The Land of Fire.--Cape Horn.--In the Open Pacific.--Fellow
Passengers.--Large Sea-Bird.--An Interesting Invalid.--A
Weary Captive.--A Broken-Hearted Mother.--Study of the
Heavens.--The Moon.--Chilian Civil War.--Concepcion.--A
Growing City.--Commercial Importance.--Cultivating City
Gardens on a New Plan.--Important Coal Mines.--Delicious
Fruits.
Magellan named this extreme southern land, of which we have been
speaking, "the Land of Fire," because of the numerous fires which he,
from his ships, saw on the shore at night, and which were then supposed
by the discoverers to be of a volcanic character. The fact probably was
that the Indians did not fail to recognize the need of artificial heat,
especially at night, though they had not sufficient genius to teach them
to construct garments suitable to protect them from the inclemency of
the weather. These fires were kindled in the open air, but the natives
camped close about them, sleeping within their influence.
Cape Horn, the extreme point of South America, on the outermost island
of the Fuegian group, is a lofty, steep black rock, with a pointed
summit, which has stood there for ages, like a watchful sentinel at his
post. Two thirds of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego--the western
part--belong to Chili, and the balance of both--the eastern
part--belongs to the Argentine Republic. A recently consummated treaty
between these two nationalities has fixed upon this final division of
territory, and thus settled a question which has long been a source of
dispute and ill feeling between them. This division makes Cape Horn
belong to Chili, not a specially desirable possession, to be sure, but
it is an indelible landmark.
The sail along the coast northward after leaving the Pacific mouth of
the strait affords very little variety of scenery; the dull hue of the
barren shore is without change of color for hundreds of miles, until the
eye becomes weary of watching it, as we speed onward through the long,
indolent ocean swell. Arid hills and small indentures form the coast
line, but as we get further northward, this dreary sameness is varied by
the appearance of an occasional small settlement, forming a group of
dwellings of a rude character, possibly a mining region or a fishing
hamlet, connected with some business locality further inland. Sometimes
a green valley is descried, which makes a verdant gulch opening quite
down to the sea.
This dense monotony becomes more and more tedious, until one longs to
get somewhere, anywhere, away from it.
In the dearth of scenic interest, we fall to studying the various
passengers traveling between the Pacific ports, a great variety of
nationalities being represented. Among those of the second-class was a
handsome Italian boy, with marvelous eyes of jet and a profusion of long
black hair. He had a small organ hung about his neck, and carried an
intelligent monkey with him. The boy and his monkey joined in the
performance of certain simple, amusing tricks to elicit money from the
lookers-on. Both boy and monkey were happy in the result achieved, the
former in liberal cash receipts, the latter in being fed liberally with
cakes and bonbons. The capacity of monkeys for the rapid consumption of
palatable dainties is one of the unsolved mysteries of nature.
Schools of porpoises played about the hull of the ship, and clouds of
sea-birds at times wheeled about the topmasts, or followed in the ship's
wake watching for refuse from the cook's department. Occasionally the
head of a large, deep-water turtle would appear for a moment above the
surface, twisting its awkward neck to watch the course of the steamer,
while shoreward the mottled surface of the gently undulating waves
betrayed the presence of myriads of small fish, over which hovered
predatory birds of the gull tribe. Now and again one would swoop swiftly
downward to secure a victim to its appetite. Few albatrosses were seen
after leaving the Pacific mouth of the strait. They are lovers of the
stormy Antarctic region, with the tempestuous atmosphere of which their
great power of wing enables them to cope successfully. The author has
seen one of these birds off the southern coast of New Zealand which
spread eleven feet from tip to tip of its extended wings. It was caught
with a floating bait by one of the seamen and drawn on board ship, where
it was measured, but not until a long contest of strength had taken
place between men and bird. The albatross was slightly wounded in the
mouth and throat by the process of catching him with a baited hook. But
they are hardy creatures, and unless injured in some vital part pay
little heed to a small wound. After this bird had been examined, it was
liberated, and resumed its graceful flight about the ship as though
nothing unusual had happened.
