In August 1879, the Chilean consul in Panama again protested the departure of the Limeña with torpedos for Peru. Chilean spies worked for the Panama railroad. It was almost impossible to secretly ship arms, because the Chileans knew when they would arrive on the other side of the isthmus.
By August, there were three groups of torpedo men from the U.S. in Peru: the Lay, the U.S. Torpedo Co., and the Herreshoff men. A "rowdy, hard-drinking lot", they drew their pay in gold, and consorted with ladies at the Callao waterfront.
On the 15th, the Chileans detained an armored torpedo boat leaving Pisagua for Iquique with four crew members under orders of Peru. The Chileans arrested them and placed them on board an armored ship the same day. The crew included William Alfred Scott, 41, the British commander of the vessel who had contracted the other members, Abraham Johnson of Jamaica, Cosem Espiro, 31, a Greek,and John Shertzer. a U.S. engineer. Before they were arrested, they threw overboard two booms 15 feet in length, each one with a torpedo full of dynamite. The government of Peru was paying them ten soles daily with the promise of paying them 10,000 soles for each armored Chilean ship that they sunk with their torpedos, through Casa Grace. They had made four large torpedos, capable of holding 200 pounds of dynamite, as well has two 90 pounds ones and four smaller ones of four pounds. They were also to earn 5000 soles for any wood boats they were able to sink. Their contract was time-limited, and extended two months from the time they left Callao. (Lopez, 1930, pg. 307, 308)
On the 20th, Charles W. Read, an ex-confederate recruited by Charles Flint, sailed for Peru. During the Civil War, Read commanded a Confederate torpedo squadron on the Mississippi River. Read brought with him an engineer, John H. Smith. After previously testing torpedos in Narragansett Bay, they followed the munitions down and across the isthmus and to Peru. The Peruvian Navy commissioned Read as a commander and offered him a substantial amount of prize money if they sunk the principal Chilean war ships.
A dispute arose amongst the Peruvian officers, when they heard that a prize would be awarded to Read for sinking the Chilean ships. The naval commandant at Callao told Read that no prize money would be forthcoming, so Read headed back to the United States. W. R. Grace was disgusted with this handling of affairs and felt the torpedo men had made a poor use of the weapons.
Resources
Lopez, Jacinto. 1930. Historia de la Guerra del Guano y el Salitre o Guerra del Pacifico entre Chile, Bolivia y El Peru. New York: De Laisne & Rossboro.
The Torpedo Men
A New Yorker's View of the War
In the July 21, 1879 New York Times, Jacob Wrey Mould, a prominent New York architect, expressed his opinion of the war. Jacob Wrey Mould was born in England but now lived in New York. He worked with Frederick Law Olmstead in designing many of the edifices in New York's Central Park. In Lima Peru, Mould was building a mansion of freestone and Philadelphia brick for Mr. E.C. Dubois, subcontractor of Henry Meiggs and brother-in-law of Auguste Dreyfus, the Paris banker. Mr. Mould recently returned from South America and provided New Yorkers with his own assessment of the situation there.
In Mould's opinion, the Peruvian soldiers were brave, amenable to discipline and good workers, but the Peruvian officers were notoriously incapable and corrupt, fit only to wage a war of words and profit without exposing themselves to danger. Mr. Mould reportedly called the murdered Pardo "an egotist as well as a knave", that corruption pervaded all sectors of the government. He explained that the Roman Catholic party controlled two-thirds of the wealth and supported Nicolás de Piérola. Viewed by some as reactionary and nonprogressive, Piérola was, in his opinion, the most liberal and progressive statesman in Peru, a believer in popular education, native industries and internal improvements and a strong supporter of foreign investment and the development of natural resources.
Munitions Shipments Across Panama
The railroad across the Isthmus of Panama served a strategic purpose for the acquisition of arms for Peru. While Chile shipped their weapons from Europe around the cape, Chile tried to prevent the traffic of arms across the isthmus. Also, apparently Panama was also in a state of siege. Policies in place required that agents of the Panama Railroad Company report any arms being shipped. Since a permit was required from the government, the Chilean consul could learn of any impending shipments. (New York Times, September 20, 1879)
On May 9, 1879 the Chilean consul in Panama claimed that the steamship the Acapulco arriving that day from New York carried 3,000 rifles and 100 boxes of munitions bought in the United States and directed to the Consul of Bolivia. In addition, he claimed that the steamship Para brought 150 boxes of arms and munitions consigned to the consul of Peru. The Secretary of the government of Panama insisted that he was misinformed.
On May 19th, the Chilean consul in Panama denounced the arrival of arms and munitions for Peru on the Crescent City from New York. He learned this from a cable from the Chilean minister in Paris. The consul asked the government of Panama for the shipping manifest of the steamships to see what quantity of arms had been brought.
On June 2nd, Panama, after consultation with Colombia, resolved to have no limitation on any type of traffic or merchandise across the isthmus, since there was no customs at either end of the isthmus, and held the establishment of such to be inconvenient and ineffective. Henry Ehrman, a banker, handled the transfer of munitions across the isthmus.
On June 25th, the Panama consul to Lima, Consul Marquez, reported that three torpedos of the Casa Grace were in Panama (Lopez, 1930, pg. 298). On June 26, Panama apparently reversed its earlier decision and issued a prohibition for the use of the ports to transport cannons, arms, and munitions to other than neutral ports. There is some indication that a possible revolution in Panama occurred on July 7th, and by the 29th, Panama again agreed to permit the transport of arms without obstacle.
On July 13th a Mr. Fisher wrote to Secretary Evarts regarding the stated neutrality of the United States in the Chile and Peru-Bolivian war. He reported large boxes on the train cars in Panama that from their shape and size attracted the attention of General Edward McCook, his fellow passenger on the Acapulco. They were eight foot square and high, one on each platform car and five in all marked the same Cargadora de Huano, Callao. A torpedo shipped from the United State to Peru had already been seized by request of the Chilean consulate at Panama, so other shipments of a similar nature were expected.
Fisher also met Lieutenant Eden R.N. on his way to Callao to join the H.B.M. ship Triumph. Eden told him that the Captain of the Lima had refused to receive on board five boxes marked as above, because he had heard they contained a torpedo boat for the Peruvian Navy. Fisher suggested that the United States consul at Aspinwall be instructed to examine suspicious looking packages.
A report to the New York Times dated September 11 (Panama) indicated that the shipping of munitions across the isthmus continued. Barrels marked "Breakfast Bacon" and destined for Chile contained contraband of war. Containers of lard heading for Peru carried cases of cartridges. Shippers marked containers full of Remington rifles "agricultural equipment". Torpedos masqueraded as "derrick material" or "guano shoots". Innovative agents labelled boxes of cartridges as "Mrs. Winslow's Soothing syrup". The report raised the concern that such shipments endangered the lives of workers and passengers on both the ships and railroads transporting the goods. (New York Times, September 20, 1879)
Resources
Lopez, Jacinto. 1930. Historia de la Guerra del Guano y el Salitre o Guerra del Pacifico entre Chile, Bolivia y El Peru. New York: De Laisne & Rossboro.
Coastal Bombardments in April 1879
On April 15th, 1879, the Chilean ships cruised the coast of Peru, destroying the equipment for loading guano and ballast (Lopez, pg. 130) First, they destroyed the bridges with cannon shots and then they destroyed the mining structures themselves, setting the wood on fire. On April 18th the Chileans bombarded Pisagua with incendiaries. In the resulting fire, five women and four children died. Two children were wounded.
Resources
Lopez, Jacinto. 1930. Historia de la Guerra del Guano y el Salitre o Guerra del Pacifico entre Chile, Bolivia y El Peru. New York: De Laisne & Rossboro.
