FOUR YEARS
AMONG
SPANISH-AMERICANS.
BY F. HASSAUREK,
LATE UNITED STATES MINISTER RESIDENT TO THE REPUBLIC OF
ECUADOR.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON,
459 BROOME STREET.
1868.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
F. HASSAUREK,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Ohio.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.




PREFACE.
CONSIDERING the rapid multiplioatin Gof books in
every branch of science and literature, it has always
been my opinion that no new book should be written
unless the author has something new to say, or unless
he can present something already known in a new and
original light.
Of Spanish-America but little is known among us
at present. Our reading public probably knows more
of China or Japan, than of such countries as the
interior of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
Scientific men of great celebrity have acquainted us
with the geographical and geological features of the
Andean valleys and table-lands; but they have told us
but little concerning the character, the social and
domestic life, the political institutions and troubles of
the inhabitants. In this respect, I believe I have had,
to a great extent, an unexplored field before me; and
I flatter myself that the following pages contain many
observations and valuable items of ethnological and historical information which cannot be found in any of
the comparatively few English books on Spanish-America.




IV                   PREFACE.
This is not a book of travels. The impressions of
a traveller in a foreign country, who passes from one
place to another, taking hasty notes of undigested
observations, are often erroneous, and generally unreliable. It is necessary to live among a people, to
speak their language, to know their history and literature, to study their customs, and to associate with them
continually, in order to be able to write a book about
them which those who are thoroughly familiar with
the subject will not throw aside as presumptuous and
superficial.
I have left many warm friends in South America,
friends whose uniform courtesy, attention, and kindness
to me, I shall never cease to appreciate. Some of them,
I am afraid, will object to certain passages in this book
as an uncharitable return of hospitality. But to do
good, the truth must be told. Vattel very properly
pronounces it to be the duty of every nation to know
itself. To acquire a sufficient knowledge of itself,
however, a nation should wish occasionally to "see
itself as others see it." I have " extenuated nothing,"
but I have " set down naught in malice." I feel for
those unfortunate countries, and the memory of the
friends I have left there shall ever be dearly treasured
up in my heart. But if the following pages were to
have any merit, I had to describe South America as I
found it and not as I wished it to be.
THE AUTHOR.
CIxNCINATI, August 23d, 1867.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGX
Arrival in Ecuador. - The City of Guayaquil. - Its Aspect. -
North American Enterprise. - Old and New City.- Wooden
Buildings. - Palm-trees, Goats, and Gallinazos. - Fortifications
and Barracks. - Balsas. - A Floating Population. - Climate and
Temperature. - Dry and Rainy Season. - Distant View of Mount
Chimborazo.
CHAPTER II.
Ancient History of Guayaquil. - Pirates and Bucc'neers. - Conflagrations. - Population and Commerce. - Imports and Exports. -
Productiveness of the Country. - Want of Roads. - Ida Pfeiffer.
— Preparations for the Journey to the Interior. -Trip up the
River to Bodegas. - A Tropical Paradise. - Thoughts of Home.    9
CHAPTER  III.
Alligators. - The Town of Babahoyo, or Bodegas. - Hiring Horses.
- Arrieros. - Galled and Jaded Beasts. - Packing. - Indian Endurance. - The Journey. - The Tropical Forest. - No Great Race
has ever sprung from the Tropics. - Savaneta. - Description of
Houses on the Road. -Punta Playas. - Camellones or Camels'
Backs. - Nights in the Forest. - Mysterious Noises. - Mata
Blanca. - Pisagua. - A Horrid Road. - Ascending the Cordillera.
- Jorje. - Cuesta de Angas. - Camino Real. - Eating Lice. -
Emerging from the Tropics. - Superstition. - View from Mt.
Pizcurcu. —A Forgotten Corner of the World. —A Dangerous
Descent. - Villages in the Valley of Chimbo. - The Polite " Jefe
Politico." - Socabon. - Llamas. - The Town of Guaranda. -
Change Horses: - Preparations for passing Chimborazo..   22
CHAPTER  IV.
Passage of Mt. Chimborazo.- A Visit to the Region of Clouds and
Storms. - View of the Mountain. - The Arenal. - Human Reminiscences and Monuments in the Desert of Sand and Snow.



vi                         CONTENTS.
PAGE
What a Paramo is. - Its Terrors. - Chuquipoyo. - The Hacienda
of Chimborazo. -A Dreary Resting-place. - View from Chuquipoyo.- The City of Riobamba in the Distance. - Earthquakes
and Volcanoes. - Mt. Sangai. - Rains of Ashes. - Mt. Altar. -
Mt. Carguairazo. - The Paramo of Sanancajas. - Descent from
the Mountain Heath. - Reappearance of Vegetation. - The Village of Mocha.........   50
CHAPTER V.
From Mocha to Ambato. - The Volcano Tunguragua. - The Towns
of Ambato and Latacunga. - Fleas. - The Volcano Cotopaxi. -
Earthquakes and Prophecies. - A Gold Legend. - The Treasure
of Atahuallpa. - The Testament of Valverde. - His Derrotero. -
Mt. Ilinisa. - The Plain and Village of Mulalu. - Description of
a Farm-Building. - Signs of General Decay. - The Hill of Callo.
- The Footprints of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. - Inca Ruins.
- The Paramo of Tiupullo. - The "Accursed Tree." - Rumifiagui and other Mountains. - The Villages of Machachi and Tambillo. - An Ecuadorian Tavern. - End of our Journey..   68
CHAPTER VI.
Altitude of Quito.- Mt. Pichincha. - Its Height. - The Crater. -
The Peaks of Pichincha. - Eruptions. - The French Academicians. - Humboldt, Colonel Hall, and Boussingault. - Dr. Gabriel
Garcia Moreno's Three Descents to the Bottom of the Crater.The Valley and Village of Lloa. -An American Artist in the
Crater. - My Visits to it. - View from the Summit of Pichincha.
- Pumice-stone. - Temperature. - Approaches to Quito. — AiaQuito, the Battle-Field. - Turubamba. - Mt. Panecillo. - The
City viewed from the Surrounding Hills. -A Retrospect..   91
CHAPTER VII.
Quito. - Appearance of the City. - Crowds in the Streets. - Streets
and Houses. - Queer Mode of Cooking.- Want of Hotels.- A
Curate's Idea of the Obligation of Promises. - Traits of Native
Character. - Want of Cleanliness. - Incidents. - Excellent Climate. - Mean Temperature. - No Diseases.ro,  Insects. - The
Rainy Season. - Fruits and Flowers. - Earth's Paradise..  104
CHAPTER VIII.
Population. - The Whites. - Aristocratic Traditions. - Ancient Nobility. - Prejudice against Labor. - Early Marriages. - BoyHusbands. - No Spirit of Association. - Mixed Races. - Cholas
and Bolziconas. - Servants. - Huasicamas. - Indian Wives. -
Laundresses. - Longas, Guambras, and Guifiazhiscas. - Ama de




CONTENTS.                            vii
PAGE
Llaves. -Marketing. - Matrimonial Relations.- An Incident. -
Indian Humility. - Other Traits of Indian Character. -Politeness
of the Rabble. - Spanish-American Courtesy. - A Lady's Message to a Friend.. 121
CHAPTER  IX.
Spanish MIode of Colonization. - Fortifications and Convents. - Architecture of Quito.- The Moorish Style. -Public Buildings. -
Churches. - Nunneries. - The Convent of San Francisco. - Its
Painted Miracles. - Interesting Specimens. - The Praying Lamb.
- The Chapel of Catufia. - A Romantic Legend. - The Treasures
of Rumifiagui.- A Pretended Pact with the Prince of Darkness.
- La Capilla del Robo. - Another Legend. - The Parish Church
of San Roque. -Flagellation. - The Tejar, or La Recoleta de la
Merced. - Religious Exercises in Lent. - Still another Legend. -
Indian Reticence. — Burying-places. - How the Poor bury their
Children. - Administering the Last Sacraments. - Religious Processions. - Semana Santa. - Holy Thursday and Good Friday. -
Splendid Illumination of the Churches. - A Descendimiento.- A
Sermon accompanied by a Puppet-show. - Its Effect on the Audience.-A Portable Image of the Lord, and its Travels to the
Coast. - Christmas. - Misa de Gallos. - The Clergy. - Ignorance
and Immorality of the Monks. - The Curates. - List of Convents
and Nunneries. - Fees of Curates. - Divisions of Caste..  137
CHAPTER X.
Social Life in the Ecuadorian Capital. - The Ladies. - High Opinion of France. - The Populace believes every Foreigner to be a
Frenchman. - Female Morality. - The General Prejudice unfounded. - Female Politicians and Conspirators. - Educational.'Literary Dependence of Spain on France.- Want of Newspapers.
- Sisters of the " Heart of Jesus." - Music. - The Diplomatic
Corps. - Foreigners. - Exequias. - Duelos. - Luto. - Sunday
Visits. - Salutations and Etiquette. - Christmas Calls. - Dar las
Pascuas. - Cumnpleaios. - Bull-baitings, or Toros. - Description
of the Plaza Mayor. - Cock-fights. - La Gallera. - Holidays. -
Inocentes. — Masquerades between Christmas and New Year. -
Fancy Dress Processions. - Carnival. - Queer Observance. —
Chicha, the Indian National Beverage. —Indian Degradation,
Drunkenness, and Improvidence.163
CHAPTER XI.
Agriculture.- Wooden Plows. - Mechanic Arts. - Improvidence
of the People. - Beggars. - Commerce of the Interior. - Want of
Enterprise. - City lit with Tallow Candles. - Needlework and
Embroidery. - Fine Arts. - Painting. - Splendid Copyists.



Viii                       CONTENTS.
PAGE
Cheapness of Paintings. - Saints and Martyrs. - A Scene from
Purgatory. - The Liberal Professions. - The Law. - Tinterillos.
-System of Jurisprudence. - The Country without a Penitentiary. - Physicians. - Drug  Stores. - The Hospicio. - Leprosy
and Elephantiasis. - Female Prison and Lunatic Asylum. - The
Hospital. - No Room for Wounded Soldiers. - The Young Men
of Quito.                                                    190
CHAPTER XII.
The Political Condition of the South-American Republics. - A Tale
of Horror and Misery.209
CHAPTER XLII.
Trip to the Province of Imbabura. - Descent to the River Guaillabamba. - The Pyramids. - Their History.- The Village of
Guaillabamba. - Wild Mountainous Scenery. - The Switzerland
of America. - The River Pisque. - A Historical Reminiscence. -
Gonzalo Pizarro and the Viceroy Blasco Nufiez Vela. - American
Aloe; its Multifarious Uses. - Tabacundo. - Gente del Pueblo or
Common People. - Alto de Cajas. - Lake St. Pablo. - The Festival of St. John. - Great Indian Celebrations.- The Feast at
Otabalo. - Indian Dances and Masquerades. - Gambling. - Ugliness of Indian Women. - The Chapel of Monserate. - Idolatrous
Practices. - Corrida de Gallos. - San Juan and San Pedro at the
Village of Cayambi. - Mt. Cayambi. - Longevity. - Agua Gloriada. - Contra-dances. - Guarapo. - Reports of Volcanic Activity.- More Gold Legends.- Serro Pelado. - Col. Hall's attempted
Ascent of Mt. Cayambi. - Gold Somewhere. - The Napo Province on the Eastern Side of the Cordillera. - Compulsory Sales of
Merchandise to Indians by the Governor. -Destruction of Three
Cities bv the Indians. - No Vestige remains. - Poetic Retribution.
- Legends and Traditions.- The Fate of the Captured Women
of Golden Sevilla.248
CHAPTER XIV.
My Journey to the Northern Province continued.- The Chase.Esculents. - The Graveyard of Cayambi. -Doctrina Cristiana. -
Aruchicos. - Speech by an Indian. - Indian Peonage. - Further
Peculiarities of Indian Character. -Population and Characteristics of the Town of Otabalo.- The Convent. - Punishment of Indians for neglecting Religious Observances. - Alcaldes de Doctrina.
- Mt. Cotacachi and Lake Cuicocha. - Dangerous Hunting Parties. - Sunday Markets. - The Village of Cotacachi. - More
Remnants of the Inquisition. - Padronar. - How Laws and Municipal Ordinances are promulgated in an Illiterate Country. -




CONTENTS.                            ix
PAGE
American Machinery an "Invention of the Devil." -Mt Imbabura. - The Village of IIatuntaqui. - Tolas, or Indian Graves
or Mounds. - The City of Ibarra.- Carranqui, the Birthplace of
Atahuallpa.- No Vestige left of Indian Civilization.- Digging
up Indian Graves. - Strange Discoveries. - Impulse given by the
Gold Discoveries at Cuenca. - Lake Yaguarcocha, the Sea of
Blood...........  294
CHAPTER XV.
Trip to the Province of Imbabura concluded. - A Visit to the Valley
of the River Chota. - The Heights of Alaburu. - The Mountain
of Pialchan, with its Mysterious Cave. - Another Gold Legend. -
A irial Bridges. - Return to the Tropics. - Sugar Plantations and
Negroes. - History of the Abolition of Slavery in Ecuador. -
Landslips. - Mass Emigration and Disappearance of Indians. -
The Strange Story of Pimampiro. - Geological Catastrophes. -
Digging for Treasures. - The Village of Cacha swallowed up by
an Earthquake. —Indian Graves. - Ancient Indian Crockery. —
Guajara.- The Footpath to Peylon on the Coast. -The English
Company. - Negro Dances. - Bomba and Alfandoque. - The
Paramo Road to Quito. —Mojanda.-A  Farewell to the Fairy
Province of Imbabura. - Mountain Lakes. - Return to Quito.  322
CHAPTER XVI.
HISTORICAL REVIEW.
Indian Traditions.- Difficulties of Estimating Ancient Indian Civilization. - Scarcity of Materials.- Destruction of Indian Civilization by the Spaniards. -The Religious Element of the Conquest.
- Fray Marcos de Niza. - Persecution of the Indian Writer Collahuaso. - The Old Quitu Nation.- Its Conquest by the Carans. -
The Giants of Punta Santa Helena.- The Ancient Kings or
Scyris of Quito. - Romantic Legend of Condorazo. - Invasion of
the Peruvian Incas. - Cacha Duchicela, the last of the Scvris. -
His Heroic Resistance against the Inca Huaynacapac. - Battle of
Hatuntaqui. - Death of the last of the Scyris. — His Daughter
Pacha. - Death of Huaynacapac. - War between his Sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa. - Battle of Quipaypan. - Defeat and Capture
of Huascar. - Arrival of the Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro.
- Capture and Execution of Atahuallpa. - Downfall of the Peruvian Empire - Usurpation and Cruelty of Rumifiagui at Quito.
- Benalcazar's Expedition to Quito. - Genius of Rumifiagui. -
Battle of Tiocajas. - Evacuation and Destruction of Quito by Rumifiagui. - The Virgins of the Sun. - Horrid Cruelty of the Spaniards. - Execution of Rumifiagui. - Indian Slavery. - Encomiendas and Repartimientos. - Spanish Colonization. - The Blue




X                          CONTENTS.
PAGE
Laws of Spanish America. — Protective Legislation. - Pedro de
Puelles. - Revolution of the Colonists. - Gonzalo Pizarro. - Battle of Quito. - Death of the Viceroy. - Death of Gonzalo Pizarro.
-Revolution and Execution of Hernandez Giron.- The Cause
of the Indians Abandoned. - Plan for a Continuation of this
History....  351
APPENDIX......  399




FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
CHAPTER I.
Arrival in Ecuador. - The City of Guayaquil. - Its Aspect. - North
American Enterprise. - Old and New City. - Wooden Buildings. -
Palm-trees, Goats, and Gallinazos. - Fortifications and Barracks. - Bal-,
sas. - A Floating Population. - Climate and Temperature. - Dry and
Rainy Season. - Distant View of Mount Chimborazo.
GUAYAQUIL is the principal sea-port of the Republc
of Ecuador on the Pacific coast of South America.
It is situate on the right bank of the river Guayas,
about sixty miles above its mouth. I arrived there on
the 21st of June, 1861. The city, viewed from the
river, presents a lively and business-like appearance,
especially at night, when rows of gas-lights are reflected
in the waters. There is but little to warn the traveller,
at first sight, that it is a town of the present, through
which he has to pass into regions still belonging to the
past.  The principal street, called the "Malecon," extends about a mile and a half along the river; its
large frame houses with their curtain-covered porches,
some of them strangely dislocated by earthquakes, as
if ready to tumble down, without a moment's warning,
present a most original and grotesque appearance.
The stores are as elegant and tasteful as any of our
own stores in a second or third class city could be;
gas-light greets us at night, and a lively throng of humanity in the day-time; hundreds of canoes, skiffs, rafts,
1




2     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
balsas, and small sailing-vessels called chatas, come and
go with the tide, bringing to town the manifold tropical fruits and vegetables in which the luxuriant country
along the Guayas and its affluents abounds. Watercarriers on donkeys, with two barrels on a wooden
pack-saddle before them, hurry up and down the
streets. At night the air is rent by the lively and
sometimes witty exclamations of boys, offering for sale
a kind of candy called caramelo, tallow-candles, tamales (a peculiar dish of the country), ice-cream, if ice
happens to be in town, etc., etc. Coaches and carriages, it is true, are not to be seen (there are but two
private carriages in town, and these are confined to the
Malecon, and a few intersecting streets, because the
pavement of the others makes them inaccessible to
vehicles), but mule-carts clatter from one end of the
landing to the other. A hand railroad-track leads from
the wharf to the custom-house, - certainly not suggestive of the fact that we are but one day's journey from
regions in which a wagon is never seen. Steamboats
like our own (their machinery having been built in the
United States) ply up and down the river, reminding
us of home; and even a Baltimore steam-engine puffs
and snorts through the streets in cases of fire, filling
the atmosphere with sounds familiar to an American
ear.
In fact, almost all the modern improvements in
Guayaquil were introduced by North Americans. An
American company has introduced gas into a town to
which coal must be brought from abroad. An American company has built the friendly steamboats, which
now make their regular trips up and down the Guayas
and its tributaries; an iron foundery and machine-shop
have been established by Americans, and even the




DESCRIPTION OF GUAYAQUIL.             3.
two neat little frame houses on the wharf which are
occupied by the officers of the port, were brought from
the United States.
The northern part of Guayaquil is called the " Old
City," which clusters around the slopes of a hill on which
the military hospital is located, and the fresh verdure
of which, especially during the rainy season, is pleasing to the eye. The new town, containing all that is
business or fashion, occupies a part of the plain or
savana between the river and a salt-water estuary
called the " Estero Salado." It is separated from the
old city by several smaller estuaries, over which wooden
bridges, always out of repair, keep up the communication. The total absence of brick and stone buildings
is striking. The houses are two or three stories high,
and built in the southern style, with porches or balconies protruding over the sidewalks and resting on
wooden pillars, thus forming piazzas,1. which afford
protection against sun and rain.  But few  of the
streets are properly paved. Some of them have nothing but a bridge of stepping-stones at the crossings as
a passage, during the rainy season, from one side to the
other. The Malecon, and a few others of the principal streets, are kept tolerably clean, but the by-streets,
and the rear part of the city, are shockingly filthy,
and disfigured by dilapidated, dingy, and miserable
hovels. Stray donkeys and herds of goats roam the
streets, and feed on the grass which, in the rainy season, covers the most frequented thoroughfares, giving
a melancholy aspect to the place. The palm-tree, the
king of tropical vegetation, rises majestically over roofs
and garden fences on which the gallinazo (turkey-buzzard or carrion-crow) perches, - that silent and greedy
companion of death and decay.
1 Such passages or covered sidewalks are called portales.




4     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISII-AMERICANS.
In the outskirts of the city the houses of the poor
are almost as humble as those primitive habitations
which we shall meet in the tropical wilderness, on the
road to the interior. They have only an upper floor
resting on piles, the room below being used for kitchens, or occupied by domestic animals. They are
floored and walled with split cane, and thatched with
bijao leaves, or other dried herbage. The hammock
constitutes their principal article of furniture; and thus
but a few squares from the splendid residences of the
wealthy aristocracy, furnished with Parisian luxury,
we find the humble cottage of the poor half-breed, the
indolent inhabitant of the tropical forest.
The hill at the foot of which the old city extends, is
fortified by batteries commanding the river above and
below. Sand batteries, too, dot the landing along
the Malecon. They were erected in 1861 and 1862,
when war with Peru seemed to be inevitable. [Why
batteries should have been planted within the city so
as to draw the enemy's fire on a town of wooden
buildings, instead of defending it from without, is one
of those mysteries of military science which uninitiated
civilians are unable to comprehend.] There are three
cuarteles (military barracks) in the city. The soldiers,
especially those from the interior, are generally followed by their wives, who are allowed to live with
them. This rather unmilitary indulgence, is believed
to prevent the men from deserting; it- adds to their
comforts, and may be considered an improvement on
the morality of camps or barracks. The soldiers are a
motley crowd, with and without shoes, and representing all imaginable shades of color. The higher officers
are generally white men; but no white men will be
found among the rank and file. Indians are exempt




THE MARKET. - BALSAS.               5
fi'om military service on account of their meekness and
cowardice.
The market on the landing presents a grotesque and
lively sight.  The principal food of the poorer classes
is the plantain, which is brought to town in canoes or
skiffs.  It is picturesque to see them  come with the
tide paddled by one or two half-naked mulattoes, zambos
or cholos, and generally so well filled that the plantain
branches overhang the sides and are dragged along in
the waters, issuing, as it were, from the very horn of
plenty.  The principal disadvantage of Guayaquil is
the want of sweet water during the dry season, because then the tide runs up to Bodegas, a town about
sixty miles above Guayaquil.  Hence water has to be
brought to the city in casks and barrels on rafts called
balsas, a most remarkable maritime conveyance invented by the ancient Peruvians. They are made of
five, seven, or nine trunks of an exceedingly light
tree, called balsa. The rafts are made longer or
smaller, as they are wanted for fishing, for the coasting-trade, or for the river, and they go with safety as
far as Payta in Peru, from  Guayaquil.  The trunks,
or logs of which they are made, are fastened to each
other by bejucos (a sort of parasite plant) or withies,
and have cross-logs lashed so firmly with these pliable
plants that they rarely give way, though the sea during their coasting voyages runs very high.  Nor does
the water rise between the logs, as the whole machine
adapts itself to the motion of the waves. Sails, too, are
used on balsas, and were used by the Indians before
the conquest, to the great astonishment of the Spanish
discoverers.  Houses, with two or three rooms, and
kitchens, are generally built on such balsas; and thus
residences are formed for a literally floating population,




6    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
living on the rivers, and changing about from one part
of the country to another as inclination or necessity
may dictate. These balsas are chiefly inhabited by negroes and mulattoes. Their furniture consists of two
or three hammocks, in which they swing in the daytime, and sleep at night. The rivers abound in fish,
which they take with a hooked spear, in a very dexterous manner. The plantain-tree, which grows around
them in abundance, furnishes them with more vegetable
food than they can eat. Clothing they need but little,
thanks to the climate, which enables them to go about
half-naked. What little fuel they require for cooking
purposes, their children will find in the woods along
the river banks. They spend nothing for the education of their children, who, like their parents, grow up
in ignorance and superstition. To gain a little ready
money they take fruits and vegetables to market, and
rear fighting-cocks, with which they visit the cockpits
in towns or villages.  The very bounteousness of
Nature has made the poorer classes indolent, lazy, and
improvident.
The mean temperature of Guayaquil is about 780
Fahrenheit, in the shade. The dry season lasts from
June to December or January, and is exceedingly cool,
pleasant, and healthy. The evenings, nights, and
mornings are very cool, sometimes even cold. The
days are warm, but *those whose business does not
require strong physical exertion will hardly call the
weather hot. At about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and sometimnes much earlier, a cool and strong
breeze sets in which is known as the chadnduy, because
it comes over a mountain of that name. It generally
blows all night, and sometimes even in the morning,
and greatly contributes to the salubrity of the place,




THE RAINY SEASON.                      7
although it leads to frequent colds. During the best
part of the dry season, there are hardly any mosquitoes, and no epidemics. If it were not for the rainy
season, I should say that the reports about the pestiferous climate of Guayaquil are gross exaggerations.
The rainy season, however, or " winter," as it is called,
is very unpleasant.  The sun sends down its burning
rays in the- day-time, and the heavens open their
flood-gates at night.  The pleasant chdnduy ceases to
blow, and the atmosphere is hot and oppressive, without a breeze stirring for days and weeks. Mosquitoes
cloud the air in dense swarms, and molest the inhabitants in the day-time as well as at night. Puddles are
formed in the streets, making many of them impassable
from one side to the other. The savana (plain) in the
rear, and some of the streets in the outskirts of the
city, will be under water, owing to the yearly inundation of the low and flat parts of the country.  Myriads
of little insects will hover around the lights at night,
dropping down dead on tables, desks, and other furniture. Fevers and dysenteries make their appearance,
and business is suspended on account of the impassable
condition of the roads. During this season, Guayaquil
must appear gloomy to the foreigner, not on account
of the heat, as the mercury never rises as high as during the torrid season of our own country, but on account of its general unpleasantness, and especially the
intolerable attacks of mosquitoes and other insects.l
1 Among the insects of Guayaquil, there is one which is not an enemy to
man, but to knowledge and science. It is the polilla (pronounced poleelya),
which destroys books and papers by perforating them in a hundred different places, from one end of a volume to the other. The greater part of
the old municipality records has thus been destroyed; and to keep up
extensive public or private libraries would require the greatest care and
incessant watchfulness. Camphor seems to be a safe preventive against
the polilla; but it evaporates so soon, that its application must be repeated




8      FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
A great sight for foreigners is a distant view of
Mount Chimborazo, which may be seen from the Malecon on clear summer days. On the other side of the
river, apparently in the rear of two insignificant hills,
rises above the long chain of the Cordillera, the huge
mountain covered with masses of snow and ice, the
dazzling whiteness of which is intersected by black
lines formed by the steep and sharp edges of frightful
rocks on which the snow cannot gather.  Unpolluted
by mortal tread the mountain rears its snowy head.
The storms of heaven thunder around its unapproachable peaks; the fleeting clouds are allowed to embrace
and to kiss them; the majestic condor alights on them
for a short rest after his soaring flight, but no human
foot ever profaned them; no human foot ever will.
Now you see the mountain before you, as an imposing
background to green forests, luxuriant hills, and the
undulating chain of the Cordillera; but follow me and
you shall soon see it, face to face, and in the loneliness
of the desert. You shall see it, yourself, 14,000 feet
above the level of the sea, and far away from all
human habitations, face to face, amidst the horrors of
Nature's solitude. There, where the howling storms
sweep over the dreary " Arenal "; there, where the
shivering traveller hurries over the lofty pass to avoid
the dreadful gusts that may hurl the rider from  his
horse; there, where the mountain streams separate and
rush on, on one side to the Atlantic and on the other
to the Pacific; there, if you will follow me, you will
bow to Nature's grandeur in the loneliness of altitudes
unconquerable by the skill and enterprise of man.
continually. The dampness of the atmosphere, too, (not only in the rainy,
but also in the dry season,) is a great enemy to books; but more dangerous
still to clothes, silk dresses, kid gloves, and other articles of wearing apparel.




CHAPTER II.
Ancient History of Guayaquil. - Pirates and Buccaneers. - Conflagrations. - Population and Commerce. - Imports and Exports. - Productiveness of the Country. - Want of Roads. - Ida Pfeiffer. - Preparations for the Journey to the Interior. -Trip up the River to Bodegas. - A Tropical Paradise. - Thoughts of Home.
THE first foundation of Guayaquil took place in the
year 1535. Sebastian de Benalcazar, the conqueror of
Quito, placed himself at the head of an expedition
fitted out at that place, and consisting of one hundred
Spaniards, fifty horses, and four thousand friendly, or
rather subjugated Indians, who had been impressed for
the purpose of carrying the baggage, provisions, and
ammunition of their new masters. He made his way to,
and through, the valley of Chimbo without difficulty;
but when he descended the western branch of the Cordillera, and entered the lowlands, his Indian carriers,
unaccustomed to the parching heat and unhealthy climate of the coast, died at the rate of two hundred to
three hundred a day. The fame of the Spaniards, however, had already preceded them. The Indian tribes
on the River Guayas and its tributaries had heard of
the foreign conquerors, before whom the mighty empire
of the Incas had fallen, and convinced that, eventually,
resistance would prove useless, made their submission
to Benalcazar.  On the 25th of July, 1535, the latter
laid the foundation of the town of Santiago de Guayaquil under the 20 12' of south latitude.  He appointed
Diego de Daza governor of the province, and leaving




10    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the greater part of his men in the new colony, returned to Quito to extend his conquests to the north
of that capital.
But the Indians of Guayaquil soon repented of their
peaceable submission.  The  Spaniards thirsted for
gold, but still more they coveted the wives and daugh-,
ters of the natives, which so provoked the latter that
they rose, and by a bloody massacre destroyed the
infant settlement. Of about seventy who had been
left by Benalcazar, only the Governor and five others
escaped, and after weeks of hardships and dangers succeeded in making their way back to Quito.l
The Lieutenant-Governor of that place, Don Juan
Diaz de Hidalgo, immediately fitted out a second expedition, which he placed under the command of Daza
and another military leader, Pedro de Tapia. Three
thousand more Indians were taken along and fell, like
their unfortunate predecessors, a helpless prey to the
fevers of the lowlands. The Guayas Indians, however,
were prepared for resistance, and after many bloody
encounters, defeated the Spaniards in a decisive action
and compelled them to retreat to Quito.
The news of these disasters reached the newly created Marquis de Pizarro at Lima, and knowing that
Benalcazar, engaged in the conquest of the province of
Popayan, north of Quito, could not attend to his southern colonies, fitted out an expedition under the command of Francisco de Zaera who, in the following
year (1536), after many indecisive actions, concluded
a treaty with the Indians, in which these unsophisticated children of nature very ingeniously stipulated that
from the countries whence so many Christian men had
1 Herrera's Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y
Tierra Firme, del Mar Oceano, Decada V., lib. 7, cap xv.




ADVANTAGES AS A PORT.                     11
come, the Spaniards should also bring Christian women,
in order that their Indian women might remain unmolested.
To this the Spaniards consented, and so the colony
was reestablished.  But shortly afterwards news arrived of the successful rebellion of the Peruvian Indians under the great Manco Inca, who was already
besieging Cuzco; and Zaera had to leave Guayaquil
with his whole command, and hurry to the assistance
of his countrymen. After his departure the settlement
remained abandoned, until peace having been restored
in Peru, Pizarro sent the notorious Francisco de Or
ellana,1 who founded Guayaquil for the third and last
time in the year 1537.2 It was built on the declivity
of a hill called " Cerillo Verde" (Green Hill) on the
spot now known as " Old City" (Ciudad  7ieja).
If we  except the distance of Guayaquil from  the
ocean, its advantages as a port are considerable; and
its possession has often been coveted by the ambitious
rulers of Peru. The coast of the latter is sterile and
sandy; but Guayaquil is the capital and centre of a
most fertile province which abounds in timber for ship
and house building, and with its exuberant growth of
fruit, especially of cacao, plantains, etc., etc., supplies
many a foreign market, while the majestic river by
which it is irrigated, the most splendid on the Pacific
1 The first European who navigated the Amazon, (from one of its upper
tributaries (the Napo) to its mouth,) and published a most exaggerated
and improbable account of his discoveries. To this romantic account we
owe the story of the Amazons, of cities and villages with golden roofs, etc.,
etc., and other visionary fabrications.
2 It is stated in the New American Cyclopmedia, edited by Ripley and Dana,
(article " Ecuador,") that Francisco Pizarro landed at Tumbez, now Guayaquil, in 1532. This is a mistake, as far as Guayaquil is concerned. Pizarro
never was at Guayaquil, nor was Guayaquil formerly called Tumbez. The
Tumbez where Pizarro landed is a port in Peru, near the mouth of the
river Tumbez, more than a degree south of Guayaquil.




12    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANlSH-AMERICANS.
side of Central and South America, forms a secure
harbor for vessels of almost every size, at a distance of
more than sixty miles from the sea. This distance,
although it may have somewhat retarded the progress
of Guayaquil as a commercial port, did not prevent the
pirates and buccaneers of the seventeenth century from
making it one of the many scenes of their atrocities.
It was first attacked in 1624 by Jacob H. Clark, who
landed with two hundred of his followers, and would
have set fire to the town, had it not been for the desperate resistance of the inhabitants. In August of the
same year, it was attacked by another party of pirates
five hundred strong, who were also repulsed, and on
their retreat set fire to the Royal Armory on the Island
of Puna, at the mouth of the river.
The French pirates who landed in 1686 were more
successful; and took all the treasure they could find
in the city. In 1687 the English freebooters, under
Edward David, fell unexpectedly upon the town, took
$13,400 in treasure, and would have reduced the
place to ashes, had not the inhabitants offered them
the sum of $40,000 and two hostages for its payment. They withdrew, and killed the hostages after
having received the money.1
In 1707 William Dampierre took and pillaged the
place; and in 1709, the notorious Clipperton ransacked
almost every house in the city. Fortifications were
not erected until 1730, because such works could not
be undertaken without the sanction and permission of
the Spanish Government. Until that express permission could be obtained from the Royal Circumlocution
Office, the inhabitants had no right to take the most
indispensable measures for their own safety.
I See Padre Juan de Velasco's Historia del Reino de Quito, vol. iii. p. 115.
Also, Manuel Villavicencios's Geogr#afla de la Republica del Ecuador, p. 249.




CONFLAGRATIONS AND POPULATION.         13
The conflagrations with which the place has been
and is still visited from time to time, form another
scourge of Guayaquil.  In 1707 one hundred and
thirty houses were destroyed by fire, and the great
conflagration in 1764 destroyed almost the whole city.
Fires are very dangerous to a place in which hardly
one brick or stone building can be found, especially in
the dry season, when months will pass without a drop
of rain to moisten the timber parched by a tropical
sun. I witnessed a conflagration in November, 1862,
and another in August, 1865. In a few hours whole
squares were consumed, and only by the greatest exertions could the further spread of the furious element
be prevented. There are several voluntary fire companies in Guayaquil, one of which is chiefly composed
of foreigners, and comprises many of the most respectable merchants of the town.
The population of Guayaquil is differently estimated.
Some place it as high as 24,000, others as low as
20,000, and even 18,000. Ulloa, in 1736, estimated it
at 20,000; from which it will appear that the increase, if there has been any, is but very insignificant.
Holinski, a Polish traveller, who visited the country
in 1851, came to the conclusion that, for twenty years
last preceding his visit, immigration from the interior
had kept the number of the inhabitants at a figure
varying from 20,000 to 25,000.1 Since 1862 it has
been steadily decreasing.  I have heard intelligent
residents, foreigners as well as natives, assert, that at
least eighty per cent. of the population are colored, and
my own observations have led me to believe that this
estimate is not an exaggeration.
1 L'Equateur, Scenes de la Vie Sud-Amencaine, par Alexandre Holinski,
Pans, 1861, p. 28.




14    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
The commerce of Guayaquil is not inconsiderable.
On its custom-house receipts the government of Ecuador chiefly depends for its revenue. The interior depends on these imports for the greater part of the commodities and almost all the luxuries of life. There is,
proportionately, but little manufacturing industry in
the interior, and much less on the coast. The natives
of the former can make furniture, saddles, coarse
woolen and cotton goods in limited quantities, fine
embroidery and needle-work, common rum distilled
from the sugar-cane, boots and shoes of a very inferior
quality, hats, paintings, etc, etc., but almost every thing
else has to be imported from abroad. Common American and English cotton and woolen goods, wines and
liquors, cloth, silks, French fancy articles, glass and
china-ware, hardware and cutlery, crockery, etc., etc.,
are important items of importation. Flour, too, has to
be imported for the use of the districts on the coast, although in the interior wheat grows in bountiful abundance. But there are no wagon roads, and the mills
are very bad; hence the necessity of importation.
It is chiefly brought from  Chili.  Lard is imported
from the United States for consumption on the coast.
Guayaquil monopolizes at present the business of importation, because its roads to the interior are mulepaths; while those which lead to the highlands from
the ports of Esmeraldas and Peylon are not even accessible to horses or mules, but require merciless foot
travelling. It is a common saying in Ecuador, that
" Our roads are roads for birds, but not for men."
The principal articles of exportation are the following:
Ist. Cacao (the fruit of the chocolate-tree).  The
cacao of Guayaquil is famous in the markets of the




COMMERCE AND PRODUCTS.               15
world. It is raised all along the River Guayas and its
tributaries, and brought to Guayaquil in steamboats,
balsas, canoes, and other conveyances. It being the
principal staple of Guayaquil, the good or bad success
of the crop generally determines the rate of foreign
exchange. Spain receives the largest share of the
yearly exportation, if not fully one half.
2d. Panama hats, most of which are manufactured
in Ecuador, principally at Santa Helena, Montecristi,
and other villages on the coast, where it is the only
business of the inhabitants. During latter years, however, there has been a great falling off in this article,
owing to the introduction of other hats of greater
cheapness. This has led to great poverty and distress
in the hat-making districts, which, for want of water,
are almost without agriculture.
3d. The quina bark of Ecuador (cascarilla) has repeatedly attracted the attention of the scientific as well
as the commercial world. In 1859 Mr. Clements R.
Markham was appointed by the British Secretary of
State for India to superintend the collection of chinchona plants and seeds in South America, and their introduction into India; an experiment which, according
to the latest advices from that country, will prove a
complete success.l While reserving to himself the task
of exploring the quina forests of Peru, Mr. Markham
secured for' the exploration of the Equatorian bark
regions the services of Mr. Richard Spruce, a botanist
of high standing in the scientific world. The several
interesting reports published by the latter contain a
great many items of useful information, not only with
reference to the botanical but general geographical
1 See the very interesting work of Mr. Markham, Travels in Peru and
India, while superintendinq the Collection of Chinchona Plants and Seeds in
South America and their introduction into India. London, 1862.




16     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
features of the country, and will frequently be referred
to in the course of these pages.1
The exports of the country are in no proportion to
the richness and fertility of its soil and the variety of
its climate. The lowlands of the coast, intersected by
navigable rivers in all directions, produce cacao, rice,
coffee, sugar, tobacco, cotton, caoutchouc, copal gum,
vanilla, sarsaparilla, salt, petroleum, dyewoods, etc., etc.,
etc. They produce cattle, game, horses, and mules;
and a boundless variety of fruits, such as plantains,
oranges, lemons, pine-apples (perhaps the best in the
world), melons, bananas, limes, nisperos, mangos,
cocoa - nuts, mameys, alligator - pears, guavas, guayavas, etc., etc., etc. They also abound in timber for
ship and house building, among which the guachapeli,
said to harden in water and to be almost incorruptible,
deserves particular mention. A short distance from the
lowlands of the coast - a distance which by the aid of
good roads might be reduced to a mere nothing - are
the cool and healthy table-lands of the interior, abounding in mineral wealth, and furnishing almost all the
products of the temperate zone, such as wheat, barley,
indian-corn, pulse, potatoes, European vegetables and
fruits, etc., etc. If the resources of the country were
properly developed, it would be one of the richest in the
world. But there are too many causes at work which
prevent its agricultural progress. In the lowlands, the
great and almost insurmountable drawback is the
want of laborers, owing to the thinness of the popula1 In the province of Loja, the most southern district of Ecuador, the healing virtues of the quinquina bark were first made known to Europeans in
the year 1630. In 1638 the wife of the viceroy of Peru, the Countess of
Chinchon, was cured by it of an intermittent fever at Lima, for which
reason Linnseus, long afterwards, named the whole genus of quinine yielding trees " chinchona."




ROADS TO THE INTERI()R. - IDA PFEIFFER.   17
tion, the enervating effects of the climate, the system
of peonage, and the unsettled state of the country with
its continual revolutions and impressments.  Other
dead-weights to agricultural development are the diezmos or tithes, the tenth part of all the crops which
must be paid for the maintenance of the church establishment, and the primicias or first-fruits, a contribution exacted for the benefit of the local curates, and
weighing principally upon the small proprietors. But
all this will be explained in a more appropriate place.
The roads to the interior, as I have already said, are
impassable during the rainy season. Their southern
termination is nearly concealed by a rank tropical vegetation, or obstructed by fallen trees undergoing different stages of decay; and thus is bad enough during
the dry season. But when the steep ascents and descents of the mountain ranges are made slippery by
the incessant showers of winter; when the ravines
which must be passed are full of water, mud, and tumbling stones, and the pools and quagmires bottomless,
all commercial intercourse between Guayaquil and the
interior remains suspended. Should any article in the
shape of a bale or box arrive at Guayaquil during the
rainy season, the owner, who may be in Quito, must
wait for it perhaps six or eight months, or till the roads
become naturally passable. With the exception of the
letter-carriers, nobody travels during the wet season
whose business does not absolutely require it. Poor
Ida Pfeiffer, the celebrated Austrian traveller, who
thought that she would be able to accomplish what the
letter-carriers could do, undertook the journey, against
the urgent remonstrances of her friends, in March,
1852. What a horrible time she had, when, poorly
prepared, and almost without companions, she climbed
2




18      FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
over the Andes, more on foot than on horseback, slipping and falling almost at every step, she has described
in one of her books, "A Lady's Second Journey
round the World." 1
Before setting out for the interior, - a journey which
must be made on horseback or mules, -certain preparations are necessary. An attendant will have to be procured in the first place, to be your servant, guide, and,
when necessary, your cook. Saddles and bridles must
be purchased, for they cannot be hired with the horses.
Ponchos for warm and cold weather, and as part of
your bedding at night, should be bought, and an indian rubber poncho, called encauchado, as a protection
against the rain. No native ever travels without such
all encauchado strapped to his saddle, an oil-cloth cover
for his straw hat, and trousers made of leather —tiger,
dog, or goat skins with the hair left on them — over
his pantaloons. These latter are greatly preferable to
our leggings, because they keep the knees warm, while
they  protect the  legs against the  rain.   They  are
called zcamarros or calzones de cuero. The best zamarros
are made in the southern province of New Granada,
fiom   whence  they  are  imported  into  Ecuador.   I
1 I cannot judge of other parts of Mrs. Pfeiffer's work; but her two chapters on Ecuador, although they contain a great deal of truth, are full of misconceptions and inaccuracies. As a personal narrative, however, they are
very interesting. Her adventures in Ecuador were throughout of an unpleasant character. Her involuntary bath in the River Guayas, her dreadful journey over the mountains during the worst month of the year, and
her outrageous reception by the rabble of Quito, were fearful trials for the
poor old lady. The scandalous reception she met with on her first appearance in the streets of Quito, must, however, be attributed to the extravagant
and ridiculous manner in which she dressed. At a place where foreign ladies are seen but very seldom, the appearance of a strange old woman on a
donkey, in a costume exquisitely ridiculous, with a bonnet which everrwhere else would have excited merriment, and a butterfly-net now shouldered like a musket, now carried like a lance, could not fail to draw a boisterous crowd around her.




TRAVELLING EQUIPMENTS.           19
would advise the foreign traveller to adopt the riding
costume of the natives. It is very comfortable, and
splendidly adapted to the different climates and temperatures through which he will have to pass. In the
armor of a fine soft zamarro, an oil-cloth cover to my
straw hat, and a long encauchado protecting my neck
and body, and covering even my knees and saddlebags, I travelled for hours dry and comfortable, in the
most drenching rains. The red woolen poncho which
is generally worn in the interior, the checkered tigerskin leggings or long-haired goat-skin zamarros, the
red or yellow oil-cloth cover on the hat (funda), and
the huge Mexican spurs and brass stirrups in the form
of shoes or slippers, and in many cases, the linen or
silk masks with or without goggles, worn by gentlemen
to protect the face and eyes against the sun, wind, and
sand, give the mountaineers a most fantastic appearance, filling the unexperienced foreign traveller with
apprehensions of robbers or highwaymen. Such apprehensions, however, are entirely unfounded. There is
perhaps no country in the world in which one can travel
alone and unarmed with more perfect security than
in the interior of Ecuador. A saddle cover (pellon)
made of cotton, wool, or horse-hair, to give you a soft
seat during so long a journey; a little valise (maletero)
to be strapped to your saddle, containing soap, candles,
matches, towels, linen, combs, etc., etc., and two saddlebags (alforjas) with eatables and other comforts, will
complete your equipment. I should also advise you to
provide yourself with travelling or camp beds, because
in many of the miserable hovels in which you may
have to pass the night you would not feel inclined to
"rough it" on the ground, tormented by fleas and
other vermin. Your ponchos will be your blankets at




20   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
night, and the saddle cover (pellon) is often used to
supply the want of a mattress or pillow.
And now you are ready to start for Bodegas. Formerly you had to go there in canoes, waiting for the
tide to carry you up, and exposed to a merciless tropical sun. It took two days, or the greater part of two
days, to get there. You had to pass a horrible night
at Samborondon, or some other miserable place, consisting of a few bamboo huts on the river bank, and
a few houses built on rafts (balsas) on the river itself,
with alligators all around you and mosquitoes tattooing
you all over. But now, thanks to American enterprise, you steam up the majestic river, in neat and
commodious steamboats, propelled by American machinery, and giving you the benefit of a delightful
draught of air, making you forget how near you are to
the equator. The steamers start with the tide and
make the trip in from six to eight hours. The trip is
very pleasant and interesting. The vegetation on both
sides of the river is rich and luxuriant. Forests of
plantain trees line the banks. Cacao and coffee plantations arrest the traveller's eye, interchanging with
long rows of jungle and impenetrable brushwood.
The bread-tree, the mango-tree, the aguacate, and the
cotton-tree break on your delighted vision.  And
above all the luxuriant growth and fragrance, the majestic cocoa palm raises its melancholy crown, reminding you that you are in foreign lands, far away from
the scenes of your childhood, far away from the beloved ones at home. Oh, how often, when I travelled,
surrounded by the richness of a tropical vegetation,
did I long for the sight of a winter landscape at home.
With the snow that covers the fields and roofs, and
beards the branches of the leafless tree; with the ici



HOME THOUGHTS IN A FOREIGN LAND.       21
cles hanging down firom your windows, and the frozen
glass panes forming thousands of fantastic figures and
crystallized halls and domes; with the river over which
the merry skaters dash, so many of the dearest memories of our childhood are entwined. Think of a
merry Christmas night at home; think of the dear old
folks gathered around the crackling chimney-fire;
listen to the familiar voices that perhaps never, never
more will strike your ear; think of the playmates of
your childhood, romping with you around the room,
and the girls laughing, and the old folks smiling; steal
away to the window, and look at the splendid snowrobe covering the garden and the fields outside, with
the stars twinkling above, and the calm and blissful
rays of the moon resting mildly on the virgin snow.
There is home again; there is your father, your
mother, your brothers, and sisters; there is the maiden
to whom your trembling lips first stammered a confession of your boyish love. But no, - awake: it is the
palm-tree that stares at you, the ugly alligator basks
in an enervating sun, the parrot whirs shrieking
through the air, the monkey chatters on the tree, the
gallinazo perches silently on the withered branch, the
snake steals through the bushes, and you are a lonely
traveller in a foreign land.




CHAPTER III.
Alligators. - The Town of Babahoyo, or Bodegas. - Hiring Horses. - Arrieros. - Galled and Jaded Beasts. - Packing. - Indian Endurance. -
The Journey. - The Tropical Forest. - No Great Race has ever sprung
from the Tropics. - Savaneta. - Description of Houses on the Road. -
Punta Playas. - Camellones or Camels' Backs. - Nights in the Forest.
-Mysterious Noises.-Mata Blanca. - Pisagua. -A Horrid Road.-Ascending the Cordillera.- Jorje. - Cuesta de Angas. - Camino Real. -
Eating Lice. - Emerging from the Tropics. - Superstition. - View
from Mt. Pizcurcu. - A Forgotten Corner of the World. - A Dangerous
Descent. - Villages in the Valley of Chimbo. - The Polite " Jefe Politico." - Socabon. - Lamas. - The Town of Guaranda. - Change
Horses. - Preparations for passing Chimborazo.
THE number of alligators (lagartos) on the river
banks  between  Guayaquil  and  Bodegas,  is  legion.
They lie on the sand near the water, basking in the
sunshine, and presenting the appearance of huge logs
of wood. I once counted more than thirty in one
group. Sometimes cattle will graze near them, apparently unaware of the dangerous neighborhood.
They grow to an astonishing size, and are dangerous,
not only to calves and foals, but also to unwary persons, especially children.1 If an alligator has once
tasted human flesh, or cattle, he is said to become
1 Stuart Cochrane gives the following account of a thrilling incident on
the River Magdalena, in New Granada: "A young woman near Narie,
escaped the fangs of one of these monsters by an effort of singular presence
of mind. She had waded a little way into the water, when the alligator
seized her by the thigh, and began to drag her from the shore. She instantly thrust her fingers into his eyes, the anguish of which caused him
immediately to let go his prey; and thus she escaped with no other injury
than a lacerated limb." - Journal of a Residence and Travels in Colombia
during the years 1823 and 1824.




ALLIGATORS. - TOWN OF BODEGAS.         23
bravo or cebado, that is, to conceive such a relish for
this kind of food, that he watches every opportunity
to gratify this propensity. If it were not for the gallinazos, who dig up and devour the eggs which the
female alligator has buried in the sand,1 and for the
voracity of the male, who devours as many of his
young when they are freshly hatched as the female
cannot carry away on her neck and back, they would
be, to use the language of Stephenson,2 "as numerous
as flies, and become the proprietors of the surrounding
country."
Bodegas, or Babahoyo, the capital of the province
De los Rios, consists of a long row of frame houses on
the river bank, a plaza, and a few side streets. It is
inhabited by a few white store-keepers, sundry government officials, and hacienda-owners; but the overwhelming majority of the population consists of negroes and mulattoes. The melancholy palm-tree overtops the miserable wooden buildings, on the roofs of
which innumerable gallinazos perch. Hotels or inns
there are none.  The strangers, of whom  there are
always a great many going to or coming from the
sierra (interior), have to stay on a balsa, or to rent
rooms at extravagant prices, and take their meals at
an eating-house.
One half of the year Bodegas and all the surrounding country is under water. The inundation generally
sets in all at once. It begins at Christmas and ends in
May. During this time the water reaches nearly the
upper stories of the houses, which are built on piles,
and the daily intercourse of the inhabitants is carried
on in boats and canoes, from one house to another.
1 Ulloa and George Juan, A Voyage to South America.
2 Twenty Years' Residence in South America.




24    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Travellers bound for the interior must then hire a
canoe to Savaneta, whence the journey on horseback
becomes possible.
The 24th of June, (when I first arrived at Bodegas,)
the festival of St. John Baptist, is a great holiday. It
is celebrated by a queer sort of horse-racing.  One
rider, with a cock in his hand, dashes along the river
road, and is followed by the others, who endeavor to
snatch the bird from him. If he is skillful, he will
evade his pursuers by suddenly wheeling around and
darting away in an opposite direction, or he will retain
the animal by the rapid motion of his arm. As soon
as the bird is taken away from him, his pursuers chase
its new possessor,- and so the sport goes on until
men and horses are exhausted. The neighborhood of
Bodegas is celebrated for breeding good horses, and a
great number of foals (potros) are annually sold into
the interior.
Speaking of horses reminds us that our principal
difficulty is about to commence. We must hire horses
and mules for our journey. Most of the proprietors
of the animals which we now want, live at Guaranda,
in the cool and picturesque valley of Chimbo, at the
foot of Chimborazo. They come to Bodegas with
freight and passengers from the interior, and remain
until they get a return load. Our first trouble is to
agree with them on a reasonable price. Like all serranos (inhabitants of the interior, from sierra, mountain-range), they begin by asking an exorbitant sum,
and gradually let down. To agree with a serrano on
any business transaction, is the most difficult task in
the world. He haggles without end, and when we
believe to be through with him at last, he makes new
demands, or invents additional conditions which lead




HIRING HORSES.- ARRIEROS.           25
to prolonged discussions. A foreigner visiting Ecuador
must arm himself with a good stock of patience. The
size and weight of his baggage are another source
of difficulties. The arrieros (muleteers) will eye it
most distrustfully, exchange significant looks with each
other, lift it up and set it down again as if to weigh it,
then whisper to each other and afterwards return to
the baggage to give it another trial.  The result of
all this will be the expression of an apprehension that
your carya (baggage) is too heavy for their beasts —
the usual load for one of which is ten arrobas, or two
hundred and fifty pounds. The hire being finally
agreed upon, the question, who is to pay the fodder for
the beasts, will be raised. It is the custom that the
traveller pays the fodder for the saddle-horses, and the
arriero, for the beasts of burden. Though this rule is
universally recognized, the arriero will always attempt
to impose the whole expense on his employer.  This
part of the business being disposed of, the controversy
will turn on how much of the hire is to be paid in
advance. The arriero invariably asks for the whole
amount; and it is the custom in the interior of Ecuador to pay something in advance on every contract.
But as the beasts may give out, or the arriero himself
may prove dishonest, prudence will always dictate to
retain as much as possible. But in this the traveller
will not succeed without additional quarreling. All
these preliminaries being settled at last, the arriero is
notified that the beasts must be forthcoming at a certain hour. I should advise always to fix an early hour,
as your man hardly ever comes up to time. You
want him  to be on hand by daybreak, and he will
make his appearance by seven or eight o'clock. At
last he comes, and presents his beasts to your mortified




26    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and astonished gaze. Miserable, thin, and decrepit
jades, which threaten to give over after the first halfday's journey, are to carry you over the Andes. In
many cases their backs are shockingly galled, and
sometimes entirely raw to the whole extent of the
saddle.  Hideous sores, suppurating and full of crawling worms, offend your sight and nostrils.  The
stench of these mataduras generally penetrates through
the sweat-cloth (sudadero) which is laid on the animal's back under the saddle, causing nausea to the
rider. Nevertheless, such animals are considered fit
for service, at least to carry eargas, as long as they
can move on; this avaricious cruelty being the reason
why so many of the narrow  mountain defiles are
blocked up with the carcasses or skeletons of dead
horses, asses, or mules, which nobody thinks of removing.
Carga suelta is a term used to denote goods which
are sent by merchants on droves of beasts, independent
of travellers.  The beasts used for this purpose must
live on what grass they find on the sides of the road as
they go along, or when they are let loose at night.
Many of these animals are in a most pitiable condition;
some so knock-kneed that by repeatedly striking one
against the other the flesh is worn from the bone;
and others with their hoofs turned inwards, hobbling
on their fetlock joints; yet performing the service of
sound animals.
The government experiences much less difficulty in
dealing with arrieros. When the President or the
General-in-Chief proposes to travel, all the beasts that
are within reach are seized and impounded, and the
best selected by the managing officer.  The compensation paid to the owner, provided he gets any thing, is




INDIAN ENDURANCE.               27
then determined by the government, and not by the
arriero.
Your baggage must now be put on the mules, for
which purpose wooden pack-saddles (albardas) are
used. As deep rivers are to be forded, and on the
high paramos rains are not unfrequent, even in the dry
season, it is customary to wrap trunks or boxes in
pieces of strong oil-cloth (encerrados), which must be
procured at Guayaquil; or to cover them with the
dried leaves of the vijao, and then to sew them up in
common sackcloth. The packing takes its time, as the
loads will have to be so distributed as to keep an equal
weight on each side of the animal. Every day of your
journey the tedious operation of loading the animals,
and strapping your maleteros (valises), ponchos, and
eneauchados to your saddle has to be repeated, causing
such delay that you are forcibly reminded of the truth
of the Spanish proverb: " El salir de la posada la
media jornada" (" To get out of the inn is one half
of the journey ").
The chief arriero always has two or three servants
or peones with him, to drive the beasts, load and unload the animals, and push them on or extricate them
when necessary. These arrieros and peones, like all
other Indians, and a great number of the Cholos (halfbreeds) go barefoot, their cotton breeches never reaching further than to their knees (only the Indian
alcaldes or magistrates wear long breeches).  They
can walk, or rather trot, behind the horses fourteen or
fifteen leagues a day, and probably more if required,
over rugged mountain roads, through swamps, rivers,
and rocky defiles, now ascending steep acclivities, now
hurrying down into deep and muddy ravines (quebradas). They always sleep in the open air, lying down




28   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
on the bare ground, and covering themselves with
their ragged ponchos, —one night in the damp and
miasmatic lowlands of the coast, another, perhaps, on
the freezing paramos of the high Cordillera. Their
food they generally carry with them. It always consists of a quantity of barley-meal, which they eat raw,
a few pieces of agi (Cayenne pepper), which they take
like fruit, and sometimes a bag of toasted indian corn.
These provisions maintain them during the day, and in
the evening they mostly manage to get, either at the
expense of the traveller or the chief arriero, a plate
of locro (a potato soup, mixed up with cheese, eggs,
and Spanish pepper). When eating at somebody else's
expense the Indian can devour fabulous quantities;
but when faring at his own cost, he is rather parsimonious, and prefers drinking to eating. He likes to take
aguardiente (rum), but his favorite, and I may say indispensable, drink is chicha -a beverage brewed from
indian corn in copper kettles. Its taste is rather acid,
its color a dirty yellow. He prefers it, not only because it was the beverage of his ancestors, but chiefly
on account of its cheapness. The vice of drunkenness
does not affect his iron constitution. His powers of
endurance are indeed wonderful. The curate of an
Indian village once told me that the mortality among
Indian children is very great, owing to the recklessness
of their parents, and to the prejudice of the Indian
against scientific medical treatment; but that having
once reached a certain age, the Indian's health becomes almost indestructible - a proof of which is the
frequency of remarkable cases of longevity, many of
which have come under my own observation.
But it is time to begin our journey. Between Bodegas and Savaneta the flat country extends, which is




THE "SUNNY SOUTH."                  29
inundated during five months of the year. It is most
unhealthy when it begins to dry, and innumerable
swamps and puddles are left exhaling noxious miasmas.
The healthiest time is firom August to December.
Millions of white butterflies hover around you as
you ride along. Sometimecs swarms of them are on the
ground sucking moisture.  When disturbed by the
approach of your horses, they fly up, enwrapping you
on all sides like the flakes of a snow-storm. Caravans
of laden mules and asses, followed by their drivers on
foot, pass you during the day. After dark, myriads
of fire-flies and lightning-bugs glitter in the jungle and
brushwood, appearing and disappearing like fairy gems
in the black diadem of night. Swarms of mosquitoes
will molest the traveller when he lies down to rest,
while his hosts will alarm him with stories of snakes,1
tigers, or poisonous spiders.
I shall not attempt to describe a tropical country.
It has been done by other and abler pens. The
luxuriant vegetation, the majestic trees, united by
garlands of creepers and overgrown with all sorts of
parasites, the impenetrable jungle and brushwood
covering treacherous swamps, the boundless variety of
fruit and flowers, the shrieks of the parrot, the chattering of the monkey, the cooing of the turtle-dove,
and the inexplicable noises of many other inhabitants
of the forest, invisible to the bewildered eye, have not
that charm for me which they have for other travellers. I do not share the enthusiasm of poets and
novelists for the " Sunny South." I feel alarmed at
the paleness and sickly appearance of the poor people
1 The equis, a large and deadly snake, is a great pest in the plains of
Guayaquil. It takes its name from being marked with crosses (like the
letter X) all along the back. —Spruce's Report on an Expedition to procure Seeds and Plants of the Red Bark Tree; London: 1861.




30    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
who dwell in those regions, where Nature proffers gifts
with one hand while she takes health and life with the
other. Behind all that glowing verdure and alluring
exuberance destruction cowers in boundless variety of
form. The appearance is beauty, but troublesome
insects and venomous reptiles, fevers and dysenteries,
indolence and enervation, the reality. None of the
great races of the earth have sprung from the tropics.
The nearer we approach the torrid zone, the lower we
find man in the scale of civilization. The North, with
its ungenial winters, snow-storms and icicles, is, after
all, the true home of comfort, progress, and liberty.
The first village of note after leaving Bodegas 1 is
La Mona, a group of about twenty houses, on the
river of the same name. The river has to be forded,
the water reaching to the horse's belly. After passing
Palo Largo, a large heath without trees of any kind,
Savaneta is reached — a miserable village of hardly
twenty houses, but of great importance during the
rainy season, as I have already stated. The houses in
this part of the country are almost all alike. They rest
on piles, only the upper story being inhabited. The
room below serves as a shelter for arrieros, hogs, and
dogs, and for the baggage of travellers. It is seldom
that we find a staircase; generally the ascent must be
made on a pole, with notches cut in it for steps. For
a person in his riding-dress, or for ladies, this is very
inconvenient. The houses scarcely ever have more
than one side covered with a wall work of reeds or
cane. Many of them are open on all sides. The
1 There is another road to Guaranda by way of San Antonio and Pucara.
It is the one described by Ulloa, and travelled over much less than the Savaneta road. I prefer the latter, not only on account of the scenery, but
also because it sooner leads you out of the regions of tropical heat, and has
more and better accommodations.




" RESTING PLACES."            31
roof is covered with a palm-like leaf called vijao, which
grows without a stem. The flooring consists of a cane
(caia brava), which is split open and used, instead of
boards. Sometimes a little room is partitioned off by
a square inclosure of this casa brava, serving as a bedroom for the owner of the building.  The hammock is
the principal, and in many cases the only, piece of furniture. An empty wine bottle, which you throw away,
is picked up by your host as a great treasure. Water
is kept in bamboos, or the stems of the guaduas tree,
corked up at the ends. From these clumsy jars it
is poured into calabashes. It is always disgustingly
warm.
In such huts I passed many a bad night, with
chickens roosting over me, and dogs tearing away at
my saddle-bags. These latter animals ascend the
notched pole, which serves as a staircase, with remarkable dexterity.  A  night's lodging is granted
to the traveller without charge. He pays only for
the fodder of the beasts and the eatables he buys,
provided he can get any. It is hardly necessary to
ask whether you are allowed to stay. The question
" Hay yerba?" (whether there is any fodder for the
beasts,) is the only important one to be asked. Every
house on the public highway is considered a tambo or
posada (resting-place).  At one of these wretched
hovels I once saw a man cook a soup, which he invited
me to buy. I asked him whether it was clean. " Oh,
yes," he said, " es cosa hecha de hombre " (it is made
by a man). The inference to be drawn from this
remark as to the cleanliness of the other sex, was certainly not very complimentary. Most of the houses I
have now described are inhabited by negroes and mulattoes.