An invalid girl of Spanish birth, who was perhaps sixteen years of age,
very tenderly cared for by her mother, was propped up daily in a
reclining seat upon deck, where she might find amusement in watching the
sea and distant shore, while inhaling the saline tonic of the
atmosphere. Poor child, how her large, dark eyes, pallid lips, and
painful respiration appealed to one's sympathy! It required no
professional knowledge to divine her approaching fate. She was really in
the last stages of consumption, and was on her way to a popular
sanitarium near the coast, hoping against reason that the change might
prove restorative and of radical benefit. It was pleasant to observe how
promptly every one on board strove to add to her comfort by simple
attentions and services, and how the choicest bits from the table were
secured to tempt her capricious appetite. The grateful mother's eyes
were often suffused with tears, carefully hidden from the gentle
invalid. Her maternal heart was too full for the utterance even of
thanks.
"Ah," said she to us in a low tone of voice, "she is the last of my
three children, two boys and this girl. The two boys faded away just
like this. Do you think there is any hope for her, senor?"
"Why not, senora? We should never cease to hope. The land breeze and the
springs where you are going may do wonders."
Heaven forgive us. The child's fate was only too plainly to be read in
her attenuated form, and the dull action of her almost congested lungs.
One day a small, weary sea-bird, newly out of its nest, flew on board
our ship quite exhausted, and being easily secured, was given to the
young girl to pet. It soon became quite at home in her lap, eating small
bread crumbs and little bits of meat from her fingers. Confidence being
thus established between them, the little half-fledged creature would
not willingly leave its new-found benefactress. It seemed to be a
providential occurrence, affording considerable diversion to the sick
one. For a while, at least, she was aroused from the listlessness which
is so very significant in consumption, and her whole heart went out to
the confiding little waif. It was a pretty sight to see the bird nestle
contentedly close to her bosom, the pale-faced girl scarcely less
fragile than the little feathered stranger she had adopted. No one
thought that Death was hovering so very near, yet the third night after
the bird flew on board the young girl lay in her shroud, with an ivory
crucifix, typical of the Romish faith, in one hand, and the other
resting upon the inanimate bird she had befriended, which had also
breathed its last.
Attempted consolation to a freshly bleeding heart is almost always
premature, and there are few, very few, human beings competent to offer
it effectually under the best circumstances. The sad-eyed mother
listened to a few well-meant words of this character, but slowly shook
her head and made no reply. Time only could assuage the keenness of her
sorrow. By and by she spoke, with her eyes still resting upon that pale,
dead face, where nothing but a wonderful peace and serenity were now
expressed.
"Have birds souls, do you think?" she asked, in a low, trembling voice.
"Possibly," was the reply; "but why do you ask?"
"Because," she continued, speaking very slowly, "that tiny creature and
my darling died almost at the same moment, and if so, her spirit would
have company on its way to the good God."
The unconscious poetry of the thought, so quietly expressed by the
sorrowing mother, as she sat beside the corpse with folded hands and
burning eyes, which could not find the relief of tears, was very
touching.
The motor of the big ship throbbed on, the routine of duty continued
unchanged, passengers ate, drank, and were merry, the sea-birds wheeled
about us uttering their sharp contentious cries, and we pressed forward
through the opposing wind and tide, as though nothing had happened. Only
a mother's loving heart was broken. Only a soul gone to its God. Surely
such sweet innocence must be welcome in heaven. But ah! the great
mystery of it all!
Most intelligent people will agree with us that no study known to
science can compare with astronomy for absorbing interest. At sea one
finds ample time, convenience, and incentive to study the sky, populous
with countless hosts of constellations. Especially is it interesting to
watch the numerous phases of the moon, beginning with her advent as a
delicate crescent of pale light in the eastern sky, after the sun has
set, and continuing to the period when she becomes full. Each succeeding
night it is found that she has moved farther and farther westward,
until, arriving at the full, she rises nearly at the same time that the
sun sets. From the period of full moon, the disc of light diminishes
nightly until the last quarter is reached, and the moon is then seen
high over the ship's topmast head, before day breaks in the east. Thus
she goes on waning, all the while drawing closer to the sun, until
finally she becomes absorbed in his light. The interesting process
completed, she again comes into view at twilight in the west, in her
exquisite crescent form, once more to pass through a similar series of
changes.
The superstition of sailors touching the moonlight is curious. No
foremast hand will sleep where it shines directly upon him. They are
voluble in relating many instances of comrades rendered melancholy-mad
by so doing. "They talk about the moon making the ebb and flow of the
tide," said an able seaman to the author. "There's lots of queer things
about the moon, but _that's_ d--d nonsense, saving your honor's
presence." Thus Jack eagerly absorbs superstitious ideas, and ignores
natural phenomena. No humble class of men are so intelligent in a
general way, and yet at the same time so universally superstitious, as
those who go down to the sea in ships.