W.R. Grace Seeks Torpedo Experts
W.R. Grace contacted a Civil War veteran, Captain Griffin. The Captain agreed to sink the Almirante Cochrane or the Blanco Encalada for one million dollars. With Griffin not willing to lower his price, Grace said he would contact men of the Navy or on the Confederate side. He suggested that his brother in Peru, Michael Grace, contact American torpedo men there and also William H. Cilley. Cilley had been the superintendent of the Oroya railroad, and was still in Peru trying to salvage the Henry Meigg's fortunes. On June 21, 1879 William Alfred Scott of England and John Shertzer, both long time residents of Peru, were engaged to build floating torpedos in Iquique.
Arms Shipments Under U.S. Neutrality
The World Book of 1952 said that "no important problems in foreign relations arose" during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. He and his Secretary of State, William Evarts, are said to have maintained an outwardly neutral stance toward the war. Some said that the Europeans welcomed the war, as they had endured a long period without seeing any return on their capital nor interest in their debt. Their interests were more aligned with Chile, also a debtor, but not to the extent that Peru had reached.
After the Civil War, American military forces were downsized and ex-military officers looked for new opportunities. Peru sought foreign expertise and munitions developed during that war. A young Union naval engineer named John Louis Lay made what is known as a spar torpedo, an explosive charge on the end of a pole twenty or thirty feet long. After the war, Lay became a torpedo manufacturer and developed a new torpedo that could be sent against a target a mile away. The United States Torpedo Co. manufactured a somewhat similar instrument.
For use with these torpedos, Navy officers preferred a small boat made by the shipbuilding firm of Herreshoff of Bristol, Rhode Island. Grace took a ride on one in Long Island Sound. He decided that the only thing to save Peru was torpedo launches, and bought it for $18,500, billing the craft to the Compañía Cargadora del Perú, guano dealers of Callao.
The boat was 50 foot in length. It was difficult to disguise, so delivery to Peru was problematic. It is implied that the purchase of two steamers by the Peruvian government from the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. was required to effect the delivery of this boat and five others. Herreshoff boats were shipped in sections as "carriages" all ready to bolt and put back together. The first launch arrived in Peru in August of 1879.
Grace, acting as an agent of Peru, sent several torpedos and torpedo boats to Peru along with experts from the two companies. W.W. Rowley of the Lay Company went down to direct the proposed plan, traveling under the name of H. J. Patchen.
Meanwhile, Charles Flint wrapped torpedos in oil cloth and sent a thousand rifles masquerading as agricultural equipment to Peru. Flint decided that by shipping through Colombia, they could avoid having to cross Panama, where there was likelihood that the munitions would fall into the hands of the Chileans. Ten dirigible torpedos from Pratt and Whitney were slipped into the center of ten cases of oil-cloth.
Flint determined that oilcloth shipped by itself weighed about the same as two layers of oilcloth with a torpedo inside. "Peru did a surprisingly large business in oilcloth during those days" Cartridges surrounded by lard were sent in lard barrels. (Flint, 1923)
Resources
Flint, Charles R. 1923. Memories of an active life: men and ships and sealing wax. Putnam. 349 pp.
Chile's Military Strategy
Chile's plan was simple. The squadron would sail to Callao, where they would destroy the Peruvian ships. The army would capture Antofagasta, disembarking at Tarapacá. Having destroyed the Peruvian fleet, Chile would block the port at Callao, and occupy Tarapacá. By so doing, they would control the coast of Peru and all trade. This would force Peru to sign a peace treaty with terms favorable to Chile. The Chilean fleet planned to head to Callao under secrecy, placing itself in position to strike at the same time the cable arrived with the declaration of war.
On April 2nd, 1879, the Chilean congress authorized war and on April 5th the declaration of war was made, giving the Chilean squadron the time to reach Callao. However, the Chilean plan did not come to fruition as planned.
Instead, Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo, commander of the Chilean fleet, decided to blockade Iquique and began bombardments on undefended ports along the coast of Peru. Thus, his fleet remained at the port of Iquique from April 5 to August 5 of 1879. Reportedly, his plan was to induce the Peruvian ships to leave the protection of the docks in Callao, so that they could be engaged at sea.
Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo
Painting by Manuel Antonio Caro (1835-1903)
Source -- Wikipedia
Military Readiness of Peru and Chile
Throughout the developing conflict, many outside observers expressed opinions on the war preparations of both Peru and Chile. In general, observers felt that Peru was ill-prepared for war. It had suffered from years of political instability, and lacked a well-organized military force with a sufficient number of trained officers and modern equipment. A cultural divide between the highland cultures and the more international atmosphere of Lima added to the lack of unity of purpose.
Both countries recognized the importance of naval power, as both countries possessed long expanses of coastline with cities vulnerable to bombardment. Adding to this, coastal deserts created barriers to travel, and Peru needed better internal transportation both for commerce and defense.
Both countries began a build-up of arms. Ship builders and weapons manufacturers in both Europe and the hemisphere channeled war materials to both countries. Peru acquired the Independencia and the Huascar. They purchased monitors left idle at the close of the U.S. civil war, christened the Atahualpa and the Manco Capac. Peruvian naval officers received orders to inspect the warships in Callao. They found it necessary to put them in dry dock to examine and repair them. Piérola was allowed to return to Peru.
The historian Paz Soldan said that the Peruvian sailors lacked instruction and discipline, and failed to diligently pursue practice exercises, either through the lack of attention of commanders or the state of reparations in which they found themselves. Peru needed to recruit new crew members, because a major part of the navy seaman had been Chileans, so recently dismissed from service.
In Peru, recruits were not forthcoming. To fortify the armies, police drafted working class men. In March of 1879, the Peruvian military resorted to recruiting citizens by force and paying strong recruitment premiums to foreigners, such as Americans, Irish, Italians, and Ecuadorians. (Lopez, 1930, pg. 118)
Spenser St. John, British minister at Lima, saw in the ruling class only "ignorance or frivolity...on all sides, incapacity appears to be in possession of every important post...Peru appears struck as with paralysis: the people themselves seem as indifferent to the future as the governing classes." (Kiernan, V.G., 1955, pg. 19)
Chileans were "ethnically and culturally more unifed" than the Peruvians, and enjoyed a more stable government over the years. (Dobyns, 1976, p. 196) Their army and navy had modern equipment, including two new recently-purchased armored ships, the Almirante Cochrane and the Blanco Encalada.
Resources
Dobyns, Henry F. And Paul L. Doughty. 1976. Peru: a cultural history. New York, Oxford University. 336 pp.
Kiernan, V.G. 1955. “Foreign Interests in the War of the Pacific” IN the Hispanic American Historical Review.
Lopez, Jacinto. 1930. Historia de la Guerra del Guano y el Salitre o Guerra del Pacifico entre Chile, Bolivia y El Peru. New York: De Laisne & Rossboro.
Bolivia Declares War
On March 1, 1879, Bolivia declared war on Chile, ordered the expulsion of all Chileans and placed an embargo on their property. This was telegraphed around the world with the purpose of reducing Chile's access to arms, boats and military weapons. Because of treaty obligations, Peru aligned with Bolivia, but requested mediation.
A Brooklyn newspaper article cites a circular sent to diplomats abroad by Señor Balmaceda, then Chilean Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The article claims that immediately after the declaration of war, 16,000 Chileans were expelled from Peru and Bolivia in such haste that they had no way to return to Chile, that they took refuge in British ships and launches, and their property was seized and confiscated. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 30,1882 p. 2)
An apparent Peruvian, but anonymous, source (1882) wrote in this regard, roughly translated, that the only act of hostility employed by Peru was limited to the expulsion of Chilean day laborers, whose numbers had reached 16,000 in Taracapá (sic) and 30,000 in the rest of Peru, and were a constant menace even in times of peace. The source goes on to say that Peru, in her generosity, offered passage for hundreds of these day laborers, which only helped to serve Chilean plans by providing additional recruits for their military forces.