32    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
The road from Savaneta to Punta Playas passes
through a forest so dense, that the water which remains after the yearly inundation, scarcely ever dries,
and you have to travel for many a weary mile through
water which splashes you all over. At many places
the jungle, which grows with astonishing rapidity, and
the branches of bushes and trees, protrude into the
road and have to be cut away with a m.acheta, a weapon
which many of the arrieros carry. This instrument is
of general use and great advantage, the blade resembling that of a ship's cutlass, only broader and curved
toward the point, made of wrought iron, which will
bend but not break. The handles are usually of wood
or horn, riveted to the iron; the back is thick, and the
edge kept sharp. It is used for a great many purposes,
serving for knife, axe, bill, and sometimes for a sword.
Another feature of the road which considerably retards your progress, is the great number of eamellones
(deep furrows divided by transverse ridges, and named
after their resemblance to the humps on a camel's
back). These furrows are worn into the soft, loamy
soil by the equable step of beasts of burden; they are
often two or three feet deep, and filled with mud and
water. If they are deep, the horse sinks in up to his
breast, dragging his belly and the rider's feet over the
ridges which divide the holes, and in its attempts to
get out again, flounders and stumbles. Still these
camellones are of great benefit to the traveller on the
steep acclivities and descents of the mountain roads,
where they prevent the horse from sliding and falling,
and hurling its rider into one of the precipices below.
Thus in this neglected country the traveller owes a
certain degree of safety to what he feels tempted to
curse as an intolerable inconvenience.




STOPPING FOR THE NIGHT.                    33
When stopping  for the  night at one of the  huts
along the road, the first business, as I have already
said, is to provide fodder for the horses. On the coast
it is gamalote;1 in  the  interior lucerne, which  the
natives call alfalfa, or simply yerba.  After this the
unsaddling and unpacking of the beasts commences.
The baggage remains below, while the saddles, bridles,
valises, saddle-bags, etc., are carried up-stairs. Warm
water to make coffee or tea will next have to be asked
for, and orders must be given for the supper of the
servants. To boil water is another very tedious operation with these cottagers, and when it is brought at
last, there is almost always too little of it. The delays
which beset every, and even the most insignificant,
transaction in the interior, already begin to be felt.
The saddle-bags must furnish the best part of the
supper, unless chickens are to be had, in which case I
should always advise to buy another for next day's
breakfast. After supper the beds are made. He who
carries no mattress or camp-bed with him, must spread
some of his ponchos on the floor, for bedsteads there
are none in the hovels of the lowlands. At first it is
exceedingly hot; the sultry damps of night commence
to creep in from three sides, as generally but one side
of the house is covered; but little of the surrounding
country can be seen, and the clouds come down oppres1 " The blade of the Gamalote resembles that of barley, but it is longer,
broader, thicker, and rougher. The green is deep but lively, and the stalk
diversified with knots from which the leaves, which are strong and sometimes two lines in diameter, have their origin. When the gamalote is at
its full growth, the height of water during the floods, by rising above its top,
presses it down and rots it, so that when the waters ebb away, the earth
seems covered with it; but at the first impression of the sun it shoots up
again, and in a few days abounds in the same plenty as before. One thing
remarkable in it is, that though it proves so nourishing to the cattle of this
district, it is very noxious to those from the Cordillera, as has been often
experienced." - Ulloa and George Juan, Voyage to South America.
3




34    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
sively low. Cats and dogs trip over the sleeper; the
inmates of the house tumble about until a late hour of
the night; the mosquitoes and beetles do their work, and
the mata blanca, a small, scarcely perceptible insect of
the mosquito tribe, tattoos every spot of the skin which
it finds exposed, sometimes causing painful swelling;
the toads croak in the neighboring swamps; bats flutter
around our heads, and inexplicable sounds of every
description frighten us in our sleep, while visions of
scorpions and tarantulas haunt our heated imagination.
By and by the night air becomes chilly; cold winds pass
over the sweating brow of the traveller; every thing is
cheerless, dismal, and oppressive, and we rejoice to be
able to rise at last and prepare our departure. After
such a night at Savaneta, Punta Playas, Las Pefias, or
any of the intermediate cottages, it is a great relief to
see daylight again, even if a fine rain should trickle
down and make the landscape more melancholy, the
roads more sloughy, and ourselves more uncomfortable.
But when the sun rises on a clear and cloudless day;
when we see the outposts of the Cordillera, covered
with beautiful green forests, sharply defined in the
blue sky, we shake off our fatigue cheerfully, and proceed with new courage on our wearisome journey.
Through cacao and sugar plantations, looking sometimes but little better than a wilderness, our road leads
us to Las Peias. This latter is not the name of a village, although some miserable houses are found at
considerable distances from each other, but derives its
name from the fact that the swamps are now behind
us, and stones and rocks begin to cover the way
and annoy the horses. And now we begin, at first
almost imperceptibly, to ascend, and a sore trial of
patience is in store for us. Little Pisagua and Big




PISAGUA.                     35
Pisagua have to be passed.  Pisagua is the name of
a forest through which the road leads from Las Pefias
to the Tambo del Rio Limon. I am afraid my pen will
be inadequate to convey a true idea of the horrible
state of that portion of the road, even during the dryest
season of the year. Pisagua is a forest- not one of
those green and beautiful forests which make us feel
well and contented when we travel through them,
but a forest like those we should imagine on the dark
and gloomy banks of the Stygian river.1 It is a forest
into which a cheering ray of the sun seldom penetrates.
No verdure surrounds us excepting the crowns of the
trees, which we have no time to contemplate, as our
attention must be riveted on the road at our feet.
Rocks and mud seem to be the only productions of this
dreary region.  The atmosphere  is damp, and the
smell of the long puddles through which we are compelled to wade, mouldy and chilling.  Our way can no
longer be called a road. It is apparently the rocky
bed of a stream, which swells into a torrent when it
rains. Trunks of trees have fallen across the miry
path, where they are slowly decaying, while nobody
thinks of removing them. Through some of the thickest small openings have been hewn, to enable the animals to get through. At other points the fall of these
trees has been intercepted by rocks on both sides of
the road, so as to form low doorways, through which
we must pass stooping. We ascend and descend alternately over rocks and stones, so near each other as to
leave scarcely room for the feet of the animals. It is
1 " Notwithstanding the vast extent of the unreclaimed forests in Ecuador,
hardly any part of them is still without an owner, if we except the territory
disputed between Peru and Ecuador, on the eastern side of the Cordillera,
generally called Las Montagas del Oriente." -Richard Spruce, Report on
the Expedition to procure Seeds and Plants of the Red Bark Tree.




36    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
almost a miracle to see the beasts stumble over them
in safety. Where there are no rocks, our progress is
embarrassed by the roots of gigantic trees, which rise
above the slippery mire. Deep puddles of black loam
have to be floundered over.  Camellones too, out of
which it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to extricate the stumbling horses, are not wanting. Rivers
and mountain streams in the openings of the forest have
to be passed time and again. Some of them are so
rapid, not only in the rainy, but also in the early part
of the dry season, that the beasts are in danger of
being swept away by the current, which would dash
them against frightful rocks. The waters rush with
such velocity, owing to the great declivity in the
course of the streams, that giddiness is produced by
looking into the water. Experienced travellers will
therefore look upwards while fording such a river.
The roaring of the water as it hurries on over rocks
and precipices, forming numerous cascades, is so great,
that at a distance of ten feet persons cannot understand
each other without screaming. This roaring accompanies us through the greater part of Pisagua, and often
we hear it without seeing the river by which it is produced. It strikes awe to the soul in the lonely wilderness. Over some of the streams aerial bridges are
formed, consisting of one or two trunks of trees, over
which the arrieros pass, while their animals ford the
river as well as they can, encouraged by the cries and
curses of their drivers. Then again defiles will have
to be passed, so narrow between dripping rocks, that
you must look out how your legs are squeezed against
the sides. In these defiles troops of laden mules and
asses, which you meet every now and then, will
greatly impede and embarrass your progress. It is cus



LA CEYBA.                 37
tomary to hail the muleteers at the other outlet, to make
them stop their beasts until your cavalcade has passed
through.
The absence of all signs of civilization increases the
gloom of this dreadful region. It is true there are
some miserable huts, even in the heart of Pisagua;
but they resemble the crude habitations of savages.
Their aspect saddens instead of encouraging. It is a
relief to meet with a drove of donkeys and their drivers, and hear their cries: " Mula! Anda! Burro!"
however unpleasant and dangerous such an encounter
may be in the narrow passages or on the precipitous
hill-sides of the road.
At last you emerge from gloomy Pisagua, and passing the River Limon or Cristal for the last time, you
enter a beautiful valley, with its scenery continually
changing, owing to the windings of the road. Some
very inconvenient ascents and descents have to be
made, sorely trying to an inexperienced horseman.
But the beauty of the landscape around La Ceyba indemnifies fbr this inconvenience. Forests of plantain
and coffee trees, on dry ground, greet you with a
friendly smile; you behold at least some human habitations and human activity again; you find sugar mills
and rum distilleries in operation; beautiful verdure
surrounds you on all sides; the atmosphere is fresher
and purer, and the road under your feet is a festive
walk in comparison with what you have left behind.
When you hear names like "La Ceyba," "Las
Peias," "Jorje," "Pizcurcu," "El Excomulgado,"
and others with which you will become familiar in the
course of these pages, you must not suppose that they
belong to any town or village. In Ecuador every lonely
house, every characteristic feature of the road, every




88    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
hacienda, and sometimes even a solitary tree, rock, or
ravine, has its name. The same mountain or river
has different names at different places.  The "Pastassa," for instance, a river which takes its rise near
Mt. Cotopaxi, is first named " Callo," a little further
down  " Pumacunchi,"  afterwards "Cutuchi,"  still
further down "Pillaro," then " Patate," then "Baios," and at last "Pastassa." 1  It will be necessary
to bear this strange custom in mind, in order to prevent misconception or confusion.
After continuing our ascent, interrupted by frequent
declivities, for a few leagues more, the tambo of Jorje is
reached, which, according to Dr. Jameson's measurement, is three thousand and twenty feet above the level
of the sea, and commands a delightful view of the valley
below. It lies at the foot of the great Cuesta de Angas
(an uninterrupted ascent to the summit of the first
range of the Cordillera), and being out of the swamp
region and surrounded by gigantic mountains, its climate
is very agreeable, and I have no doubt healthy. The
tambo is a spacious building, differing from the rest of
the houses in this part of the country, by having a
staircase, a floor of boards, some furniture, and by being sheltered on three sides —which must be considered a great improvement.
The steep ascent from Jorje to Camino Real is,
when it rains, one of the worst break-neck paths in the
world. With the exception of Chimborazo, it is the
steepest and highest ascent on the whole road, and to
scale it, when converted by rain into soft and slippery
soap, may be a task of life and death.
There are mules in this part of the country which
are trained to slide down slippery declivities. Such ani1 Villavicencio's Geografia de la Republica del Ecuador, p. 81.




EMERGING FROM THE TROPICS.           39
mals are held in great estimation, and command good
prices. They are sensible of the caution required in
these descents, for, coming to the top of an eminence,
they stop, and having placed their fore legs in a slanting position, they put their hind legs together, drawing
them a little forward, as if going to lie down. In this
attitude, having, as it were, taken a survey of the road,
they slide down with startling velocity. Their dexterity in following the various windings of the road is
really astonishing, for by a gentle inclination of the
body they turn first to one side and then to another,
keeping the most perfect equilibrium, which is the only
means of saving themselves and their riders from being
hurled headlong forward, or being dashed to pieces by
a fall. All the rider has to do is to keep himself'fast
in the saddle without checking his beast. Any unguarded motion on his part, by disordering the equilibrium of the mule, might lead to fatal consequences.1
When the road is dry, the ascent from Jorje to Camino Real may be effected in two or three hours. We
are now emerging from the tropics.  The fresh mountain air, and the piercing cold mists peculiar to those
elevations, announce the change of climate.  The
plantain, orange, and aguacate trees remain behind us.
We have escaped from the fevers, dysenteries, snakes,
and mosquitoes of the lowlands. As by a magician's
wand, we are transferred from a region of sickening and
enervating heat into realms of delightful coolness and
salubrity.  Beautiful are  the  towering mountains
around us, and beautiful is the scenery at our feet if
clouds do not hide it from our view. But generally
these clouds cover the entire country from which we
1 I. Ulloa, 202, English translation, fourth edition. Also II. Stephenson,
260.




40      FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
have emerged, and form an ocean beneath us so wide,
so natural, so real, that ships only are wanted to complete the illusion.   No painter could  reproduce  the
wonderful hues of this aerial sea, when lit up by the
rays of the rising or the setting sun.
Camino Real, seven thousand eight hundred and fiftytwo feet above the level of the sea (Jameson), is a
squalid, miserable village, consisting of a few low and
dirty huts of reeds, plastered up with mud, no longer
resting on piles, but stuck into the ground, and containing but one dark unfloored and unfurnished filthy
room, out of the door of which (for windows there are
none) the smoke lazily makes its way into the face
and eyes of the approaching traveller.
Here it was that I first saw women eat lice. It was
a loathsome sight to behold those unwashed and unkempt creatures pick the disgusting vermin from each
other's heads, and put them into their mouths, where
they crushed them between their teeth.1
At Camino Real it becomes necessary to give a short
rest to the horses, tired by.the long and steep ascent,
and to treat them to a repast of lucerne, which, after
the southern gamalote, they attack with great greedi1 The loathsome practice of eating lice, or crushing them between the
teeth, was originally an Indian custom. The ancient Indians seem to have
transmitted it to the mixed races and to the white rabble. According to
Herrera, the royal historian, who had access to all the original documents,
reports, and descriptions of the conquerors, the Indians ate th(,m, not because
thev liked their taste, but because, having one hand engaged in parting
and examining the hair, which is always very long and thick, the other
could not dispose of the vermin in a more effective way. The same author
says that one of the Inca rulers of Peru had ordered the poor tribes of Pasto,
who had nothing else to give, to pay their tribute in lice, not because be
wanted them, but to make them acknowledge their vassalage. The Pasto
Indians, however, objected to this mode of discharging their tribute, because
eating lice was then considered an infallible remedy against sore eyes, and
was recommended as such by the Indian doctresses (curuanderas). - Herrera, dec. v. bk. 4, ch. 2.




CAMINO REAL.                41
ness. The potato, which here takes the place of the
plantain, welcomes us as a home-like sight. We are
again in a congenial climate. The inhabitants of the
village are not pure Indians, but half-breeds, who
share with the Indians their ugly faces but beautiful
teeth and small feet. Civilized travellers who have to
pass a night here cannot sleep inside the huts, which
are too filthy and full of fleas. They sleep outside,
under the protruding roofs, which protect them from
the rain and the dew. A bed may be made on wooden
platforms on which yerba is piled up during the day;
and the traveller may congratulate himself if he can
pass the night without being much troubled by chickens, dogs, cats, or hogs. The nights here are very
cold.
Opposite the hut where I used to stop on my journeys to or from Quito, two small niches communicating with each other were dug in the hill-side on the
road, in one of which a skull (calavera) was placed.
In the other candles burned occasionally, and flowers
were often laid before the skull. As I had observed
this custom frequently, I asked my landlady for an explanation. She told me that a soldier had been slain
and buried near the village, in the civil war of 1860,
but the dogs dug up the body and scattered the bones.
Some pious person then picked up the skull, and placed
it in the niche where I saw it. Ever since that time,
my landlady informed me, it had been working miracles, and was held in great esteem.
Shortly after passing Camino Real, the descent to
the valley of La Chima begins -a romantic and secluded spot, from which a steep, zigzag ascent of about
half an hour, leads us to the summit of Pizcurcu.
And now a most unexpected and most enchanting




42    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
prospect breaks suddenly upon our view. The valley
of Chimbo is at last before us, and we behold a northern home again.  We behold another vegetation,
another land, another world, differing even in the
slightest details from the scenes we left but a few
hours ago. Fertile and cultivated fields expand before us, covering hills and plains and mountain slopes
with wheat instead of the sugar-cane; potatoes instead of plantains; barley instead of cacao and
aguacates; turnips instead of oranges and alligator
pears. Villages with houses of stone or adobes, many
of them neatly whitewashed, have taken the place of
the savage sheds of the low country. Long fences
of aloe divide the fields. Indian huts of earth-walls,
thatched with gray straw instead of the vijao leaf, are
distributed all over the valley and hill-sides. Healthy,
ruddy faces meet us on our road, instead of the pale
and sickly countenances which frightened us in the
lowlands. It is only the active bustle of progressive
life and civilization, the merry smoke-stacks and cheerful modern buildings that are wanting, to make us feel
as if at home again, and to lessen the awe inspired by
the presence of grim Chimborazo, whose hoary dome
towers high above the green landscape, and forms an
imposing background to the charming, yet melancholy
and lifeless scene.
We have now entered one of those forgotten corners of the world which, barricaded against the march
of civilization by almost impassable mountains, and inhabited by a thriftless and indifferent race, could not
keep pace with the progress of mankind. We are
transported into regions which still belong to the past,
and whose lifeless quietude strangely contrasts with
the enterprise and progress of the present age. Let us




DESCENT INTO THE VALLEY.          43
not be deceived by the beautiful view which we enjoy
from the summit of Pizcurcu. The climate, it is true,
is delightful, and all we behold is fertility, but we must
not expect comfort and pleasant repose in the villages
at our feet. Most of the houses, although they look
friendly amidst the green clover-fields and trees, are
miserable hovels without windows, and full of dirt,
dust, and vermin. The villages, which appear to be at
a mere stone's-throw from each other, are separated
by roads which one da.y's rain renders impassable.
Nature seems to hold her horn of plenty over the
country before us, and yet we shall see but ragged
poverty and lazy indolence below. Herds of cattle
are grazing on the mountains, and still it will be difficult to procure a drop of milk. Grain of all kinds
grows in abundance, and yet there will be no bread.
The village of Tumbucu, at the foot of the mountain
on which we stand, slumbers in the repose of blessed
peace, and yet it was the scene of slaughter and civil
war but a few years ago.1 Everywhere around us, we
shall see bountiful nature, derided and counteracted by
the inertness and perversity of man.
But let us tear ourselves from the charming view,
and descend into the valley. The descent from Pizcurcu to Tumbucu is very steep and precipitous. I
remember to have made it once during a heavy rain.
My horse slipped and stumbled in such an alarming
manner that I deemed it prudent to dismount. My
servant had done so before me, and I followed his example with great difficulty, as it was impossible for the
horse to steady himself on the slippery declivity. We
left the beasts to slide down in their own way, and
endeavored to walk, but it was impossible. At every
1 Battle of Tumbucu, in 1860.




44    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
step we fell, and only by throwing ourselves on our
backs we escaped a headlong fall down the hill. Our
india-rubber ponchos proved a great impediment, and
yet we could not do without them, as the rain came
down in torrents. Our horses passed their time between falling and scrambling up again, and at last slid
down with such frightful rapidity that for a while we
lost sight of them. In the mean time our own advance
continually grew slower and more difficult. We were
thoroughly steeped in mud, and crawled along on
hands and feet till a deep hole or series of camellones
compelled us to attempt a daring stride. At last my
servant devised an expedient. Cautiously he crawled
to the hill-side, and with his finger-nails dug out dry
earth and threw it on the road before him. Over this
improvised path we crept with tolerable safety, until
we had passed the steepest places and regained our
horses, which were covered all over with mud.
Passing through the small village of Tumbucu, and
taking the road to Guaranda, we leave to our left the
villages of San Jos6, San Miguel, and Santiago de
Chimbo, the inhabitants of which pass their lives in
happy ignorance of the outer world and its great
events and men. Books and newspapers are unknown,
even among the whites who can read and write. They
pass the day in stolid indolence, standing listlessly on
the Plaza, or in front of some public office, staring
vacantly into space, or gossiping. Only a cock-fight,
or the sight of a good horse, can rouse them from their
apathy. They seem to have no purpose in life but to
keep themselves warm under their heavy red ponchos,
and to eat when they are hungry.
In this connection I must mention a curious incident. On my first journey to Quito, I stopped for the




POLITENESS OF THE JEFE POLITICO.    45
night at the village of San Josd de Chimbo. The military official who accompanied me, and the government
passports and recommendations which he displayed,
immediately brought out the Jefe Politico, or mayor,
who overflowed with the usual Spanish-American assurances of consideration and offers of services. There
was no end to the strain of his politeness. He lodged us
in the school-house, which contained the only room in
the village fit for the reception of strangers. A Quito
merchant, who travelled in my company, requested him
to have supper prepared. He consented to find a cook,
and to give her the necessary instructions. He afterwards informed us that he had given her $1.50, which
we paid him. Next morning the cook came in and inquired whether we wanted breakfast. My companion,
the merchant, ordered her to prepare it, but to do it well,
as she would not have many other chances to charge
$1.50 for a meal. It then turned out that the mayor
had given her only one dollar putting the additional
fifty cents in his own pocket. After breakfast I asked
him how much we had to pay for it, offering him the
money. He protested that he would take no money
from me (forgetting probably that he had done so the
day before); that he was sufficiently paid by the honor
of extending to such a distinguished gentleman the
hospitalities of his humble village; that I would offend
him by insisting that he should receive money, etc.
At this juncture my travelling companion came in and
asked what the matter was. I told him that the mayor
would take no money for the breakfast. " Quite natural," he replied, "because I have just paid him for
it." Any body else in the place of the Jefe Politico
would have been shamed to death, but he did not
show the slightest embarrassment, and with perfect




46    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
nonchalance, and the sweetest possible smile, turned
the conversation to another subject.
Before reaching Guaranda, a so-called socabon has
to be passed. A socabon is a very ingenious contrivance
to avoid the passage of rivers. The Spaniards have
learned it from its Indian inventors. When a river is
too deep or rapid to be forded conveniently, a bend
is selected where the mountainous bank protrudes far
into the stream. There the mountain slope is perforated, and a tunnel made, through which the water
rushes, forming a new bed and leaving the old bed
either dry or easily fordable. Such a tunnel is called
a "socabon," and many of them  are to be met with
in the interior of Ecuador. The socabon at Guaranda,
enlarged by the force of the waters in the rainy season,
forms a natural arch left hanging in the air, while its
foundations are washed away. A strong earthquake
will throw it down.
On the table-lands which we have now reached,
llamas are occasionally met with. These intelligent
animals, with their inquisitive eyes and graceful necks,
are very interesting. Their number has been reduced
to insignificance by the wantonness of the Spanish
conquerors, who killed whole herds of them because
they considered the heart and liver of the animal a
great delicacy. In Peru and Bolivia llamas are still
abundant, but in Ecuador they are nearly extinguished,
and no care is taken to propagate the race. The few
specimens I saw were used to carry burdens. They
are very tame, and take a lively interest in what is
going on around them. The female is ripe for copulation at the age of two years. Her pregnancy lasts ten
months; but she seldom brings forth more than one
young. They need a temperate or cold climate, and




GUARANDA.                    47
sometimes are found in a wild state on the high paramos of Chimborazo.  When taken to the hot lowlands
they soon die.1
Guaranda, nine thousand and sixty feet high, is a
poor little town at the foot of Chimborazo. Villavicencio gives its population at eight thousand, which I believe is exaggerated. The houses, as throughout the
interior, are built of sun-baked bricks (adobes), or
have common earth-walls. The roofs are covered with
red tiles, like those of almost all Spanish-American
towns. On the Plaza there are several buildings with
an upper story, but generally the houses have only a
ground-floor.   One of the two churches is half in
ruins. Most of the buildings present a dilapidated appearance, grass and weeds covering the walls of courtyards and inclosures. The stores, with one or two
exceptions, evidence the poverty and parsimony of the
inhabitants of the interior, with whom we shall soon
become acquainted. The place is rather cold, and
very windy, especially during the dry season, owing to
the near neighborhood of that AEolus, - Chimborazo.
There are two taverns at Guaranda, which also serve
as houses of consignment for goods sent to or from the
interior. After having passed two nights (an ordinary
journey from Bodegas to Guaranda takes two and a half
days) in miserable open sheds exposed to the night
air, it is a relief to enjoy the luxury of a covered room,
chairs, and bedsteads again; but the rooms of these
taverns are sadly neglected, full of cobwebs and fleas;
the furniture is covered with thick layers of dust;
most of the window-glasses are broken, and filth is ac1 I have taken these statements ftom a Notice sur le Lama, par S.
Wisse. Institut de France. Academie des Science. Extrait des Comptes rendus des Seances de i'Academie, tome xxix, seance du 20 Aout, 1849.




48    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
cumulated in the corners and on the floor. The servants are dirty and slovenly; and were it not for the
recollection of past hardships the traveller would feel
cheerless and uncomfortable.
In the neighborhood of Guaranda are salt works,
where the salt of Tomabela is produced.
At Guaranda fresh beasts must be taken for Quito,
as the animals which arrive tired from Bodegas would
not be able to stand the passage of Chimborazo.
Many arrieros live in the neighborhood, and the same
trouble about hiring horses which vexed us at Bodegas,
has now to be gone through with again. Warm ponchos and clothing have now to be prepared for the passage of Chimborazo, and it is advisable to start early,
before daybreak, to avoid the storms on the mountain,
which are said to increase in violence as the day advances. Toward noon they are said to be irresistible,
and to have hurled many a horse and rider into the
yawning precipices along the road. I once passed
Chimborazo during so fearful a hurricane (on the 4th
of July, 1862), that I was almost blinded by sand and
gravel, which were continually blown in my face. At
some high and precipitous turning-points in the road,
where the rocky path between the mountains on one
side and the abyss on the other was hardly two feet
wide, the fury of the wind was such that the horses
could not or would not advance, until a momentary
calm enabled them to pass the dangerous places.
These calms, however, are of but very short duration.
It happens frequently that persons are thrown from
their horses by the wind, or that their clothes and ponchos are torn to pieces. July, August, and September
are the windiest months of the year. On the occasion
just referred to, one of the mail-carrier's beasts had




STORMS ON CHIMBORAZO.           49
been thrown into a ravine a few days before my arrival.  The animal perished, but its load was recovered.
After these preliminary remarks, I must invite my
readers to accompany me on the exciting expedition.
4




CHAPTER IV.
Passage of Mt. Chimborazo.- A Visit to the Region of Clouds and
Storms. - View of the Mountain. - The Arenal. - Human Reminiscences and Monuments in the Desert of Sand and Snow.- What a
Paramo is. - Its Terrors. - Chuquipoyo. - The Hacienda of Chimborazo. -A Dreary Resting-place. - View from Chuquipoyo. - The City
of Riobamba in the Distance. - Earthquakes and Volcanoes. - Mt.
Sangai.- Rains of Ashes. - Mt. Altar.- Mt. Carguairazo. - The
Paramo of Sanancajas. - Descent from the Mountain Heath. -Reappearance of Vegetation. - The Village of Mocha.
AFTER passing the river of Guaranda, over which,
in 1863, a bridge was built, our ascent begins. At
first, fields of clover, wheat, and barley, extend around
us, but they soon give way to that wild and romantic
vegetation which precedes and pleasantly contrasts
with the dreary grasses of the highest and coldest
region.  Alpine flowers and  shrubs exhale aromatic
perfumes, and legions of birds welcome the rising sun,
which richly gilds the highest peaks of the mountains.
The road - if road it can be called - now winds itself
along precipices which the eye shuns to fathom, now
passes through lanes, or rather gulleys, frequently so
narrow that it would be impossible for two horses to
pass each other. It is here called the "pongo," a name
of dreadful notoriety in the rainy season, and consists,
like most of the mountain and paramo roads of Ecuador, of innumerable ruts, continually crossing and intersecting one another in a most bewildering manner.
The ascent seems endless. One terrace or mountain platform is hardly reached when we discover




MOUNT CHIMBORAZO.              51
other and higher ones before us. Vegetation gradually
diminishes; crags begin to close upon our narrow path,
and over sharp-pointed rocks stumble for a while the
panting animals. At last, doubling the mountain amphitheatre which we have slowly ascended to almost
its highest point, we lose sight of the valley of Guaranda and its smiling fertility, to find ourselves in a
wilderness of dreary mountains, valleys, and precipices
covered with the long and cheerless paramo-grass,
which for many a weary hour will be our monotonous
companion. But the turn of the road has brought us
face to face with Chimborazo, whose strange name and
enormous height filled us with awe when we first read
of it in school histories and geographies. Perhaps
only a few of the many strange and difficult names
which we then learned, have remained fresh in our
memory; but among those few, Chimborazo always
held an important place. And now it breaks upon our
gaze in its majestic reality and overwhelming grandeur.
Of many of the wonders of nature or art, our expectations are wrought to such a pitch that reality will often
be fraught with disappointment. Thus Rousseau confesses to have felt disappointed when he first saw the
sea, and many other similar instances could be adduced. But I do not believe that any body will be
disappointed in the view of Chimborazo, not as it is
seen at a distance fiom the sea, fiom Guayaquil or the
heights of Camino Real, but as it will break upon him
in the region of the storms and clouds, and in the fearful solemnity of Nature's solitude.
Fiercer and fiercer grows the wind as we advance;
gust after gust comes down from the throne of the king
of the Ecuadorian mountains; clouds form and dissolve around its snowy dome, or fleet by it in wild pre



52    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
cipitation; carcasses of dead mules or donkeys block up
many of the narrow passages of the road; barefooted
and shivering arrieros, with their heads and necks
bundled up with ponchos or shawls, hurry past us,
urging and cursing their jaded animals; from time to
time icy mists will hover around us, wetting our hair
and ponchos, and hiding the gloomy landscape from
our view; and the piercing cold, which many a day
freezes the water in these altitudes, mockingly brings
to our recollection the tropical scenes which we left
but a day or two ago.
Lonely crosses on the roadside, or skulls in niches
dug into the mountain, will now be met with, unfolding eloquent tales, in their ghastly silence, of poor
travellers whose last journey was brought to an unforeseen end far away from the abodes of man.
At last we reach the Tambo de la Ensillada (saddleback), so called from being built on a saddle-like terrace of a mountain, projecting from the left of our
road. It is a poor, dreary, wretched place, consisting
of a few low huts of straw, the roofs of which rest on
the ground. The inside of these hovels is without
flooring; the ground is wet and muddy, notwithstanding the poor roof which covers it, and the inmates are
filthy and besotted. These huts are without furniture,
and almost always filled with smoke. The open space
before them is a deep and muddy pool, worn by the
hoofs of mules and horses. At this place a short rest
is taken, and hot water procured to make coffee or
tea.
Nearer and nearer we now draw to the grim mountain. The inequalities in the road again increase so
that it will be a difficult task for an unskillful horseman
to keep himself firm in the saddle. Our ascent is




THE ASCENT.                         53
sometimes interrupted by almost perpendicular declivities, where the road is hardly two feet wide, with
a steep, rocky wall on one side and a yawning precipice on the other.   Apprehensive of an increase  of
the storm, we ask the arrieros whom we meet, "Como
estd el cerro? " (" How is the mountain? ") and their
shivering reply, " Savoroso " (" Savory "), tells us that
worse is to follow. The clouds which play around the
mountain now cover its upper, now its lower parts;
now they hide it completely, now  they allow  us a fall
view of its gigantic dimensions, which seem to expand
as we approach. A group of solitary trees (Polylepis) 1 in a wilderness of rocks, seems to form a landmark of vegetation, which is about to disappear around
us.  The horses, tired by the long and steep  ascent
and the wind, require the strong stimulus of our spurs.
The fury of the winds increases. Our hats have to
be tied to our heads with handkerchiefs or strings.
The roaring of the storm often becomes deafening.
But fortunately we are already at the foot of the
arenal (the sandy region), which is the highest point
of the road. Another steep ascent has to be made,
exceedingly tiresome for the horses, which move with
great difficulty through the deep sand, strewn with the
bones and skeletons of beasts of burden. Reaching
1 "I am inclined to believe that this tree (Polylepis) reaches the greatest
elevation of any tree on the globe. It occurs on the western descent of
Chimborazo at a short distance below the arenal (14,268 feet), constituting a
well-defined zone characterized by the absence of any other trees. The
trunk, nearly destitute of bark, is gnarled and twisted in the most fanciful
manner, and the root penetrates deeply the rocky crevices, thus enabling
the tree to resist the violent winds with which it is assailed."  [From Dr.
Jameson's Manuscript Notes, kindly placed at my disposal by the learned
author.].... Mr. Spruce says: " The bark of this tree resembles that of
the birch in color, and is peeling off in flakes; but if one could suppose an
arborescent Acena, it would give a better idea of the pinnate, silvery
foliage."




54    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the summit, a sandy plain stretches out before us,
which is about the best part of the road between Ambato and Guaranda - wide, smooth, and dry. This is
the Arenal, 14,268 feet 1 above the level of the sea. It
has two divisions - El Arenal Grande and El Arenal
Chiquito, - the one being a continuation of the other.2
These plains are often covered with sand so as to hide
the track which we must follow. Hailstorms, too, are
frequent in this windy desert.
To the right of the road we see a heap of stones,
which are said to have been piled up to the memory
of an Englishman who was murdered at that place by
his arriero.3
Here, too, is the dividing line of the waters; and
Ida  Pfeiffer, following  the  example  of  Baron  von
Tschudi on  Pasco de Cerro, " climbed down  the western side of the mountain till she came to water, drank
a little, and poured the rest into a stream that fell
down on the eastern side, and then reversing the
1 Hall.
2," The Arenal consists of sand and fine gravel of a pale yellow color.
In one place the road, for a considerable distance, resembles a broad, smooth,
gravel walk in England. It is scarcely necessary to state that here the
wind is always easterly through the day, getting up strong generally about
10 A. M., and rarely continuing to blow-with equal force during the night
and following morning. Now and then it veers for a moment, and gives
the traveller a side blow, which, were he not wary, might unhorse him." -
Spruce, Report of the Expedition, etc. etc.
8 " He had undertaken to cross the Chimborazo accompanied only by a
single arriero. Perhaps he might have done so in safety, had he not had
the imprudence, on all occasions when there was any thing to pay, to display a purse well filled with gold. This glittering temptation the guide
could not withstand, and when he found himself alone with the unfortunate
traveller in this solitary region, he struck him a fatal blow on the back of
the head with a great stone wrapped in a cloth, -a common method of
murder in this country. He concealed the body in the snow; but both
deed and doer were discovered very soon by his offering one of the gold
pieces to change." —Ida Pfeiffer, A Lady's Second Voyage round the
World.




CHIMBORAZO.                           55
operation, carried some thence to the western, amusing
herself with  the thought of having sent to the Atlantic some water that was destined to flow into the
Pacific, and vice versa." 1 A very childish amusement,
which I should not have mentioned if in this awful
desert, the silence of which is broken only by the
roaring storm, and where for leagues around no human
habitation can be fouind, any thing done by, or reminding us of, man, had not a cheering interest for the traveller oppressed by the weight of absolute loneliness.
And now Chimborazo is no longer the background
of a distant view; it is our only view  to the left of the
road, from which it is separated by a broad ravine.2
From our position near the limit of perpetual snow,
perhaps less than an hour's exertion would lead us into
the snow-drifts of the mountain. Grand and beautiful
1 Ida Pfeiffer, A Lady's Second Voyage round the World.
2 "It is not well settled to how much of the Cordillera the name' Chimborazo' should be limited. When an Indian speaks of Chimborazo, Tunguragua, etc., he means merely the snowy summit of those mountains,
the adjacent paramos having local names according to the streams which
traverse them, or the farms and villages adjacent to them. Proceeding
from Chimborazo southward we have a lofty ridge, not rising in any part
of it to the line of perpetual snow, varied here and there by slight depressions, but whose continuity is nowhere broken by any transversal valley.
After forming the western boundary of the elevated plain or valley of Tiocajas, it sinks down abruptly from the heights of San Nicolas to the Valley
of Alausi, at the junction of the Puma-cocha and Chauchau. To consider
the whole of this ridge as belonging to Chimborazo would necessitate a
similar extension of its limits on all sides, and we should have to include
in it the adjacent mountain Carguairazo. formerly equally lofty, and separated from it only by a very narrow valley, as also the two' knots' running
eastward across the central valley to the foot of the eastern Cordillera, the
one from Sanancajas and the other from the northern shoulder of Chimborazo (Paramo de Puenevata), both of which knots include some lofty
peaks. I would rather confine the name of Chimborazo to the mighty mass
which rises abruptly from the plain of Sanancajas on the east, and reposes
to the north and south on Puenevata and the Arenal respectively. On the
western side, however, I can find no positive break from the summit down to
the plain. There is no intervening salient peak, and no ridge whose origin
may not be traced to the peak of Chimborazo."- Spruce, Report, etc.




56     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
is its majestic dome,1 and dazzling its whiteness when
the sun's rays are reflected from it, as it stands out
well defined by the deep azure of the sky. Grim and
awful is its appearance when the sky is darkened by
clouds, and ghastly vapors are drifting over and around
its giant peaks.
Chimborazo rises 21,422 feet (Humboldt) above the
level of the sea. No human foot ever reached its
summit. The highest point in the world conquered by
man, is six thousand and four French metres. It was
reached on Chimborazo on the 16th of December,
1831, by the French naturalist Boussingault, and his
English friend and companion, Colonel Hall. Humboldt and Bompland, who attempted an ascent on the
23d of June, 1802, reached only five thousand eight
hundred and  seventy-eight metres.2   The density  of
the fog compelled them to return. Difficult as respiration is in those altitudes, climbing is doubly exhausting and often becomes impossible. The heart palpitates alarmingly; a feverish sensation sets in; blood
oozes from the lips or the nose, and a propensity to
vomit seizes the daring traveller, as was the case with
Humboldt and Bompland. Those, however, who are
accustomed to live, or are born on the high table-lands
1 " The figure of Chimborazo resembles a truncated cone with a spherical summit. From the foot of the snow its sides are covered with a calcined matter resembling white sand; and although no tradition exists of its
active volcanic state, yet the issuing of some streams of hot water from the
north side of it, seems to warrant that it is a volcano, or that it possesses
volcanic properties." - Stephenson, Twenty-five Years' Residence in South
America.
2 Humboldt, Melanges de Geologie et de Physique Generale, Paris,
1854. See also Viajes Cientificos a los Andes Ecuatoriales, o Coleccion de
Memorias Presentadas a la Academia de Ciencias de Francia, por M11. Boussingault i Dr. Roulin, traducidas por J. Acosta, Paris, 1849. Mr. Boussingault, in his ascents of Chimborazo, Antisana, and other snow-covered
mountains, always found it more difficult and exhausting to advance over
ground covered with snow than over the bare rock.




THE DESCENT.                         57
of the Andes, are less liable to such attacks than
foreigners.   The  battle  of Pichincha, which  was
fought on an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet above the
level of the sea, the life in cities like Bogota, Potosi,
La Paz, Micuipampa, and others, which reach a height
of two thousand six hundred to four thousand French
metres; the strength and agility of the bull-fighters in
Quito, and the nights spent by young people in dancing and revelry in places almost as high as Mont
Blanc, where the celebrated Saussure had scarcely
strength enough to consult his instruments, while his
guides, hardy montagnards, fainted around him, are
unmistakable proofs that man may accustom himself to
the rarefied air of the highest mountains.
After passing the arenal, which is about half a
league across, our descent commences. At a water-fall
(chorrera) not very far from the arenal, the road
divides, one branch leading to Riobamba, and the
other, which we will take, to Mocha and Ambato. We
have now fairly entered the region of the paramos.
Paramos, properly speaking, are the highest plains or
heaths of the Cordillera, covered with high tufts of
long and dry grass, which the natives call "paja A  1
(straw). A paramo, therefore, is frequently called a
"pajonal." Its aspect is dreary and cheerless in the
extreme. But paramos may also prove dangerous to
1 "A species of Stipa, with feather-like, silvery panicles, tinged with
rose, which forms the mass of the vegetation on the paramo. This grass
affords excellent thatch. It is also extensively used in packing, and along
all the higher grounds it is almost the only material for fuel. Between the
hassocks, especially when there are slight declivities, there is an interesting
sub-alpine vegetation. A dense grassy turf is enameled with flowers, -
white, yellow, red, and purple, which seem to spring direct from the
ground." —Richard Spruce, Notes of a Visit to the Chinchona Forests,
on the Western Slope of the Quitenian Andes. I may add here that the
paramo grass is very good feed for cattle, which stray up into the highest
regions, wading up to the knee in the freezing swamps and marshes.




58    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANMS.
travellers. Winds laden with icy vapors blow over
them with tremendous violence, when as the natives
call it, the paramo " se pone bravo" (gets wild).
Dense fogs frequently envelop man and beast-; darkness covers the earth and conceals every trace of the
road; snow, hail, or sleet comes down unmercifully;
and often the traveller loses his way and wanders
helplessly over endless heaths. But this is not the
worst; when worn out with fatigue and hunger, benumbed with cold and unable to urge on his jaded
mules, he dismounts and sits down to recover his exhausted strength, his stomach soon becomes affected as
if at sea; his blood ceases to circulate, his muscles
grow stiff, and he expires with a ghastly smile upon his
features. Travellers thus found dead in these inhospitable regions, are said to be emparamados.
Still the Paramo of Chimborazo is not reputed to be
very dangerous. The fiercest paramo in Ecuador is
that of Azuay, on the road from Riobamba to Cuenca.1
1 " At Sitan, properly speaking, begins the Paramo of Azuay, the tomb
of a great number of travellers. When the wind blows there, it brings
with it such a quantity of hail and snow that the air is darkened; the
traveller, up to his knees in water, is struck with cold; he feels his limbs
grow stiff, and often loses the use of them, - if he has the good fortune to
escape with life. On the Azuay is a pool of about seventy varas in length
(one hundred and eighty feet). The water of this pond is at 90 R. above
zero. Further on is another of five or six hundred varas long and from two
to three hundred wide. Near these commences the plain of Puyal, dangerous on account of the deep marshes there met with. At the extremity of
the Puyal are the ruins of a palace of the Incas. It is built of stone without cement. The Indians evinced a very singular taste in the choice of
places where they constructed their pleasure houses, since during eight
months of the year there is continued hail and rain here." - Caldas,
Semanario de la Nueva Granada, Paris, 1849.  I do not believe that
the ruins to which Caldas refers were those of a palace or pleasure-house.
It is more probable that the building was a tambo, or resting-place, for
the accommodation of royal or noble travellers. The Incas evinced more
prudence and humanity by erecting buildings for the use of travellers in
the most inhospitable parts of the road, than their Spanish successors,
who did not think of building even a common earth hut on such horrible
passes as the Paramo of Azuay.




THE WILDERNESS.              59
The Paramo of the Puyal, on the direct road from
Riobamba to Santiago de Chimbo, is also said to be very
dangerous. In October, 1862, I passed it in a perfect
calm. I was struck with the great number of condors
I saw there.
But let us continue our journey. Beautiful and
romantic as the vegetation of Chimborazo is on its
western side, so dreary and melancholy does it present
itself on the eastern descent. The paramo grass, as I
have already said, is our only companion, barren and
gloomy mountains our only view. Up one hill-side and
down another leads the monotonous road. Many a
dreary heath has to be passed, many an icy rivulet has
to be forded. No human habitation relieves the eye
as far as the horizon extends. Now and then we see a
cave or sheltered place under a protruding rock, where
the Indian arrieros, when darkness overtakes them on
their journeys, pass the night, shivering round a smoky
fire of paramo grass, while their beasts are let loose to
seek fodder for themselves. But with the exception of
the miserable ensilladca, not a hut or cottage greets us
on the long road firom the Pongo to Chuquipoyo. We
are alone in the wilderness. If but a ruin, a milestone, a guide-post or a monument of some kind were
to be seen! " Even the record of human vanity," says
Bayard Taylor, " is preferable to the absence of any
sign of man." In the loneliest prairies of the West we
are occasionally gladdened by a sign-post telling us to
use " Howe's Cough Candy," or we find " Ayer's Sarsaparilla " painted on a decaying fence-rail; but in this
dreadful desert there is nothing to remind us of the
cheer and comforts of civilization; nothing to remind
us even of the existence of man, except at long intervals droves of mules and asses, followed by bare



60    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
footed arrieros, gliding along like spectral shadows of
the life we left behind us.
At last we reach the tambo, a solitary house called
Chuquipoyo, and sometimes undeservedly styled the
" Hacienda of Chimborazo." And what a miserable,
gloomy, filthy, and cheerless place it is! The Ecuadorian tambos or stopping-places are all bad, but Chuquipoyo deserves the crown of wretchedness. After
the hardships of the day, and considering the elevation of this tambo to be 12,540 feet above the level of
the sea, one should expect to find at least a warm room
with a pleasant chimney fire crackling in the grate, to
forget the fatigues of the journey and the freezing paramo outside. But even to the traveller who enters
Chuquipoyo without the least expectation of comfort,
it will prove a chilling disappointment. The courtyard is a knee-deep pool, steaming with the excrements
of horses. No pavement leads through or around the
yard. It is necessary to ride to the very door of the
principal room to dismount without taking a bath of
mud. The room itself is a horrid hole without windows. The country architecture of Ecuador despises
ventilation and windows. Two old, dirty, and rickety
bedsteads on one side, a stone bench to make beds on
on the other, and an old table, constitute the furniture. The flooring of bricks is broken through and
rotting away; the atmosphere of the room damp and
cold; the first and last coat of whitewash it ever received besmeared all over with inscriptions and obscene
drawings, and the plaster crumbling down. Into this
room men and women are huddled together to undress
and sleep in each other's presence. Those who find it
crowded have the choice of a side room about eight by
seven feet, also furnished with a bedstead, but with




A DREARY RESTING-PLACE.           61
the wall broken through at many places, through
which the icy night air blows in unmercifully. The
stench of horses and arrieros pervades the whole tambo. One wing of the building is half in ruins, leaving
but a kitchen and the sleeping and store rooms of the
mayordomo (steward).  The arrieros and their peones
sleep in the court-yard in the open air.
The cooking is done on the ground, in the unhandy,
pointed pots of the interior. The only fuel is the
grass of the paramo, which makes it necessary for the
cook to fan and blow the fire continually. The supply
of yerba for the horses is always insufficient. To
travellers a few eggs and potatoes will sometimes be
sold, but in nine cases out of ten, nothing is to be had,
either for love or money. In short, a painter who would
represent cheerlessness, ought to paint Chuquipoyo.
Edgar A. Poe's "House of Usher," or the " Haunted
House" of Thomas Hood, are heavens of comfort in
comparison with this detestable place.
It was originally built by the government as a resting-place for soldiers, and now belongs to a wealthy
citizen of Riobamba, who, with little expense, might
not only make it comfortable, but also profitable; for
who, in the midst of the cold and lonely desert of
Chimborazo, would not gladly pay for a warm and
cheerful room? But as it is, it is a disgrace to its proprietor, a disgrace and a reproach to Ecuador.
After what I have said, it would be needless to describe the night to which travellers are condemned. 1
cannot, however, refrain from relating an incident
showing the stolid and uncharitable character of the
Ecuadorian Indians. Travelling from Quito to Guayaquil in 1863, I had left Ambato rather late in the day,
and it was dark when I came into the neighborhood of




62    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Chuquipoyo. My companions, one of them a member
of a Spanish Scientific Commission, who were not
familiar with the road, became apprehensive of having
passed the tambo without seeing it, and infected me
with their doubts. We had already resolved to turn
back and proceed in the direction of Ambato until we
should meet our arrieros, who were behind with the
luggage, when aside from the road we saw a few
Indians in the paramo, who had encamped themselves
between the high hassocks of grass. We hailed them,
telling them that we had lost the way, and asking
them for the right direction to Chuquipoyo. But instead of answering us, they ran away, and hid themselves in the high grass of the heath. All our hallooing, all our promises were in vain. The Indians would
not come forward. Unwilling to expose ourselves
longer than necessary to the chilling night air and increasing darkness, we made after them, found them
after a short hunt, and compelled them to give us the
right direction.
The view which on fine mornings presents itself
from Chuquipoyo, is highly interesting. We descry
the sandy valley and city of Riobamba, which name
is connected with one of the most frightful geological
revolutions known in the annals of mankind. The
present city of Riobamba, nine thousand one hundred
and eighty-nine feet above the level of the sea, is
about three leagues distant from the site where the old
city stood, the ruins of which are yet visible among
the humble buildings of the two contiguous villages of
Cicalpa and Cajabamba. The old city, founded in
1533, by Sebastian Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito,
suffered greatly by the earthquake of 1645; but on
the 4th of February, 1797, it was completely de



THE CITY OF RIOBAMBA.            63
stroyed. With the exception of four hundred and
eighty who escaped, all the inhabitants perished. The
shock was so fearful that the face of the country was
entirely changed. A part of the mountain Cicalpa
was torn from its base, crushing the city at its foot.
"Mountains rose," says Stephenson, " where cultivated valleys had existed; rivers disappeared or
changed their course, and plains usurped the place of
mountains and ravines." The site of the city was
rent asunder, and a rivulet now flows through it which
had not existed before. The surviving inhabitants
were unable to point out the spots where their houses
had stood. Caldas, the Granadian -naturalist, who
visited the place shortly after the catastrophe, and
while the new city was in process of erection in the
plain of Tapi, says that many of the survivors still
lingered around the ruins, unable to tear themselves
from the frightful sepulchre of those they had loved.
The new city, according to Villavicencio,l contains
about 16,000 inhabitants, and several woolen factories.
The chief productions of the district are wool, wheat,
barley, potatoes, and European culinary vegetables.
The streets of the town are broad and the houses low.
They are built of adobes, and with the exception of
those on the plaza, have but a ground-floor. The
number of the churches seems to be in disproportion
to the population. The place is very lifeless; the
stores are generally attended by saleswomen, and the
men pass their time in idleness, gambling, or gossiping.
To the east of Riobamba we discover the smoky
summit of Sangai, which is probably the most active
volcano on the globe. " Since the day when it was
first seen by the Spaniards," says Mr. Spruce, " it has
1 Geografia de la Republica del Ecuador..




64    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
been in continual eruption, whereas other volcanoes
have had their periods of repose; but as it stands is
the midst of uninhabited forests (for the village of
Macas is at least two days' journey away), its eruptions rarely cause any damage to the dwellings of man.
Its position is in the Eastern Cordillera, about 20
South, longitude 780 33' West. It is crowned by a
great breadth of perpetual snow, or rather of alternating layers of snow and ashes, and even (it has been
asserted) of modern trachyte. At Bodegas its explosions are often distinctly heard; sometimes also at
Guayaquil." On the morning of the 24th of June,
1861, when I first arrived at Bodegas, the little steamer
in which I had come had its deck completely covered
with ashes, and ashes covered the foliage of the woods
between Bodegas and Punta Playas. These ashes, or
volcanic dust, had been thrown out by Mt. Sangai.
The fall began on the 23d of June, and lasted for five
days. On the 18th of July another shower of ashes
reached Guayaquil, and fell as thick as drizzling rain.
The explosions of the mountain sound like the discharges of cannon. Its height is 17,284 feet.
Nearer to Riobamba is the beautiful Altar, 17,450
feet high. The Indians call it Capac Urcu. There is
a tradition that it was once higher than Chimborazo,
when after eight years of frightful eruptions, the walls,
consumed by the volcanic activity within, could no
longer support their own weight, and the top fell in.
Since the discovery of the country by the Spaniards,
no symptoms of volcanic activity have been observed.
On the afternoon of a bright and beautiful October
day in 1862, while travelling from Ambato to Riobamba, I had a most perfect view of Altar, Tunguragua, Chimborazo, and other snow peaks. The Altar,




MT. ALTAR.                65
however, enraptured me; and for hours as I descended
to, and rode through, the sandy plain of Tapi, my eye
was fascinated  by its wondrous peaks.  The two
highest peaks at its southern extremity appeared to my
excited fancy like a king and queen seated on icy
thrones, clad in long snowy robes, and looking down
on their hoary court of minor rocks and crags, with
calm and melancholy majesty. Sad and sorrowful
seemed the queen as the rays of the setting sun lingered on her musing countenance. Perhaps she had
come from more genial climes; perhaps birds had
caroled and flowers had smiled upon her happy childhood, and now she must pass her dreary life speechless
and motionless, as if charmed by an enchanter's spell,
at the cold side of her icy consort. There was a melancholy and resigned expression in what I imagined to
be her face. Perhaps she was another Blanche de
Bourbon, sacrificed to some cruel Don Pedro of those
cold and lofty realms, to which even the condor rarely
elevates his soaring flight, and where not a leaf, not a
flower, not even a vestige of a friendlier world breaks
the deathlike loneliness. There all life is extinct;
vegetation has ceased; the sweet notes of birds do not
penetrate into those unattainable altitudes; and save
the storms of heaven, no other sound but the roaring
of her fell neighbor Sangai, reaches the ear of the unfortunate queen. In wonderful clearness the mountain rose before me, but soon clouds commenced to
circle around it; mists and vapors gradually drew a
thin veil over the majestic sight, and at last envious
fogs interposed impenetrably between the steady, soft,
and melancholy look of the queen on high and the
sympathizing wanderer in the plain below. A few
5




66    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
minutes more and the apparition was gone, but the
impression it left will never fade from my memory.
Will my readers pardon these fantastic digressions?
I shall atone for them by at once continuing our journey from Chuquipoyo. Our road now takes a northerly direction, leading us into the dreary Paramo of
Sanancajas.   The wilderness  here  seems  endless.
Again the same monotonous heath, the same gloomy
paramo grass, and no human habitation as far as the
eye can reach.
We are to make a new acquaintance, however. It is
Carguairazo, the northern neighbor of Chimborazo, and
so near the latter that the Indians call it " Chimborazo
Embra," the female Chimborazo. It is 15,664 feet
high, and is also said to have been higher than Chimborazo; but on the 19th of June, 1698, its top fell in
during a tremendous earthquake, which almost totally
destroyed the villages of Mocha, Ambato, and Latacunga. In Ambato sixteen hundred Indians and five
hundred and fifty-six Spaniards were crushed by the
falling houses, and in Latacunga so many persons perished, that, according to the official records kept in the
escribania de hacienda, it became necessary to dig
ditches for the purpose of burying the dead in heaps.1
Since that horrible catastrophe, the mountain has given
no important signs of volcanic activity.
After passing two gloomy lakes or ponds, which
must be of recent formation, as the road which formerly passed over their sites is still visible under the
water, we leave the paramo behind us at last. The
1 Pablo Herrera, Ensayo sobre la Historia de la Literatura Ecuatoriana.
The author carefully examined the archives of the municipalities of Latacunga and Quito, and extracted from them many valuable items of historical information. See also Zimmermann, Die Wunder der Urwelt, Berlin,
1856. Velasco, Historia del Reino de Quito, Quito, 1844.




VILLAGE OF MOCHA.                      67
character of the landscape changes as we descend; a
friendly vegetation reappears, and our heart rejoices at
seeing green bushes, cultivated fields, and human habitations again.
A steep descent to a mountain stream which must
be passed, and a short ascent to the other side, leads
us to the village of Mocha. In ancient times this was
an important Indian town, frequently mentioned in the
history of the conquest. Now it is a miserable, filthy,
cold, and lifeless village, but greatly welcome after the
dreariness of the paramo, and the hospitality of Chuquipoyo.1 It has a plaza, with an humble church,
which  is half in ruins ever since the  earthquake of
1859.  The traces of earthquakes are now  bound to
haunt us, whithersoever we may go.
1 With regard to taverns along the road, the first white settlers of the
country were ahead of their present descendants. According to Herrera,
taverns were established along the public highways every five or six
leagues. -Dec. v., 1. 10, cap. 11. Now the traveller must resort to
wretched hovels in which, in many cases, he has to share his lodgings with
his filthy hosts. It is fortunate, however, that, especially in the interior,
his life and property are perfectly secure, for his hosts are harmless and
inoffensive.




CHAPTER V.
From Mocha to Ambato. - The Volcano Tunguragua. - The Towns of
Ambato and Latacunga. -Fleas. —The Volcano Cotopaxi. —Earthquakes and Prophecies. —A Gold Legend.- The Treasure of Atahuallpa. - The Testament of Valverde. - His Derrotero.- Mt. Ilinisa. -
The Plain and Village of Mulalu. - Description of a Farm-Building. -
Signs of General Decay. - The Hill of Callo. - The Footprints of St.
Bartholomew the Apostle. - Inca Ruins. - The Paramo of Tiupullo. -
The " Accursed Tree." - Rumifiagui and other Mountains. - The Villages of Machachi and Tambillo. - An Ecuadorian Tavern. - End of
our Journey.
THE road from Mocha to Ambato leads through long
rows and hedges of American Aloe, or Agava Americana, one of the most important and useful plants of
the interior, of which I shall give a detailed account
in a subsequent chapter. The first part of the road
leads through  a fertile  region, producing  potatoes,
wheat, barley, and other products of the temperate
zone. The climate is delightful; neither hot nor cold,
though rather cool. The latter half of the road lies
through a sandy and sterile country, producing scanty
crops of maize, barley, pease, and lupines. The road
seems to be buried urder deep layers of light sand,
and if there is a strong breeze, it drives clouds of unwelcome dust in the eyes of the traveller.
To the southeast of the road, in clear weather, a
charming view  of Mt. Tunguragua may be enjoyed.
This volcano, 16,514  feet high, is one of the most
attractive and interesting mountains in Ecuador. Its
form is that of a perfect cone, and while its highest




THE TOWN OF AMBATO.                   69
parts are covered with a long and splendid robe of
snow, the sugar-cane grows at its base in the Valley of
Bafios. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful of all
the snow peaks in the country.
The town of Ambato is not visible from a distance.
It lies in a caldron, and does not present itself before
you are right above it. It is surrounded by steep and
barren sandy mountains, almost without vegetation,
but its aspect is very pleasing. It is a friendly green
spot - a smiling oasis in a desert, with houses peeping
through numberless gardens, orchards, and clover-fields.
It is famous for its fruit. Tunas, granadillas, monster
strawberries, which the natives call frutillas; peaches,
apricots, and apples (the three latter species, however,
of a very inferior quality); wild cherries (eapulis),
guavas, etc., grow  in  abundance.  Being  but 8567
feet above the level of the sea,1 and protected by high
mountains on all sides, its temperature is very agreeable, and a great deal milder than that of Quito. It
may, indeed, boast of the climate of an eternal spring.
Its population is estimated at eight thousand. It has
several plazas and churches; but the houses have seldom more than a ground-floor, with the exception of
those on or in the neighborhood of the Plaza Mayor.
The buildings are of sun-baked brick, and the better
ones neatly whitewashed. The gutters are in the centre of the streets, and through some of them streams
of limpid water flow. The only tolerable boots and
shoes manufactured in the country are made here.
The Cochineal,2 too, is found in  abundance in  the
1 According to the measurement of Mr. Spruce. Dr. Jameson has it
at 8540.
2 " The name given by the Spaniards to this valuable insect is cochinilla,
signifying a little pig, because it bears a resemblance to one; in the same
manner as in some parts of England it is supposed that the wood-louse re



70     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
leaves of the cactus, and collected by the natives for
dyeing, although but little or no attention is paid to the
cultivation of the cactus, or of the insect. Coarse
woollen ponchos are also manufactured at a cheap rate.
On market-days, especially on Sundays, the Plaza
Mayor, with its motley crowd of Indians, in ponchos
of all colors, presents a most lively and grotesque appearance.
The town is situated on the right bank of the
river Ambato, along which many friendly haciendas
extend.   During  the  fruit season, about Christmas
and New Year, Ambato is visited by many of the
wealthy residents of Quito, who come to eat fruit and
enjoy the mildness of the climate. There is much less
rain at Ambato than at Quito and other places of the
interior. On clear nights the fiery vapors of Mt. Cotopaxi are visible. The casa posada (tavern) which
existed there during my time, was a miserable concern,
the rooms full of dust, filth, and fleas, and the kitchen
abominable. There were, as in all other taverns in
the interior, bedsteads in the rooms, but no bedding,
as travellers are expected to carry their own bedding
with them.
Ascending from the caldron in which Ambato is
situate, we reach a broad table-land over which the
road leads to Latacunga. The two principal branches
sembles a hog. The cactus on which it feeds is not so prickly as the tun q.
which in the West Indies is called the prickly pear. The leaves are very
green, as wel as the rind of the fruit; but the inside is of a most beautiful
red color, similar to that of the cochinilla. It is very palatable, and when
eaten, communicates its own color to the urine..... Instead of killing
the insect, after taking it from the cactus, by placing it in an earthen jar,
and exposing it to a heat sufficiently strong to destroy its vitality, and
then preserving it in bags, as the Mexican Indians do, it is ground or
bruised to the consistency of paste, and often adulterated with the juice of
the fruit and flour." - Stephenson.




LATACUNGA.                 71
of the Cordillera widen here, and allow us to view the
country for miles around. The road lies through an
endless prolongation of narrow lanes, formed by interminable hedges of aloes, magueys, and cacti. A
beautiful heliotrope which grows among these hedges,
casts fragrance on our path. Approaching Latacunga,
the country becomes perfectly sterile; the mountains
are entirely arid, and dreary plains, covered with volcanic sands and pumice-stone, indicate the neighborhood of the dreadful volcano Cotopaxi, which has
caused so much suffering and destruction to this part
of the country.
The houses of the town of Latacunga, or as it was
originally called Llactacunga, are built of pumice-stone,
thrown out by the eruptions of Mt. Cotopaxi. They
are almost all without an upper story, and present
rather a gloomy appearance. The elevation of Latacunga is 9170 feet above the level of the sea,1 and
its climate, cold. It is seldom we see an inhabitant of
the place without a cloak or a poncho. There is always a tavern at Latacunga, but naturally, not without the chief production of the place - fleas. In fact,
the streets and public squares of the town are filthy
par excellence. Filth, according to a Spanish-American authority,2 is a characteristic trait of the province
of Quito. Ida Pfeiffer says that after a night's rest
in Latacunga, she awoke with her skin marked all over
with red spots, as if from an eruptive disease. The
place is not one of business or enterprise. It is half
in ruins, owing to the many earthquakes with which
it has been visited. Some of the churches are down,
and in slow process of reconstruction. The town lies
at the foot of a little hill on which the old town Gs.,,
1 Jameson.              2 Oaldas.




