Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the originaldocument have been preserved.
PERU IN THE GUANO AGE.
OXFORD:
BY E. PICKARD HALL AND J. H. STACY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
PERU IN THE GUANO AGE
BEING A SHORT
ACCOUNT OF A RECENT VISIT
TO THE
GUANO DEPOSITS
WITH SOME
REFLECTIONS ON THE MONEY THEY HAVE PRODUCED ANDTHE USES TO WHICH IT HAS BEEN APPLIED
BY
A. J. DUFFIELD
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1877
DEDICATORY LETTER.
Á
Señor Don Juan Espinosa y de Maldonado,
Estimado y distinguido Amigo mio:
It would be most pleasant to continue this letter inthe language in which it begins and which you taughtme some five and twenty years ago, but I wish othersto read it as well as yourself.
I dedicate this little book to you for several reasons:not because of our common friendship, extending nowover more than a quarter of a century, nor yet for theconfidence which you have reposed in me under manytrying circumstances during that long period, but ratherbecause you are much interested in the country whichthe book describes, are intimately acquainted with allthe questions it raises, and more than all because youhave a thorough knowledge of Peru—its people andhistory;—because further, it was you who first taughtme how to regard your countrymen, opened my eyes totheir good and other qualities, and because also youknow that here I have set down nought in malice,have said nothing that you do not know to be true,and drawn no inference from the facts of past times orthe doings of living men which you would not sanctionand endorse.
With one exception.
I am quite aware that you do not share in what Ihave said at page 118, but this is not my own opinion—itis the candidly expressed view of the leading menof Lima. I know that you have always insisted uponPeru paying her debts, not merely because you wellknow that she can pay quite easily, but also becausethe effect on the moral life of the country, if she shouldprove a defaulter, will be most disastrous. It is pitiablebeyond the power of human expression to find asingle thoughtful Peruvian holding a contrary opinion.
Since the following chapters were written severalthings have taken place which have corroborated someof my statements, and fulfilled more than one of mypredictions. As you are aware a public meeting washeld, a month after my departure from Lima, at theTreasurer's Office; at which were present the Minister ofFinance and Commerce, the Chief Accountant, and manyother officers of departments, for the purpose of receivinga communication from two Englishmen, setting forththe discovery of fresh guano deposits on the coast, inthe province of Tarapaca. From all that could begathered these new deposits may be fairly estimated ascontaining three million tons of guano. This confirmswhat I have said at page 101.
And