As regards Tacna, the situation being temporary, or presumably so, one’s sensibilities are not so afflicted by the condition. When the plebiscite comes, a majority vote will suffice to give the Peruvians back their ownership, on their government’s paying ten million dollars indemnity. These provinces have always been closely identified with the political life of Peru. It was from Tacna that the first band of patriots started out to join the Independent forces on the plain of Oruro against the royalist armies; and it was from this capital that the voice of the grand old republican, Gonzales Vigil, sounded the first clarion notes of appeal for liberal government in the newly organized councils of the nation. Statesmen, scholars, and soldiers have come out of the homes of Tacna and Arica to serve their government in the cabinet, the college, and the battlefield. And the Morro de Arica, a perpetual monument to the courage of Peruvian officers, serves ever to remind those who wait for the promised plebiscite that their children must be told its history. [Illustration: SNOW PEAKS ON THE BOLIVIAN BORDER, TACNA.] By the terms of the treaty mentioned, the Sama River marks the northern boundary of the territory occupied by Chile, which leaves a part of the provinces of Tacna and Tarata under Peruvian government. The entire area of these provinces is about fourteen thousand square miles, the districts at present occupied by Chile covering three-fourths of the territory. The Department of Tacna extends from the Pacific Ocean inland to the Bolivian border, and is bounded on the north and northwest by the Peruvian states of Puno and Moquegua. The coast region is warm and dry, and the pampas of Arica are rich in nitrate deposits. The city of Arica, situated on the beautiful bay of the same name, possesses one of the most delightful climates in the world. It is the seaport terminus of the Tacna and Arica railway, and the chief outlet for the traffic of a vast territory. The new offices of the Arica and La Paz railway—which is now under construction by Chile to connect the Bolivian city with this seaport—occupy a handsome building overlooking the harbor, and the city has several attractive public edifices, parks, and plazas. Tacna is the social and educational centre of the department, and its capital; though under the existing conditions, the centre of Peruvian government is established at Locumba, on the Locumba River, within the territory still under the control of Peru. Tacna was given the title and privileges of a town by supreme decree in 1823, in recognition of the brave services its people had rendered to the cause of Independence; and a few years later it was raised to the dignity of “Heroic City,” when it became the capital of the province. The government authorities of that part of the province of Tacna occupied by Peru reside at Ilabaya, in the northwestern district of Ilabaya, a picturesque town on the river of the same name.