THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC. 
 
 Mr. Clements Markham and Senor Garcia y Garcia 
 AS Historians. 
 
 (Remarks by an OLD WEST-COASTEE). 
 
iaOfc5 
 
 THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC 
 
 MR. 
 
 CLEMENTS MAEKHAM & SENOR GARCIA Y GARCIA 
 AS HISTORIANS. 
 
 (REMARKS BY AN OLD WEST-COASTER.) 
 
 To THE Editor of " Standard." 
 
 Sir, — I see that Don Aurelio Garcia, a 
 Peruvian diplomatist, who at one time 
 held a commission in the navy of his comi- 
 trj, and who is well known to the South 
 American " Colony " in London as " the 
 captain that was made a rear admiral be- 
 cause he never came to the front," has sent 
 the " Times " a letter on the subject of the 
 war between Chili and Peru, a communica- 
 tion which the editor of that paper, to a 
 certain extent, appears to have considered 
 to contain correct statements, although ad- 
 mitting in a " leader " of the 1st instant, 
 that " the Peruvian in question writes with 
 " the passion of a man who has seen his 
 *' country ruined and his life wrecked by 
 " Chili." I find also that Mr. Markham, 
 an English scientist, who is in love 
 with Peru on account of the rich field 
 for antiquarian researches the latter coun- 
 try afforded him many years ago, took 
 upon himself the task, last year, of playing 
 the historian of the war just mentioned, if 
 one may be allowed to style historian a 
 writer who openly avows himself a cham- 
 pion of the cause of one of the belli- 
 gerents, the Peruvians, although he has no 
 personal knowledge of the matter at issue, 
 and although he, by con.sulting his own 
 brother. Captain Markham, R.N., his 
 friend. Commander Acland, R.N., and by 
 studying the extensive reports which these 
 oflRcers and others in command of H.M.'s 
 vessels on the Pacific station, have fur- 
 nished to the Admiralty, during the war 
 mentioned, easily could have learnt that 
 his self-imposed championship was " on the 
 wrong side," and unworthy of his ante- 
 cedents as a student and scientist, however 
 grateful he might be to the Peruvian 
 Government for having given him the 
 facilities that led to Her Majesty making 
 him a "Companion of Bath." Mr. 
 Markliam's declamations in favour of Peru, 
 which by the bye, have "disappointed most 
 of his literary friends, happened to come 
 under the notice of the Editor of the 
 " Times," just at the time when a Peruvian 
 diplomatist wrote to the same paper a pas- 
 
 sionate letter, replete with misstatements, 
 and containing so exaggerated a version of 
 the unfortunate affairs in Peru that it 
 would occupy too much space, were I to 
 notice, one by one, all the items which are 
 given by him as facts, but which by the 
 Anglo-Peruvians and Anglo-Chilians in 
 London, are merely admitted as " one sided, 
 ridiculous, and absurd statements," par- 
 taking of the character of the reports the 
 Peruvian Government used to publish in 
 Lima after the loss of the respective bat- 
 tles, reports which invariably described 
 every loss as a splendid victory, and always 
 wound up by engaging " completely to 
 " annihilate, within a few days, the Chilian 
 "vultures, whose blood shortly would be 
 " seen to run in streams through the Peru- 
 " vian valleys," some of which reports I 
 have preserved as literary and historical 
 curiosities, affording, besides, much theme 
 for reflection to an anthropological student 
 as illustrations of the worst side of human 
 nature, accidentally exposed to view. 
 
 It is feared that Mr. Markham's position 
 in London has predisposed the " Times " to 
 accept as infallible ^i5 opinion, and that the 
 letter from the Peruvian diplomatist above 
 referred to has received more attention at 
 the Editor's hands than would have fallen 
 to its share, had it not reached him pre- 
 cisely while he was reviewing Mr. Mark- 
 ham's book, and thought he safely could 
 accept an F.R.S., F.R.G.S., C.B., etc., 
 as an authority on the subject of the war 
 in question, especially since the editor him- 
 self had had no opportunity to learn how 
 effectively the work named is disposed of 
 by the able Chilian writer Benjamin V. 
 Mackenna, in his recent critical digest of 
 it ; in connection with which it must be 
 borne in mind that Mr. Markham in his 
 book specially mentions Mackenna as one 
 of the ablest and most conscientious his- 
 torians, and that still it is this very writer 
 who condemns Mr. Markham's book as un- 
 reliable, one-sided, incomplete, and unfair. 
 It is also supposed that, in reviewing the 
 latter work, it escaped the '* Times " for the 
 
i 
 
 moment that Mr. Markham does not appear 
 to have consulted the Blue-Books which 
 contain the reports of his brother, Captain 
 Albert Markham, R.N., and Commander 
 Acland, R.N., who were specially com- 
 missioned by the Admiralty to gather in- 
 formation in situ about the Avar referred to, 
 and who, with the frankness and straight- 
 forwardness that are characteristic of Bri- 
 tish naval oiRcers, give their verdict in 
 favour of the Chilians without any hesi- 
 tation. 
 
 As far as I am concerned, I am equally 
 interested in the welfare and progress of 
 Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, in which countries 
 I have spent sixteen years, during the latter 
 quarter of which space of time I had spe- 
 cial opportunities, in the disputed territory, 
 for hearing on the spot the diflerent ver- 
 sions of the dispute ; and in many a dis- 
 cussion, in social intercourse in the interior 
 of Bolivia, the questions that led to the 
 war have been submitted to me as an im- 
 partial outsider to pronounce my opinion 
 on, the pleading parties in some cases being 
 able barristers, several of whom had been 
 ministers of state, all Bolivians and Peru- 
 vians, some attacking and some upholding 
 the Chilian rights and the policy based 
 thereon, while more than once I have 
 heard the Dictator Melgarejo and his 
 talented Premier, Mimoz, who on behalf 
 of Bolivia concluded the treaty of limits in 
 1866, warmly defend Chili and her claims. 
 
 As on all those occasions and after 
 hearing the exhaustive arguments by both 
 sides, instead of the incomplete one-sided 
 ones adduced by Mr. Markham, no finding 
 was come to, nor could be come to, logi- 
 cally, but in favour of Chili I must pro- 
 test against the views given expression to 
 by Mr, Clements Markham in his book 
 lately published, and by fSeiior Garcia in 
 his letter to the " Times " of the 30th 
 April, and base my protest on the following, 
 which is capable of being proved in the 
 most ample manner, viz.: — 
 
