shore was reserved for the government officials and garrison. The rest of the populace was supplied with water from springs in the hills back of the town, conducted in pipes and kept un- der lock and key, the daily quota being delivered to cach fam- ily. More water might be purchased from a carrier who brought it from the interior. In those days the present of abar- rel of sweet water from southern Chile or Peru was highly es- teemed.[1] Small herds of sheep and goats were pastured on the mist-fed hill pastures, otherwise all produce came from out- side: cattle from Argentina via Calama, foodstuffs by the sea highway. Gilliss describes the market as he saw it in 1851 when Cobija was credited with a population of 1500: “It was a matter of no little interest to witness the avidity of the popula- tion on landing the garden-stuff brought from Arica. Probably within ten minutes after the first boat-load of bags had been landed, all over town Indians, including soldiers, might have been seen stripping the rind from green sugar-cane… housekeepers bearing away piles of ears of maize, sweet pota- toes…an hour later the beach—which had served as the impromptu market-place—was again bare.”[2] Cobija served principally for the mines of southern Bolivia; but it was very incommodious as a port, and with the development of the desert and the establishment of Antofagasta in 1870 Cobija rapidly declined. According to the census of 1885 it had only 429 inhabitants, and that of 1907 gives no more than 35.
In the third decade of the nineteenth century began the great development of the provinces of Antofagasta and Tarapaca. Great aridity has here conserved vast resources of guano and nitrate of sodium (Chile saltpeter).[3] Used locally as fertilizers from time immemorial their value to the Euro- pean agriculturist became recognized less than a century ago.[4]
- ↑ Three Years in the Pacific, 1831-1834, by an Officer of the United States Navy, 2 vols., London, 1835; reference in Vol. 1, p. 302.
- ↑ The U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere During the Years 1849~"50="51-"32. Washington, D. C., 1855; reference in Vol. £, p. 447-
- ↑ For a summary of the problem of the nitrate and its origin see A. G. Ogilvie: Geography of the Central Andes, Map of Hispanic America Putt. No. 4, American Geographical Society, New York, 1922.
- ↑ William Bollaert: Antiquarian, Ethnological and Other Researches in New Granada, Equador, Peru and Chile, London, 1860, p. 244.
