(Vale of Paradise), the second city and chief port in Chile, over 100 m. NW. of Santiago, at the head of a bay which looks N., and where the anchorage is dangerous; is quite a commercial city; exports ores, nitre, wheat, hides, etc., the business affairs of which are largely in the hands of foreigners, chiefly English, American, and Germans; it has been on various occasions visited by severe earthquakes; was bombarded by a Spanish fleet in 1866 and suffered in the Civil War of 1891.