creation of a waterway
that will put the Pacific coast of South America in close touch with the
Atlantic coast of North America must be a factor of incalculable
importance in determining the affairs of the western hemisphere and
promoting our relations of intimacy and friendship.

Now, at this moment, at the beginning of this great commercial and
industrial awakening--I say at the beginning, notwithstanding all that
you have already done, because I believe you have only begun to realize
the great work you have before you--at this moment there falls on you
this terrible misfortune, one of those warnings that at times God sends
to his people to show them how weak they are in his hands--a misfortune
because of which the entire world mourns with you. But I believe--I
know--that the air of these mountains and of these shores, which in
another time gave its spirit to the proud and indomitable Arucanian
race, has given to the people of Chile the vigor with which to rise up
from the ashes of Valparaiso and with which to make out of the
misfortune of today the incentive for great deeds tomorrow. And in this
era of friendship, when peaceful immigration has replaced armed
invasions, when the free exchange of capital and the international
ownership of industrial and commercial enterprises, of manufactures, of
mines, have replaced rapine and plunder--in this era of commercial
conquest and industrial acquisition, of more frequent intercourse among
men, of more intimate knowledge and better understanding, there has come
to you in this your great misfortune the friendship and the sympathy of
the world.

In truth, our friends who sleep the last sleep there in Valparaiso have
brought to their country a possession of greater value than was ever won
by the soldier on the battlefield.

As I said to you yesterday, Mr. President, I feared that under the
present sad circumstances I might be intruding upon you; should I not
rather feel that the words of friendship of which I am the bearer are in
perfect harmony with the sentiment that your affliction has created in
all countries, the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man?

PERU

BANQUET AT THE GOVERNMENT PALACE, LIMA

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY JOSE PARDO Y BARREDA

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

September 10, 1906

With the most sincere good will, I cordially welcome you in the name of
my country and of its Government, and I believe I faithfully interpret
the sentime