Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/630

Rh 618 CHILI population is urban, and two-thirds rural. Of the deaths no less than 59 per cent, are under seven years, 4 8 from seven to fifteen, 7 3 from fifteen to twenty -five, 15 3 from twenty-five to fifty, and 11 - 4 from fifty to eighty. Out of every million children born only 543,900 live to the age of five years. One female child is born for every 1 05 male children ; but the death rate is in precisely the opposite proportion. The annual increase of the population is one in every fifty-seven. Health. Sanitary Condition. The deaths, amounting to 55,897, are distributed among the different months of the year as follows : January, 5333 ; February, 4398 ; March, 4228 ; April, 3937; May, 4423; June, 4213; July, 4613; August, 4773 ; September, 4767 ; October, 4940; Novem ber, 4749 ; December, 5523. The rate is greatest (9 9 per cent.) in December, and least (7 1 per cent.) in April. It will be seen that the three provinces, Chiloe, Llan- quihue, and Valdivia, which are the wettest are also the most salubrious. The healthiest period is just before the rains set in, the least healthy during the heats of December and January, when dysentery prevails, owing perhaps to a too free consumption of the water-melon. The mortality of children under 7 years ranges from 47 per cent, in some years to 60 per cent, in others of the whole number of deaths ; and four-fifths of the children who die under 7 years of age belong to the poorest classes. The most fatal diseases are gastric, typhoid, and typhus fevers ; and the next, pulmonary complaints, dysentery, and syphilis. The system of sewerage in Chili is generally bad, consisting of partially open channels passing through the houses, some times with running water and at other times nearly dry. Even Valparaiso is not well provided with drainage. Inter mittent fevers are unknown, and Asiatic cholera has not yet passed the Andes. Tistory. History. The name Chili (or, in its Spanish form, Chile) is supposed to be derived from Tchile, a word belonging to the ancient language of Peru, signifying &quot; snow.&quot; The country first became known to Europeans in the 16th century. It was then to a considerable extent under the dominion of the Incas, but had been previously inhabited by certain tribes of Indians, of whom the most important and only warlike race were the Araucanians. In the time of the Inca Yupanqui (1433), grandfather of the monarch who occupied the throne of Pern on the arrival of the Spaniards, and the tenth in succession from Manco Capac, the reputed founder of the Peruvian empire, the first attempt was made by the Incas to extend their dominion over the territory of Chili. Yupanqui, leading his army across the desert of Atacama, and penetrating into the southern regions of the country, made himself master of a considerable portion of it. The permanent boundary of the dominions of this prince is said by some writers to have been determined by the River Maule, 35 30 S. lat., although it is more probable the River Rapel, 34 10 S. lat., constituted the extreme limits of the Peruvian empire towards the sonth. The latter opinion is to some extent supported by the fact, that the remains of an ancient Peruvian fortress, apparently marking the frontier, are still found upon the banks of the Rapel, while no such remains are known to exist in any part of the country farther south. The Peruvian dominion in Chili ceased with the Inca Atahualpa in 1533. The first Spanish invasion was led by Diego de Almagro (1535 or 1536), who however met with such determined resistance from the Araucanians that he was compelled to retrace his steps. Undaunted by this failure, Pizarro despatched another expedition, composed of Spanish troops and Peruvian auxiliaries, under Don Pedro de Valdivia, and was preparing to follow it in person with a larger force, when he was assassinated in 1541. Meanwhile Valdivia entered Chili, and fighting his way onwards, encamped on the banks of the Mapocho, where he founded the city of Santiago, the present capital of the republic, and about eleven years afterwards the town of Valdivia. At last, after twelve years stay in Chili his life and conquests were brought to an end in a desperate engagement with the Araucanians, who for 180 years after wards continued to wage a sanguinary war with the Spaniards, till 1722, when they consented to a treaty which fixed the River Biobio as the boundary between them. Spanish Chili, extending from the Biobio northward to Atacama, was divided into thirteen provinces, under the rule of a governor appointed by the viceroy of Peru. The last of these governors was Mateo de Toro, 1810. During the entire period of this connection between Spain and Chili, the viceroys, governors, and all the other Spanish officials of every grade regarded the inhabitants only as a means of furthering their own aggrandizement, which at length so exasperated the better educated classes that they determined to throw off the hateful yoke on the first favourable occasion. In 1810 this desired opportunity at last presented itself, when Spain, overrun by the armies of France, was no longer able to vindicate her own claims to a national existence. In July of that year the Chilians took the first step towards asserting their independence by deposing the Spanish president, and putting in his place (September 18, 1810) a committee of seven men, nomi nated by themselves, to whom were entrusted all the executive powers. In April 1811 the first blood was spilt in the cause of Chilian independence. A battalion of royal troops, which had been drawn up in the great square of Santiago, was attacked by a detachment of patriot grena diers, and routed with considerable loss on both sides. In the same year (December 20) the government was vested in a triumvirate, and Juan Jose Carrera was appointed g3iieral-in-chief of the army about to be formed. In 1813 a powerful army, under the command of General Paroja, invaded Chili, but was twice defeated by the republican troops under Carrera. The royalists, how ever, speedily received larger enforcements ; and after a severe contest, Chili was once more obliged to own the sovereignty of Spain. For three years more the people submitted (under the Spanish governors Osorio and Pont) to the old system of tyranny and misgovern ment, till at length the patriot refugees, having levied an army in La Plata, and received the support of the Buenos Ayreans, marched against the Spaniards, and completely defeated them at Chacabuco in 1817. The patriots next proceeded to organize an elective government, of which San Martin, the general of the army, was nominated the supreme director. Their arrangements, however, were not completed when they were attacked once more by the royalists, and routed at the battle of Cancharayada with great loss. Betrayed into a fatal security by this success, the royalist troops neglected the most ordinary military precautions, and being suddenly attacked by the patriots in the plains of Maipu, were defeated with great slaughter This victory secured the independence of Chili. The new Republic had no sooner vindicated for itself a place among the nations of South America, than it resolved to assist the neighbouring state of Peru in achieving a similar independence, which object was at last effected after a bloody war of six years duration. No small share of this success was due to the daring courage and con summate ability with which Lord Cochrane, under the most trying circumstances, conducted the naval affairs. In acknowledgment of these important services a well-executed statue of him has been erected in Valparaiso. With 1817 commenced again the national government, under the