ert of Atacama and subject to Santiago de Chile, thus inval- idating the earlier allotment to Almagro. These decrees were subsequently altered, however, by the Royal Warrant of Octo- ber 10, 1803, which ordered that the desert of Atacama should be separated from Chile and assigned to Peru.[1] The warrant was never carried into effect, and later administrative acts only increased the confusion which the contradictory and un- enforced decrees and warrants served if they did not create. lor example, at the close of the eighteenth century the bay of Paposo was the center of commerce on the coast of Atacama and the center of almost the whole population of the region. it was governed by a judge appointed by Chilean authorities. Likewise, in 1679, more than a century earlier, the discovery of tillable lands at Paposo (then the Bay of Nuestra Senora) led to the issuance of a grant to the discoverers by the governor and captain general of Chile.
It is clear indication of the confused state of affairs that in spite of these acts plainly pointing, in themselves, to at least a reasonable claim of ownership by Chile, the desert of Atacama, north of the twenty-seventh parallel, was never claimed by Chile in the various constitutions promulgated between the years 1822 and 1833, in each of which the phrase, the “desert of Atacama,” indicates the northern boundary of the republic. At that time the phraseology of the boundary articles was of little concern; the desert was of so little worth that it was thought an ideal boundary. Territorial rights were understood and exercised by Peru within the limits of the twenty-seventh parallel without question on the part of Chile, a point upon which there is abundant evidence, both in the treaties between these two countries and in the individual acts of the merchants and developers of the resources of the region.
Pacific Littoral Acquired by Bolivia
Such was the status of the question down to the time that Bolivia acquired a portion of the Pacific littoral lying between
- ↑ Diario Oficial de la Repfiblica de Chile, in translation from official documents published as “Narrative of the Events Which Led to the Declaration of War by Chili Against Bolivia and Peru,” London, 1879, pp. 9-10.