In coming on to the west coast it is natural, perhaps, for the reader to
expect us to refer briefly to the late civil war in Chili, but we have
not attempted in these notes to depict the local political condition of
any of the states of South America. In the past they have most of them
shown themselves as changeable as the wind, and remarks which would
depict the status of to-day might be quite unsuited to that of
to-morrow. The average reader is sufficiently familiar with the struggle
so lately ended in Chili. One party was led by the late President
Balmaceda, in opposition to the other, known as the Congressional party.
That which brought about this open warfare was the refusal of Congress
any longer to recognize the president on account of his high-handed,
illegal, and venal official conduct. A line will illustrate the cause of
the outbreak. It was the Constitution of the country as against a
Dictatorship. The President of the Chilian Republic, like the President
of the United States, has a personal authority such as nowadays is
wielded by few constitutional monarchs. Balmaceda proved to be a tyrant
of the first water, abusing the power of his position to condemn to
death those who opposed him, without even the semblance of a trial. He
succeeded in attaching most of the regular army to his cause by profuse
promises and the free use of money, while the navy went almost bodily
over to the side of Congress. The contest assumed revolutionary
proportions, and many battles were fought. As a casual observer, the
author heartily coincided with the Congressional party, and rejoices at
their wholesale triumph.
The suicidal act which ended Balmaceda's life was no heroic resort, but
the deed of a coward fearing to face the consequences of his murderous
career. It is not the man who has been actuated by high and noble
sentiments who cuts his throat or blows out his brains. Such is the act
of the cunning fraud who realizes that he has not only totally failed in
his object, but that his true character is known to the world. Suicide
has been declared to be the final display of egoism, and it certainly
leaves the world with one less thoroughly selfish character. The
disappearance of such an individual may produce a momentary ripple on
the surface of time, but it fails to leave any permanent mark.
Nearly three hundred miles south of Santiago, capital of Chili, on the
Pacific coast, is situated the city of Concepcion. It stands on the
right bank of the river Biobio, six or seven miles from its mouth, and
contains about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The people seem to be
exceptionally active and enterprising, though at this writing suffering
from the effects of the late civil war. It is the third city in point of
size and importance in the republic, and dates from over three hundred
years ago. It will be remembered also that it once held the place now
occupied by Santiago as capital of the country. The city is built in the
valley of Mocha, under the coast range of hills, and is justly famed,
like Puebla in Mexico, for its pretty women and beautiful flowers. It is
a clean and thrifty town, with handsome shops, a charming plaza, and an
attractive alameda. This latter deserves special mention. It is a mile
long, and beautified with several rows of tall Lombardy poplars, the
sight of which carried us to another hemisphere, where those lovely
Italian plains stretch away from the environs of Milan towards the
foothills of the neighboring Alps and the more distant Apennines. Great
things are prognosticated for Concepcion in the near future by its
friends, and it is already the principal town of southern Chili. The
streets are well paved, and lined by handsome business blocks, together
with pleasant dwelling-houses, built low, to avoid the effect of
earthquakes, the universal material being sun-dried bricks, finished
externally in stucco. The facades are painted in harlequin variety of
colors, yellow, blue, and peach-blossom prevailing. The town has really
more the appearance of a northern than a southern city, and has long
been connected with Valparaiso by railway.
Some of the most extensive coal mines on this part of the continent have
been discovered in this vicinity, and are being worked on a large scale.
In fact, Coronal, not far away, is the great coaling station on the
Chilian coast for steamships bound to Europe or Panama. One would
suppose that this coal mining must be quite profitable, as we were told
that twenty-five and even thirty dollars per ton was realized for it
delivered at the nearest tide-water. The port of Concepcion is some
seven miles from the city, where the river Biobio flows into the ocean
at Talcahuano,--pronounced Tal-ca-wha'no,--a small town on Concepcion
Bay possessing an excellent harbor. There are here a large marine dock,
an arsenal, and a seaman's hospital. Close by the shore is a spacious
and convenient railway station. The bay is some six miles wide by seven
in length. There is a resident population of nearly four thousand, who
form an extremely active community. The majority of the houses are of a
very humble character and, like those of Concepcion, are built of adobe.
