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 JOSÉ 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 sentiments that rule in Peru in telling you of its sincere good will toward the United States, their illustrious President, and toward your own distinguished person. These feelings which unite the two countries began in the dawn of independence, because the founders of the great republic showed our forefathers the way to become free; and they strengthened us from the first days of our independent life by the safeguard which the admirable foresight of another great statesman of your country placed around American soil.