Callao
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Callao. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the port of Lima, Peru, lies 7 miles iles S. W. of Lima by rail, on a small bay. The streets generally are narrow and the buildings unimportant. The town possesses a floating dock, and fine harbor works, embracing an area of 520 acres, with extensive pier and dock accommodation; and the spacious roadstead, sheltered by the island of San Lorenzo, is one of the safest in the world. The huge old Spanish fortress is used for custom-house offices. There are sugar refineries, ironworks, and sawmills; but the place depends chiefly for its prosperity on its trade. The exports are wool, sugar, specie, copper, cotton, bark, hides, guano, and cubic niter. The present Callao dates only from 1746, when the original cit city, a short distance to the S., was destroyed by an earthquake and an invasion of the sea. Callao was bombarded in 1880 during the war between Chile and Peru, and the annexation by the former of the guano-producing islands materially decreased the exports of this manure; crude niter (a government monopoly) and wool come next in importance. By the completion of a direct cable between this port and Mollèndo, telegraphic communication has been established with the United States. Pop. about 35,000. (ka-lim'ä-kus), CALLIMACHUS a Greek poet; born in Cyrene; flourished in the 3d century B. C. He wrote epics called "Hecale" and "Galatea," besides tragedies, comedies, elegies, and hymns; but only some epigrams, sacred songs, and verses have come down to us, among which are a "Hymn to Jupiter," an "Epitaph on Heracleitus," and one on him. self.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the chief seaport of Peru. Latitude 12?? S. The town is situated on a commodious harbor, and is commanded by Callao Castle, the last fortification to be held by Spain in south America . Callao has been bombarded by Chile and by Spain. In 1746 an earthquake wave carried ships ashore, landed a frigate far inland, and drowned 4,600 people. The foreign trade of Peru centers at Callao. On an average two ocean going steamships land daily. Callao is the starting point of the Callao Oroya Railway, the loftiest railway in the world. The chief exports are cotton, sugar, leather goods, gums, guano, wool, metals, and minerals. Over half a million dollars’ worth of cocaine is prepared and exported. Callao is headquarters for quinine, alpaca, and llama wool. About one-fourth of the total business of callao is transacted with the United states . A half of it goes to London and other British ports. The population is about 40,000
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's counted "about 35,000" people in 1921 and Aiton about 40,000 in 1910, Callao was a distinct port town seven miles from Lima; it is now swallowed by the Lima conurbation, a constitutional province of roughly a million residents, and holds Jorge Chávez International Airport, opened in 1965 and Peru's main air gateway. Guano and nitrate, still listed as staples, long ago ceased to matter; the port today ships minerals, fishmeal and farm produce, and has been rebuilt into a container terminal handling millions of tonnes a year. Aiton's boast that the Callao–Oroya line is "the loftiest railway in the world" held for decades but was surpassed by China's Qinghai–Tibet railway in 2006. His matter-of-fact note that half a million dollars' worth of cocaine was prepared and exported reads very differently now that the drug is illegal and the port is watched as a smuggling route.
Written for this edition, 2026.