of the equator when news of Anson’s naval plans reached Peru, and the Viceroy sent hastily to Quito for the two Spanish captains to aid in the defence of the coast. From late 1740 to December, 1743, these duties occupied Ulloa and Juan, when they returned to finish certain measurements above Quito. During the interval they travelled in Peru and Chile, and the observations they made shed much valuable light upon colonial conditions.
With scientific work at an end in 1744, the two officers prepared for return, embarking at Callao in separate ships—Juan in the Lys and Ulloa in the Delivrance—so that the chances were increased of one of them reaching Spain safely, war having broken out between France and England as well as continuing between England and Spain. The Delivrance, however, was caught by English men-of-war when she sailed into Louisburgh Bay, Canada, unaware that the port had fallen. Sent prisoner to England, Captain Ulloa arrived at the end of 1745, and in London received the greatest marks of respect from scientific men of the day, including the President of the Royal Society, of which body he was made a member.[[3]] He was assisted to recover his impounded notes and scientific papers and was then permitted to return to Spain, in July, 1746. His brother officer had arrived, in the Lys, at the end of 1745.
[3]. Fellowship of the Royal Society was also extended to Captain Juan and both were elected members of the French Academy.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the time had passed when Spain could continue to exclude foreigners from South America. She had given way to demands for strictly limited trading, and the door could not again be shut.
Since the colonies of Spain wanted the blood and technical skill of young Europe, and young Europe constantly roamed the earth for wealth and adventure, no edicts or penalties could prevent a constant infiltration of adventuring persons upon the West Coast. Likely young white men have, indeed, seldom been denied a welcome in new countries and whatever the Spanish authorities might say the growing native-born populations of Chile continued to beckon.
Resident Foreigners
From time to time orders were issued that foreigners should be turned out of Chile; for instance, in April, 1769, the Town Council of La Serena (Coquimbo) promulgated a royal edict that foreigners were to leave the country within thirty days under penalty of the confiscation of their property. However, this applied only to persons engaged in trade, mining, or the legal profession, and to travellers, while such useful individuals as locksmiths and blacksmiths, tailors, bakers, cooks, mechanics, physicians and surgeons, were permitted to remain. Two Englishmen, Murphy and Denton, were among the persons told to leave the town, while a couple of Italians, a Frenchman and Portuguese also fell under the ban. It is doubtful whether the edicts were more than temporarily pressed or obeyed, for as a matter of fact many foreigners lived upon excellent terms with the local authorities, and, liking their surroundings, were equally well regarded. Thirty years before this particular edict was issued, and which applied to all important Chilean towns, there was living in Santiago a prosperous Scots physician, who was on sufficiently good terms with the Governor of Chile to obtain the keeping of the three English prisoners from the Wager.
Anglo-Saxon names in Chile, as a glance at any Chilean town directory shows, are too many for a satisfactory survey of their origin to be made in a few pages. But the result of this amicable invasion is strongly witnessed by the characteristics and qualities of the modern Chileno.
Some of the families have immense ramifications, and there are so many interlockings that a member of a good Anglo-Chilean family is likely to possess cousins throughout the republic, as well as in the United Kingdom and possibly also in North America. There are, for instance, the branches and connections of the Edwards family, descendants of that George Edwards who came to Coquimbo on a British ship in 1804, left it, and married the Señorita Isabel Osandon, whose father was of Irish descent. Agustin, one of the three sons of this marriage, founded the Banco de A. Edwards, whose original headoffices were in Copiapó, the once-splendid copper mining centre. The same Agustin Edwards promoted the Copiapó railway, married into the great Ross family, and was the father of the distinguished Chilean Minister at the Court of St. James, Don Agustin Edwards.