Resources
Anonymous, 1882. Passage from “Historia diplomatica de la Guerra del Pacifico.” IN Nueva revista de Buenos Aires. Edited by Vicente Gregorio Quesada and Ernesto Quesada. Year 2, Volume 4. pg 180-181. Link: Nueva revista de Buenos Aires By Vicente Gregorio Quesada, Ernesto Quesada
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Author's Note:
I have received a comment that the statement that Peru or Bolivia might have taken steps to expel 16,000 Chileans might not be true. I have since been able to locate an apparent Peruvian source that in part corroborates the expulsion. I have edited the article to more clearly reflect the possible bias of each presentation.
My Dear Reader: What This Blog is About
OK, so I have been found by friends and acquaintances who have watched and sometimes helped me struggle over this research for the past five years. The blog began as a personal challenge to research the story behind a poignant letter written in 1881 from the mountains in Peru to a young girl in America.
Some of you know that I have been trying to put this story into book form, and several have been anxious to read what I have discovered. However, I find it difficult to find all the parts of the story to make it suitable for a book.
The biggest help that I have received has been from friends recently met through this research. These friends are scattered across the globe. They include, but are not limited to, a French archivist, an American archeologist, a roller coaster historian, a Peruvian naval officer, and descendants of the protagonists in the story. I have also received help from the many Chilean, Peruvian, and Bolivian scholars still grappling with the scars of the War of the Pacific.
With so many parts of the story missing, I considered making this into a fiction story, but realize that this is not the legacy I wish to leave. This would make a good movie. I've played with picking out the actors. I think Colin Ferrell with those dark eyebrows and boyish charm would be just right to play Paul Boyton, but am still struggling with who should play George Kiefer...George Clooney came to mind (he has a sort of distant and enigmatic aura) but he seems a bit old for the part. Of course, feeling like I ought to be loyal to Brad Pitt, I've considered him for the Paul Boyton part, but Colin really seems better to me.
Anyway, I realized I was saddled with trying to make this book closely document the events that inexorably drew two Americans into the tragic story of the War of the Pacific. And beyond that, realized that you, my dear reader, may hold the parts of the story missing in your hands. So, this shall be my attempt to provide an interactive way in which this story and its many mysteries can be brought to light. I know that there are many documents, diaries, old letters, and artifacts sitting in dusty attics or housed in old shoeboxes whose significance remains undiscovered. And there are archives of personal and business papers scattered across the U.S. and Latin America that would shed light on these events. I invite you to participate.
Struggle for Control of the Nitrate Fields
Political unrest continued in Peru. In October of 1878, rumors again surfaced of a Pierolist revolutionary plot in Arequipa, but the leaders were arrested. On November 16 Manuel Pardo, now the ex-president, was assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker. The wife of Nicolás de Piérola was arrested on the same day that Don Manuel Pardo was assassinated, but was released for lack of evidence
In November of 1878 Chile’s President Anibal Pinto Garmendia protested a tax increase on the mining and export of nitrates by the Chilean mining companies in Bolivia. The Chilean manager at Antofagasta refused to pay the tax. He was arrested and the Chilean Nitrate Company fell into the hands of the Bolivians. W. R. Grace wrote to President Pardo, promising to work towards mediating the quarrel between Peru and Chile.
In an effort to monopolize the nitrate industry, a corporation was formed known as the Nitrate Company. In 1879, William Grace secured the rights to be the sole agency of this firm for shipping Peruvian nitrate of soda for four years, with distribution in Europe by the Baring Brothers and in the United States by W. R. Grace & Co. The Grace house stood to clear more than $1 million during the life of the four-year contract. This was detrimental to the nitrate producers and merchants of Chile, and Charles Flint claims that this was a factor that led up to the War of the Pacific. (Flint, 1923)
On February 14th, 1879, Chileans landed troops on Bolivian soil at Antofagasta to take possession of the nitrate grounds, in response to confiscation of the English-owned Chilean Nitrate Company there. When mediation failed, Grace helped in the search for some means to make a quick and crippling blow to the Chilean navy.
Charles Flint was serving as Consul for Chile in New York, entrusted with the conduct of the Chilean Legation, while at the same time his firm was the financial agent for Peru. After receiving cables from Peru to ship munitions to Callao, he resigned as Chilean Consul. The Baring Brothers helped Grace secure Krupp and Armstrong guns for use by Peru against Chile.
Resources:
Flint, Charles R. 1923. Memories of an active life: men and ships and sealing wax. Putnam. 349 pp
Boyton Promotes His Life Saving Suit
The Dec. 11, 1878 Baltimore Daily News reported that Paul Boyton was sailing to New York from Queenstown [Maryland?]. It reported that Paul recently took refuge in Belgium to avoid legal entanglements. A young girl was allegedly wounded in one of his torpedo experiments. Her guardian sued Paul and won a judgment of 500 francs and 1,000 francs cost. Boyton challenged the young girl's counsel to "coffee and pistols for two." When the authorities heard of this threat, Paul quickly departed for Belgium.
By December 28th,1878 Paul Boyton was back in New York, showing off his medals, one presented to him by the late Queen Mercedes [of Spain?]. Prominent citizens entertained him. He must have vividly recalled his youth, when he immediately threw himself into promoting a voluntary life saving corps, then manned by young Nan the Newsboy and two of his companions. Boyton went on a fund raising campaign to put together ongoing support and an organization to assist the work of these boys on the waterfront.
The Baltimore Daily News (January 15, 1879) reported that Boyton swam to Hunter's Point from the Battery and towed back a boat , fulfilling a promise to the members of the Amateur Life Saving Association. The boat was presented to him at New Rochelle , and not forwarded to him in New York. At his waist he carried a knife. He took with him a bottle of French brandy. With a small American flag attached to his right foot, he seized his paddle and commenced his voyage. Mr. E. B. Woodward, Captain C. B. Dix, "Nan the Newsboy," and two reporters followed him in a row boat. The crossing took three hours in the icy water.
On January 25 Paul made a midnight journey to Stapleton on Staten Island accompanied by James Creelman of the New York Herald, who was also in a rubber suit. (At that time the Herald was probably the most profitable and powerful of all the newspapers in the world and was very news oriented)
On an invitation from a member of Congress, Paul visited Washington, where President Hayes and his Cabinent received him with high praise for his daring acts to promote the public interest in life saving. On February 1st, 1879, at the request of the President, he gave an exhibition in the naval yard for members of the Senate and House of Representatives. A few days later, he travelled to Pittsburgh to visit with old friends.
On February 6, accompanied by newspapermen, he started a float down the Allegheny from Oil City. On February 24th, he was at the Point, the junction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny. The March 28 New York Times reported that 100,000 people lined the shores at Pittsburgh and cannons boomed when he made his departure down the river.
Captain Boyton received an invitation to visit a friend in St. Louis. Ice still floated down the Mississippi and the temperature was below zero when he decided to float from Alton to St. Louis, about twenty-five miles. A boat containing newspaper reporters was to accompany him, but finding the weather too cold, they abandoned him after a few miles. At his arrival in St. Louis, the deafening noise made by the steamers and tug boats as they passed the bridge was heard far beyond the city limits. In St. Louis, he gave a lecture for the benefit of St. Luke's Hospital. General Sherman presented him with a massive silver service. (Boyton, 1892)
From St. Louis he continued on to New Orleans, arriving there on April 27th badly tanned and exhausted. He was welcomed by large crowds that gathered along the river banks. In the New York Times (May 8) an editorial speculated on Paul's motive for all these river trips. Reportedly a bill in the Senate would require that all American sailing and steam vessels be equipped with the Boyton suit. The bill would require from one to five on sailing ships based on tonnage and seven on steamers.
