CHAPTER III
THE WAR IN THE SOUTH—PISAGUA, SAN FRANCISCO, TARAPACA—LOSS OF THE DESERT PROVINCES
The allies had made strenuous efforts to concentrate an army in the south before their communications should be cut off by sea, for along the desert coast of southern Peru and Bolivia it is nearly impossible to move an army very long distances except by way of the Pacific. Here and there along the desert wastes deep gorges have been plowed out by the mountain streams dashing down to the ocean, and in them there are occasional oases and small cultivated tracts of land, where the towns are situated.
The allied army at Arica and other southern points now numbered about 20,000 men. General Prado had gone south from Arica on a tour of inspection to Tarapacá, where General Buendia was in command. General Daza, having brought four thousand Bolivian reinforcements into the field, remained at Arica and Tacna. General Prado took south with him two battalions of the Bolivian troops commanded by Colonel Villamil, and left them at Pisagua. Then he proceeded to Iquique where he remained several days, that port as well as Patillos being now efficiently garrisoned. The force in Tarapacá amounted to about nine thousand men under Buendia, an old soldier, and a rather rash
289
