VALPARAISO, a city of Chili, the chief town of the province of the same name, and one of the principal commercial ports on the west coast of South America, is situated on a fine bay of the South Pacific Ocean, in 33° 0' 2" S. lat. and 71° 41' 15" W. long., 70 miles north-west of Santiago, with which there is communication by a circuitous railway of 115 miles. The city lies at the south part of the bay, which is 2½ miles wide, semicircular in form, and well sheltered, except towards the north. There is good anchorage in the roadstead. There are two floating docks, capable of accommodating vessels of from 1400 to 3000 tons. The city is situated at the base of a range of barren hills, varying from 1000 to 1400 feet in height, which have a narrow strip of low land between them and the sea; on this and on sites formed by cutting away the cliffs most of the houses are built. Further space is afforded by the deep dells or watercourses between the hills. These open towards the sea, and are on both sides covered with houses. Much of the foreshore has been raised by earthquakes. The erection of an extensive embankment was begun in 1885. The older portion (Puerto) of the city, in which are the principal public and commercial buildings, is separated from the newer portion, called the Almendral, by a projecting point. The city is defended by a chain of forts, begun in 1866. The principal public buildings are the Government palace, the custom house, the large bonded Government warehouses, the hospital, the city hall, and two theatres. The educational institutions include a theological seminary, a naval academy, and a lyceum; the last-named had 415 students in 1884 and 481 in 1885. The commercial enterprise of the city is largely dependent on the foreign merchants, especially ...Englishmen, Americans, and Germans. It is the commercial capital of Chili, and the principal residence of the foreign consuls. The principal industrial establishments are the Government railway shops, a large foundry and machine shops, coach-building and wheel-wright works, and a very large sugar refinery, the raw material for which is obtained from Peru. The population (97,737 in 1875) was 95,000 in 1885, of whom about a tenth were foreigners.
The number of vessels in the foreign trade that entered the port in 1885 was 587 of 582,066 tons, the number that cleared 348 of 373,551 tons. More than half of the tonnage was British,—Chilian, German, and French following in the order named. In the coasting trade the number of vessels that entered in 1885 was 781 of 434,486 tons, the number that cleared 1050 of 640,138 tons. About nine-tenths of the tonnage was British and Chilian, the latter having a slight advantage. The following table shows the value of the import and export trade during five years, 1881 to 1885 :— [table]
The foreign trade is chiefly with Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, the value of the exports to these countries in 1885 being £1,356,583, £110,312, £262,065, and £15,424 respectively, and of the imports £1,787,310, £911,080, £900,066, and £318,629 respectively. The principal exports are metals (nitrate, bar copper, silver produce, copper and silver regulus, and gold and silver specie), wheat, barley, flour, wool, nuts, hay, beans, honey, iodine, coal, hides, and guano; and the imports include iron, steel, wire, nails, machines and tools, sugar, rice, cashmeres, prints, shawls, wines, and beer.
Valparaiso was founded in 1536 by the Spanish officer Juan de Saavedra, who named it after his birthplace near Cuenca in Spain. In 1578 the city was captured by Drake, the exact date of his appearance before it being 5th December; and it was again taken by Hawkins’s expedition in 1596. In 1600 it was sacked by the Dutch corsair, Van Noort. It was visited by severe earthquakes in 1730 and 1822, and by earthquake shocks in 1839 and 1873. It suffered from fire in November 1858; and on 31st March 1866 it was bombarded by the Spanish fleet under Admiral Nunez, when a large part of the town was laid in ruins.
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