On May 15th he possibly sailed to Baltimore from New York?
On July 6 Boyton went to discuss the Volunteer Life Saving Corps with the young boys, Nan the newsboy and his friends. With him were George Kiefer and James Creelman. Paul met with Gilbert Long at the Volunteer Life Saving station and later met up with Nan the Newsboy in the street. George Kiefer and James Creelman heard the conversation. Nan complained about the payment for his services and Paul said for him to stick by the station, but if nothing turned up, he would take him in his employ. However, Paul was discouraged by the stories that Nan was spreading to the papers about him. (New York Times, July 16, 1879)
On July 16, 1879, Captain Paul Boyton returned to New York from Portland, Connecticut. The following day, at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the New York Volunteer Life-Saving Society, Nan the Newsboy resigned, claiming that promises made to the young men had not been kept. The committee accepted their resignation.
Nan charged that Captain Boyton only desired to use the Society to advertise himself. Paul's efforts had not made their work better, and they were not better for his acquaintance. Captain Boyton responded that he would never "try to ride into notoriety on the backs of boys." Nan accused Paul of using them as a send off for his swim down the Narrows. He explained that Boyton promised more than he delivered, such as saying he would lecture for them.
On October 7th Boyton started down the Merrimac from Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Resources:
Boyton, Paul. 1892. The story of Paul Boyton: voyages on all the great rivers of the world, paddling over twenty-five thousand miles in a rubber dress. Milwaukee: Riverside. 358 pp.
The 1878 Paris Exposition
In August of 1878 dignitaries from all over the world flocked to the Paris Exposition.Visitors numbered in the millions. On the River Seine, near the exhibition grounds, Paul Boyton entertained on his steam yacht, the Paul Boyton. Paul acquired, or possibly rented, the yacht in anticipation of a trip to India, China, and Japan. Paul was now 30, still an eligible bachelor. He took his distinguished visitors on pleasant excursions up and down the Seine.
Quiet and self-possessed, he impressed visitors with his stalwart demeanor. Paul invited the press to a champagne breakfast. Crowds converged on the shore to watch his demonstrations of the Merriman suit. In two minutes he was suited up and heading to the edge of the boat. He looked like an Arctic explorer with the two-sided paddle on his shoulder. He inflated only the head of the suit before slipping into the water. Once in the water, he completed inflating the suit using tubes to inflate the air pockets on his chest and legs.
Once in the water, he showed the crowd his little boat, from which he produced a bottle of wine and wine glass. He set off carrier pigeons and then built a raft from floating planks. He set up a table, lit a fire, caught a fish, cleaned and scaled it, cooked it and ate it. Floating half upright in the water, he served himself some wine. He then smoked a cigar, and with the tip of the cigar lit a few rockets and sent them skyward.
An important visitor to the yacht was the leader of the attempted revolution in Peru, Nicolás de Piérola, now 39 and in exile. He and Paul spent considerable time talking in private. They shared a common interest in torpedos and they sailed to isolated places on the river to engage in experimentation. Before they separated Piérola assured Paul that if he ever regained his position in Peru, he would remember their times aboard the Paul Boyton and their torpedo experiments.
Resources:
Boyton, Paul. 1892. The story of Paul Boyton: voyages on all the great rivers of the world, paddling over twenty-five thousand miles in a rubber dress. Milwaukee: Riverside. 1892 358 pp.
New York Times, 9/23/1878.
Nicolás de Piérola's Attempts at Revolution
In 1874 Nicolás de Piérola, no longer a member of the government, raised 1,000 men and attempted a revolution. He took command of the Talisman, a small steam-powered transport, purchased, armed and equipped in Great Britain by Guillermo Bogardus. The Talisman was captured by the Peruvian ironclad Hussead. Piérola took possession of the railroad, occupying the town of Moquegua. This was retaken by government forces and Piérola retreated to Torata.
With the intention of capturing Piérola, President Pardo went south on November 20 to Arequipa. He took command of the Army with 3,000 men in the field. Montoneros attacked the Oroya railroad, damaging the track and the telegraph. They attacked the Lima and Callao railroad, tore up the track, but failed to capture the train itself. Lima and Callao were under the watchful eye of volunteers, chiefly foreigners. The Peruvian press blamed the Chilean government for the action of the Talisman, saying that Chile provided her with the coal and provisions.
By December 6, Piérola's men ran short of provisions and deserted in large numbers. In Callao a party of twenty men, allegedly ex-army and navy officers, attempted to storm the building where other ex-army officers (bitter enemies of Pardo) were held prisoner. However the attackers captured neither the town nor the forts and armaments.
By December 11, the town of Torata was captured. In January Piérola reconstituted his men and they made an attempt to capture Arequipa.
The New York Times, August 11, 1875 reported that on the fourth of July, Arevalo, one of Piérola's officers during the Talisman expedition, headed an attack against the town of Islay. They robbed the custom-house, informed the populace that Piérola was in Arequipa. They then marched to Mollendo and captured the town. He and his troops then boarded the train to Arequipa. Reportedly Piérola was not there, but in Chile. When Arevalo arrived, a small force was waiting for them. They routed the revolutionaries, wounded Arevalo and took him captive. He soon died of his wounds.
Mariano Ignacio Prado was elected President in 1876. Prado was reported to be a fine-looking courteous man in his early 40’s, tall, well-built, with black hair and whiskers, with a kindly expression. He continued to embrace the railroads as the “mission of civilization” (Clayton, 1999)
Piérola and his followers invaded Peru from Chile and attempted to take back the government by revolutionary methods. In late 1876 October or November, Piérola was still at battle in the mountains.
In May of 1877, Piérola’s men seized the ironclad turret ship, the Huascar, in the harbor of Callao. The Huascar, built in 1864 and 15 years old, was an armor-plated monitor 200 feet in length, weighing 1130 tons with 300 horsepower. It carried two Armstrong cannons in a rotating tower. The tower was of iron, 30 feet in diameter and 5 inches thick. Piérola joined her at her next port of call.
Apparently the British merchants in Lima asked that the British navy go after the Huascar, because it was allegedly stopping the royal mail steamers and taking possession of the coal. However this fact was in dispute, as it is claimed that the coal was fairly purchased in a port that was under control of the rebels.
Confronting the Huascar, the British demanded that Piérola and his men haul down the Peruvian flag and surrender. Piérola told the British officer that the Huascar was a national man-of-war and the emblem would not be taken down while there was gun on board to defend it. The English fired on the ship, destroying the rigging, the boats and the steering gear. A three-hour battle followed. The Huascar limped toward shore, asking the Captain of the Port for ammunition. This was refused, so the Huascar continued to Iquique where Piérola surrendered his vessel to the Independencia.
The government released the Huascar "rebels" in early July, 1877.
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence A. 1999. Peru and the United States: the Condor and the Eagle. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 1999.
New York Times. Dec 15. 1874. p. 2
Manuel Pardo, President of Peru
Borrowing from the future, residents of the coastal region of Peru enjoyed a heady period of boom, even as they courted disaster. The foreign debt soon gobbled up all revenues from guano exports. Anxious to obtain income from nitrate beds in Tarapaca, Peru found it could not secure a good price in Europe without an arrangement with Bolivia.
