TIES WITH BRITAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1935, Page 6

TIES WITH BRITAIN

PEEPS AT CHILEAN HISTORY. ROMANCES OF THE SEA TOLD. It is not without interest to Australia, destined to play a great part in the affairs of the Pacific, that Chile looks out on that ocean for a greater distance -than any other country in the western hemisphere. Her coastline runs for two thousand eight hundred miles —a distance greater than from Tasmania to New Guinea. Chile, too, is the most British of the South American Republics, and that is of some consequence. Her annals abound with British names, and her ties with Britain are strong and enduring. Of these ties, that of the sea is the strongest of all. The record of British seamen, buccaneers they may have been, along the Chilean coast began in Elizabethan days, and their activities gave the death-blow to the Spanish monopoly of the “Great South Sea.” These men helped to pave the way, in the fullness of time, for the peaceful and unchallenged occupation of. this Australian continent by the British a landmark in history comparable only in importance to the discovery and colonisation of the New World, writes *L.E.S.” in the Sydney Morning Herald. Drake—“the most assiduous and terrible of the harriers of the Chilean coast”—after sailing his ships through the Straits of Magellan braying “the stormiest seas of our Globe” in search of “beauty and boty,” appeared oC Valparaiso in Qecember, 1578 in the Golden Hind, to be followed rome years later by Cavendish and Richard Hawkins. Journeying through the extreme southern regions of Chile, a traveller nardly passes an island, bay, archipelago, channel, or peninsula that does not bear the name of some British sailor or statesman. We are even reminded of our great poet, though Byron Island takes its name from Lord Byron’s grandfather, Sir John Byron, whose ship the Wager was wrecked on Wager Island almost adjoining. COCHRANE AND O’HIGGINS. Of the British sailors, and soldiers, too, who fought for Chile in her wars with Spain and contributed to the AngloChilean naval tradition, the figure of Thomas Dundonald, Lord Cochrane — this “second Nelson,” overshadows them all. His greatest exploits were perhaps in her service, and the grateful people have erected an impressive monument to his memory. The oft-repeated story of the “Cochrane touch,” when in the dead of night Britons and Chileans fought hand to hand against the Spanish foe, is told in every Chilean home. This daring and successful exploit cements the closest naval connection existing between any two foreign Powers. Almost unnecessary to say, Chile’s modem battle fleet is “made in England.” Renowned in Chilean history is Ambrosio O’Higgins, an Irishman from County Meath, who rose to be one of Spain’s most brilliant proconsuls, and served Chile well in her colonial days. His son, Bernardo, became the champion of Chilean independence and Supreme Director of the young republic. It is remembered there, that at the instance of Canning, Great Britain was the first country to recognise Chile's new status after the con elusion of the struggle with her mother country. In those early days, that faraway little country, as she was then, solicited international friendship and guidance, and it was the British who answered the call. Don Agustin Edwarda, Chile’s distinguished .‘historian, writes: “The depredations of Drake and Hawkins were requited over and ovet again by a few men of the same race.” ROBINSON CRUSOE’S ISLAND. The group of islands bearing the name of Juan Fernandez, the Spanish navigator who discovered them, excite the interest of all boys and girls, and British children especially, for on one

of them “Robinson Crusoe” lived for more than four years. Fernandez is thought to have also discovered New Zealand, and perhaps Australia, as it is related that it is not improbable that he reached as far as this continent in the year 1576. This remarkable man discovered the trade winds and “found the way to sail against the Souther.” British and Dutch buccaneers made frequent use of Cumberland Bay, a safe refuge among the islands. It was there that Lord Anson arrived in' 1740 with his fleet, and 175 years later a British naval division entered this bay and encountered the Dresden at anchor. The wireless station on the main island is Chile’s watch tower over the vast Pacific.

More than 2000 miles from her coast is Easter Island—“the island of mysteries,” Chile’s only colonial possession. Captain Cook landed there in 1774, and it is said of the natives that they “were the most expert, thieves he had ever come across.” La Perouse, who called at the island six years afterwards, must have also had a poor opinion of them, as although he only stayed a few hours, they “relieved” him of his hat!