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240 A HISTORY OF CHILE jects were in hot pursuit. His majesty was afterward confined in prison. Congress assembled in June, and the president's mes- sage noted reforms, and made numerous promises. Some difficulty was experienced over the ownership of some guano fields lately discovered off the coast of Me- jillones. By the law of 1842, the government claimed the discoveries as public property. Subsequently it granted licenses to load vessels under certain restric- tions, which tended to allay public dissatisfaction. At the beginning of the year 1863, a claim was pre- sented by the British representive for ^50,000 damages on account of the loss of an arm by a young man named Whitehead, who had had some difficulty with a sentry during the late revolution. The attempt to enforce the claim excited the greatest indignation, and the British merchants of Valparaiso met to the number of four hundred, and denounced it as most unjust. Then the English government consented to modify the claim. At the latter end of the year 1863, December 8th, a sad calamity occurred in a Jesuit church at the capital, which for a time caused great excitement. There was an evening service, and the huge cathedral, crowded with over three thousand persons, was brilliantly lighted and covered from floor to ceiling with ornamental de- signs of gauze, canvas and pasteboard. The decora- tions caught fire and the whole interior was instantly in a blaze, the flames enwrapping the people, who were unable to escape, as there was but one door and it was soon blocked up. In a few minutes two thousand people had perished, though on the outside every effort was made to rescue them. This terrible calamity caused the government to issue an order that the church should be razed to the earth, and a legislative act was passed to the effect that no