In 1871, attempts were made in London to damage Peru's credit abroad. Detractors emphasized the decrease and potential disappearance of guano as an export commodity. Elections approached and Manuel Pardo was one of the candidates. Born in 1834, Pardo was a self-made millioonaire, a founder of the 1862 Banco del Peru and one of the major native guano merchants. (Gootenberg, 1993, p. 71)
On the 22nd of July, 1872, Colonel Tomas Gutierrez with his brothers, also military officers, staged a coup to prevent Manuel Pardo, the newly-elected President, from taking office. Then-president Balta was taken prisoner and subsequently assassinated in retribution for the death of one of the brothers (Williams, 1938, p. 591) The revolutionaries were captured, hung and buried in the public square and Mr. Pardo came to power. In his administrative period (he was president from 1872 to 1876), he had difficulties with Dreyfus and raised funds with the Societe General in Paris and with Raphael Raphael and Co. of London.
In 1873, he negotiated a secret treaty of alliance with Bolivia (Williams, 1938, p. 574). Peru passed laws limiting the nitrate production and established a monopoly. Henry Meiggs, who at that time had a great deal of influence in the country, sought to obtain control of certain mines previously promised to him by President Pardo.
In 1878 he was assassinated.
Resources
Gootenberg, Paul. 1993. Imagining development: economic ideas in Peru's "fictitious prosperity" of guano, 1840-1880. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California. 243 pp.
Williams, Mary Wilhelmine. 1938. The people and politics of Latin America. Boston: Ginn. 889 pp.
The Dreyfus Contract
During this period, Piérola negotiated with the Dreyfus Company of France, a dominant guano trader. Mssrs Dreyfus and Co., headed by Auguste Dreyfus, advanced loans based on the extent of the guano deposits offshore. The Dreyfus Company's ambitions overshadowed those of other bondholders and its influence extended into the highest levels of the French aristocracy. On the 17th of August 1869, the Dreyfus contract was signed, but it wasn't until the 11 of November of 1870 that the contract was approved by Congress. This contract effectively shut out access to the guano trade formerly enjoyed by Peruvian merchants.
The money from the contract was to be used for the construction of railroads. Having not enough money to pay the contractors the government began to ask for advances from Dreyfus, securing these advances with the anticipated receipts from the guano trade. New docks were built on the coasts, as well as grand avenues and bridges in Lima. Dreyfus loaned 60 million soles. (Dobyns, 1976, p. 192) The loan from the Dreyfus Company gave them virtual monopoly of all guano exported until two million tons had been exported (Williams, 1938, p. 591)
Resources
Dobyns, Henry F. And Paul L. Doughty. 1976. Peru: a cultural history. New York, Oxford University. 336 pp.
Williams, Mary Wilhelmine. 1938. The people and politics of Latin America. Boston: Ginn. 889 pp.
Cerro de Pasco Mines
Henry Meiggs viewed the completion of the Oroya Railroad and the future of the Cerro de Pasco mines as strongly interconnected. The Cerro de Pasco mines were located high in the Andes and the railroad would provide the means to transport the minerals (such as silver, gold, copper or zinc) down to Lima and even the port of Callao.
Meiggs proposed completion of the railway to Cerro de Pasco, using his own funds. In exchange he sought a grant to all the mineral lands in the area not currently exploited. An agreement was reached with the government on February 3, 1877.
Meiggs assigned William H. Cilley, formerly in charge of railway construction for the Oroya line, to begin the development of the mines. Work on both the railroad and the mines came to a standstill on the outbreak of war between Chile and Peru.
Resources:
Stewart, Watt. 1946. Henry Meiggs: Yankee Pizarro. Durham, N.C.: Duke University. 370 pp.
Charles R. Flint
Charles R. Flint was born in Maine, and was early drawn to the sea by his father Benjamin Flint Chapman, a partner in a shipbuilding company. He eventually moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York where, after attending school, he sought work.
As secretary for Jose Antonio Garcia y Garcia, the Minister of Peru to the United States, he helped buy and fit out three transports and two monitors (later christened the Atahualpa and the Manco Capac) (Flint, 1923) Captain Gilchrest escorted the monitors on their trip from New York to Peru in the steamship, the Maranon, arriving after many long sea miles at Callao in the fall of 1869. (Clayton, 1985)
Charles soon met and joined the firm of W.R. Grace, making two long trips to South America in 1874 and 1876. Assessing the value of various trade goods such as lard, canned goods, crackers, brooms, tobacco and nails, he identified Great Britain as a principal competitor. Charles grew to have a 25% interest in the W.R. Grace Company. This was later increased to 35%.
By 1879 he was serving as the Chilean consul in New York, still a partner in W.R. Grace and Co. (Flint, 1923) So when war came, he found himself on both sides of the war.
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence. 1985. Grace: W.R. Grace & Co. The formative years 1850-1930. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson. 403 pp.
Flint, Charles R. 1923. Memories of an active life: men and ships and sealing wax. Putnam. 349 pp.
Casa Grace in Peru
Another company with strong ties to the United States had a vested interest in the growing conflict between Bolivia, Peru, and Chile.The Grace Company was one of Meigg's chief sources for supplies for building the railroads. In the late 1800s, the Grace Company built a wide ranging trade with Peru, in paper, chemicals, and mining and dealt in consumer goods as kerosene, furniture, lumber, lard, fish, canned goods, crackers, textiles, billiard tables, and Singer sewing machines.
At 19 years old, William Russell Grace arrived in Peru in 1851 on the Louisa with his father and 180 other passengers. Seeking relief from the Irish potato famine, many of them had been brought from Ireland to be laborers on a sugar plantation. Soon after arrival, W.R. Grace found work as a clerk for John Bryce, a merchant in Callao.
Grace built a profitable business supplying goods to the guano fleet anchored off the Chincha Islands, 100 miles south of Callao. He stocked an old barge and lived aboard the vessel, thus providing the guano miners convenient access to needed items. In 1859, he married the daughter of Captain George Gilchrest.
Grace left Peru in 1860, settling in New York in 1865, where he later served two terms as Mayor of New York. He maintained his business interests in the western coast of South America. By then he had formed a partnership with Bryce called Bryce, Grace and Company. The company made transportation arrangements and secured ships, mainly between Peru and Europe.
The partnership between the families Bryce and Grace ended in 1876, to be replaced in Peru with the Grace Brothers Company, or Casa Grace. Michael Grace, his brother, handled company affairs in Peru, along with other agents, Charles R. Flint and W.R. Graces's nephew, Ned Eyre. W.R. Grace expanded his company's business into the ownership of Peruvian sugar plantations, as well as the shipping and distribution of nitrates in the United States. Grace Brothers transported 75 Chinese laborers from California to work in his grape and cotton plantations.
In New York, Grace set up an allied company, W.R. Grace and Company, from capital built during his short time in Peru. Some of his business clients included Henry Meiggs and the major French trader in guano, Dreyfus Brothers. Grace's company helped stock the Dreyfus ships before their trips to Europe.
In 1953, Peter Grace would describe his grandfather, William R. Grace, thusly:
"His was the business philosphy of optimism, and faith in fair dealings; of the
joy and satisfaction of constructive work; of courage in adversity and zest for
the game. It was the philosophy of business diversification, of constantly
thinking decades ahead, yet not hobbling foresight with mere dreaming; it was
belief in the men on his team and backing them to the hilt, with supreme
confidence that a job well done would win the day. He believed in
boundless industry but never to the point where work was not fun. He was
dedicated to practical Pan-Americanism. He firmly acknowledged his duty to serve
and love his God and Country." (Grace, 1953, p. 9)
Financing of the company moved from Peru to New York, in part due to the participation of the British firm, Baring Brothers. With the growth of railroads in the U.S., W. R. Grace was able to take advantage of shipping from either coast to build his supply routes to both coasts of Latin America.