Spanish capitals in the West Indies and South America were originally
placed, like Concepcion, some distance from the coast, to render them
more secure against the attack of pirates and lawless sea-rovers, who
might land from their vessels, burn a town on the seashore, after
robbing it of all valuables, and easily make good their escape; whereas
to march inland and attack a town far from their base, or to proceed up
a shallow river in boats for such a purpose, was a far more difficult,
if not indeed an impossible thing to do. Thus Callao is the harbor of
Lima; Valparaiso, of Santiago; and Talcahuano, of Concepcion. The
situation of the last named capital is admirable, at the head of the
bay, which affords one of the best harbors on the west coast of the
continent. When the transcontinental railway from Buenos Ayres, on the
Atlantic side, is finished, surmounting the passes of the
Andes,--already "a foregone conclusion,"--it will have its termination
here at Talcahuano, which must then become a great shipping point for
New Zealand and Australia. Half a dozen lines of European mail steamers
already touch here regularly. The river is too shallow to admit of
vessels drawing more than a few feet of water ascending it so far as
Concepcion, but Talcahuano is all sufficient as a port.
Few places have been so frequently devastated by fire, flood, and
earthquakes, or so often ravaged by war, as has this interesting city.
In the early days the Araucanian Indians put the settlers to the sword
again and again. This was the bravest of all the native Indian tribes of
South America, and is still an unconquered people. The city was laid in
ruins so late as 1835 by an earthquake, though no special signs of this
destructive visitor are to be seen here to-day. Still, one cannot but
feel that with such possibilities hanging over the locality, there must
be few people willing to expend freely of their means for substantial
building purposes, or to make Concepcion a permanent place of abode.
Human nature adapts itself to all exigencies, however, and the place
grows rapidly, notwithstanding the discouraging circumstances which we
have named. It is not the native but the foreign element of the
population which is doing so much for this region. Were the mingled
native race to be left to themselves, there would be few signs of
progress evinced; they would rapidly lapse into a condition of
semi-barbarism. The Chilian proper is a very poor creature as regards
morals, intelligence, or true manhood; his instincts are brutal and his
aims predaceous.
Like all South American cities, Concepcion is laid out by rule and
compass, the fairly broad streets crossing each other at right angles.
There is a large and costly cathedral, but a wholesome fear of
earthquakes has caused it to be left without the usual twin towers,
which gives it an unfinished appearance. The place also contains other
churches, a well-appointed theatre, two hospitals, and several edifices
devoted to charitable purposes. Opposite the cathedral stands the
Intendencia, a large and handsome government house. Telephones and
electric lights have long been adopted, and the telegraph poles do much
abound. In these foreign places, so far away from home, to see the
streets lined, as they are with us, by big, tall poles, holding aloft a
maze of wires, is very suggestive; but where can one go that they are
not? It is curious to realize that we can step into an office close at
hand and promptly communicate with any part of the world. We may have
sailed over the ocean many thousands of miles, and have consumed months
to reach the spot where we stand, but electricity, like thought,
annihilates space, and will take our message instantly to its
destination, though it be at the farthest end of the globe. These
marvelous facilities are no longer confined to populous centres.
Electricity not only bears our messages to the uttermost parts of the
world, but it propels the tramway cars in Rome, Boston, and Munich,
while it also lights the streets of New York, Auckland in New Zealand,
as well as of London and Honolulu.
The importance of Concepcion is manifest from the fact that several new
railway connections terminating here have lately been accomplished; but
the important event already referred to, of the transcontinental
railway, will finally insure her commercial greatness. The town is
surrounded by a widespread, fertile country, abounding in both mineral
and agricultural wealth, equal to, if not surpassing, any other province
in Chili. The city was financially strong before the late civil war, and
has still some very wealthy residents. The principal bank of Concepcion,
with a capital of one million dollars, paid a dividend to its
stockholders in 1890 of sixteen per cent. on the previous year's
business. The cathedral and government house, already spoken of, front
on the plaza, a large open square ornamented with statuary, trees, and
flowers, the latter kept in most exquisite order and constant bloom by
means of a singular and original device. It seems that each separate
plot of these grounds is owned or cared for by a different family of the
citizens, and that a spirit of emulation is thus excited by the effort
of the several parties to make their special plot excel in its beauty
and fragrance. This keeps the whole plaza in a lovely condition, and
makes it the pride of the city.