72    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and which is yet covered with ruins. In fact, Latacunga is the very image of decay, and the only celebrity it has acquired, it owes to its earthquakes, and to
the pomp of its religious processions. Its population
is estimated at 16,000, the great majority of whom are
Indians. It was an important Indian town before the
arrival of the Spaniards, and temples, palaces, and royal
factories are said to have been constructed there by the
great Inca Huaynacapac.
After the conquest the Indian population was greatly
reduced by the cruelty and avarice of the Spaniards.
At present the Indians of Latacunga are famous for
their mummeries and dances during semana santa (holy
week), and between Christmas and New Year's. To
do honor to the occasion, they hire fancy dresses and
jewels for these dances, at an expense which not only
swallows up a whole year's earnings, but generally increases the interminable debt for which they are held
to labor. The Indians of Latacunga, especially the
women, are very ugly, but have beautiful teeth, of
dazzling whiteness.
I have already mentioned what Latacunga suffered
from the earthquake which accompanied the falling in
of the top of Mt. Carguairazo. Eight thousand persons are said to have perished on that occasion. According to Father Velasco,l who carefully compiled
and religiously believed in all the miraculous legends
he could scrape together, this earthquake had been
predicted seven years before it took place, in a sermon
preached by Father Jos6 de Cases. He announced
the catastrophe as a punishment for the immoral
amusements, such as masquerades and bull-fights, with
which the inhabitants were fond of celebrating the festi1 History of the Kingdorm of Quito.




EARTHQUAKES.                        73
val of St. John. Father Velasco quotes from the sermon which the venerable prophet is said to have
preached on that occasion. He makes him tell his incredulous congregation that even the temple in which
he stood would fall, with the exception of the column
that sustained the pulpit. And so, the chronicler assures his readers, it happened. The Carmelite nuns,
who had believed in the prophecy, and slept under
tents in their garden for seven years after it, to avoid
being crushed by the apprehended fall of their convent, were saved.
According to the same credible authority, the earthquake of 1757, by which four hundred lives were
destroyed (two hundred persons were killed while listening to a sermon in the Church of the Jesuits), had
also been predicted thirteen years before it took place,
by a Father Saldana, a Jesuit. In a country where
superstition and fanaticism reign supreme, it is very
customary to refer such catastrophes to previous predictions. On the other hand, it requires no prophetic
gift to predict calamities which, considering the volcanic nature of the soil, are unfortunately of but too
frequent occurrence, and may hourly be apprehended.
If the believers in such prophecies are only patient
enough to bear them in mind for seven or thirteen
years, as in the above cases, it is very probable that
they will live to witness their fulfillment.1
1 "The terror which they (earthquakes) cause excites the imagination
even to a painful extent, and overbalancing the judgment, predisposes men
to superstitious fancies. And what is highly curious is, that repetition, so far
from blunting such feelings, strengthens them. In Peru, where earthquakes
appear to be more common than in any other country, every succeeding
visitation increases the general dismay, so that in some cases the fear becomes almost insupportable. The mind is thus constantly thrown into a
timid and anxious state; and men, witnessing the most serious dangers,
which they can neither avoid nor understand, become impressed with a




74      FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
In 1797, many of the churches and con-vents, rebuilt
after former visitations, were thrown down again, and
many lives lost. This catastrophe was followed by
another in 1802, and still another in 1859, the latter
doing considerable damage. These earthquakes (terremotos) must be distinguished from those frequent
shocks of more or less violence, and doing more or
less damage, which the natives call temblores. They
occur too often to be noticed by the chroniclers;   unless we should find a second Santiago Perez Valencia,
a New Granadian, who for forty years kept a register
of all earthquakes and shocks which took place at Popayan, the city where he resided. According to this
register, Popayan experienced one hundred and two
earthquakes between the years 1805 and 1841.2
But earthquakes were not the only scourge of the
town of Latacunga. The eruptions of Mt. Cotopaxi,
which is but five leagues distant, formed another
source of calamities, alarms, and apprehensions. This
conviction of their own inability, and of the poverty of their own resources.
In exactly the same proportion the imagination is aroused, and a belief in
supernatural interference actively encouraged. Human power failing, superhuman power is called in, the mysterious and the invisible are believed
to be present, and there grow up among the people those feelings of awe
and of helplessness on which all superstition is based, and without which
no superstition can exist." - Buckle's History of Civilization in England,
chap. ii.
1 " In the earthquake of 1743 a Jesuit, Father Vallejo, was in the church
when the roof fell in. He remained under the ruins till the third day, when
he was taken out unhurt, but his mental faculties were so completely deranged, that he had forgotten his own name, nor did he recollect any of
his most particular friends; and although a priest, when his breviary was
presented to him, he could not read it, but appeared quite childish. He
afterwards resided in the College of Quito, but his memory had so entirely
abandoned him that he never could recollect any thing that had occurred
to him before the earthquake, not even his studies, and he was afterwards
taught to read, and to celebrate a votive mass." - Stephenson.
2 Acosta's Notes to his Spanish Translation of Boussingault's,Scientific
Voyages to the Ecuatoriarn Andes.




"CABEZA DEL INCA."             75
famous mountain (18,890 feet high) is, on clear days,
distinctly visible from Latacunga, Mulalu, Machachi, Tambillo, and all the higher points' of Quito.
Clad in a virgin robe of snow, it presents a most beautiful appearance. Its shape is that of a regular truncated cone, with a flat summit. The crater which opens
on the top of the mountain being in uninterrupted activity, dense volumes of white and gray smoke are
continually issuing from it, forming themselves into the
most fantastic shapes. Generally the smoke assumes
the form of an enormous tree with a trunk and
branches, until a current of air tears it away from the
mountain, and leaves it hovering in the sky, where it
remains as a cloud. New formations will then slowly
arise from the crater, and are, in their turn, carried
away by aerial currents. At night the smoke issuing
from the mountain forms a pillar of fire, and fire beams
through the clefts and fissures of the summit. The
noise produced by the explosions of Cotopaxi resembles the rumbling of thunder, and may frequently be
heard at Quito, and sometimes even further to the
north. Fine sand and ashes are thrown out almost
without intermission, and prove very detrimental to
-the cattle of the haciendas around the mountain. On
its lower declivity, very near the snow limit, is a huge
mass of rock called by some Cabeza del Inca, (the Inca's head,) according to an ancient tradition that it was
the original summit of the mountain torn off and
hurled down by an eruption on the day the Inca Atahuallpa was executed by Pizarro at Cajamarca. According to the information collected by Fray Marcos
de Niza shortly after the event, that eruption took
place the evening before the treacherous capture of
Atahuallpa.




76    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Since its second eruption, which is said to have taken
place in 1534, Cotopaxi remained quiet for over two
hundred years, until in the beginning of 1742 another
great eruption took place, throwing out immense quantities of water and mud, and doing great damage to the
bridges, fields, and cattle in the neighborhood.1
The third eruption took place on the 9th of December, 1742, and was preceded by a rumbling, subterranean noise, which lasted for several days. The roaring
by which it was accompanied was heard at a distance
of sixty leagues. Its principal feature was a great inundation, which is generally ascribed to the enormous
mass of snow which covered the mountain, and was
suddenly melted by the heat of the crater and the
streams of boiling water it threw out. The flood,
breaking over the narrow bed of the river Latacunga,
inundated the plain below, destroying many haciendas,
a great number of cattle, and a part of the district of
Latacunga called " barrio caliente." Whether such an
inundation can really have proceeded from the melting of the snow-cover of Cotopaxi, may perhaps be
doubted. Father Velasco indignantly rejects the hypothesis; but he is no scientific authority. I have
often seen the mountain either without snow, or with
a part of its snow-cover suddenly missing,- a phenomenon which was almost always accompanied by
a sudden rise of the river Latacunga. Whether the
snow had melted in consequence of eruptions, or
whether it had been completely covered by a layer of
brown cinders and scoria, I am unable to say.
On the 4th of November, 1744, the fourth great
1 Dr. Pablo Herrera, the author of Ensayo sobre la Hlistoria de la Literatura Ecuatoriana, has corrected the dates of the principal eruptions given
by Velasco and adopted by Stephenson. I have adopted these corrections,
as they are based on record evidence.




ERUPTIONS OF COTOPAXI.          77
eruption took place. On this occasion the force of the
explosion opened a deep cleft or ravine, which now
leads from the western side of the crater to the foot of
the mountain. The eruption was again accompanied
by a most disastrous inundation. The flood reached
the Plaza Mayor of Latacunga, filling the streets,
court-yards and houses.
February 2d, 1757. This was the third eruption
followed by an inundation. Again the plains of Mulalu and Callo, and the town of Latacunga were devastated by a flood, and to increase the general dismay
and terror, shocks of earthquake were felt, which
threw down the churches of the town, and laid several
adjoining villages in ruins.
February 10th, 1766. - There was no earthquake
this time, but another inundation, produced by the
waters which rushed down from Cotopaxi. The sand
and ashes which were thrown out, destroyed the crops
for many miles around.
April 4th, 1768. — This explosion was announced
by monstrous columns of smoke and fire, which were
followed by an earthquake and a rain of ashes, ejected
in such quantities that the sun was completely hidden,
and for several hours the inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages were obliged to light candles
and use lanterns in the daytime. The thatched roofs
of many of the huts were crushed by the weight of
the sand and ashes which had fallen on them. The
noise of the falling sand resembled that of a heavy
shower. The crops were destroyed, and a great number of cattle perished. At the same time the roaring
of the volcano was incessant.  Such catastrophes
always produce the usual manifestations of terror and
superstition among the people. Persons rush out on




78    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the streets, loudly confessing their sins; the wooden
statues of the saints are taken from the churches and
carried around in procession; psalms are chanted; and
during the earthquake of 1859 at Quito, persons threw
themselves at the feet of the archbishop, who was on
the Plaza Mayor, and prayed to be absolved from their
sins.
January, 1803. —This eruption, too, was followed
by a disastrous flood, causing great damage. Humboldt heard the noise of the explosions at Guayaquil,
at a distance of fifty-two leagues in a straight line
from the crater. It sounded like the continued discharges of a battery.
From that time the mountain remained tolerably
quiet until 1851, when the flames went high, and
slight eruptions took place, sending sand and ashes to
its eastern side.
In 1855 it threw out sand, a great quantity of water,
and even stones, which it scattered over the plains of
Mulalu and Callo. Since then it has been vomiting
forth dense columns of smoke, accompanied now and
then by a fine rain of ashes, but has done no damage,
if we except the gradual sterilizing of the fields around
it, to which the continued eruption of cinders and sand
must inevitably lead.
Latacunga is the starting-point of the most romantic
gold legend circulating in Ecuador. As it has a
better claim to consideration than any other of the
many idle gold-stories in which the interior abounds,
and as it has led to many adventurous expeditions
into the mountains of Llanganati, where the treasure
that enriched Valverde is said to be buried, I will give
a full account of it, availing myself of the information
contained in a pamphlet written by Mr. Spruce, the




THE LIANGANATI WILDERNESS.            79
celebrated botanist, who made a scientific exploration
of the wilderness of Llanganati: —1
"In the month of July, 1857," says Mr. Spruce,
"I reached Banios, where I learned that the snowy
points I had observed from Paca-yacu, between Tunguragua and Cotopaxi, were the summits of a group
of mountains called Llanganati, from which ran down
to the Pastasa the densely wooded ridges I saw to the
northward. I was further informed that these mountains abounded in all sorts of metals, and that it was
universally believed that the Incas had deposited an
immense quantity of gold in an artificial lake on the
flanks of one of the peaks, at the time of the Spanish
Conquest. They spoke also of one Valverde, a Span-.iard, who from being poor, had suddenly become very
rich, which was attributed to his having married an
Indian girl, whose father showed him where the
treasure was hidden, and accompanied him on various
occasions to bring away portions of it; and that Valverde returned to Spain, and when on his death-bed,
bequeathed the secret of his riches to the King.
Many expeditions, public and private, had been made
to follow the track indicated by Valverde, but no one
had succeeded in reaching its terminus; and I spoke
with two men at Ba/ios who had accompanied such expeditions, and had nearly perished with cold and hunger on the paramo of Llanganati, where they had
wandered for thirty days. The whole story seemed so
impossible that I paid little attention to it, and I set to
work to examine the vegetation of the adjacent vol1 Richard Spruce, On the Mountains of Llanganati in the Eastern Cordillera of the Quitenian Andes, illustrated by a map constructed by the late
Doun Atanasio Guzman; Read before the Royal Geographical Society of
London, on the 12th March, 1860.




80   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
cano Tunguragua, at whose northeastern foot the village of Baiios is situated.
"In the summers of the years 1858 and 1859 I
visited Quito and various points in the Western Cordillera, and for many months the country was so insecure on account of internal dissensions, that I could
not leave Ambato and Riobamba, where my goods
were deposited, for more than a few days together. I
obtained, however, indisputable evidence that the'Derrotero,' or guide to Llanganati, of Valverde, had
been sent by the King of Spain to the Corregidors of
Tacunga and Ambato, along with a'Cedula Real,'
commanding those functionaries to use every diligence
in seeking out the treasure of the Incas. That one expedition had been headed by the Corregidor of Tacunga in person, accompanied by a friar, Padre Longo,
of considerable literary reputation. The' Derrotero'
(guide) was found to correspond so exactly with the
actual localities, that only a person intimately acquainted
with them could have drawn it up; and that it could
have been fabricated by any other person who was
never out of Spain, was an impossibility. This expedition had nearly reached the end of the route, when
one evening the Padre Longo disappeared mysteriously, and no traces of him could be discovered; so
that whether he had fallen into a ravine near which
they were encamped, or into one of the morasses
which abound all over that region, is to this day unknown. After searching in vain for the Padre for
some days, the expedition returned, without having
accomplished its object.
"The' Cedula Real' and' Derrotero' were deposited in the archives of Tacunga, whence they disappeared about twenty years ago. So many people




THE GOLD OF LLANGANATI.          81
were admitted to copy them, that at last some one, not
content with a copy, carried off the original. I have
secured a copy of the' Derrotero,' bearing date August 14, 1827, but I can meet with no one who recollects the date of the original documents.
"I also ascertained that a botanist, Don Atanasio
Guzman, who resided some time in the town of Pillaro,
and lost his life by an accident near the town of Patate,
had headed many expeditions in quest of the gold of
Llanganati. He also made the map of the Llanganatis
which is prefixed to this sketch. Guzman and his
companions, although they found no deposits of gold,
came on the mouths of several silver and copper mines
which had been worked in the time of the Incas, and
ascertained the existence of other metals and minerals.
They began to work the mines, at first with ardor,
which soon, however, cooled down, partly in consequence of intestine quarrels, but chiefly because they
became disgusted with that slow mode of acquiring
wealth, when there was molten gold supposed to be
hidden close by; and so the mines were at length all
abandoned. This is supposed to have taken place in
the early part of the present century, but the exact
date I can by no means ascertain. Guzman is reported
to have met with Humboldt, and to have shown his
drawings of plants and animals to that prince of travellers. He died about 1806 or 1808, in the Valley of
Seytu, about four leagues distant from Ambato, at a
small farm-house now called Seytillo. He was a somnambulist, and having one night walked out of the
house while asleep, he fell down a steep place, and so
perished."
Mr. Spruce then proceeds to criticise the map of
Guzman, and adds a translation of the " Derrotero,"
6




82    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
which, together with some necessary explanations, will
be found in the appendix to this work. After this he
gives an account of his own exploration of the road
pointed out by the " guide," the description of which
perfectly corresponds to the actual locality, until the
mountain Margasitas is reached. " Beyond this," he
continues, " no one has been able to proceed with certaintv. The' Derrotero' directs it to be left on the
left hand, but the explanatory hieroglyph (' and I warn
thee that thou must go round it in this fashion')
puzzles every body, as it seems to leave the mountain
on the right. Accordingly, nearly all who have attempted to follow the' Derrotero,' have gone to the
left of Margasitas, and have failed to find any of the
remaining marks signalized by Valverde.
" The mines of Llanganati, after having been neglected for nearly half a century, are now being sought
out again with the intention of working them; but
there is no single person, at the present day, able to
employ the labor and capital required for successfully
working a silver mine; and mutual confidence is at so
low an ebb in this country that companies never hold
together long. Beside this, the gold of the Incas
never ceases to haunt people's memories. But if the'Socabon' of Valverde cannot at this day be discovered, it is known to every one that gold exists at a
short distance, and possibly in considerable quantity,
if the Ecuadorians would only take the trouble to
search for it, and not leave that task to the wild Indians, who are content if by scooping up the gravel
with their hands, they can get together enough gold to
fill the quill which the white man has given them as
the measure of the value of the axes and lance-heads
he has supplied to them on trust."




THE VILLAGE OF MULALU.            83
Leaving Latacunga on a clear day early in the morning, we have a beautiful view of Cotopaxi in the eastern, and Ilinisa (17,649 feet high) in the western
Cordillera, while Tunguragua, Chimborazo, and Carguairazo, remain behind us, and gradually fade from
our view. Again the road leads through long rows
and hedges of American aloe; but the fields are
sandy and somewhat sterile. Cattle-breeding is carried on extensively on the haciendas along the skirts of
Cotopaxi.  The snows and waters of the mountain
form the River Tacunga, which must be passed about
two leagues from the town which shares its name.
Sudden rises, attributed to the rains and to the melting
of snow on Cotopaxi, make it frequently unfordable
for several days in succession. Its current is very
rapid, and its water sometimes partakes of the brown
color which characterizes the volcano whenever it is,
or at least seems to be, destitute of snow.
The plains of Mulalu and Callo, to the west of Cotopaxi, present a gloomy aspect. The soil seems to be
buried under volcanic sands, and is covered with countless rocks of all dimensions, which tradition attributes
to former eruptions of the mountain, although the
opinion of scientific men like WissV, Zimmermann, and
other celebrated naturalists, militates against such a
hypothesis.
The village of Mulalu is an Indian settlement of no
importance. The hacienda on the west side of the
road, to which the tambo belongs, is a melancholy picture of sadness and decay. The buildings are designed
in a most elegant style, but are now in ruins. The
statues in the garden have tumbled from their pedestals. Elegant stone balustrades are crumbling away.
The fountains are without water, and their stone ba



84    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
sins breaking to pieces. The whole building contains
but one habitable and furnished room; the others are
miserable, windowless hovels, used for store-rooms or
occupied by the family of the mayor-domo.  The garden is well laid out, but overgrown with weeds.
Every thing betokens the indifference or increasing
poverty of the owners. And what I have said of this
hacienda is true of most of the farm buildings of the
interior; they are all either unfinished or already in
ruins, if not both. What the earthquake spares will
not escape the sloth and carelessness of the natives.
Walls that once tumble down are seldom built up again,
or it will take years to repair them. Lifelessness and
decay are the characteristic features of the country. If
the sins of the fathers were ever avenged in their children and children's children, it has been done in Spanish America. The crimes of the early conquerors
have borne their deadly fruits. Ruins and decay,
stagnation and indolence, ignorance and superstition,
idleness and civil wars, are the causes which blight
more than one half of the American continent as far
as the Spanish tongue is spoken. There is, indeed,
poetic justice in history.
Leaving Mulalu, the aspect of the treeless country
increases in dreariness. For miles around, the soil is
covered with volcanic sands, rocks, and pumice-stones,
allowing only a most scanty vegetation of cacti, mimosa, and spines. In the middle of the plain is a solitary hill about one hundred and fifty feet high - the
hill of Callo - from which this part of the plain derives its name. The hill is said to have been piled up
by human hands. The ancient inhabitants of the
plain are said to have erected it as a shelter against
the eruptions of Cotopaxi, a tradition which I am not




ANCIENT RUINS.               85
inclined to believe. Of the Panecillo, at the foot of
which the city of Quito extends, the same incredulous
story is told.
Opposite the hill, on the other side of the road, is a
solitary tree called " El Arbol de Callo," overshadowing
a huge oblong rock, close to which it grows. This rock
is said to be the disguise of a gigantic serpent, keeping
watch over a great treasure buried under the tree.
There is no want of legends on this sandy, gloomy,
lifeless plain. A big rock on the roadside, with a
curved line on its upper surface, in which by dint of
great imaginative powers'we may discover a slight resemblance to the form of a foot or shoe, is said to be
the honored spot on which the Apostle St. Bartholomew
alighted when he visited this country, leaving the impression of his foot on the rock as a memorial to coming generations. It is customary for the India-ns and
arrieros who pass this place on foot, to place a pebble
or little stone on the rock as a token of their devotion
to the saint.  Hundreds of these tokens now  lie
around the rock on all sides.
Near the Cerro de Callo, but not visible from the
public highway, are the ruins of an ancient Indian
temple, palace, or tambo. But very little is left of
them at present, the unreverential owners of the hacienda to which they belong having converted them
into a cheap and easy stone-quarry. Ulloa in the last
century saw them yet in good condition. The hacienda then belonged to the Augustine monks, whose
steward used the ruins as a mansion house. The friars,
however, commenced the work of destruction by
building dwellings among the ruins, and making alterations in the principal apartments. But now there is
little more left than a few walls, enabling us to admire




86    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-A1ERICANS.
the extreme nicety and exactness with which the stones
are joined together.  The edifice was built of porphyry, the stones having their exterior surface slightly
convex, except at the doors, where the fronts are
plain. The dimensions of the stones are unequal, a
small one being immediately followed by a large one,
while that above is made to fit the inequalities of the
other two, and at the same time fill up all the interstices between the projections and irregularity of their
faces; and this in such perfection that whatsoever
way they are viewed, all parts appear joined with
the same exactness. If the work of destruction goes
on as hitherto, the last vestige of the ruins will soon
disappear. The barbarity of the Roman barons of the
Middle Ages, who quarried among their ancient palaces
which the Hun and the Visigoth had spared, seems
to be destined to repetition as long as monuments of
antiquity remain.
After a long and tedious ride through the last and
most sterile part of the plain, relieved only by a near
view of the smoking crater of Cotopaxi and its craggy
neighbors Rumifiagui and Pasachoa to our right, and
the snowy crown of Ilinisa to our left, we begin a
steep ascent leading us to the paramo of Tiupullo,
which in former times was infested with robbers who
availed themselves of the despoblado,l for the purpose
of waylaying wealthy travellers. At present, however, the paramo may be passed without the slightest
apprehension of danger.
One paramo commonly looks like another, and as
the reader is already familiar with the signification of
the word, it will be unnecessary to give a description
of Tiupullo. I must say, however, that it is infinitely
1 Despoblado means an uninhabited part of the country.




TAMBOS OF MACHACHI.             87
less dreary than Sanancajas and the other paramos of
Chimborazo. A solitary tree which attracts our attention at a turn of the road is called " El Excomulgado"
(the accursed), because a priest is said to have been
killed under it by a gang of robbers.
We are now surrounded by mountains on all sides.
Pichincha and Cayambi, with their numerous retinue
of lesser peaks, rise before us. But nearest of all we
draw to Rumifiagui. Ruminiagui, in the Quichua or
Inca language, means face or eye of stone. It was
the name of an ancient Indian general with whom the
reader will become acquainted in another chapter of
this book.
Descending from the high paramo region, the beautiful green valley of Machachi and Tambillo opens before us. Its verdure is fresher than that of the plain
of Quito, or any other part of the high table-lands.
It is a pleasant relief to the traveller, who has left all
freshness of vegetation on the western side of the Cordillera. The pastures are exceedingly rich, and the
fields well cultivated and fertile. Again we see numberless herds of cattle grazing on the slopes and in the
plains. The products of the temperate zone continue
around us, in fields fenced in by hedges of aloe. This
pleasant impression is disturbed only by the disgusting
sight of half-naked and loathsome beggars cowering
along the roadside, and pursuing the traveller in a
most importunate manner.
From Romerillo, an hacienda and tambo at the foot
of Tiupullo, an hour's ride takes us to the tambos of
Machachi (9784 feet above the sea), forming two
long rows of miserable huts on both sides of the main
road. These tambos are detestable hovels, built of
earth, thatched with dried grasses, and without win



88    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
dows and floorings. They are notorious for their filth
and vermin. In one of them I once passed a horrible
night. I was literally lacerated by fleas. Cleanliness
is unknown to the inhabitants. Their chief pleasure
and passion is aguardiente (rum).  The nights at
Machachi are exceedingly cold, owing chiefly to the
near neighborhood of snow-peaks, among which Corazon (the heart) is conspicuous.
Machachi lies at the foot of Mt. Corazon, which is
16,169 feet high, and was ascended and measured by
the French academicians in the last century. It looks
down on a beautiful valley, destined by nature to be a
home of plenty and comfort, but converted by man
into a haunt of sloth, filth, idleness, poverty, vice, and
ignorance.
Between Machachi and the near village of Tambillo
at the foot of Mt. Atacatso (16,168 feet high), were
several of the worst passages of the whole road,
known as the " Quebradas de Tambillo."  They are
narrow lanes or defiles, intersected by deep ravines,
through which several mountain streams force theirway. A paved road formerly led through those gullies; but now the water has broken the pavement, torn
up the stones, and washed heavy rocks from the hillside, over which the horses slip and stumble. Fallen
trees and big roots obstruct the passages; land-slides
have made the paths slippery, and bottomless puddles
detain the traveller in the narrow lanes, covered overhead with a dense vegetation which the sun never
penetrates, and exhaling the foulest miasmas. The
ascents and descents are almost perpendicular. The
road breaks off at many places, so that the animal
must proceed by springs and jumps. In short, as if
to take leave of all that was bad on the road, we had




STRENGTH OF THE INDIAN.           89
it here combined for a last break-neck farewell. In
1864, however, a road was cut through these Quebradas, and bridges were built over the streams.
Tambillo is a little village of about fifty houses. It
also has a casa posada (tavern), the only room of
which is ventilated solely when it is opened for a traveller. The Ecuadorians are very fond of keeping their
rooms shut and close, for the better propagation of
fleas. The room of the posada was without chairs.
One high and unhandy table, two rickety bedsteads,
and a few benches four inches wide, formed the furniture. The candles had to be stuck into the walls, as
no candlesticks were to be had. The tavern-keeper
had no cook of his own, but sent for one to a neighboring house. The cook asked for a few reals in advance to make necessary purchases. Dinner, which I
had ordered at half-past three o'clock, was brought in
at about seven. The cook brought it in pots, with
which she squatted down on the floor, and filled it
into the plates with a wooden spoon.
And now but little remains to be told. The road
to Quito, which is about five leagues from Tambillo,
lies through rich pastures and fertile fields, interspersed
with elegant farm-houses and gardens, and countless
Indian huts (huasipongos). Numbers of Indians carrying loads or driving laden beasts, indicate our approach to a great city. We are surprised by the sight
of many an Indian woman, who not only carries a load
on her back, with a babe tied to the top of the carga,
but also spins cotton as she trots along. Other Indian
and Cholo women are seen riding astride their beasts,
like men.
The Indians carry every thing on their back, the
load being tied to their forehead. Their strength lies




90   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
in the muscles of the neck and not in their arms.
They carry stone, brick, sand, lime, furniture, vegetables, meat, etc., and pass along laughing or talking, or
in sullen silence, but you never hear them sing. The
Indian never sings unless he is drunk, and then his
song is an endless repetition of a few monotonous
notes. He salutes you submissively as you meet him,
but the white man hardly ever deigns to answer his
salutation. The laden Indian must make way for the
traveller on horseback. A terrible " lado! " (aside!)
notifies him to get himself and his beasts out of the
way. He salutes respectfully and obeys. If he is
not quick enough, the whip of the horseman hurries
him into compliance. The Indian is like an outlaw,
at the mercy of every body, and every body's slave.
But his stupefied and beastly nature never revolts.
He is the personification of abjectness, beastliness, and
servility.
But we have now reached the end of our journey,
and passing the ruins of the chapel L"Del Seior del buen
pasaje," we enter the suburbs of Quito over an elegant bridge across the River Machangara.




CHAPTER VI.
Altitude of Quito. - Mt. Pichincha. - Its Height. - The Crater. - The
Peaks of Pichincha. - Eruptions. - The French Academicians. - Humboldt, Colonel Hall, and Boussingault. - Dr. Gabriel Garcia Moreno's
Three Descents to the Bottom of the Crater. - The Valley and Village
of Lloa. - An American Artist in the Crater. - My Visits to it. - View
from the Summit of Pichincha. - Pumice-stone. - Temperature. - Approaches to Quito. - Afia-Quito, the Battle-Field. - Turubamba. - Mt.
Panecillo. - The City viewed from the Surrounding Hills. - A Retrospect.
QUITO is built on what may be termed a ledge of
the volcanic mountain of Pichincha, at an elevation
of 9537 feet above the level of the sea. By some,
the altitude of Quito is estimated at over 10,000 feet,
but this must be an error.  I have followed the measurement of Humboldt. Boussingault gives it at 9525;
Dr. Jameson, at 9513 feet.1 The mountain rises in
1 Dr. William Jameson, here referred to, is the well-known botanist, whose
discoveries in ornithology and botany have made his name familiar to the
scientific world. He is a Scotchman by birth, a graduate of the University
of Edinburgh, and came to Ecuador about thirty-seven years ago. He was
director of the National Mint at Quito, and is now Professor at the University, where he lectures on chemistry and botany. He is a highly esteemed
member of the medical faculty, and as beloved for the qualities of his heart
as respected for his mental acquirements. He is in continuous correspondence with several of the scientific societies of Great Britain. besides being
the friend and correspondent of such men as the late Sir W. J. Hooker,
director of the Royal Gardens of Kew. To Charles Darwin, Esq., author
of the celebrated work on the Origin of the Species, he furnished items of
valuable information. Several interesting Andean plants and birds which
Dr. Jameson discovered, have been named after him, and will hand down
his memory to scientific posterity. He has made an interesting excursion
into the wild country on the River Napo, of which he has given to the
world a short but graphic account, which was published by the Royal Geographical Society of London. He also is the author of a Latin work on the




92     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the background to a height of 15,976 feet.   (This,
too, is according to Humboldt. Boussingault's measurement is 15,676; that of the French Academicians,
15,606; Dr. Jameson's is 15,704.) It is crowned by
a wall of trachytic rocks surrounding the crater, the
depth of which is 2460 feet, and consequently the
bottom, where a volcanic agency is in active operation, is nearly 4000 feet above the level of the city.
Snow  frequently  falls on  the  sandy  desert of the
crater, but two or three days of fine weather cause
its disappearance, except in some localities where it
lies in patches sheltered from the rays of a vertical
sun.
The summit of Pichincha barely enters the snow
limit, for which reason the congealed water does not
assume the compact and crystalline form observed in
what is strictly called a glacier. The snow brought
down to the city for the preparation of ice-cream
has the appearance of a conglomerate of hailstones.
On the eastern chain of the Cordillera there are several lofty summits, capped with immense masses of
solid ice, reflecting the rays of the setting sun, and
presenting to the eye various beautiful prismatic tints,
which, so soon as the solar light is withdrawn, assume
a pure white color.
The summit of Pichincha, excepting, perhaps, the
highest points of some of the peaks, cannot be seen
from the city itself. It may, however, be seen from
flora of Ecuador, published in Latin by the Government of that Republic.
He is not only the friend and adviser of all the foreigners whom business or
scientific curiosity brings to Quito, but his kindness of heart and sterling
integrity have endeared him to all classes and parties of the Ecuadorian
people. The assistance which he rendered to me in the collection of materials for my work was very valuable; but I am additionally indebted to
him for many other acts of friendship and kindness, upon my arrival and
during my residence in Ecuador, which shall never be forgotten.




MT. PICHINCHA.              93
its immediate vicinity.  There are three different
groups of rocky peaks, which constitute the crown
of the mountain. The one which contains the crater is called " Rucu Pichincha," which, in Quichua,
the language of the Indians, means "old."  The
other, to the northeast of Rucu, is called " Guagua
Pichincha," the word guagua meaning " child."  Between the two, and so as to form a triangle with them,
is the lowest, the middle peak, to which no particular
name has been given.  Deep valleys and ravines
separate the different groups.  The snow, which is
brought to Quito, as I said, for the purpose of making
ice-cream, is taken from Guagua Pichincha.
The view which, on a clear day, presents itself from
the summit of the mountain, is one of the most imposing and magnificent perhaps in the whole world.
Glaciers show their hoary heads on all sides. Nearly
twenty, if not more than twenty, snow-clad mountains rise before you. Imbabura, Cotocachi, Chiles,
the grand Cayambi, the majestic Antisana, the venerable Chimborazo and his neighbor Caraguairazo,
Ilinisa, the beautifiul Altar, Tunguragua, fell Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, Corazon, and a host of others, fill
your soul with awe and admiration. You find yourself in the midst of a council of the great patriarchs of
the Andes, and you listen amazed to their speaker,
Cotopaxi, who every now and then sends his roaring
thunders over the land.
Since the conquest of the country by the Spaniards,
Pichincha has had several eruptions, of which those in
1575, 1587, and 1660 were the most notable and destructive to Quito. On the 14th of September, 1575,
the municipality of Quito resolved that the memory of
the eighth of that same month should forever be rPlig



94     FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
iously observed, as only to the intercession of the Holy
Virgin it was ascribed that the eruption of Pichincha,
which had taken place on that day, did not destroy the
whole city. The eruption of 1660 (October 27) was
accompanied by a fearful rain of cinders. The ashes
are said to have been carried by the winds as far as
Popayan to the north and Loja to the south. The
volcano is now considered as extinct, although fiom
the cones of eruption at the bottom of the crater
smoke and vapors are continually exhaled. It is even
said that the mountain's volcanic activity is again on
the  increase.  "In  1845, the chimneys whence the
gases arose, formed six groups,. only one of which was
of somewhat considerable size. Now, the vapors escape through innumerable hollows and interstices, left
by the falling away of the stones in each of the craters; and in the principal one a noise is heard similar
to that made by the violent bubbling of boiling water
in an immense caldron." 1
The French Academicians Bouguer and Condamine,
in 1742, were the first who reached the brink of the
crater.   Their Spanish  colleagues, Ulloa and  Jorje
Juan, had lived with them in 1737, for twentythree horrid days, on the rock which crowns Guagua
Pichincha, in order to make their measurements; but
no expedition to the crater was attempted on that
occasion.2
1 See a letter of Mr. Gabriel Garcia Moreno to Dr. Wm. Jameson, dated
Quito, January 13, 1858, and published in the Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal.
2 Ulloa has left us a graphic description of the sufferings of the Academicians while encamped on the peak of Guagua Pichincha, measuring one of
their triangles. "We generally kept within our hut; indeed, we were
obliged to do this, both on account of the intenseness of the cold, the violence
of the wind, and our being often involved in so thick a fog that an object
at six or eight paces was hardly discernible. When the fog cleared up, the




GUAGUA  PICHINCHA.                        95
Alexander  Humboldt, in  1802, twice surmounted
the  gigantic wall of trachytic rock which  forms the
eastern  verge  of the  volcano.   About thirty  years
afterward, Colonel Hall and  Boussingault followed in
clouds, by their gravity, moved nearer to the surface of the earth, and on
all sides surrounded the mountain to a vast distance, representing the sea,
with our rock like an island in the centre of it..... But our circumstances were very different when the clouds rose; their thickness rendered
respiration difficult; the snow and hail fell continually, and the wind raged
with all its violence, so that it was impossible to overcome the fears of
being, together with our hut, blown down the precipice on the edge of
which it was built, or of being buried under it by the daily accumulations
of ice and snow..... Our fears were also increased by the dreadful concussions of the precipice by the fall of enormous fragments of rock. These
crashes were the more alarming, as no other noises are heard in this desert..... The door of our hut was fastened with thongs of leather, and on the
inside not the smallest crevice was left unstopped, besides which it was
very compactly covered with straw; but, notwithstanding all our care, the
wind penetrated through.... Whenever it snowed, we had to sally out
with shovels, in spite of the wind, to free the roof of our hut from the
masses of snow which were gathering on it; nor would it, without this protection, have been able to support the weight. We were not, indeed, without servants and Indians, but they were so benumbed with the cold, that it
was with great difficulty we could get them out of a small tent, where they
kept a continual fire.... Our feet were swelled, and so tender that we
could not even bear the heat; our hands were covered with chilblains; our
lips swelled and chapped, so that every motion in speaking, or the like,
drew blood; consequently we were obliged to a strict taciturnity, and but
little disposed to laugh, an extension of the lips producing fissures very
painful for two or three days together. Our common food in this inhospitable region was a little rice boiled with some meat or fowl, which we procured from Quito, and instead of fluid water, our pot was filled with snow.
We had the same resource with regard to what we drank; and while we
were eating, every one was required to keep his plate over a chafing-dish
of coals to prevent his provisions from freezing. Twenty-three tedious
days we spent on this rock, until it became necessary to erect our signals in
a lower situation, and in a more favorable region. This, however, did not
produce any change in our habitation till December, when, having finished
the observations which particularly concerned Pichincha, we proceeded to
others, but with no abatement of inconvenience, cold, or fatigue,- the places
where we made all our observations being necessarily on the highest parts
of the desert; so that the only respite in which we enjoyed some little ease,
was during the short interval of passing from one place to another." Thirtyfive mountains were thus scaled and inhabited by those heroes of science,
who braved more sufferings, dangers, and privations, than many a soldier
in a bloody campaign.




96    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the same path; but the first to descend to its bottom
were Mr. Gabriel Garcia Moreno, afterwards President
of Ecuador, and Mr. Sebastian Wisse, a French engineer of great scientific acquirements.' They went
down twice; the first time in 1844, and the second
time in August, 1845.  In December, 1857, Mr.
Moreno made a third descent, accompanied by a son
of Dr. Wm. Jameson, but of this last expedition he
has given us no description.
The temperature of the vapors issuing from the
cones of eruption, varies much in the different interstices from which they arise. In the southeast crater,
the vapors from the highest crevices, when measured
by Mr. Garcia Moreno, nearly reached 180~ Falr.,
whilst in the lower ones the temperature was only
1400 Fahr. In the principal crater, the hottest vapors
did not come up to 194~ Fahr., while in the largest interstice Mr. Moreno examined, and into which a person could easily enter if the thick column of vapor
would permit, the temperature was 980 Fahr., at a
depth of little more than one (French) metre.
The descent into the crater from the summit of the
mountain is very difficult, not only on account of the
precipitous rocks over which it must be made, where
hands, to use the language of Mr. Moreno, are more
useful than feet, but also on account of the rocks and
sandy patches which give way under one's foot, and
perhaps chiefly on account of the falling stones, which,
overcoming the sandy support on which they rest,
tumble into the abyss with a deep rumbling noise,
shivering at last into a thousand atoms like an exploding bombshell, or striking other rocks and carrying
them along with frightful impetuosity.
1 He died at Quito on the 7th of June, 1863.




MR. FARRAND, THE ARTIST.          97
In 1862, Mr. Camillus Farrand, an American artist, left Quito for the purpose of descending into, and
taking photographic views of, the crater. The journey from Quito to Rucu Pichincha occupies but eight
hours.  Mr. Farrand, however, remained absent for
more than a week, so that I became alarmed for his
safety, and accompanied by a son of Dr. Jameson, the
same that had accompanied Mr. Garcia Moreno on his
last descent, started for the crater to ascertain what
had become of him.  We left Quito at about one
o'clock in the afternoon, and between four and five
o'clock we arrived at the village of Lloa, situated in
the green and fertile, but nevertheless thinly populated valley at the very foot of what is properly called
"' Rucu Pichincha." We stopped at an hacienda which
formerly belonged to the Jesuits, but is now in ruins,
owing to the earthquake of 1859. It is 10,268 feet
above the level of the sea. The mornings, evenings,
and nights here are very cold.  At ten o'clock at
night the mercury had fallen to 460 Fahr. Here we
learned that Mr. Farrand was safe, and had repeatedly
sent down for victuals. He had remained in the crater
for over a week, passing some of the nights at its very
bottom, others on the ledges near its brink.  The
weather had been very cloudy; mists and fogs had
surrounded him almost continually, frustrating the object of his expedition. He hoped, however, that the
weather would clear up, and therefore waited with astonishing perseverance amidst the horrors of Nature's
solitude, and almost in the bowels of a slumbering volcano.  In the mornings, the tent in which he had
passed the night was generally covered with snow, and
sometimes to such an extent that the Indians who were
with him had to sweep the snow from the door on the
7




98    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
outside before it could be opened. Nevertheless, the
weather disappointed him; he had succeeded only in
taking a few partial views of the inner declivities, and
was already on his way home when I met him, about
fifteen hundred feet below the summit of the mountain. He immediately proposed to go back with me,
insisting that I should not have come so far without
seeing what, considering the unfavorable condition of
the weather, could be seen. It is possible to reach the
brink of the crater on horseback; but, to effect this,
the fuill ascent had better not be made on the same
horses. We left our animals about two hundred feet
below the crater, where the pumice-stones commence,
with which the ground at that distance is literally covered. These stones render it exceedingly difficult to
get on. They are so light that they give way under
you, and make you stumble and fall continually. This
inconvenience, and the great rarefaction of air, which
powerfully agitates the respiratory organs, tired us exceedingly, so that it took us almost half an hour to
ascend these last two hundred feet. We had to rest
every eight or ten paces, to take breath and gather
new strength; still, I was so exhausted when I finally
reached the summit, that I nearly fainted. Unfortunately, our efforts had been made in vain. Thick
clouds and mists hovered over and in the crater, so
that not even the opposite side could be seen. It was
impossible to see further ahead than about five yards.
A wall of snow rose on the brink about four feet high,
and of a thickness of about eight or ten feet at the
bottom and three or four feet at the top. This wall
appeared as regular as if human skill had made it with
the greatest care and precision. Mr. Farrand had had
a hole cut through it, to get the trunks containing his




SPECIMENS OF PLANTS.            99
instruments and chemicals, with less difficulty on the
inner side of the crater. When I stood on the brink
I smelled, but only for a moment, the sulphur in the
vapors arising from below. I soon became accustomed
to it, so that it entirely ceased to be perceptible.
On my third visit - I returned to the crater three
times after my first visit - these sulphuric vapors
were not only very perceptible, but occasionally even
oppressive to myself and my companions; another circumstance tending to show that the volcanic activity
of the mountain is again increasing.
On the inner declivity of the crater, we were perfectly well protected against the strong east wind
which had troubled us so much during our ascent;
and while we lay tired and sprawling on some large
and smooth rocks imbedded in the sand, the almost
perpendicular rays of the sun were burning down upon
us in a manner which almost made us forget in
what altitude we were. The difference of the temperature between the inner and the outer side of the
brink is really astonishing. On my third visit to the
crater, the mercury showed, at ten o'clock, A. M., the
day being sunny, but 38~ Fahr. on the outside; while,
at the same elevation on the inside, it rose to 580,
which is but two degrees less than the mean temperature of Quito.
There is no vegetation around the brink of the
crater, but Mr. Farrand had brought up a collection
of plants from the bottom, which Dr. Jameson afterward classified and prepared for him. They were the
same species which Mr. Moreno had found there in
1857. Among the pumice-stones above referred to,
I found several specimens of Frailejon, the Calcitium
rufeseens of Humboldt and Bonpland, a plant which




100    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
occurs on almost all the snowy ridges of the Ecuadorian Andes.l I also saw a curious flower which the
natives call " chuguiragua," and which is peculiar to
those altitudes.2  It has a very bitter taste, and is said
to be a remedy against indigestion.
There are but three approaches leading to the city
of Quito - one from the north and two from the south.
On the east and west it is hemmed in by the powerful
mountain family of Pichincha; but north and south of
it extends that interesting plain known to geographers
as the high plateau, or table-land of Quito. The plain
at the northern entrance of the city is called " AfiaQuito."  It was the scene of the battle fought on the
18th of January, 1546, between Gonzalo Pizarro and
Blasco Nufiez Vela, the first Viceroy of Peru, in
which the latter was defeated and slain. The plain to
the south is called " Turubamba." A traveller approaching the city from any of the above-mentioned
roads, can only see a part of it; an isolated mountain
called " Panecillo," rising about 700 feet above the
town (10,268 feet above the level of the sea), covering
it on the south, and ridges coming down from the elevations east and west closing around it on the north.
Disappointment, therefore, is the first sensation of the
curious traveller. Nevertheless, the city is not a small
one, and viewed from one of the surrounding hills, the
1 " On the mountains beyond the River Chota, there is another plant to
which the same name is applied. It is the E'spletia grandiflora of Hluiboldt and Bonpland, and yields, by incision, a resinous substance, used externally to relieve rheumatic pains, and known by the name of resina de
frailejon. Like the former plant, it is enveloped in wool, the color of
which approaches to yellow. It makes a comfortable bed for the traveller
who happens to be benighted on the lofty region where it grows. Both
species grow on the volcano of Pasto, the former, however, reaching the
higher elevation." - From Dr. Jameson's Manuscript Notes.
2 Chuguiragua insignis.




COLONIAL HISTORY OF QUITO.        101
slopes of which it covers, it presents rather all extensive and interesting appearance, full of significant suggestions to a reflective mind. There it lies at your
feet, buried as it were between treeless and melancholy mountains, showing but now and then a spot
indicative of cultivation; isolated from the rest of the
world by impassable roads and gigantic Cordilleras.
No chimneys overtop its browny roofs; no friendly
cloud of smoke curls to the unruffled sky; no rattling
of wagons, no din of machinery strikes your ear; no
busy hum emerges firom the capital of the Republic.
Trhe only noises which ascend from the caldron in
which it lies, are the ringing of church-bells, the crow
of the cock, or the drums and trumpets of the soldiery.
The lifeless and almost melancholy aspect which the
town presents from any of the surrounding elevations, is
a true image of its lifeless colonial history, the character
of which, firmly impressed as it is upon the commercial
and industrial relations and customs of the interior, the
almost endless convulsions and revolutions which followed the establishment of independence could not
serve to destroy. The dull, gloomy, and spiritless
character of that period is so graphically and forcibly
described by Villavicencio in his " Geography of
Ecuador," that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of
translating the passage in question:"The foundation of the Presidency of Quito (see
pages 8 and 9 of the work referred to) is followed by
a cold and monotonous colonial period of 275 years.
It was scarcely interrupted by some faint commotions
attempted since 1766, by the conquered aborigines,
which were promptly and easily suppressed. If we
examine Ecuadorian society of those times, we find it
tranquil, passive, patriarchal, as it were, but reduced




102  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to itself, without knowledge, without communication,
without life. The great majority of the people knew
nothing of sciences, of events, or of men, and probably
did not imagine that there were sciences, events, and
men deserving to be known. Their religion consisted
of outward observances and an imperfect knowledge of
the Papal bulls; their morality, in asceticism and devotion to their king; their history, in the history of the
mother-country; their geography, in the maps of Spanish-America and of Spain; their press, in what sufficed
to print bill-heads and blank forms; their commerce,
in an insignificant coasting trade; their ambition and
highest aspirations, in titles of nobility; their amusements, in bull-fights. The arrival of a mail was
an event of great moment, and with ringing of bells
was received the' cajon de Espaia,' which announced
the health of the sovereigns.  Thus, while Europe
was passing through the stormy times of Louis XIV.;
while the philosophical writings of the illustrious men
of those times found their way into the remotest corners of the globe; while the English colonies of North
America conquered  their independence; while the
Old World was drenched in blood to propagate the
ideas which the French Revolution had proclaimed;
the Presidency of Quito, walled in by its immense
Cordilleras and the ocean, and ruled by monkish ignorance and bigotry, knew as little of men and events
as we now know of men and events in the moon."
The churches and convents, which occupy, to be
moderate, at least one fourth of the area of Quito, are
witnesses, eloquent in their silence, to the justice of
Mr. Villavicencio's historical criticism.  More than
one fourth of the town is covered by convents and
their vast but neglected pateos (court-yards) and un



QUITO.                  108
weeded gardens.  If but one tenth of the millions
which it cost to build these churches and monasteries
- not to speak of the thousands of Indians who perished while being whipped to the unwonted task of
carrying on their trembling backs block after block
of these edifices — had been applied to the building
of roads, this country would long since have taken
its rank among civilized nations.
Still, it must be a matter of surprise to the traveller,
after passing through primeval forests, crossing bridgeless rivers, floundering over bottomless roads, and ascending and descending immense mountains, to find a
city with imposing public buildings, elegant private
residences, and a luxury-loving aristocracy, in this
almost inaccessible and forgotten corner of the world.
But it is time to effect our entrance.




CHAPTER VII.
Quito. - Appearance of the City. - Crowds in the Streets. - Streets and
Houses. - Queer Mode of Cooking.- Want of Hotels. —A Curate's
Idea of the Obligation of Promises. - Traits of Native Character. -
Want of Cleanliness. - Incidents. - Excellent Climate. - Mean Temperature. - No Diseases or Insects. - The Rainy Season. - Fruits and
Flowers. - Earth's Paradise.
VIEWED from  a distance, or from  one of the surrounding hills, Quito resembles one of those spellbound towns in the Arabian Nights, so impressively
described by the ingenious Scheherezade. But, as soon
as we enter it, it presents a most lively appearance.
On the principal streets and plazas hundreds of human
beings are continually in motion. It is true, they are
chiefly Indians and Clholos, and you will meet twenty
persons in ponchos and even in rags, barefoot or
with alpargates (hemp-sandals), before you meet one
respectably dressed.   But, nevertheless, the motley
crowds of men in ponchos of all colors, beggars in
rags, vagrants in sackcloth, women with red, green,
brown, or blue pahiuelones and rebozos, ladies with gaycolored silk shawls, monks with their immense hats,
monks in white, monks in brown, monks in blue, and
canons and curates in black, and Indians of a hundred
different villages in every variety of costume, not even
omitting the naked and painted Indian from the wilderness on the eastern side of the Cordillera, - present a most lively and interesting spectacle. There
are but few carts in use, as I have already said; never



APPEARANCE OF THE CITY OF QUITO.    105
theless, the streets are thronged from morning to evening with mules, horses,.oxen, donkeys, and llamas with
loads (cargas) of every kind and description. Indians,
men and women, with loads on their backs, limp to
and fro; soldiers in queer clown-caps and with or without shoes, lazily saunter through the crowds; groups
of merchants and their friends chat in front of their
tiendas (stores); chagras (country-people) on horseback dash through the streets; ladies will meet their
lady friends and embrace and hug them, obstructing
the narrow sidewalks; water-carriers with immense
jars on their backs, butchers or bakers with meat or
bread in troughs on their heads, wend their way to the
houses of their customers; children and dogs run about
in all directions; mule-drivers swear at their beasts;
parrots chatter in the groceries and greenshops; in
short, the life within the city favorably contrasts with
its melancholy aspect from without.
The city is traversed from west to east by two deep
ravines (quebradas), through which Pichincha sends
down its torrents of melted snow. These quebradas
are mostly covered with vaults and arches on which
the houses rest, but where they are open, they disclose to the eye hideous abysses, the sides of which
are overgrown with rank weeds. The territory over
which the city extends being exceedingly uneven, as
the slopes and spurs of the surrounding hills press
down toward the Plaza Mayor from three different
sides, a walk through Quito consists of continuous ascents and descents. The course of the streets, however, is generally regular, those running from east to
west being intersected at right angles by others running from north to south. The gutters and sewers
were formerly in the centre of the streets forming rivu



106 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
lets, through which the water was let down two or
three times in twenty-four hours for purposes of public cleanliness; but in 1863 the municipality entered
upon an extensive system of re-paving; and the principal streets are now paved in modern style.  The
streets are not very wide; the sidewalks are exceedingly narrow. The houses are built mostly in the
old Spanish or rather Moorish style, with the roofs
projecting over the pavements so as to afford a partial
protection against the frequent rains. There are but
two or three buildings in Quito with two upper stories.
Most of the houses have only one. Low and filthy
houses of but a ground-floor are found in great numbers, but only in the outskirts and suburbs.
The houses are generally built of adobe (sun-baked
brick).  The walls are exceedingly thick, forming
deep embrasures for doors and windows. There are,
strictly speaking, no windows, but glass doors leading
to balconies overhanging the sidewalks. The roofs
are covered with curved tiles of earthenware; two
rows are first placed, the concave side upwards, the
joint being covered with a third row reversed, so as to
form channels for the water to flow off, which, from
the main gutter, is thrown into the streets and courtyards by a number of projecting spouts. These precautions are necessary on account of the heaviness and
long duration of the showers in the rainy season. The
upper story is the dwelling part of a respectable house.
The ground-floor (parterre) is occupied by the servants,
or tenanted by poor people who cannot afford to pay
high rents. The stores in front have no backdoors,
and do not communicate with the interior of the houses
to which they belong. They have no windows, and
generally but one door, which must serve as entrance,




QUEER MODE OF COOKING.           107
exit, window, show-case, and all. There are but very
few shops in Quito which have two doors. The stores
consequently are but small; five or six customers,
especially of the crinoline gender, will fill them completely.  These stores are called tiendas, and are
closed at early candle-light. They are naturally dark,
and most of the business is done at or near the door.
The houses have neither fire-places nor chimneys, except in a few buildings of modern construction. The
want of fire-places is sometimes severely felt. The
smoke arising from kitchen fires must make its way
out of the kitchen door, and a few apertures above
it. Kitchens, therefore, are black and dark; and
as almost nothing but charcoal is used for cooking,
they are noisome and uncomfortable. Stoves are not
known.  There being no flues connected with the
hearths, cooking is quite a task, and the cook needs
one, two, or more, subordinates to fan the fires; to
almost every pot a separate fire, and to two fires, one
individual to fan them. Servants, however, are very
cheap, although unreliable and lazy; but of this hereafter. The pots used for cooking have not a flat bottom like ours, but are pointed below, so that they
cannot stand without being supported by some contrivance, or inserted into the holes which the hearth
contains on purpose. The large jars in which water
is carried have the same impracticable shape. They
are put on wooden trestles, or into holes in a stone
bench opposite or at the side of the hearth. The cook
generally brings his family with him, allowing his dirty
children to romp about the kitchen. A female cook
will do her work with the baby tied on to her back, or
deposited by her side on the kitchen table. Hair in
the meals is of frequent occurrence, without reference




108   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to an occasional flea, or a lot of vine-fretters, which
have communicated themselves to the soup from the
unwashed vegetables.
Most of the houses have one or two spacious square
court-yards paved and with drains. In the second,
there is generally a covered place for horses, which is
paved also. The stables of this country never have
boards.
The street entrance is always high enough to admit
a horseman with ease. In the upper story there is
always a gallery resting on arches or pillars, and leading around the court-yard. All the rooms and galleries
are floored with square tiles or bricks, on which mats
or carpets are laid. The chinks between the bricks
serve as hiding-places for swarms of fleas, particularly
troublesome after a room has remained shut up and
uninhabited for some time; in which case it is not uncommon, especially on haciendas in the country, to drive
a sheep through it first, in order to take up as many
fleas as possible. The rooms, with the exception of
the parlors, or salas, are generally but very indifferently furnished, with an incongruous mixture of antique and modern pieces, and kept in a pitiable state
of uncleanliness, disorder, and confusion.
The first inconvenience which vexes the traveller on
his arrival, is the entire want of hotels. There is not
a tavern or inn at Quito, at which a respectable person
could stop.  The only casa posada which existed when
I arrived, was not fit to be entered. Black, dirty, and
neglected, with but a few dusty rooms, full of fleas,
and perhaps other vermin, and without accommodations of any kind, the traveller who is forced into it
acquires a valid claim to our commiseration, in spite
of the image of the saint in the entrance, before which




OBLIGATION OF PROMISES.               109
tallow candles are kept burning almost all the year
round. Private hospitality will have to be resorted to,
at least until rooms can be rented.1
I was rather lucky in making the journey from
Guayaquil with a resident of Quito, who had the kindness to make me tarry one day at Ambato, to enable
him to go ahead and find a house for me, which he
did, to the great astonishment of a native cura (curate), who never expected that one of his countrymen
should keep a promise which he (the curate) considered to be a mere form of politeness. The curate
himself seemed to have no idea of the honorable obligation of promises; nor did he seem to understand
that a lie, in such cases, would be ungentlemanly
or immoral. I met him at Machachi, where he had
awaited me, to make my acquaintance. The officer
who accompanied me told him that my mule was very
tired, and suggested that he, as the curate of Machachi, would have no difficulty in procuring a horse for
me.  With  usual Spanish politeness, his worship at
once offered his own horse, and promised to send it
to Tambillo, where I proposed to remain over night.
Relying on his promise, I made no further effort to
procure another beast; but to my great disappointment, when I had arrived at Tambillo, which is the
last station before Quito, the horse arrived, but with
the curate on it, who proposed to accompany me to
Quito. Taken to task why he had not sent the horse
1 "Houses, completely furnished, with looking-glasses, carpets, lamps,
etc., may be hired in Quito; and a very good one, with nine or ten rooms,
may be had for fifty dollars a month - a very low price indeed, when the
expense is considered, which must be incurred in transporting these things
across the Cordilleras." —Ida Pfeiffer, A Lady's Second Voyage Round
the World, vol. i., p. 215. Fifty dollars a month for a dwelling-house is
rather a price for foreigners. Natives seldom pay more than from twenty
to forty dollars.




110  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
as promised, he made the excuse that he had brought
another horse along with him for a part of the way;
but overtaking one of my arrieros, he was told that I
had procured a beast already, and so he sent back the
one he had brought along, and came on alone to have
the pleasure of travelling to Quito in my company.
This excuse was as false as ridiculous. Upon asking
the arriero, I ascertained at once that the priest had
not spoken to him on the road, and that he had no
horse but the one he rode. The fact is, that his worship never thought of complying with the promise on
which his officious assurances had induced me to rely;
and he probably was inwardly amused that I should
have looked upon it in any other light than that of a
mere fafon de parler. This custom of making highsounding promises, which are not intended to be kept,
is universal among Ecuadorians of the Sierra. If you
make the acquaintance of one of them, he will overwhelm you with offers of his services. He will beseech you to "count him as one of the number of
your friends" ( "Usted me puede contar en el numero de
sus amigos "); he will place his house, his haciendas, his
horses, at your disposal; he will ask you to treat him
confidentially, and to speak to him frankly, whenever
you should need any thing that he can supply; he will
protest his ardent desire to be your friend and to serve
you in every possible manner; he will modestly add
that unfortunately his friendship may not be worth
much ( "yo valgo muy poco; soy muy inutil; " etc.,
etc.), and his influence limited, but that he may,
nevertheless, find an opportunity of being useful to
you in some way, in which case he begs you to rely
on him and to apply to him without reserve.  All
these protestations, which sound very bad in English,




TRAITS OF NATIVE CHARACTER.                    111
out which are delivered by our Spanish neighbors with
great eloquence and in the choicest language, are mere
conversational phrases, which, from their earliest childhood, they are taught to repeat on every suitable occasion. Should you really apply to them for any of the
services so pompously proffered, you must expect, as a
general rule, that they will find a well-sounding excuse for refusing.   They must not be too rigidly expected to keep a promise when it is inconvenient to
keep it, or when it is more advantageous to break
it. Good faith is often wanting, especially in money
transactions.    They  lack  business  habits, especially
in the interior of Ecuador, where there is but little
commerce. It is very difficult to induce them to do a
thing promptly, thoroughly, and at once. They are
full of delays and procrastinations.1 But they are ex1 The lamented Colonel Francis Hall, who lost his life in Quito on the
night of the 19th of October, 1833, during one of the many revolutions
which have distracted that country ever since the establishment of its independence, comments on the character of Colombians in the following
manner: " Long habits of slavery and oppression, partly counteracted by a
feverish interval of liberty, ill understood and imperfectly enjoyed; the almost total want of education, and absence of that moral stimulus, which,
under the name of honor or character, forces every respectable individual
of European society to a line of conduct conformable with his situation; all
these circumstances have produced a negativeness or debility, both in
thought and action, which renders them troublesome to deal with, and
unfit to be relied on. It is, in fact, impossible to calculate their behavior,
except you could be certain of the last idea which has occupied their imagination, for the feeling of interest most immediately present is pretty generally decisive of their conduct. Does a merchant contract with a planter
for a quantity of coffee or cacao at a certain rate: in vain would he suppose
the bargain concluded should another purchaser appear, and offer the
slightest advantage of price. The readiness with which they break a promise or an agreement, can only be equaled by the sophistical ingenuity
with which they defend themselves for having done so. In this respect
they seem a nation of lawyers, who " with ease twist words and meanings
as they please. As the reproach of being a liar is the last insult which can
be offered or endured among freemen, so is the term lie the last to be used
in decent conversation; here, on the contrary, not only is the expression a
good one, and adapted to the meridians of genteelest society, but the re



112    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ceedingly good-natured, pleasant, and courteous. They
are hospitable to a fault.  When a respectable stranger
arrives, they will overwhelm him with kindness and attentions, especially when he presents letters of introduction. I received presents of sweetmeats, preserves,
venison, cakes, pastry, milk, butter, and cheese, almost continually. Many a time I received presents
from  ladies, even before I had made their acquaintance. These presents are delivered by servants, together with  a kind  message from  the  giver.   The
politeness of the natives is indeed pleasing; they never
show the slightest rudeness, and treat even their enemies with distinguished civility. Their manners are
exceedingly amiable and cordial, and at the same
time dignified.   Their language is elegant, and always obliging.
Let us now return to our subject. There is another
want still more embarrassing in Quito than the want
of hotels: it is the want of water-closets and privies,
which are not considered as necessary fixtures of private residences. This inconvenience has undoubtedly
contributed a great deal to make Quito what it is -
one of the filthiest capitals in  Christendom.   Men,
women, and children, of all ages and colors, may be
seen in the middle of the street in broad daylight, making privies of the most public thoroughfares; and while
proach of being a liar may be safely cast on friend or foe with as little
offense given or taken, as the term'rake' or'prodigal' would cause in
a fashionable London circle. It is, indeed, a truth worth a'thousand
homilies' in defense of liberty, that without it there can be no virtue.
The most pleasing trait in the character of Colombian Creoles is their
good-nature. It is easy to live with them if you require but little of them;
they have little or no active benevolence, because such must result from
strong powers of imagination and reflection." - Colombia: Its Present
State and Inducements to Emigration, by Colonel Francis Hall: PhiladelpIlia, 1825.