As of 1953, the W.R. Grace company operated shipping services along South America's west coast, owned Peruvian textile mills, Chilean nitrate businesses, sugar plantations, and Brazilian rubber industries. His company continued to ship agricultural and electrical equipment to South America, and built a banking capability. W.R. Grace promoted the building of the Panama Canal, and was a close associate of key leaders in Peru and the United States. (Grace, 1953)
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence. 1985. Grace: W.R. Grace & Co. The formative years 1850-1930. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson. 403 pp.
Grace, J. Peter Jr. 1953. W. R. Grace (1932-1904) and the enterprises he created. New York, Newcomen Society, 1953. 28 pp.
Chinese Laborers in Peru
The system of mining guano at that time required a large amount of hand labor. The labords on the guano islands dug the guano, transported it in wheelbarrows to the trucks to the cliffs. Subsequently, the labors took two days to load a ship, passing the bags by canvas shoots into the hold. In the 1850s, the labor force needed to be doubled. Vessels waited in line up to two to three months to be loaded. (Mathew, 1981, p. 116-117)
A number of Chinese resided in Lima as early as 1613 and had become successful business owners. In 1849 the passage of the "Chinese law" encouraged traders to embark on an aggressive effort to bring Chinese laborers to Peru. Domingo Elias, a wealthy politician and guano entrepreneur brought over 79 Chinese laborers, and was subsidized 30 pesos for each of them by the government. Jose Canevaro, another guano merchant, brought over at least 3,650 Chinese.
Over the next 25 years, more than 100,000 Chinese were brought to Peru and of those who left China for Peru, 25 to 30 percent perished during the journey (Clayton, 1985, pg 29-30). The arrival of large numbers of Chinese as laborers caused concern over time in Peru, and became an issue in the coming conflict.
China stopped the coolie trade in 1875, so traders switched their attention to the shores of the western United States. There they arranged work contracts of three to five years. This contract was a 10 hour day, with Sunday off and 16 soles in silver. (Dobyns, 1976, pg 173)
Plantations along the coast, the railroad builders and the guano miners sought these Chinese laborers. The cheap labor of blacks and the Chinese helped generate the profits for foreign companies that had contracts in Peru, and allowed the creation of luxurious estates and frequent trips to Europe by the Peruvian elite. This helped build the business network with Europe and America, while stimulating a desire for technological advances.
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence. 1985. Grace: W.R. Grace & Co. The formative years 1850-1930. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson. 403 pp.
Dobyns, Henry F. and Paul L. Doughty. 1976. Peru: a cultural history. New York, Oxford University Press, 1976. 336 pp.
Mathew, W.M. 1981. The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian guano monopoly. London: Royal Historical Society. 281 pp.
The Oroya Railroad
In 1870 Henry Meiggs began building the Oroya railroad, with the goal of linking the coastal cities of Lima and Callao with the high Andes and the silver mines of Cerro de Pasco. This railroad was an amazing feat of engineering. It climbed more than 14,000 feet in only 78 miles with multiple switchbacks, 65 tunnels and 61 bridges. The line was built in seven years by 8,000 to 10,000 Peruvians, Chileans, Bolivians, and Chinese, with the assistance of 600 mules.
The construction of the line reportedly cost Peru 7,000 workers through accident and disease. Landslides, falling boulders, premature explosions and altitude sickness caused considerable delays.(Werlich, 1978, pg. 94)
Starting from the sea, the Oroya ascended the narrow valley of the Rimac through sparse vegetation and masses of torn and twisted rock. The track rose 5,000 feet in the first 46 miles. At first the line climbed through banana groves and fields of sugar cane, with patches of corn and alfalfa. The view narrowed as one entered a valley, its slopes thickly terraced with ruins. There it stopped at Chosica, a sunny resort, before reaching Matucana. Following a winding pathway along the edge of precipices and over bridges, the track tunneled through the Andes at an altitude of 15,645 feet, the highest spot at that time in the world reached by a railroad. This photo taken near Matucana shows one of the steel bridges of the Central Railroad. The photograph courtesy of Håkan Svensson (Xauxa) Peru 1981 (Gnu Free Documentation License, Wikimedia).
Meiggs put William H. Cilley of New Hampshire in charge of the Lima and Oroya railroads. [A Cilley was engaged in 1865 by the Chileans to procure a gunmaker, an Englishman, with a view to founding and constructing guns and cannon. Is this the same person (Trigg, 2002)]
Resources:
Trigg, Angela. 2002. The Life of Daniel Trigg C.S.N. http://cssvirginia.org/vacsn4/original/td1909.htm
Werlich, David P. 1978. Peru: a short history. Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinois University Press. 434 pp.
Nicholás de Piérola
In May of 1868 a yellow fever epidemic took control of Lima. Many of the largest and most prosperous shops were closed due to the death of their owners and their employees. One wholesale house lost all fourteen of its clerks. In one case all members of an extended family of 25 people died in one house. Anyone who could was fleeing Lima. The steamers from Callao were laden with passengers. The American Minister took his family to Chile.
Also in 1868, Nicolás de Piérola left his job as a newspaperman to take charge of the treasury under then president Colonel José Balta. Piérola was born in the Department of Arequipa, the son of an eminent naturalist and minister of finance under General José Rufino Echenique, president of Peru in 1851. Of medium stature, straight posture and well-dressed, Nicolas had a ruddy complexion. He was an aristocrat in both conduct and gestures.
Piérola continued Peru's disastrous policy of borrowing heavily from foreign sources for large public works. This increased incentives for foreign governments to interfere in Peru's domestic policies. As President Balta's finance minister, Piérola's reorganization of the guano contract system helped finance the railroads. One goal of the railroads was to diversify its economy by improving access to resources previously out of reach. The newly built railroads provided needed transportation routes along the coast and would soon link the coast to the vast interior of Peru.
Henry Meiggs, Railroad Builder
North American interests became tied in several ways to Peru during this period. In 1867 President Balta came to power in Peru. It is conjectured that protection of the polls was financed by Mr. Henry Meiggs, an engineer born in Catskill, New York, who later received valuable railroad-building contracts.
Known as a lover of music, Henry Meiggs followed the gold fever to California, and became a lumber dealer at a time when plank roads were being built. He left abruptly in 1854, sailing with his family to South America and leaving behind a million dollars in bad debts. Meiggs had previously been engaged by the country of Chile, and built the railroad from Valparaiso to Santiago. He built a large fortune, and an elegant residence, the whole of which reportedly was built in the United States and shipped to Chile. (Trigg, 2002)
In January of 1868 Henry Meiggs undertook the contract to build a railroad from Lima to Huancayo, made surveys for additional routes, and bid on the contracts to undertake construction of these routes. One of the Peruvian engineers, Federico Blume, who served on the commission to review these proposals said this of Meiggs:
"...Don Enrique Meiggs, who to loyalty in the fulfillment of his contractual obligations, unites familiarity with the management of great undertakings and commands an army of engineers, mechanics, special men for each kind of work, and countless laborers,who, at the raising of his finger, come running by thousands, when other contractors make vain efforts to secure a few hundreds."