 First. — Ever since her independence 
 (1818) Chili has claimed that the " Desert 
 of Atacama " was subject to her sove- 
 reignty, founding her claim on Spanish 
 historical documents, some of royal and 
 others of vice-regal origin, photographs of 
 which were exhibited to the Bolivian 
 President, when later on a treaty had to 
 be discussed, they were examined by his 
 Prime Minister and compared with copies 
 of the Peruvian records, with the " Laws 
 of the Indies " with the maps of Oudarza, 
 Rochette, Buatamante, Malespina, and 
 
 others, as well as confronted with a valu- 
 able collection of documents bearing on the 
 subject and still existing in the Bolivian 
 University of Sucre. Although Chili on 
 her official maps only showed the northern 
 boundary of Chili proper and not that of 
 the almost unpopulated dependency, the 
 desert, Paposo being for a long time the 
 last port to the north where the Chilian 
 flag was permanently displayed, neverthe- 
 less she clearly had, in a variety of ways, 
 exercised acts of sovereignty over the lit- 
 toral of the Desert. North of Paposo 
 miners were working copper and silver 
 mines, with Chilian licenses, before the 
 treaty of 1866 was made ; vessels from 
 Chili had for fifteen years loaded phosphate 
 of lime from the Morro of Mejillones, in- 
 side point Angamos, at about the 23rd 
 parallel S., with Chilian Custom House 
 permits and frequently with Chilian Custom 
 House officers on board, while also several 
 official expeditions sent by Chili, explored 
 minutely, and for a considerable space of 
 time, the desert of Atacama and the littoral 
 referred to, having by the Bolivians tacitly 
 been admitted to be on soil subject to 
 Chilian sovereignty, permitted to display, 
 in several places on shore, the national flag 
 of Chili, and not interfered with in any 
 way. These circumstances, as well as an 
 examination of all the historical documents, 
 coupled with the conviction on the part of 
 the Melgarejo-Munoz Government that the 
 desert of Atacama and the littoral would be 
 more thoroughly explored and worked if 
 the disputes were settled which arose when 
 Bolivia also started granting loading per- 
 mits for phosphate of lime cargoes, deter- 
 mined the Bolivian dictator finally to con- 
 clude the treaty of 1866 with Chili, estab- 
 lishing what the treaty calls a " mixed 
 territory " in the 24th and 25th degrees of 
 southern latitude, i.e., from the 23rd to the 
 25th parallel, with Bolivian sovereignty, 
 but Chilian fiscal intervention and partici- 
 pation in Bolivian customs and other 
 revenue collected in the territory from 
 the 23rd to the 24th parallel, and with 
 Chilian sovereignty but Bolivian fiscal in- 
 tervention and participation in Chilian 
 revenue within the 24th degree, or from 
 the 24th to the 25th parallel of southern 
 latitude, thus in reality not advancing the 
 boundary line of Chili proper, but creating 
 a fresh geographical territory, with recipro- 
 cal rights on the part of the two nations 
 exercising sovereignty, a kind of politically 
 mixed zone, owned by Chili and Bolivia 
 on certain terms of partnership. This 
 
3 
 
 treaty was not in Santiago viewed as con- 
 ferring on Chili any fresh national terri- 
 tory, for the Chilians did not consider 
 that, however much a dependency, the lit- 
 toral from the 25th to the 24th parallel 
 could under this treaty be called part of 
 Chili proper, inasmuch as Bolivian fiscal 
 intervention had to be submitted to, thus to 
 a certain extent vitiating the Chilian 
 sovereignty. However, after some con- 
 siderable opposition in Congress, the 
 treaty, although not palatable, was ap- 
 proved of, chiefly because Chili did not 
 wish Bolivia to become an ally of Spain, 
 wutb which latter country Chili and Peru 
 were then at war (1866). 
 
 Second : Mr, Markham's statement that 
 the treaty of 1866 was refused ratification 
 by Bolivia, is completely incorrect. In the 
 first place. General Melgarejo, who with 
 his Premier signed it, had supreme power 
 as Dictator of Bolivia, and the treaty 
 would have been binding on his country, 
 and could not be rejected by the Congress 
 that had granted him his powers as a Dic- 
 tator. But it is, moreover, an incontro- 
 vertible fact that the first Legislative 
 Assembly to which Melgarejo gave an 
 account of the acts of his Dictatorship, 
 took full cognizance of the treaty referred 
 to, and passed it although it required 
 no special approval. Ratifications were 
 exchanged, and the consummation of this 
 international covenant took place, inas- 
 much as the treaty was put into practical 
 operation, and abided by for about five 
 years, during the existence of the Mel- 
 garejo Government, whose acts were disr 
 cussed by every Congress in the manner 
 then usual in Bolivia. It is triie that, 
 about six years after the consummation of 
 this treaty, the Legislative Assembly of 
 Bolivia passed a Government Bill, intro- 
 duced by President Morales, providing in a 
 general way for a revocation or disavowal 
 of all the bills passed during the Melgarejo 
 Government. This, however, could not 
 possibly apply to an international obliga- 
 tion, but merely to concessions, appoint- 
 ments, and decrees of mere domestic 
 character ; whereas, on the contrary, the 
 treaty continued in force, and the Chilian 
 iuterventor and a Chilian man-of-war con- 
 tinued to be stationed at Mejillones, the 
 northernmost port of the so-called " mixed 
 territory," with no legal change attempted 
 until the end of 1872, when a supple- 
 mentary or explanatory protocol was signed 
 between Cliili and Bolivia ; the approval 
 nf this protocol wjis iipvrr iffiispd. but 
 
 delayed somewhat or postponed, and finally 
 both the supplementary treaty and the 
 original one of 1866, were altered or 
 modified by a fresh treaty with the Boli- 
 vian Government, dated the 6th August, 
 1874, Doctor Frias, a statesman of high 
 repute for integrity, being then President 
 of Bolivia, and this final treaty, which was 
 in force when the war broke out, was 
 approved both by the Bolivian Legislative 
 Assembly and by the Congress of Chili. 
 It provided for a remission of part of 
 certain fiscal duties, a concession in favour 
 of Bolivia, and stipulated that, for twenty- 
 five years, certain export duties, to be 
 levied between the 23rd and 25th parallels, 
 should not be higher than those in force 
 when signing the treaty. 
 
 Third : The upright and patriotic Dr. 
 Frias was succeeded in the Bolivian Presi- 
 dency by General Daza, a revolutionary 
 chief of the worst type, who, from a waiter. 
 in a posadn had become a tailor's journey- 
 man, and at length enlisted as a soldier, 
 advancing in a few years from a " full 
 private" to a general of division through 
 intrigues and treachery, and who, finally, 
 by means of the troops confided to his 
 charge, deposed the constitutional Presi- 
 dent. This revolutionary leader, Daza, 
 initiated his career by declaring null and 
 void the acts of the Doctor Frias Adminis- 
 tration, and by raising the export duty 
 on nitrate of soda, which latter substance 
 was being largely exported from the 
 " Mixed Territory" by a Chilian Joint 
 Stock Company, from which Company the 
 Bolivian Custom House at once demanded 
 the considerable sum of- £18,000 for in- 
 crease of duties, in direct violation of the 
 treaty between the two countries, which 
 international engagement the new Bolivian 
 Government probably would not have 
 ventured to break but for the rumours then 
 current, that the Argentine Confederation 
 was going to declare war against Chili, to 
 get possession of part of Patagonia ; 
 Bolivia, moreover, in view of a secret 
 treaty with Peru, was sure of Peruvian 
 assistance in the event of a war with Chili, 
 and had been prevailed on by Peru to 
 effect the above-mentioned change in the 
 duty on nitrate of soda. This change in 
 the tariffs, while benefitting the Bolivian 
 Treasury, in defiance of an international 
 treaty, was calculated to enable Peru to 
 maintain a high price on the markets of 
 the world for the so-called Pacific salt- 
 petre, which in Pern had been made a 
 ( JovcrniiKni monopoly, (lie jirincipal com- 
 
petitor of which was the Chilian Company 
 just referred to. Although not prepared 
 to go to war, and being inhabited by a 
 quiet, laborious nation, Chili, however, 
 demanded of Bolivia full compliance with 
 the treaty which regulated the export duty, 
 but which was violated by the new Bolivian 
 tariff, proclaimed at the instigation of Peru, 
 as already said. 
 
