We
have written a lot about Coquimbo Bay as the landing site of the Lehi Colony,
and perhaps it might be of interest to know a little more about this very
unique area. It might also be of interest to know why Frederick G. Williams or
Joseph Smith would not have known anything about this area to justify even a wild
guess as to this being the place of Lehi’s landing (30º south latitude) as was
written on the sheet of paper often discussed here of late.
Originally,
and until 1818, this area was called the New
Extrenadura, and then as Indian
Flanders (Flanders of the Indies), what we now know as Chile was the Capitania General de Chile (General
Captaincy of Chile), sometimes referred to as the Gobernacion de Chile, a colony of the Crown of Castile (Spanish
Empire). Where other South American areas were given the title of Kingdom by
the Spanish, Chile was plagued with constant wars between the Mapuche and the
Spanish, and had to be ruled by a military enclave and not a nobleman like a
viceroy, thus it was a captaincy and not a viceroyalty.
The Mapuche occupied most of southern
Chile and Argentina at the time of the Spanish arrival—mapu meaning “earth” and che meaning “people,” or “People
of the Earth,” whom the Spanish called Araucanos
In the period from 1810 to 1831, during the midst of the war of independence,
there were numerous conflicts involving coup
d’états, mutinies, politically motivated trials, banishments and
imprisonments and finally an outright civil war. Consequently, from 1810 to
1826, Chile was involved in uniting the provinces; 1829 to 1830, the Chilean
Civil War saw the defeat of the Pipiolos,
with the Pelucones (Bigwigs)
enforcing the Chilean Constitution of 1833, which favored the upper-class.
Under the command of Thomas Cochrane,
10th Earl of Dundonald, a British Navy captain hired by Chile to
organize their Navy, the Chilean Squadron sails off for Peru from Coquimbo Bay,
where it normally anchored,especially during inclement weather and high seas. Early in the
century, Chile helped Peru defeat the Spanish
The
War of the confederation followed from 1836 to 1839, then the Chilean
Revolution of 1851, when Manuel Montt became the first civilian President of
Chile, and was elected twice (1851-1861). A series of military campaigns
followed this period, from 1861 to 1883, when the Chilean army invaded Mapuche
territory, and eventually incorporated Araucania into Chilean national
territory.
During
this time, and when the United States was embroiled in their Civil War, from 1862
to 1864 Spain, under the command of Admiral Luis Hernandez Pinzon (a descendant
of the Pinzon brothers who accompanied Columbus), covertly entered South
American waters in three war ships, with the clandestine purpose of reinforcing
the financial and legal claims of Spanish citizens residing in the Americas.
After a Peruvian civil disturbance, Pinzon reentered Peruvian waters with political
demands and was snubbed by Peru.
Left: The Chincha islands of Peru
being occupied by invading Spanish sailors on April 14,1864; Right: Light
Green-Ecuador; Dark Green-Peru; Yellow-Bolivia; Orange-Chile. A-Opening battle
on the offshore Chincha Islands; battles followed up and down the coast:
1-Papudo, 2-Valparaiso, 3-Abtao, and 4-Callao
This
led to the Spanish-Chilean War from 1864 to 1866, where Pinzon seized the
guano-rich Chincha Islands, and blockaded principal Peruvian ports, disrupting
commerce and fostering a high level of resentment throughout Latin America. A series
of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru
(which Spain had never recognized as being independent) and Chile followed,
which led to President Ulysses S. Grant, in his 1870 State of the Union
Address, subtly reiterated the Monroe Doctrine, reminding European powers that
the former Spanish possessions in the Americas were free and should remain that
way.
Left: In the War of the Pacific, the
Chilean ground forces nearly exterminated the defending Peruvian Army. Here
General Bolognesi, a Peruvian war hero, is on the ground as the dark uniformed
Chileans wipe out his command; Right: After the war, Bolivia and Peru ceded to
Chile the entire area between Chile and Peru that was once held by Bolivia
(Green hash lines) and Peru (White hash lines); Bottom Left: Conquering Chilean
forces march down streets of Lima, Peru, before burning the city to the ground; Bottom Right: The country boundaries
before (left) and after (right) the war
However,
with Europe then out of the picture, the former allies went to war with one
another, and the War of the Pacific, from 1879 to 1883, saw Chile defeating
Peru and Bolivia, and adding territory to their northern lands. It was also at
this time that the Mapuche resistance in the south ended and Chile added
territory all the way to Terra del Fuego. In this defeat of Peru, Chilean
forces occupied Lima and the surrounding area, burning it to the ground, as
well as haciendas throughout the area—it was a devastating time and no
passenger ships or tourists visited the area, not even from Europe.
