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278 A HISTORY OF CHILE enriched. The principle, however, stands better in evolution than in ethics. The war having been opened between Chile and Bo- livia in the Atacama desert, Peru dispatched a force of three thousand men under Colonel Valverde to Iquique. Here the army of the south began to form and General Jos6 Buendia was soon sent to take command of it. In April, the Chileans began to collect their army at Antofagasta, placing it under the command of General Erasmo Escala. On the 5th of the month. Admiral Juan Williams Robelledo established a blockade of Iquique and warned all neutral vessels in the harbor to leave before the 15th. Seven days afterward the Chil- ean corvette "Magallanes" fell in with the "Union" and "Pilcomayo"' near the mouth of the river Loa. An engagement took place which lasted about an hour, when the "Magallanes" succeeded in making her escape. The "Union" was injured and returned to the dock at Callao. Following this action the Chilean vessels vis- ited different ports, destroyed coal-boats, the apparatus for loading guano, and demolished piers, having first ordered off the vessels that were loading. At Mollendo, on the i8th of April, the "Cochrane" and "Chacabuco" sent in a boat to communicate with the authorities; this being fired at, the ships opened a cannonade upon the railway station and customhouse, without, how- ever, doing very serious damage. On the same day, April i8th, the "Blanco Encalada" and "O'Higgins" bombarded Pisagua. There was a large quantity of coal stored at this place for the use of the railroad. Boats sent in by the Chileans to de- stroy the launches were fired upon and several of the crews killed. A shell set fire to the town and more than a million dollars worth of property was destroyed. The only persons killed were a woman and a China-