 The rumours of war between Chili and 
 the Argentine Confederation had, mean- 
 while, subsided somewhat, and Bolivia, 
 evidently afraid of a direct breach of the 
 treaty with Chili, and seeing the firm attitude 
 of the Chilian Plenipotentiary, repealed or 
 annulled the decree that increased the duty 
 on nitrate of soda. This did, however, not 
 suit Peru, and she shortly afterwards pre- 
 vailed on Bolivia at once to cancel the 
 original concession, in virtue of which the 
 Chilian Company had spent one and a-half 
 million pounds sterling to properly work 
 the nitrate of soda deposits near Antofa- 
 gasta, a concession which had been obtained 
 for a valuable consideration, and which had 
 been ratified by Congress, but which now, 
 to suit Peru, was to be changed into a 
 temporary short lease, and be put up to 
 auction on such terms that none but the 
 Government of Bolivia could become the 
 purchaser, and this, naturally, at a price 
 which would be ruinous to the Chilian 
 Company. 
 
 The result of this conspiracy would be 
 to Peru that she, acting in concert with 
 Bolivia, would be able to control the price 
 of nitrate of soda, and probably also to 
 "rig" the guano market, these two sub- 
 stances competing as bases for artificial 
 fertilizers, and both being State monopolies 
 in Peru ; this result would also seriously in- 
 terfere with the value of the phosphatic guano 
 found at Mejillones, of which Chili owned 
 one half, and would reduce to a mere 
 shadow the substantial security Chili 
 thought she, by the Treaty of 1874, had 
 obtained for the Antofagasta or " Salar del 
 Carmen" Nitrate Company, and for which 
 fancied security, the only advantage ac- 
 cruing to her under the new treaty, she 
 had paid a very high price in ceding to 
 Bolivia all claim oa the customs' revenue 
 derived from the old treaty. 
 
 I may here observe that Mr. Markhani 
 considers that Chili, by the Treaty of 1874, 
 obtained still another great advantage, that 
 of getting goods from Chili introduced into 
 Bolivia free of duty ; but this was, in 
 reality, no concession in favour of Chili ; 
 for the Treaty on this point only refer > lo 
 
 Chilian produce, certain comestibles and 
 fodder, articles which, by the very tariff 
 ruling in Bolivia already, were exempt 
 from duty, and never were likely to become 
 subject to fiscal charges, they being abso- 
 lutely required there, and having no in- 
 digenous or Bolivian goods to compete 
 with. 
 
 The Chilian Nitrate Company above 
 mentioned, however, had to suspend opera- 
 tions, owing to the intrigues of Bolivia 
 and Peru ; about 2,000 Chilian labourers, 
 in consequence thereof, suddenly found 
 themselves out of employment in the Desert 
 of Atacama, and fears were entertained 
 that they would massacre the few Bolivian 
 authorities there existing and commit other 
 excesses ; a warrant for the arrest of tbe 
 Manager of the Chilian Nitrate Company 
 had been issued by the Bolivian authorities, 
 and the day had been fixed for the sale by 
 auction of the Company's entire property, 
 decreed by the BoliA'ian Prefect in charge 
 of the littoral ; then the Chilian Govern- 
 ment could no longer shut their eyes to 
 the fact that, to maintain order and to stop 
 the spoliation of the goods and chattels of 
 Chilian subjects, it would be necessary to 
 intervene promptly with armed force ; it 
 also dawning finally on the Cabinet of 
 Santiago that the attitude of Bolivia, in 
 confiscating the property, was neither more 
 nor less than the violation of the Treaty 
 in another and much worse form than that 
 attempted on the previous occasion, when 
 merely an increase of the fiscal charges or 
 taxes on that same property had been de- 
 manded. A small force of 500 Chilian 
 soldiers was immediately despatched to 
 Antofagasta, the Bolivians fled, and the 
 Chilians, without firing a shot, took pos- 
 session of the Bolivian littoral, thus "nip- 
 ping in the bud " the scheme of her two 
 intriguing neighbours, Bolivia and Peru. 
 The former of these Republics retahated 
 by declaring war against Chili, issued 
 letters of marque, ordered the expulsion 
 of all Chilians, and confiscated their pro- 
 perty, whereas Chili continued to allow the 
 Bolivians equal rights with Chilian citi- 
 zens. The population of the Bolivian 
 littoral, of which eighty-five per cent, were 
 Chilians, addressed the Chilian Govern- 
 ment, praying that the Desert of Atacama 
 and the littoral be foimally and finally in- 
 corporated in Chili proper, and temporary 
 Chilian Judges and other functionaries were 
 being appointed, when Peru, although bound 
 by a Secret Treaty with Bolivia to declare 
 war Bgainst Chili, ^enl a Plenipotentiary 
 
to the capital of the latter country, os- 
 tensibly olfering her good offices as a me- 
 diator of peace. This, no doubt, was done 
 to gain time to complete her preparations for 
 war by purchases in Europe and the United 
 States,which neither her secret ally, Bolivia, 
 nor Chili could effect with freedom, since 
 war had been declared by Bolivia against 
 Chih. The Chilian Government, which 
 had heard persistently repeated, but never 
 believed, rumours of the existence of the 
 above-mentioned secret treaty, thought the 
 occasion required that she should demand 
 whether such treaty existed, and that Peru 
 should at once declare whether she would 
 remain neutral or not in the Chilian-Boli- 
 vian struggle. After the Peruvian Pleni- 
 potentiary first proclaiming ignorance of 
 and afterwards admitting the existence of 
 an alliance between his country and Bolivia, 
 and the telegraph every day bringing more 
 and more news of Peru's active armaments, 
 Chili at length, about seven weeks after 
 landing her troops in Antofagasta, and after 
 some five weeks' negotiations with the 
 Peruvian Ambassador, found it necessary 
 for her own safety's sake, to declare war 
 against Peru, a step which, moreover, was 
 demanded by the general indignation exist- 
 ing all over Chili against the Lima Govern- 
 ment for conspiring with Bolivia in the 
 manner told. Peru replied by accepting 
 the challenge, and by ordering all private 
 Chilian citizens to leave the Peruvian ter- 
 ritory, confiscating their property, and 
 tacitly sanctioning, or at all events not re- 
 pressing, the terrible excesses against 
 Chilians, men, women, and children, which 
 became of daily occurrence in Peru — ex- 
 cesses which, however, were not to be 
 wondered at, when one has seen the brothers 
 Gutierrez, in the civilised (?) capital, Lima, 
 hoisted up the spire of the cathedral, let 
 down by the run, cut into small pieces, of 
 which some by the Peruvians were cooked 
 and eaten, others burnt and the ashes drunk 
 in the national beverage chicha. 
 
