The most important steamship companies of the world are represented in the lines which include the port of Callao in their itinerary. The first company to send steamers to the Pacific Coast was organized largely through the initiative of shippers in this port. The Pacific Steam Navigation Company, incorporated in England by Royal Charter in 1840, began its service on the Pacific Coast under the usual difficulties attending pioneer efforts. The working of the line was impeded by innumerable drawbacks. At first it was a purely coastal service and the mails, passengers and through traffic had to be conveyed across the isthmus of Panamá on mules. Then the Panamá railroad was built and the traffic was fostered; but the rates across the isthmus were very high and the difficulties that attended the despatching of through traffic were so discouraging that the Pacific Company instituted a line of steamers between Liverpool and Valparaiso via the Straits of Magellan, to connect with the coast service plying between that port and Panamá. Later, the line from Liverpool was extended to Callao, and for many years this port was the headquarters of the company, until, in 1896, owing to a falling off in trade after the decline of the guano industry, the chief offices were transferred to Valparaiso. Of late years, however, the company has greatly increased its fleet, and a special line of passenger and cargo boats has been put on for service to Peruvian ports. From a small commencement with two wooden paddle steamers of seven hundred tons’ register, as described by Mr. Frederick Alcock in his book Trade and Travel in South America, the fleet has grown until its register now approximates two hundred thousand tons. Its new steamer, the Orcoma, has a tonnage of eleven thousand five hundred, and the Orita registers nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five tons; in addition to these handsome floating palaces, the fleet numbers eighteen twin-screw steamers of lesser tonnage, all of modern construction and commodious service. Of these, the Oriana, Ortega, and Oronsa, are the largest and most noted for comfort and elegance. At Chucuito, near Callao, where the company owns a large property, the stores and works are being enlarged and improved. The Pacific steamers connect with those of the Royal Mail both at Panamá and Buenos Aires, the latter having no line on the west coast of America, though its magnificent fleet ploughs all the seas, from Southampton to Panamá, to Brazil and Argentina, to the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and India, and, in the Pacific Ocean, to China and Australia.
In addition to the Pacific Steamship Line, there are numerous others trading along the west coast of South America, all of which call at the port of Callao. The South American Steamship Company of Chile has steamers every week from Valparaiso to Panamá and the ports of Peru. The Kosmos Line connects the European ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, and Havre with San Francisco, California, via the Straits of Magellan and west coast ports of South America. The “Merchant Line” carries on a direct trade between New York and Callao, and the Japanese Steamship Company connects the Peruvian ports with Japan.
Almost all the American and European steamship companies have lines to Panamá, including the Panamá Railway Steamship Company and the Leyland Line, from New York; the Royal Mail, from New York and England; the Hamburg-Pacific, from Germany; the Compagnie Général Transatlantique, from France; the Veloce, from Italy; the Transatlantica Española, from Spain; and the Pacific Mail, from San Francisco. As soon as the Canal is open for traffic, all these lines will extend their itineraries to Callao, which is destined to be the commercial metropolis of the South Pacific.
PREFECTURE, CALLAO.
A TYPICAL HACIENDA OF THE COAST REGION.
CHAPTER XXI
AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION ON THE COAST
PICTURESQUE GARDEN ON A RICE PLANTATION.