Referring to my dispatch No. 256, in which I stated the value of the
laboratory, &c., of the School of Medicine taken by the Chilian
authorities at $500,000, I have now to say that I think the value was
overstated. I now understand that the laboratory was purchased in Paris for
600,000 francs. I cannot get reliable official evidence in these matters.
But the fact of the laboratory having been taken by the Chilian forces
(whatever may have been its value) is beyond doubt.
[Inclosure No. 1 in No.
263.—Translation.]
Señor Odriozola to
Mr. Christiancy.
The undersigned, director of the national library of Peru, has the honor
to address himself to your excellency, in order that you may bring to
the knowledge of your government the fact of the crime against
civilization committed by the Chilian authorities in Lima.
To take as their property libraries, archives, cabinets of science and
anatomy, and others which symbolize the intellectual progress of a
nation, or help to facilitate its development, is to restore to war a
character of barbarism foreign to the civilization of the age and the
practices of Christian and enlightened belligerents, and to the
universally recognized principles of right.
The Library of Lima was founded in 1822, a few months after the
declaration of independence, and was considered by all the literary
travelers who have visited it as the best among the libraries of Latin
America. Being enriched through the protection of subsequent
gevernments, and the gifts of private persons, it had, at the close of
1880, very nearly 50,000 printed volumes (not reckoning duplicate
editions), and over 800 interesting manuscripts. True bibliographical
curiosities, among which were not a few unreplaceable, or books printed
during the first century after the discovery of printing, and which, as
your excellency knows, are priceless works at present, very rare, either
from the copies being exhausted or for not having been reprinted,
especially in the branch of literature and history, the production of
nearly all the chroniclers of America, a section in which the
establishment was unrivaled, and books presented by foreign governments,
among which the United States of America figured largely. Such, Mr.
Minister, was the Library of Lima, a library of which we, the sons of
Peru, were justly proud.
The capital of Lima having been surrendered to the Chilian forces the
17th January, more than a month elapsed, during which the invaders
respected the institutions of learning; no fear was felt up to that time
that the Chilian authorities would dare to consider as spoils of war the
cabinets of the School of Medicine and university, the apparatus of the
School of Arts and Mines, or the important collection of the national
archives, and of other institutions of purely scientific, literary, or
artistic character.
On the 26th of February, at 3 p.m., the keys of the library were demanded
of us, and from that day forward the most scandalous robbery was carried
on, the books being carried to Callao in carts, and, I understand, they
being shipped to Santiago. The library has been sacked as though it
represented war material, and but a few more days will be necessary to
finish this act of rapine, carried on under the shadow of the flag of a
people considered as civilized and enlightened.
In addressing myself to your excellency, I do it in order that the
protest which I make in the name of cilvilization, morality, and justice
may appear before America and humanity, complying in this with a double
duty imposed upon me, by my duty as the director of the library, and my
patriotism.
With sentiments of high consideration and respect, I have the honor to
subscribe myself, your excellency’s obedient servant,
His Excellency I. P. Christiancy,
Minister of the United States in Lima.