 It has been asserted that the nitrate 
 deposits at Tarapaca were the real cause of 
 the war ; this is only true inasmuch as 
 either their possession, their working, or 
 the sale of their product by the Peruvian 
 Government, coupled with the circumstance 
 of the competing fertiliser, guano, also 
 being a State monopoly in Peru, caused the 
 latter country to intrigue with Bolivia to 
 get the nitrate deposits in the desert of 
 Atacama taken away from the conces- 
 sionaires and declared the property of the 
 State as in Peru, as well as for the pur- 
 
 pose of getting Bolivia to break the treaty 
 of limits with Chili, and, vi et armis, claim 
 entire possession of the guano deposits in 
 the littoral of the same desert, so that, 
 once both fertilisers, nitrates and phos- 
 phates, in the hands of the Bolivian 
 Government, Peru might, in concert witli 
 her ally Bolivia, regulate the market price 
 of all guano and of all nitrate of soda 
 exported from the whole of the west coast 
 of South America. When Pern's various 
 schemes in Tarapaca were put in force to 
 expropriate the nitrate deposits of the Chi- 
 lian and other concessionaires, a great deal 
 of indignation was felt in Chili, as well as 
 in England, France, and Germany ; but 
 when part of the press and all the Chilian 
 Companies that suffered by the expropria- 
 tion and monopoly schemes of Peru, urged 
 the Government of Santiago to interfere 
 actively in favour of the Tarapaca conces- 
 sionaires, the Chilian Cabinet, however, 
 referred the latter to the Peruvian tri- 
 bunals, and positively refused to move 
 actively in the matter unless some other 
 Government would support their subjects 
 or citizens in the like manner. Chili, be it 
 remembered, had never claimed any right 
 to the province of Tarapaca, but, on the 
 contrary, respected Peru's sovereignty, 
 however much abused. She therefore 
 naturally was very loth to do anything 
 outside of the sphere of a diplomatic cor- 
 respondence, recommending the cases of 
 her citizens to the due consideration of the 
 Peruvian Government. The complaints 
 that reached Chili from the territory of 
 which she had dispossessed herself, ceding 
 it to Bolivia in a conditional manner set 
 forth in the treaty ad hoc, were, however, 
 of a far different nature ; for they levealed 
 either a direct breach of the treaty of 6th 
 of August, 1874, which had been approved 
 of by the Bolivian Congress that closed its 
 labours in November same year, or thev 
 denounced flagrant acts of injustice to 
 Chilian citizens, committed in a territorA' 
 which was subject to the jurisdiction of 
 Chili before ceded by her to Bolivia, and 
 the dwellers in which, it was considered, 
 had at least a moral right to expect that 
 Chili would, on dispossessing herself of the 
 territory, see that the new sovereign of the 
 soil, Bolivia, treated them no worse than 
 their old master. Chili, whose laws pro- 
 tected them in the desert of Atacama when 
 they had settled there prior to the treaty 
 having been made. 
 
 The Chilian Government also very na- 
 turally considered, that if Bolivia broke 
 
the treaty, then Chili's old sovereignty over 
 the territory revived. 
 
 That this sovereignty originally was 
 founded ou just and good titles, I had once 
 occasion to satisfy myself about by per- 
 sonal investigation, being interested in 
 lauded property situated on the west coast 
 of South America, between the 23rd and 
 25th parallel; I then found the folio wing items 
 specially in favour of Chili's claim,viz. : — 
 
 (a.) Pedro Cieza de Leon, in the first 
 volume of his work, " Cronica del Peru," 
 published in 1553, and the Ynca Garcilaza 
 de la Vega, in his " Comentarios Reales," 
 published in 1609 and 1616, both affirmed 
 that "the desert of Atacama formed part 
 " of Chili," which is also asserted by the 
 friar, Anello Olivia, who wrote one of the 
 first histories of Peru. 
 
 {b.) In 1679, the Governour and Captain- 
 General of Chili evidently exercised jurisdic- 
 tion over the desert of Atacama, because pe- 
 titions were presented to him in that year, 
 praying for a grant of some land in the de- 
 sert of Atacama, and he granted the con- 
 (;ession asked for. 
 
 (c.) The map which Don Juan de Lan- 
 gara, secretary of the Spanish navy, in 
 1799, presented to the King of Spain as the 
 result of the scientific mission of Post- 
 Captain Don Jose Bustamante to the west 
 coast of South America, shows clearly that 
 the Morro ofMejillones, whereon afterwards 
 the Chilians found guano, was by the royal 
 authorities held to be part of the Spanish 
 colony Chili, for on that chart the 23rd 
 parallel of southern latitude most certainly 
 passes through the territory which on said 
 map is assigned to Chili. 
 
 (d.) Any other maps that placed the 
 boundary of Chili as far south as where 
 Paposo is situated, were held merely to 
 have marked the boundary line of Chili 
 proper, or that part in which judicial and 
 other authorities existed, and to have taken 
 no notice of simple dependencies like the 
 desert, which then had no regular body 
 of authorities, thus accounting for the 
 difference between some of the old maps. 
 
 {e.) The royal decrees of 3rd of June, 
 1801, and 26th of June, 1803, order that 
 Paposo (a Chilian port to which Bolivia 
 never laid claim) be recogniseil as the De- 
 partmental Capital, or Cabecera, of the 
 littoral and the interior of the desert of 
 Atacama, subject, however, to the superior 
 authorities of Santingo, who also appointed 
 the judge of the desert of Atacama, which 
 latter functionary resided in Paposo or the 
 Bahia de Nuestra Senora. 
 
 (/.) When later on the Spanish American 
 colonies declared their independence, the 
 principle of itti possedetis was adopted, so 
 that whatever was subject to the old juris- 
 diction of the Royal Captain-General of 
 Chili, came dejure under the new authority 
 of the Republic of Chili ; and that the 
 desert of Atacama de facto was submitted 
 to the sovereignty of the Republic of Chili, 
 I found proved by the circumstance that 
 the Government of Prieto and Portales sent 
 an expedition " to explore the littoral of 
 " the Republic between Coquimbo and the 
 "Morro de Mejillones," which expedition 
 found guano in sixteen different places, and 
 further by the fact that on the 31st Decem- 
 ber, 1842, the Chilian Congress passed the 
 first Bill regulating the working of the 
 guano deposits discovered in the desert of 
 Atacama ; furthermore, the archives of the 
 Custom House of Valparaiso proved that 
 from the year 1842 to 1857 not less than 
 113 vessels had tranquilly loaded guano on 
 the coast of the desert of Atacama, with 
 Chilian licenses, and been sent away to 
 Europe with Chilian clearances, 
 
 (g.) It was proved that Bolivia admitted, by- 
 implication, that her authority did not ex- 
 tend further south than Cobija, for in 1833, 
 Santa Cruz, the President of Bolivia, in 
 reporting to Congress his trip to the littoral, 
 speaks of Cobija as the " only Bolivian 
 "port," and on other occasion, approves of 
 a loan being raised to improve " Cobija, the 
 •' onli/ port of Bolivia. ^^ 
 
 (h.) That although the Bolivian authori- 
 ties, ten years later than Santa Cruz's ad- 
 mission that Cobija was the only Bolivian 
 port, raised a claim to the Port of Mejil- 
 lones, soon after the Chilian discovery of 
 guano, and occasionally repeated their 
 pretensions, still the facts remain, first, 
 that vessels loaded guano for fifteen years 
 at Mejillones, Angamos, and Santamaria, 
 under Chilian permits, cleared by Chilian 
 Custom-house officers ; and, secondly, that 
 Chili, in 1866, concluded with Bolivia a 
 solemn and binding treaty of limits, includ- 
 ing a provision for the matter of dealing 
 with the guano and nitrate deposits, mines, 
 etc., in the Desert of Atacama, between 
 the 23rd and 25th parallels. This treaty, 
 moreover, the Bolivian President with 
 whom it was made, admitted to me, was 
 " a concession in favour of Bolivia, on 
 " account of her not siding with Spain in the 
 "war of 1865 to 1866, during which the 
 "facility of having had the Bolivian Port 
 "of Cobija to repair to, would have been 
 " of immense advantage to the Spanish 
 
" squadron when blockading the coast of 
 " Chili." 
 