Consequently,
it is not difficult to say that the U.S. from the very beginning had little to
do with the countries of Peru and Chile, first because they were controlled by
Spain, second because they were European centers in the Americas, and third,
because they were embroiled in wars, first for independence, then among each
other for territory, and finally against Spain once again.This went on
throughout the entire 19th century. The chances that two people, one
educated the other not, in a rustic farm house in the 1830s, first in Palmyra, New York, then Kirtland,
Ohio, and later in Far West, Missouri, would know anything about the west coast
of South America is about as likely as us knowing any details today about the surface of
the newly discovered planet Kepler.
Left: Charles Darwin’s drawing of
Coquimbo Bay (his ship Beagle in foreground); Right: The port today with a
cruise ship docked
Keep
in mind that it was not until the conclusion of the Chilean War
of Independence in 1826, that Coquimbo was even recognized as a port, with the
city of Coquimbo not founded until 1850, and not until November 16, 1863 that
the port’s side street off the dock was created, also known as the shopping
street, which began to draw European tourists and the docking of passenger
ships. Parallel to this, a new area was established, running north to south, and
named after Don Juan Melgarejo, the mayor of Coquimbo between 1840 and 1851,
for his personal contribution to the development of the city.
Thus
in small stages, the area of Coquimbo and La Serena grew. In 1886, the
population was 6,000, and had only 190
properties that housed local and European traders, carpenters, tobacconists,
beer brewers, barbers, foundry hands, a printer, engineers, a lawyer, musicians
and a sculptor, including a number of builders, grocers, sawyers, wagon
drivers, confectioners, party organizers, farmhands, clerks, servants,
blacksmiths, tinsmiths and boatmen. It was at this time, in the late 1860s that
Coquimbo and La Serena began to grow significantly, yet the best known shops
were still European: Ireland and Co., Palessie and Lasté, Virgilio, Barón,
Tiffoue and Co, A. Stell and Co., Robert John and Jenkins and Co.—all
established and run by Europeans.
The
city imported mules, rice, refined sugar, gas for lamps, iron rods, bricks,
wood and English garden railings. Exports consisted of minerals like manganese,
copper and silver and reached mainly the English and French markets.
As
for the knowledge of these areas in the United States, it might be of interest to
note that of all the maps now extant between 1513 and 1910, of which I have access to a
few, there is much distortion of South America in the early maps, very little
detail, and La Serena (usually written Serena), and Coquimbo Bay (always
written Coquimbo), are not shown on any map prior to the 1830s, and then
usually only one or the other. As an example, on an 1842 map by Auguste-Henri
Defour’s (Adolphe Hippolyte Dufour, a Paris based map and atlas publisher of
the late 19th century) there is fairly good detail, but no listing of Coquimbo or La Serena at
all.
And Julius Lowenberg’s 1846 map (A German-Jewish printer, geographer, and
author in Berlin during middle part of 19th century) is limited in
detail with only one west coast location listed, and no indication of La Serena
or Coquimbo. Not until the 1860s do we find maps showing any detail at all of
this area around the 30º south latitude of Chile. The one notable exception to
this was Charles Darwin’s map drawn during the voyage of the Beagle 1832 to 1836, however, the map
was not published until 1846 in London by Stewart and Murray.
Top Left: Joseph Smith lived in this house
from 1819 to 1829, where the translation of the Book of Mormon commenced; Top
Right: Joseph and his wife, Emma, lived in the middle section of this house
(yellow arrow) 1827-1830; Bottom Left: Joseph lived here in Kirtland, Ohio,
1834 to 1838; Bottom Right: Joseph and Emma’s farm house in Navuoo (when only
the lighter colored structure to the right existed) from 1839 to 1843
It
should be obvious, then, that outside of some in Europe, a few U.S. naval
commanders, and a handful of salty mariners, the West Coast of South America
was unknown to those in the United States, especially those in the “backwoods”
of western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. Once again, how
Frederick G. Williams came to write down that “Lehi sailed from Arabia on a
southeast course and landed at the 30º south latitude on the coast of Chile”
has to be one of the amazing guesses of all time, unless, after all, it was an inspired understanding of
Lehi’s landing site.
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