WANT OF CLEANLINESS.           113
thus engaged, they will stare into the faces of passersby with a shamelessness that beggars description. Bystreets, especially, are made noisome, and sometimes
impassable, by this detestable practice. I know that
these statements will offend the delicacy of my readers,
but I would leave one of the characteristic features of
Quito unnoticed, were I to omit them. Accustomed
as we are at home to the utmost cleanliness, it is a
difficult task to convey to the minds of an American
public an adequate idea of Ecuadorian filthiness. You
may enter the most elegant and fashionable parlors,
and the dust on tables, chairs, and sofas will, in many
cases, be thick enough legibly to write your name on
the furniture it covers. And yet parlors are generally
kept with greater and better care than other apartments. In the latter, you may discover innumerable
cobwebs of venerable age, amidst clouds of dust covering the walls and ceilings, and the incongruent mixture of all possible styles of furniture.
Strong prejudices are entertained by the natives
against the use of cold water. On one occasion, a
gentleman at Ambato, who saw me wash my Pace,
asked me, with great curiosity, whether I did so every
day!  In the country, it is generally believed that
washing one's face with cold water will produce swelling, fever, or rheumatism.  The women, as a general
thing, are cleanlier than the men; but of the latter I
have known many, of respectable families, who but
very seldom washed their faces in the morning. We
need not, therefore, be surprised at seeing the Indians
bring their vegetables to market bundled up in the
same lousy rebozos and ponchos with which they cover
their unwashed limbs at night.  A  few incidents,
which to many of my readers will appear incredible,
8




114  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
may be mentioned in this connection.  I had once
ordered some flour made of yuca, which, for culinary
uses, is preferable to the coarse flour of wheat, as
ground in the primitive mills of the interior; but I
urged upon the woman who had undertaken to furnish it, to keep it clean. She brought it at last, but
tied up in a man's shirt, spotted with flea marks. Of
course, woman, yuca-flour, and shirt, received a very
short but most emphatic notice to quit my premises.
On another occasion, I had arrived at Ambato late in
the evening, and, disinclined to take any refreshments
myself, I asked my paje (body-servant) whether he
wanted to take any thing. He asked for a cup of
coffee, which I ordered to be brought. The boy who
attended the bar of the inn seemed to be without a
knife to cut a big lump of sugar which he had taken
from the shelves, and so he bit off one piece after the
other, and taking the pieces out of his mouth, placed
them on the saucer on which he intended to serve
them. This was too strong, even for an Ecuadorian,
and my servant refused to take the coffee after what
he had seen. The Indians who sweep the streets of
Quito on Sundays have no shovels to take up the dirt.
I have seen them, many a time, scrape together the
sweepings with their hands and nails, and fill them in
their ponchos, which form the most essential part of
their wearing apparel in daytime, and serve them as
blankets at night. There is nothing more loathsome,
however, than to see the common people crush lice
between their teeth.  In the entrances of houses, on
the market-places, in the groceries and green-shops,
and in a variety of other places open to the public eye,
men, women, and children may be seen picking lice
off each other's heads, and crushing them between




EXCELLENCE OF CLIMATE.           115
their teeth. In respectable private residences, I was
often obliged to see, at meals, when plates were
changed, the marks of fingers on the crockery. Tea
and coffee pots were exceedingly dirty; the hands and
faces of the servants unwashed, their hair uncombed,
their dress slovenly and greasy. If such disregard of
cleanliness prevails among the wealthy, one cannot be
surprised that the filthiness of the poor beggars description. To see a man pick a flea from behind his necktie,
and kill it between his teeth, is not an uncommon sight.
I even saw women lick the lice and scab from the combs
with which they were combing their children.
These details are certainly disgusting; but the country has its redeeming features: and first of all, the
excellence of its climate, which is very agreeable and
salubrious, the mean temperature being about 600
Fahr. in the shade.  In my library, the mercury
never rose above 61~; in my bedroom - which had the
morning sun -the mean temperature was 620. In
the shade, the thermometer scarcely ever rises above
700, nor sinks below 450. The average range within the twenty-four hours may be stated at about 10~.
These observations, of course, apply to Quito and the
neighboring plains. A journey of four hours will place
the traveller in the region of eternal frost; or in the
space of half a day he can descend the deep and sultry valleys that separate the mighty chains of the
Andes; or, finally, he may visit the tropical forest extending to the shores of the Pacific. This variation
of temperature, dependent on elevation, and occurring
within narrow limits, furnishes a daily and diversified
supply of vegetable food - from the plantain, which,
as a substitute for bread, is largely consumed by the
inhabitants of the coast, to the wheat, pulse, maize,




116   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
quinoa, potato, oca, cabbage, beets, salads, and potherbs, and all sorts of grains and roots, growing luxuriantly on the cool table-lands of the interior. Besides these, the market is furnished with pine-apples,
chirimoyas (Anona chirimoya), guayavas (Psidium
pomiferum), guavas (Inga pachycarpa), the fruit of
different species of passion-flower; oranges and lemons,
camotes, yucas, arachacas, pallemetos, citrons, granadillas, and, from January to April, certain European
fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, peaches, apricots,
melons, and strawberries -the last-mentioned fruit
having been introduced probably from  Chili.  The
quality of European fruit, however, is greatly inferior,
there being not the slightest care or cultivation bestowed upon trees.
Jif it were not for the excellence of its climate, which
is never hot and never cold, the prevailing filthiness
would make Quito a very sickly place. But, as it is,
Quito, with its neighborhood for miles around, may be
said to be one of the healthiest localities on the globe.
Consumptions and pulmonary diseases are scarcely ever
heard of. The fevers peculiar to tropical countries are
unknown. Those who get them on the coast will go
to Quito and the interior, to get rid of them again.
Dysenteries are uncommon. Among the rabble, it is
true, cases of tubercular elephantiasis or leprosy,l as
well as blindness and deafness, will be noted; but there
is no doubt that they are brought on by irregular
habits and the indescribable filthiness in which these
people are brought up and live. As the government
has not yet established a department of statistics, I am
unable to state the mortality of Quito, although I believe it is considerably less than that of other places of
1 Elephantiasis Grcecorum.




CLIMATE OF QUITO.             117
an equal number of inhabitants. To judge from the
great number of persons of high age I have met with
in all ranks and stations, the climate may be said to be
favorable to long life.  One remarkable observation
which I made in this connection, ought to find a place
here: corpulency is very frequent among women, but
very rare among men. I have found but few corpulent men - I could hardly say ten - among the natives; but I was surprised at the strong disposition to
obesity prevailing among women. For this, however,
there may be other than climatic causes.
I have already said that the climate of Quito is cool.
Persons of sedentary habits will find it cold. I was
continually troubled with cold feet, which, in fact, is a
very common complaint. Daily and frequent exercise
is necessary to prevent it. Those who realize the importance of physical exercise on foot and on horseback, will find the climate delightful. On leaving the
city it is difficult to avoid the sun, as trees are scarce.
Still, the rays of the sun are not strong enough to do
harm. Cases of sunstroke are never heard of. After
dinner it is generally advisable to take a moderate
walk, for otherwise, one might long for a fireplace,
the use of which, in a climate like that of Quito, I
should think to be injurious. By neglecting physical
exercise, stomach and liver complaints will easily be
contracted.
I do not agree with those geographers who have
compared the climate of Quito to an eternal spring.
I would rather call it an eternal autumn. Between
nine to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, it
is nearer the regions of eternal snow than to those of
tropical heat.  The near neighborhood of so many
snow-clad mountains contributes greatly to the cool



118   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ness of the atmosphere.  Cloth, and thick woolen
stockings, may be worn all the year round. I almost
always wore an overcoat in the evenings, and in the
rainy season very often in the daytime also. The rainy
season is very unpleasant, on account of its continuous
and interminable showers. It rains sometimes several
days and nights in succession.  The season announces
itself by many preliminary showers in October or November, but it does not set in regularly until after the
veranillo (Indian summer), in December or January.
During some parts of it, the mornings are generally
clear, and the rains do not commence before midday;
but during other parts, it rains almost without intermission. The inhabitants of temperate zones have no
idea of the force of equinoctial showers and thunderstorms. The roofs of houses require frequent repairs
to keep tight against the masses of water which are
continually pouring down from the opened sluices of
heaven.  When it rains, the natives will generally
walk about in zuecos (pattens, or rather, wooden
overshoes), because the miserable boots and shoes
manufactured in the country afford no protection
against moisture.  The streets of Quito, however,
dry very easily. If it ceases to rain for half an hour,
they will be crowded as usual with lively throngs of
humanity.  To the terrible effect the rains produce on
the roads of the country, I have already adverted.
They have no effect, however, on the climate of the
interior, which, occasional colds (constipaciones, flucciones, i pechugueras) and catarrhs excepted, remains as
healthy in winter as in the dry season.
Not only is Quito a very healthy place, but it is without insects, except those against which cleanliness is a
safe preventive, such as fleas and lice. In the coun



SCARCITY  OF INSECTS.                   119
try, niguas or piquis are sometimes, though rarely
found; but it is chiefly the Indians, who, on account
of going barefoot, are attacked by them.1 They are
very diminutive, and generally introduce themselves
into the cuticle below the nails; but the Indians, especially the women, are very skillful in taking them
out, which painful operation is performed with a
needle. For leagues around Quito, no snake is to
be found. Mosquitoes are hardly known; scorpions
and tarantulas have never been heard of. Flies, even,
are very rare, and do not molest at all. There are
mice, but no rats; nor are there bats or lizards, or
even bugs or beetles in the grass or on trees. In this
respect the near neighborhood of Quito may be said to
be a paradise. The coolness of the weather is invigorating and refreshing, and has none of those relaxing
and enervating effects which tropical climates produce.
But as in the interior of Ecuador you may choose the
temperature most suitable to your constitution or taste,
so if you are dissatisfied with the autumnal coolness of
Quito and its vicinity, a few hours' ride will lead you
into regions where an eternal spring prevails, and
where the products of all climates cluster around you
- potatoes and clover by the side of the orange and
1 " The nigua, called piqui in Lima and other parts of Peru, is a diminutive insect, in appearance like a small flea. They generally introduce
themselves under the cuticle of the feet, which causes a slight itching.
When they have established their residence, they deposit a great number
of eggs, the whole increasing to the size of a pea. If not carefully taken
out, they continue to breed, and, corroding the neighboring parts, they
produce malignant ulcers, which sometimes terminate in gangrene. The
greatest care is necessary in taking out these diminutive but disagreeable
insects: no part should be left behind, and the whole of the bag which contains the ova should be extracted.  When they have been suffered to remain several days, they occasion great pain. Negroes are most troubled
with them, on account of their going barefoot, and of their inattention to
cleanliness." - Stephenson, Twenty Years' Residezce in South America




120 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the sugar-cane. Indeed, if we may seek anywhere for
a land to inaugurate the millennium described in Shelley's "Queen Mab," it is in the highlands of Ecuador. There, neither
— " The gloom of the long polar night
Lowers o'er the snow-clad rocks and frozen soil;"
nor have
" The tropics bound the realms of day
With a broad belt of mingling cloud and flame,
Where blue mists through the unmoving atmosphere
Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed
Unnatural vegetation: "
but
" Health flows in the gentle atmosphere,
And fruits are ever ripe, and flowers ever fair."
Indeed, the flora of Quito is as beautiful as inexhaustible.   Roses  bloom   all the  year round; wild
flowers cover the walls of court-yards and ruins; tulips, pinks, and lilies, bloom in the gardens winter and
summer, and verdure ever smiles around you on the
mountains  and  in  the  glens.   The sky, when  unclouded, is of the purest blue, and the atmosphere as
balmy as that of the fabulous Eden - the charming
dream of ancient and modern poetry. Here, indeed,
we may exclaim  with Childe Harold,
" O, Christ, it is a goodly sight to see
What Heaven has done for this delicious land!
What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree,
What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand:
But man would mar them with an impious hand."
"For hut and palace show like filthily;
The dingy denizens are rear'd in dirt;
No personage of high or mean degree
Doth care for cleanness of surtout or shirt,
Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwashed, unhurt."




CHAPTER VIII.
Population. - The Whites. - Aristocratic Traditions. - Ancient Nobility.
— Prejudice against Labor.- Early Marriages.- Boy -Husbands.No Spirit of Association - Mixed Races - Cholas and Bolziconas. -
Servants. - Huasicamas. - Indian Wives. - Laundresses. - Longas,
Guambras, and Guifiazhiscas. - Ama de Llaves. - Marketing. - Matrimonial Relations. - An Incident. - Indian Humility. - Other Traits
of Indian Character. - Politeness of the Rabble. - Spanish-American
Courtesy.- A Lady's Message to a Friend.
THE  population of Quito does not exceed 40,000.
On several occasions the government attempted to ascertain the actual number of inhabitants, but failed to
arrive at a satisfactory result.   The people became
alarmed, from an idea that the formation of a census is
a preliminary step toward the imposition of a tax, and
the information thus obtained was necessarily defective.
The census taken in 1861 and 1862, gives but 35,000.
The population has undoubtedly decreased. Ulloa, in
1735, estimated it at from 50,000 to 60,000. Stephenson, in 1809, calculated it at 75,000, which is an exaggeration. Caldas, at about the same time, estimated it
at 35,000 to 40,000.  The "Almanaque Nacional,"
published in 1845 or 1846, dreams of 80,000. I am
satisfied that by adding 5000 to the last official census,
to make up for those who were omitted by the census
officers, or kept out of their way, or made false statements, I came as near the truth as possible.
Of the elements composing the population, the pure
white race does not constitute a majority, although it
is, of course, the governing class, consisting of the de



122   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
scendants of Spaniards and other Europeans. They
are endowed with a good natural capacity, and quick
perception, but lack education, and are without the
energy and perseverance necessary to accomplish important undertakings. The want of a road to the coast
may be referred to as a standing proof of this assertion.
The descendants of the old wealthy or noble Spanish families, which still form an almost impenetrable
aristocracy, have preserved their white blood in tolerable purity, although the black, coarse hair, especially
of the women, often reminds us of the Indian mesalliances of the first conquerors. In Quito, persons of
doubtful color are seldom received in good society, and
not even white men of inferior pedigree. The great
families do not intermarry with those whom they consider below themselves in rank and dignity, although
their equals in color. They still love to hear their old
family titles mentioned.  The laws, they think, are
made for poor people, - Indians and Cholos only, -
but not for persons of rank (de eategoria).  These
latter, in their opinion, are entitled to make laws without being obliged to obey them. - To the prevailing
contempt for labor, I shall refer hereafter.
The custom of marrying very young, and before the
bridegroom has secured a position in life, greatly contributes to the poverty of the middle classes. I have
seen students marry who had not yet finished their college education, and who, instead of supporting their
wives, were supported by them, or rather by their
parents and families. Instead of going to their business after breakfast, they went to the University with
their books under their arms.  The general consequence of this custom is, that after a few months or




NO SPIEIIT OF ASSOCIATION.        123
years, such a child-husband returns his wife to her
parents, telling them  frankly that he cannot support
her! Hence the frequency of husbands not living
with their wives, which, in Quitonian phraseology, is
called no hacer vida.  Still, as women in Ecuador are
much more numerous than men, the girls prefer this
risk to the danger of becoming old maids.
An important trait of Serrano character is their
great distrust of each other, which precludes all spirit
of association. Partnerships are not customary; corporations are unheard of. Great enterprises therefore,
are an impossibility. To this circumstance, more perhaps than to the instability of governments and the
frequent recurrence of violent political convulsions,
the general decay of the country must be attributed.
The colonial period was one of absolute tranquillity and
almost undisturbed peace; and yet it was not characterized by important commercial or industrial enterprises. The rich buried their wealth in vaults or walls,
instead of investing it in speculations profitable to
themselves and the community. The finding of hidden treasures is, therefore, not an uncommon occurrence. During my residence in Ecuador, it happened
several times, that the tearing down of old buildings
led to the discovery of considerable sums of money
buried by their owners, who died without having had
time to communicate the secret to their children or
relatives.
I have said that the white portion of the population
of Quito does not constitute a majority. It is in the
aggregate outnumbered by the colored and mixed races
Of pure negroes there are but few. Of Zambosl
(according to Humboldt, the children of mulattoes and
1 In Quito they are sometimes called Chinos.




124    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
negroes, or of Indians and negroes), a greater number
will be found. The bulk of the population consists of
Cholos and pure Indians, especially, however, of the
former.1   Of the  Indians, I shall speak  hereafter.
Cholos or Mestizos are the children of whites and Indians, and their descendants. They are foremost in
practical intelligence and enterprise. In their hands
are the trades, and a great part of the retail commerce.
They are tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths,
joiners, etc. The Indians till the soil and do the
heavy drudgery, such as working on the roads, and
public and private buildings. The Cholos are mechanics and small shop-keepers. They are not as ugly as
the great majority of the Indians, especially those of
Latacunga and Quito. On the contrary, among the
women, we find many of handsome appearance and
beautiful eyes. These latter are either de vestido or
de centro, in which case they are also called "Bolziconas."   The former dress after the Spanish or European fashion; the latter, although gaudily attired, do
not wear full dresses, but content themselves with
woolen petticoats of lively colors (red, pink, yellow, or
1 The following is Villavicencio's estimate of the whole population of
Ecuador: -
Whites descending from Europeans.              601,219
Pure Indians..                                 462,400
Pure negroes....   7,831
Mixtures of negroes, whites, and Indians...   36,592
1,108,042
Add to these the savages east of the Cordillera..  200,000
Total.1,308,042
From attentive observation, I have no doubt that Villavicencio is entirely
wrong. His estimate of the pure white population is too high, and that of
the mixed races greatly too low. If he had given the number of the latter
at 600,000, and the number of the former at 30,000, he would probably have
been correct.




SERVANTS.                 125
pale blue), sometimes ornanented with a profusion of
ribbons, lace, fringe, and spangles; white embroidered
shawls of cotton, linen, or silk, and macanas and paiuelones, in which latter great luxury is sometimes displayed. This costume, with the addition of the little
straw hat, which such women very frequently wear,
is rather gay and piquant. Their shifts are generally
embroidered. Over these they wear the light embroidered shawl just referred to; over this the macana
(or narrow shawl), and over this the paiuelon (or
wide shawl), with which they cover their heads and
shoulders, throwing the right end over the left shoulder. Sometimes the head is uncovered, and the hair
hangs in two long tresses down the back. The poor
among them are commonly without the light shawl,
and go barefooted, or in alpargates, a sort of sandals,
made of the fibres of the aloe. The pahiuelon is generally of English flannel, sometimes of cotton, and
sometinies of silk. Those who are in better circumstances often wear satin shoes. They all wear bracelets and necklaces of beads or corals, rings of cocoashell or galvanized compositions, earrings, etc. They
are very fond of jewelry and finery.
But it is time that we should establish ourselves in
Quito. We must take a house, and employ servants,
who will prove a source of endless trouble and annoyance, for they are generally unreliable, lazy, and filthy,
but very good-natured, humble, and submissive. Every
respectable family must have at least four or five of
them, but in large families from ten to fifteen are
sometimes employed. Three or four of them together
will not do so much work as is done by one of our good
German or Irish servant-girls. They are great on the
division of labor. Every one has a certain office, and




126   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
will hardly do any thing but what he is hired for. Their
wages are exceedingly low. A good male cook earned,
in 1864, from two dollars and fifty cents to eight dollars per month, which latter wages, however, were
paid hardly by any body but foreigners. The natives,
accustomed to live cheap, pay their servants but very
little. A female cook earned from fifty cents to four
dollars a month.  But a cook will scarcely ever serve
you without an assistant, whose business it is to fan the
fires, wash the dishes and vegetables, pare potatoes,
carry water, etc. Generally, this work is performed
by the huasicama or door-keeper, of whom I shall
presently speak. Dishes are not exactly washed, but
wiped with sawdust kept for the purpose, commonly in
an old wine-box. Besides a cook and his assistant or
assistants, one or two pajes, or body-servants, will have
to be kept, who combine the offices of waiter, steward,
footman, and chambermaid. Their wages varied from
two dollars to six dollars per month.
Another very important personage in the household,
is the huasicama, or porter, with his wife; for the
huasicama is always a pure Indian, and the Indian
always has a wife, children, and a dog, besides a number of cuyes, an animal which seems to form the transition from a Guinea-pig to a rabbit. Huasicama is an
Indian (Quichua) word, and means door-keeper or
turnkey,-  literally, "keeper of the house."   His
room is near the door, which he has to lock at night
and to open in the morning. He has to do all the
heavy and dirty work, sweep the yards and street in
front of the house, to carry water and to take care
of the horses, to wash the dishes, and to assist the
cook. In every thing he does, he is faithfully assisted
by his.wife, who is, literally, his helpmate. The affec



LAUNDRESSES.               127
tion of Indian women for their husbands, who almost
continually ill-treat them, is really remarkable. The
Indian wife always carries the baby on her back, in a
shawl or poncho tied around her breast or neck. She
is generally more industrious and active than her lazy
and brutal husband. The huasicama's wages range
from one dollar to two dollars a month, in addition to
which he gets his food, chiefly locro (a potato soup),
and a wretched room near the street-door to live in.
If he has no room, he sleeps in the entrance. His bedding is a sheep-skin, and his clothes and ponchos are
his blankets.  His meals he takes cowering on the
floor, a custom which is not peculiar to Indians. The
poor cholos, negroes, and even the white rabble, especially, however, the chagras, or country people, eat
their meals on the ground, and in all probability prefer
this mode of dining to the use of tables and chairs.
Another indispensable person in the family is the
laundress, who washes but for a limited number of
persons. If there are three or four ladies in one family,
it will be necessary to employ two or more laundresses.
There being neither wells nor cisterns in the houses,
the washerwomen repair to one of the many streams
flowing through the ravines (quebradas) by which the
city is intersected, and there, tucking up their clothes,
go into the water and beat the linen against a rock
until it is clean. After this it is spread over rocks or
on the lawn, to be dried by the sun. If the weather
is unpropitious, this process takes two or three days.
While waiting for the clothes to dry, they will usually
wash and bathe themselves; and the eye of the passerby is arrested by innumerable repetitions of the sight
for which Diana transformed poor Actiaon into a stag,
who was torn to pieces by his own hounds. But the




128   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Quito laundresses are no Dianas. Bashfulness is a
virtue unknown among the common people of the interior. And even their dogs -for almost every washerwoman has a dog who keeps her company - are not
like those of Actaeon: they only bark and howl, but
do not bite. The dogs of the interior partake of the
tameness of their masters. There are dogs in almost
every Indian hut, but I never met with a fierce dog.
Whether they have no courage, because they get
hardly any thing to eat beside the carcasses of mules
and donkeys dying on the road, and which not too
frequent repast they must share with gallinazos, or
whether they are affected with the timidity and cowardice of their Indian masters, I am unable to say.
But let us here pass to another class of servants,
who are found in every, and even the poorest, native
family. I mean the " Longas " or " Guambras," as they
are generally called.  They are little Indian, cholo,
negro, or mulatto boys or girls, of from five to eight
and twelve years of age, who are kept partly as playmates and servants for the children, partly to do as
many little things as their age will allow. They are
kept with a view of being trained to be regular houseservants when they arrive at a suitable age. They are
called" Guinazhiscas" when brought up in the family
from their earliest childhood. Guiiiazhisca and Guambra are Indian terms. One of their chief duties is to
carry the carpet on which the sehiora kneels in church
during mass. The Quitonian ladies go to mass every
day, and sometimes to several masses in one day, but
they never go without being accompanied by a little,
dirty Indian, cholo, or mulatto boy or girl, carrying the
carpet or hassock on the head, and tripping behind his
or her mistress. Even when they go out visiting, they




APPRENTICESHIP OF CHILDREN.         129
are generally followed by a servant, who squats down
at the head of the stairs, in the parlor door, or in the
room itself, until the lady is ready to leave. The parents of these longas or guambras are in the habit
of selling them for a trifle. It is not a sale in the literal sense of the word; but by paying a few dollars to
the parents, you may easily induce them to apprentice
their children to you, until they become of age. Many
a time such children were offered to me. I recollect
one instance in which the mother, an Indian woman,
offered me one of her children if I would give her the
money to buy a pig. The process of binding out children is simple and cheap. The parties appear before
the chief of police, who asks the mother for her name
and age (of the latter she is generally ignorant),
whether she is married or unmarried, whether the
child is legitimate or illegitimate, its name and age, and
the name of the father. After answering his questions, the chief of police makes the mother declare her
intention to bind out the child, and, as these women
are almost always entirely illiterate, one of the witnesses will, at her request and on her behalf, sign the
instrument of indenture. The guambra or longa is
fed and clothed (and generally very poorly) by her
master, but receives no wages or education. On becoming of age, she may go where she pleases.
In large and wealthy families, there is sometimes an
" ama de l1aves" (literally, a " mistress of the keys "),
a kind of female overseer, or stewardess, who has
charge of the whole household, with the care of which
ladies will have as little to do as possible. Such an
ama de 1laves, however, often increases the peculations
to which you are exposed, because she will steal first,
and the others will steal after her. Stealing is hardly
9




130   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
considered a sin by the common people. I once heard
an ama de hlaves express her abhorrence of Protestantism, because Protestant clergymen had no power to
forgive sins; and she thought it horrible that little insignificant thefts, which, in her opinion, every body
committed, should, without absolution in this world, be
carried to the other side of the grave!
Besides the different classes of servants I have enumerated, there are chamber-maids (if they deserve to
be honored with such a name), wet-nurses (iiuhios, an
Indian word), and very frequently two or three supernumeraries, old retainers of the family, who work for
their board until they can find more lucrative employment.
Almost all your servants are married, and have families who live with them, early marriages being the
custom  of the country.  The families of servants,
however, are not so great an annoyance as the legions
of relatives and friends by whom they are continually
visited, and who will dine with them, drink with them,
and even stay over night with them. Then you will
find them huddled together, men and women promiscuously, on the floor of a small room, without windows
and ventilation. Such visits sometimes last for a whole
week. It is impossible to keep your house clear of
people who are not in your employ. At one time I
had four persons in my service, and yet I fed fourteen
regularly, without counting their occasional visitors.
Their appetite is ravenous. They eat, not until they
are satisfied, but so long as there is any thing left; and
besides what remains of the meals, immense pots of
locro are cooked for their exclusive benefit.
Fleas are the plague of the interior. I have seen
women with perfect collars of flea-bites around their




MARKETING.                 131
necks. Even in the houses of some of the first native
families, fleas are as numerous as in the huts of Indians. These things may appear incredible, but I am
satisfied that in many respects my description remains
behind the truth.
The cook generally receives a certain sum per day
for marketing, for which he furnishes two meals, breakfast and dinner. He is not called to account for what
he has expended.  Any balance that may remain after
he has made his purchases, he keeps for himself. Quito
is undoubtedly the cheapest capital in the world. It
costs almost nothing to live. For a dollar a day my
cook furnished two excellent daily meals. Boarding at
the restaurants could be had at from ten dollars to
fifteen dollars a month, or twenty-five cents a meal.
During the last year of my residence at Quito, there
was, however, a steady rise in the price of provisions,
which henceforward will never return to their pristine
standard.
The mode of marketing is very queer. Of course
ladies or gentlemen will not go to market, not even
with a servant to carry the basket. This practice, so
common with us. would be scandalous and disreputable
in Spanish-America. It is the cook, or sometimes the
huasicama, who makes the purchases. He will first
buy a few breads in a grocery, and with these breads
he will buy his vegetables, or other articles worth less
than a cuartillo, which is the smallest coin, and the
fourth part of a real. One bread represents one fifth
of a cuartillo, - twenty common breads being given
for one real. The bread thus used consists of small
round pieces, weighing but very little, although sufficiently doughy and indigestible. The Indian producers
or venders, therefore, receive more bread than money.




132   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
The want of copper coin is the cause of this strange
custom. Sometimes the cooks will make their purchases by force. They will take what they need, and
then throw down not what the Indian seller asks, but
what they deem sufficient. Of course the poor Indian
never thinks of resisting any body who is not an Indian.
Even negroes and cholos he considers superior to himself, and patiently submits to every act of injustice or
oppression.
I have said already that almost all the servants are
married, and have their families with them. Their
standard of morality, however, is rather low. Sometimes they take women on trial, a custom very prevalent among the Indians, who are often compelled by
poverty to live with their intended ones, without
being married, until they have money enough to pay
the fees of the curate, who never trusts. The conduct
of the husband in spe is, however, almost always characterized by good faith. He seldom rejects the woman
with whom he has cohabited with a view to matrimony.
The Indian is strongly attached to his wife, and very
jealous, although he treats her cruelly; but the woman
does not want to be treated otherwise. If her husband
should cease to beat her, she would be convinced that he
has ceased to love her. The British Charg6 d'Affaires,
Mr. Fagan, once protected a woman whom an Indian
was beating on the public highway, but she rebuked
that gentleman with the remark that the aggressor
was her husband, and had a right to wallop her.
I once had a huasicama who formed an exception to
the good faith of the Indian toward the other sex. He
was a boy of about sixteen or seventeen years of age
(according to my calculation, for the Indians hardly
ever know how old they are), and lived with two




MATRIMONIAL RELATIONS.          133
women, with both of whom he seemed to be on terms
of great intimacy. One of them I supposed to be his
wife; but one day the census-taker came around to add
my servants to his list, and asked him the usual question, whether he was married or single. To my great
astonishment, he replied that he was unmarried. I
then asked him sternly what he kept two women for?
He answered very mildly, " Para casarme," "for the
purpose of getting married," or, " with a view to matrimony." I then informed him that this would not do,
and that he had to be one woman's husband, or to discharge them both. He did not like the alternative,
and left my employment. About half a year afterward he came back and asked to be reinstated. As
he had always been a tolerably good and honest boy, I
was not disinclined to take him back, and therefore
asked him whether his domestic affairs had remained in
the same objectionable shape. " No," he said, "yo he
botado d esa mujer " (" I have cast that woman away ").
Shortly afterward he married another whom his parents had selected for him. The relatives of both parties contributed to deftay the expense of solemnizing
the marriage, as bride and bridegroom were penniless.
Lazy and dishonest as the common people of the interior generally are, they are not impertinent or mischievous, but polite and submissive in the extreme. It
is seldom that they dare to retort or resent, when insulted by any one who is above them in the social
scale. They seem to have learned submissiveness and
humility from the Indians, who are perfectly helpless
and rightless. Every body kicks them, every body insuits them, but they never resent. Indian farm laborers on the haciendas, after having been whipped at the
command of their masters, address them, hat in hand,




134   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and as polite and pliable as if nothing had happened.
The Indian, trudging along barefoot on the public
highway, always takes off his hat to a well-dressed
person, giving him the usual salutation,- "Alabado
sea el santisimo sacramento! " (Blessed be the most
holy sacrament!) If you want to light a cigar at one
of the Indian huts on the road, the poor man will give
you a small firebrand, hat in hand. He is always humble, always submissive in words, but generally very
backward in actions. His temper has been soured by
long ill-treatment. He will hardly do any thing unless
he is compelled to do it. Force is considered to be the
only way to succeed with him. I cannot omit, in this
connection, to mention an incident which was communicated to me by the British Charg4 d'Affaires. On
his journey to Quito, he met several Indians on the
road who carried fruit to some town near by, for the
purpose of selling it there. He offered to buy some,
but they refused to sell. He then offered double and
treble prices, but the Indians remained stubborn. At
last the Charg6 was informed by the officer who accompanied him as a guide and guard of honor, that this
was not the way to deal with Indians. That gentleman dismounted, and after a few threatening words
and gestures, opened the bundles of the Indians, and
took out fruit for the whole company. Being asked by
the British Charge what the damage was, they charged
the regular low price. They preferred a compulsory
sale for the common price to a voluntary sale for a good
price. It is true, a decided disinclination to sell any
thing on the road before arriving at the place for which
they are bound, is universal among them; but on the
other hand, it must not be forgotten that experience has
taught them to distrust the promises of the white man.




POLITENESS OF SPANIARDS.         135
They are accustomed to be wronged and to be cheated,
and therefore surrender themselves to an incredulous
indifference and stolid unwillingness, which can only be
overcome by force. And force they have to experience in every thing. Even the government continually
sets the example. When there is danger of a foreign
war or revolution, they are compelled to carry loads of'
muskets, ammunition, or other implements of war, as
well as the baggage of officers and privates, or to render other compulsory services.
Notwithstanding their ignorance and filthiness, the
manners of the rabble of Quito, if not instigated to
some quarrel by rum or chicha, are characterized by
the utmost politeness, not only toward their superiors,
but also among themselves. The very dregs of the
population of Quito, degraded as they may be, are
politeness personified; and they will clothe the outbursts of their civility in language, the elegance and
correctness of which are really astonishing. The loafing vagabond, who sleeps on the cold, unfloored ground
of one of those dreadful hovels which serve as kitchens,
bedrooms, chicken-roosts, dog-kennels, and pig-sties,
will, when meeting one of his comadres, salute her
in a manner which we should expect to hear only in
drawing-rooms and parlors.
The Spaniards are notorious for politeness, but their
South-American descendants have surpassed them.
They practice politeness as they do religion. Their
set phrases in society are rattled off like their prayers
in church. Their civility, like their religious worship,
is only an outward observance, which has but little
connection with the heart. It is not studied hypocrisy, -it is mere habit and mechanism.  With the
same thotghtlessness with which they hum and prattle




1-t6   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
away at their rosaries and litanies, they pour forth their
compliments and assurances.
It is amusing to hear a Quitonian lady send one of
her servants to deliver a message to another lady.
Translated into English, it sounds most ridiculous:
" Go to the Sefiorita Fulana de Tal, and tell her that
she is my. heart (que es mi corazon), and the dear little
friend of my soul; tell her that I am dying (que estoy
muriendome por no haberle visto) for not having seen
her, and ask her why she does not come to see me;
tell her that I have been awaiting her for more than a
week, and that I send her my best respects and considerations;, and ask her how she is, and how her husband is, and how her children are, and whether they
are all well in the family; and tell her that she is my
little love, and whether she will not be kind enough
to send me that pattern which she promised me the
other day." Now, any body would suppose that the
servant intrusted with this highly important message,
would forget one half of it, or be unwilling to deliver
the long preamble to the short argument; but it is not
so. With a conscientiousness that does not distinguish
them in other respects, and with a strength of memory
that would shame the retentiveness of Sancho Panza, in
delivering his master's message from the Sierra Morena
to the Dulcinea of his heart, the servants will deliver
themselves with a parrot-like fidelity, and in a strange,
monotonous, sing-song key of voice, of the complete
mass of compliments confided to their charge; they
will rather add than omit one; they will rather improve on the original than weaken its effects by giving a synopsis merely, or editing an abridgment.
Having now established ourselves domestically, we
may begin to look around in Quito.  This shall be
done in my next chapter.




CHAPTER IX.
Spanish Mode of Colonization. - Fortifications and Convents. - Architecture of Quito. - The Moorish Style. - Public Buildings. - Churches.
- Nunneries. - The Convent of San Francisco. - Its Painted Miracles.
— Interesting Specimens. - The Praying Lamb. - The Chapel of
Catufia. - A Romantic Legend. - The Treasures of Rumifiagui. - A
Pretended Pact with the Prince of Darkness. - La Capilla del Robo. -
Another Legend. - The Parish Church of San Roque. - Flagellation.
— The Tejar, or La Recoleta de la Merced. - Religious Exercises in
Lent. - Still another Legend. - Indian Reticence. - Burying-places.
-How the Poor bury their Children. - Administering the Last Sacraments. - Religious Processions. - Semana Santa. - Holy Thursday
and Good Friday. - Splendid Illumination of the Churches. - A Descendimiento. - A Sermon accompanied by a Puppet-show. - Its Effect
on the Audience. -A Portable Image of the Lord, and its Travels to
the Coast. - Christmas. - Misa de Gallos. - The Clergy. - Ignorance
and Immorality of the Monks. - The Curates. - List of Convents and
Nunneries. - Fees of Curates. - Divisions of Caste.
THE endeavors of Spain with respect to her American colonies, were chiefly directed toward preserving
them exclusively to herself, and establishing the authority of the Church of Rome as a means conducive
to that object, as well as of government. She studded
the coasts with fortifications, and covered the interior
with churches and convents. Guns and relics, soldiers
and friars, were her instruments and agents; and oppression and superstition, with ignorance, their neverfailing attendant, the fruits the colonies reaped from
the  system.   Hence, to  understand  and  appreciate
correctly whatever exists at the present day in a Span-.
ish-American republic, whether in politics, morals, or
art, Spain and her system must always be borne in
mind.




138   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
The insalubrity of the Ecuadorian sea-board and the
inaccessible nature of the interior, were, perhaps, considered sufficient protection against the intrusion of
foreigners, and artificial means to exclude them were
not so extensively resorted to as at Havana, Cartagena,
Callao, and other sea-ports. Undivided attention could
consequently be bestowed on the means of defense
against spiritual foes. Thus, though far from having
been among the wealthiest of the Spanish colonies,
Ecuador, in her capital of Quito, can boast of more
extensive convents and costlier churches than many of
her richer sisters.
The Spaniards did usually build some secular edifices
of a very substantial class in most of their colonial capitals, at least " la casa de la real audiencia," and a viceregal palace, were never wanting, and not unfrequently
a theatre was added; but if any of these ever existed
in Quito, they must have belonged to a very inferior
kind of construction, for none of them are to be found
there now. It seems that not even barracks built for
such were considered necessary, as the present government is obliged to quarter the small force it supports
in portions of some of the old convents. Perhaps the
absence of substantial secular edifices is attributable to
there having been no employment for military engineers, who generally acted in the other colonies as architects, and understood at least how to build solidly.
That the ecclesiastical edifices fared better, may be
owing to their always having been a friar or two in
each of the convents who took to the study of archi*tecture, as it was practiced in Spain, as a favorite pastime.
Since the establishment of independence, no public
building with any pretensions to architecture, except




ARCHITECTURE.- PUBLIC BUILDINGS.    139
the unfinished Government House, has been attempted; and hence the ecclesiastical edifices are
nearly the only ones that are worthy of architectural
notice.
Traces of the Moorish style show themselves in
almost all the architecture of Spain; and even the
buildings belonging to the renaissance period are not
free of such reminiscences. These, with other peculiarities of Spanish art, were imported into the colonies.
The prevailing characteristics are just what might be
expected to result from an endeavor on the part of the
builder to copy as faithfully as his unaided memory
would allow, some favorite model which was the fashion of his day, and which he had seen executed at home
in Old Spain.
Not long after the discovery of America, the Gothic
style had fallen almost into complete disuse in the
mother-country, as it had also throughout the rest of
Europe; consequently, excepting here and there a
pointed arch standing in startling discord amidst a
group of round ones in some of the churches, there is
nothing to remind one of that style in Quito.
The fear of earthquakes has led to even a greater
degree of massiveness in the style of construction here
than at home; and though the extensive use of vaulted
coverings and of arches to be observed in Quito does
not agree with apprehensions respecting the awful
scourge just mentioned, the practice was partly forced
on the builders by the scarcity of timber of a proper
scantling, of which the vicinity of Quito is bare.
The color of the stone used for building is too dark,
yet the material is generally of a good quality, and
stone-cutting and carving were brought to a high state
of advancement. The lime and sand of the neighbor



140   FOUiE YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
hood afforded excellent mortar, and must have greatly
facilitated the practice of vaulted coverings.
With the exception of the Cathedral (the parochial
chapels are little better than barns), the principal
churches are attached to convents. They therefore
rarely present more than the principal faqade to the
public, and if they happen to stand on one corner of
the convents the flanks are left bare of architectural
design, to correspond in unsightliness with the rest of
the convent walls.
The convents are extensive, covering sometimes as
much as eight or nine acres of ground. They generally have one or two spacious arcaded quadrangles,
and several smaller ones, but are all more or less in a
deplorable state of dilapidation, caused chiefly by the
last earthquake and subsequent neglect. Their construction, however, was always of a substantial nature.
Some of the nunneries have large gardens, in which
each nun has a little pavilion or bower built for her
recreation, and which is her exclusive property. It is
her delight to decorate this according to her childish
and simple taste, with pictures of saints, trinkets, and
embroidery of her own making.
The monastery of San Francisco is one of the
largest in Quito, and perhaps one of the most extensive convents in the world. As the number of
Franciscans, as well as of monks in general, has greatly
diminished, it has lost its ancient importance. A considerable part of it is in ruins, while the southerly
wing is used for military barracks. In the arcaded
corridors of the courts, numberless oil-paintings adorn
the walls, representing incidents in the life of St. Francis, and miracles wrought by him. Each picture is
provided with an explanation, in the Spanish language,




MIRACLES OF SAIW FRANCISCO.          141
of what it represents. To give my readers an idea of
Quito convents, I shall translate a few of the inscriptions -
" As the mother of the seraphic father, San Francisco, had
despaired of a safe delivery of the fruit of her womb, she
followed the advice of an angel who had appeared to her in
the form of a pilgrim and told her to await her confinement
in a stable. There the birth of the sainted father takes
place, in imitation of the birth of Christ; and at his birth,
the greatest consternation prevails in hell, and the devil
trembles because he foresees the terrible war which the great
saint will wage against him."
The painting represents this interesting scene: On
one side, the stable and the confinement; and on the
other, the infernal legions of horned devils trembling
and despairing.
" In Palermo, a city of the kingdom of Sicily, there was
a woman who was seized by a most burning desire to eat
human flesh. Having no means of satisfying her horrible
appetite, she killed, instigated by the devil, her little son.
She had already roasted one of his limbs, when her husband
came in, and beholding what she had done, was about to
kill her. At this moment the sainted father, San Francisco,
appeared to them, and commanded them to bring the different parts of the child's body to him, which he put together
and blessed, whereupon the child became alive again, and
was restored to his parents."
"A monk of a certain order, who would not believe that
the wounds of Christ were really impressed on the body of
the sainted father, San Francisco, blotted their sacred
marks from a portrait of the saint which he had in his possession; when, as a heavenly chastisement, a jet of blood
rushed from the picture with such force, that it struck down
the monk, and almost killed him."
" The fire of heavenly love which glowed in the breasts




142   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
of San Francisco and Santa Clara was so great that their
mortal frames could not hold it. It burst its confinement,
and filled the whole church of Asei, in which the two were
praying, and issued forth from the windows, so that the
people believed the church was on fire, and came with
buckets and ladders. Thus they were made witnesses of
the great miracle which God had wrought through his
saints."
"In the convent of Gaeta in Naples, the sainted father
was sorely tempted, once upon a time, by the alluring arts
of a licentious woman. To preserve his chastity, he threw
himself naked into a thorny bush. The spines,. bathed by
his holy blood, were at once transformed into beautiful and
fragrant roses."
"When the holy father, San Francisco, arrived at Arecio,
a city in Etruria, he found its inhabitants engaged in a terrible civil war. At the same time, he beheld hovering over
the city a number of demons, who fanned the flames of internecine discord. He commanded them to be gone. They
had to obey the irresistible power of his voice, and peace
was at once restored."
"A lamb which the holy father, San Francisco, kept, worships Jesus Christ during the most holy sacrament."
The lamb is represented standing on its hind legs,
in the attitude of prayer. The last painting of this
remarkable collection represents the Saint's arrival in
heaven, " where the most holy Virgin Mary places
the child Christ in his arms." There are at least
sixty or seventy of these paintings in the arcades of
the convent.
Let us now pass to another legend connected with
the convent of San Francisco: On the southeast corner of the immense property, and contiguous to the
main church, we find the chapel of Catu~na, in the
vestry of which a picture of the Virgin is exhibited,




A ROMANTIC LEGEND.             143
with an Indian at her feet, who looks up to her imploringly. This Indian, of whom only the head and neck
are represented, is Catuha, the founder of the chapel,
and the hero of one of the oldest legends of Quito.
The great treasures which the unfortunate Inca,
Atah-uallpa, delivered to Pizarro as his ransom, are
said to have come from Cuzco and other Peruvian
towns. The treasure at Quito is said to have remained intact, and to have been seized upon by Rumi/iagui, one of the Inca's generals, who, after the
capture of his master by the Spaniards, had usurped
the government of Quito, and with a view to his own
elevation to the throne, had put to death all the members of his master's family whom he could get into his
power. On the approach of the victorious Spaniards
under Benalcazar, Ruminagui set fire to the town, and
evacuated it with the rest of his army. Some say he
carried the treasure away with him; others, that he
buried it at Quito before he left the city. And here
our legend begins:Hualca, a partisan and follower of Rumifiagui, was
one of the officers who superintended the burying of
the treasure. In this he was assisted by his son Catunia, a boy of tender age. After the town had commenced to burn, a wall, near which Hualca's party
had been at work, fell in, apparently crushing the
child, so that his father left him, supposing him to be
dead. Catuia, however, escaped, and was taken care
of by one of the Spaniards, who entered Quito immediately after Ruminiagui had left it.  The boy's
injuries were so severe that his features remained
distorted and his limbs dislocated, and he became a
hunchback of frightful ugliness. He was at last taken
into the service of a Captain Hernan Suarez, who




144  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
took a fancy to the poor cripple, taught him to read
and write, and instructed him in the doctrines of the
Christian religion.  Suarez, having been unfortunate
in his speculations, soon afterwards was reduced to
great distress, and about to sell his house in order to
meet the claims of some of his most pressing creditors,
when Catuia told him to have a secret vault constructed under his residence, and to furnish it with all
the implements necessary for smelting gold; adding,
that he was able and willing to give him enough of
the precious metal in bars, but that he would not let
him see it in its original form. He also made his
master promise never to reveal to any body from
whom  he had received it.  Suarez complied with
these instructions, and soon became a rich man. A
great part of the wealth which his servant had bestowed on him, he applied to charitable and religious
purposes, and when he died, in 1550, leaving neither
wife nor children, he made Catufia heir of his real and
personal property.
In the mean time, the change in the circumstances
of Suarez had aroused suspicion. It was surmised by
many that he owed his sudden unaccountable prosperity to Catufa, the ugly Indian imp who served
him. This suspicion was confirmed by the great sums
of money which Catuhna subsequently bestowed on
churches and convents, and distributed among the
poor. -He was taken into custody, and required to
declare from what source he had derived his wealth.
The Indian knew well enough that, should he declare
the truth, his riches would be seized upon by the first
conquerors, who considered any part of the treasure
of Atahuallpa as their lawful spoils.  He, therefore,
resorted to a most daring stratagem. He said it was




CATUN A'S PACT WITH THE DEVIL.     145
true that he had been the benefactor of Suarez, and a
great many others, but that he could have as much
gold as he wanted, having made a compact with the
Evil One, to whom he had sold his soul. Under
other circumstances, this confession would not have
improved his case, and he would probably have been
dispatched by the tribunals of the Inquisition; but his
munificent generosity had gained him the good-will of
the priests and rabble, and probably of his own judges,
who did not wish to dry up the source from which so
much liberality flowed.  They affected to pity his
misery, and set him  free.  His statement was the
more readily credited, as the Indians were then generally believed to have intercourse with the Prince.
of Darkness. Many of the priests, and especially the
Franciscans, exhorted him to renounce his pact with
the Devil and make his peace with the Lord; but he
remained unmoved, and insisted that he wanted to
have gold as long as he lived. " Secretly," says
Father Velasco, the chronicler of Quito, he " laughed
at the exhortations of the monks, being at heart a good
Christian and extremely devoted to the sufferings of the
most holy Virgin " (" Sumamente devoto de los dolores
de la Santisima Virgen "). After his death, his premises were searched, and with considerable difficulty the
vault was discovered, with a great quantity of gold in
ingots, bars, and in vessels, and the tools with which
Suarez had provided him. Still the people continued
to believe in the story of his pact with the Evil One,
" and the truth," adds Father Velasco, " would never
have been discovered, if it had not been for a Franciscan monk who had secretly been his confessor, and, on
his death, left a written account of what Catufia had
confided to him."
10




146   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
One square from the Church of San Francisco is the
nunnery of Santa Clara, in the rear of which we find
a chapel which bears the significant name, La Capilla
del Robo (the Chapel of the Robbery), which is said to
owe its foundation to the following miracle: —
A great load of valuable merchandise was once on
the way to Quito, when, in the outskirts of the city,
a band of robbers attacked the caravan, drove away
the arrieros and seized the goods, which they hid in a
house near the convent of Santa Clara. Some time
afterwards, when the mules which had carried the
goods were driven past that house, they suddenly fell
on their knees and would not move until the stolen
articles had been discovered. To commemorate this
event, a chapel was built on the spot where it is supposed to have happened.
A few squares west of Santa Clara is the parish
church of San Roque, in which flagellation is practiced
by the women almost every Tuesday and Friday evening. These performances are exceedingly interesting,
although they take place in the dark. Males are not
admitted. Through the kindness of the curate, however, with whom I was personally befriended, I was
allowed to enter the church unobserved, and to listen
to the proceedings, which are as follows: Toward sundown, the curate preaches a short sermon or reads a
moral lesson, and then leaves the church in utter darkness. The organist then'plays a Miserere, the women
bare their backs and lash them with cowhides, to which
sometimes small pieces of iron or other hard substances
are attached. When this discipline is over, they depart in silence. The blood sprinkled over the stone
floor and on the walls, betokens the eager earnestness
of their devotion. I should endeavor in vain to de



INTERESTING MODES OF PENANCE.       147
scribe my sensations while, lost in impenetrable darkness, I stood in the old church a silent listener.  The
solemn tune played by the organist, who chanted the
accompaniment in a subdued key of voice, was interrupted only by the dreadful sounds which the lashes
produced on the bare backs, and which were reverberated from the high walls of the building, while now
and then a sigh would mournfully steal through the
darkness.
Similar exercises take place every Lent in the Tejar,
or Recoleta de la Merced, a branch institution of the
Order of Mercy. The Tejar is situate at a short distance west of the city, which it overlooks. It is the
building where the last President of the Royal Audience, Count Ruiz de Castilla, had taken refuge, before
he was taken out and murdered by the populace in
1810. It contains a convent, a church, a cemetery,
and a number of out-houses for the accommodation
of penitents. These out-houses are divided into dark
cells - regular prisons - spacious enough for three
or four inmates each. During Lent, men and women
alternate in the occupation of these buildings.  The
penitents are required to remain in this retreat nine
full days. Ladies and gentlemen of the first families
thus deprive themselves of all intercourse with the
outer world for more than a week, in order to atone
for their shortcomings and frailties.   During this
voluntary imprisonment, they rise at three o'clock in
the morning and go to bed at nine o'clock in the evening; mass is said for them in the adjoining church,
from which they return to the casa de ejereicios. In
the evenings they go to church again to hear sermons
preached, after which the process of flagellation begins. I have seen the walls and the stone floor of the




148   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
church and transepts sprinkled all over with the blood
of the disciplinarians. The refectory (dining-hall) is
hung with paintings, most of which represent hell with
its torments. Men, around whose bodies snakes have
coiled, lacerating them with their fangs; dragons tearing the flesh from the bones of the doomed; fiery
devils biting and torturing them; rats gnawing away
at their legs; demons pinching them with red-hot
tongs; and other fearful scenes on the canvas, remind
the poor penitents, whose nerves are wrought to the
highest possible state of excitement, of what might be
in store for them. When they leave the establishment
at the expiration of their nine days' retirement, their
friends receive them at the door, after which they
have to pass through crowds of sight-seers, who have
come from the city to gaze at them.
In the neighborhood of the Tejar, the scene of the
following romantic legend is laid: -
Many years after the conquest (the exact time, of
course, is not stated), a Spaniard made love to a young
Indian girl, who was proof against his seductive advances, but told him that if he should marry her, she
would make him the richest man in the country. To
convince her incredulous lover of the truth of her assertions, she cited him to await her the following night
at a certain place in the neighborhood of the Tejar,
and made him give her a solemn promise to do nothing but what she would command. The girl made
her appearance at the appointed time, and the first
thing she required, was that he should submit to be
blindfolded. She then led him up the mountain and
through several ravines, until they reached the mysterious end of their journey. When the bandage was
taken from his eyes, the Spaniard found himself in a




ANOTHER ROMANTIC LEGEND.          149
cave.  "There, behold!" said the girl, who had
lighted a torch, " this is the gold I promised thee! "
The Spaniard, amazed and enraptured, beheld an
immense quantity of gold in vessels and in bars,the treasures of Atahuallpa buried by the usurper
Rumihagui, before he evacuated Quito.
"All this shall be thine," continued the girl, "if
thou wilt marry me. But, silence and good faith!"
The greedy Spaniard attempted to seize some of the
pieces that were near him, but the girl warned him
off.  "Not yet," she said; "if thou attemptest violence, or touchest any of the things around thee, thou
leavest not this cave, but thy grave will be with these
treasures! "
Cowed by the resolution of the girl, the Spaniard
again submitted to be blindfolded, and was led away.
Upon his return to Quito, he immediately informed
the authorities of his adventure, and an order was
issued for the arrest of the girl and all her family.
But the eye if love and distrust had watched his
steps. The Indians of those days were well aware
that the torture and the rack awaited those of their
race who should be suspected of knowing the secret of
hidden treasures. When the officers of the government
entered the humble dwelling of the Indian, the girl,
with all her family, had fled, and with their disappearance died the last lingering hope of discovering the
great treasures of Atahuallpa.  Relata refero!
The tenacity with which the Indian can keep a
secret, especially when it affects his race, is indeed
remarkable. Neither the rack nor fear of death can
wring a confession from his sealed lips. Superstitious
as he is, he will even be proof against the threats and
remonstrances of his confessor. When he is deter



150    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
mined not to reveal a  secret, he  will die  protesting
his ignorance to the very last. When Tupac Amaru,
the great martyr of the Indian race, prepared his rebellion  against the  Peruvian  authorities in  1780, he
sent emissaries to  all the neighboring provinces.  His
agents were at work in what now constitutes Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. On a given day there was
to be a general rising of the Indians throughout the
viceroyalty  of Peru.   But many  of his  emissaries
could neither read nor write, nor had the people he intended to influence any idea of dates. Each of the
principal conspirators, therefore, received a bundle of
small sticks, of which one was to be taken out and
burned every day. When the last stick was burned, the
great day had arrived, and the Indians rose in a mass
from the southern confines of Peru to the northern
frontiers of Tuquerres and Pasto. None had betrayed
the secret. Of so many thousand co-conspirators, not
one had broken faith. Like a thunderbolt from a
cloudless sky, the formidable avalanche of a powerful
sublevation broke upon the unsuspecting Spaniards.l
But let us return to the Tejar, which is one of the
1 Ulloa gives an interesting and correct account of the manner in which
the Indians go through confession in church: -
" On their coming to the confessor, which is always at his summons, he
is obliged to instruct them in what they are going about, and with them repeat the Conf teor from one end to the other, for if he stops, the Indian also
remains silent. Having gone through this, it is not enough for the priest to
ask him whether he has committed this or that fault; but if he be one of the
common sort, he must affirm that he has committed it, otherwise the Indian
Swould deny every thing. The priest further is obliged to tell him that he
well knows he has committed the sin, and he has proofs of it. Then the
Indian, being thus pressed, answers with great astonishment, that it is so;
and, imagining the priest really endued with some supernatural knowledge, adds circumstances which had not been asked him. It is not only
difficult to bring them to declare their faults, but even to keep them from
denying them, though publicly committed, and equally so to prevail on
tlenlm to determine the number; this being only to be obtained by finesse;
and then little stress is to be laid on what they say."