 Fourth. — Both Mr. Markham and Senor 
 Garcia charge Chili with having been 
 secretly preparing herself for a war with 
 Bolivia and Peru, for the purpose of ex- 
 tending her territory at the expense of 
 those two Republics, and that Chili knew 
 all along the existence of their aUiance, 
 which is said to have caused her to pur- 
 chase two formidable ironclads, and in- 
 crease the effective force of her army. To 
 this I must say, in the first place, that it is 
 personally known to me that the two iron- 
 clads referred to, after some considerable 
 delay and hesitation on account of their 
 great cost, were ordered in consequence of 
 the lesson taught Chili by the Spanish 
 fleet in the Pacific, and also in conse- 
 quence of the fears that were entertained 
 that the difficulties w4th the Argentine 
 Confederation might not end peaceably but 
 result in a war, in which the Argentine 
 ironclads would be more than a match for 
 the insignificant Chilian navy, possessing 
 only old-fashioned wooden vessels, some of 
 which could not fire a salute without im- 
 mediately having to man the pumps ; and, 
 in the second place, that it is a positive 
 fact that the two Chilian ironclads, the 
 only new vessels acquired in the decade 
 preceding the war, were included in the 
 budget of the Chilian Minister of the 
 Navy and ordered, not only before any 
 rumours were heard of the Peruvian and 
 Bolivian alliance referred to, but even be- 
 fore the secret treaty between these two 
 nations had been made ; while, in the third 
 place, Chilian Parliamentary papers prove 
 that in December, 1878, a few months 
 before the outbreak of the war, the Chilian 
 Congress reduced considerably the annual 
 budget, both of the Minister of the Navy 
 and the Army-Department, retrenchment 
 being the order of the day, as it in fact 
 had been ever since the financial crisis 
 of 1874, it being even suggested by part of 
 the Press and by several Members of Con- 
 gress that the greater part of the Navy 
 should be sold. 
 
 The Chilian army, when the war broke 
 out, was found to have been reduced from 
 its normal strength of 3,573, the number 
 fixed by Congress, to only 2,440 men and 
 officers all told ; whereas the Peruvian 
 standing army consisted of 4,200 regular 
 soldiers, 3,870 officers, the commissions of 
 many of the latter being, however, simply 
 ad honorem, and an armed police force of 
 5,400 men and officers, which, added to the 
 
 standing army of Bolivia, 3,021 strong, 
 gave a total of 11,001, without counting 
 the 5,400 Peruvian police soldiers. Against 
 such fearful odds, a small force of 2,440 
 Chilians had to prepare themselves to 
 fight. 
 
 The population of the two allied re- 
 publics amounted to 5.800,000, whereas 
 Chili had a population of only 2.155,029, 
 and about 50,000 Indians, so that both the 
 original force and the chance of recruiting 
 and increasing the respective armies were 
 infinitely greater on the part of Bolivia 
 and Peru than on that of Chili. Bolivia 
 possessed not a single vessel ; the navy of 
 Peru, however, according to data furnished 
 by the Peruvian Government for the Paris 
 Exhibition of 1878, was superior to that of 
 Chili, and cost £1.000,000 yearly to main- 
 tain, as against the sum of £350,000 which 
 Chili spent per annum on her fleet ; the 
 former, the Peruvian navy, consisted of 
 two good sea-going ironclads, two formid- 
 able monitors for harbour protection, two 
 corvettes, and twelve smaller vessels, 
 mounting in all sixty-six guns ; while the 
 Chilian navy counted two heavy, strong, 
 though somewhat slow, ironclads, four 
 wooden corvettes, two of which very old, 
 one gun boat, and one aviw, mounting 
 forty-two guns in all, thus inferior to the 
 navy of Peru. 
 
 The returns of the Chilian Statistical 
 Department show the utterly insignificant 
 quantity of arms and ammunition that was 
 imported by Chili from Europe and the 
 United States in the five years preceding 
 the outbreak of the war, and the letters of 
 the Chilian legations, published in the Blue- 
 Books, pi-ove, to a certainty, how com- 
 pletely and unwarrantably unprepareil 
 Chili was for war in February, 1879, when 
 she found herself obliged to assert her 
 rights by force of arms, and face the two 
 conspirators who, it appeared, had secretly 
 been in league ever since February, 1873 ; for 
 those communications show clearly that 
 the Santiago Government, only after the 
 declaration of war, started telegraphing and 
 writing for war material, which, however, 
 was then very difficult to procure, owing 
 to the stringency of the laws of neutrality 
 of Europe and the United States. At the 
 same time, I do not agree with some of the 
 Chilian writers who state that Peru and 
 Bolivia were prepared for the war in ques- 
 tion ; for the latter republic, I am aware, 
 confided blindly in her ally, who was sup- 
 posed to be so infinitely stronger than 
 Chili that no Chilian soldiers would ever 
 
8 
 
 be able to land in Bolivia, and Peru had 
 too itiuch belief in Chili ultimately yielding 
 to Bolivian demands to arm herself fully. 
 
 The mission of the Peruvian Minister, 
 Lavalle, Avho denied all knowledge of the 
 secret treaty, was, without a doubt, for the 
 purpose of giving Peru time to prepare her- 
 self for war, and was only frustrated by 
 Chili's decisive step of sending him his 
 passports, and declaring war, as soon as 
 the existence of the treaty was found to be 
 a fact. 
 
 Fifth. — As regards the war operations 
 themselves, it is hinted at that they have 
 been successful on the part of Chili, be- 
 cause her vessels were chiefly commanded 
 and officered either by Englishmen or by 
 Chilians who had been in the English navy; 
 43ut it would be wrong to lose sight of the 
 fact that the Chilians themselves are good 
 sailors, who, in times of peace are kept in 
 constant practice by voyages along the 
 littoral of Chili proper, by trips to her 
 Northern Dependencies, to the adjacent 
 islands over which she exercises sovereignty, 
 and to her colony in the Straits of Ma- 
 gellan, or are employed on hydrographic 
 service. Except two old officers who 
 fought under Lord Cochrane, and who have 
 been on the retired list for many years, 
 the Chilian pay-sheets show plainly that 
 there are none but Chilians amongst her 
 naval officers. When the war commenced, 
 only two of her officers, who were of 
 English extraction, but sons of Chilian 
 citizens, had served in the English navy 
 for a number of years ; one of them. Cap- 
 tain Simpson, however, resigned, and the 
 other, Captain Lynch, who was considered 
 to have retired from the sea, and who held 
 the important office of Governor of the 
 Coast District of the Province of Valpa- 
 raiso, had again to go afloat, but in reality 
 has been mostly employed on shore during 
 this war ; he commanded the First Division 
 of the Chilian army that invested and took 
 the capital of Peru, for his bravery on 
 which occasion he was promoted to the 
 rank of Admiral, and now serves as Mili- 
 tary Governor of Lima, under a Minister, 
 who in Peru represents the Chilian Go- 
 vernment. This officer, before he entered 
 the English navy, and took part in the 
 capture of Canton, Chusan, Wampoo, and 
 Nanknto, for which he received an English 
 medal, had already served in the navy of 
 his own country. Chili, and in 1838 fought 
 before Caliao ; he had also taken part 
 in several naval engagements in the Pa- 
 cific before he joined the English navy in 
 
 1840. Lynch is, however, by Mr. Mark- 
 ham and the Peruvian diplomatist referred 
 to, represented as a cattle-lifter, a ringleader 
 of miscreants, an Irish filibuster, etc., pro- 
 bably to lead the readers to forget that he 
 is a naval officer, who but obeys the orders 
 of his superiors, and who is amenable to a 
 court-martial, the same as any other mili- 
 tary functionary. 
 
