THE LIFE AND INDUSTRIAL LABORS OF WILLIAM WHEELWRIGHT IN SOUTH AMERICA. tita BY J. B. ALBÉRDI, (LATE MINISTER OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC TO FRANCE AND ENGLAND.) Translated from the Spanish, with Additional Memoranda. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. CALEB CUSHING, UNITED STATES MINISTER TO SPAIN. BOSTON: A. WILLIAMS & CO. 283 WASHINGTON STREET. 1877. HE COPYRIGHT, 1877, BY A. WILLIAMS & CO. Stereotyped and Printed by THE present publication has been prepared as a genuine labor of love, by the surviving relatives of Mr. Wheelwright. It is for the most part a translation, made by them, from the work of Mr. J. B. Alberdi, recently published at Paris, in the Spanish language, under the title of "LA VIDA Y LOS TRABAJOS INDUSTRIALES DE WILLIAM WHEELWRIGHT, EN LA AMERICA DEL SUD." Mr. Alberdi is an eminent citizen of the Argentine Confederation, distinguished in diplomacy and as a writer on questions of international jurisprudence. His memoir of Mr. Wheelwright, including an exposition of the industrial labors of the latter in the Republics of Chili, Peru, Ecuador, and La Plata, is composed with a knowledge of the facts, an amplitude of details, and a just appreciation of the subject in all its bearings, which could be acquired only by personal observation and access to local information in South America. Of the character and public services of Mr. Wheelwright, the author speaks in the spirit and language of enthusiastic admiration, which, if highly colored, is yet natural and excusable on the part of a South American, and especially a son of the Argentine Republic. For, while Mr. Wheelwright was justly honored in his native country for his many high personal qualities and the celebrity he had acquired by arts which promoted either directly or indirectly the welfare of all mankind, and which therefore in effect reached the United States, still the imme diate field of those important acts was in the countries of Spanish America. In those vast and even yet imperfectly developed regions, Mr. Wheelwright was the pioneer of all those great works which in our day have changed the face of the world, steam navigation, railways, gas, harbor improvements, the exploitation of coal, and other instrumentalities of material prosperity and advancement, entitling him to be ranked among the great benefactors of his race, especially in South America. It is most fitting, therefore, that conspicuous testimony to his merits should come to us from Spanish America in the work of Mr. Alberdi. But Mr. Wheelwright was after all a citizen of the United States, devotedly attached to his country, never forgetting it in the midst of his foreign toils and triumphs, fondly recurring in all times and places to the recollection of his native land, his birthplace, and the kinsfolk and the friends of his youth. It is therefore fitting, also, that his surviving relatives should desire to give publicity in our own language to the full account of his industrial achievements drawn up by Mr. Alberdi. The writer of this brief note is proud to be able hereby to contribute his humble part toward perpetuating the memory of a most esteemed compatriot, with whom he maintained constant relations of sincere friendship from the days of childhood onward to the last years of the long and honorable life of Mr. Wheelwright. C. CUSHING. - HIS SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH AMERICA III. WHEELWRIGHT'S SHIPWRECK AT BUENOS AYRES. HE LEAVES FOR THE PACIFIC COAST. IV. HIS EARLY EXPERIENCES ON THE PACIFIC AS A NAVI- HE ORIGINATES THE PACIFIC LINE OF STEAMERS WHEELWRIGHT'S DETERMINED OPPOSITION TO THE VIII. HE SEEKS THE SANCTION AND CO-OPERATION OF THE IX. THE INDUCEMENTS HELD OUT BY WHEELWRIGHT TO X. HE VISITS LONDON FOR THE PURPOSE OF FORMING THE PACIFIC STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY. - OPIN- 79 XIII. DIFFICULTIES AND STRUGGLES OF THE NEW ENTER- - AND OPENING OF THE CHILI COAL-MINES . 83 |