MODES OF BURIAL.              151
two principal burying-places. The other is the Panteon de San Diego, most beautifully and picturesquely
situated on one of the slopes of Pichincha, at a short
distance from the city. Burials do not take place in
daytime, but at night. The corpse is accompanied by
torch-bearers. The number of torches, however, is
now by law limited to twelve. The reason of this
limitation was the fearful expense which fashionable
burials used to cause. One wealthy family could not
bury its dead in a less stylish or pompous manner than
other wealthy families, and hence it was customary to
employ all the different hermandades (burial brotherhoods) to carry tapers, chant responsos, and accompany
the body to its resting-place. For these services the
most exorbitant fees were exacted by the friars. I
was assured that thousands were thus squandered on a
fashionable funeral.
The Indians and other indigent people bury their chil-,
dren after a very curious fashion. They hire an angel's
suit and other ornaments in a church or convent, trick
up the dead body, place it on a chair in a sitting posture, and carry it about in procession before they take
it to the grave-yard. Before interring the corpse, they
take off the gaudy tinsel, which must be returned to
its owners. As a general rule, only the poor people
are buried in the ground, and without a mound or a
cross to indicate their resting-place. The wealthier
classes wall up their dead in semicircular niches, constructed for this purpose in brick terraces of several
stories, with generally three or four rows of niches in
one terrace. As the number of these niches is necessarily limited, the remains, unless an additional payment is made to the " hermandad," are taken out after
the lapse of two years, and the bones are thrown into




152   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
a deep cistern covered with a stone lid, while the
coffins are burned. On the walls of the terraces
black crosses are painted at short distances from each
other, indicative of the sufferings of Christ on his
journey to Calvary. Before these crosses the relatives of the dead, especially the women, kneel down
and say their prayers on All Souls' Day, when the
cemeteries are crowded with men, women, and children.
When the last sacraments are to be administered to a
dying person of note, his friends and relatives, carrying
lighted tapers, meet at the nearest church, from which
they issue in procession, followed by monks chanting
hymns. A boy ringing a bell leads the procession;
another boy carries the box containing the sacred implements; he is followed by a priest who, sometimes
supported by two assistants, carries the majestad (a
crucifix with the Eucharist).  He walks under a
baldachin carried by Indians or negroes. The baldachin is sometimes very shabby, and carried by one
man, in which case it resembles a big umbrella; but
it is very rich and gorgeous, and carried by four men,
when one of the high dignitaries of the church
marches under it. When the majestad appears in the
streets, the people kneel down, and generally remain
on their knees as long as the procession is in sight.
Funeral processions, however, are not so pompous
and attractive as the pageantry of holiday processions.
These latter, indeed, are the great sights to be seen at
Quito. The greatest extravagance is displayed ors
such occasions. Wooden or wax figures of the Virgin,
the saints, and martyrs, some of which are of fright.
ful ugliness, are carried on heavy platforms, resting oil
the shoulders of Indians.  The windows and balconies




HOLY WEEK.- JESUITS.            153
before which the procession passes, are hung with
costly shawls and drapery, and the ladies who adorn
them throw rose leaves on the procession below. Two
or three men, with baskets full of rose leaves and
flowers, often head the procession, and strew the road
before it. Respectable ladies, dressed in black, and
carrying tapers, march along with the rabble, which
brings up the rear, or crowds around them praying or
chanting. Musicians are always engaged for the occasion. At great festivals the procession is enlivened
by the military bands, and a turn-out of the military.
Banners and flags are displayed, and the eye is dazzled
by the immense value of the jewelry which covers the
images of the Virgin. Praying and chanting, the procession moves on, while the bells are tolling and guns
are firing -praying and chanting, perhaps, the same
words and the same tunes with which the victims of
the Spanish Inquisition were led out to the terrible
wood-pile which was to consume them.
Toward the end of Lent, and especially during
Semana Santa (Holy Week), the whole female population of Quito is in motion. Swarms of women, with
their shawls thrown over their heads, and followed by
little girls carrying the carpets on which their mistresses kneel in the benchless churches, are seen going
to and from the churches three times a day, if not
oftener. There is a sermon at four or five o'clock in
the morning, a sermon at two in the afternoon, and
another at five or six in the evening. The church of
the Jesuits, La Compainia, usually draws the largest
crowds. It is astonishing to witness the activity which
the Jesuits display. At three and four o'clock in the
morning they are in the confessional; later in the day
they preach sermons or say masses; still later they




154   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
teach at their college, or receive visitors; and so on
until late in the evening.
On Holy Thursday night all the churches in Quito
are illuminated.  Thousands of candles are lighted
around the principal altars. The church and side
chapels of St. Francisco blaze in an ocean of light.
The convent churches on that occasion vie with each
other in luxury and splendor. Dense throngs of humanity, especially women, flock from one church to
another to gaze and to pray. According to a pretty
general superstition, seven churches must be visited in
order to make these pious visits available on high.
The women, as soon as they enter, kneel down and
commence to rattle off their prayers in a perfectly audible tone of voice, each murmuring away on her own
account, and without heeding the devotions of her
neighbor. A low humming and buzzing noise, produced by this confused chorus of females, greets you
on your entrance, but nothing is intelligible except an
occasional " Santa Maria," which is pronounced with
particular emphasis. - Santa Maria here, Santa Maria
there, Santa Maria on all sides, as you squeeze your
way through the kneeling multitudes. On these occasions I saw exhibitions of strange devotion. I saw
men who knelt with their arms stretched out, as if to
receive the Holy Ghost. They remained in this difficult posture until they had murmured off the requisite number of Paternosters and Ave JMarias.
On Good Friday, at twelve o'clock, a sermon of
three hours is preached in all the churches, to represont la agonia de tres horas (the three hours' agony of
the Saviour). It is again attended chiefly by women.
In the evening a deseendimiento is represented in at
least one of the principal churches. It consists of a




PUPPET-SHOW IN CHURCH.          155
sermon illustrated by a regular puppet-show. I saw
one in the Church of San Francisco in 1862, and
another at Santa Clara in 1863. On both occasions
the same monk, a Franciscan, preached literally the
same sermon. On the platform of the altar a wooden
image of Christ hung on the cross between the two
thieves. Before the cross knelt the Virgin and Mary
Magdalen; in the foreground was a painted chest or
box with a movable lid, representing the tomb. The
monk began by delivering a glowing description de las
siete dolores de la Virgin (of the seven griefs of the
Virgin). He compared the grief of Mary to the grief
felt by Abraham when commanded by the Lord to sacrifice his son Isaac. An angel interposed between
the victim and the father's knife; but who interposed
between the despair of Mary and her bleeding son?
The Mother of God anxiously waited for a miracle by
which her son might be saved; but no such miracle
was wrought. Great, the monk continued, was the
grief of Jacob when he was shown the bloody garment.
of his son Joseph; but greater was the grief of the
Virgin, because Jacob had other sons left, while Mary
had but one. In this strain he went on, continually
quoting the fathers in bad Latin, which the multitude
that eagerly hung on his lips was fortunately unable to
appreciate. At last the show began. TIe told the
santos barones (holy men), who were in attendance, to
mount the ladder and take down the holy corpse.
This was the signal for such a collective wailing and
sobbing of women and children as I never had heard
before.  They all raised their voices at once, and
shrieked and sobbed in a most bewildering manner,
while the santos barones, a few lay brothers, were
taking down the wooden figure, which sunk its arms




156   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and hung its head, as if it were a real corpse. The
preacher then raised his voice to its highest possible
pitch, to be heard above the frantic sobs and groans of
the women. He told the actors to turn the corpse
around, so as to show its bleeding back. The santos
barones obeyed, and exhibited the back of Christ,
lacerated by the lashes of the Romans. This sight
increased the grief of the women and children, whose
wailing almost drowned the voice of the preacher. At
the same time, the figures which represented the Virgin and Mary Magdalen, which were stuck on pivots
and managed from under the stage, commenced to
move. Mary Magdalen clasped her hands, while the
Virgin was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. But
when the box representing the tomb was opened, and
the corpse deposited in it, the two puppets rushed to
the grave and fell down before it, while the voice of
the preacher was heard roaring above the sobs and
shrieks of the audience. The church was so crowded
that it was impossible for me to move backward or
forward. While the monk told his hearers that for
them and for their sins all this had come to pass, somebody abstracted my handkerchief from my pocket, and
a simultaneous attempt was made on my watch, which,
however, I succeeded in defending.
As soon as the multitude rushed from the church, it
became apparent what little moral effect the farce had
produced. Men and women elbowed each other with
reckless violence; vile curses resounded on the very
threshold of the temple; little children were trodden
down and trampled upon; old women were pushed
from the steps in front of the church; and numberless
pockets were picked.
The people of Quito, who have nothing to do, and




MORALITY OF THE CLERGY.          157
nothing to see, look upon the church as on a theatre or
a concert room. It is not only their place of religious
worship, but the place where they spend most'of their
leisure time. It furnishes them with amusement and
excitement, and breaks the monotony of their daily
life. Is it strange, then, that they delight in a religion
which gives them images and inimical representations?
Idolatry has been the great offshoot of Spanish
Catholicism, and is carried on to a disgusting extent in
the countries colonized by Spain. In the Church of
San Augustine, at Quito, the image of the Senor de
la Porteria is kept and reverently worshiped. To
give a literal translation of the " SeTior de la Porteria,"
I would have to say, "the Lord who is carried about."
It is a life-sized image of Christ, seated on a chair, in
which he is carried about, not only in Quito, but all
over the country. In 1863 the Augustine friars were
in need of money to repair the cupola of their church,
which had been sadly damaged by the earthquake of
1859. The interior being poor, and the faithful heavily taxed by many other ecclesiastical exigencies, the'" Senor de la Porteria " was sent to the coast, and re
turned after having reaped a golden harvest in the
districts of Guayaquil, Bodegas, and Manabi. The
cupola was consequently repaired.
On Christmas Eve, at twelve o'clock at night, a
mass is chanted in the principal churches, which is
called misa de gallos (cock-mass), and attended by
immense multitudes, especially, however, by young
girls and their lovers, whom neither the inclemency of
the weather nor the unseasonable hour could induce to
forego the excitement of such a mass.
To dwell on the morality of the clergy, especially,
however, of the monks, would be a work of superero



158   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
gation. It is a repetition of the story of the Middle
Ages, as the same causes will always produce the same
effects. The monks of Quito are ignorant in the extreme. Their knowledge of the Latin, which they are
required to study, is exceedingly poor.  History or
science is unknown to them. Their libraries are in
a sad state of desolation. The books are covered with
thick layers of dust and cobwebs, or thrown together
promiscuously in heaps. They are never consulted by
those for whose benefit they were originally collected.
The chief occupation of the monks is to visit their
friends or relatives; to keep women in the outskirts of
the city; to sing, drink, and dance. In 1863 a friar
was arrested by the police at one or two o'clock in the
morning, for having been concerned in a row in one of
the most disreputable streets of the city. He was in
plain citizen's dress to disguise his ecclesiastical state.
After having passed the remainder of the night in
prison, he was taken before the President, who at that
time was quarreling with Congress about certain questions of monastic reform. The President immediately
sent the poor fellow, dressed as he was, to the senate
chamber, as a living illustration of the necessity of
conferring additional power on the ecclesiastical tribunals - a proposition which Congress strenuously
opposed. The Senate, not knowing what to do with
the living document, referred him to the committee on
ecclesiastical affairs, who discharged him.
It is a matter of common occurrence to see monks
in disguise go "on a spree," and revel for several
nights in succession. They frequently select the disguise of a soldier, and often are known to commit violent excesses. I could relate numerous instances to
show the vices and immorality of the monks of Quito;




REVENUES AND FEES OF THE CLERGY.    159
but the subject is only disgusting, and does not present
any new feature which could make it interesting.
The curates, especially those in the country, are but
little better than the monks. President Garcia Moreno, who, in the beginning of his administration,
seriously endeavored to reform the clergy, refused, in
1861, to sanction several archiepiscopal appointments
of new curates. He represented to the archbishop
that the individuals whom he had selected were notorious gamblers and libertines. The archbishop, however, replied, that all men had their foibles, and that
it would be wrong to be too harsh toward an erring
brother.
Besides the Cathedral and parish churches, there
are the following convents: San Domingo, with a
branch institution, or Recoleta; San Francisco, with
the Recoleta of San Diego; San Camilo; San Augustin, with the Recoleta of San Juan; and the Convent
of the Jesuits.
There are six nunneries, namely: Concepcion, Santa Clara, Carmen-Alto, Carmen-Bajo, Santa Catalina,
and the Congregation of the Hearts of Jesus and
Mary. The total number of priests, monks, and nuns
at Quito exceeds four hundred, which does not include the novices, servants, and familiars.
The convents subsist on the revenues which they
derive from their estates; the bishops and chapters of
cathedrals are supported by the diezmos, or tithes, an
unbearable burden resting on the agriculture of the
country; while the curates are only entitled to fees
and primicias, or sevenths.
The amount of the fees which must be paid to the
church and curates for solemnizing marriages and performing other religious ceremonies, depends on the




160   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
color or race of the applicants. For this purpose, the
faithful are divided into three classes, as follows: —
First class: the descendants of Spaniards, or white
men.
Second class: the Montaiheses, Mestizos, or Cholos.
Third class: Indians and Negroes.
For solemnizing marriages the first class pays ten
dollars, the second class six dollars, and the third class
three dollars. For burials, the first class twenty dollars, the second six dollars, and the third three dollars.
Dereehos de acompanamento, or fees for accompanying
the body, are, for persons of the first class, four dollars; of the second class, two dollars; and of the third
class, one dollar. In addition to this, there must be
responsos, or prayers, which are sung over the body,
recommending the soul to God. They consist of a
Paternoster and an oracion (supplication), and cost one
real each. If they are not chanted, but simply spoken,
four of them are given for one medio (one half of a
real). They are either said in the church or at the
cemetery. Those who pay twenty dollars get four
responsos, one misa cantada (mass chanted), one vigilia, and generally receive their acompaniamento
gratis. Persons of the second and third classes must
pay extra for all these services.
These are the fees to which the curate is entitled;
but there are additional fees which must be paid to the
Church on such occasions. They are called fabrica
de iglesia, and are applied to the payment of the
organist and the singers, for sweeping the building,
and for buying wax, wine, and other properties. They
are as follows: for burials of the first class, one dollar
and fifty cents; of the second class, one dollar; of the
third class, four reals.  For marriages of the first and




DISTINCTIONS OF CASTE.               161
second classes, one dollar; of the third class, four reals.
For burying children under ten years of age the charges
are less. The curate takes for burying children of the
first class six dollars; of the second, three dollars; of
the third, one dollar. To the Church must be paid,
for children of the first class one dollar; of the second
class, four reals; and of the third class, two reals.
These fees are independent of the charge for the burying place itsel" which, in the city of Quito, and to
persons of the first class, is an expensive item. Macaulay praises the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages
for being adverse to the distinctions of caste. " She
compelled the hereditary master to kneel before the
spiritual tribunal of the hereditary bondman; and so
successfully had she used her formidable machinery,
that, before the Reformation came, she had enfranchised almost all the bondsmen of the kingdom except
her own, who, to do her justice, seem  to have been
very tenderly treated." But the Church of Ecuador
is not entitled to similar praises. It artificially keeps
up and perpetuates, by disgracing classifications and
divisions, those distinctions of caste which the progress
of time and civilization has done so much to modify
and obliterate. It teaches the descendant of the conqueror to shrink contemptuously from the thought
of being "buried like an Indian "; and it continually
reminds those who once were the lords of the land,
that even in death they are inferior to those who have
subjected and wronged them.1
1 " On Monday (following Palm Sunday), the Indian procession was to
take place; for, though all the inhabitants of the Republic of Ecuador profess alike the Catholic religion, the old Spaniards will by no means allow
themselves to be placed on the same footing with the Indians, and, accordingly, the latter have a procession to themselves." - Ida Pfeiffer,
A Lady's Second Voyage Round the World, vol. ii., p. 217.
11




162   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Curates receive no salaries. Their income consists
of the fees just referred to, and fees for masses, of
fiestas, and of primicias. In every parish the curate
has a right to four compulsory feasts (fiestas forzosas)
per year, which must be paid for by those of his parishioners whom he designates for the purpose. It is
his duty to designate others every year. His fee is
twelve dollars for every feast. The fiesta consists of a
chanted mass, sermon, procession, and evening service.
One of them is celebrated on the day of the patron
saint of the parish or village; another on the day of
the patroness; the third on Corpus Christi; and the
fourth on All Souls' Day. Sometimes the persons
designated by the curate to give the fiesta (these persons are called priostes), or in other words to pay the
twelve dollars, would, rather be excused; but the
curate may, in case of a refusal, procure their imprisonment until the fee is paid.  The prinicias consist of the seventh part of the fruits of the field. It
is only the poor, however, who really give the seventh
part. Those whose harvest amounts to less than seven
fanegas give one seventh.  Those who have raised
more than seven fanegas give only one fanega. In
addition to this, landowners must pay the regular
tithe (diezmo), which formerly yielded such enormous
revenues to the bishops (the Bishop of Guayaquil
alone is said to have made $40,000 a year), that in
1863 Congress ordered the diezmo to be collected by
the civil authorities, and fixed salaries to be paid to
the bishops and canons, the surplus to be paid into the
national treasury.




CHAPTER X.
Social Life in the Ecuadorian Capital. - The Ladies. - High Opinion of
France.- The Populace believes every Foreigner to be a Frenchman.
— Female Morality. - The General Prejudice,unfounded. - Female
Politicians and Conspirators. - Educational.> Literary Dependence
of Spain on France. - Want of Newspapers. - Sisters of the " Heart of
Jesus." - Music. - The Diplomatic Corps. -Foreigners. - Exequias. -
Duelos. - Luto. - Sunday Visits. - Salutations and Etiquette. - Christmas Calls. - Dar las Pascuas. - Cunpleaios. - Bull-baitings, or Toros.
- Description of'the Plaza Mayor. - Cock-fights. - La Gallera. - Holidays. - Inocentes. - Masquerades between Christmas and New Year. -
Fancy-Dress Processions. - Carnival. - Queer Observance. - Chicha,
the Indian National Beverage. —Indian Degradation, Drunkenness,
and Improvidence.
LET us now venture a description of social life in the
Ecuadorian capital, beginning with the ladies.  There
is no lack of beautiful women, especially among the
middle classes, though female faces very generally lack
that expression which intellectuality alone can give.
The appearance of the women is healthy, their faces
wear a ruddy aspect, and their feet are exceedingly
small and well-shaped; but their features are frequently
coarse, and do not betoken refinement. The ladies
generally wear their hair braided in two long tresses,
dangling down their backs.  Their hair is exceedingly
thick and coarse; its universal color is black: fair,
auburn, or red hair is a great rarity. On that account,
red hair is considered a beauty, and I have seen paintings with red-haired madonnas and angels. Sometimes
when the ladies return from  the baths in the River Maehangara, they wear their hair all loose and disheveled,




164   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
falling over their necks and shoulders. Bonnets are
not in use. Some of the ladies of the higher classes
occasionally wear them on visits of state, especially to
foreign ladies; but this is very seldom. Months and
years may pass before you will see a lady with a
bonnet; and then she runs the risk of being stared
at, if not hooted at in the streets, as a Prancesa
(Frenchwoman); for, in the opinion of the rabble,
and many others socially above the rabble, every foreigner is a Frenchman. The common people have no
idea that there are other countries in the world than
France, Spain, New Granada, Chili, and Peru. Besides, it is easier to them to say ETrances, than to say
estrangero. The higher classes are accustomed to look
upon Paris as the exclusive seat of civilization. It is
the Mecca, the Alpha and Omega of their travelling
ambition. If their children are to be educated abroad,
it must be in France. If'they have seen Paris, they
believe, or affect to believe, that they have seen every
thing that is worth seeing on this side of the grave.
The ladies go out bareheaded, if they happen to be
combed; but generally, they wear the panuelon, which
I have already described, and with which they cover
the head, and part of the face and shoulders. It gives
them rather a nun-like appearance, and although sometimes very rich and gaudy, does not set them off to
advantage.
Their taste in dressing is highly primitive. They
are fond of gay colors, and gorgeous and ostentatious
display. When they are compelled to show themselves
in society, they love to wear dresses as at home we
should see them only on the stage. For a walk across
the street, to the bath, or to church, they will not doff
their neglige6, but wrap themselves up in the paiuelon,




FEMALE MORALITY.             165
with which, when they wish to remain unknown, they
can hide their faces completely, leaving but one eye
uncovered. At home the pafiuelon is more than ever
their inseparable companion. It saves them the trouble
of combing and dressing their hair, and the vexation
of having their bodice laced. Those who paint their
faces- and a great many do it — (tout comme chlez
nous) - have an unfortunate habit of overdoing it.
Meeting them in the streets of New York, Boston, or
Philadelphia, we would mistake them for females of easy
virtue, - an impression to which their gaudy dresses
would greatly contribute.  Notwithstanding this unnatural custom, we would not be entitled to draw inferences disparaging to their morality. A great many
things have been said about the conduct of South
American women, which I have found to be either
grossly exaggerated, or entirely false. I cannot say
whether they deserve their reputation in Lima; ill
Quito and Guayaquil they certainly do not. I am convinced that there is less immorality in Quito than in
any other capital. I do not believe that the women
are very sensual or passionate. * They seem to be incapable both of great vices and of great virtues. Their
hearts are like the atmosphere they live in, of a mean
temperature.  It will be remembered that Quito is
nearer the regions of perpetual snow than those of
tropical heat. The violent changes of winter and summer, and their exciting influence on the human system,
are unknown there. The temperature is nearly the
same all the year round. The disposition of the women, whether the result of the climate or not, seems
to be lazy and indolent. They pass the day cowering
on their window-seats (e.strados), gossiping.  They
generally sit with their legs crossed like Turks. In




166   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
some of their private rooms there are low benches, like
tailors' benches, for them to squat on. In this position
they seem to be more at ease than on chairs or sofas.
Even in church, when they get tired of kneeling, they
will drop down and sit on their legs.
The church is their daily amusement. In political
affairs they take a very lively, active, and even passionate interest; but as Ecuadorian politics mainly
consist of personalities in which but very seldom an
important principle is involved, their political excitements may be considered as a part of their daily gossiping and intriguing.
The chief aspiration of a young lady in Quito, the
chief object of her intrigues and anxieties, is to find a
husband as soon as possible. That object attained, she
resigns herself to indifference. The cares of the household trouble her but little. Brooms but very seldom
wend their way.through the neglected rooms of houses
in the interior. She resigns herself to fleas as well as
to social apathy. She no longer cares to appear in
society, nor is she very ambitious to receive company
at her own house, as she is scarcely ever dressed or
combed, and shuns the trouble of passing through those
operations unnecessarily. She is generally very careful of her conduct, because she knows the tongues of
her friends and acquaintances, who would interpret the
most innocent step in the most uncharitable manner.
When the Sefioras have put themselves in a fit state
for the reception of visitors, or when they have overcome their first timidity and receive a new acquaintance, although they may not be combed or dressed,
they are generally very kind and very amiable. Their
manners are excellent. Their natural dignity, gracefulness, and politeness, their entire self-possession, their




IGNORANCE OF THE LADIES.         167
elegant but unaffected bearing, and the choiceness of
their language, would enable them to make a creditable appearance in any foreign drawing-room.  It
would also be unjust to say that the women of Quito
are without natural talents.  On the contrary, they
possess a great deal of common sense, quickness of
perception, and ready wit. They are prompt at repartee, and full of pleasant good humor. Their natural talents are very great, but their education is sadly
neglected. They are like the soil of their native country - fertile but uncultivated. They have learned to
read, but they hardly ever read any thing but their
prayer-books.  Those who aspire to a slight literary
knowledge, have read such French novels as the
Church has not prohibited. In this they follow the
example of the mother-country, which, for its scanty
literary food, must depend on its French neighbors.
What little there is known in Spain of English and
German literature, is only known through French
translations. Even her printing and publishing Spain
must do in France. Most of the Spanish books which
have come to my hands were printed in Paris or
Besanqon. Fernan Caballero, the celebrated modern
Spanish novelist, could not find a bookseller in all Castile to venture on the expensive enterprise of publishing
her works It had, at last, to be done at the expense
of the Queen. And this in the face of the many sensation articles we are, of late, accustomed to see in
reviews and newspapers on the "' revival of Spain."
But to return to our subject. The ladies of Quito
can hardly be blamed for their ignorance. It is the
monkish system which keeps them down, because it
does not deem it convenient to awaken a taste in
them  for intellectual enjoyments.  Their husbands,




168   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
too, rather discourage any incipient movement of their
wives in the direction of self-instruction. They would
not like them to know more than they do themselves.
The average Quitonian does not read nor desire to
read himself; why should he encourage his wife to become his intellectual superior? The game of tresillo
or rocambur, an insipid chat with his fiiends on the
plaza, or at some street corner, if not in a grog-shop,
and above all, the training of fine horses, are subjects of infinitely greater importance to him than such
trifles as science or literature. Of course I speak of
the average Quitonians, which does not preclude the
existence of many highly honorable exceptions, who
sincerely deplore the intellectual lethargy of their countryinmen, and especially of the rising generation. In
1862, a number of French or Alsatian nuns were imported by the government to take charge of the education of young ladies; but, being ignorant and bigoted
themselves, these " Sisters of the Heart of Jesus " will
not work important educational reforms.
In spite of the difficulty of transportation, there are
about one hundred and twenty pianos in Quito, very
indifferently tuned; but there are only very few ladies
who play well. The guitar and the harp are great
favorites, especially with the middle and lower classes;
but a woman who plays either of these instruments,
scarcely ever knows a note. Her stock of music is
therefore very easily exhausted, whenever she is called
upon for songs. Moreover, they sing chiefly through
the nose, especially when they sing one of their national
tunes (tonos). In jewelry, great luxury is displayed.
There are ladies at Quito who have invested quite a
fortune in diamonds, pearls, emeralds, bracelets, necklaces, etc.




FOREIGNERS.                 169
In almost every Spanish country the spirit of provincialism reigns supreme. So it does in Ecuador,
much more, however, on the coast than in the interior. The inhabitants of the former most cordially
hate and despise the Serranos, as the inhabitants of
the interior are called, from Sierra (mountainous country). The Guayaquil ladies are full of these provincial
prejudices.  The Serranos are charged with falseness
and treachery, stinginess and want of cleanliness.  At
Guayaquil they are the butt of popular witticisms.
They do not, however, retaliate in kind.  On the
contrary, when Guayaquilians visit the interior, they
are generally treated with great kindness and attention. Other provincial jealousies exist between different parts of the interior. The inhabitants of Cuenca,
for instance, who are nicknamed Hlorlacos, are very
freely ridiculed at Quito.
There is no foreign society in Quito with the exception of the foreign diplomatic representatives. There
are almost always French, English, and Spanish Charges
d'Affaires, and a Minister Resident of the United States.
New Granada, too, is generally represented; Peru and
Chili occasionally.  Other foreign residents there are
but few. Their number in my time hardly ever averaged a dozen. It is true there are always a great
many New Granadians in Ecuador who profit by the
inferior education and enterprise of the Ecuadorians,
but they can hardly be called foreigners. The necessity of foreign immigration is universally admitted,
and the wish for a large influx of industrious and enterprising foreigners generally expressed.  B3ut what
the feelings of the natives would be if such an influx'should really take place, I shall not venture to predict.1
1 I am greatly inclined to coincide with the following observation of




170   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
There is but very little social life in Quito. In former times, the place is said to have been more lively
and attractive; but the civil war of 1860, and the
bitter animosities it produced, are said to have broken
up society. Besides, a certain vanity and love of ostentation prevent the upper ten from inaugurating
social pleasures. They would not give a party, a
dinner, or a ball, if they were not sure to outshine
every thing  that had  ever been done by others.   As,
Colonel Hall, in the pamphlet to which I have already referred: " One of
the facts," he says, " which most agreeably presents itself to the mind of
the European traveller in almost every part of Colombia, is the opinion
which seems universally felt, and is universally avowed, of the necessity
of a larger influx of foreign settlers. Everywhere he hears an outcry for
foreigners; everywhere lamentations over the ignorance and indolence of
the present inhabitants. All this is pretty much as it seems: the necessity
of a foreign population, that is, of an increase of population, which can only
be obtained from foreign countries, is obvious to the dullest capacity; nor
is the fact of the inability of the present inhabitants to profit by the immense advantages of their own soil, less irresistibly clear. Foreigners have
won its independence; foreigners have created its commerce; its marine
has been furnished, armed, manned, and commanded by foreigners; its
soldiers have been disciplined, and are still armied, clothed, and in a great
measure fed, by foreign capital; yet all this mass of opinion and circumstance by no means proves that foreign settlers would meet with that active
and benevolent assistance from the inihabitants, which gratitude, as well as
interest, would dictate, and which their own opinions seem to promise. It
is uncertain how far they might view with philosophic good-will, a foreigner
taking advantage of circumstances which, though their indolence had
neglected, their cupidity might prompt them to lament. Let us suppose a
foreigner to discover a mine or a lucrative branch of commerce, or by some
invention or improvement to create a new, and consequently to dry up an
old, channel of profit, would the real and imaginary sufferers in this case -
those who had missed the discovery or were sharers in the loss - be likely
to regard the intruder with particular favor or satisfaction?" -  Colombia,
its Present State, in Respect of Climate, Soil, Productions, Population, Govern7ment, Commerce, etc., etc., and Inducements to Emigration with Itineraries. By Colonel Francis Hall, Philadelphia, 1825.
I may add here, that although the natives admit the superiority of
foreigners in mechanic arts and spirit of enterprise, there lingers, nevertheless, a hidden conviction in their minds, that foreigners are inferior to
them in manners, social refinement, and intelligence. As far as manners
are concerned, they may perhaps be right.




EXEQUIAS. - DUELOS.             171
however, their wealth consists chiefly in real property
(haciendas), and not in ready money, they find it too
expensive to gratify this vanity.
One of the principal features of social life in Quito,
is the unpleasant recurrence of invitations to funeral
honors. Burials, as I have already said, take place in
the night time. But a few days after a fashionable
death, printed invitations are sent, not only to the acquaintances and friends, but to all persons of note, to
attend las exequias, a grand requiem chanted, generally in the Church of San Francisco, for the soul of the
deceased. Two long rows of seats facing each other,
and leading from the door to the altar, are prepared
for the reception of the invited guests. For two or
three mortal hours the ears of these are torn by the
music of a very bad organ, and the worse chant and
cracked voices of a choir of hoarse and ugly friars and
their assistants. The Franciscans of Quito are proverbial for their ugliness. A mass, not commendable
for its shortness, concludes the performance. Fortunately, however, it is not obligatory to be present all
the time.  Most of the condolers, with the exception
of those more immediately interested in the deceased,
remain in their seats for a short time only, and then
retire to the great court-yard (pateo) of the convent,
where they walk to and fro and chat with their friends
in the long corridors, until it is time to return to the
church, in order to be present at the exit, and to be seen
by the family and friends, who, posting themselves at
the door of the temple, let the invited guests pass by
in procession, giving them solemn nods of recognition.
There is another form of duelo (manifestation of
condolence), which, although gradually falling into
disuse, is still practiced to some extent. On the death




172   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
of a member of the family, the friends call at the house
in the evening, or if his house is not suitable to the
purpose, at the house of some other member of the
family, and sit down in the parlor, where chairs ranged
along the walls are prepared for their reception. There
they sit, the men on one side, the women on the other,
without saying a word, and without looking at each
other, for a half hour or more. In silence they enter,
in silence they remain seated ill the dimly lighted
room, and in silence, one by one, they drop off again.
This dreary performance is repeated every night for
about a week. The survivors remain in mourning one
year, if the deceased was a parent, consort, brother, or
sister, and six months for other relatives. During this
time they cannot take part in any amusement; they
cannot show themselves on public occasions; nor can
they allow pianos or guitars to be played at their
houses. The luto must be rigidly observed. These
austere customs greatly interfere with the most innocent pleasures of social life; for, as in a small place
like Quito, the principal families are almost always, in
a more or less remote degree, related to one another,
one half of society is continually in mourning.
Sunday is general visiting day; that is to say, visits
of etiquette are made on Sunday, between twelve and
three o'clock. You will be called upon by gentlemen
whom you do not know, and who do not bring any
body to introduce them; but their winning manners,
courtesy, and cordiality soon set you at ease.
Married ladies who want to assure a respectable foreigner or new-comer of their hospitality, send him their
cards shortly after his arrival. The cards of married
women contain both their maiden and their husbands'
names. They are not known, however, by their hus



BULL-BAITINGS, OR TOROS.         173
bands' names. If, for instance, Mercedes Fulana marries Mr. Sutano, her friends, acquaintances, and the
public in general, will continue to call her Mercedes
Fulana, although her name is Mercedes Fulana de
Sutano. You will never hear any body speak of Mrs.
Sutano.
An Ecuadorian lady does not rise when you enter,
nor does she rise when you depart. It is considered
good breeding in Spanish-America for a lady to remain
as motionless as possible. She will be seated on a sofa,
and you sit down on a chair opposite. The conversation begins and ends with the customary quantity of
compliments, or offers of services, protestations of
friendship, etc.
Calls must be made at Christmas and Easter. This
is called dar las pascuas, and is obligatory on friends
and relatives. You must also visit your friends on the
days of their patron saints (cumpleaaios); but in most
of the houses you find a table with paper and ink on
the staircase, so that you may write down your name,
or leave your card.
Public amusements there are almost none, except at
certain times of the year. There are no theatres, no
concerts, no lectures, or public meetings. There are,
however, on certain occasions, other amusements which,
as they are characteristic of the country, and most of
them unknown among us, I shall endeavor to describe.
The first and most popular of all is bull-baiting. It
is called toros. Between Christmas and New Year;
on the 10th of August, which is the anniversary of
Ecuadorian independence; at the inauguration of a
new President, and on many other solemn or festive
occasions, this amusement is indulged in by all classes
of the population. The performances generally com



174 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
mence at three o'clock in the afternoon and last until dark. They are not confined to an exclusive set
of performers, but every body is allowed, and even
desired, to take an active part. One of the public
squares, or plazas, is the scene of action. The Plaza
Mayor of Quito is decidedly the handsomest part of the
town. It will compare favorably with any other South
American plaza. It is seamed by handsome buildings,
and has a fountain in the centre. The west side is
occupied by the Government Palace, a tolerably respectable structure.  It contains the offices of the
President and the Ministers; the office of the Governor
of the Province, the Supreme and Superior Courts,
and the Post-office. The rear of the northwestern
part of the building was destroyed by the earthquake
of March, 1859, and is now in ruins, which, however,
cannot be noticed from the plaza. The south side of
the plaza is wholly occupied by the Cathedral, with a
very handsome terrace before it, which, in the afternoon, is generally crowded by persons in search of
fresh air and exercise. Opposite the Cathedral are the
Archbishop's Palace and two or three private mansions, which are built in the same style, and seem to
belong to it. On the east side stand the House of the
Municipality, and a few of the most elegant private
residences of Quito, one of which, in the middle of the
block, has two upper stories. All the buildings on the
plaza are most symmetrically arranged. The structures on the east and north sides rest on rows of
columns, and afford a covered passage or arcade, which
is called the portal. In these passages there are not
only a great many stores, but also the stands of the cajoneras, -women who sell notions, such as buttons, ribbons, scissors, soap, matches, pencils, slates, catechisms,




BARBAROUS AMUSEMENTS.           175
needles, pins, knives and forks, hatchets, combs and
brushes, etc. They unpack their goods early in the
morning, and at about six o'clock in the evening they
pack them up again and retire for the night. Between
their stands are the stools of women who make and
sell lace.
In the windows and on the balconies of the public
palaces and private residences of the plaza, the elite or
haute volee of Quito used to assemble on the great occasion of a bull-baiting. Ladies in their richest and
gaudiest apparel, and covered all over with dazzling jewelry, adorned three sides of the square, manifesting the
liveliest interest in the barbarous proceedings. The terrace before the Cathedral and the Government Palace,
the portales on the east and north sides, as well as the
fountain in the centre of the square, and even the roof
of the Cathedral, were densely crowded by the common people, - men, women, and children, whites, Indians, cholos, zambos, mulattoes, and negroes. It was a
most picturesque sight. The men in jackets, ponchos,
and hats of every style and color; the women in their
macanas, rebozos, and shawls, of every possible variety;
the many different complexions of the motley crowd, the
swaying to and fro, and the cheering and huzzaing of
the populace; the luxury and splendor in the windows
and on the balconies; the young caballeros dashing or
prancing from one end of the plaza to the other on
beautiful fiery steeds; the soldiers in their Sunday
uniforms mixing with the crowd below; the boys
whistling and the dogs barking at the approaching
bull; flags streaming from roofs and windows; a brass
band pouring forth exciting strains; rockets and firecrackers exploding; and the bull wildly running up
and down, with the rabble scampering and screaming




176    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
before him; all this presented a grotesque and fascinating sight to the unaccustomed eye of the foreign traveller. But you must not suppose that -
"In costly sheen and gaudy cloak array'd
But all afoot, the light-limbed matador
Stands in the centre, eager to invade
The lord of lowing herds."
Nor must you suppose that,
"Foiled, bleeding, and breathless, furious, to the last,
Full in the centre stands the bull at bay,'Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast,
And foes disabled in the brutal'fray."
The performances are of a widely different character.
The outlets of the plaza are barricaded to prevent the
escape of the maddened animals into any of the neighboring streets. In one of the latter a temporary inclosure is put up, in which the bulls are kept during
the three days the festival generally lasts. As soon as
it is time to commence, a bull is brought out, and the
sport begins. Men and boys, the majority of them in
a high state of intoxication, tease the bull by displaying ponchos, coats, hats, cloths, and rags before his eyes,
poking wooden lances into his sides, throwing stones
at him, and even pulling him by the tail. The spectators below accompany these experiments by whistling, yelling, and hissing, for the purpose of still more
enraging  and bewildering the  animal.   If the  bull
charges, every body runs away from him; the more
skillful toreros will spring to one side, throwing the
poncho or cloth with which they incited him, over his
head. I have witnessed some very narrow escapes at
such performances. If the animal stands still, his tormentors will approach him  again.   Sometimes they
will put up scarecrows for him, and lustily rejoice
when he knocks them down. The object of those who




BULL-BAITING.               177
plume themselves on being good toreadores is to goad
him to make desperate charges on them, and then earn
the applause of the spectators by skillful dodging. I
once saw a negro who performed wonderful feats of
agility, and at last tired out the bull instead of getting
tired himself. Generally, however, there is a want of
good toreros. The rabble teases the bull, but runs as
soon as he gives a threatening start.  Nevertheless,
serious accidents are not wanting. A fierce bull (toro
bravo) will generally knock down or gore a few of the
sportsmen who are too slow or too drunk to effect a
timely escape. But this is a necessary part of the performance; it makes the sport interesting and exciting
to the multitude. A bull-day without several persons
wounded or even killed, would be considered rather
insipid.  The more accidents on the preceding day,
the larger will be the crowd on the next. One afternoon, I saw three fellows carried off insensible. One
of them afterwards died. I have seen others who
jumped up immediately after being knocked down,
and waved their hats to show that their limbs and
spirits were unbroken. Sometimes an obstinate bull
is brought in, who absolutely refuses to gratify the
public, or to get excited. He is at once laughed and
hooted at by the crowd, and driven off to make room
for another. For every bull that gets tired or flags,
another is substituted. Sometimes a bull will be astute and wily. He will not move at first, and make
the crowd believe that he is very tame, when, all on a
sudden, he will make an unexpected and terrible charge.
The general practice is to throw fire-crackers and rockets at the head or between the legs of the animal to
increase its fury.  Salutes, too, are fired at suitable
intervals. I was told that in many cases, especially
12




178   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
at the festivals in the country, utter recklessness and
audacity are displayed by the toreros. They do not
constitute a regular class like the professional bullfighters of Spain, Mexico, or Peru. They are only
amateurs; but they will jump sometimes, so I was
told, on the bull's back, and maintain themselves on
it, riding, while the animal dashes along with furious
speed; or taking refuge on a table, they will jump
over the bull's whole length while he makes an attempt to gore them. In the country, where fiercer
bulls are kept than those used for the sports in the
city, such feats are said to be common. I never saw
them myself. I did, however, see feats performed by
mounted torcros, which did great credit to their horsemanship.
Perhaps no act of President Moreno gave greater
dissatisfaction than his making a park of the plaza, by
sodding it and planting avenues of trees, for the purpose of putting an end to bull-baiting. He had to
desist from the attempt to abolish this cherished sport;
but as he had made the Plaza Mayor unfit for it, bullbaitings now take place on the plaza of San Francisco.
Whenever apprehensions of a revolutionary outbreak
are entertained, the government considers it good
policy to give bull-baitings, in order to divert the
people, and make it forget its insurrectionary whims.
The philosophy of the old cry of "Panem  et Circenses" is not yet obsolete.
Next to bull-baiting in popularity, especially with
the gambling portion of the population (and that portion is very large, and not at all confined to the lower
classes), are cock-fights. They take place every Sunday and Thursday, in the afternoons, in the spacious
court of an old building opposite the Church of Santa




COCK-FIGHTING.               179
Catalina.  This place is called La Grallera, from gallo
(rioster). The admission fee which visitors are required to pay is half a real.  It is collected by an
agent of the municipality to which it belongs, and
which has prescribed rules and regulations for the
management of the sport.  This small admission fee
yields a monthly revenue to the city of over a
hundred dollars. The municipality appoints a judge,
who presides over the proceedings, maintains order,
and in doubtful cases decides which party has been
victorious. With him the stakes must be deposited,
and he gets a percentage on the wagers. The cocks
are set to fight either with their natural or with artificial spurs. The latter consist of sharp little steel
blades (navajas), which are tied to the natural spurs
of the poor fowls, and with which they cut each other
up terribly. With these artificial spurs the fight is
but very short. It hardly lasts a minute. Sometimes
both the combatants remain dead, or mortally wounded, in the ring; then it becomes an important question which of the two gave out first. This, of course,
it is for the judge to decide, from whose decision an
appeal lies to the municipal tribunals. As soon as one
of the cocks is down, the owner of the victor rushes in
to take him away, and prevent him from being hurt by
his wounded or dying enemy. Most of the spectators
bet on the issue of the combats. Considerable sums of
money are won or lost, and many a lazy loafer does
nothing else but rear fighting-cocks, with which he
supports his miserable existence. The noise and excitement during a combat is very great. It is heightened by an array of cocks tied to stakes in the rear
of the spectators, and crowing incessantly. There are
seats around the ring for the visitors. The judge has




180   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
an elevated seat, from which he can overlook every
thing, and to which he ascends with great. dignity
when the owners of the cocks and the betters are
ready for the fray. Each owner generally holds his
own rooster until the judge gives the sign with a bell.
Sometimes they first poke the roosters against each
other, to excite them to greater fury.  Upon the sign
of the judge they set them down and let them loose.
What then follows I shall not describe.  I do not
know whom to pity more - the cocks, who rise to the
level of heroes, or the men, who sink to the level of
beasts.
The rules by which cock-fights must be governed,
are prescribed by the municipality, and printed. The
judge has a right to fine persons who disobey his orders or resist his authority, from one to twenty-five
dollars, or to send them to prison for twenty-four
hours. Bets are valid in law, if the stakes are deposited with the judge. His fees are two per cent. on the
money passing through his hands.1
Let us now pass to another popular, and less barbarous amusement - the masquerades which take place
between Christmas and New Year, which period is
called el tiempo de los inocentes, literally, " the time of
the innocents." During this time, in addition to masquerades, all those jokes are practiced, which among
us are confined to the first of April. To " fool one,"
is called hacerle una pegadura.  The inocentes begin
with the masquerades of the children, who run about
in the disguise of monkeys, with tails of formidable
length, and perpetrating hideous noises. On the second or third day, the common people begin to haunt
1 See Tabla que rije en el Establecinmiento de la Gallera en la Ciudad de
Quito; May 1, 1860; signed, J. M. Cardenas, Chief of Police.




MASQUERADES.                181
the streets in different mummeries, chiefly, however, in
the disguise of monkeys, or of old men and women
with ridiculous hats or bonnets, flaxen wigs, and very
ugly masks. They dance through the streets, screaming and cheering, and good-humoredly striking the
people whom they meet, especially the Indians. Their
rambles are continued day and night until the holidays
are over. The masquerades of the higher classes are
of a different character. They are generally carried
on after the style of our surprise-parties.  The programme is as follows: Several friends, generally the
younger members of two or three families, agree.upon
a fancy-dress expedition for a certain night. Word is
then sent to another family who is not of the party,
that an expedition of masks will " wind up " (remdtar)
at their house that night. This, of course, is an intimation to the family to prepare for their reception.
But before repairing to the final rendezvous, the party
will call at the houses of all their other friends, acquaintances, and relations, to take them by surprise.
Boisterous laughter, and a wild confusion of dissembled
voices on the staircase, announce their arrival. They
swarm into the parlor, laughing and chatting, saluting
and asking unintelligible questions, all at the same
time. They dance around their victim, bantering him
to identify them, and enjoying his mistaken guesses.
Some will pull him to one side and trumpet into his
ears, while others will pull him to the other side, inviting him to a dance; until after a wild, hoydenish
scene, they rush away as rapidly as they came, many
a time making room for another party, which follows
in their wake.  It happens very often that four or
five different parties will call at the same house during
one evening. When they meet at the street door, in




182 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the hall, or on the stairs, the noise and laughter become deafening.  But I never saw or heard of any
impropriety, violence, or indecency, either in the streets
or in the houses, except perhaps the diabolical noise
with which they move along.
After having visited all their friends, they hasten to
the place where they are expected for the rest of the
night. There they " wind up."  This " winding up "
almost always lasts till daylight, and consists of an improvised ball. If there is no piano at the house, one
or two musicians are generally brought along by the
party. Sometimes a harp or a few guitars compose
the orchestra, and the night is spent in dancing and
revelry.  The different calls which they made, and
the fun enjoyed during the expedition, furnish them
with an interesting subject of conversation and merriment for the many long and dull weeks and months
that follow the holidays. The costumes paraded on
such occasions are sometimes very elegant and welldevised; sometimes, of course, very silly and tasteless.
Sometimes they will mimic well-known characters in a
very ingenious manner. In 1863, one mask mimicked the Apostolic Delegate and his foreign accent,
voice, and peculiar mode of speaking so well, that the
police felt itself obliged to put a stop to it. I have
also seen torchlight processions of masked parties, in
splendid costumes, and preceded by bands of music, -
a highly romantic spectacle, reminding us of the golden
times of the Roman and Venetian Carnival.
On the nights when processions of masks are expected, the streets, and especially the portales of the
plaza, are crowded with dense throngs of men, women,
and children, anxious to see the sights. Chairs and
tables will be carried under the portales for the women




OBSERVANCE OF THE CARNIVAL.        183
to sit down, and masked as well as unmasked passersby will have to squeeze their way through the multitude. All this is very interesting, and presents a very
lively and grotesque appearance; but there are considerations which make it disgusting to come into too
close a contact with the populace of Quito. I was perfectly horrified one night when coming home from a
stroll through the densely crowded portales, I discovered on my overcoat two of those detestable animnals so abundant among the people of the interior.
Let us drop the curtain on this last part of the picture,
and pass to the regular Carnival, which, strange to
say, is not the time of masquerades in Quito.
The manner in which Carnival is observed by the
populace is as barbarous as bull-baiting. Groups of
men and boys gather on the corners of the streets, or
in the low shops and groggeries, and throw eggs, mud,
and water at one another or at the passers-by. Servant girls in the windows and balconies enjoy the discharge of water-pots at the heads of persons below.
The Indians and the rabble in general, besmear each
other's faces with eggs, soot, paint, or mud, and drink
until they are hardly able to maintain themselves on
their legs. Their unwashed and ugly faces, with an
additional layer of soot or paint, distorted by excitement and drunkenness, present a hideous appearance.  The Indians of Quito and the neighborhood
are distinguished by their ugliness, to which they
ought not to contribute by artificial means.  This
observance of Carnival is carried on for almost a week,
the last days being, of course, the worst. The streets
are everywhere covered with egg-shells and made slippery with their contents. Even respectable ladies in
the balconies, seized by the general excitement, pelt




184   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
their friends with egg-shells filled with corn meal or
flour, and other playful missiles. The Carnival now is
not so offensive as it was in former times. I was informed by old residents that in former years persons
were seized by the mob, (headed but too frequently
by young men of the best families,) and ducked in the
sewers, or forcibly painted and besmeared in a most
shocking manner. Serious frays and fights used to be
the consequence of these abominable practices, and the
police was at last compelled to check them. Still,
what has remained of them is vexatious enough,
although I never heard of excesses. As the populace does not know to fight at fisticuffs, knock-downs
scarcely ever take place; knives are drawn but very
seldom; and murders or the inflicting of wounds belong to the rarest occurrences.  I cannot recollect
more than one case of murder, and but two cases of
manslaughter committed in the city of Quito during
the time I resided there. Even assaults and batteries
are very rare. Drunkenness, petit larceny, and vagrancy are the most common offenses. I cannot pass
over the chapter of drunkenness without alluding to
the beverages in use among the masses. They are
rum and chicha. The aguardiente del pais is distilled
fiom the sugar-cane, and has, to me at least, a very
repugnant taste. From it, by the addition of aniseseed, another kind of liquor is prepared, which is much
in vogue; it is called anisada. But the Indian's national beverage is chicha. It was the beverage of the
natives when the Spaniards took possession of the
country; and although most of their ancient traditions were lost in the course of three hundred years,
chicha has maintained itself to this day. It is brewed
from indian corn, in large copper kettles, and acces



BEVERAGES.                 185
sible to the poorest on account of its great cheapness.
Its color is a dirty yellow, and, the dregs being continually stirred up in the kettle, it has no clearness or
transparency.  Its taste is slightly acid, and not altogether unpleasant. The better families sometimes
partake of it, sweetened with sugar or sirup, and
mixed with other ingredients. It is brewed in a great
many Indian habitations, in cities as well as in the
country.  Considering the extreme filthiness of its
manufacturers, and of the localities in which i' is
made, it will not be very palatable to a foreign taste.
Those who make it, and their friends or relatives, together with their children, often sit around the kettle,
like witches around a caldron, uncombed, half-naked,
and unwashed, on the floorless ground of their dark,
smoke-blackened, windowless, filthy rooms, which pigs,
dogs, and chickens share with their human masters.
There they sit, men and women, and sot, and dote upon
one another, and grin and simper, or sleep in each
others arms or laps, or dance, and sing, and revel,
until they sink to the dirty ground, overcome and
exhausted, not to awake till the next morning, when
they rise to repeat the scenes of the previous day. As
long as there is chicha in the kettle, or a little money
in their pockets to buy it somewhere else, this revelry
will be carried on. This is the manner in which the
Ecuadorian Indian has been civilized by his Spanish
conquerors.
The police never take cognizance of cases of drunkenness, either because they are not considered dangerous to the public peace, or because they are of hourly
occurrence. The white portion of the community never
make any serious efforts to raise the Indian from his
abject condition. On the contrary, the general tend



186 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ency among his superiors is to oppress and degrade
him still more. Labor being considered disreputable
by the white gentleman, what would become of the
country if the Indians were to be enlightened and educated, and should take it into their heads occasionally
to be something better than mere drudges?  They are
now considered as little better than beasts of burden,
and even nicknamed accordingly. While horses and
mules are called bagayes mayores, asses and Indians are
called bagages menores; that is to say, as a beast of
burden, the Indian is considered below the horse and
the mule, and on a level with the donkey. Kicks and
brutal words are the only encouragement he receives
from his betters, before whom he crouches in abject
servility and cowardice. In former times there were
many wealthy Indians in Ecuador, now I know of but
very few. The Indian has no chance to make his way
in life, except as a beast of burden and a drudge. It
is neither in him, nor in the circumstances in which he
lives, to be any thing else. He is destitute of all amnbition, of all energy, of all industry, of all spirit of enterprise. He is accustomed to be a slave, and to be kicked
and brutally treated, all his lifetime.  He does not
aspire to be any thing else. If he has enough to give
some money to the priest, and to buy his raw food
(corn or barley meal, agi, and potatoes), and rum and
chicha for what remains, he is perfectly satisfied. Like
children, the Indians live for the moment only. They
never think of the morrow, they never think of old age.
Their improvidence knows no bounds. Their women
are almost entirely destitute of that little vanity with
which the women of all other nations attend to their
dress and appearance. It is much if they bedeck themselves with a necklace or bracelet of beads or false




THE INDIANS.               187
corals. To eat to excess and to get intoxicated, are
their chief wants and their only tastes. A few rags to
hang around their bodies and to cover themselves with
at night, will answer their purposes.  The Indians
need no bed, for they sleep on lousy sheep-skins spread
on the unfloored ground of the hovels in which they
live. They need no books, for they cannot read; they
need no furniture, for they cower on the ground. All
their money that does not find its way into the bottomless pockets of the Church, is sacrificed to satisfy their
greedy appetites. They are strangers to the higher
emotions of human nature.  Bashfulness, hospitality,
magnanimity, compassion, gratitude, and all the other
virtues by which good men excel, are unknown among
them.  They are completely imbruted; completely
stupefied. They have forgotten the ancient glorious
traditions of their race. The great names of Huaynacapac and Atahuallpa are meaningless sounds to their
ears. The most that can be said in their favor is that
they are not savages; they are humble and submissive,
docile and obedient, abject and timid; and if we except
the ill-treatment of their wives, they scarcely ever commit acts of violence. They will go to mass with the
utmost regularity; they will go to confession as often
as the Church prescribes; they will give to the Church
more than they should, in justice to their own wants;
they will kneel down before the image of every saint,
and prostrate themselves before the image of the Holy
Virgin; they will say their prayers many times a day,
and will punctually comply with all the outward observances of their religion; they will carry the heavy
statues of the saints at the many processions gotten up
by the Church during the year, and they-will carefully
attend their own separate religious festivals and proces



188   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
sions; but they know nothing of religion except its
outward forms and ceremonies. That He who dined
with publicans and sinners, and selected his Apostles
from among fishermen and peasants, would also have
extended his kind hand to the rightless Indian, is a
thought foreign to their ignorant minds.  And yet
these poor creatures are, after all, the most useful members of Ecuadorian society. The Indian does more
work than all the other races together. He tills the
soil, builds houses and roads, carries heavy loads, and
performs all that hard and heavy work which nobody
else could be hired to do. He is harmless and inoffensive, good-natured, and easily manageable.  But his
position in the social scale is in an inverse proportion
to his usefulness. He is far below the North American
negro. The word Indian is a term of contempt, even
among Indians themselves, who cannot offer a greater
insult to one another than by the epithet "Indio bruto "
(Indian brute).  They will never call one another bad
names without strengthening their vocabulary by the
term "Indian," which is the most effective and most
expressive of all.
Filthy, servile, superstitious, drunken, indolent, as
they are, they claim our sympathy and commiseration.
These poor and degraded beings were once the owners
and masters of the country, and the subjects of a powerful empire. The ancestors of those who now dwell
in miserable huts, had built stately palaces and magnificent temples, and vast treasures belonged to the race
that now bends its weary neck to carry the burdens of
their conquerors. It is true the ancient Indians were
slaves also, but they obeyed masters of their own race.
Under the sway of a patriarchal government which
provided for all its children, they knew at least no pov



THE INDIANS.               189
erty; and whatever hard work they were compelled to
do, they did cheerfully, because their rulers were the
embodiment of their religion. At their revels nowadays, they sing and dance to the tune of a drum and
fife, or the harp, or an instrument resembling the ancient rebeck.  It is but one and the same sad and
monotonous tune they play, and to which they sing
and dance for hours and days. The same tune that
enlivens them at their festivals, resounds at their funerals; but that tune is full of the deepest significance.
It is slow and plaintive, like the mourning of a subjected race, bewailing the loss of its ancient greatness,
and its present misery and degradation.




CHAPTER XI.
Agriculture. - Wooden Plows. - Mechanic Arts. - Improvidence of the
People. - Beggars. - Commerce of the Interior. - Want of Enterprise.
- City lit with Tallow Candles. - Needlework and Embroidery. -
Fine Arts. - Painting. - Splendid Copyists. - Cheapness of Paintings.
- Saints and Martyrs. - A Scene from Purgatory. - The Liberal Professions. - The Law. - Tinterillos. - System of Jurisprudence. - The
Country without a Penitentiary. - Physicians. - Drug Stores. - The
Hospicio. - Leprosy and Elephantiasis. - Female Prison and Lunatic
Asylum. - The Hospital. - No Room for Wounded Soldiers. - The
Young'Men of Quito.
IN one of the preceding chapters, I referred to the
melancholy fact, that in agriculture almost no progress has been made since the conquest. Wooden
plows are still in use. The Indian who tills the soil,
trained to a blind routine and as thoughtless as a
child, is averse to all improvement. The process of
threshing is performed by horses, which are driven
over the wheat to stamp out the grain with their
hoofs.   Butter churns, as I have already said, are
unknown. To separate the corn from the cob, in
some parts of the country, for instance in the valleys
of Puembo and Yaruqui, heavy wooden shoes are
used, with which an Indian dances on the spikes,
until the work  is accomplished.   Hogs are  singed,
not with hot water, but with burning straw placed on
their bodies. Spades I never saw. Hoes are of the
most awkward and impracticable construction. Modern machinery for other agricultural purposes is not
dreamed of. Every thing is done by hand, and as
slowly as possible.




MECHANIC ARTS.              191
The same helplessness prevails with reference to
mechanic arts. There is not a good shoemaker in
Quito. The native shoemakers do not know how to
take the measure of a foot. If you have no lasts to
give them, your boots will be guess-work. The process of tanning is equally unknown. The leather is
beaten against a stone until it becomes pliable. Boots
and shoes, therefore, will pinch until they commence
to tear. To shoe a horse, takes almost a whole day,
and square nails of about one third of an inch in thickness are driven into the hoof. But the ugliest feature
of transactions with mechanics is their asking for
money in advance, either to buy the stuff or material
on which they are to work, or to have something
to live on while engaged in the task. They will
beg as long as you are willing to give. If you give
much, the probability is that they will spend the
money without doing the work. In many cases recourse must be had to the police, in order to compel a
dishonest artisan to perform an obligation for which
he has been paid in advance.  In this respect the
character of the people has not changed since Ulloa
complained of their unreliability and bad faith. As he
described them in 1739, so I found them in 1864.
Upon one occasion, I wanted two book-cases made.
I sent for a cabinet maker, and showed him an old
case, after the model of which I wanted the new ones
made. He had no measure or inch-rod, but measured
the case with little pieces of wood and straw, which
he cut so as to suit the required dimensions. After
a long consultation with a partner, or workman, whom
he had brought along, he asked two months' time to
finish the cases; but, yielding to my remonstrances,
he finally agreed to have them ready in six weeks.




192   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
During this time he returned frequently to measure
the old case over and over again, and always in
the same tedious and awkward manner, — sometimes
spending half an hour in measuring and deliberating
with his companion. Of course, he asked for money
incessantly. First, he wanted it to buy boards, which
he said were very dear. Next he wanted money to
buy locks.  Then, again, he protested that he had
nothing to live on; but I remained inflexible, and
owing probably to my stern refusals, the cases were
ready shortly after the required time.
Still, it is generally indispensable to pay a part of the
price in advance, for even master mechanics are almost always without the funds to buy the necessary
materials.  These cholos live like the Indians, from
one day to the other. To the improvidence of the
people, the great number of beggars must chiefly be
ascribed. My servants used to spend their monthly
wages as soon as they received them, if they had not
already spent them in advance. Give one of these
careless creatures ten dollars to-day, and he will ask
you for a real to-morrow. I often told them that their
fate would be that of those hundreds of beggars who,
on Saturdays, crowded the palace of the archbishop
and the houses of the principal inhabitants; but my
exhortations produced no effect.
There are several trades in which considerable cleverness is displayed. Silver and gold smiths and woodcarvers especially, deserve to be mentioned for their
skill. But in almost all other mechanic arts the people
of Ecuador are centuries behind the age. The crudest
tools and implements are used, and weeks and months
are required for what, in other countries, would be accomplished in a few days.




SHIFTLESS MODES OF LABOR.        193
In 1862, President Garcia Moreno commenced the
construction of a wagon-road from Quito to Guayaquil. The necessity of the work had always been
felt and admitted, and many a congress had decreed
that it should be done, prefixing long strings of pompous whereases to its resolutions; but, instead of building new roads, the old ones were suffered to become
entirely impassable. At last Mr. Moreno undertook
the task. But it was a lamentable sight to see how it
had to be carried on. Heavy excavations had to be
made through the high hills on both sides of the old
mule-path. There were no instruments except crowbars and shovels. There were no spades and pickaxes
to dig with, nor carts or wheelbarrows to haul away
the earth. It had to be filled in sheep-skins and ponchos, which the Indians carried on their backs, and
with which they climbed up the hills where they deposited their scanty contents. Two foot-paths were
made, leading to the summit. One of them the carriers ascended with their loads, to return by the other.
Paving-stones, lime and bricks for the construction of
bridges, as well as the necessary tools and instruments,
were carried in the same manner on human backs.
Sometimes beasts of burden were used; but the principal and cheapest beast of burden is the Indian. He
does not work voluntarily, not even when paid for
his labor, but is pressed into the service of the government for a certain length of time, at the expiration
of which he is discharged and another forced into his
place. He works unwillingly, and is kept to his task
by the whip of the overseer. It is evident that but
little progress could be made under these circumnstances. But slowness is one of the chief features
of the country. To build houses is an equally helpless
13




194   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
task. The timber required for building purposes is
brought to Quito with oxen. Generally but one or
two beams are tied with a long rope to a yoke of oxen,
and thus dragged along on the ground; and this in an
age of steam and electricity.
The commerce of the interior corresponds with the
deplorable condition of its agriculture and industry.
Commodities and luxuries of life which have to be imported are very expensive, and at certain seasons, not
to be had at all. Excepting the high districts around
Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, and Tulcan, coffee
grows in every province of the republic; and yet it
happens sometimes that the supply of coffee at Quito
gives out entirely. I remember one occasion when not
a pound could be procured in the capital. The merchants of Quito are without enterprise. Indolence and
inactivity pervade all classes of the people. A shopkeeper opens his store at about seven o'clock in the
morning, or later, and shuts it at nine to go to breakfast. At ten or half past ten he returns.  At two or
three he shuts up again to go to dinner, after which
he saunters back to the shop at about four or half past
four. At six or half past six in the evening he closes up
for good, there being no business done after dark. It is
only a few cigar stores that are kept open after nightfall, lighted by one or two melancholy tallow candles.
The streets are lit in the same way. Every householder is obliged to hang out a tallow candle in a lantern at seven P. M., provided there is no moonshine.
At ten o'clock the candle ends have generally burnt
down, and darkness reigns.
To get any thing done, is certainly a difficult task in
Ecuador. Nobody is in a hurry. Nobody can get
ready. Every step is beset with difficulties, delays,




NEEDLEWORK AND EMBROIDERY.         195
procrastinations, and disappointments. Every thing is
troublesome. The simplest transactions of daily life
are full of impediments, obstacles, and vexations. It
requires endless talk to make a bargain with a salesman, arriero, or mechanic; but the bargain is hardly
made when the other party will want to have it
changed again, and ask for more favorable conditions.
But few persons can be met with whose word or promise can be relied on. Mechanics will work for three
or four days, and then suddenly stay away, especially
when they have succeeded in getting some money in
advance. To move from one house to another,there being no carts or wagons, - the services of about
a dozen Indians will be required, whom it will not
always be easy to find. They will groan and chatter
incessantly; it will be necessary to spur them on and
watch them continually; and after you have paid them
their own price, they will commence to bother you for
an additional sum  to buy chicha or aguardiente. I
have already said that the Indian does not care to earn
money. As long as absolute necessity does not compel
him to do a little work, he will not look out for employment, nor accept it when it is tendered to him. It
is necessary to coax him to carry a load or a message.
I once met one of the public water-carriers on the
street, and asked him whether he would not bring a
jar of water to my house. He replied in the blandest
and most submissive manner, " No, mi amo (my master), I'd rather not."
There are some branches, however, in which the
natives of Quito manifest considerable proficiency.
Among these, ornamental needlework deserves to be
honorably mentioned.  Handkerchiefs, collars, che



196    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
mises, petticoats, bed-sheets,l towels, etc., are embroidered in the most beautiful manner. This kind of
work requires extraordinary patience and perseverance,
and is comparatively but poorly'paid. Lace, too, is
manufactured in great quantities, and without machinery, and although not so tasteful, is much more durable than European lace. The embroidery and lace of
Quito are well known, and in considerable demand at
Guayaquil and Lima.
Of the fine arts, painting is greatly cultivated. The
number of painters is very great, and some of them are
men of talent, and even genius. But their defect is
want of originality. They can copy from other paintings, but they cannot copy from nature, or conceive an
idea of their own. It was only at my suggestion that
Rafael Salas, one of the best painters in Quito, left the
beaten track, and undertook to paint Ecuadorian scenery and costumbres (customs). But the prices paid for
paintings are too miserable to encourage artists. Copies
from Horace Vernet, Correggio, and others, for which,
on my return home, I was offered $200 apiece, I had
bought for $30 or $40.  Still, I always paid more than
a native would have given. Mr. Salas often told me
1 The bed is one of the principal objects of the care and expense of oldfashioned Quitonians.  It is generally in an alcove, the framework of
which is sculptured, richly gilt, and hung with damask or velvet. The
bedstead is finely carved, the sheets and pillow-cases are beautifully embroidered and trimmed with home-made lace. During the day the curtains are undrawn, that the bed may be seen. Much less, if any, care is
bestowed upon the extermination of fleas, with which the rooms of the
rich as well as the poor are infested. The rooms are generally shut.
Fresh air is excluded with great care. Even on haciendas in the country
it is sometimes deadening to enter the well-furnished but unventilated
rooms, the pent-up atmosphere of which reminds us of a sepulchre rather
than a dwelling-house This custom of keeping every thing closed is but
too favorable to the propagation of fleas.