 The Chilians are by the ultra-philo 
 Peruvians charged with cruelty in firing 
 on the undefended towns of Iquique, Mol- 
 lendo and Pisagua, and in not giving any 
 quarter on taking Arica, as well as with 
 destroying smiling villages and flourishing 
 estates in other parts of Peru, besides with 
 levying war contributions, but these mat- 
 ters every student of history and of inter- 
 national law will allow are incidental to 
 every war, and can only be fitly judged by 
 hearing the military commanders who are 
 responsible for them. At the very begin- 
 ning of the war the Chilian War Office 
 furnished every commissioned officer with 
 a printed copy of " War Instructions " 
 based on Bello's and Bluntschli's Digests of 
 International Law, and on the "Instruc- 
 tions for the Armies of the United States 
 in Campaign," which a committee of North 
 American officers drew up during the War 
 of Secession, and which were approved of 
 by President Lincoln's Government, while 
 to every Chilian soldier and sailor was 
 handed an excellent map with a brief des- 
 cription of the enemy's country, so that it 
 is evident that the Chilian soldiers knew 
 their obligations, and if any excesses were 
 committed, you may depend on it that the 
 parties responsible for same have had to 
 pay the penalty of the military law. As 
 regards the fleet firing on the towns men- 
 tioned, the Blue- Books contain the reports 
 of Captain Robinson of H. M.'s Ship 
 " Turquoise," and the European press has 
 published the graphic account given by the 
 special correspondent of the French news- 
 paper, "Le Journal du Commerce Mari- 
 time et des Colonies," from which it is 
 plainly seen that the Chilian commanders 
 were very lenient, and only fired on State 
 property, and more especially on the bar- 
 racks and houses from which the Peruvian 
 soldiers provoked them by harassing the 
 crews of the Chilian vessels or their boats. 
 It must also be remembered that both 
 history and international law tell us that 
 every bombardment is not a duel betwen 
 armed vessels and shore batteries, but that 
 sometimes a town is bombarded to force it 
 to comply with something that a military 
 
commander exacts, as was the case in 
 1807 with Copenhagen, which town was 
 undefended on the side where a military 
 commander, without war even having been 
 declared, landed his artillery and kept up a 
 bombardment for several days and nigliis, 
 destroying public and private property, 
 killing non-combatants, men, women and 
 children, until the town capitulated and 
 delivered up the Danish fleet, which it was 
 feared would otherwise have benefitted 
 Napoleon ; while at other times an unde- 
 fended town is bombarded to chastise the 
 country it belongs to for some insult, or 
 alleged insult, to the flag the bombarding 
 vessels fly, as was the case at Valparaiso 
 in 1866, when a Spanish squadron kept up 
 an incessant fire for a whole day, destroy- 
 ing several millions worth of property, 
 because the Chilian Government would 
 not, or could not, apologise for the doings 
 of some private citizens, but had referred 
 the Spanish Minister to the Tribunals of 
 the country ; and have we not often in 
 the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific 
 seen instances of European vessels of war 
 shelling undefended savage places for acts 
 of hostility, cruelty, or treachery com- 
 mitted ? 
 
 The circumstance of the Chilians, on 
 taking one of the batteries at Arica, not 
 giving quarter, is, I fear, brought forward 
 very maliciously ; for it has several times 
 been fully explained, that, when after a 
 severe fight it was found that a great many 
 Chilian soldiers continued to be killed 
 wholesale, by mines of dynamite and pow- 
 der, fired through wires from the hospital, 
 which was sheltered by the flag of the red 
 cross, then the Chilian ofiicers could for 
 some moments not restrain their soldiers, 
 who, on storming the next fort, made " no 
 more quarter" their battle cry, until at 
 length their officers regained their usual 
 control, and were able to save 60 officers 
 and 300 men of the Peruvian garrison of 
 that fort. 
 
 The Peruvian plan of the fortifications 
 afterwards showed not less than eighty- 
 four infernal machines distributed all round 
 the outside of the fortifications ; many of 
 them did not explode, but still one can 
 understand that the knowledge of the exis- 
 tence of these terrible engines of cruelly 
 refined warfare, and the circumstance of 
 the red cross being abused in the manner 
 named, would in battle exasperate any soldier 
 of whatever nation. When after the terri- 
 ble battles before Lima, where the Peruvian 
 infernal machines and automatic shore- 
 
 torpedoes, distributed over the ground for 
 miles, had played so formidable a part 
 amongst the Peruvian means of defence, it 
 became known to the Chilian troops that 
 their general declared that the enemy had 
 broken the armistice, and that later on, 
 same day or the next, the houses of some 
 smiling villages, referred to by Mr. Mark- 
 ham, were filled with Peruvian soldiers or 
 other armed men, who kept on firing on the 
 Chilian troops as they entered the villages 
 alluded to, is it any wonder that the Chilian 
 soldiers also then gave no quarter, and in 
 some cases had to set fire to the houses, 
 when all staircases had been destroyed and 
 shots from the roofs continued to decimate 
 the Chilian ranks ? The plantation with 
 the " pet dogs " and '* valuable racing 
 stud," described by Senor Garcia, and des- 
 troyed by orders of one of the Chilian 
 commanders because a war contribution 
 levied was not paid, it must be remem- 
 bered, belonged to a Peruvian officer Avho 
 had just organised a fresh battalion spe- 
 cially to harass the army of occupation, a 
 personal friend of the Peruvian dictator 
 Pierola, whom he had assisted, and waa 
 assisting in a variety of ways against Chili, 
 with money derived from this very planta- 
 tion ; moreover, with Pierola's insulting 
 " manifestos " fresh in mind, is it anything 
 but natural that the Chilian officer in com- 
 mand should in this and even in other 
 similar cases, in which the proprietors had 
 shown marked hostility and rendered them- 
 selves personally obnoxious, infiict as a 
 wholesome example, some punishment, by 
 destroying their property, if the war con- 
 tribution of money, or drafts demanded, 
 were not paid, but, on the contrary, as was 
 the case near Chimbote, refused in the most 
 frivolous manner ? 
 
 The statement that the Chilian soldiers 
 carry knives for the express purpose of 
 killing their wounded enemies, can hardly 
 have been made in good faith ; everyone 
 knows how useful a knife is on any expedi- 
 tion ; and in storming batteries made of 
 bags of sand it is easy to imagine the im- 
 portant part that such an article plays. 
 Even in the far North, on the Scandinavian 
 peninsula, we find that every Norwegian 
 soldier carries a specialty as his private 
 property, his " toUekniv," the national 
 sheath knife of Norway, worn by almost 
 every Norwegian of whatever grade of 
 society ; but still I do not think it ever 
 entered any one's mind that such an adjunct 
 to the Scandinavian soldier's kit was for 
 the purpose of killing wounded enemies (I) 
 
10 
 
 Still, this latter is the office Mr. Markham 
 assures one the Chilian knife is meant to 
 perform. The extensive use of dynamite 
 by the Peruvians in the war, the wholesale 
 massacre accomplished by automatic infer- 
 nal machines, both at their different sea- 
 ports on and around their forts on shore, 
 and placed on the roads they expected the 
 Chilians would take, contrivances like the 
 " explosive gig" and the " mechanical bum- 
 boat," that sent two Chilian men of war 
 to the bottom almost with their entire 
 crews, other, though mechanically inge- 
 nious, nevertheless, diabolical arrange- 
 ments in the shape of saddles, hats, caps, 
 watches, drinking cups, match boxes, etc., 
 distributed about the ground, and arranged 
 with a spring and a detonator to explode 
 a charge of dynamite when lifted, instead 
 of the employment of torpedoes of the re- 
 cognised types, might well exasperate some 
 of the Chilian soldiers sufficiently to a war 
 a Voutrance, and neither give nor take 
 quarter ; but that a Chilian should have 
 served out to him a knife to go round the 
 battle field with and "polish off" the 
 wounded Peruvians and Bolivians, is simply 
 a gross calumny ; besides on the other hand, 
 official returns prove positively that several 
 thousand Peruvian and Bolivian prisoners 
 of war have been sent to Chili, instead of 
 butchered with the long knives spoken of 
 in Mr. Markham's '* romance." 
 