(Stewart, 1946, p. 90)
Don Enrique rose early, tired rarely. He responded to questions promptly, clearly, and with a depth of knowledge. Nothing surprised or astonished him. He rarely drank alcohol and enjoyed the building projects he had acquired. He dwelt among "drafts and strips of paper" and spent his time perusing large "rolls of paper, covered with figures, signs, and lines." Notebooks littered his office and bedroom. For relaxation, he listened as members of his family played the piano. (Stewart, 1946, pg. 261)
Beginning in 1868 and for four years after that, Henry Meiggs advertised in the Chilean papers asking for laborers to help with the construction of railroads in Peru. An estimated twenty to thirty thousand Chileans took passage to Peru to work on the railroads. (Stewart, 1946, pg. 88)He eventually acquired contracts to build railroads throughout Peru, contracts totaling $126,000,000. The funds for this enormous endeavor came from foreign loans. Many of the materials needed to build the railroads came from overseas, the rails from England and the ties from the United States. (Squier, 1877) In fact, Meiggs imported virtually everything that he used in constructing his railroads: blasting powder, medicines, clothing, rolling stock, tools, and lumber, mostly from the United States.
Meiggs made many alllies by giving everybody something to do. He employed potential revolutionaries,and sent one of them to the Grace Brothers to purchase a sailing ship, naming it the Don Enrique. (Flint, 1923).
In 1872, Henry Meiggs hosted the great naturalist, Louis Agassiz, on his travels in Peru. Meiggs took his guest on an excursion up the Rimac Valley on the Central Railroad on the occasion of the professor's birthday. The guest list included Major Williamson, the United States Consul to Peru, Commander Johnson and some of his staff of the U.S. surveying ship Hassler, a Dr. Jones of the U.S. Flagship Pensacola, and Commander Kennedy and his officers of the H.M.S. Reindeer. Professor Agassiz graciously told his host that because he had seen Henry Meiggs, "he had seen Peru." (Stewart, 1946, pg. 258)
By 1874, Peru was on the verge of bankruptcy. Revolutions and disturbances erupted due to the bad state of finances, and the ambitions of political caudillos and military chiefs. Payment on interest on bonds had ceased due to the bankruptcy of the government at the economic situation in Peru had become chaotic. Henry Meigg’s financial status began to disintegrate along with the economy of Peru.
A treaty between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia was to permit the export of nitrate from Antafogasta free of duty, but Bolivia and Peru made a secret alliance. With this secret alliance, the nitrate territory of Bolivia was ceded to Peru and was handed over to Henry Meiggs.
In July of 1877 Henry Meiggs attempted to get Peru to issue $15,000 in paper money in payment of the bonds held by him, so that he could continue to open the Cerro de Pasco mines, mines discovered by the Jesuits around 1635 and considered to be the richest and most extensive silver deposits in the world.
The Grace Brothers decision to limit credit to Meiggs strained their relationship. On September 30, 1877, Henry Meiggs died.
Resources:
Flint, Charles R. 1923. Memories of an active life: men and ships and sealing wax. Putnam. 349 pp.
Squier, Ephraim George. 1877. Peru: incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas. (Reprint of the 1877 ed. New York: AMS Press. 1973) 599 pp.
Stewart, Watt. 1946. Henry Meiggs: Yankee Pizarro. Durham, N.C.: Duke University. 370 pp.
Trigg, Angela. 2002. The Life of Daniel Trigg C.S.N. http://cssvirginia.org/vacsn4/original/td1909.htm
The Guano War
On the west coast of South Ameria, conflict would soon envelope Bolivia, Chile and Peru into the War of the Pacific, or the Guano War. Along the coastline of Peru and Chile are offshore islands where seabirds congregate: the Chincha Islands in the south, and the smaller islands, Guanajos and Lobos. The enormous fish reserves draw a large population of birds and sea lions to these islands. Millions of white-breasted cormorants, gray pelicans and white-headed gannet roost on just one of these islands. Guano is a combination of droppings, unhatched eggs, and decomposed bodies. The birds produce at least 11,000 tons of guano a year.
Due to the lack of rain, the droppings accumulate and are baked in the dry atmosphere, preserving the nitrates in the deposits. Over the centuries, guano grew into large deposits, often 100 to 140 feet deep. It became an important export commodity from 1840 to 1880, and was highly valued as fertilizer for improving crop yields.
Foreign traders, especially the British, set up trading houses to ship the guano back to England and Europe. At one point, the House of Gibbs had a monopoly on the guano trade, with much of the guano shipped to Great Britain. Guano comprised more than two/thirds of the total shipments to Britain in the late 1860s. The Americans also found guano valuable and passed the U.S. Guano Island Act of 1856 to assist American traders to acquire similar islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean. Since the British had monopoly over the Peruvian guano, American business interests in Peru stemmed not from the direct mining of the guano but from the transport of supplies.
Bolivia granted concessions to Chilean companies to explore and exploit other resources of Bolivia's coastal regions. Chilean companies found vast deposits of nitrate of soda and borax in 1866 and 1868, and a rich vein of silver ore in 1879. As a result, the Chileans developed a lucrative mining enterprise with the assistance of Great Britain. (Dobyns, 1976, p. 195) Not having direct access to guano, the Grace Company supplied American companies with nitrate of soda and continued to develop its interest in this area.
Manual Fuentes, Peruvian journalist and historian, compiled a statistical viewpoint of Lima produced in 1858. At that time Lima's population reached 55,000, with 5,000 inhabitants, one-fifth of the adult males, unemployed. Workers and artesans comprised about one/fifth of the population. Yet, foreign companies received contracts for city services, such as the paving of streets, importing both workers and the stones from Europe. More than half of the top merchants were European. Domestic production through factories was almost nonexistent, making it necessary to import almost everything. (Gootenberg, 1993, pp. 66-69)
A contemporary assessment contends that the Peruvian upper class of those days was more often a lawyer or a politician than a merchant. The merchants of Lima were often foreigners and the banks were also under foreign ownership. Foreigners controlled the development of agriculture and natural resources, the cultivation of sugarcane, the export of wool and hides, the mines, guano and the nitrate resources. They even participated in the funding of the troops, to some extent as a matter of self-protection.
Peru borrowed heavily from foreign investors on the strength of the guano exports. By the 1850s, Peru's emphasis on foreign loans moved it from last to first place as a borrower in the London markets. By the 1860s proceeds from guano exports provided more than 75 % of government revenue (Gootenberg, 1989, pg. 133). The government used some of these large sums of money to undertake large public projects. Guano exports also built personal fortunes, drawing all partners in this short-lived prosperity into the growing conflict over the control of the guano trade.
By 1875, sodium nitrate began to surpass the guano beds as an important resource. The guano beds were exhausted. (Clayton, 1999) The drop in the guano trade was largely due to the recession in Europe, over-supply and the growing demand for nitrate of soda. The 1870s showed a mass move of capital from guano to nitrate production.
W. M. Mathew (1981) offers another parallel explanation. As of 1858, British farmers began to switch the fertilizer for their turnip crops to superphosphates, as the price for guano escalated and the price for superphosphates remained stable. More easily obtained, superphosphates offered a better combination of nutrients for turnips and other root crops.
Faced with falling markets and in a difficult financial position, Peru attempted to establish more control over the exports. Bolivia also assessed additional fees on the Chilean concessionaires to compensate for the falling revenues. The Chileans protested that the new export duties were in violation of a previous treaty.
On the 15th of January of 1876, the Peruvian government declared the nitrate beds a government monopoly with a duty on private exportation so high it would force all lands into government ownership. Thus, three South American countries were drawn into a serious conflict over the right to mine in the Atacama desert region, an area never carefully delineated by national boundaries. English, American and other foreign interests were also at stake, with English interests aligned with those of Chile, and the United States with interests in both countries, and an antipathy towards England for their involvement in affairs in the western Hemisphere.