FINE ARTS.  PAINTING.           197
that his principal supporters were the foreigners who
came to Quito from time to time. The natives seldom
pay more than $16 or $20 for a large-sized portrait.
Other pictures of merit are sold from $4 to $20, according to their size - prices that are hardly sufficient
to pay for the canvas and colors. Painters, therefore,
instead of endeavoring to study and to improve, have
to daub off saints and Virgins to earn their daily bread.
Superstition must support them. The painted saints
and Virgins of Quito are not only sold all over the
country, but exported to other parts of South and Central America. They are as bad as cheap. Martyrology, hell, and purgatory, are frequently drawn upon
for subjects. Such pieces are always conceived in a
loathsome spirit of butchery and extravagance, to awe
the vulgar. I cannot refrain from describing one of
them as characteristic of Spanish civilization. It was
a view of purgatory. The lower part represented the
fiery pit in which the poor souls were suffering. Men
and women, old and young, handsome and ugly, kings,
knights, and bishops, were huddled together in agony.
Even a pope, with a tiara on his head, was among
the rueful company. They were all cutting dreadful
faces, some expressive of repentance, others of despair.
Some were praying with uplifted arms and clasped
hands, others bowed down their heads in utter dejection. The negro element, too, was represented by one
or two specimens. A little above this lowest and
largest group, the tortures which the inhabitants of that
unhappy place are believed to undergo, were represented. Two poor fellows were hanging on a gibbet,
where they had to endure continual agonies without
being able to die. To their right hand was a large,
fiery oven, with two apertures to it. Through one of




198   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
them a caldron was visible, in which a select company
of five or six sinners were boiling or roasting. On the
top of the fiery fuirnace knelt five or six souls that
were already purged of their sins. They were painted
white, and lifted their arms toward heaven. Two or
three others were seen flying up to heaven, at the entrance of which they were received by a negro bishop,
who kindly helped them in. But the ugliest contrivance below was a large wheel, to which the naked
bodies of several unfortunate sinners were tied. This
wheel revolved so near to a heavy post from which two
or three sharp-pointed iron hooks protruded, that they
tore up the breast and entrails of the wretched sufferers. Within the wheel there were other penitents
enwrapped in flames. Near by, a man was fixed upon a
stake, which ran through his body and came out of his
head. Other sufferers were swimming promiscuously
in a lake of fire. A little further up there was a large
basin of water in which souls were bathing, but for
what purpose I do not know. Some said it represented
a bath of ice, destined to make the sinner change from
the pangs of parching heat to the pains of freezing
cold. Close to this bath was a crowded prison with a
small door in its upper corner, which an angel, with a
chalice in one hand and a key in the other, had come
to open. Just above this prison, and apparently a part
of the same building, was a chapel, in which a priest
was saying mass for the souls below. To this happy
circumstance they owed their deliverance by the angel.
This part of the picture was the " argumentum ad
hominem," advertising the great advantage of having
masses said for the souls of deceased relatives. It
was supported by another device: a bridge in the form
of an arch was spanned from the land of death to the




FINE ARTS. - LIBERAL PROFESSIONS.    199
gate of paradise, just in the rear of the altar before
which the priest was officiating. This bridge, like the
one leading to the paradise of the Mohammedans,
seemed to be thin as a hair and sharp as a sword.
Some souls passed over it in safety, while others tumbled down into the fiery abyss below. Angels hovered
over the bridge, encouraging the righteous, or throwing morsels of heavenly bread into the pool for the
relief of the sufferers. A saintly woman knelt on an
elevation above the chapel just described, with a basket of bread in one hand. She distributed the bread
among the angels, who threw or took it to the wretches
in the pit. On high there was the Virgin Mary with
the Christ-child on her lap, and surrounded on both
sides by an ugly company of shabby monks and nuns,
who were praying for the penitents below. Some of
these monks had wings like angels; every one of them
had a broad tonsure on his head; and one of the female saints held a child in her arms. The whole party
knelt, with the exception of the Virgin, who looked
down mercifully on the suppliants in purgatory. As
the negro element was represented above and below,
my eye searched for Indians, but in vain. For them
there seems to be no place either in heaven or in purgatory.  Even the pious brush of the artist dooms
them to that third place, from which there is no escape.
This picture, thoroughly Spanish in its conception and
execution, is a favorite piece with the rabble of Quito,
and copies of it are continually being made for chapels
and private oratories.
From the arts let us turn to the liberal professions.
A young man of good family, who has nothing to do
except to assist in the superintendence of the family
estate, will always be sent to college, or to the Univer



200   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
sity,l for the purpose of acquiring the title of " Doctor."
That title is as common in Quito, as the decoration of
the " legion d'honneur " in France. Every white person
respectably dressed, may safely be presumed to hold it.
The proverb non omnes doctores, says Caldas, the Granadian naturalist, does not apply to Quito. Honorable
and flattering as the title may be, I do not believe it is
very profitable. Lawyers, for instance, innumerable as
they are, have nothing to do. They do not even keep
offices, but are consulted at their residences. There is
but very little law business. Of criminal practice it
would be unnecessary to speak. I have already said
that but very few crimes are committed. Only cases
of petty larceny or cattle stealing are of frequent occurrence, and the usual plea or excuse is the temptation of
poverty, the usual defense a recommendation to the
1 " Education has never been patronized by the Government or Congress;
for which reason the system at present pursued must be considered objectionable, inasmuch as attention is principally devoted to the study of law,
medicine, and theology, to the neglect of practical science. From my connection with the University, I am enabled to subjoin a statement of the
branches of knowledge taught in that institution, with the annual salary
paid to each professor: —
Latin and Spanish Grammar..$450 00
Canonical Law..300 00
Civil Law..300 00
Economical and Political Legislation.           300 00
Natural Law, administrative and Constitutional Science   300 00
Anatomy.300 00
Physiology.300 00
Pathology, Medical Jurisprudence, and Midwifery     300 00
Clinical Medicine, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy..  300 00
Chemistry and Botany (Dr. Jameson).             300 00
Literature..300 00
Secretary of University receives salary of.        300 00
Vice-Secretary.... 200 00
Total.$3,950 00
"The receipts of the University amount annually to the sum of from
$4000 to $4500.-  No fees are paid by the students to the Professors." -
From Dr. Jameson's Manuscript Notes.




LIBERAL PROFESSIONS. — THE LAW.      201
mercy of the court. Such practice, of course, cannot
be very lucrative. For a defendant who has no means,
the court appoints an attorney, who is bound to serve
without compensation. Civil practice is but little better.
Quito is not a mercantile town. But few commercial
questions arise which cannot be disposed of without the
intervention of lawyers, by the "juez de comercio "
(commercial judge), an inferior tribunal. The only
important questions that arise, are questions of inheritance, involving the title to large estates. But
these are too few and far between to support an independent legal profession. In civil cases of less importance, attorneys are not expected to ask for a compensation.  The principal families are always, in some
degree, related to each other, and two or three lawyers
are always to be found within the family circle. Hence,
the cousin, the nephew, the brother-in-law, will have
to take charge of the current court business of the
family, in consideration of love and affection. It would
be preposterous on their part, to suggest the idea of
payment. A plate of fresh bread, a box of preserves,
a dish of sweetmeats, or a few bottles of wine, are
considered a sufficient recompense for the successful
attorney. It requires an established reputation and a
good practice, to arrive at a yearly income of from
$200 to $600. Hence, gentlemen of the bar will pay
but little attention to the business which they may
have in court, if they have haciendas which require
their superintendence. It is their property and not
their profession, on which they depend for subsistence. Their profession pays only when they are lucky
enough to secure a judgeship or other judicial appointment. Nevertheless, the town is infested with a number of pettifogging scribes, not admitted to the bar,




202   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISHtI-AMERICANS.
who are continually stirring up litigation, or volunteering their advice and assistance. They are called tinterillos, or inkworms, a class well known to Spanish
caricaturists and playwrights.
The Ecuadorian system of jurisprudence is based on
the Code Napoleon, the Roman Law, and the Spanish
Institutes. Criminal cases are tried by jury. In civil
cases juries are not admissible. There are parochial
judges, corresponding to our justices of the peace;
commercial judges, and alcaldes municipales, corresponding to our courts of common pleas. Then there
are superior courts and a supreme court. From the
commercial courts of Guayaquil there is no appeal to
the supreme court. Capital punishment is inflicted by
shooting. Penitentiaries there are none; offenders
are condemned to perform public works, such as
sweeping or repairing streets - a punishment which
but very seldom reaches criminals belonging to the
higher classes. These are either allowed to escape,
or they are not prosecuted at all.
In jury trials the attorneys are not allowed to appeal to the sympathies or feelings of the jurors. Their
eloquence is restricted by the narrowest and most
jealous rules. Witnesses are not examined by the
attorneys, but by the judge. If an attorney wants to
ask the witness a question, he submits it to the judge,
who repeats it to the witness, thus giving the latter
time to prepare his answer. If a witness fails to appear, his original deposition may be read, even in
criminal cases. The number of petit jurors is nine.
There is a jurado de acusacion, which resembles our
grand jury. The system of new trials is unknown.
Physicians are paid much better than attorneys;
but the number of those who enjo(y a good practice




PHYSICIANS AND DRUG-STORES.       203
can be but small. The population of Quito is not
much more than 40,000. Of these, probably two fifths
are pure Indians, who never submit to scientific medical treatment. Two fifths are cholos, mestizos, and
negroes, too poor to pay a physician. Medical men
must depend, therefore, on the last fifth, consisting of
white men and the wealthier portion of the mixed races.
But physicians, as a general rule, are not very fond of
their practice. If they have haciendas in the country,
the superintendence of these will be more important
to the doctor than his sick list. Every now and then
he goes to the country, leaving his patients to take
care of themselves. And even while in town he forgets his medical calls but too willingly. If the patient
is not in danger, he visits him as seldom as possible.
He promises to come, but either neglects or forgets it,
and finally stays away whether the man is well or not.
A patient who wishes to pass through a thorough medical treatment must run after his physician continually.
He must visit the doctor instead of being visited by
him. In this the physician follows but the general
custom of the country. I never saw a people who
cared so little for " making money " as the serranos of
Ecuador. Time, as I have already said, has no value.
Nobody is in a hurry; nobody seems to be busy.
There is no occupation so pressing as not to bear postponement.  Vuelva V. macana (come back to-morrow), the great motto of Spain, has been fully naturalized in her former American colonies.
Drug-stores (there are but three of them in Quito)
are kept in a manner corresponding to the general
want of activity and enterprise. The apothecary does
not furnish the bottles or boxes for the medicines
which he compounds. If the remedy you require is a




204   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
liquid, you must send a bottle, a cup, or a glass with
the prescription, to fill it in. Sometimes the simplest
and most necessary remedies are not to be had. I
remember that on one occasion, only with great difficulty, four ounces of castor-oil could be obtained; and
this in a country where the castor-plant grows wild,
and in the woods of which the most precious balsams
and medicinal herbs abound. But the medicinal plants
which are found in the mountains, in the valleys, and
in the forests of Ecuador, on both sides of the Cordillera, are waste treasures. No drugs are extracted
from them, and their very existence is better known
to scientific foreigners than to the natives of the country. Some most valuable specifics are known to the
Indians, especially to those of the Napo wilderness;
but the chemists and physicians of the country do not
take much trouble to ascertain their medicinal properties.
On the northern slope of Mount Panecillo, overlooking the city, and commanding a very fine view, is
the Hospicio, a cluster of buildings devoted to three
very incongruous purposes. It is used as a prison for
the female convicts, a lunatic asylum, and a hospital
for the elephantiacos or leperos.  The insane are not
subjected to a methodical, scientific treatment. They
run about in the corridors and pateos as they please,
and are locked up only when they are considered
dangerous. I noted more cases of idiocy than of insanity. The elephantiasis, or leprosy, is a horrible disease, which has hitherto been considered incurable and
contagious.1 It very often causes a swelling of the
face or limbs, and manifests itself in horrible sores,
which eat off the noses, fingers, lips, or cheeks of the
1 Tubercular Elephantiasis.




THE HOSPICIO.               205
patients. It is of comparatively recent appearance,
for when the hospicio was built, it was not yet known
in Quito. In Cuenca it is of more frequent occurrence than in other parts of the republic. The number of patients in the hospicio of Quito approaches
one hundred. The disease in its manifestations bears
a resemblance to the ravages of secondary and tertiary
syphilis. The poor victims live together in the upper
part of the hospicio, where they have their gardens,
and are even allowed to intermarry. Their fate is
dreadful.  They are excluded from  all intercourse
with their fellow-men, while certain and inevitable
destruction carries them slowly but irresistibly to an
untimely grave. They can daily watch the steady
progress of the horrid affliction, conscious that there is
no remedy by which their doom might be averted.
There is a chapel in the hos2picio, where mass is said
every Sunday and holy day, and other religious exercises take place. On such occasions the female prisoners and the lunatics assemble in the hall below, and
the lepers in the choir above. I once saw them all
assembled - a frightful spectacle of decomposition of
living beings. I listened to their singing, monotonous
and plaintive, and it rang in my ears long after I had
left the place.
The street running down from the hospicio leads to
the hospital maintained by the municipality. After
having read Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer's description of that
institution, I felt loth to enter it.  From my knowledge of the country, however, I am inclined to believe
that Mrs. Pfeiffer did not exaggerate. The funds of
the hospital are very scanty. In 1864, a number of
patients had to be turned out, because there was no




206  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
money to provide for more than the number allowed
by law. Those poor helpless creatures crept from
house to house, appealing to the charity of the inhabitants. Among the victims that were thus cast
upon the streets, were many wounded soldiers, who
had shed their blood at Cuaspud, in the war with
New Granada, -poor wretches whom the government had impressed into the army, and afterwards
allowed to be driven from their miserable pallets to
perish in the streets. In any other country, or among
any other race of men, steps would have been taken
immediately to relieve the sufferings of those unfortunate beings. Committees would have been formed,
money would have been contributed and placed at the
disposal of the directors of the hospital. Not so among
the serranos of Ecuador. They are good-natured,
affable, polite, attentive, hospitable, and kind, but they
lack the spirit of charity. They pity the sufferers,
but do nothing to relieve them. In this respect the
want of a spirit of association is sadly felt. They
have no idea of acting together, not even for a benevolent purpose.
Considering the low state of the liberal professions,
and the want of commercial and industrial enterprise,
it is not to be wondered at that the young men of the
better families of Quito do not know what to do, but
pass their time in idleness and frivolity. The great questions and events which agitate our age trouble them but
little. They are not fond of reading or study. They
are thoughtless, and without much moral or physical
courage. When General Mosquera, after having
routed the Ecuadorian army at Cuaspud, was expected to march upon Quito, not a dozen of them




EDUCATION.                 207
stirred to defend their native city. In their opinion,
the defense of the country is the business and duty of
the poor man, who is forcibly impressed into the army,
and sacrificed to the ambition of his rulers, although
he has no interest whatever in the questions for which
they go to war. When these poor recruits are brought
to Quito, they are received in silence. Not a handkerchief waves; not a friendly voice is raised to welcome them. When the war is over they are dismissed
without the money to return to their villages. Thus,
frequently, hordes of beggars are let loose upon the
country; and yet there is, as I said already, but very
little crime. This, however, must not be attributed to
education. There are no common or free schools in
the capital. Colleges and universities are liberally endowed; but very little attention has been bestowed
upon elementary education. In 1861, Friench friars
were imported to teach boys the rudiments of knowledge; but the education of poor girls is still left to
private charity. The number of those who cannot
read or write must be enormous. Parents are not required to send their children to school; on the contrary, illegitimate children were excluded, by an order
of President Garcia Moreno, from the schools of the
French friars. Besides, the system of education which
now prevails is very bad. In the elementary schools
nothing is taught but reading, writing, religion, and a
little arithmetic. In the higher schools, Latin, and
perhaps Greek, monopolize the time of the student.
Geography is taught without maps; the natural and
mathematical sciences are neglected, and every deference is paid to religious intolerance. As a proof of
this, I shall refer to but one instance. For many
years, Vattel's " Law of Nations " was a text-book at




208   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the University. Several years ago, however, the
Archbishop remonstrated against the use of it as heretical, because it advocates religious toleration. It
was immediately prohibited, and Bello's meagre essay
substituted in its place.




CHAPTER XII.
The Political Condition of the South-American Republics. —A Tale of
Horror and Misery.
ABOUT one month before his death, General Bolivar,
the so-called " Liberator" of South America, wrote a
letter to the late General Flores, of Ecuador, in which
the following remarkable passages occur, which have
never before been published in the English language:
" I have been in power (yo he mandado) for nearly twenty
years, from which I have gathered only a few definite
results:
"1. America, for us, is ungovernable.
" 2. He who dedicates his services to a revolution, plows
the sea.
"3. The only thing that can be done in America, is to
emigrate.
"4. This country will inevitably fall into the hands of the
unbridled rabble, and little by little become a prey to petty
tyrants of all colors and races.' "5. Devoured as we shall be by all possible crimes, and
ruined by our ferociousness, the Europeans will not deem it
worth while to conquer us.
" 6. If it were possible for any part of the world to return to a state of primitive chaos, that would be the last
stage of Spanish America."
Thus, almost with his dying breath, wrote Simon
Bolivar, the man to whom admiring congresses had
voted the title of " Liberator," and whom  his friends
and partisans, very improperly in my opinion, have
14




210   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
called the "Washington of South America."  Thus
he wrote on the 9th of November, 1830. He died on
the 10th of December of the same year. His constant
and well-grounded fears of conspiracies against his life,
had greatly accelerated his end.
We shall see now, whether time and experience have
verified his predictions. Our Spanish-American neighbors have had a trial of forty years of republican institutions, and, I am sorry to say, the result is all but
encouraging. From the very beginning of their national existence, they have been in a state of chronic
anarchy and interminable convulsion. Their little republics have either been at war with each other, or a
prey to internecine strife, or both at the same time.
With them a state of war is the rule, and peace the
exception. Their administrations are not changed by
elections, but by revolutions. Plots and conspiracies
take the place of political campaigns. An election is
a farce, as it is almost always controlled and carried by
the government.  The opposition has generally but
one chance, that of insurrection, revolution, and war.
Chili is the most prosperous and respectable of the
South American republics. She has built roads over
the Andes, not only wagon-roads, but also a railroad.
She has had less revolutionary troubles than her neighbors.  Her white population is not so prejudiced
against labor as Spanish-Americans in general. The
Chilians are more enterprising than their neighbors.
Chilian commerce is flourishing. It is true, that an important share of their prosperity is owing to the large
number of foreigners who have settled in Chili; nevertheless, the superiority of the native Chilians over their
Spanish brethren must not be underrated.
Bolivia is probably the most wretched of the South




BOLIVAR'S CONSTITUTION.          211
Pacific republics.  It has but one sea-port, the town
of Cobijas; but there is no communication whatever
between that port and the interior. Hence, all the
imports and exports of the republic have to pass through
Peru, on the good-will of which the commerce of Bolivia depends. Bolivia owes its independence to the
military skill and valor of General Sucre, one of the
most meritorious generals of the revolutionary war.
It owes its name to General Bolivar, the Liberator, who
made a constitution for it, which the Bolivians, with
more courtesy than discretion, accepted. It was so
visionary and impracticable an instrument, that it had
to be discarded in less than a year. It was a compound
of all possible political institutions, ancient and modern.
Bolivar very modestly said of it, that it combined the
political wisdom of all ages and nations. It provided
for the election by the legislature of a president, who
was to hold his office for life, with power to appoint
his successor, the vice-president. It provided for a
legislature of three houses, — tribunes, senators, and
censors.  It teemed with visionary crotchets, and contained but one sound principle —that of religious toleration- which was subsequently abandoned. That
constitution was probably the greatest weakness of
Bolivar's life. He clung to it with incredible tenacity,
after its impracticability had been fully exposed. He
would not be convinced that it was unsuitable to the
spirit of his or any other age and people. A practical
trial had led to its rejection in Bolivia; nevertheless,
the " Liberator " untiringly strove to effect its adoption
in Colombia, the domestic tranquillity of which he sacrificed by encouraging pronuznciamentos in favor of the
Bolivian Constitution, with General Bolivar as president for life. A belief that he plotted to make himself




212   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
dictator and destroy the liberties of the country, rapidly
spread, and led to a conspiracy, and an attempt to
assassinate him, the terrors of which haunted him ever
afterwards. Bolivia fared as badly under a constitution of her own as under that with which General
Bolivar had presented her. For the frequency of her
revolutions and civil wars, for the violence and vindictiveness of her party leaders, and the sanguinary spirit
of their followers, she is almost without a rival among
her sister states.
Peru is the wealthiest of the republics on the Pacific coast, being the owner of the celebrated Chincha,
or Guano Islands, and by economical and prudent management might have subsisted almost without taxation.
But her resources were most recklessly squandered by
her rulers. Money is thrown away most wantonly and
extravagantly. To satisfy the claims of hungry aspirants who would conspire against the government if
not pensioned off, useless offices must be created continually. During my residence in the South, the Peruvian Government sent ministers to every possible
foreign country, with which Peru had no relations
whatever, merely for the purpose of providing for
political camp-followers. Even a mission to China was
created, with a large outfit and liberal salaries for the
minister, his secretaries, and attach4s. With all its
guano wealth, Peru has not yet built a road to the
highlands of the interior, and the capital of the ancient Incas. The populace of Lima generally dictates
the foreign and domestic policy of the administration.
Revolutions and civil wars are very seldom terminated
by fighting, but by bribery, treachery, and intrigue.
The ladies of Lima are famous for their zeal and skill
in plotting the overthrow of governments. I may be




NEW GRANADA.                213
warranted in saying that the very wealth of Peru has
proved a great source of its political misery.
New Granada (now the United States of Colombia)
has just emerged from a bloody and most cruel civil
war of about five years' duration, and bids fair to
plunge into another. It took over four years of bloodshed to establish religious freedom there, a principle
which no other Spanish-American republic has established. Protestantism is freely tolerated in Buenos
Ayres; but freedom of conscience is not a constitutional
right. Not even Chili has done away with the institution of a State Church; and the toleration it accords
to foreigners and dissenters is measured most scantily.
In 1865 a concession was made in this respect to the
spirit of the age, by the Congress of Chili, after long
and excited debates, but it was done after a most determined opposition, and in a most chary and unsatisfactory manner. The Constitution of the United States
of Colombia is a great failure. It attempts to base a
union and national government on the fundamental
principle of secession. It dooms the country to confusion, weakness, and impotence.  It recognizes the
right of each individual state to secede from the United States whenever it pleases.  It creates a federal
executive, but leaves the execution of the federal decrees and enactments to the executives of the different
states. If these should refuse to execute them, the
whole machinery would be brought to a dead-lock.
The most notable feature of its Congress is a house
of plenipotentiaries, appointed by the different states.
The latter have no governors, but presidents, with
cabinets and cabinet-ministers, and all the pomp and
circumstance of sovereignty. The federal executive
is elected for only two years. Such a government




214   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
will not stand the test of time. It affords no security;
and creates no confidence. The first strong blast will
bring it down.
Venezuela, the birthplace of Simon Bolivar, has enjoyed hardly a moment of repose since the beginning
of the war of independence. History visits the sins
of the fathers on their children and children's children;
and the execution, by command of Bolivar, of several
hundred Spanish non-combatants at Caraccas, in 1814,
including many inoffensive old men who had never
sided with either party, seems to have borne its bitter
fruits.  Venezuela formed a part of the old Republic
of Colombia, which could not hold together because it
contained too many generals who were anxious to
preside over governments of their own. Thus Paez
detached Venezuela, and Flores, Ecuador. Many attempts have since been made to unite the three republics, but failed.
But it is unnecessary to continue this general review.
The array of specific facts which I shall lay before my
readers, is chiefly taken from my Ecuadorian experience, but will, mutatis mutandis, apply to almost any
other Spanish-American republic. Change the names
and the cast, and the tragedy remains the same. Those
countries, I am sorry to say, are republics in name,
but despotisms in fact. Their constitutions are generally liberal, but laws and constitutions are made to
be disregarded. They all establish the system of three
coordinate powers of government, but, in point of fact,
there is but one power - the will of the man who, for
the time being, has secured the obedience of the soldiery.1
1 The last Constitution of Ecuador was adopted in 1861. With the exception of the article establishing the Catholic religion as the state church,




REVOLUTIONS.                          215
For this reason, a Spanish-American  revolution, to
be successful, must originate with, or be supported by,
the soldiery. The conspirators begin with bribing a
portion of the garrison of an important post.   Military
barracks (cuarteles), will never be attacked without a
previous secret understanding with some of the officers
and mnen who are in charge of the post.  In the negotiations for such purposes the ladies take a most active
part. They are passionate politicians, and very energetic secret agents. They carry letters and despatches,
and excluding every other, its provisions are sufficiently liberal. The legislative power is vested in a Congress, consisting of a Senate and House of
Representatives. Every province elects two senators, and one representative for every thirty thousand inhabitants, or every fraction over fifteen
thousand. Senators and representatives are elected for two years. The
sessions are biennial. Every two years the term of one half of the members expires. The President is elected for four years, and has a veto. He
c'annot exercise his functions at a distance of more than eight leagues from
the capital. He is not allowed to deprive an Ecuadorian of his liberty, or
banish him the country. He must not interfere with the course of justice
or the liberty of the press. The elections are direct and by secret ballot.
Every Ecuadorian, without distinction of color, who can read and write, has
a vote, and may be elected to office. The cabinet consists of three members- one for the Interior and Foreign Relations, the other for Financial
affairs, and the third, a Minister of War and the Navy. In certain cases,
the concurrence of a council of state is necessary to authorize executive
acts. This body consists of the vice-president, the cabinet, one member of
the supreme court, one representative of the clergy, and one representative
of the landed interest. The last three are elected by Congress for four
years. The president cannot be reelected. The judges of the supreme
and superior courts are elected by Congress. Slavery is abolished. Every
Ecuadorian is allowed to emigrate with his property whenever he chooses,
and to return to the country whenever he desires. Arbitrary arrests are
prohibited. Persons can only be arrested according to law, and must be
notified by the proper tribunal within twenty-four hours after their arrest,
of the nature of the accusation against them. They can be tried only by
a court of competent jurisdiction, and cannot be compelled to testify against
their accomplices or near relations. In case public necessity shall make it
indispensable to take private property, the value thereof must first be paid
to the owner. Taxes and contributions can only be imposed according to
law. The liberty of the press is guaranteed. Soldiers cannot be quartered upon private citizens without indemnity to the latter. All foreigners
are permitted to come to the country, engage in business, etc.




216   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
excite discontent, conceal political refugees and facilitate their escape, and keep their banished friends posted
as to the state of affairs at home. During my residence
in Ecuador, several of these female agitators were banished the country by President Garcia Moreno: They
went, hurling defiance into his teeth. He could imprison or shoot the men, who trembled before him, but
lie could not break the spirit of the women.
The moment a revolutionary party has secured a
foothold somewhere, they resort to the customary mode
of Spanish-American warfare. Its principal features
are, forcible impressments, and forced loans and contributions, in addition to which they seize all the horses,
mules, cattle, provisions, Indians, and other property
they can lay hands on. The government does the
same. There is no legal or equitable system of conscription or draft. By common consent, "gentlemen "
(that is to say, white men of good families) are exempt
from it; but the poor, the half or cross-breeds, the
journeymen, mechanics, and farm-laborers, are seized
and impressed wherever found, and without reference
to age, condition, disability, or the time they may have
served already. The appearance of the recruiting officers on the street always creates a panic among those
liable to be "recruited."  It is a pitiful spectacle to
see those poor fellows run away in all directions, wildly
chased by the officers and their men. Compulsory
service in the army is a calamity greatly dreaded by the
populace, and firom which they try to escape in a thousand different ways. They will flee to the mountains,
and hide themselves in forests or deserts (despoblados);
they will take refuge in churches or convents, or in
the houses of foreign representatives or residents, and
they will not show themselves on the streets or public




MILITARY IMPRESSMENTS.          217
highways until the danger is over. When they are
near enough to the frontier, they will leave the country
in order to avoid impressment. In Peru alone there
are over ten thousand Ecuadorians who left their own
country to avoid impressment.  Ecuadorian soldiers
are but poorly clad and poorly paid. Many of them
have to go barefoot. When their services are no
longer required, they are discharged without the means
to return to their homes. Under these circumstances,
it cannot appear strange that such soldiers should revenge themselves on society whenever an opportunity
offers. When marching from one place to another,
they will take from the poor people living along the
public highways whatever they can find. Hence, when
it becomes known that a regiment or company of soldiers will march through a certain district, the people
living along the road, even in times of profound peace,
will hide their valuables, drive away their horses, mules,
cattle, or sheep, take their provisions, chickens, etc., to
some out-of-the-way place in the mountains or forests,
and make preparations as if they expected the arrival
of a savage enemy. The houses along the road will
be deserted; the men will carefully keep out of the
way of the marching columns; and only now and then
an old woman will be found to tell the soldiers how
poor she is. Many a time when, during my travels in
the Cordillera, I stopped at a hut to buy eggs or other
provisions, the people told me with a sigh: " We have
nothing to sell, sir; the soldiers were here and took
all we had."
I have said that " gentlemen" are exempt from
military impressment. As a general rule, laws and
customs are only enforced against the common people.
Our neighbors have established a republican form of




218   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
government without being republicans.  They still
cling to their aristocratic traditions, and virtually maintain distinctions of class and caste. The descendants
of the old noble families still cherish their ancient titles
of nobility. They look with great veneration on the
pomp and splendor of European monarchies, and distinguish those of their own number who can boast of
a count or a knight among their ancestors. Labor is
disreputable in their eyes, and even on commerce they
look down as not altogether respectable. Commerce,
under the old Spanish law, was considered incompatible
with nobility. The cream of the aristocracy consists
of those who live on what their landed property produces, and therefore can afford to do nothing at all.
The caballero would rather starve than perform manual labor, which, in his opinion, would be degrading,
and which becomes only an Indian or Cholo. No
white man will condescend to menial offices. White
servants or laborers cannot be found in the interior of
Ecuador, unless they be foreigners. Poor as the white
native may be, he will generally manage to maintain
himself without working. How a great many succeed
in this, is a mystery to the uninitiated observer; but I
believe that gambling and borrowing are freely resorted
to. President Garcia Moreno once told me of a young
man of genteel family who had asked him for an office,
representing that he had a wife and six children, without any means to support them. The president told
him that, for the present, he could not give him a better
place than that of overseer on the new road from Quito
to the coast, which was then in process of construction.
The young man accepted the position. He remained
at his post for two days, but on the third he told the
president to appo;nt somebody else, as such employ



PREJUDICE AGAINST LABOR.         219
ment was unworthy of his family and standing in
society.
Another incident will illustrate the prejudice which
our Spanish neighbors entertain against labor.  A
Scotchman, a very intelligent and well-educated man,
and an excellent machinist, had been brought to Ecuador by a Mr. Carlos Aguirre, a wealthy land-owner,
to fit up and carry on a factory of woolen goods, at the
village of Chillo, about ten miles from Quito. The
Scotchman, of course, went to work practically, and
finding no one to rely on, did as much of the work
himself as was necessary. This greatly astonished the
natives who visited Chillo in order to see the new machinery, and many of them returned to Quito in a
state of amazement at having seen a " white man who
worked like an Indian."  But still more astonished
were the poor Indians themselves, who told him, quite
naively, that " there could certainly be no Indians in the
country he came from!"
The first measures of a party which succeeds in a
revolution or civil war, are generally acts of retaliation
or revenge on the vanquished, who may congratulate
themselves if only forced contributions are resorted to.
The wealthy members of the losing party are notified
by the new "government," that within a certain number of days or hours they must pay a certain sum of
money. If they refuse, the amount is sometimes raised,
and even doubled, and the victims are imprisoned,
either in their own houses, or in the military barracks,
until they " pay up." If they are storekeepers, their
goods are seized as security. If they are haciendaowners, their cattle or horses are taken in lieu of
money. If they are women, they are placed under a
military guard, and not allowed to leave their rooms,




220   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS..
or to consult with their friends, until they comply with
the arbitrary edict of the despot of the day. I shall
relate but one instance of the many that came to my
knowledge. In 1860 a contribution of several hundred dollars (I do not recollect the exact amount) was
imposed upon a gentleman who had held office under
the government that had just been overthrown. He
being absent from Quito on his hacienda in Esmeraldas,
on the coast, a detachment of soldiers was sent to his
house with a command to his wife to pay the money.
The lady protested that her husband had left her no
money, and that she was unable to pay the required
amount. Her answer was deemed unsatisfactory, and
her house was surrounded by soldiers, who did not
allow any body to enter or to leave it. She was not
permitted to send for victuals or for water, nor was she
allowed to employ counsel or to see her friends. For
three days and nights she was kept a prisoner, until,
coerced by starvation, she yielded at last, and paid the
amount which had been assessed without warrant of
law by the caprice of the victorious party.
A political adversary is considered an outlaw, who
may with impunity be treated in the most arbitrary
and cruel manner by those in power. His haciendas
are laid waste by soldiers quartered on them; his cattle and horses are at the mercy of a reckless government. The greatest sufferers, however, are the owners
of beasts of burden, whether they take part in political
affairs or not. Their horses and mules are taken whenever they are needed for the transportation of military
stores. They are used generally without compensation to the owner, who may congratulate himself if
they are at last restored to him. Their galled backs
and emaciated bodies are the pay he gets, all constitu



RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF FOREIGNERS.  221
tional and legal provisions to the contrary notwithstanding. Those who own mules or donkeys which
they hire out to travellers, or on which they bring their
vegetables to market, keep away from cities in times
of war or civil commotion, for fear of being robbed of
their means of subsistence. Their beasts they send to
the fastnesses of the mountains until the danger is over.
Thus the city markets will be but scantily supplied,
merchants cannot ship their goods, travellers find no
means of transportation, and the whole country suffers
and decays because governments will not respect individual rights and private property.
When the country is threatened with war, foreign
invasion, or revolution, or when a violent change of
government has taken place, the houses of foreign ministers, consuls, and other foreigners, are eagerly resorted to by all classes of the population. Not only
will ladies and gentlemen take refuge there, but such
houses will be depositories for all sorts of valuables, -
goods, trunks, and boxes, belonging to merchants, mechanics, private citizens, and even the government.
During the war with New Granada, in 1862, when it
was feared that General Arboleda, after his victory at
Tulcan, would march to Quito and occupy the town,
the government made arrangements to deposit the silver bars belonging to the mint in the house of one of
the foreign ministers. The houses of foreigners are
respected, not only because the governments to which
they belong are expected to shield them with a strong
arm, but also because even the victorious or ruling
party are interested in maintaining the sacredness
of asylums to which, perhaps to-morrow, it may be
their turn to resort as the vanquished. In Ecuador,
foreigners alone enjoy the rights and privileges which




222   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the constitution, on paper, guarantees to the citizen.
The persons of foreigners are secure; their servants
are not taken away from them; their beasts are never
interfered with; their property is respected; and if
they have a diplomatic representative in the country,
they are favored in a thousand different ways. They
are the only class of persons who can carry on business
in safety. Of course, they will suffer from bad times,
when the country is desolated by revolutions or civil
war, but they have little to fear from the government
and party leaders; and while forced contributions of
money or goods will be exacted from the native capitalists; while their servants and laborers, horses and
cattle, will be taken away from them; the person,
property, laborers, and servants of a foreigner will be
secure. No wonder, therefore, that every extensive
land-owner, every wealthy merchant in the country,
wants to make himself a foreigner. I was almost continually troubled by persons who wanted to know how
to make themselves North-American citizens. Every
body, almost, who has any thing to lose, is anxious to
abjure his nationality, and place himself under the
protection of a foreign flag. Many went to the United
States for the sole purpose of taking out first papers,
which, as they believed, would protect them against
forced contributions and other losses. Others go abroad
to make themselves foreign subjects, and then return
to carry on their business as before. I have heard
hundreds who protested their anxiety to clothe themselves with a foreign nationality, in which case alone
they considered their property secure. Mr. Buckalew,
the American minister under Buchanan, once saved a
man from a loss which, according to the Ecuadorian
himself, would have amounted to at least $10,000,




INHUMANITY TO PRISONERS.         223
simply by allowing him to hoist the American flag
over his farm buildings.
Whenever, even in times of profound peace, the
government desires to erect a structure, or to repair a
building, a road, or a bridge, orders are given to the
police to seize all the masons and carpenters that can
be found. From the number thus arrested, the directors will select the ablest, and compel them to work
for such wages as it may be convenient to pay them.
Political adversaries, who are suspected of revolutionary intentions, are arrested and detained in prison for
months, without a charge against them, and without
the benefit of a trial before the proper tribunals. Political prisoners are generally treated in a cruel and
barbarous manner. I know of many who were kept
in heavy irons for weeks and months, during which
time their relatives had to feed them, as the government was not in the habit of furnishing meals to prisoners of state. They were generally banished to the
unredeemed wilderness on the eastern side of the Cordillera, commonly called the "Napo Country," from
the Napo River, - one of the affluents of the Amazon,
- or to Brazil, by way of the Napo. To understand
fully the inhuman nature of this punishment, it must
be borne in mind that the road to the Napo, beginning
at the village of Papallacta, - about two days' journey
from Quito, —is a mere foot-path, inaccessible to horses
or mules. The prisoners, with their limbs sore from
the irons in which they had been kept, had to walk
over rocks, and scramble through bogs and woods;
now descending the cold and snowy summits of the
Cordillera, then wading through deep and rapid streams;
now exposed to the almost incessant and drenching
rains of those regions, then again to the burning sun




224   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
of the equator; with no provisions but those they carried with them, with no bed but the wet earth, and
no cover but the sky, until they reached their inhospitable destination, where only the painted Indian's
humble hut afforded them shelter, without protection
from wild beasts, poisonous snakes, and tropical fevers.
If such cruelties were committed in Turkey or Russia,
they would not astonish us, but in countries styling
themselves " republics," they must provoke our indignation and abhorrence.
Another shocking practice was the flogging of men
by order of the president, and without process or warrant of law, the number of lashes varying from twentyfive to six hundred. In 1860, an old general, a mulatto, who is said to have creditably served in the wars
of independence, was seized by order of Mr. Garcia
Moreno,- then chief of the so-called provisional
government, — and received five hundred lashes, in
presence of the garrison, and probably at the hands of
the very soldiers who had been under his command.
He died a short time after this punishment. He had
not been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction, civil or military. No charges had been preferred
against him. He was not allowed to make a defense,
but the punishment was inflicted at the command of
one man, who had no constitutional or legal right to
judge or punish him.
An unguarded expression sufficed to condemn the
suspected. In 1861 a certain Viteri had a christening
at his house. Among the guests was a military officer
of the president's party. Viteri, heated by wine and
the merriment of the occasion, pointed to the officer's
epaulettes, and told him that they would soon be torn
from his shoulders. On the following day he was ar



INTERFERENCE WITH JUSTICE.        225
rested, kept in prison for some time, and at last banished
to the Napo wilderness, in direct violation of the constitution, which expressly prohibits such banishments.
The president loved to deal his blows in all directions. His lashes not only tamed his political opponents, but also interfered with the course of justice.
In 1861, a fellow who had been arrested and indicted
for manslaughter, escaped from custody before the day
fixed for his trial. He was recaptured, and the president ordered four hundred lashes to be given him, and
then handed him over to the civil tribunals. At the
trial, this circumstance was commented upon by his
attorney, who urged that a man ought not to be punished twice for the same offense; that the man had
already been whipped to the very point of death, and
ought not to suffer more. In. this connection the lawyer was imprudent enough to hint that it was improper
for the executive to interfere with the administration
of justice. He had hardly left the court-room when
he was arrested and banished to New Granada.
In 1863, a French druggist had furnished drugs to
the garrison at Guayaquil, for which the government
refused to pay. The case came before the Supreme
Court, by which judgment was rendered in favor of
the claimant. The president, highly indignant at this
decision, ordered the judgment to be paid out of'the
amount due the judges for salaries.
When Mosquera, President of the United States of
Colombia (New Granada), had defeated the Ecuadorians under General Flores, at Cuaspud, and subsequently taken military possession of the province of
Imbabura, several individuals attempted a pronunciamento in favor of General Mosquera. They were arrested, and on the restoration of peace, handed over
15




226   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to the civil tribunals. The judge of the criminal court
found them guilty of treason, from which decision they
appealed. Suddenly the president was pleased to interfere, and ordered them  to be put in "la vara,'"
which is an instrument of torture similar to the English stocks, with the difference only that the prisoner
is laid on his back, which position it is almost impossible for him to change, because his legs are fast in the
stocks. The judge who had convicted them, remonstrated against this torture, as unconstitutional and illegal; stating, at the same time, that the prison in which
the defendants were kept was perfectly secure, and
that there was no danger of an escape, and no necessity for such cruelty. The president, enraged by this
remonstrance, hinted to the judge that he would enable him to satisfy himself by personal experience that
the "vara" was not an instrument of torture. In
other words, he threatened to put the judge in the
stocks. The judge withdrew, and sent in his resignation, which was not accepted. The men, however,
remained in the stocks until it pleased the president to
release them.
In 1864, General Maldonado had made himself conspicuous as the leader of a conspiracy, the object of
which was to rid the country of the tyranny of Garcia
Moreno. The plot was discovered, and many of the
conspirators were sent to the Napo wilderness. General Maldonado succeeded in making his escape to the
mountains, where, after an exciting pursuit of several
weeks, he was captured on his way to Peru, and taken
to Guayaquil.  President Garcia, who was then at
Quito, immediately gave orders to the general commanding at Guayaquil, to send the prisoner to the
capital. The poor fellow knew that this would be his




TYRANNY OF GARCIA MORENO.        227
last journey, and begged hard to be allowed to leave
the country. The general commanding declared his
willingness to let him go in case $30,000 should be
deposited in the bank of Guayaquil as security for his
future good behavior. This sum the friends of the
prisoner were either unwilling or unable to make up.
They knew very well that the amount, if deposited by
them, would immediately be seized and expended by
the government. Thus Maldonado was sent to Quito.
On his arrival there, he was at once taken before the
president, who upbraided him for his conduct, and ordered him to be led out to the Plaza in front of the
government palace, for immediate execution.  The
whole town was amazed, and many a hasty effort was
made to save the victim, but the president was inexorable. The sympathies of the people were with Maldonado; even, the soldiers who were commanded to
shoot him could hardly repress their tears. If Maldonado had snatched the sword from the hands of the
officer who commanded the troops on the Plaza, he
might have made a successful revolution, and turned
the tables on his enemy. The soldiers would have
cheered and obeyed him, and the people would have
welcomed him as their deliverer. But his spirit was
broken. His wife arrived, and a scene took place on
the Plaza which those who witnessed it will remember
to their dying day. The last farewell of the consorts
was heart-rending. Mrs. Maldonado had to be torn
from her husband's embrace, and was led away almost
insensible. She could hardly have walked one square,
when she heard the discharge of the muskets which
took her husband's life. She fell on the pavement with
a frantic shriek. President Garcia was at his office in
the palace, and may have witnessed, and probably did




228  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
witness the execution, which took place under his very
windows. This horrible event cast a gloom over the
whole country. It was but the forerunner of more
appalling deeds.
In 1865 another attempt was made by the Urbina
party to overthrow Garcia Moreno. About thirty resolute men seized the river steamer Washington, during one of her regular trips from Bodegas to Guayaquil, and arriving on board of her at the latter place,
brought her alongside the only man-of-war the Ecuadorian government then had, and which was lying quietly
at anchor in the middle of the stream. The captain
and crew of the man-of-war, who had suspected nothing of the kind, allowed themselves to be taken by
surprise. The captain was killed, his men were overpowered, and the man-of-war, after having her cables
slipped, was towed down the river by the other steamer.
The whole thing was done so noiselessly and quickly,
that both vessels were out of sight before the batteries
on shore could get their guns in readiness. The blow
was struck so suddenly and so well, that, had the revolutionary party followed it up immediately by an attack on Guayaquil with what few men they had, they
might have succeeded in taking the place, which has
always been considered the military and political key
to the whole republic. But they allowed the precious
opportunity to slip away. They wasted almost a month
in inactivity, hovering around the mouth of the river
with a little squadron which they had formed, and
waiting for reinforcements and aid from their friends
in Peru. In the mean time Garcia Moreno, whose
tremendous energy and undaunted bravery challenged
the admiration even of his enemies, had hastened to
Guayaquil, put it in a state of defense, and immediately




MILITARY EXECUTIONS.           229
prepared for taking the offensive. By dint of great
exertions he raised a large sum of money, with which
he bought a merchant steamer from the agents of the
British Pacific Steam Navigation Company, at an enormous price, and overcoming numberless obstacles, fitted
her out and armed her in a few days. In this steamer
he sailed to attack the enemy's squadron, consisting of
two ocean steamers, one river steamer, and two sailing
vessels. All the probabilities were against him, but
he succeeded in taking his careless enemies completely
by surprise. One of their big vessels had not even
steam up when Garcia hove in sight. He attacked
them at once, ran into the man-of-war they had carried
away, and sunk her after an engagement of about half
an hour. All the other vessels he captured, together
with a number of prisoners, who had no time to gain
the shore and to effect their escape to Peru. And now
the executions commenced. Two of the prisoners he
shot immediately, on board of his own vessel. Twelve
or fifteen he shot in the afternoon of the same bloody
day, and about six or ten on the next day, before his
return to Guayaquil. He was in such a hurry to execute, that two men were shot whom the successful
party had not even taken the trouble of asking for
their names. These victims, it must be remembered,
were not killed during the heat of the combat, but they
were prisoners whose execution was ordered after the
battle. No court-martial had sentenced them to death.
The president himself interrogated them, and selected
his victims from their number. A list of them was
afterwards published in Guayaquil, which wound up
with the following characteristic statement: " and two
more, whose names are unknown!"  Still, these men
had been taken while in arms against a de facto gov



230  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ernment; and though many of them may have been
forcibly impressed by the chiefs of the rebellion, in the
districts along the coast which their squadron commanded, the circumstances under which they were
taken may have served as an excuse for their execution in an unsettled and anarchical Spanish-American
country. But the deed which I am now going.to relate is inexcusable. It is a cold-blooded murder, which
stands almost unparalleled in the history of civil commotions.
Dr. Viola, a lawyer at Guayaquil, a scholar and a
gentleman, was known to sympathize with the opposition. It was known that he disapproved of the highhanded, illegal, and unconstitutional measures of President Garcia Moreno.   This was his only crime.
Nothing else could have been proved against him.
On the day of the president's successful return to
Guayaquil, after his naval victory at Jambeli, Garcia
Moreno issued a decree of banishment against Dr.
Viola, and ordered him to leave the country by the
next steamer. That very same night, the president,
while perusing the papers found on board the vessels
captured by him, discovered a letter addressed by
Dr. Viola to a Mr. Yerobi, an Ecuadorian exile in Peru,
who, although the brother-in-law of General Urbina,
the chief of the revolutionary party, had not taken
part in his expedition, but, as was subsequently ascertained, had quietly remained at Lima while the events
above narrated took place. His family had remained
in Ecuador, and as Yerobi was very poor, his relatives
occasionally sent him some money to Peru, to enable
him to live in his expensive exile. For the transmission of these amounts to Peru, they availed themselves
of the services of Dr. Viola, their attorney at Guay



THE MURDER OF DR. VIOLA.          231
aquil. Dr. Viola also transmitted their private correspondence. But as it was generally believed in the
country that letters directed to any of the Ecuadorian
refugees in Peru, would be detained or opened by the
Ecuadorian post-office authorities, it was the general
practice to direct such letters to fictitious names,
previously agreed upon.  Dr. Viola, following this
precaution, notified Yerobi in a short note, of the pseudonym to which he would send his letters. This note
never reached Yerobi. His brother-in-law, General
Urbina, received it for him at Paita, and took it with
him unopened when he started on his expedition.
Thus it fell into Garcia Moreno's hands, after the
engagement at Jambeli. It hardly filled one page of
note paper. I saw and read it with my own eyes, and
I recollect its contents distinctly. It proved nothing;
it raised no presumption. The jealousy of a despot
might have looked upon it as a suspicious circumstance,
but it admitted of a satisfactory explanation. At all
events, it was not sufficient to overcome, unsupported
by other evidence, the legal presumption of the man's
innocence. No civilized tribunal would have convicted
him on such a document. Not even a court-martial of
Garcia Moreno's own selection would have found him
guilty. The president's principal officers, with only
one exception, were opposed to the execution; but
such considerations had no weight with Garcia. Early
in the morning of the day following his return from
Jambeli, he sent for Viola. He showed him the letter,
and asked him whether he had written it. " Is this
your signature?"  "Yes, sir; it is."  " Then you are
a traitor, and as such, you will be shot this evening at
five o'clock! "
The horrible news spread like wild-fire over Guay



232   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
aquil, and created universal consternation and horro'.
Every body felt that the sword of Damocles was suspended over his own head. Capital punishment was
prohibited by the constitution in political cases. According to another provision of that same instrument,
the president, when beyond a certain distance from the
capital, became a mere private citizen, while the executive power remained temporarily vested in the vicepresident. And yet Mr. Garcia undertook to take the
life of an innocent man, without warrant or authority
of law, and without any cause or excuse. Every body
interceded for his life. The bishop, the clergy, the
president's aged mother, — a venerable old lady, who
had to be carried to the government building in a
sedan-chair, — the principal merchants and bankers,
the president's personal and political friends, the foreign consuls and residents, pleaded for Viola's life, but
Garcia was inexorable. When somebody suggested
that it would be much better to send Viola out of the
country, he sneeringly answered, " he goes to the other
world!" (" al otro mundo se va! ") Viola was, personally, very popular. Every body knew him, and every
body liked him. The president was besought during
the whole day to spare his life, but in vain. No other
declaration could be wrung from his lips but the
stern sentence: " He will be shot this evening at five
o'clock! "  When the bishop suggested that such an
execution would be a violation of law and an infraction
of the constitution, the president replied that, it being
impossible to save the country from anarchy by attempting to govern it according to the constitution,
he had taken the responsibility to govern it according
to his own views of right and public necessity. He
said that an example had to be set, and he was determined to set it.




THE REIGN OF TERROR.            233
While the whole town were thus besieging the president for a commutation of the dreadful sentence, Viola
was kept in irons until the fatal hour arrived. He was
not allowed to see or take leave of any of his friends.
Only one of them was admitted to his prison, and to
him he dictated his last will, and a few private letters.
No one else was permitted to see him, and he refused
to see the priest who was sent to him by the government. He was kept in chains until he was led out
to execution. When he asked that his manacles be
taken off but for a few minutes, so that he might write
a letter to a lady friend, his keepers said that they had
no authority to comply with his request. At five o'clock
he was led to the savana or pampa, in the rear of the
city. Here his chains were taken from him, and he
was shot in the back as a traitor. Inadvertently his
executioners had made him kneel down near a nest of
black ants, which covered his body as soon as he fell,
and before life was extinct.  A second volley had to
be fired, as the first had failed to kill him. Nobody was
allowed to attend his funeral. He was even denied a
Christian burial. Such is republicanism in SpanishAmerica!
But I cannot finish this tale of horrors without relating another deed, still more revolting in its details than
the murder of Viola. A short time after the incident
just related, the president returned to Quito to open
the regular session of Congress. At Bodegas, while
on his way to the capital, he demanded a list of those
who had been imprisoned by order of the local authorities. This list contained, among others, the name of
a poor old man, a resident of the village of Pimoche,
in the neighborhood of Bodegas, who, while in a state
of intoxication, had hurrahed for General Urbina, the




234   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
leader of the revolutionary party. The president ordered him to be sent to Pimoche in a canoe, to be
executed there on that very day. Immediately after
the canoe had left with the victim on board, the governor and principal citizens of Bodegas called on the
president, and assured him that the man he had just
sentenced to death was entirely innocent. They proved
to Mr. Garcia Moreno's fullest satisfaction that the
poor old man had always been known as a staunch
supporter of the government, and that only on one
occasion, and while under the influence of liquor, and
not knowing what he said, he had made a few drunken
remarks in favor of General Urbina. The president
saw that he had committed a sad mistake, and dispatched a second canoe to Pimoche, with an order
countermanding the execution.  But the messenger
of grace arrived too late. When his canoe came in
sight of the village, he heard the reports of the muskets which had just done their bloody work.
The majority of both houses of Congress was opposed
to Garcia Moreno and his policy, and might have become troublesome. But Garcia was not the man to
allow himself to be thwarted or molested by the representatives of the people. He at once banished a number of the opposition members to Peru and New Granada, and thus intimidated the few whom he allowed to
remain. Hence, when the widow of General Maldonado charged the president with the murder of her
husband, and demanded an investigation, Congress refused to consider the accusation, and voted the thanks
of the nation to Garcia for the energy and promptness
with which he had repelled Urbina's invasion, and
defeated the revolutionary party at Jambeli.
In this connection, I must state that Garcia Moreno




HOW GARCIA MORENO ROSE TO POWER.    235
himself owed his elevation to power to a revolution
against a legitimate government. General Robles was
the constitutional president of Ecuador in 1860, when
complications arose with Peru which led to a declaration of hostilities. General Urbina, who was conmmander-in-chief of the army, had marched against the
Peruvians, and left the capital almost without a garrison. This auspicious moment was seized by Garcia
Moreno and his followers, who rose against the administration, organized a provisional government, and with
an extemporized army marched south in pursuit of
Urbina. The latter, on hearing of their movements,
at once suspended his march to the Peruvian frontier,
and marched back in the direction of the capital. He
defeated Garcia Moreno at the village of Tumbucu, near
Guaranda, reestablished his authority at Quito, and
drove the scattered remnants of the "Provisionals"
into New Granada, after which he again set out to
fight the Peruvians.  But, aided by the conservatives
of New Granada, the Provisionals again invaded the
country, and took possession of the capital. In the
mean time, General Franco, at Guayaquil, had  pronounced against Robles and Urbina, and proclaimed
himself dictator. Thus Robles and Urbina were compelled  to  give up  the  struggle, and  fled  to  Peru.
Franco, after a protracted civil war, was in his turn
driven out of the country by Garcia Moreno, who thus
secured his own elevation to power.1
1 In justice to Mr. Garcia Moreno, I must add here that he was not without redeeming qualities. He was entirely disinterested in money matters,
and expended all his salary for public purposes. When not blinded by
passion and prej udice, he was fair-minded, and even distinguished by a high
sense of justice; which, however, he marred by his endeavors to meddle
with every thing, and to regulate every thing. He was undoubtedly the
bravest man in Ecuador, and probably in Spanish-America, and ever ready
to sacrifice his life, of which he was as reckless as of the lives of others.




236   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
That under such circumstances there can be no liberty of the press, can easily be imagined. Indeed, it
can hardly be said that there is a press in Ecuador.
No political papers were regularly published at Quito
during my residence there, with the exception of one or
two semi-official organs, established for temporary purposes, - such as to harangue the people when war was
apprehended, and to be discontinued as soon as the danger was over. Peruvian papers were not allowed to
circulate in the country. Other foreign papers were
virtually excluded by the exorbitant postal charges
established by the president.  The regular official paper -" El Nacional " -  came out once a week, with
occasional interruptions and irregularities, and contained
nothing but official notices and correspondence, new
laws and decrees, the decisions of the auditor's office
(tribunal de cuentas), and now and then an abusive
editorial. Violent and abusive language, and a pompous and almost oriental style, full of exaggerations
and hifalutin, characterize the great bulk of SpanishAmerican journalism. Even governments will not
require their organs to employ calm and dignified language; and the editorial productions of cabinet members themselves are as abusive and unmeasured as the
secret publications of their persecuted, outlawed, and
embittered antagonists.
In the beginning of Mr. Moreno's administration,
a poor devil, a Mr. Riofrio, relying on the professions
which the successful party had made before their accesHe was endowed with wonderful energy and restless activity; neutralized,
however, by his heedless precipitation and lack of judgment. He was
well-meaning and sincere in his fanaticism, and, I have no doubt, really
had the good of his country at heart; but Torquemada, too, was a sincerer
man than Talleyrand, for example, and yet he was a curse to Spain, and
unproductive of any good to his country or race.




LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.           237
sion to power, attempted to publish an opposition paper
in Quito, but was immediately set upon by the authorities, and saved himself only by a rapid flight over the
most unfrequented paths and by-ways of the Cordillera.
I saw him when he arrived at Tumaco, New Granada,
sore-footed, and worn out by hardships and fatigue, a
melancholy illustration of South-American liberty.
There is, however, no special desire to read newspapers among the people in the interior of Ecuador,
where we find convents instead of printing-presses,
and military barracks instead of school-houses. Street
talk is the means of circulating home news, and about
events in foreign countries the people care but little.
In 1862, a dentist came to Quito -a native of Venezuela, and a man of some intelligence- who had
travelled for years through Ecuador, Venezuela, New
Granada, and Peru; still he did not know that there
was war in the United States. He was but one of
many. I have even found men of great positive
knowledge, and important public positions, who spent
years of their lives without reading a newspaper, and
who knew of current political events in the outer world
only from hearsay. For the political affairs of their
own country, it is true, a press is hardly needed.
They scarcely ever rise above the level of mere personalities. I often listened to political discussions between men belonging to different political parties, and
heard a great deal of personal criticism, but it was
very seldom that I heard an abstract principle discussed,
or a question of statecraft or political economy argued.
One party vilified the other; one party charged the
other with the very same crimes and acts of tyranny
with which it was itself charged in return. When I
objected to this mode of political discussion I was told




238   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
that persons were the representatives of principles, and
that by promoting the political claims of certain persons, the principles which they advocated would be
furthered.  Hence we see these partisans faithfully
follow the standard of a favorite leader, no matter
how often he changes his principles or belies his professions.
Yet it would be unjust to speak of the tyrannical
and arbitrary spirit and practices of South American
governments, without considering the great disadvantages at which they are placed. Nothing, of course,
could extenuate crimes and outrages like those I have
related, yet from what I know of Spanish-American
character, I cannot believe that a government, which
should endeavor to keep itself strictly and conscientiously within the bounds of legal and constitutional
obligations, would be able to maintain itself for a single
week against the anarchical and revolutionary tendencies of the opponents with whom it has to deal. We
must likewise consider the peculiar disadvantages under
which the' political existence of our Latin neighbors
began. We must consider the colonial system and
policy of Spain, which had unfitted them for constitutional self-government, instead of preparing them for it.
From a centralized, meddling, and relentless despotism, the Spanish-American colonies passed to a state
of unbridled licentiousness. They were not prepared
for liberty, which they did not understand. With their
education sadly neglected, and their minds perverted
by monkish superstition on one side, and the extravagance of the first French Revolution on the other, and
without any political or parliamentary experience or
training, they were called upon to lay the foundations
of a new system of government and society. Their




SPANISH RULE IN AMERICA.        239
impulses were good and generous, but the vices inherent to Spanish civilization got the better of minds
ill-regulated and entirely unfitted for the great task
which they were called upon to undertake.
When the North American colonies first gave vent
to their just grievances, they asked only for their rights
as Britons. No new theories were advanced, no innovations were attempted. Free utterance of opinion
was not a novelty to the Anglo-Saxon; and to the
principle of self-taxation even the arbitrary Tudors
had been constrained to defer. The American Revolution was not so much of a change as a vindication of
principle. British-Americans were accustomed to local
and municipal self-government, and to the utmost freedom of individual locomotion and enterprise. Not so
our Spanish neighbors. They had no ancient rights to
vindicate, for the king was absolute in both hemispheres. They had never known colonial legislatures,
for most of their laws were made in Spain. They had
no parliamentary or representative experience, and
were unacquainted with the institutions and experience
of the only European nation that had a constitutional
history. Heretical England was a sealed book to them,
which the Inquisition did not allow them to read. The
fountain-head of all power over the colonies was the
"Consejo de Indias," a tribunal which sat in Spain,
and the members of which, appointed by the crown,
were mostly Spaniards, many of whom had never seen
America. The viceroys of the colonies were Spaniards who came to the new world for the purpose only
of enriching themselves and their minions. The ports
of the colonies were closed to immigration. Even to
the visits of foreigners they were almost hermetically
sealed. The inhabitants enjoyed no freedom of loco



240   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
motion, no freedom of commerce and trade, no liberty
of the press or political discussion, no liberty of conscience. They were not even the masters of their
own property. What they should plant or sow in this
or in that colony; what branch of industry should be
cultivated in this or in that district; where they should
buy, and where and what they should be allowed to
sell; with what ports they should trade, and whither
they should go or not go; how much they should be
allowed to import or export; when and where they
should get married, and when and where, not; and
how long they should be allowed to stay away from
their wives; all this and a great deal more was regulated and prescribed by law. Nothing was allowed to
regulate itself. The government provided for every
thing, and carried on all sorts of commercial, agricultural, or industrial business. There was no relation
of private and every-day life with which the government did not interfere, and which it did not attempt to
regulate.  Like children, the colonies had allowed
themselves to be ruled. They had been kept in darkness and ignorance by the Inquisition, and were corrupted by the baleful influences of Indian and negro
slavery. Titles of nobility constituted their only object of ambition; and though the American Spaniards
hated the European Spaniards, whom they nicknamed
"Chapetones," they vied with the latter in loyalty and
obedience to their king. They would never have dared
to take charge of their own affairs, had not Ferdinand
VII. been captured by Napoleon. The first revolutionary steps in Spanish-America were taken in the
name of " our beloved and worshiped king," and
avowedly for the purpose of maintaining his divine
authority against the agents and emissaries of the




ESTABLISHMENT OF INDEPENDENCE.       241
French intruder. The faithfiul colonies would never
have entertained the idea of independence, at first suggested only by a few extreme radicals, had not Ferdinand VII. recklessly, foolishly, and brutally driven -
I may even be allowed the expression - kicked, them
away.
When the chains fell at last, all restraint was broken
through; and ambitious generals, rapacious demagogues, and well-meaning but unenlightened, inexperienced, and violent enthusiasts, every one of them
jealous and distrustful of the other, with an ignorant
and imbruted mass to build upon, were to reorganize
society. Is it to be wondered at that they failed?
Their war of independence lasted very long, and
was carried on in a most unrelenting and barbarous
manner on both sides. Prisoners were massacred, and
non-combatants were executed without mercy. The
civil wars of the old conquerors were repeated by their
descendants. The Spaniard was not yet expelled from
the soil of America when the Republicans themselves
turned their bloody weapons against each other's
breasts. Endless civil wars followed the establishment
of Spanish-American independence. Political ambition, personal jealousies, impracticable theories, official
venality, reckless disregard of individual rights and
legal obligations, foolish, meddling, and empirical legislation, and an absolute want of political morality,
formed the principal features of their republican history. Contempt for labor —that fatal Spanish inheritance - and an intolerant, bigoted, and rapacious state
church, sucked at the vitals of the young republics.
Such causes could not fail to produce the effects we
have seen.
The Spanish-American did not know, and has not
16




242   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
learned, to abide by majority decisions, or to redress
wrongs by legal and constitutional remedies. From
the ballot-box he invariably appeals to the sword. The
restlessness and jealousy of his political leaders are
unbounded, the ignorance of the masses is extreme.
Those in power will not voluntarily surrender it.
Those out of power will strain every nerve to oust
their lucky rivals. Bloody executions, forced loans
and contributions, tyrannical confiscations and arbitrary banishments, reckless issues of worthless paper
money, unjust impressments, and willful destruction of
property, mark the path of the victorious party; in all
of which outrages, as a general rule, it only follows
the previous examples of its vanquished predecessors.
The latter, defeated on the field of battle, will resort
to plotting and conspiracy, in which arts they axe masters. They will conspire as long as their enemies remain in power. Baffled in one plot, they will immediately concoct another, and, in their own opinion, they
are always sure to succeed. Having hardly any thing
else to do, and hardly ever wishing or intending to do
any thing else, they can devote the best part of their
time to intriguing and fomenting discontent and rebellion. No great commercial schemes or industrial enterprises engage their attention. The business of a
Spanish-American republic is periodically paralyzed
by war or revolution. Its agriculture is continually
interfered with by the recruiting officers, who carry
away farm-laborers and beasts of burden. The middle
classes always become poorer, the poor remain poor,
and the number of wealthy families is continually diminishing.  Men whose ancestors belonged to the richest
of the land, will be found struggling with misery and
privation. They can leave nothing to their children




CONDUCT OF THE ADMINISTRATION.       243
but prejudices and aristocratic pride. They may be
graduates of colleges or universities, but almost every
white man of good family is, and hence liberal professions do not pay. How, then, are these gentlemen to
live? It does not become their dignity to stoop to the
level of an Indian or half-breed by performing common
labor, and they have no capital or energy to engage in
commercial enterprises, nor could the anarchical condition of the country encourage them to do so. They
are bound, therefore, to live on political employments;
and the overthrow of a government that does not provide for them will be their chief object and occupation.
They are revolutionists from necessity, and are ready
to do the bidding of those who are revolutionists from
ambition or idleness.
It will now be understood why a government, instead of endeavoring to promote the general welfare
and develop the resources of the country, must strain
every nerve to maintain its bare existence against the
restless and unremitting efforts of its enemies. To
detect conspiracies, to prevent insurrection, to watch
suspected characters, and to rid itself, by whatever
means, of its declared enemies, must be the principal
and almost exclusive care of an administration so placed.
To this object every other consideration will be sacrificed. Individual rights will be trampled upon, depredations without end will be committed, and the soldiery
will have to be kept in good humor, at whatever cost.
Hence it is that in a country which bountiful Nature
has intended for a paradise, crumbling ruins and tottering walls, impassable roads and miserable hovels,
neglected fields and uninhabited wastes, lazy vagabonds
and filthy beggars, cry out against the depravity and
culpable incapacity of man.




