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Coal can always be obtained. There are foundries and workshops where extensive repairs can always be made. There are also facilities for repairing iron and wooden ships. Mail leaves for Panama twice a month. These steamers touch at all the principal ports on the coast. Telegraphic communication to all parts of the world. Northers blow here often, and sometimes pass over without doing much damage, but at intervals the effects are most disastrous, and all the ill seaweed or ill placed vessels and are driven ashore. To ride out a northern, it is deemed advisable to have a long scope of cable on anchor that is over; also spare anchor ready to let go at a moment's notice; also to have full head of steam up and ready for sea.

Juan Fernandez island, generally call by the Americans, Robinson Crusoe island, and by the Spaniards Mas a Tierra (or near the mainland) is 370 miles to the westward of Valparaíso. It is 12 miles long and about 4 miles across at its widest part.  The island is fertile. Provisions of all kinds can be obtained. When seen from a distance, the mountain El Yunque (The Anvil) about 5000 feet high, so called for its shape, appears conspicuously placed in the mist of a range of precipitous mountains. There are only four families residing on the island. The bay offers abundance of fish. Crawfish may be caught in large quantities. Peaches grow wild and fruit can be bought at a moderate price.