Society and business circles are mostly composed of foreigners, the
German element largely predominating. The native, or humbler classes, as
we have already intimated, are a wretchedly low people. They "wake"
their dead before burial, much after the style which prevails in
Ireland, except that the process is more exaggerated in manner. Drinking
and debauchery characterize these occasions, which are continued often
for three days at a time, or so long as the means for indulgence in
excess last. In case of youthful deaths, the child's cheeks are painted
red, and the head is crowned in a fantastic manner, the body being
dressed and placed in a sitting position, thus forming a strange and
hideous sight. Such treatment of a corpse could only be tolerated by a
barbarous people. In the environs of the town, Lazarus jostles Dives.
There are here many hovels, as well as a better class of residences.
Some of them are wretchedly poor, built of mud and bamboo, the
inhabitants half-naked and wholly starved, if one may judge by their
appearance. On Saturday, which in Spanish towns and cities is called
"poor day," the streets of Concepcion are full of either assumed or real
mendicants. The Spanish race is one of chronic beggars,--they seem born
so. Scarcely less of a nuisance than the beggars are the army of
half-starved, mongrel, neglected dogs, that throng in the streets of the
city, rivaling Constantinople.
It should be mentioned that Concepcion has a good system of tramway
service, and that the cars have attached to them a class of neat,
pretty, and modest girls for conductors, who wear natty straw hats, snow
white aprons, and are supplied with a leather cash bag hung by a strap
about the neck. It seems rather incongruous that while so many evidences
of real progress abound in this city, water, the prime necessity of
life, should be peddled about the streets by the bucketful. Now is the
time to perfect a system of drainage, and to introduce an adequate
supply of good water, from easily available sources.
The inexhaustible coal fields already mentioned, which are situated but
a few miles away, must prove to be a lasting source of prosperity to
Concepcion. They are far more important and valuable, all things
considered, than a gold or silver mine near at hand would be. Indeed, it
is found in the long run that the latter kind of mineral discoveries do
not always tend to the material benefit of the community in which they
are found. The earth produces far more profitable crops than gold and
precious stones, even when considered in the most mercenary light. The
business prospects of Concepcion, as we have pointed out in detail, are
exceedingly promising. That the city is destined eventually to rival
Valparaiso seems more than probable, and yet there is another side to
this favorable aspect thus presented, which it is not wise to ignore.
True, the climate is equable and healthy, but that great drawback, the
liability to earthquakes and tidal waves, still remains, like a dark,
portending shadow. In spite of this startling possibility there is
something of a "boom" already instituted, at this writing, as to the
prices of land in and about both the port and city of Concepcion. It is
a fact that people will soon become calloused and heedless of almost any
familiar danger. Jack turns in and quickly falls to sleep, when the
watch below is called and relieves him from the deck, though the ship is
in the midst of cyclone latitudes, and while a half-gale is blowing. The
people of Torre del Grecco, at the base of the volcano, do not sleep any
less soundly to-day because Pompeii was utterly destroyed by Vesuvius
eighteen or nineteen centuries ago. The earthquake of 1835 first shook
Talcahuano nearly to pieces, and then completed its destruction by a
tidal wave which swept what remained of it into the sea.
It goes without saying that most of the fruits and staple products of
the tropics are to be found both at Concepcion and at the port of
Talcahuano. Each place we visit seems to have some specialty in this
line. Here, it is the watermelon. Favored by the soil and the climate,
this fruit is developed to its maximum in weight, richness of flavor,
and general perfection. They are sold cheap enough everywhere. A centavo
will buy a large ripe one. Street carts and donkeys are laden with them,
and so are the decks of all outgoing vessels. It is both food and drink
to the poor peons, who consume the fruit in quantities strongly
suggestive of cholera, dropsy, or some other dreadful illness. Any one
accustomed to travel in our Southern States, in the right season of the
year, will have observed how voraciously the negro population, young and
old, eat of the cheap, ripe crop of watermelons; but these South
American peons have a capacity for storage and digestion of this really
wholesome article, beyond all comparison. A child not more than ten
years of age will devour the ripe portion of a large melon in a few
minutes, and no ill effects seem to follow. An adult eats two at a meal
which would weigh, we are afraid to say how much, but they are
considerably larger than the average melons which are brought to New
England from the South. After all, the watermelon is healthful food,
though it is more filling than nourishing. It will be remembered that
the famous fasting individual, Dr. Tanner, after eating nothing for
forty days and forty nights, took for his first article of nourishment,
at the close of this time of fasting, half a watermelon, and that he
retained and digested it successfully.