Diego Dublé Almeyda, an artillery officer from Valparaíso with a French father, spoke several languages and translated military manuals. He became governor of Magallanes in 1874 and followed Óscar Viel's line: more European immigrants. In April 1875 he rode out to open a small French-Chilean colony in the country near Punta Arenas, among bonfires and shouts of "Long live France! Long live Chile!"
In December 1876 he sailed to Stanley, in the Falklands, aboard the corvette Chacabuco. He came back with 300 sheep and sold them to the Englishman Henry Reynard, who turned them loose on Isabel Island, in the middle of the Strait. The trial worked, and with it began the wool business that would make Punta Arenas rich.
His rule was harsh. In October 1877 he refused to apply a cut to the troops' rations, but the anger ran deeper. On the night of 11 November the artillerymen rose, joined by convicts: they killed their captain, burned nearly every public building and looted the town. Dublé barely escaped. He resigned early in 1878.
He went on to fight in the War of the Pacific and ended his career as a brigadier general.
