Whoever has made a voyage along the coast of Peru must have noticed the thousands of birds that flock in the neighborhood of the Chincha islands, near Pisco, on the Guañape banks, off the coast of Trujillo, and around the two island groups, Lobos de Tierra and Lobos de Afuera, west of the Department of Lambayeque. Sometimes, when disturbed by the steamer’s whistle or other unaccustomed noises, they rise in a black cloud and soar away out of sight, to return later, one by one, in an apparently endless procession. These are the pelicans of this region, the producers of its famous guano, which was, at one time, Peru’s most valuable source of revenue, and which is likely again to become a mine of wealth to the country. When one reads that “a hundred thousand tons of guano were exported from Peru to the United Kingdom last year,” it seems to indicate that the trade is of no small importance, even at the beginning of its revival. Not only on the islands named, but all along the coast, these birds have their haunts. From a distance, the islands appear sometimes to be covered with a huge black mantle, which, on closer examination, proves to be the plumage of the birds that have congregated on its shores, huddling together in an immense company.

The return of the pelicans and the revival of this trade are of particular interest to those who have followed the history of guano in Peru. For several years past the birds have been coming back to their long-abandoned haunts in greater numbers than ever. The trade is reviving under the most favorable conditions, and the government has undertaken measures by which to protect the welcome visitors, and ensure their remaining permanently. It is believed that, by taking due precautions in the extracting of guano, so that the birds may not be frightened away or forced to leave their nestlings, the danger of their again abandoning the islands may be avoided, and their number may be greatly increased. It has been especially recommended that the exploitation of the islands should be made by turns; that a few of them should be closed to the trade for a number of years, leaving the birds in undisturbed possession, while others are worked, this plan to be followed in rotation; and the advisability of granting exclusive concessions for each island has been recommended. Under the authority of the government, investigations have been made as to the existing conditions, and the reports of those who visited the pelicans’ haunts show that the problem of prime importance is how to keep the greatest number of birds on the islands and increase their number without prejudicing the best interests of the government, the national agriculture, or the exporters. It is urged that the birds should be treated with the greatest consideration and care, so that they may be perfectly secure in their chosen homes, migrating only from one to another island at long intervals, and so remaining almost undisturbed in their habits from year to year.

The advent of these old friends is looked upon as an augury of bright import by the Peruvian people, in view of the period of great trial and disaster that followed the decline of the guano trade in years past. It is certain that the revival of the industry will find Peru better able to profit by its blessings than formerly, when the possession of an apparently inexhaustible treasure led to reckless expenditure and resulted in the financial difficulties that an unlimited credit, continually drawn upon, invariably produces. In Alejandro Garland’s recent book on Peru, an interesting history of the guano trade is given, which places particular emphasis on the evils that developed out of its phenomenal growth and peculiar conditions.

In 1840, when the sale of guano first began to figure in the government receipts, the total revenues of the country did not exceed three million dollars. Ten years later, the government revenue from guano alone was more than five million dollars. The demand for the product increased in all parts of the world, and the annual exports rose to two hundred thousand tons. This rapid increase in the guano trade was largely due to the activity of the consignees, in whose hands the government placed it for sale, and their influence in the financial affairs of the country became very great. Every financial difficulty that arose at that time was met by mortgaging the future returns from the sale of guano; and Peru, counting on the extraordinary and abundant revenue from this source met all the demands of the government without recourse to taxation,—a condition unheard-of elsewhere in the financial history of the world.

But guano, though it brought to the Peruvian treasury the enormous sum of two hundred and twenty million dollars between the years 1840 and 1867, brought also such habits of extravagance in the government, that, not only did the entire sum disappear without adequate recompense to the country, but, at the time when General Mariano Ignacio Prado assumed the dictatorship, with Don Manuel Pardo as his Finance Minister, the public debt was forty-five million dollars, besides which, the government also owed the consignees of guano fifteen million dollars. Don Manuel Pardo sought to organize the finances of the nation on a more solid basis, independent of guano, by establishing permanent resources in the form of taxes and export duties; but the fatal glamour of wealth with which guano had dazzled the nation, cast his labor into the shade, and the existing evil was increased in the succeeding administration, though the intention of the energetic and public-spirited statesman, President Balta, was to put an end to the mismanagement of guano funds by employing this resource in the construction of railways and other public works.

In the meantime, nitrate, a powerful rival of guano, had been discovered in the desert of Tarapacá, then the southernmost province of Peru. The companies engaged in extracting nitrate, of which about five million quintals were exported annually, were competing with one another so closely that the low prices established by them threatened to ruin both the guano and the nitrate business; and President Manuel Pardo, in order to raise the selling price of both products, with a view to increasing the revenues of the nation, put into force a government monopoly of nitrate. As a result of the war with Chile which followed, the nitrate fields of Tarapacá passed into the possession of that country. The evils of competition again threatened to ruin the trade, until, under the auspices of the Chilean government, a system of limiting the production was adopted, which remains in force. What Peru lost in the nitrate fields of Tarapacá may be estimated from the statistics of Chile, which show the revenue from the export of nitrate and iodine (the latter obtained in the preparation of nitrate) to be five million pounds sterling yearly, nearly three-fourths of all Chile’s exports being from the nitrate fields.

Peru lost the revenues from both guano and nitrate under the same stroke, and during the years that immediately followed, the country passed through the darkest period of its history. But, as this experience served to direct the attention of the nation to the more permanent riches of this great territory, the loss of its most attractive possessions cannot be regarded as an unmixed evil. From an abundance of wealth, Peru was suddenly plunged into great poverty. But, as with individuals, so with nations,—the test of the spirit lies in its strength to meet adversity and overcome the discouragement that follows in its path; and this test the Peruvian people met by resolutely facing the task of building up their shattered fortunes through the development of the national industries. Their territory is rich in agricultural products and minerals; the rubber and hardwoods of the forest are treasures of immense value; and the people have grown to realize the full importance of developing these unlimited resources. As a result, the sun of prosperity has again risen over the land; and in the warmth of his beams, the harvests shed ever-increasing blessings and the hearts of the people expand with content.