 If Mr. Markham were an impartial his- 
 torian, he would have considered that 
 savage butchery would be more after the 
 fashion of the soldiers of Peru and Bolivia, 
 in which latter countries history records 
 numerous murders of Presidents and high 
 functionaries, coupled with incidents like 
 the one above referred to of the brothers 
 Gutierrez, who were hoisted up the spire 
 of the Lima Cathedral — countries wherein 
 a President is known to have threatened 
 the British Charge d'Affaires with personal 
 violence and obliged him to leave Bolivia ; 
 another of the Presidents of which Re- 
 public, after amusing himself with prac- 
 tising rifle shooting on donkeys from the 
 windows of the "Palacio," or Government 
 House, even at state dinners would throw 
 long knives at marks upon the wall of the 
 dining-hall, placed close on either side of 
 the head of the bandsmen, cautioning the 
 generally terrified wretches not to move, 
 and who is known at a diplomatic banquet 
 to have torn off his coat a foreign decora- 
 tion and thrown it at the head of the 
 Minister for the nation that had sent him 
 the order in question, telling his guest that 
 
 a " republican wanted no monarchical 
 baubles ;" while he on another occasion 
 left the dinner-table, went into the adjoin- 
 ing room, a shot was heard, which turned 
 out to be "merely that one of the house- 
 hold had been killed by the President," 
 who resumed his seat at the table as if 
 nothing unusual had happened ; and who 
 on many occasions, when seeing in the 
 street a lady whose looks pleased him, 
 would send his soldiers by force to convey 
 her to Government House, if she refused 
 to come on other terms; nevertheless being 
 tolerated without impeachment as the chief 
 magistrate of the nation for nearly six 
 years. Has Mr. Markham never seen the 
 Peruvian newspapers published during the 
 war ? They ought to have revealed to him 
 the savage instincts, not of the Chilians, 
 but of the Peruvians, for nearly every 
 paper published in Peru was continually 
 full of the most demoralising articles, in- 
 citing the people to butcher the Chilians, 
 and promising that " soon rivers of Chilian 
 blood would run from the Andes to the sea, 
 and bridges be made of Chilian corpses." 
 
 Sixth. — The circumstance of it having 
 been said in the Chilian Congress by a Mem- 
 ber of the Cabinet that the object of the 
 war was to cripple Peru for a hundred 
 years, is brought forward as an instance of 
 Chili being a savage and uncivilised na- 
 tion ; but one may here ask Mr. Markham 
 whether it is not always the object of a 
 belligerent to cripple his enemy as effec- 
 tually as possible, so as to prevent him 
 from renewing his attacks, and so that 
 peace may be enjoyed for as long a period 
 as possible ? Besides, we all know that 
 what a Minister says in Parliament, when 
 he wants his estimates passed, is not always 
 exactly, to the very letter, what he means, 
 and also that, in the heat of Parliamentary 
 debates, sentiments are not unfrequently 
 given expression to which, in a calmer 
 mood would not have been uttered. 
 
 Sevenih. — The most of the incidents men- 
 tioned by Se&or Garcia as having taken 
 place in Lima under the Chilian occupa- 
 tion, could not possibly have occurred in 
 the manner he describes. To act as a 
 check on the military governour, and pre- 
 vent, as much as possible, such excesses as 
 in times of war always occur in an enemy's 
 country, the Chilian Government sent to 
 Lima also a political governour, in the 
 person of Don Jovino Novoa, who was a 
 Minister in the Montt-Varas Cabinet, a 
 man of calm judgment, who has been for 
 nifuiy years a member of the Chilijiu Con- 
 
11 
 
 gress, has filled the important office of 
 Judge of Crime, who was Governor of the 
 Province of Valparaiso, and who is one of 
 the ablest barristers in South America. 
 
 The presence in Lima of this high func- 
 tionary, whose father was a Justice of the 
 Supreme Court, a man of real sangre azul, 
 and who is also related to several of the 
 oldest Peruvian families, is the best security 
 that Chili possibly could give the civilised 
 world in general, and the Chilian people in 
 particular, that matters would be carried on 
 in an orderly manner in Lima during the 
 military occupation. 
 
 Eighth. — Chili is charged with not wish- 
 ing to make peace, but the writer of these 
 lines knows for a fact that the people of 
 Chili and her Government are most anxious 
 for peace, in order that the numerous citi- 
 zens, who are only temporarily soldiers, may 
 return to their homes and their usual avo- 
 cations ; all are fully alive to the demora- 
 lisation and other evils brought about by 
 a protracted war; and so sick and tired of 
 the present sacrifice of Chilian blood is 
 the Government of Santiago that they have 
 lately, through the American Minister, 
 foregone all claim on Peru for any pecu- 
 niary war indemnity, but, on the contrary, 
 offered to pay 10.000,000 dollars for the 
 strip of land from Arica to Tacna, Chili 
 remaining with the Tarapaca district, which 
 latter the " Times," in a sub-leader of the 
 1st instant recognises that Peru, in any 
 case must give up. But the great diffi- 
 
 culty is to get the different Peruvian fac- 
 tions to join sufficiently to get a Govern- 
 ment firmly constituted, otherwise a treaty 
 of peace cannot be valid and binding. 
 
 Senor Garcia could, no doubt, serve his 
 country better by remaining at home and 
 dedicating his talents as a diplomatist to 
 bring about peace, than by amusing him- 
 self in London and Paris, and giving the 
 public exaggerated and erroneous accounts 
 of affairs on the west coast of South 
 America. 
 
 A perusal of the diplomatic reports of 
 Sir Horace Rumbold, the British consular 
 reports, and the official dispatches from 
 Captain Albert Markham, R.N., Com- 
 mander Acland, R.N., Captain Robinson, 
 R.N., and others; the contributions to the 
 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," under the 
 heads of Chili, Peru, and Bolivia; the 
 writings of French scientists like Rabu- 
 taux, in Block's " Dictionnaire Generale de 
 Politique;" the special articles in Larousse's 
 " Grand Dictionnaire ; " Count d'Ursel's 
 " Sud Amerique, Sejour et Voyages;" and 
 M. Wiener's "Perou et Bolivie;" as well 
 as the two volumes of " Histoire de la 
 Guerre du Pacifique," by Arana, would no 
 doubt give the public a very different 
 opinion of the three countries referred to 
 from that which Mr. Clements Markhain 
 and Sefior Garcia endeavour to instil into 
 the minds of people whom they can in- 
 fluence by their writings. 
 
