The southernmost of the three islands is quite in its primitive state, never having been touched. No sign indicative of man's presence on it is anywhere visible.
The earliest attempts to export guano to Europe as a manure were made in 1832, but they proved so losing a speculation, that not till eight years later did the Peruvian mercantile house of Messrs. Quiros again direct attention to the importance of guano as an article of export, when the Government of Peru granted them, for a fixed sum, the exclusive privilege of exporting guano for six years. This gave an opportunity for instituting, on a sufficient scale, those experiments
which, it will be remembered, Mr. Meyer of Liverpool was making at that period, and which was followed by such surprising results.
From March to October, 1841, 23 vessels conveyed 6125 tons of guano to England, Hamburg, Antwerp, and Bordeaux. In November of the same year, the English barque Byron brought to Peru the cheering intelligence that a ton of guano was selling in England for £28 per ton. This totally unexpected and startling result induced the Government, by a decree of 17th November, to declare that the agreement with Messrs. Quiros was cancelled, and fresh offers for the privilege of shipping guano were invited from speculators.
Since that period the exportation of this important manure has attained unprecedented dimensions in every part of the globe. Of late years it has reached the enormous amount of 500,000 tons from these islands alone, and the revenue to the Government has been 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 dollars.
The contractors sell the guano in Europe for account of the Peruvian Government, and receive for it a commission fee of from 3 1⁄2 to 4 1⁄2 per cent. of the gross amount; for this they get, moreover, paid 5 per cent. of interest for outlays and pecuniary advances (pretty considerable) which they make to the native Government. The contracts are generally entered into for four years.
A complete exploration and survey of the islands was made in 1853 by M. C. Faraguet, a French engineer. According to his report, which was pretty comprehensive, and drawn
up under the co-operation of several other scientific gentlemen, the quantity of guano on the northernmost island, in September, 1853, was 4,189,477 Peruvian tons (about 3,740,866 tons English); the middle island about 2,237,954 English tons, and the southernmost 5,072,032 English tons; or the entire cubical mass was at that period about 11,050,852 tons English. Assuming an average price, this would imply a money value of about £120,000,000. Since 1841, when the first considerable shipment was made, to 1861, there had been exported from the Chincha Islands 3,000,000 tons of guano, worth about 135,000,000 dollars (£29,250,000).
At first, owing to the enormous mass of guano left to accumulate undisturbed for centuries, the very natural error was made of reckoning the quantity deposited at too high an estimate, and the amount annually taken at too low a figure.[129] Hence it happened that a few native and many foreign writers have spoken of these islands as affording a supply which only centuries could exhaust. It is now, however, ascertained that, supposing the export proceeds at its present rate, only 25 to 30 years will elapse ere the entire strata of
excremental manure of all the three Chincha Islands will have been carried off!