From 1860, the trade of the Pacific rapidly developed itself. The inhabitants of the coast now saw the incalculable advantages to be derived from regular and increased intercourse between other countries. Steam here, as it has done everywhere else, opened up new and hitherto unthought of branches of commerce; the natives learned what other nations required, and, to meet these demands, they turned to cultivating their fields instead of fighting among themselves. Consequently, the Pacific Company soon found it necessary to increase the number of their fleet. In December 1859, a second supplemental charter was obtained, which extended the incorporation of the Company for twenty-one years from the 17th of February, 1861. On the 15th of June, 1865, a third supplemental charter was applied for and obtained, extending the powers of the Company, to the establishment of lines of communication “between the west coast of South America and the River Plata, including the Falkland Islands and such other ports or places in North and South America, and other foreign ports, as to the said Company shall seem expedient.” [Sidenote: Vast increase of capital, 1867.] During these years the profits of the undertaking had been steadily increasing, and at a special meeting of shareholders held in December 1867 it was determined to add to the operations of the company by establishing a monthly line _from Liverpool_ to the west coast of South America, _viâ_ the Straits of Magellan. This entirely new and important, though hazardous, branch of the service necessitated an increase of the capital of the company to 2,000,000_l._ In furtherance of their views the directors sent their steamer _Pacific_, of 2000 tons register and 450 horse-power, from Valparaiso, in May 1868, as the pioneer of the new mail line. [Sidenote: Further increase of capital to 3,000,000_l._, 1871.] The bold undertaking of dispatching steamers on so distant a voyage, and at so high a rate of speed as that maintained, proved for some years more successful than could have been anticipated, and, in 1869, the profits of the four new steamers, which had made nine voyages from Liverpool to Valparaiso, were so satisfactory that the directors in 1870 determined to make the line bi-monthly, and extend the voyage from Valparaiso to Callao. Seventeen voyages made in the course of that year with still greater success, induced the directors to recommend that the departures thenceforward should be three a month; and, in December 1871, the shareholders authorized a further increase of the capital to 3,000,000_l._, so that the company might be enabled to dispatch every week one of their steamers on this distant voyage.