 Westminster Chambers, 
 
 Victoria Street, London, S.W. 
 
 May \2th,\mZ. {Card enclo sod.) 
 
 I am. Sir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 AN OLD WEST-COASTER. 
 
 Almost at the same time that the above letter was written, appeared the following 
 review of Mr. Markham's book about the War in the Pacific ; — 
 
 "The "War between Peru and Chili, 1879- 
 1882." By Clements R. Markbam, C.B., F.R.S. 
 One vol. {Sampsoti Low, Marston, Searle, and 
 Rivington.) — Although the war between the two 
 Pacific Republics of South America cannot be Baid 
 to have yet ended, it began four years ago, and there 
 has been plenty of time for its history to be writ- 
 ten. This is the task Mr. Clements Markham now 
 essays, and in many respects he is well qualified for 
 its performance. But his readers should not be in 
 baste to accept his judgment unreservedly. From 
 the very first he adopts the Peruvian view, and con- 
 tends that it was Chili who forced on the war, on 
 shallow pretexts, for purposes of aggression. This 
 theory is not, we think, in accordance with histori- 
 
 cal fact. The Chilians certainly declared war at 
 last, but they were influeHced to do so by the very 
 evident purpose of Peru and Bolivia to keep the ni- 
 trate fields of Tarapaca for themselves. Another 
 just cause of umbrage to the Southern Republic 
 was the secret treaty executed by her t-*'o Northern 
 neighbours some time previously. Mr. Markham 
 shows that the Chilian Government must have 
 known of this compact long before hostilities began, 
 and, although it atfected to be of a purely defensive 
 character, the aggressive spirit exhibited by Peru and 
 Bolivia after its signature left little room for doubt- 
 ing that they considered it to cover offensive pro- 
 ceedings as well. The partisan spirit shown by 
 the author in this matter unfortunately dominates 
 
12 
 
 his judgment throughout the book. He represents 
 that while Chili had been treacherously strengthen- 
 ing her navy, Peru did nothing to develop her 
 maritime strength. As a matter of fact the northern 
 Republic believed that it was fully equal to 
 the Southern on the sea, and if for some years 
 it had ceased to spend money on its navy, that was 
 simply because its rulers squandered the enormous 
 profits from the guano beds on other objects. Mr. 
 Markham admits that the Chilian infantry are "good 
 fighting machines," but he charges both that arm 
 and the cavalry with butchering wounded enemies, 
 and with not giving quarter. "We do not believe 
 that there are any substantial grounds for these 
 sweeping accusations. Isolated instances of savagery 
 may have occuiTed, and it is quite possible that the 
 Chilian soldiery are prone to plunder. Not less 
 opposed to the historic spirit is the author's attempt 
 to show that the Chilians exceeded the laws of 
 civilised warfare by bombarding defenceless towns. 
 The case of Pisagua is cited in proof, but on 
 analysing the facts it comes out that the garrison 
 and inhabitants kept up as hot a fire as they could 
 until the Chilian fleet withdrew. As for the state- 
 ment that "neutral flags, displayed from some 
 houses, were disregarded," it is merely necessary to 
 say that during hot bombardments shot and shell 
 frequently fly off at a tangent after ricochetting, 
 and hit objects far from the line of aim. This hap- 
 pened at the bombardment of Alexandria, and Mr. 
 Markham might as well lay the blame for the result- 
 ing damage on the commanders of our ironclads as 
 seek to make the Chilians responsible for what hap- 
 pened at Pisagua. In the graphic account of the fight 
 betM'een the Huascar and the Chilian fleet, incidental 
 mention is made of a fact which goes some way to dis- 
 prove these charges of inhumanity. After being 
 heavily battered for some time by the Cochrane and 
 the Blanco, the Huascar had her flag halliards shot 
 away, and down came her ensign. Instantly the 
 Chilian fire ceased, and it was not renewed until the 
 Peruvian ram ran up fresh colours. On this occa- 
 sion the Peruvians fought most gallantly, perhaps 
 owing in some measure to the example of the 30 
 Englishmen who formed part of the Huascar' s crew. 
 
 But with all deference to Mr. Markham, we do not 
 think that their land forces had much heroism in 
 them. It is, too, odd sort of praise to bestow on 
 General Buendia, who commanded at Tarapaca, 
 that " although he was sometimes inert and at 
 others rash, he never failed in personal courage 
 when the time for fighting came." A commander 
 of that sort is certainly an encumbrance to any 
 army, but Mr. Markham seems to think that the 
 attribute of personal bravery atoned for the other 
 defects in a general who was a Peruvian. We 
 might quote from almost every page to prove the 
 animus of the author against the other side. " The 
 worst of the old conquerors," he writes on one occa- 
 sion, " sought for gold ; their Chilian imitators 
 wanted to appropriate manure." In the description 
 of the landing at Pisagua, a very gallant achieve- 
 ment, ably carried out, he affirms that " most of the 
 Chilian wounded died of neglect." "We should 
 much like to know the authority for this scandalous 
 aspersion on the humanity of the Chilian officers. 
 On the other hand, the heroism of the Peruvians and 
 Bolivians is painted in the most glowing colours. 
 Mr. Markham actually appears to believe that at the 
 battle of San Francisco one Peruvian division " re- • 
 ceived 112 shots from each man of the regiment 
 that assailed them, and 80 shots from the artillery" 
 during a brief advance. If this was really so, 
 it can only be said that Chilian marksmanship 
 must bte astonishingly bad, as the entire casualties in 
 the whole Peruvian army on this occasion did not 
 amount to 300. But it is unnecessary to multiply 
 instances of the unhistoric spirit in which this so- 
 called history is compiled. English judgment long 
 ago came to the conclusion that Chili had right on 
 her side when she took up arms against the allied 
 northern republics, and this verdict is not likely to 
 be set aside by such partisan advocacy as that of 
 Mr. Markham. If he and other friends of Peru 
 used their influence to induce her to accept and 
 carry out the terms of peace offered by the Chilians 
 it would be a far more friendly proceeding than the 
 publication of books glorifying the conquered and 
 depreciating the conquerors. — The Globe, London, 
 nth May, 1883. 
 
 The Editor of a London weekly makes the following remarks, viz. : — 
 
 Admiral Garcia, of the Peruvian Navy, has written 
 to the Times to protest against the cruelties of the 
 Chilians, and tu announce the Peruvians' determi- 
 nation not to assent to reasonable terms of peace. 
 The Admiral, as his country is engaged in war, 
 would be better employed in fighting her enemies 
 than in inditing letters from Paris complaining of 
 them ; or, if he objects to fighting, he might betake 
 himself home with the horde of Peruvians now in 
 Paris, in order to attempt to re-t^stablish some sort 
 of order in that distracted Republic. The Chilians 
 are decent, orderly people, who never desired to 
 fall out with their neighbours. Tne Peruvians 
 
 forced the war upon them. At present, the dif- 
 ficulty is that there is no Government in Peru with 
 whom it is possible to negotiate. The country is 
 overrun by guerilla bands of Peruvians, who pillage 
 friend and foe alike. Let the Peruvians organise 
 themselves into some sort of civilized Government, 
 and offer such terms of peace as their victors can 
 reasonably accept. So far as the Chilians are con- 
 cerned, they are a commercial nation. They fight 
 when ihfj are obliged to, but they have no passion 
 for fighting; and they would be exceedingly glad 
 to live in peace and amitv with the Peruvians aud 
 everybody qXsq. — Truth, 17th May, 1883. 
 
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