244  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Shall we be surprised, therefore, if monarchical ideas
are gaining ground in those countries? The advocates
of a monarchical system of government are more numerous than is generally supposed. They often speak
without reserve. They argue in the following manner:
" Experience has taught us that our race is not fit for
republican self-government.  The principal purpose
of all government is the security of person and property - the protection of individual rights. This purpose our institutions have failed to accomplish. Our
lives and liberties are at the mercy of every political
adventurer who succeeds to power. Our property is
continually being pillaged or destroyed by those who
ought to protect it. We cannot maintain order at
home; we cannot remain at peace with our neighbors.
Our agriculture has not advanced beyond what it was
at the time of the conquest. Our commerce is languishing; manufacturing industry we have almost
none. We have no roads. Our cities decay; the
condition of our finances is hopeless; we are poor in
the lap of boundless natural wealth. Is this state of
affairs to last forever? We cannot exist as republics,
and we cannot establish a monarchy of our own; for
without foreign aid it would not maintain itself for a
single day. Still we admit the almost unconquerable
difficulties of establishing a strong government or a
monarchy by the aid of foreign intervention. The traditions of our war of independence are still dear to the
people. They dislike foreigners, and still cling to the
republican name.  And yet we have no alternative
left. We must either submit to be swallowed up in
the end by the Anglo-Saxon race, or follow the example of the French party of Mexico. The former would
be preferable to our present miserable existence; but




PRESENT CONDITION OF SPANISH AMERICA.  245
we naturally cling to our nationality, our religion, and
our language, and should not like so radical a change.
Moreover, we cannot afford to wait until, in the natural course of time and events, the Anglo-Saxon extends his dominion over South America. Bad, therefore, as foreign intervention may be, it is our last and
our only hope. And yet what foreign power would
undertake the hopeless and unprofitable task of saving
us from ourselves? "
To such reasoning I was often compelled to listen.
There are points in it which cannot be answered. The
present condition of the Spanish-American republics
is indeed very discouraging.  The infusion of fresh
blood — a mass immigration of a vigorous and enterprising foreign element, might perhaps save them.
But where is that immigration to come from? As
long as our immense territory west of the Mississippi;
as long as British Columbia and the young giant Australia promise a vast and fertile field of enterprise to
European immigration, - a field where every thing is
ready for its reception, and where religious toleration,
constitutional liberty, and security of person and property are really guaranteed to the settler, - who would
bury himself, however splendid the climate, and however rich the soil, in the inaccessible highlands of the
Andes, with their impassable roads, their earthquakes,
the religious fanaticism of the inhabitants, their want
of schools, and their endless foreign wars and revolutionary convulsions? Who would seek a home in the
lowlands on the sea-board, under the burning sun of
the tropics, with their fevers and dysenteries, and other
climatic diseases, as long as there are room and prospects for him in the cradle of future Empire States
between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean? who




246   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
would prefer Spanish indolence and poverty to Saxon
enterprise and prosperity?
There is no hope for the present that Spanish America - perhaps Chili and Buenos Ayres excepted —
will be rejuvenated by a large and civilizing foreign
immigration. A remote future may realize this expectation, but it is too far in the distance. When the
hand that writes these lines has long moldered in the
grave, and generations upon generations have passed
away, then perhaps will the area of Saxon civilization
extend from Hudson's Bay and New Cornwall to Patagonia and Cape Horn. Then, perhaps, will the world
see a new conquest effected, not by the prowess of military heroes or savage filibusterism, but by modern
genius and the blissful arts of peace. Then, perhaps,
will prosperous empires stretch over this western hemisphere, based not on the " manifest-destiny" programme of an insatiable slave power, but on the rights
of man, the triumph of modern civilization, and the
blessings of real liberty and law. Then will the crimes
of Negro slavery in the North, and Indian slavery in
the South, be atoned for; and peace and prosperity
will reign at last over the graves of Montezuma and
Atahuallpa.  The vision is beautiful, but, alas, it is
yet a dream!
In the mean time, it becomes our most imperative
duty to counteract by our own example the pernicious
effects which the example of Spanish America continually produces in the Old World. It becomes our duty
to prove to the nations of the earth, that republican
constitutional self-government is not a vision or a dream,
but a living reality; so that when the enemies of liberty
and republicanism point to Spanish America in order
to prove the correctness of their reactionary views, the




INFLUENCE OF NORTH AMERICA.        247
fi6ends of liberty may be able to point to North America for a triumphant refutation. This is a duty we owe
to ourselves and to humanity. We cannot force other
nations to be like ourselves; we cannot force other nations to be virtuous and wise. We cannot compel our
Spanish neighbors to abide by the laws of their own
making, and to love peace, order, and liberty as we do.
But we can prove to them, by our own increasing prosperity, intelligence, and happiness, what a blessing it is
to be law-abiding and tolerant; to preserve order and
domestic tranquillity without sacrificing liberty, and to
maintain liberty without endangering order and peace.
North America may lean on its past, and its short but
glorious political history, and thus be truly progressive
while truly conservative; but Spanish America must
bury the institutions, customs, prejudices, and idiosyncrasies of the past, beyond the possibility of resurrection. She must drain the swamp of stagnation, indolence, and thriftlessness, and pile mountains of solid
rock and fresh earth on the grave of the Middle Ages,
before she can hope to see, instead of the ignes fatui
and fungi of the swamp, the healthy foliage of modern
civilization.




CHAPTER XIII.
trip to the Province of Imbabura. - Descent to the River Guaillabamba.
-The Pyramids. - Their History. - The Village of Guaillabamba.
- Wild Mountainous Scenery. - The Switzerland of America. - The
River Pisque. — A Historical Reminiscence. - Gonzalo Pizarro and
the Viceroy Blasco Nufiez Vela. - American Aloe; its Multifarious
Uses. - Tabacundo. - Gente del Pueblo or Common People. - Alto de
Cajas. - Lake St. Pablo. - The Festival of St. John.- Great Indian
Celebrations. -The Feast at Otabalo. - Indian Dances and Masquerades. -Gambling. —Ugliness of Indian Women. - The Chapel of Monserate. - Idolatrous Practices. - Corrida de Gallos. - San Juan and
San Pedro at the Village of Cayambi. - Mt. Cayambi. - Longevity. -
Agua Gloriada. - Contra-dances. - Guarapo. - Reports of Volcanic Activity. - More Gold Legends. - Serro Pelado. - Col. Hall's attempted
Ascent of Mt. Cayambi. - Gold Somewhere. - The Napo Province on
the Eastern Side of the Cordillera. - Compulsory Sales of Merchandise
to Indians by the Governor. - Destruction of Three Cities by the Indians. - No Vestige remains. - Poetic Retribution. - Legends and
Traditions.- The Fate of the Captured Women of Golden Sevilla.
DESIROUS of acquainting myself with the country to
the north of the capital, and especially the province of
Imbabura, of whose beauty and fertility I had heard
so much, I left Quito on the 24th of June, 1863.
There are two roads leading to the northern province.
The one crossing the paramo of Mojanda is considerably shorter, but impassable in rainy weather. The
other, through the village of Guaillabamba turns the
mountain chain that separates the provinces of Pichincha and Imbabura, and traversing a ridge by which that
chain is connected with the folds of Mt. Imbabura,
descends to the lake of San Pablo. To know both I
took the latter, resolving to return by the former
For several leagues to the northeast of Quito, and




DESCENT FROM THE TABLE-LAND.        249
before reaching the sandy deserts of Pomasqui and
San Antonio, the country is nearly level, and clothed
with an ever-verdant growth of native grass, sparingly
dotted with trees of wild cherries (eapuli) and myrtle.
At a point called "Chaupicruz," the Camino Real
separates from the road to Cotocollao and Pomasqui,
which we now leave to the left, and descend into a
sandy plain called " Carretas," from which we have a
view of the valley of Tumbaco and Puembo to our
right. Passing through an insignificant village called
Chingletina, we arrive at the brow of a steep hill, from
which the descent to the tortuous Guaillabamba commences. This river takes its rise at the head of the
valley of Chillo, and is augmented by several streams
coming principally from the eastern Cordillera.  It
finally unites its waters with those of the Esmeraldas
in its course to the Pacific.
A yawning quebrada (defile or ravine) now opens
at our feet. The mountain is so steep and precipitous
that we must wend our way down in a continuous zigzag. The different paths, or rather ruts, which we
follow, are generally narrow, and sometimes so near
the precipice that the eye involuntarily shrinks from
the contemplation of the depth over which we seem to
hover. This, however, is nothing uncommon on SouthAmerican roads. It is a sensation to which the traveller will have to get accustomed on his way from
Chingletina to Tabacundo.
The descent from the table-land to the bottom of
the valley, measuring a perpendicular height of nearly
three thousand feet, can hardly be achieved in less
than two hours, during which the traveller is incommoded by the heat of the sun reflected from the bare
rocks and sand, to avoid which he prefers, if possible,
to start with the early dawn.




250   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
The upper part of the mountain on which we now
stand is bleak and barren, particularly when viewed
from a distance. Nevertheless, upon beginning our
descent, we meet with an abundance of wild flowers,
relieving the monotony of a scarce and stunted vegetation and a parched and dreary soil. But dreary and
barren beyond conception, and almost repulsive to behold, are the hills to the right of the quebrada, and in
the direction of Puembo and Pifo. Intersected by innumerable, ravines, they seem to form a mass-meeting
of independent paupers, stripped of every thing like
dress or vegetation, except an almost imperceptible
threadbare coat of faded yellow green, insufficient to
hide their nakedness. In the rear of the plain resting
on these hills, rise the mountains on which the plateau
of Quito rests, and in the rear of all, Pichincha raises
its rocky head. To the east of Pichincha, the Corazon, the Ilinisa, Rumifiagui, Pasachoa, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and Antisana range in an imposing sernicircle, from which they look down into the valleys of
Chillo and Puembo, which are separated from each
other, by an isolated mountain called " Ilalu."
We are so high now that we cannot hear the wild
rushing of the waters below. In front of us, on the
other side of the river, we see the village of Guaillabamba in the distance; a fresh green spot, pleasing
to the eye, and relieving the barren monotony that
surrounds us.  It rests on a pedestal of bald hills,
and is surrounded by a second and higher range of
bleak and sandy mountains.  To our right, on the
other side of an abyss, the bottom of which we cannot
descry from our present stand-point, is the pyramid of
Caraburu, one of the points of the triangle selected by
the FIrench Academicians and two Spanish mathema



THE PYRAMIDS.              251
ticians, in 1736, for the purpose of measuring a degree
of the meridian under the equator.  Two pyramids
were intended to commemorate their labors, the one
just referred to, and another at a point called Oyambaro, near the village of Yaruqui; the summit of Mt.
Pambamarca, having been selected for the vertex of
the triangle. The pyramids now existing are not the
same, however, that were erected by the French Academicians in the year 1736; these latter having been
demolished by order of the Royal Council of the Indies. M. de la Condamine, one of the French Academicians, it seems, had proceeded with their construction without having consulted his Spanish colleagues,
Don Antonio Ulloa and Don Jorje Juan, who had
been appointed by the King of Spain to assist in the
arduous and important enterprise of ascertaining the
true shape of the earth by the above-mentioned measurement.  Condamine had not even consulted his
French colleague, M. Godin, who seems to have
been his superior in the expedition; and in the tablets
which the former inserted in the pyramids, the names
of the Spanish mathematicians had not been mentioned.
This want of courtesy, however, did not create so much
indignation among the inhabitants of the province of
Quito, as the French arms, the lilies, with which
Condamine had adorned the pyramids. This act was
considered by the populace as equivalent to an assertion by France, of a right to the possession of the
colony, and a universal outcry was raised, which led
to judicial proceedings against the pyramids before the
Real Audiencia of Quito. The suit was instituted at
the complaint of the Spanish mathematicians, and defended by Monsieur de la Condamine with great vigor
and ingenuity. He said that the lilies, being the arms




252  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
of the house of Bourbon, could not be derogatory to
the dignity of Spain, as branches of the same family
ruled over both countries. He further said that those
very lilies were sculptured on the fa(ades of several
of the churches of Quito, without giving umbrage to
anybody. With regard to the omission of the names
of the Spanish mathematicians, he was willing to insert them in the inscription, and to place them above
and before the names of the Frenchmen. To some
such arrangement the Real Audiencia of Quito consented, and ordered the obnoxious features of the pyramids to be changed; but the Council of the Indies
was dissatisfied with this moderation, and in conformity
with instructions received from the Court, commanded
their demolition, and the erection in their stead of
other suitable monuments. The Marquis de la Ensenada, by whom this order was given, however, as if
ashamed of its barbarity, modified it by a second order
issued two months later (Oct. 17, 1746), in which he
instructed the Audiencia of Quito to spare the pyramids
if the obnoxious inscriptions could be removed without injury to the structures; but the work of destruction had already been accomplished, and during the
century following their demolition, not a vestige of
them remained. In November, 1836, President Rocafuerte rebuilt them, depositing under their foundations
an urn containing a tablet with a Spanish inscription,
of which the following is a translation:"The French Academicians, Messrs. Louis Godin, Peter
Bouguer, and Charles Maria de la Condamine, sent by Louis
XV., King of France, and under the ministry of M. Maurepas, erected these pyramids in the month of November,
1736; they were destroyed by command of the kings of
Spain, and rebuilt one hundred years afterwards, in No



THE QUEBRADA.                  253
vember, 1836 (on the exact points determined by the
French Academicians), by order of his Excellency Vicente
Rocafuerte, President of the Republic, the Hon. Antonio
Morales being Minister of Foreign Affairs. At that time
the throne of France was occupied by Louis Philippe, the
president of his council of ministers being M. Thiers, and
John Baptist W. De Mendeville consul of France to the
Republic of Ecuador. This tablet was made and engraved
in the mint of Quito, November 20th, 1836, M. Alberto
Zalazza being first director of the establishment, and it was
deposited under the base of this pyramid on the 25th of the
same month of November, of the same year 1836."
In 1841 the French Academy presented to the Ecuadorian government an inscription which they desired
to have engraved on the pyramids,1 but it has not yet
been done, and probably never will be. The structures
themselves are pyramids only in name. They are low,
square piles of bricks, whitewashed, and covered with
a pyramidal roof of tiles. At a distance, if it were not
for their coat of whitewash, they could not be distinguished from common Indian huts, which they resemble in appearance.
But it is time to commence our descent into the
yawning quebrada of Guaillabamba.
With our descent, vegetation increases, but it is a
quaint, cheerless, withering vegetation. The stunted
trees of the Mimosa or LEspino (spine), as the natives
call them, flattened on top in a most curious manner,
are covered with a parasitical vegetation - resembling
long, gray beards - floating from their branches, and
giving them, as they stand between the rocks, and
1 Geminam pyramidem, Monumentum doctrinae simul et grande adjumentum, olim injuria temporum eversam, Vicentius Rocafuerte Reipublicae
AEquatorialis prseses restituit, gloriosaeque instaurationis litteris consignandoe Annuente consortium Ludovico Philippo I. Rege Francorum, ornari conjunctis utriusque gentis insignibus jussit curavit. Anno MDcccxXXvL




254    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
queer and fantastic formations of cacti and pencos,1 the
appearance of old wizards haunting this enchanted
scene.2 A stone bridge is thrown across the river, the
bed of which is about six thousand three hundred feet
above the level of the sea, and the deafening noise
of the rushing waters follows us long after we have
passed it.
The ascent on the other side of the river is less steep
and precipitous, and we soon  reach  the small villages
of Cuchupango, Cachipamba, and Guaillabamba, which
seem to form one continuous population. The village
of Guaillabamba is situated about a mile farther to the
east of the bridge, and but six hundred and forty-six
feet above the bed of the river. The character of the
scenery now changes. As if by enchantment, we are
transported into a semi-tropical region. Here grow
the coffee-tree, the sugar-cane,3 and many of the rank
creepers peculiar to southern climes. The houses, or
rather huts, are no longer of earth or adobe, like those
around Quito, but of a species of wild cane which the
natives call cariso, interwoven with twigs. They are
low, having merely a ground-floor, and are thatched
with the straw (dried leaves) of the sugar-cane. The
1 Penco, the Cereus sepinus, D. C. V. iii., p. 467; Cactus sepinus H. B. K.,
Syn. Pi., vol. iii., p. 370, to which is appended the following remark: "Ad
sepes construendas inservit et baccae contra colicam biliosam feliciter adhibentur." The whole plant abounds in mucilage, which, mixed with gypsum, or powdered lime, is used economically in whitewashing. It is perhaps the only species which reaches the elevation of 10,600 feet. - From
Dr. Win. Jameson's Manuscript Notes.
2 This profuse, beard-like growth, is the Tillandsia usneoides, a widely
distributed species, occurring in the hot valleys of the Andes, in some parts
of the country near Guayaquil, in the woods near Rio Janeiro, and even in
some districts of the United States. Among the natives it is known by
the name of Salvage, or Barba de Salvage, and is used as an ordinary article for stuffing mattresses, sofas, and other furniture. -Ibid.
3 At the village of Guaillabamba, the sugar-cane requires a peri)d of
eighteen months to arrive at a state of maturity. — Ibid.




ON THE MOUNTAINS.             255
inhabitants no longer present that ruddy and healthy
appearance which cheers the heart in the Ecuadorian
highlands, but are pale, sickly, and haggard. A plat
of marshy ground, on the left side of the village, fills
the atmosphere with miasmatic exhalations. Intermittent fevers are prevalent. A single night's sojourn
will frequently communicate the germ of the malady,
which may, after several days, be developed in another
place, far removed from its influence.
I left Guaillabamba between one and two o'clock in
the afternoon. A short ride up the mountain side,
and I had again left every thing behind that reminded
~me of the tropics. I now rode along the slopes, and
over the ridges of sandy mountains, forming deep and
narrow defiles, through which murmuring and rushing
rivers wind their tortuous course. I was in the Switzerland of America again. The same scarcity of trees
that characterizes other parts of the interior strikes us
here. But here the mountains are covered with green
shrubs rising to the height of little trees, and enameled
with wild flowers, so that they are not so saddening to
the eye as those that cluster around the entrance of
the quebrada of Guaillabamba.  Our path leads us
along precipices for several leagues. The rocks through
which passages have been hewn, and which sometimes
overhang the road in a most threatening manner; the
quaint and curious vegetation with which these rocks
are covered; the height in which we toil along; the
foaming rivers below, impatient of their confinement;
the almost perpendicular mountain sides down which
one false step of the horse or mule would inevitably
hurl us into the deeper abyss of death; the mountains
themselves towering around and above us, now and
then crowned with trachytic rocks of queer formation;




256   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the loose stones with which our path is frequently covered, if not obstructed; and the setting sun casting a
last smile on the wild scene, present a highly picturesque and romantic aspect, and fill the soul with the
grandest emotions. Now we pass over the lofty mountain ridges, with nothing but the sky above us, and
that singular vegetation around us which precedes the
monotonous grass of the paramo; now we descend
into the deepest recesses of hidden defiles, in which
the majestic aguacate tree, with its beautiful darkgreen foliage, affords a pleasant relief to the wandering eye; now we have to descend to a river and ford
it, then again to ascend the highest ridges on the other
side.
One of the rivers I had to cross, was the Pisque,
which takes its rise on Mt. Cayambi, and flows
through these narrow valleys over huge masses of basalt, detached from its banks, which latter reach an
elevation of nearly fifteen hundred feet. A narrow
path ascends from the other side of the bridge, cut
with infinite labor through the basalt, and paved with
the same material. Here it was, according to an unsupported account of Father Velasco, that in 1546,
Gonzalo Pizarro awaited the arrival of the Viceroy
Blasco Nuiez Vela, who, falling into the snare prepared for him by the former, had left his safe retreat
at Popayan, and, reinforced by Sebastian Benalcazar,
marched on Quito, having falsely been made to believe
that Pizarro had gone south with his forces, leaving
only a small garrison under Pedro de Puelles to protect the town. Father Velasco then goes on to state
that the Viceroy, in the disguise of an Indian, reconnoitered in person the position of Gonzalo, and finding
it impregnable, determined to go to Quito by another




PIZARRO AND NUNEZ VELA.          257
route. The Father also speaks of a tradition that Gonzalo Pizarro reconnoitered the position of the Viceroy
on that very same day, and also in the disguise of an
Indian. These stories, however, must have originated
in the over-fruitful imagination of Father Velasco, who
is continually carried away by his love for the marvelous and romantic. None of the contemporary authors
whom I have consulted on the subject, mentions them,
even as legends. On the contrary, according to Zarate, the armies were so near each other that such
dangerous reconnoitering was entirely unnecessary.
The Viceroy's camp was on the steep hill-side forming
the opposite bank of the river, and the voices of the
sentinels could be distinctly heard in the opposite camps,
and " they did not fail to salute one another with the
epithet of' traitors.' "1 Finding that Pizarro's position
was such as to enable him to hold his own against superior forces, the Viceroy, whose forces were considerably inferior, did not dare to attack him, but by a
night march, attempted to get into his rear. Leaving
his camp-fires burning to deceive the enemy, he began
his circuitous march in the direction of Quito. But
from the description of this part of the country, and
its roads, which I have just given, my readers will be
able to judge of the hardships which he had to suffer.
Unfortunately it began to rain. Rivers and defiles had
to be crossed, and precipitous mountains to be ascended
and descended, in the darkness of a tempestuous, cheerless night. Many horses fell on the slippery ground,
and rolled into abysses; and, losing his way, instead
of falling upon the rear of Pizarro's position, which
he could not reach, the Viceroy had to lead his exhausted and discouraged troops to Quito, near which,
1 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. v. chap. 34.
17




258 FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
a day or two after this fatal march, the decisive battle
was fought (January 18, 1546).
Wending our way through a labyrinth of narrow valleys, rivers, and defiles, we at last reached the Chorrera, a cascade through which the waters gathering on
the table-lands above, are discharged into the rivers,
the course of which we had followed for the last two
or three hours. A few miserable huts are built around
it. Orange and aguacate 1 trees are planted around
some habitations below the waterfall.  But the regular tambo is about two hundred feet above it. It is
built of reeds brought up from Guaillabamba, but it is
the last building of that kind on our onward march to
Ibarra. It may be considered a landmark of the seinitropical region which we have just left; for now the
houses which we pass on the road are made of adobes,
as around Quito. The tambo belongs to a little hacienda, occupying the narrow ridge of a mountain projecting into and forming a bend in the stream. It
contained two unfloored rooms, if they may be called
so, - one for the accommodation of travellers, with
four platforms of reeds fastened to the sides of the
building, and serving as bedsteads; and another, a
smaller one, in which the landlord slept, with his numerous family; and which, at the same time, served as
kitchen, the smoke finding its way out of the hut as
well as it could, through the door, and the chinks in the
side-walls. Windows there were none. There was
an opening for the door, which served as an entrance,
but there was no door to it, and the cold night air
poured in unmercifully. But travelling in Ecuador is
a campaign life. For whatever enjoyment the scenery
1 Aguacate is the alligator pear, this being the English name by which it
is known in Jamaica. In Peru it is called palta.




THE AMERICAN ALOE.            259
affords to the traveller, he must dearly pay with vexations and hardships, produced by the total want of all
those accommodations and comforts to which civilization has accustomed us. One who cannot make up his
mind to "rough it," had better not visit this country.
On the morning of the 25th, a little before sunrise,
I continued my journey. I soon reached the tableland extending to the base of the eastern Andes. The
first village I arrived at, after a ride of about an hour
and a half, was Cachiguango. It consists of two rows
of Indian huts, built of earth or adobes (sun-baked
bricks), the region of the reeds being fortunately behind us. At the same time the mountains seemed to
have disappeared from beneath our feet, and removed
far away into the distance. The sight of wheat and
barley greeted us, instead of the sugar-cane, orange,
and aguacate. It is wonderful with what rapidity we
pass in these highlands from one climate to another.
The fields, as well as the sides of the roads, are inclosed
by long hedges of cabulla (American aloe), the pointed
blades of which, in many a narrow passage, threaten
the eyes and face of the unwary traveller. The aloe
is one of the most important and useful plants of the
country. So manifold are the useful purposes for which
it is employed, and so frequently is it found in the
Ecuadorian highlands, that I must give it a better introduction to my readers. Maguey, or cabulla, is the
"Metl" of the Mexicans, the Maguey de Cocuyza of
the inhabitants of Venezuela. It is the Agava Americana of botanists, and the American aloe of plain
English parlance. According to a vulgar but erroneous idea, it flowers only once in a hundred years. In
Mexico, Pulque, the national beverage, is extracted
from it by incisions made in the stem. In Ecuador




260    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
there is no end to its uses. In the neighborhood which
I am now describing, the Indians thatch their huts with
its leaves. The leaves, when tapped, yield a large
quantity  of syrup, called  " miel de cabulla."   The
fibrous portions of the same organs are woven into
sacks (costales), of which large quantities are manufactured in Ambato and the neighborhood, and in
Hatuntaqui and Ibarra. From the same fibre ropes
are made, and a very important article called " alpargates," a species of sandal worn by the common people
all over the country.1 Those who travel to the Napo,
as the eastern province is generally called, or to Esmeraldas by land, or through other mountainous districts where mule-paths are still unknown, must wear
alpargates, because no other kind of boots or shoes
would last them longer than a day. Alpargates, however, are strong, light, and durable; although it takes
some time to accustom a civilized foot to the burning
sensation which they at first produce.  The broad leaves
of the agave are used in schools (of the poorer classes)
instead of paper, to teach the rudiments of writing.
The flower stalks constitute a light and indestructible
material, of which ladders are made, besides being applied to other domestic purposes. The flowers boiled,
with the addition of vinegar, make an agreeable pickle
called " alcaparras."  The roofs of huts, as I have just
said, are sometimes covered with the leaves, and I have
1 " To make these sandals, the fibre is first formed into a braid nearly
half an inch wide, which is tightly coiled and stitched together to form the
sole. A fore-part is then woven to contain the point of the foot, with merely
a band behind to secure the sandal to the heel...... The pulp of the
leaves of which this fibre is made, is a very good substitute for soap; and
the porous wood of the stem, when dried, forms an excellent strap for sharpening cutting instruments, on account of the fine grit it contains." - Notes
on Colombia, taken in the years 1822 and 1823, by an Officer of the U. S.
Army. Philadelphia, 1827.




TABACUNDO.                       261
also seen the side-walls of Indian chozas patched up
with them. The common people use the leaves as
soap to wash with. In some districts, where great
scarcity of fuel prevails, the poor people supply with
them the place of firewood, for which they are, however, but a poor and smoky substitute; and the Indians cut off the spines, and use them in the place
of pins.1 Hedges, in the Ecuadorian highlands, are
scarcely ever any thing else than living fences of aloes
or lecheros, a tree of which I shall soon have occasion
to speak. There is another plant which greatly resembles the aloe, it is the Maguey verde (green maguey),
with which the long rows of cabulla are not only frequently, but almost invariably interspersed. Its color
is greener and lighter, but in form it somewhat resembles the same, although it belongs to a totally different
genus. It is, in fact, a species of Yucca, and yields a
large quantity of fibre, used for domestic purposes.2
At about 10 o'clock, A. M., I reached Tabacundo, a
considerable village, inhabited, however, only by gente
delpiteblo (common people); and I have already explained that between these and the higher classes the
lines of demarcation are strongly drawn. The barriers
which divide them are impassable. In a country where
governing is the exclusive province and privilege of the
upper ten, if not of certain families in which all polit1 From the long leaves of this plant, by bruising and beating, a thick
juice is expressed; this is mixed with water, boiled and kept skimmed,
until reduced to the consistence of honey; it is then fit for use. In cases
of cuts, when severe and dangerous, if applied, it cures in three days, and
never permits gangrene to take place. The most inveterate ulcers are not
known to resist its sanative powers more than fifteen days." -Journal of
a Residence and Travel in Colombia during the years 1823 and 1824, by Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane, of the Royal Navy. In two volumes; London, 1825.
2 From Dr. Jameson's manuscript notes.




262   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ical influence seems to be concentrated, the favor of the
common people needs not be courted. It is true, the
common man has a vote, if he can read and write; but
very little does he care for voting, and very few opportunities are given him to decide any thing by his vote.
At Tabacundo I stopped for breakfast at a house
which an unorthographical inscription on the wall announced to be a casa posada, although at such places
almost every house is considered to be a tambo. The
landlady got through her preparations uncommonly
quick. Generally, it takes them a couple of hours to
prepare the most indifferent meal. The cause of this
slowness is the clumsiness of their cooking utensils and
fire-places, if a few stones piled up against a few smoking sticks of wood can be called a fire-place. I was
led into a large room, which at the same time served
as a dining-room, laundry, tailor's shop, gambling saloon,
and bedroom. The breakfast consisted, as usual, of
locro de queso (a potato soup with cheese and agi), fried
eggs, with baked plantain slices and toasted bread,
some meat, and, to my utter astonishment, chocolate,
-a luxury which I had not expected at Tabacundo,
and which placed the establishment, however modest
in its appearance, far above the common level of tanbos. When I asked the landlady what my bill was,
she gave me the very common and always unpleasant
answer, " Lo que V. guste," (" what you please.")  I
could not induce her to name the amount, and had to
give her what I thought would be fair.
The women whom I saw at Tabacundo were not
handsome. Their faces betrayed more or less their
ruling passion — drink — the chief and almost only
amusement of the common people of the country.
These women can swallow fabulous quantities of strong




THE ALTO DE CAJAS.            263
liquor, and are passionately fond of bacchanalian orgies.
Tabacundo is chiefly an agricultural population, but I
saw many weaving looms in the houses, on which
coarse cotton and woolen goods are made. The number of the inhabitants is estimated at two thousand,
which I believe to be overrated.
After having proceeded from Tabacundo in a northeasterly direction for'some time, I reached the northwestern end of the plain, which is here hemmed in
by a prolongation of Mt. Imbabura. The road now
suddenly turns to the west, ascending the Alto de Cajas, a ridge by which the folds of Mt. Imbabura
are connected with the opposite mountain range of
Mojanda. This time our ascent led through rich pastures, on which herds of cattle and sheep were grazing.
The meadows and mountains on the sides of the road
were treeless again, but the verdure with which this
alpine region was covered was fresh and pleasing, and
the slopes were dotted with clusters of- Indian huts,
with their quaint pyramidal roofs, thatched with gray
straw or dried weeds. Upon reaching the summit of
the Alto, which is covered with a vegetation of shrubs
and wild flowers, such as generally precede the dry
grass (paja) of the paramo, the lake of San Pablo
lay at my feet, serenely calm in the valley below. Its
shores are covered with haciendas, fields, and Indian
habitations called "huasipongos," and rise slowly and
gradually to the mountains in the rear. On the right
of the lake is the village of San Pablo, covering a considerable area of gronnd, and having its plaza, like
every Spanish village, however small and miserable it
may be. The lake is encompassed by mountains, but
above them all rises the beautiful snow-clad Cotacachi,
forming an appropriate background to this most




264   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
charming scene. Imbabura, a volcano, but only occasionally covered with snow, rises to the right of our
position; the gloomy Mojanda, with its horns of trachytic rocks, to the left. The view which I now enjoyed was different from any thing I had hitherto seen
in Ecuador, but, nevertheless, unmistakably impressed
upon it was that indescribable air of sadness and melancholy, that stillness and death-like repose, which are
inseparable from a Quitonian landscape. The houses
are without chimneys, from which a cheerful cloud of
smoke might lustily curl up into the air. If smoke
can be seen at all, it lazily and timidly clings to the
roofs, and seems incapable of separating itself from the
cottage from which it issues. No grove, no forest, relieves the wandering eye. The noises of railroads,
saw-mills, or steam-boats are listened for in vain. All is
silence below. Not a boat, not a sail, not even a canoe,
ruffles the waters of the melancholy lake; not a coach,
not a cart or wagon, enlivens the deserted highways.
The cattle slowly moving along the shores or on the
hills are the only evidence of life the scenery presents.
But it is the gloomy life of the brute; and there are
no vestiges of the active, struggling, intelligent life of
enterprising man.
The lake is about a league and a half in circumference; its waters are exceedingly cold; its depth is
very great. A small species of fish which the Spaniards call "pren~adilla," and the Indians "imba," is to
ble found in the shallow water near the shore. The
Indians, when they want to cross from one side to the
other, construct of reeds, which grow along the shore,
a kind of balsa, on which they ride astraddle up to
their hips in water, and paddle themselves across. But
even this primitive system of navigation is but little in




FEASTS OF ST. JOHN.            265
use. It is perhaps less troublesome to walk around the
lake than to construct a balsa of reeds.
My descent into the valley was soon effected. The
road leads through the village of San Pablo, which I
found in a great state of excitement on account of the
festivals of San Juan, which in this province are always
celebrated with great pomp and enthusiasm.  For the
Indians especially, this is a time of great rejoicing. It
is their happiest week in the year. What St. John
has done to befriend the poor Indians more than any
other of his heavenly colleagues, I am unable to say.
The truth is, probably, that they merely want a pretext
for following their ancient custom  of carousing and
dancing to their hearts' content, once or twice a year.
I had heard so much of the strange aild curious manner in which the Indians of Otabalo, Cotacachi, Peguchi,
Hatuntaqui, etc., celebrate the feast of St. John, that I
had hastened my trip to the province of Imbabura in
order to be in time to see the sights.
Being tired, rider as well as horse, I wanted to arrive at a resting-place as soon as possible, and therefore
did not stop to see that day's performances. Nevertheless, I shall note what I saw while riding through the
village. In one of the streets I met a group of men in
strange array. Some of them had crowns of high
feathers on their heads, after the ancient Indian fashion. They were clad in long robes, with handkerchiefs, or a kind of apron (our regular aprons are
never worn in this country), tied to their shoulders
and floating down their backs. They were faced by
an equal number of men disguised as females, and gorgeously attired.  The whole company held wooden
arches in their hands, covered over with ribbons, ana
ornamented with flowers. A very crude sort of violins




266  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and guitars constituted the orchestra, which accompanied them. They went through a sort of contradance, consisting of a variety of figures. They first
danced in the streets, and then in the Plaza. The
whole week of San Juan is dedicated to amusements
and revelry. The Indians commence their performances early in the morning, and hardly rest at night.
Three days are devoted to the real feasts and public
amusements; the remainder to private revelry. Sometimes a few days of bull-fighting, accompanied by endless drunken sprees, are added to the programme. The
Indians of the village through which I now passed, as
well as those of the -neighborhood, have a curious mode
of prolonging tlheir orgies. When they see a passer-by,
they hail him, and offer him a cup of rum. If he takes
it, it is understood that he must give them a medio
(half a real), if he does not want to arouse their indignation, and to expose himself to their gibes and
sneers. If he gives them money, they say, "Dios se
lo pague, nifio!" or, " Dios se lo pague, mi amo!" (" God
pay you for it, master! ") and immediately invest it in
strong drink. Humble and submissive as they may be
all the year round, on these occasions they lose their
natural timidity, and beg with an importunity which it
is difficult to shake off.
I left the dansantes (dancing party), and crossing
the Plaza, pursued my way, which lay through the
whole length of the village. In the outskirts I saw
groups of Indians amusing themselves in small squads.
They were most ludicrously attired. They danced
continually, and only stopped to drink. Even those
who played their poor flutes danced along, turning
slowly around, bowing to one side, and stamping on the
ground to keep time, without end. Others accompa



COUNTRY RESIDENCE.            267
nied the performance with monotonous, pitiable songs.
Others again were dancing alone, all by themselves, on
the highway. It was extremely ludicrous to see a solitary Indian on the road, in his senseless masquerade,
sing and dance without companions to see or accompany him.
I soon had the village of San Pablo behind me, and
passing along the northern shore of the lake, left that
behind me also. A rumipamba (field of stones), such
as are almost always found in the neighborhood of
Quitonian volcanoes, reached down the hill-slope to the
northwestern end of the lake. The waters of the lake
find their outlet through a river at this place, called the
Peguchi, which, forming a handsome cascade a few
squares from the woolen factory of the same name,
throws itself down into the green valley of Otabalo,
which it irrigates. Uniting itself with the river Mojanda, it forms the Rio Blanco, which further down,
after its union with the Tauhando, is called the Ambi,
and disembogues into the Chota or Mira.
Peguchi is the name of the factory and beautiful
country residence of Don Manuel Jijon, one of the
most pleasant and enterprising gentlemen in the Republic. At this place, where I was fully undisturbed
and independent, with a beautiful garden and shadetrees before my window (the former a sight so rare
and welcome in this country), I proposed to establish
my head-quarters for a few days, to facilitate my visits
to the most important points of the neighborhood. It
must always be borne in mind that in a country where
there are no inns or taverns, and scarcely any accommodations for the traveller, it is of the highest importance to one who wishes to study and to observe, to be
near a civilized place, upon which he may easily fall




268   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
back for a friendly roof and a clean covered room -
a place where he may find respite from the fleas and
dirt of tambos and posadas.
In the factory of Peguchi coarse woolen goods are
made, such as bayetas for ponchos, jergas for the Indians, and shawls for their women (these shawls are
dyed red, yellow, blue or brown, but the red color is
most in demand); cloth for coats, vests, pantaloons,
carpets, etc. These goods are exported chiefly to New
Granada, as far as Pasto and Popayan in the interior,
and Barbacoas on the coast. The laborers employed
in the factory are almost all Indians. They are concertados, or peones. The factory yields about thirty
pieces of cloth per month, which in 1863 was sold at
two dollars a yard, double-width.
The great Indian festivals of San Juan had already
been going on for two days when I arrived. On the
26th of June, early in the forenoon, I rode over to the
ground where the dances take place. The ground to
which I refer is nearly opposite Peguchi, on the other
side of the beautiful valley of Otabalo. This latter
is the name of a very ancient town, which claims to
be the second in the province. It has two well-built
churches, and a large plaza, lined with two-story
houses; but the great mass of the buildings of which
the town consists, have but one floor. There are
mineral springs in the outskirts and immediate neighborhood. The chapel of San Juan, around which the
Indians celebrated their feast, lies at a short distance,
about half a mile west of Otabalo.
It was a pleasant, level greensward on one of the
lower platforms of the mountains on the south side of
the valley. A most picturesque view presented itself
from this elevation. Almost opposite to the fair-ground




A NOVEL SCENE.              269
rose Mt. Imbabura in its lofty majesty. To the right,
the town of Otabalo; to the left, majestic Cotacachi,
with its snowy peaks; to our rear, the towering Cordillera, and at our feet the fertile plain, dotted with
friendly villas and haciendas, and now and then interrupted by isolated hills, covered with corn fields and
Indian huasipongos. But far more picturesque and
surprising was the view which the ground itself presented.  For a moment I was overcome with the
novelty of the scene, to which no description will be
able to do justice. At a distance, one would have
supposed that an English army had encamped on the
ground, for hundreds of Indian women, in their favorite red shawls, sat in long rows on the greensward, on
which the feast took place, and on the rising ground
at its western extremity.  On this latter acclivity
stood the chapel of San Juan, which is now in ruins,
destroyed by the great earthquake of 1859. Weeds,
shrubs, and wild flowers had taken possession of the
interior of the temple, and a rank but interesting
vegetation had overgrown its roofless walls. At the
foot of these ruins the slope was covered with dense
groups of Indian women, and rows of them were
ranged along the sides of the dancing place below.
They all dress after the same fashion; but the leading
feature of their dress is the coarse woolen shawl with
which they cover their breast and shoulders. This
shawl, as I have already said, is almost always red.
You may judge of the impression produced by six or
seven hundred red-shawled women, sitting in a large
semicircle around almost as many Indian men, in all
sorts of masquerades, and forming a striking contrast
to the ruins above, and the melancholy verdure in the
valley below.




270   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
While the women were thus ranged about as spectators, and enjoying themselves with food and drink,
the men went through the dances, of which the festival principally consists.  The Indian wife accompanies her liege lord to the festive scene, but her province is not the dance. Her business is to watch the
movements of her husband, and to take care of him
as soon as he gets unmanageably or helplessly drunk.
Faithfully to comply with this duty is considered
highly honorable to a wife. As soon as her spouse
commences to be overpowered by the immense quantities of rum or chicha which he consumes, she is at his
side, and remains with him. A woman who would
fail to comply with this most important of her marital
duties on a great occasion like this, would be despised
by the whole Indian community, if not abandoned by
her own husband. I do not propose to say that she
does not get drunk too; but never so drunk as to become unable to manage him. She clings to him with
the utmost tenacity. She holds him back and rolls
him off when his intoxication assumes a belligerous
character; she prevents him from committing excesses; she makes him sleep on her lap, and finally leads
him to his home.
Two long rows of booths running to the foot of the
acclivity on which the old chapel stood, from the entrance of the fair-ground, lined it on the north and
south. In the booths on the left side of the entrance
only liquors and candies were sold. The stock offered
for sale consisted of the common rum of the country
(aguardiente), distilled from  the sugar-cane of the
province, and preserved in hides; of anisadas (rum
seasoned with anise-seed), and of mistelas (sweetened
liquors). The booths were constructed of poles driven




THE COOK-SHOPS.              271
into the ground, with staves nailed to them transversely.  Their tops and sides were covered with
dried hides. In the liquor booths I saw spectators belonging to the half-white or cholo rabble, huddled together on the ground, men and women promiscuously,
sleeping in one another's laps, beastly drunk. In the
booths on the right hand of the entrance, meals were
prepared. They were the cook-shops, and agyi de cuy,
agi de queso, agi de lobrillo, locro, cariucho, and other
national dishes, were prepared for those who had
money to pay for them. As potatoes form the principal ingredient of all these dishes, but very little
money was required. No crockery was used. The
eatables (comida) were filled from the pots (ollas) into
calabashes.  Ladles were generally wanting, smaller
calabashes supplying their places. Only wooden spoons
were used. At a distance of a few feet from the cookshops, and in front of them, was another row of saleswomen, but without booths. They were the fruteras,
who, squatting on the ground, sold fruit, which in this
neighborhood is very cheap.  Around these three
rows of stands crowds were continually thronging, as
the eating and drinking went on incessantly. Hundreds of besotted Indians, simpering and reeling, and
supported by their faithful wives, were drinking to the
health of their compadres and commadres, now embracing and hugging one another, now bickering and
tearing about, to their hearts' content. Others were
singing, with hoarse drunken voices, to the tune of the
harp or guitar, or even without accompaniment, while
still others lay stretched out on the ground, fast asleep.
Yet they were all harmless and inoffensive, and committed no excesses whatever.
The Indian. men were most quaintly attired. Of




272   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
course, all of them  went barefoot, men as well as
women. Some of the dancers had curious caps on,
meant to represent certain incomprehensible characters. Others wore straw hats of ludicrous dimensions.
But most of them wore the gray woolen hats, which
are very common among the Indians of the interior,
where they are made. Tied around their chins, and
over their hats, they almost universally wore a cotton
handkerchief of lively colors, which they consider a
great ornament on such occasions.  Some of them
wore it hanging down over their faces like a vail;
others had it floating over their neck and shoulders.
Most of the participators wore white goat-skin trousers (zamarros), such as I had already noticed at
San Pablo.  Their light-colored ponchos, expressly
purchased for the occasion, or recently washed, were
yet clean; and in connection with the red shawls of
the women, which I have already described, gave a
most lively appearance to the scene. It is very customary among the aborigines to hire dress-coats or
hats, or other incongruous articles of costume, for the
three days of the feast. All sorts of coats were represented on the ground.  Some wore black dresscoats, others frock-coats, which formed a most ludicrous contrast to their bare feet and goat-skin trousers.
One wore a military coat; another a red coat with
great yellow buttons.  Jackets, too, of various sizes
and colors, were worn in great numbers. Others appeared in light red shirts, which they wore over their
trousers. Some had their faces painted with an ugly
brown-red color; others were painted black to represent negroes, which seems to be a favorite mummery
among the Indians. In short, it was the queerest mixture of incoherent and detached articles of costume I




MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.           273
ever saw. Persons who have offended an Indian, are
very frequently mimicked by the injured party on
such occasions  and it is only to be regretted that besides the unsophisticated mimicker himself and a few
of his initiated friends, nobody will suspect or be able
to understand the object of his disguise. I once heard
of a poor stupid Indian who, having been struck by
a soldier, threatened him with his revenge. " Just
wait," he said, "on San Juan I shall mimic you!"
("Aguardate, en San Juan te he de remedar! ")  Poor,
childish, down-trodden race!
Innumerable were the musical instruments on the
ground. The most common of all was the rondador,
a most primitive instrument, consisting of a number
of reeds shortening gradually toward one end, such as
Pan, the god of the shepherds, is represented with.
This instrument is a great favorite with the Indian.
It accompanies the herdsman as well as the arriero,
and simple, few, and melancholy, are the tunes it
yields. Flutes and violins, such as we would give to
our little boys, I saw in great numbers. Others had
guitars of a very common and indifferent make. There
were also several harps and one or two horns, which
sounded like the trumpets of our American firemen.
I saw no drums, which, however, may have been accidental. With the Indians of Quito the drum is highly
popular. With a boy's drum and fife they can amuse
themselves for days, in their monotonous, melancholy
way. The instruments just described were not united
in an orchestra, but each of the many different parties
who, marched up and down or around the grounds, had
at least two or three of them. They played but one
solitary tune. It was the same from morning to night,
without variation or intermission.
18




274   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Most of the men I saw on the ground had very long
and thick hair. It was like the hair of all the Ecuadorian Indians, — of a deep black color, and very
coarse and smooth. The Indians of Otabalo, Hatuntaqui, Cotacachi, etc., look upon it as a great ornament, and never cut it. With some of them it reached
down to their waists. They either wore it loose, or
had one little thin braid twisted on top of it. The
men wore no jewelry.  The women, however, are
very fond of bracelets and collars of red beads, to
some of which numbers of reals or half reals were
suspended.
Of their dances, in which they are untiring, I
noticed three different figures.  About twelve or
fifteen dancers, more or less, form a procession, somewhat irregular, with little boys among them, in fancy
dresses like their seniors, and march up and down the
fair-ground to its whole length, wheeling around at
one end to return to the other. While marching,
some of them will play their crude flutes or guitars.
Even harps will be carried along in the procession,
with their bottoms resting on the back of a little boy,
while the musician harps away at the strings, and one
of his companions beats the time on the side of the instrument. The marchers trip to the tune of the music,
making one long and two short steps. In fact, this
peculiar step, with which they march and countermarch, and wheel about, constitutes the whole of the
dance.  From time to time they will form a circle
with one or two of the musicians in the centre, and
then they will march around them, always with the
step just described, until the leader of the party commands "Damos una vuelta!  Damos una vuelta!"
when they all turn about and trip away in the oppo



GAMBLING ESTABLISHMENTS.          275
site direction of the same circle. This figure is repeated until they get tired of it, and form a procession again. The third figure which I observed is
one of less activity. The members of the party cluster
around one another, and then each man turns round,
beating time with his feet, in slow but continuous rotation.  The musicians do the same, marking time
with their heads and the upper part of their bodies.
The musicians are amateurs, and enjoy the double
pleasure of playing and dancing. While engaged in
the dance the faces of the participants will be as serious and dignified as if they were performing a task
of awful solemnity. Their countenances, as well as
their indefatigable perseverance, indicate that they are
pleased, but no smile betrays it. They never get
wildly excited, they quicken their step but very seldom; they never run or romp, however drunk they
may be. As long as they are in the dance they do
as their fellows do. Sometimes the leader of the
party, or one of his followers, utters a deep, guttural,
and almost ghastly laugh, but this is a part of the performance, and sounds strained and unnatural. Sometimes, they join in a hearty cheer; but it is only done
at the command of the leader. Each party seems to
have its leader.  The dancers only stop to eat and
to drink, and then fall into the line of procession
again.
Behind the booths to the right of the entrance several gambling establishments were kept up, patronized,
to the honor of the Indians it must be said, exclusively
by white persons of the lower classes, and cholos.
One was a rueda de fortuna (wheel of fortune), consisting of a long iron needle, turning round on a pivot,
)yer a board on which numbers are painted, and set




276   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
in motion by a jerk. The other was a game well
known to our children. It consisted of a round board
with little holes, and numbers in them. A ball running into one of the holes from out of a winding chimney, decides the victory. This game is called cachito.
But another game, which attracted the greatest number
of participants and spectators, and which they called
bolichi, was something new to me. It consisted of a
large round pit dug in the ground, about forty feet
in circumference and twelve in diameter, in the shape
of the inside of the lower half of a hollow globe. Into
this pit the player throws an even number of little
wooden balls. They roll to the bottom, where there
are two small receptacles, the larger one of a round
form, the smaller one, an oblong square. If the number of balls that run into the latter is even, or if they
all run into the round hole, the player wins; if not,
those who bet against him. Most of the spectators
join in the bets. Even women and little boys throw
down their reals, carried away by the excitement of
the game. The pit is covered with a shed, to protect
the company from sun and rain.
While going over the ground, I was again struck by
the repulsive ugliness of the Indian women. Whether
it is their habit of beastly drinking that produces this
ugliness, or the hard work which they are compelled
to perform, I am unable to say. There is a general
belief at Quito that the Indians of Otabalo, and especially the women, are handsomer, and cleaner than
those of Pichincha, Latacunga, etc., but I have been
unable to discover the slightest foundation for such an
opinion. It is the same national type, and the same
ugly, stupid, simpering look that distinguish them all.
As far as cleanliness is concerned, the difference, if it




THE CHAPEL OF MONSERATE.         277
exists, is imperceptible to a foreign eye. The only
thing in which the Otabalo Indian excels is his long
hair, which, of course, he never cuts, and, I may add,
but very seldom combs.
On my return from the festive grounds to Peguchi,
I passed the chapel of Monserate, where another Indian feast was going on. This chapel, too, was in
ruins, having been destroyed by the earthquake of
1859; and the rule outside of Quito seems to be that
if a building once tumbles down, it is not to be built
up again. Ruins, as I have already said, are a characteristic feature of Spanish-American civilization.
The chapel of Monserate is about half-way between
Otabalo and Peguchi. It is at the foot of that almost
circular mountain chain which seams the pleasant and
friendly plain of Otabalo. As the Indians who had
assembled to celebrate their San Juan on this spot belonged to the immediate neighborhood only, their number was but small. One fellow, with his face painted
black to represent a negro, acted the part of a clown,
and by Iris pranks and capers imparted life to the
scene.  His companions, too, seemed to be much
gayer and livelier than those I had just left. As I
distributed some money among them, the arrival of
our party was greeted with great rejoicing, and the
Indians hastened to go through their whole programme
for our especial benefit. They had a wooden image of
St. John with them, which stood on a portable platform, and was nicely dressed and bedecked with tinsel
and finery. As soon as the dance commenced, two of
the men took the apostle on their shoulders, and made
him join in the dance, passing through all its figures
and variations. Even in the circle-dance the saint
merrily participated; and when the word was given to




278   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
wheel about (damos una vuelta), his carriers, who could
not turn round with their load without breaking up
the circle, danced backwards. What a queer spectacle
it was! These dances were the principal enjoyment
of the Indians under their heathen Incas and Scyris.
The Spanish conquerors, seeing no reason for suppressing them, accommodated them to Christian instead of
pagan holidays. And now we see the Indians, in their
quaint mummeries, and covered all over with floating
handkerchiefs, dance the same dances around the
Christian cross that they formerly danced in honor of
the sun, the moon, or Pachacamac; and in the midst
of their pagan revelry, carried in the same manner in
which formerly some old Peruvian high-priest or idol
was carried, hops about the gayly dressed wooden
image of the Catholic saint. The ceremonies have
remained the same; the ignorance and superstition of
the Indians have remained the same; it is only the
name of the idol that has changed. Formerly it was
called Pachacamac, now it is called St. John.
But the dancing saint was not the only mixture of
Catholicism and heathenism.  There were sacrifices,
too, live sacrifices of cocks and other birds, because
it is believed by the Indians that the blood of the
victim is a pleasant offering to the Christianized Pachacamac.  This barbarous custom, which I shall now
describe, is called "Arrancar los gallos." A rope was
tied to a tree on one side, and run through a pole driven
into the earth on the other. To this rope, the end of
which remained in the hands of some of the company,
a live cock was tied by his feet, and tossed up and down
by those who held the rope, while a number of others
performed a circle dance under him. These latter
finally seized the poor animal, one of the dancers after




SACRIFICES OF BIRDS.           279
the other, and plucked off his feathers, throwing them
into the crowd. It is a barbarous, horrible sight, to
behold the agony of the poor, helpless bird. After
continuing the dance a little longer, they seized the
victim again, one by the leg, another by the head, others taking the wings, and unmercifully tore him asunder. And now another senseless part of the performance begins. Those who have succeeded in getting
hold of a part of the animal, make a general attack on
their friends, striking them with the bloody remains in
the face, over the head, on the neck, etc., without
minding the clean handkerchiefs and ponchos with
which they have ornamented their dress, or the fancy
articles of costume expressly hired for the occasion.
The others in their turn, attempt to snatch the pieces
of the sacrificed bird from the hands of their assailants,
and so a general scuffle follows, which, although carried
on amid great laughter and shouting, very frequently
leads to serious blows. Two cocks were thus sacrificed
in my presence, and as no greater supply was at hand,
the boys hung up little birds, several at a time, and
disposed of them in the same manner. During the
main festival in front of the chapel of San Juan, twelve
cocks were sacrificed that day, as I was afterwards informed.
I returned to Peguchi at about five o'clock in the
afternoon. There I learned from the director of the
factory and haciendas of Mr. Jijon that at Cayambi, a
village at the foot of the mountain of the same name,
and belonging to the neighboring province of Pichincha, the great feasts of San Juan and San Pedro would
begin on the following Sunday, and continue for several days. On the first day the celebrated contradances of the "San Juanes" were to take place, - a




280   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
spectacle given by two or four dozen whites and chDlos,
one half of them in female dresses, and all of them
in fancy costumes. On the second day the Indian
dances would take place, and end, as they always did,
in great and serious pitched battles between the Indians
of the different haciendas,- the Indians of the neighborhood of Cayambi being much more pugnacious and
violent than their countrymen in general. The festival
was to conclude with bull-teasings, the interest of which
was said to be considerably enhanced by the ferocity
of the toros (bulls) brought down from the paramos.
These announcements promised a rich field of observation; and on the 28th of June, 1863, at about eight
o'clock in the morning, I started from Peguchi, which
is about five leagues from Cayambi. I again passed by
the lake of San Pablo, and rode through the village of
that name. I reascended the heights of Cajas from
which I had come down a few days ago, and descending on the other side into the fertile plain of Tabacundo, intersected in the direction of my destination
by several streams, - one of which, the San Jose de
Cayambi, is exceedingly noisy and rapid, - I reached
the village of Cayambi at about twelve o'clock meridian.
Mt. Cayambi, from which the village derives its
name, is one of the highest mountains in the world,
and the second highest in Ecuador. Its majestic dome,
covered with a robe of perpetual snow, rises to a height
of 19,813 feet. The village is 9724 feet above the
level of the sea. Humboldt pronounces the mountain
to be one of the most beautiful he saw; and in fact
there is no sight more imposing than its masses of
snow and ice glowing with crimson splendor in the rays
of the setting sun. As Cayambi, in clear weather, can




VILLAGE OF CAYAMBI.            281
be seen from Quito, I frequently went to see it. It
shines forth like a fairy dome as long as the sun's
farewell rays are reflected upon it. No mortal painter's
brush could do justice to the brilliancy of its prismatic
tints. But as soon as the sun begins to hide his face
behind the western Cordillera, the lower buttresses of
the mountain assume a pure white color, leaving only
the higher peaks in all the splendor and brilliancy of
a short but enchanting refulgence, which is followed
by the pure whiteness of death. Like a gigantic ghost,
shrouded in sepulchral sheets, the mountain now hovers
in the background of the landscape, towering ghastly
through the twilight until darkness closes upon the
scene. It is a sight which richly indemnifies the Toreign traveller for his hardships in floundering over
wretched roads, sleeping in miserable hovels, and
scrambling over the roadless Cordillera; for nowhere
in the wide world could he enjoy such a view again.
The village of Cayambi is a, cold, windy, unfriendly,
and dirty place, with narrow streets and mean little
houses of earth or adobes. There are but two twostory buildings, and these are on the Plaza. The
church is almost entirely in ruins, having been destroyed by the earthquake of 1859. I was very hospitably received by the curate, who lives in a large but
neglected and uncomfortable building in the rear of
the church. The houses have no glass windows, but
only wooden shutters, which, in a cold place like Cayambi, makes them doubly uncomfortable.  The cold
climate of the place is attributable, not so much to its
elevation, which is but two hundred feet higher than
that of Quito, as to the immediate neighborhood of the
mountain, which, in my opinion, makes it one of the
coldest inhabited places in the province of Pichincha,




282   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
although it is almost directly under the line, - Mt. Cayamlbi being, according to Humboldt, the only snowy
place in the world over which the equator passes.
Cold and uncomfortable as the valley may be, it is,
nevertheless, very healthy.  The curate told me that
the inhabitants attained a very high age, and that persons who lived a hundred or more years, did not at all
constitute exceptional cases. The streets of the place
-or rather lanes, for they hardly deserve the name of
streets-are long and tortuous, but its population is not
in proportion to its extent, as the houses are generally
built at a considerable distance from one another, separated by intervening courts, gardens, and fields. A
river called the Rio Blanco (White River), passes by
the village at its northern extremity, and is formed,
like so many others which irrigate the plain of Tabacundo, by the melting snows of Mt. Cayambi.
It was a dull, cloudy, gloomy day, with every now
and then one of those slow and piercing mists or rains
which, in these regions, are called "paramos," and very
frequently develop into regular showers. They owe
their origin to the nearness of the clouds lowering from
the mountains, and to the mists in which the real paramos (high plains or heaths) are almost continually enveloped. The natives have a welcome-drink which
they always prepare for arriving travellers, and which
they call " agua gloriada," or " aguita de azucar."  It
consists of sugar dissolved in boiling water, with a
strong addition of that detestable rum which the sugarcane districts of the province of Imbabura pour over
the land. This beverage was inflicted on me with the
urgent recommendation that it was the aguita del pais
(the water of the country), and I had to struggle hard
to ward it off as much as possible. After I had rested




LOS SAN JUANES.               283
a little, I went to the Plaza, where the dances of the
"San Juanes " had already commenced.
The spectacle that now presented itself to my view
was entirely novel, not only on account of the fantastic
and not at all unbecoming dresses of the performers,
but also of the skill and promptitude with which they
went through the most difficult figures of their dance.
The latter somewhat resembled our cotillons. There
were twenty-four dancers on the ground, twelve of
whom were in female attire. These latter wore little
black felt hats, ornamented with waving black plumes,
and little vails attached to the rims. They also wore
long locks of false hair.  Their dresses were white and
neat, and over their shoulders they wore little silk
shawls of gay colors. The men wore little caps, with
tinsel and plumage of all colors, silk jackets or vests,
silk shawls or handkerchiefs over their shoulders, and
clean white pantaloons.  Every one of the party carried an arch in his hands, covered with ribbons, cockades, and flowers. These arches played a prominent
part in the formation of the figures of the dance.  To
complete the costume, the company wore yellow dancing-shoes, made of the coarse and heavy leather of the
country. The orchestra consisted of a trumpet, a big
drum, two flutes, and a horn. They played the same
tune, consisting of' only a few notes, during the whole
of the mortal two hours that the dance lasted. This
tune is also called " San Juan."
A fellow with his face painted black to represent a
negro, and with a red soldier-jacket and white pantaloons, and a little drum at his side, performed the part
of the leader, and, at the same time, clown of the
party, delivering funny addresses to the audience, ordering groups of the spectators to sit down, or to with



284   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
draw to the houses, so as not to obstruct the view of
those behind them, and threatening to stop the dance
in case of disobedience. His imperious requests were
always complied with. He was assisted by his counterpart,- a fellow in the disguise of a negress, - who
whipped the boys away and did other funny things.
She and her pretended husband or master danced around
the other dancers in comic style. There also was a fellow in the popular disguise of a monkey, with a long tail,
who, by his independent pranks, entirely unconnected
with the other proceedings, greatly amused the junior
part of the audience. On one occasion, he snatched a
bag from an old Indian woman, opened it, and in regular monkey fashion examined its contents, throwing
at the boys the few pieces of agi it contained. The
dancing took place in the middle of the Plaza. The
spectators (all the men in ponchos) occupied the windows, porches, and house-tops of the square, and the
ruins of the old church, or were seated on the ground
around the dancers. It was a grotesque sight, and I
only regretted that Mt. Cayambi was concealed from
our view by mists and clouds. Its snowy dome would
have formed a strange contrast to the fantastic dancers,
and the motley crowd of spectators below.
As I have already said, the great dance lasted about
two hours, at the end of which the negro leader proposed vivas (cheers) for the President of the Republic,
for the curate of the village and his coadjutor, for the
dancers (los Sanjuanes), and for himself. All these
cheers were given, not by the multitude in attendance,
but by the dancers themselves. After this, single
dances were performed, one pair at a time. They consisted of the slow and easy alza que te han visto, to
which I have already alluded.




