Arica

Arica, a seaport of Tacna, the most southerly department of Peru. It is one of the chief outlets of the trade of Bolivia, and has been connected since 1854 by rail with Tacna, 38 miles inland. Its exports mostly consist of copper, silver, cascarilla and other barks, chinchilla skins, alpaca, and vicuña wool. Arica has frequently suffered from earthquakes. It was almost wholly destroyed in 1832, but soon rebuilt. It suffered severely again in 1868, the earthquake being succeeded by fearful waves, one of them 40 feet high. In the time of the Spanish supremacy, Arica was a great commercial city with 30,000 inhabitants; its present pop. is about 4000. It was stormed and taken by the Chilians in 1880. The treaty of 1883 provided that Arica and the department of Tacna were to be occupied by Chili for ten years.