The first practical teachers and pioneer miners at Lota were Scotchmen, very few of whom now survive. They were about thirty in number. Their original destination was the island of Vancouver, but owing to some difficulties that occurred on the voyage, the ship on which they were traveling put into Valparaiso, where they remained for some time, and from where they were later engaged for the mines at Lota. There they founded what is still designated the British colony. It is now, however, British in name only, there being but few of the original colonists or their families left. The remaining few abandoned their national customs and language for the customs of the country in which they lived. To such an extent have they adapted themselves to local conditions and influences that very few of the residents at Lota bearing English names can speak the English language.
The coal from the Lota district is of a low grade, producing an unusual amount of cinders and refuse. The Arauco Company which operates mines in the same district, and which has a railroad running from Coronel to Colico, a distance of some twenty miles, is also producing coal in large quantities.
MINING AND MANUFACTURING.
Owing to the extensive working of the great nitrate of soda deposits, mining takes first place among Chilean industries. Although producing nearly a million tons annually, coal mining has not developed sufficiently to supply the needs of the country, the importations amounting to about one and a half million tons a year. Copper is the most important of the metals mined, although gold and silver are mined in considerable quantities.
In recent years more attention has been paid to manufacturing. In 1909 there were 5,000 manufacturing establishments, large and small, with a capital of $45,000,000, and an aggregate output valued at $64,000,000. There are 960 establishments in the shoe and leather industry, 870 in food supplies, 670 in metal industries, 555 in the manufacture of garments, 440 wood working industries, 210 in paper and printing and 200 in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.
The value of imports into Chile in 1909 was approximately $95,000,000 and the export values for the same year $110,000,000. Of the total imports Great Britain supplied 32 per cent., Germany 22 per cent., and the United States 10 per cent. Of the total exports, amounting to $110,000,000, Great Britain purchased 45 per cent., Germany 24 per cent., and the United States 20 per cent. Europe and the United States bought over 90 per cent. of the exports, and furnished 80 per cent. of the imports.
Nitrate of soda constitutes about 75 per cent. of the total exports from Chile, and copper, 5 per cent. The four articles of import showing the largest values are, steel and manufactures of, coal, cotton goods and industrial machinery. Eighty-five per cent. of the imports consist of manufactured articles.
POPULATION AND COLONIZATION
Pedro Valdivia, in a letter to Carlos V. of Spain, dated at La Sarena, September 5, 1545, described the beautiful climate of Chile as one where man could work under the summer sun without inconvenience, and expressed the belief that there could be developed and maintained a strong, virile, superior race of people that would be an honor to, and the pride of the mother country. He also expressed the belief that in the conquest of Chile he would secure territory where he and his companions might leave a lineage that would honor their memories.
In some respects this seems to have been a prophetic view of the situation. The mixing of the blood of those bold, intelligent, but cruel and unscrupulous “conquistadores,” with the strong, courageous qualities of the Araucanian Indians, has left in Chile a distinct type, a characteristic race of people. They possess the romantic tendencies and diplomatic qualities of the Spaniards, combined with the independent natures of the Araucanians.