January of 1878 ushered in a period of peace and tranquility, which might have provided a hopeful future for Peru if it had not been hopelessly bankrupt. Bolivia in 1878 placed a tax of ten centavos on each hundredweight of nitrates. (Williams, 1938, p. 574-575.) Chile was outraged, calling this a violation of the treaty of 1874. Bolivia responded that failure to pay this tax by Chile would end in the confiscation of the Chilean factories and her exclusion from the industry.
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence A. 1999. Peru and the United States: the Condor and the Eagle. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Dobyns, Henry F. And Paul L. Doughty. 1976. Peru: a cultural history. New York, Oxford University Press. 336 pp.
Gootenberg, Paul. 1989. Between silver and guano: commercial policy and the state in postindependence Peru. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University. 234 pp.
Mathew, W.M. 1981. The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian guano monopoly. London: Royal Historical Society. 281 pp.
Williams, Mary Wilhelmine. 1938. The people and politics of Latin America. Boston: Ginn. 889 pp.
Captain Paul Boyton
Fortunately we know quite a bit more about Paul Boyton than we do about George Kiefer. Unlike George, who appears to have been a quiet and studious man, Paul enjoyed the limelight and sought out publicity. In the 1880s, his adventures were followed throughout the country, and he wrote a book about some of his adventures in The Story of Paul Boyton.
We have an interest in his early life, because we don't know when George Kiefer met Paul. Paul was born June 29, 1849, probably in Ireland, although he later claimed to be born in the U.S. Even as a child, he loved the water and swimming. His father, Terence, was notably absent. A trader of curiosities, Terence imported sea-shells, corals, and oriental goods that he sold in major American cities.
Paul had two brothers and three sisters. In 1858, they moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on Lacock St. near the railroad bridge.
On April 15th 1864, at the age of 15, Paul joined the U.S. Navy. He was assigned to the U.S. steamer, Hydrangea, Captain W. Rogers in command. They were ordered to Fort Monroe, and spent that part of Civil War running up the James River past Malvern Hill where a confederate battery was stationed. His last engagement was the assault on Fort Fisher. He wrote that he was on board the ship-of-war St. Louis. He left the navy with the position of yeoman, possibly in 1865.
At some point he began submarine diving for the New York Wrecking Company and then went treasure hunting in the West Indies on the schooner Foam, for the purpose of collecting and shipping marine curiosities. He was wrecked in the Bay of Campeche near Tampico.
In 1867 he joined the Mexican revolutionaries under Pedro Martinez and Colonel Sawyer to fight Maximillian. After several skirmishes he deserted and returned to the United States.
In 1868, the family left Allegheny and his father helped him set up a store in Philadelphia for the sale of curiosities and Oriental goods and another at Cape May, New Jersey. In 1869 he lost everything to a fire. On October 5, 1870 his father died. We can conjecture that the absences and the early death of his father left some vacant hole in his being. Soon after his father died he left for France. When he returned from France to New York, his mother and elder brother had a store on Broadway near Thirteenth Street.
In Atlantic City, he helped organize the U.S. Lifesaving Service, where he claims to have saved 71 people.
From 1870 to 1871, Paul joined the free-shooters (Franc-tireurs) of the French Army and then sailed south to seek his fortune in the South African diamond fields.
In 1873 Paul Boyton started with his new dress-out, devised by C.S. Merriman of Iowa. It was a two-part suit made of vulcanized rubber, a tunic with a steel belt around the waist with pantaloons and boots. On each thigh and, breast, on the back of the head were inflatable pockets that could be blown up with a tube. He had a double paddle that could also be used as a sail. W.O. Carpenter was associated with Boyton in the original introduction of the suit (New York Times Obituary).
In a celebrated stunt in 1874, he leaped off a ship 40 miles off the coast of Ireland, and spent seven hours in the water before reaching the shore. He was thus enthralled by both the attention and notoriety that he achieved. Demonstrating the suit around the world now became a personal passion for him.
He leaped into the headlines on May 28th 1875 when he crossed the English Channel in 24 hours in his Merriman suit. The Annual Register in 1875 (A New Life Dress, pg. 17) mentions that Captain Boyton appeared with Lt. Morgan and Mr. Willis, all three in a “life dress”. Boyton took in tow with him an India-rubber canoe and a tin canister. The former contained rockets and signal lights; the latter had working tools, provisions, and cigars. They were two hours in the water.
In October of 1875, Paul Boyton floated the Rhine from Switzerland to Germany. In 1876, he floated the Mississippi River. In 1878 March 29 to 31st Boyton sailed down the Guadalquivir from San Geronimo (Morocco). In November, he paddled down the L’Orne.
George Kiefer said that he travelled for thousands of miles with Paul.. I would assume in a similar role to the aforementioned Lt. Morgan and Mr. Willis...but as yet it is a mystery as to when they met or started working together. We know definitely that they were in business together by the fall of 1880. Paul mentions him in his autobiography but it is hard to find evidence that they met before that date, since the newspaper articles often fail to mention who accompanied Paul during his exploits in various parts of the world.
George may have travelled with Captain Boyton when Paul travelled through Europe. We know that George visited the Louvre of Paris and the British Museum of London where he first saw examples of Peruvian antiquities, and we must assume that these visits were before 1880.
Resources:
Boyton, Paul. The Story of Paul Boyton, Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/9/2/3/19230/19230.htm
George Kiefer
This research began with a letter that I found in family papers. The letter was from George Kiefer to a cousin or another relative. It was written in Peru around 1881. The letter led me to search further, to find out where he came from and what he did with his life. I have been able to discover only a little about who he was as a person, but at least a little more about what he did and the times in which he lived. I have been able to do this only through the help of friends and complete strangers. And I hope that I will continue to hear from people who can help me with this work.
When I first began this research, all I knew about George, mostly from the letter, is that he travelled with Captain Paul Boyton and they floated down rivers in strange rubber suits. I also knew that he dug up relics in Peru in a place called the Necropolis of Ancon. The Necropolis was within the sphere of the Huari culture around 1000 AD, that produced pottery such as the one here photographed by User:Haylli in December of 2004. (http://www.wikimedia.org/).
I still know very little about George's family or how he came to meet Paul Boyton. In my research, I have built a shell around a man who still remains an extreme mystery. It is possible that George arrived in America around 1857. He probably came from Germany or Bavaria. I expect to know more as this story unfolds.
For the past five years, I have been vicariously living in the Peru of the 1880s. I've met, through books, letters and documents, the people who walked the streets of Lima at that time. I've seen the beautiful public squares of Lima, the ruined towns of Chorrillos and Miraflores, and the remains of those who gave their lives in battle. I've imagined the fear and emotions of the citizens of Lima when rioting broke out within the streets and the Chilean army approached the city.
BUT I have never been to modern Lima, have not walked the desert coast at Arica, nor seen the port of Callao. I've not ridden the railroad from Lima to see the dunes of the Necropolis at Ancon nor visited the mountain town of Matucana. So my view is unfortunately flawed. If I visited Peru, I would only have a vague idea of where I was. To some extent, I think it would be like visitng my birthplace after an absence of 60 years.
This story is a rough draft, with parts missing and no doubt rife with misinterpretations unintended. The events are seen through the lense, as much as possible, of contemporary observers. I can only imagine that each perspective was colored or distorted by the observer's experience or agenda. As you read, I want you to be aware of this.
I am still grappling with documenting each event accurately and identifying timeframes that will help fit everything into an approximate timeline. I am skipping over significant events in the War, only because I have not discovered any relationship of these events to the protagonists in this story. Some of my dates are real and some of them are relative, and some of them may be good guesses. My scholarship is deficient in that regard, so please bear with me as I "give you not my best".
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