with sealed orders, and the Peruvians would be unable even to guess at what point it was directed. The Peruvians had a coast line of 1,400 miles to defend, and the peculiar formation of the country made the defence of this long line impossible. It must be borne in mind that the coast of Peru is rainless, and its fertile valleys occur at long intervals, between tracts of waterless deserts. The railways in Peru do not skirt the coast, but run from it to the interior; in the southern part of Peru the deserts cover nearly the whole of the area of the country, and are backed at distances varying from 30 to 100 miles by the Cordilleras, or outlying chain of the Andes. With the ports blockaded, it is thus impossible to move troops from one threatened point to another, in any time that would render them of avail.
It was necessary to make preparations for defence along the whole line, or, failing this, to defend the most important points. No one could tell where the attack would be made, whether on the capital and its seaport, Callao, on the Tacna region, or on the district containing the deposits of nitrates, about which the war had arisen. The general belief in government circles was that the first movement would be on Tarapaca, the most southern province, where the difficulties of a defending force would be greater than at most other points.
Accordingly great efforts were made to concentrate a force in Tarapaca before communication by sea should be cut off, and Peruvian troops arrived there during March, April, and May. The Bolivian army, 4,000 strong, reached Tacna, in Peru, on the 30th April, under command of the President of Bolivia, and about three weeks later the Peruvian President, as commander-in-chief of the military forces, arrived in Arica, the port of Tacna, to organize the army of Tarapaca. There was a total of 9,000 men altogether, but the cavalry was badly mounted, and the artillery (16 guns) was of the old-fashioned kind, and