MT. CAYAMBI.                285
As soon as this performance was over, the dancers,
and a great number of the spectators in their wake,
adjourned to the residence of the curate, in whose large
court-yard they repeated some of the figures of the
cotillon, and refreshed themselves with chicha, aguardiente (rum), and a smoke, in all of which those disguised as females heartily participated.  The negro
leader then made his appearance on the curate's porch,
and compelled some of the gentlemen present to pass
through an alza que te han visto with the pseudo-damsels below. In the same manner some of the lady
guests were prevailed upon to dance a round with the
indefatigable ASanjuanes, who afterward formed a procession and marched through several of the streets of
the place. The liquor-shops were crowded until a late
hour of the night. Besides chicha and aguardiente,
great quantities of guarapo were consumed.  Guarapo
is the juice of the sugar-cane boiled and partly fermented. Its taste is acid, and it is very intoxicating.
It is not necessary to boil the juice. Simple fermentation suffices to produce a very popular beverage. But
the guarapo of the boiled juice tastes better, and is
therefore preferred.
Early in the morning next day I took a stroll around
the village, but the weather continued unfavorable,
and Mt. Cayambi could not be seen. Having seen it
very often from Quito and other places from which it
is visible, I was very anxious to see it near by. But
Andean scenery is continually fraught with disappointments, and weeks will sometimes pass away before the
envious clouds lift their vail from a mountain whose
fame has excited the curiosity of a nature-loving traveller.  While conversing with the natives, a report
was mentioned to me which, if true, would prove highly




286   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
interesting to geographers.l  I was told that Cayambi
is a volcano, which is still in activity; that on its eastern side it has two craters, from which frequent eruptions are said to have taken place, witnessed by the
mayordomos (superintendents or stewards) of neighboring haciendas who had penetrated into the wilderness in the rear of the mountain in search of stray cattle. Sportsmen who followed game into'those lonely
deserts, are said to have made the same observation.
The craters are not on the summit, but on the east side
of the mountain, and throw their ashes and water (for
South-American volcanoes do not throw out lava) in
the direction of the wilderness on the Napo, one of the
1 Dr. William Jameson, to whose valuable manuscript notes I have repeatedly referred, undertook an ascent of Cayambi in December, 1859, of
which he gave me a most interesting narrative. I subjoin the following
extract: " The village of Cayambi is situated on a gentle declivity, forming
the base of the mountain bearing the same name. The latter is situated
east-northeast of Quito, and according to Humboldt, directly under the
equator.. The flora of the village is in every respect similar to that of the
last-named city. The soil is remarkably fertile, and watered by numerous
streams that derive their origin from the snow. The system of irrigation
is extensively practiced by the proprietors of cattle estates, who derive a
liberal emolument from the productions of the dairy, particularly from
cheese, which, in this country, is consumed in enormous quantities. The
number of cattle distributed over the different farms of Cayambi, cannot be
less than thirty thousand. There is one estate, that of Guachala, where
thirty thousand sheep are reared, furnishing a proportional quantity of wool
for the manufacture of a coarse cloth, connected with the establishment.
This article is purchased at the price of two reals a yard, and sold in the
mining districts of Barbacoas at rather more than double its original price.
December 23d, being close on Christmas, to persuade any one to accompany
me to the snowy region, was not to be thought of. I had to wait three days,
and on the 26th set out, accompanied by an Indian. Our ascent on the
northern side was an easy task, and occupied us about six hours. Toward the
afternoon, we had attained an elevation of about 14,000 feet, and my guide
pointed out to me a forest of Polylepis, which I ascertained to be identical
with that growing on Chimborazo at nearly the same height. In the midst
of this forest we found a couple of huts, well covered with straw, and abundance of material for fuel. Botany being my principal object, I cannot say
I found any material difference between the flora of Cayambi and that of
Pichincha, with which I am well acquainted."




MT. CAYAMBI.              287
most memorable tributaries of the Amazons. At present the impression prevalent in scientific circles is, that
Cayambi, if it ever was a volcano, has become dormant. This belief is supported by the fact that, from
its western, southern, and northern sides, which present themselves to the inhabited parts of Ecuador, no
eruptions have ever been noticed. It seems strange
that none of the scientific travellers who examined the
mountain and its botany and geology, should ever
have gone behind it. Colonel Hall, to whose exploring
expeditions I have already referred, and who died a
lamentable death before he had published his most valuable scientific observations, made an attempt to scale
the mountain from its western (the village) side; in
what year I am unable to state. He had already
reached a considerable height, when he found himself
unable to proceed any further, on account of the steepness of the rocks, and the snow-drifts, in which he was
continually losing himself. Having also been abandoned by the Indians whom he had hired to accompany
him, he was compelled to return before having accomplished the object of his expedition. Dr. Jameson,
who ascended the mountain from its northern side,
went a little beyond the snow limit, but confined himself to botanical observations, not having heard the
report I just mentioned. My curiosity, therefore, was
greatly excited by what I had heard, and I concluded
to attempt the ascent from the eastern side. Preparations, however, being necessary for such an expedition, and the object of my present journey being the
province of Imbabura, I resolved to postpone the exploration of the rear of Cayambi till the month of
December (the Indian summer), when the storms on
the paramos would have subsided, and the weather




288    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
would be clear. Subsequent events, however, prevented me from carrying-out my intention.
Many other stories are  told  about the unexplored
country in the rear of Cayambi, and around its southern neighbor, Sara Urcu.' One of the villagers informed me that his father, while on an expedition in
search of the probably fabulous Serro Pelado, discovered a silver mine in one of the upper rocks of Sara
Urcu, but that he lacked either the means or the
necessary energy to work it. In speaking of those
regions, it must always be borne in mind that they are
complete deserts, without roads or paths, without huts
or habitations, without a nourishing vegetation; and
that while it is impossible to penetrate into them on
horseback, sharp rocks, frightful abysses, deep ravines,
and the frosts and snows of the paramos, will soon arrest the sore foot of the weary pedestrian. The mists
and fogs in which the paramos are enveloped, sometimes whole weeks without intermission, will make him
lose his way. The streams which he passes will rise
behind him and prevent his regress, perhaps for days,
during which his supply of provisions will give out,
exposing him to the danger of starvation. All these
obstacles are well calculated to dampen the ardor of
races more energetic  than  Spanish-Americans.  The
1 Sara Urcu or Supai Urcu. This volcano is of little consideration, and
situate in the chain of Guamani, which is detached from' the great Cordillera. According to Father Velasco's History of Quito, this volcano had
two eruptions of fire; but lately it ejected great quantities of volcanic ashes,
first in December, 1843, and then in December, 1856. The first of these
eruptions lasted two days, and produced the greatest consternation among
the inhabitants of Quito and the neighborhood. The elevation of this
mountain is 6210 yards (varas) above the level of the sea. It is situate
thirty-five miles to the east of Quito. The mountain-chain of Pesambillo,
and others of less importance. are also known by the name of Sara Urcu."
- Translated from Manuel Villavicencio's Geography oef the Republic of
Ecuador, published in New York in the year 1858.




THE SERRO PELADO.             289
Pizarros, Almagros, Alvarados, Benalcazars, and Quesadas are no more. That iron energy and perseverance with which they braved the perils of the unexplored wilderness, and endured incredible hardships in
search of the Eldorado of their dreams, do not distinguish their descendants. Too indolent to develop the
resources before their own doors, how can it be expected that they should set out to conquer an unknown
wilderness?
The story of the Serro Pelado, just referred to, is
differently told. Many are the legends in which it
figures. Most of them locate it somewhere in the rear
of Cayambi, between that mountain and Sara Urcu.
According to others, it is believed to be in the rear of
Cotopaxi. It is said to be on the other side of a stream,
impassable partly on account of the perpendicular height
of its rocky banks, partly on account of the rapidity
and depth of its waters.  The signification of the word
pelado, is shorn, or bald. The mountain is said to be
entirely barren, and its large and fabulous veins of gold
are reported to have been seen from this side of the
fatal river. There is one point, however, in that Cordillera, as the story runs, where the river is easily fordable. That point, so difficult to find on account of the
mists and clouds hovering over the paramos, was accidentally discovered by an Indian of the neighborhood
of Cayambi. He had run away from his master, by
whom he had been harshly treated, and losing his way
in the wilderness, he suddenly found himself opposite
the Serro Pelado at a fordable point of the stream.
He saw the veins of pure gold from his side of the
river, crossed the stream, and with no other instrument
but his hands, dug out a large lump of gold, a part of
which, on his return home, he gave to a white conz19




290  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
padre. He is even said to have returned to the mountain for fresh supplies of the precious metal.  The
sudden change in his circmnstances, as well as in those
of.his compadre, - who seems to have played some unexplained part in the drama, - excited public attention,
and the Indian was arrested and compelled to confess.
Great excitement followed the discovery, and an expedition was immediately fitted out to explore Serro Pelado; but before it got ready to start, a revolution brokeout, like a deus ex machina, and so convulsed the country for some time afterwards, that the enterprise was
abandoned. Meanwhile the Indian died, and expeditions that afterwards went out in search of the fabulous
mountain, returned without results. This is the least
mythical of the different versions of the story that have
come to my knowledge. Others, to give it a romantic
touch, let the expedition be interrupted, not by the
breaking out of a revolution, but by the sudden death
of the unfortunate Indian, who had been impressed as
guide. He died mysteriously the very day before the
intended departure of the expedition; and with him
the secret of the locality of Serro Pelado was sunk into
the grave.
Whether such a mountain has really been seen by
somebody, is a matter of great doubt, and perhaps improbability. The fact is, that many expeditions went
out in search of it, and that it was not discovered.
Improbable, and vastly exaggerated as most of these
gold-stories appear, they are excusable in a country
whose immense richness in precious metals, under its
ancient native rulers, are historical facts of unquestionable certainty. " There must be gold in our country,
for otherwise, where should the Incas have taken it
from? " This is the argument with which the natives




PROVINCIA DEL ORIENTE.          291
generally conclude the relation of the above and similar legends. It is, however, too vague and too general to prove the point in question; for the Incas may
have found their precious metals anywhere in the countries now known as Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, on the
eastern or on the western side of the great Cordillera,
if not in the mountains themselves, in mines which
have become inaccessible by the destruction of Indian
civilization. Another argument, however, which I
heard frequently, ought to be mentioned in this connection. That part of the tropical wilderness beyond
the Cordillera east of Quito, which is generally designated by the name of the " Napo country" (its
official name is Provincia del Oriente), furnishes the
Ecuadorian market with a yearly quantity of gold-dust.
However limited this quantity may be, it fully corresponds to the value of the articles which the Napo Indians purchase during the year, at fabulous prices, from
the governor of the province or his partners in trade.
Those functionaries, in spite of all legal prohibitions,
still follow the ancient practice of repartimientos (compulsory sales). They unite the Indians on certain
days of the year, distribute a certain quantity of baize
and other articles among them, which the savages are
compelled to take, and then command them to pay in
gold-dust for the debts thus forced upon them, within
six months. Naturally, the Indians do not wash more
gold than necessary to discharge their obligations to
the governor or his favorites. The gold-dust which
they furnish is washed in the streams having their origin in that part of the Cordillera to which the Cayambi,
Sara Urcu, Cotopaxi, and other Quitonian mountains
belong. It is, as the natives say, oro arrastrado, gold
washed away from its original layers by the force of




292   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
the current. Hence it is argued, why should there
not be gold in the mountains themselves, when there
is gold-dust in their streams. I repeat this argument
without, of course, indorsing it. Scientific explorations
alone will be able to determine the truth. Had it not
been for Spanish avarice and cruelty, the country on
the head-waters of the Amazons would not be what it
now is - a roving place for unconquered savage tribes.
The district of Macas, to the east of Riobamba, on
the other side of the Cordillera, was the richest in precious metals at the time of the Spanish conquest. Its
boundless treasures attracted a great number of adventurers and colonists, who founded three flourishing
cities - Mendoza, Sevilla de Oro (the Golden Sevilla),
and Logrofio, the fame of which soon rivaled that of
Cuzco and Lima. Forty-seven years of progress had
cleared the impenetrable forests on the rivers Palora,
Upano, and Paute, and roads were cut through the
rocky deserts of the Cordillera. But the Indians of
the Orient were not so meek and timid as their brethren of Cuzco and Quito. The warlike Jivaros, who
had defeated the conquering schemes of the great Inca
Huaynacapac, were not the men to bend their necks
to the rapacious tyranny and cruelty of Spanish adventurers. Under the leadership of the valiant and cunning Quirruba, - of whom we must regret not to know
more, for he deserves a place in history as the liberator
of his race, — they flew to arms, and in a short and
terrible conflict wiped from their virgin soil the colonies of the European intruder.
A few miserable huts, now constituting the village
df Macas, are said to indicate the place where the
golden Sevilla once stood, but of Mendoza and Logronio
not a vestige has remained. The impenetrable density




THE SACK OF LOGRONO.            293
of the tropical forest again closed upon the'scene, and
the poisoned arrow of the savage threatens with death
and destruction the intruder whose daring foot should
have escaped the sting of the serpent or the fang of
the wild beast.
There is a legend that the Jivaros, after taking Logrono, killed the Spanish governor by pouring down
his throat a quantity of molten gold. But there is no
historical evidence whatever to warrant a belief in this
piece of poetic justice. It is true, however, that no
men were made prisoners. Those who did not escape
in time were mercilessly butchered by the exasperated
Indians. The young women alone were spared, and
carried off as the wives or slaves of their barbarous
conquerors.  To this catastrophe it is to be ascribed
that in the features of a whole tribe of unredeemed
Jivaros there is yet traceable the blood of Castile.
What a life of horror and despair those woe-begone
women must have led in the hands of their Indian
masters, only the pen of a Shakespeare or Goethe,
Byron or Schiller, could describe. An ocean between
them and the land of their childhood; an impenetrable
wilderness of forests and mountains between the place
of their captivity and the settlements of their countrymen; and the embrace of a savage heathen between
their despairing hearts and their Church!




CHAPTER XIV.
My Journey to the Northern Province continued.- The Chase.- Esculents. - The Graveyard of Cayambi. -Doctrina Cristiana. - Aruchicos. -
Speech by an Indian. - Indian Peonage. - Further Peculiarities of Indian
Character. - Population and Characteristics of the Town of Otabalo. -
The Convent. - Punishment of Indians for neglecting Religious Observances. - Alcaldes de Doctrina. - Mt. Cotacachi and Lake Cuicocha. -
Dangerous Hunting Parties. - Sunday Markets. - The Village of Cotacachi. - More Remnants of the Inquisition. - Padronar. - How Laws
and Municipal Ordinances are promulgated in an Illiterate Country. -
American Machinery an " Invention of the Devil." - Mt. Imbabura. -
The Village of Hatuntaqui. - Tolas, or Indian Graves or Mounds. - The
City of Ibarra. - Carranqui, the Birthplace of Atahuallpa. - No Vestige
left of Indian Civilization. - Digging up Indian Graves. - Strange
Discoveries. - Impulse given by the Gold Discoveries at Cuenca. - Lake
Yaguarcocha, the Sea of Blood.
LET us return to Cayambi.
Friends of the chase will find an abundance of deer
on the slopes, and in the valleys formed by the great
mountain. The deer are hunted with dogs, the sportsmen following wildly on horseback. The sport is very
popular among the natives, and called " corrida de venados." Many a time the deer are followed up to the snow
limit.  Rabbits, too, are found in great abundance;' so
are wild ducks and pigeons, and a species of partridges.
Numberless herds of cattle are kept around Cayambi,
as well as around Cotopaxi, Antisana, and other giants
of the Cordillera.   The cheese of Cayambi is most
favorably known in Quito and the neighborhood, although its preparation is carried on with the usual disregard of cleanliness. The milk in these alpine regions
is exceedingly rich; nevertheless, neither on the rich




THE DOCTRINA CRISTIANA.         295
man's nor the poor man's table is butter to be found as
a common esculent. The natives do not seem to like
it much.  As a general thing, they do not care for
enjoying what a plentiful Nature proffers. Meat, for
instance, is very good, but they do not know how to
prepare it. They always manage to get it on the table
in a tough and unsavory state. Their notions of cooking do not advance beyond two or three kinds of potato
soup, which constitute their chief nourishment.
On the south side of the village church is the cemetery. I found but two monuments under which persons
of note had been buried. Excepting these, there was
not a cross nor an inscription in the graveyard, nor
were the graves made prominent by mounds. They
are trodden upon indifferently by those who visit the
burying-place. But what, after all, would be the use
of sepulchral inscriptions among a people who cannot
read?
On this cemetery the Indians of the parish assemble
twice a week to recite the Doctrina Cristiana, consisting
of the Paternoster, ave, credo, the commandments, and
an abbreviated catechism. An experienced Indian, who
knows the Doctrina by heart, recites it sentence by sentence, and the others repeat it. Those who neglect to
attend these meetings are whipped for their dereliction,
as I shall afterwards describe.
The inhabitants of almost all of the towns in the
cold regions of the interior, with the exception of the
capital, go about all day wrapped up in double ponchos
of bayeta (a kind of coarse wool), to which they frequently add a shawl worn around the neck, which is
called " bufanda." To a cold and unfriendly place like
Cayambi, the shivering appearance of these lazy loiterers gives a still colder and gloomier aspect. The




296   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
total want of fire-places contributes to the general
cheerlessness.
The day (June 29th) had opened very windy. Fearful gusts blew down from,Mt. Cayambi, banging against
the houses, or rather huts, of the village, and driving
clouds of dust into the eyes of those who had come out
to see the mummeries of the Indians. At about midday the Aruchicos (this is the name by which Indians
in masquerade are designated) commenced to march
into the Plaza.  Besides the fantastic attire which the
great occasion required, they came armed with tremendous clubs and sticks, to be prepared for the fight
which in former years was the solemn order of the day.
I could see at once that they were descendants of tribes
entirely different from those of Otabalo. Their movements were quicker, their songs more savage, and a
certain boldness and determination seemed to animate
their faces. Their dances consisted of a wild running
around in rings, and of a fussy advancing and retreating
in long files, instead of the slow, measured step of the
Otabalo Indians.  There were two or three parties on
the ground before I left it. They differed from each
other in their costumes, as well as in their manner of
dancing.  The first party wore black zamarros (goatskin trousers) with very long hair on them, little straw
hats with white covers, a handkerchief around their
head, and another over their shoulders, and under it a
vest-like garment of an iron-colored woolen stuff, in
folds, called " cushma." But the most remarkable part
of their attire consisted of two or three cow-bells fastened to a strap of leather, which they wore over one
shoulder like a scarf. In imitation of the Chllolo performance of the previous day, the leader of the party
had his face painted black, while his costume was in



SPEECH BY AN INDIAN.           297
tended to be soldier-like. He was also assisted by a
pretended negro woman cutting all sorts of capers.
His men endeavored throughout to keep up an appearance of military discipline and bravery. Judging from
my riding-dress and poncho that I was somewhat above
the rank of the crowd of mounted men around me, he
singled me out from among the rest, and taking a position at the right of my horse, delivered himself of a
speech, one third in Quichua and two thirds in Spanish,
in which he assured me that his forces were always at
my disposal, and that whether in daytime or at night,
he and his men would be ready whenever I should need
them. Of course he called me amo mio (my master),
which is the usual Indian allocutioni; and after saying
a great many things which hardly any body could understand, he wound up by asking me for a peseta
(two reals). Upon my giving it without hesitation,
he ordered his men to dance for my especial edification.
They were drawn up in a line, and hurriedly swayed
backward and forward, until he ordered them to form
a ring, not, however, with their faces towards the centre, but following one another in Indian file, and going
through the same Damos una vuelta that I had already
seen at Otabalo. While the dance was going on, the
leader continually made exclamations consisting of incoherent words in Quichua and Spanish, to which the
others replied in a monotonous chorus. But what,
he said and what they answered I could not make
out. Bystanders, however, who were familiar with the
Quichua language, assured me that it was sheer nonsense - words thrown together higgledy - piggledy,
and intermingled with meaningless sounds; their chief
object being to keep time to their step. I soon afterwards had an opportunity to observe that the Indians




298   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
on such occasions sing any thing that flashes through
their minds, accommodating the words to the melody.
At the Hacienda of San Jos6, for instance, at which,
after leaving Cayambi, I stopped for about an hour, a
drunken Indian came up to me while I was speaking
with the mayordomo, and told us in a song of great
length, as he had to repeat many of the words to keep
up the tune, that he was a faithful old Indian, who did
his duty at all times of the year, and who was fond of
his work; but that for the present he must be excused,
for this was a time of holidays, which he wanted to
enjoy like his brethren. The mayordomo told him it
was all right, and he went away contented.
The second party of Aruchicos that attracted my
attention on the Plaza, wore white cotton pantaloons,
cotton handkerchiefs around their heads, and instead
of the cushma, handkerchiefs over their arms and
shoulders. Some wore an embroidered shirt over their
trousers, while others had handkerchiefs suspended
from their hats, like vails. They were accompanied
by demons with horns, monkeys, and other fancy masks.
There were little boys among them, but no women.
They all carried cow-bells, and the leaders had their
faces blackened, and were assisted by men in the disguise of negresses.  Some of them wore formidable
wigs of flax or wool, which gave them quite a savage
appearance. I also noticed that the Cayambi Indians
wear their hair shorter than those of Otabalo and Cotacachi.
I have already said that they were all armed with
clubs and truncheons, to be ready in case of a battle.
This, however, did not take place, as the enemy had
been detained at home.  The Indians belonging to
several of the neighboring haciendas, and especially to




PEONAGE.                 299
that of San Jos6, are the old enemies of those whom I
saw on the Plaza. From  time immemorial regular
yearly battles had been fought between them on these
holidays.  All their mutual animosities and resentments, all the spite and grudges that had accumulated
during the year, were fought out on these occasions.
From two to three men were killed every year, and an
equal or greater number badly wounded, until at last
efforts were made to check this barbarous custom.
Parties of citizens placed themselves at the four entrances of the Plaza, and took the clubs from the Indians
as they came in. This precaution, however, proved
ineffectual, and other measures had to be adopted.
Separate festivals were organized at San Jos6 and other
neighboring haciendas, and free rum, chicha, and bullteasings given to the Indians to keep them at home.
The mayordomo of San Jos4 afterwards told me quite
naively, that these expenses had become necessary to
prevent the killing of Indians, whose death, as they
always were in a manner purchased by the land-owners
and constituted their laboring capital, would be a great
pecuniary loss to the parties interested. Not for the
sake of humanity and civilization, therefore, but from
considerations of interest merely, had a stop been put
to this time-honored barbarity.
In this connection it becomes necessary to explain
the system of Indian servitude prevailing on the haciendas of the interior.  The Indian farm  laborersand it is only the Indians and negroes who work on
farms, and by the sweat of their brows maintain the
white population by whom they are oppressed —are
called gaianes, or concertados, or peones. Their wages
do not exceed a medio (half a real) per day, which
would amount to about twenty-three dollars per year.




300    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
In addition to this, the land-owner is obliged to give to
each man a suit of coarse common cloth, and a hat,
every year. He also gives them a small piece of ground
which they may cultivate for themselves, and on which
they may build their huts, called huasipongos. For this
miserable allowance they are compelled to work from
early dawn till five or six o'clock in the evening. Before beginning their regular work they are obliged to
perform an extra task, such as gathering fuel, repairing
the roads, carrying bricks, etc. This extra task is called
faena. If they absent themselves from their work, the
days they lost to their masters are deducted from their
scanty wages, and they are in most cases punished
for their dereliction.' Besides the labor which they
must perform for their masters, they are also compelled
to do a thousand little things for their curates, who are
generally more despotic and cruel than the land-owners.
Their wives and children must cultivate the land of the
curate, if he has any, and furnish him with servants in
addition.  Under these circumstances but little time remains to the Indian for the cultivation of his own piece
of ground, but his faithful, industrious, and untiring wife
steps in and does what her husband cannot do. The
Indian women, however, are not exempt from labor for
the land-owners.  They must perform  theirfaenas like
the men, although they are not paid for it. It is evi1 It cannot be said, however, that the Indians alone are liable to be
whipped by order of their masters. Negro and colored peons are generally
treated in the same manner, especially on haciendas remote from cities
where they have no opportunity of preferring a complaint. The hacienda
proprietor is often as arbitrary and despotic as an ancient feudal lord. On
an hacienda on the river Guaillabamba, a zambo peon had run away from
his master to try his fortune somewhere else. He was captured before he
reached Quito, and his master immediately ordered him to be put in irons,
and to receive one hundred lashes  Happening to be present, I interceded,
and obtained the master's promise that at least one half of the sentence
should be remitted.




THE INDIANS ALWAYS IN DEBT.        301
dent that however cheap living may be in the interior,
and however limited an Indian's wants may be, half a
real per day is insufficient to maintain him and his
family.  (I have already said that the Indian never is
without a family. He marries at an early age, and
generally rears a great number of children, who, like
their parents, grow up in benighted ignorance and
superstition.) He needs a hog, or a calf, or a sheep,
a tercio of barley or corn to grind his raw meal for
mashca; his wife wants a piece of bayeta for a shawl
or a petticoat; his children must be baptized, and no
credit is given by the curates, who inflexibly adhere to
the cash system; a festival takes place in the neighborhood for which alittle money is required: the land-owner
therefore advances the money or firnishes the necessary articles, and he does so willingly, because it is his
interest to keep the Indian in debt. An account is kept
of all these transactions; but the poor gahan, to whom
the art of reading or writing is a mystery, is at the
mercy of the mayordomo or escribiente (the clerk who
keeps the books of the hacienda). At the end of the
year, the Indian not only remains in debt to his master,
but the debt for which he was originally purchased has
generally increased. It is not usual to settle accounts
every year. In many cases it is done only when the
Indian, tired of his master, asks for a settlement. He
is then taken before a justice, or if it is in a city, to the
police station, a balance is struck, and the debtor imprisoned, as imprisonment for debt has not yet been
abolished in Ecuador.  His huasipongo, and the little
piece of ground around it, now revert to his master,
and the Indian remains in jail until somebody else
pays his debt, and thereby purchases his services. It
is true he might make an assignment of his property,




302   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
or, as we should call it, take the benefit of the insolvent
act; but these are rights which he does not know, and
how should he get the money to buy papel sellado
(stamp-paper), and pass through complicated legal proceedings? Moreover, the courts would hold that by
entering on a new year he made an implied contract
to serve during that year, and specific performance
would at once be decreed. His new master is generally on hand; laborers are in great demand; the Indian himself perhaps has already made an arrangement with his new master before he left the old one
(and some Indians are shrewd enough to do this to
their advantage); and so he passes from one master
to another, a slave in fact, though not in name.
It is considered a great piece of perfidy and bad faith
on the part of the Indian if, in consideration of some
promise or present, he thus changes his master; but
what is it to him for whom he works? It being the
only right he has, to ask for a settlement and be transferred to another owner, why should he not avail himself of it if he can turn it to some account? But the
Spaniards are so accustomed to a dog-like servility and
submissiveness on the part of the Indian, that the least
symptom of a distant refractoriness, fills them with
wrath and indignation. Do they really suppose that
it will be possible forever to retain thousands of human beings, on whose hard and unrequited labor the
whole country lives, in a state of abject servitude and
oppression?   The Indians of Ecuadorian haciendaowners are their working capital, the same as negro
slaves in other countries. Great sums of money are
invested in their acquisition. An hacienda-owner once
told me that his Indians owed him $13,000. Another
assured me that his capital invested in Indian labor




MEDICAL TREATMENT OF INDIANS.       303
amounted to $15,000. There are haciendas to which
whole colonies of Indian families belong.  The debts
for which they are generally sold, vary from fifty to
one hundred dollars. At the police court of Quito,
many such transactions took place during my residence
at the capital. Many a time I was informed by acquaintances that they had just bought a number of
peones.  Their maintenance costs but little.  The
land-owner manages to keep the Indians in debt, but
he does not allow them to get into it too deep. Their
necessities, as I have already said, are very limited.
Medical attendance, for instance, they do not require
at all. But very few Indians would submit to scientific
medical treatment. They have no confidence in white
physicians, but cling to the ancient traditions of their
race. When they are taken sick they apply to some
old woman of their own race who has the reputation
of being a curandera (one who cures), and subject
themselves to her treatment. Fortunately, the constitution of the Indian is strong, and his health, in spite
of all his filthiness and intemperance, remarkably good.
His death is a double loss to his owner, who loses the
man's services and the debt he owed.  My readers
will now understand the motives of interest as well as
humanity by which the land-owners around Cayambi
were actuated in putting an end to the customary
yearly battles of their Indians.
I did not wait for the toros (bull-fights) which were
to commence on the following day, and to occupy the
remainder of the week, inclusive of Sunday; but returned to myhead-quarters at Peguchi. The hacienda
and quinta (villa) of Peguchi are situate at the foot of
a mountain which separates the plain of Otabalo from
the valley of San Pablo. I left the quinta with regret,




304   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
after having stayed there about a week, and proceeded
to Otabalo, where I proposed to stay a few days. I
have no reliable data by-which to estimate the population of that town, to the extent of which the number
of its inhabitants does not seem to correspond. But
when the ancient Spaniards founded a town or village,
they divided the soil among the settlers, allotting generally but four proprietors to one square, so as to enable
them to have kitchen-gardens, court-yards, or orchards
around their houses.  Their settlements, therefore,
always extended over a considerable area, and as the
country progressed but very little, the results of this
system still present themselves to our view. Many a
time we find but two or three houses in one square.
Long walls, covered with that dense vegetation which
clings to ruins, roofs, and walls, line the streets, and
protect the unweeded and neglected gardens and courtyards behind them. In some of them cabbage or clovet
is raised; in others, fruit-trees, to which the climate is
very favorable, have been planted; but most of these
gardens are neglected, or used as corales (pens or
pounds).
The situation of Otabalo is friendlier than that of
Quito, because cultivated fields and meadows expand
over the surrounding hills and plains, and the welcome
sight of trees in a country where there is such a scarcity
of them, produces an agreeable impression. The streets
are laid out in the usual Spanish-American style, intersecting each other at right angles, and having the gutters in the centre. They are overgrown with grass,
and without life or animation. Stores there are but
few, as the town has no commerce. The windows are
without glass-panes, as at Cayambi, which is very disagreeable on account of the near neighborhood of Mts.




RUINS AT OTABALO.             305
Imbabura and Cotacachi. The'weather is sometimes,
very cold and stormy, especially at the beginning of
the dry season. I may add here that glass is not manufactured in the country, and is therefore high in price.
The elevation of Otabalo, according to Dr. Jameson's
measurement, is 8470 feet above the level of the sea.
The naranja agria (sour orange), the lemon, and even
an occasional upstart of sugar-cane, grow in the gardens, but the fruit on which the inhabitants phime
themselves most, is a kind of raspberry (mora), from
which a very pleasant beverage is'prepared. The people are very hospitable and courteous to strangers.
There is no want of ruins at Otabalo, for otherwise
it would be untrue to its Spanish-American character.
In the interior it takes very long to erect or repair a
building. Not only does the work progress slowly,
but the owner has generally begun it without a previous calculation of the probable expense. In this case
the work will be abandoned for months, and sometimes
for years. The general practice is to cover the walls
with tiles, so as to protect the bricks or adobes of which
they are made against the rain, and then leave them
until the work can be resumed. In the mean time
weeds grow up in the intended rooms, and hogs will
establish their quarters within the inclosures.
The whites and Cholos of Otabalo all speak the Quichua, or Indian language. They learn it from their
earliest childhood, and speak it with great ease'and
perfection. To the owners of haciendas in this neighborhood, a knowledge of the Quichua is indispensable,
for there are hundreds of Indian farm'laborers who
cannot speak a word of Spanish.
There is a convent at Otabalo, but its corridors and
cells are in ruins, and its court-yards overgrown with
20




306   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
wild weeds. The monks to whom the building belongs
do not live in it. They live with their families or mistresses outside. The practice of keeping women is
carried on by them without shame or apprehension.
They beget children and own them; they even show
themselves in public at the side of their concubines.
They lead such a lazy and easy life that the mayordomos of haciendas, who cannot provide a better lot
for their sons, generally destine them for the Church,
which supports them without requiring them to work.
All the convents in the country own great haciendas,
fiom which rich revenues are derived, to be swallowed
up by vicious, lazy, and ignorant monks.
Happening to be at Otabalo on a Sunday, curiosity
impelled me to go to mass. Standing on the open
square in front of the church, my attention was attracted by about two dozen Indians, most of them
women, brought up by a few Indian alcaldes, who led
them tied to one another with a long rope, probably in
the same manner in which the king of Dahomey would
chain together the slaves intended for the foreign market. Their offense consisted in having failed to attend
religious service, especially the doctrina, for which they
are compelled to meet twice a week. They were driven
up and cuffed by the alcaldes, who for this purpose
are intrusted with a little despotic authority, which
they are delighted to exercise. These alcaldes are
appointed by the curates, and are called "Alcaldes de
Doetrina." (The Indians are afflicted with three classes
of regular oppressors - the government, the haciendaowners, and the curates; but the last are said to be
the worst of all.) Other alealdes are appointed by the
government. Their business is to procure Indian laborers or carriers for the public service whenever they




LAKE CUICOCHA.             807
are wanted. It is the duty of these officers to furnish
slaves whenever slave labor is required by the fountainhead of iniquity-a South-American government. The
twenty-four offenders of whom I just spoke, were made
to kneel down in front of the church, and exposed to
public view- a punishment which is intended to shame
them. Disgusted with this spectacle, I entered the
crowded church, and witnessed the saying of mass.
But here the devotion of the congregation was continually disturbed by an unwashed dirty fellow in a red
poncho, who went up and down with - not exactly a
plate, but some other begging utensil, apparently of
silver, calling out every now and then, "Para la cera
del santisimo sacramento" (" for the wax of the most
holy sacrament ").
About ten miles from Otabalo, in the lap of Mt.
Cotacachi, on its southern side, is Lake Cuicocha,
10,200 feet above the level of the sea, a very romantic
little lake, with two islands, or rather hills, in the centre, which seem to have remained after the falling in
of that part of the mountain, tq the disappearance of
which the lake probably owes its origin. The hills oi
islands are covered with dense green shrubs and little
trees, which give them a very pleasant, although melancholy appearance. No human habitation, except two
or three Indian huts, are visible from the shore. Pleasure parties, I was told, will sometimes build provisional
cottages on the ridges of the steep banks by which the
lake is hemmed in, and embark on frail balsas constructed of reeds growing in or near the water along
the shores. As the lake is in a hollow, it cannot be
seen from a distance. The view breaks upon you suddenly, and not before you approach the brink. There
is but one practicable path to descend to it. It leads




308   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to a little opening among'the shrubs, which is called
the embarcadero. Lovers of the chase will hunt deer
on the surrounding hills, and drive it into the lake,
which it will swim, crossing to one of the two islands,
where it may be taken without difficulty by the dogs.
Hunting in this vicinity constitutes a most dangerous
amusement. Through a dense growth of spines (mimosa), which tear the rider's face and hands, the sportsmen follow their prey, preceded by a pack of hounds,
who are the chief actors in the play.  I was shown a
narrow track which the deer usually takes, and which
consists of a steep and narrow path leading to the embarcadero, exceedingly slippery in rainy weather, with
a precipice on each side. To the north, one false step
or slide of the horse will precipitate its rider into the
lake, while to the south it would throw him into a wilderness of spiny shrubs and thorns. Accidents are
very frequent, and sometimes fatal, but they are unable
to dampen the ardor'of hunting parties who, from time
to time, resort to this place. When I visited Cuicocha
the weather was very favorable, and while ascending
the slopes of Cotacachi I found myself in a circle of
majestic mountains. There was Cayambi, after a cold
night, with a long white robe which reached far below
the usual snow limit; there was Imbabura, its trachytic
cupola sprinkled all over with snow; there was Cotacachi, with the lake in its lap, and its hoary- peaks frowning down upon the intruders; there was Chiles, visible
in an uncertain distance to the north, struggling with
the clouds that hung around it; while to the south
the peaks of Cotopaxi and Pichincha peeped over the
range of the Cordillera, which divides the plain of Otabalo from the plain of Afa Quito.
At Otabalo, Cotacachi, and all such country places,




VILLAGE OF COTACACHI.            309
more business is done on Sunday than on any other
day. In fact, whatever purchases or sales the Indians
have to make, are made on Sunday. These Sunday
markets are called "ferias." The sellers squat on the
ground, sometimes under little screens of baize or sackcloth nailed to a clumsy wooden contrivance supported
by a pole which is driven into the ground. Here they
sell macafias (a sort of narrow cotton shawls), ponchos,
wool, cotton, beads, rosaries, leaden crosses, strings of
glass pearls, collars and bracelets of false corals, and
other cheap ornaments; meat, fruit, vegetables, salt,
agi, barley-meal, and such popular dishes ready made,
as cariucho, locro, chocllos, mashca, toasted corn, etc.
It was on a Sunday when I rode over to the village
of Cotacachi, which is about an hour's ride from Otabalo. I saw many Indian graves (mounds), some of
them very high, along the road. Cotacachi is the village which suffered most from the earthquake of 1859,
yet I noticed less ruins there than anywhere else in
the country. Cotacachi, Hatuntaqui, and Guano, near
Riobamba, are the most industrious villages of the
Republic, and the natural effect of labor is prosperity.
Cotacachi, therefore, presents a friendly appearance.
New houses greet you on all sides, and buildings are
everywhere in process of construction.  The chief
article of manufacture is ponchos, which are exported
to Quito, Guayaquil, and New Granada. It is calculated that about six thousand cotton ponchos of all
colors are manufactured monthly.  The cotton thus
consumed is raised in the hotter parts of the province.
Woolen stuffs for ponchos, coats, and pantaloons, and
silks for vests, cravats, etc., are also manufactured.
The silk used is imported from abroad. Efforts are
making to introduce the silk-worm in Ecuador, but as




310   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
yet nothing can be said as to the result. The instruments used for these manufactures belong to a bygone
age. Every thing is done by hand, and in a slow but
steady manner. Modern improvements and machinery,
although known in the neighborhood, have not yet
found their way into the patriarchal community of
Cotacachi.
When I arrived, throngs of Indians were just leaving
the church and assembling on the graveyard, where
they sat down on the ground —the men on one side,
the women on the other. And here I witnessed another
of those scenes so revolting to human dignity and selfrespect. It began with a roll-call, which is called "Padronar." The names of the Indians, men and women,
of the parish, are inscribed on three or four wooden
tablets, with a handle to each. In front of each name
is a small hole, through which a string is drawn, with a
knot at each end. The names on the tablets are read
off by an alcalde, and each individual meekly responds,
"'Aqui estoy, mi amo " (" here I am, my master "). If
the knot attached to a name is found hanging outside, it
is a sign that its owner failed to attend the last rehearsal
of the doctrina cristiana. These rehearsals, as I have
already said, take place twice a week. As soon as the
name of the offender is called, he is required to step
forward and to lie down flat on the ground, where he
receives three lashes, which are given with a long cowhide doubled for the purpose. The women only kneel
down, and, taking off their shawls, receive the lashes
on the back. The poor creatures submit to this indignity with the utmost humility and patience, although
many of them know that such treatment is prohibited
by law.
There were cock-fights on the plaza - a usual Sun



A COTTON FACTORY.             311
day amusement. When these were over, the pelota
was played, a ball game that requires considerable
physical exertion. At the same time a music band
was playing to convoke the residents to listen to the
reading of a new municipal ordinance. In a country
without newspapers, such means must be resorted to
to give publicity to laws and ordinances.
Between Otabalo and Cotacachi is the quinta of Mr.
Pedro Perez Pareja, with an important cotton factory,
the machinery of which is perfect, and was made in
Patterson, New Jersey.  The cost of transportation
amounted to over $40,000, and many pieces were lost
or broken; nevertheless, it works well, and the owner
sells all he can make. But the expense of establishing
the factory was so great, that the speculation turned
out unprofitable. When the native weavers first saw
the machinery in motion, in its most ingenious complexity, and saw that it did in an hour what they could
not do in days and weeks, they thought that it was an
invention of the devil, or rather that the Prince of
Darkness himself was the power which set it in motion.
The road from Otabalo to Ibarra is very good in
summer, and cannot be very bad in winter. It is remarkably level, gently declining toward Ibarra, and
passes along and across the western slope of Mt. Imbabura. This interesting volcano does not enter the
line of perpetual snow, and derives its name from
imba, which in Quichua means " little fish," and bura,
that which produces; because in its eruptions of water
it threw out great quantities of those little fishes, which
the Spaniards call prenadillos, and which, as I have
already remarked, are found in the shallow water along
the shores of Lake San Pablo.
Hatuntaqui, which is about a league from Cotacachi,




312   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and two leagues from Ibarra, is the place where the
great Indian battle was fought which terminated in the
defeat and death of Cacha, the last Scyri or King of
Quito. This unfortunate monarch was the descendant
of an ancient and powerful dynasty of rulers, who,
though inferior in arts and civilization to the Peruvians, were greatly superior to the Indian tribes of
New Granada.  Their language was a dialect of Peruvian Quichua, from which the common origin of both
nations is inferred. They had arrived at that period of
civilization which archaeologists call the period of
bronze. Their kingdom consisted of a great number
of Indian tribes, among which the Caranquis were the
most warlike. For many years the Scyris had fought
against the slowly but irresistibly advancing power of
the Incas, by whom they were at last driven from their
capital, and overwhelmed in a decisive battle on the
plain of Hatuntaqui. There it was that the Inca Huaynacapac, the victorious invader, added to the borla the
emblem of Peruvian royalty, the emerald of the Scyris
of Quito. Hatuntaqui was afterwards transformed into
a fortified camp of the Incas. There the great drum
is said to have been kept, the sound of which could be
heard for many miles around, and from which the present village derives its name; for Hatuntaqui, in Quichua, means gran tambor, or the big drum of war.
The village of Hatuntaqui, as I said above, is one of
the most industrious and enterprising of the Republic.
There, straw hats are made in considerable quantities;
sacks or bags in still greater quantities are manufactured from the fibre of the American aloe; but the
most important business of the place is the hiring out
of beasts of burden, on which the products of the province, its woolen and cotton goods, its sugar and rum,




CLIMATE OF HATUNTAQUI.          313
its salt and grain, are transported to Quito and New
Granada. The village is inhabited by a great number
of arrieros, who are doing a lively business in all directions. Like Cotacachi, it does not present that gloomy
aspect which characterizes other Ecuadorian towns.
New houses are in process of erection in almost every
street; schools are being built, streets are repaired,
and gardens laid out, pleasantly contrasting with the
decay of other and more renowned places.
Hatuntaqui is about half a league to the west of the
main road from Otabalo to Ibarra, in a plain dotted
with an immense number of tolas or Indian graves.
Many of them arose after the great battle to which I
have just alluded, and after which the corpses of thousands of the victors and vanquished covered the bloody
ground. Many of these tolas are ploughed over, and
the corn of the conqueror now grows on the graves of
the ancient lords of the land. The country around
Cotacachi and Hatuntaqui is chiefly a grain region.
indian-corn, barley, wheat, and potatoes grow in unlimited abundance. All the grains and fruits of the
temperate zone could be introduced here. In the gardens and orchards, the peach, the fig-tree, and the wild
grape grow by the side of the chirimoya, the aguacate,
and the raspberry.  The climate is delightful. It is
the same all the year round: no torrid season enervates the inhabitant of this favored realm; no icy
winter sends him shivering to the chimney fire. In
fact, stoves and chimneys are unknown; and to know
what heat is, one would have to descend to the sultry
valley of the Chota, where the negro hums his merry
tunes among coffee and plantain-trees, and the sugarcane. There is no starvation in. this neighborhood;
nobody dies from cold; nobody sinks sun-struck to the




314    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ground; no troublesome insects molest the inhabitants;
epidemics are unknown; healthy faces peep at you
through the long hedges of aloes; healthy faces stare at
you from  every Indian cottage.  It is not sickness, it
is foreign war and internecine strife and perpetual convulsions, that decimate the population and scatter death
and decay where wealth and bliss should smile.
" The golden harvests spring; the unfailing sun
Sheds light and life; the fiuits, the flowers, the trees,
Arise in due succession; all things speak
Peace, and harmony, and love. The Universe,
In Nature's silent eloquence, declares
That all fulfill the works of love and joy.
All but the outcast Man! He fabricates
The sword which stabs his peace; he cherisheth
The snakes that gnaw his heart."
There is but little traffic between Ibarra and Otabalo. The Ecuadorians are not a migrating or travelling people. Weeks will pass before some resident of
the former place will visit the latter, or vice versa,
although  the  distance is but inconsiderable.   Only
occasionally the traveller meets a few cargas of sugar,
rapadura, or ruin, going to Quito, or a solitary New
Granadian going to or coming from Pasto or Popayan.
The plain of Ibarra presents a most friendly aspect;
for although the mountains by which it is bounded on
the north, and at the foot of which Ibarra seems to rest,
are arid and monotonous, like the Cordillera in general, our sight is gladdened by trees around the habitations on the road from San Antonio to Ibarra. Ibarra
itself is almost hidden among orchards, kitchen gardens,
clover fields, and rows of willows (sauces), and only the
cupolas and steeples of its churches remind us of its
dignity as the capital of the province. To our right,
as we descend into the plain, lies the friendly village
of Carranqui, where Atahuallpa was born, in happy




IBARRA.                    315
ignorance of those who were to take his crown and
life.
Ibarra occupies the lowest part of the plain now before us. Its situation is somewhat damp and swampy,
for which reason it is occasionally visited with intermittent fevers, which, however, never assume a malignant character. The town extends along the left bank
of the river Tauhando, an affluent of the Ambi, which
the queer poetry of the common people has immortalized by the following stanza, sung all over the country
by arrieros and chagras (churls):"En el rio de Tauhando
Mi sombrero va nadando,
Y con la copa me dice
Que mi amor se va acabando." 
The town of Ibarra is said to contain from 7000
to 8000 inhabitants, which I am satisfied is an exaggeration. The inhabitants are very social and hospitable. This latter virtue is one of great importance
to the traveller, because the place has no tavern or
casa posada.  The stranger who arrives without knowing any body is compelled to thrust himself on private
hospitality without preliminaries, which to a person of
delicacy is very embarrassing. I was, however, most
hospitably received by the worthy governor, Don Luciano de la Sala, and his amiable family, at whose house
I remained for over a week.
Ibarra is neither an industrial nor a commercial
place. In thrift and enterprise it is far behind Cotacachi and Hatuntaqui. It is the residence of landed
proprietors who own sugar plantations or other farms
in the neighborhood.  Generally, however, their resi1 " In the river Tauhando my hat swims along, and with its crown it tells
me that my love is vanishing."




*16   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
dence in Ibarra is of limited duration.  As soon as
they succeed in obtaining pecuniary independence, they
prefer to transmigrate to Quito. The number of respectable families in Ibarra is therefore very small. A
business of some importance in this neighborhood is
the breeding of donkeys, for the purpose of sending
them to Pasto and Popayan, where they always find a
very profitable market. Sacks and ropes are manufactured to some extent from the fibre of the aloe. The
elevation of Ibarra above the level of the sea is 7550
feet, and the climate very agreeable. It is not hot, and
yet warmer than that of Quito.
The town has more churches and convents than the
number of its inhabitants would seem to justify. All
the public buildings were damaged by the earthquake
of 1859.  The Convent of La Merced was almost
ruined. As the friars, however, pass their lives outdoors, none of them were hurt. The finest public
building is the Church De la Companiia.  From  its
terraced roof and steeples a very fine view may be
had of the surrounding plain and villages.  In one
of the apartments of the church a most remarkable
mummy is shown to visitors. It is a man in a sitting
posture, greatly contracted, with his knees drawn up
to his face, and the latter resting on his hands. His
skin, and even his intestines, are perfectly preserved.
He was found by a hunting party in a lonely, out-of.
the-way place in the Cordillera. There are marks of
wounds on his person, especially a hole in the back,
through which the inner part of the body may be
seen. The soil where he was found is limy, and
the place probably one of those which are so admirably
adapted to the desiccation of dead bodies.1
1 " A curious result of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, charged
with saline particles, has been observed in some of the more elevated regions




BIRTHPLACE OF A rAHUALLPA.                   317
The women of Ibarra are not handsome. Those who
are, emigrate to Quito as soon as they can. For the inhabitants of the interior, Quito is the great centre of attraction.  They can hardly be persuaded that there can
be any thing greater and finer in the world than Quito.
"Quito  bonito," is a proverb which may be heard all
along the public highways. Another adage thus expresses the high opinion which the Serranos entertain
of their capital: " De Quito -  al cielo; del cielo un agujeritopara ver d Quito."  (" From  Quito-  to heaven;
in heaven a little aperture through which to look at
Quito.") The most ardent desire of all young women
in the provinces is to be able some day or other to
go to Quito, which to their happy ignorance is the ne
plus ultra of all human perfection.
The village of Carranqui, the birthplace of Atahuallpa, is about half a league from Ibarra. Its situation
is higher and healthier than that of the latter, but its
vegetable products are the same. In the gardens of
both places I found figs, wild grapes, lemons, plantains,
(these latter do not prosper much, as they require a
hotter climate,) limas, tomatoes on trees, sour and
sweet oranges, papayas, peaches, a kind of raspberries,
aguacates, the dwarf cocoa-nut, chirimoyas, noyales, etc.,
etc. Inoculation is unknown in this country, nor are
trees ever pruned.
of Peru. The pure drying winds have the effect of embalming dead bodies
submitted to their influence. The ancient Peruvians appear to have occasionally availed themselves of the desiccating qualities of the air, by leaving
their dead above ground instead of burying them. In the desert of Atacama
there is a cemetery of this description, which was accidentally discovered
by Dr. Reid, a late traveller in Peru. He found the dried bodies of 600
men, women, and children, all in a perfect state of preservation, and in a
sitting posture, arranged in a semicircle, gazing, as it seemed, on vacancy.
There they had sat for centuries. A jar of maize and a cooking utensil
were found by the side of each." - From an article on Peru, published
in the London Qutarterly, January, 1863.




318   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
At Carranqui, Huaynacapac, the father of the last
Inca Atahuallpa, is said to have held his court for many
years. There he is said to have constructed a royal
palace, forts, temples, and a convent for the virgins of
the sun. Of all these edifices no vestige has remained.
The parochial church of Carranqui is said to rest on
the foundations of an ancient temple of the sun; but
even this is doubtful. In their reckless search for gold
the barbarous Spaniards left no stone upon the other.
Their cupidity had been excited by what they had
heard of the riches of the ancient kingdom of Quito.
They came in the expectation to find the treasures of
Atahuallpa, but they were disappointed. Either those
treasures were fabulous, or they had been applied to
swell the ransom of the captive Inca, or they had been
hidden by the Indians before the arrival of their
foreign enemies.  This latter hypothesis has found
most favor with Spanish historians, and it was generally
believed in by the men of Benalcazar and Ampudia,
who were the first to take possession of Quito. For
this reason they pulled down the walls, and undermined
the foundations of stately edifices; and not a stone was
left at Quito and Carranqui to tell the tale of a destroyed civilization.
The only monuments in this neighborhood that
escaped the fury of the conquerors, are the tolas or
mounds. They were too many and too big to be
opened; and probably those that were opened did not
remunerate the trouble of excavation. The Indians of
Quito and the neighborhood were not in the habit of
burying their dead in subterranean graves.  They
placed them on the ground generally in a sitting posture, and mostly several of them together in a semicircle, and depositing their drinking vessels filled with




BEVERAGES FOR THE DEAD.          319,chicha, their arms, jewels, and other ornaments at their
sides, constructed a low wall of stones around them,
which they covered with great quantities of earth and
rocks, until the mound thus formed rose to the size of
a little hill. Some of these hills are of astonishing dimensions. Narrow passages or channels were generally constructed, through which the dead could be
supplied with chicha. The pots or vessels in the tolas
were so placed as to correspond with the channels or
air-holes leading to the surface. In an excavated tola
at Carranqui, I saw vestiges of these channels, which
betokened superior workmanship and a considerable
degree of skill in masonry. They were well walled
out, and their base most symmetrically designed. In
many of the mounds that were lately opened, chicha
was found in vessels at the side of the skeletons, and
at the base of the channels through which it is generally believed that the Indians of the present day, actuated by a certain sense of piety, are still supplying
their dead ancestors with their favorite beverage.
Whether this is true or not, ILam unable to say. It
is but too probable that these channels should have become obstructed in the course of time. On the other
hand, the Indians have lost their ancient traditions,
and it is not likely that the poor, drunken brutes of the
present day would waste their beloved chicha by pouring it into graves. Still it can hardly be believed that
chicha should have been preserved in a mound for over
three hundred years.
Several years ago, after the great gold discoveries in
the graves of Cuenca had given a new impulse to excavating enterprise, a joint-stock company was formed
at Ibarra for the purpose of opening the principal tolas
of Carranqui. Two or three of them were excavated,




320   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
but nothing of importance found. Heavy earrings of
bronze were found'on the shoulders of the dead.
Earthen vessels, or pieces of the same, of a solid make,
and of a blood-red color, were found in great abundance. But as no gold was discovered, the enterprise
was abandoned.  One of these tolas, which from time
immemorial was known by its Quichua name of the
"Tola of Gold," had attracted the attention of the
company more than any other; but the proprietor
asked eighty dollars for his permission to open it; a
sum which the managers were unwilling to give. The
vessels found in these Indian graves are greatly superior in workmanship, as well as in usefulness, to the
crockery now manufactured in Ecuador.
Separated from the town of Ibarra by the river Tauhando, and a spur of the Cordillera which extends
into the plain, is Lake Yaguarcocha, the waters of
which are discharged into the river Tauhando. It is
about one and a half miles in circumference, and its
shores are covered with a vegetation of reeds called
totora, of which, by tying them together in cables, a
frail kind of balsa is constructed for purposes of navigation. The scenery along the banks is sad and melancholy, like its name. Yaguarcocha, in the Indian
language, signifies " Sea of Blood." After the Peruvian Inca Huaynacapac had conquered the empire of
the ancient Scyris of Quito, the Carranquis, one of its
bravest nations, rebelled against the foreign yoke. It is
said that while profound peace was reigning throughout
the land, the Carranquis made a sudden night attack on
the Orejones, the body-guard of the unsuspecting Inca,
and after killing a great many of them, withdrew to
their own province. But now the wrath of the conqueror was aroused. He followed them with his victo



THE SEA OF BLOOD.             321
rious army of veterans, defeated them in a frightful
battle near the shores of the lake, and ordered the whole
male population of the province to be killed. Their
dead bodies were thrown into the lake, and so numerous were the victims, that their blood reddened its
waters, and gave it the name which it has since retained, the " Sea of Blood."  According to ancient
traditions, the number of the slain varies from 40,000
to 80,000, which undoubtedly is an exaggeration.
A great number of tolas on the southwestern shore
of the lake - the only side on which it is not hemmed
in by mountains - are the surviving monuments of the
great slaughter. In the rear of these tolas is a pucard,
or Indian fort, consisting of a ditch, which, like a winding staircase (earacol), encircles, from below upwards,
an isolated hill, commanding an interesting view of the
lake and plain. This fort probably was the last refuge
of the vanquished Carranquis.
21




CHAPTER XV.
Trip to the Province of Imbabura concluded. - A Visit to the Valley of the
River Chota. - The Heights of Alaburu. - The Mountain of Pialchan,
with its Mysterious Cave.- Another Gold Legend. -AiSrial Bridges. -
Return to the Tropics. - Sugar Plantations and Negroes. - History of
the Abolition of Slavery in Ecuador. - Landslips. - Mass Emigration
and Disappearance of Indians. -The Strange Story of Pimampiro. -
Geological Catastrophes. - Digging for Treasures. - The Village of
Cacha swallowed up by an Earthquake. - Indian Graves. - Ancient Indian Crockery. - Guajara. - The Footpath to Peylon on the Coast. -
The English Company. -Negro Dances. - Bomba and Alfandoque. -
The Paramo Road to Quito. - Mojanda.-A Farewell to the Fairy Province of Imbabura. - Mountain Lakes. - Return to Quito.
MY readers will now accompany me on an excursion
to the valley of the Chota, which is the most important
sugar-growing region of the province of Imbabura.
Passing by Lake Yaguarcocha, with the Indian fort
described in my last chapter to our left, we ascend a
range of the Cordillera, which divides the plain of Ibarra
from the low and sultry valley of the Chota. To ascend a high mountain on one side, and to descend it on
the other, is the monotonous task of the traveller in
the Andes. The point from which, after losing sight
of the plains of Ibarra and Carranqui, we commence
our dreary descent, is a group of miserable cottages
called  " Alaburu."   They  are  constructed  of reeds
(cariso), plastered with mud, and thatched. The view
which now presents itself, is desolate in the extreme.
Whithersoever the eye may wander, the mountains are
barren of vegetation, except a few crippled and miserable shrubs, which  only add  to  the  general gloom.




A LONG AND DUSTY  PATH.                    323
The muddy river far below, which with great precipitation hurries on over rocks and rubble, is hemmed in by
sandy, arid mountains, and uninhabited deserts. Only
occasionally the eye is relieved by fields of the yellowgreen sugar-cane along the river banks, or on some of
the protruding platforms of the mountains. From nine
o'clock in the morning till about four or five in the
afternoon, the sun sends down his scorching rays on
the long sandy and dusty path which is now before us.
The descent to the river occupies about an hour and a
half, and there is not a hut on the road to give us shelter, not a tree to protect us for a moment from the
parching sun. For this reason, it is always advisable to
leave Ibarra very early in the morning, so as to reach
the river before the heat sets in.  ]Now and then the
sand disappears under our feet, and we pass over plats
of hardened earth without any vegetation. Not a blade
of grass is to be seen for miles around. We feel as if
the horrors of the desert were breaking upon us. After
toiling down for about an hour, the scanty shrubs
around us begin to rise into stunted trees, intermingled
with all sorts of cacti; but it is not before we reach
the valley itself that we meet with a useful and pleasing vegetation, conquered from the apparently unpromising soil by the industry of man.1
1 The vegetation of the mountains lining the valley of the Chota, seems
to be confined to four species. I have travelled through these deserts many
a weary mile without finding any other plants except occasional groups of
cacti. Those four species are: 1. The Dodonea,viscosa, a shrub which the
natives call " mosquea." 2. The M~imosa, of which there are various species
in the sultry valleys of the Andes, constituting diminutive trees, armed with
spines. The natives call it " espino." 3. The Croton menthodorum, a small
shrub which is widely distributed on the sandy plains of San Antonio (to
the north of Quito), Alchipichi, on the Guaillabamba, etc. Its popular
name is Chamano. 4. An arborescent Prosapis, which the natives call
" yuarango," and which is used for dyeing purposes. The endless repetition
of these four species is exceedingly displeasing. Their scanty foliage and




324   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
To the left of the road on our descent from Alaburu,
is a mountain called " Pialchan," concerning which a
queer story circulates among the common people. The
mountain is said to contain a cave, and in the cave
there is a giant of stone. Under the arm of that dread
person, there is an entrance, or hole, which, however,
opens only on Good Friday or other solemn occasions.
Through this hole the lucky visitor passes into a second cave, in which there is a calvario (a representation
of the crucifixion), and an immense treasure of gold
and silver, of which, unfortunately, it is not permitted
to take more than a measure found on the spot will
hold. He who takes more cannot get out with his
treasure. The opening under the giant's arm closes
upon him, and after a few hours of anguish and despair,
he falls into a swoon, to awake in the open air in
another part of the inhospitable mountain.  Many superstitious persons, attracted by this story, which they
eagerly believed, explored the mountain in all directions, but without success.  Some are said to have
found the cave; but the giant, the calvario, and the
treasure, remain undiscovered to this day..The river Chota is exceedingly rapid. It is fordable
at some places, but not after a rain in the mountains,
when it rises immediately, and often inundates the haciendas on its banks, doing great damage. The bridge
which we are now about to pass divides the valley into
two parts, Chota Alto and Chota Bajo (upper and lower
scattered growth are insufficient to cover the sterile ground beneath them.
The stunted trees soon wither, and cover themselves with floating garlands of Barba de salvage, to which I referred in a former chapter. In
fact, the resemblance of the Chota valley to that of the (Guaillabamba is
striking. I may add here that the Chota (or Mira) and the Guaillabamba
are the only rivers in Ecuador which break through the whole of the
western Cordillera, carrying the snowy waters of Pichincha and Cayambi
into the Pacific Ocean.




SHAKY BRIDGES.                       325
Chota).   The  bridge  itself is a frail and  trembling
structure. It rests on two solid abutments of masonry,
but it consists merely of logs stemmed against one
another, and against the pillars below, into which the
principal logs are inserted. These latter are covered
with other logs, and over these staves are laid crosswise, and covered with a layer of gravel and sand.
Not to concentrate too heavy a weight on such a dangerous contrivance, it is customary for the traveller to
dismount and pass it on foot, leading his horse behind
him. It is a thrilling sensation to walk high in the air
over such a frail structure, trembling and shaking
under your steps, with no balustrades at your sides,
and the river beneath you, rushing on wildly as it were
to death and destruction.l The river is spanned by
several such bridges, and three or four taravitas, a kind
of suspension or rope-bridge, which is an Indian invention. It consists of a number of cables twisted together, and fastened to poles driven into the ground.
The passenger generally sits down in a basket and is
drawn across.
Having passed the bridge over the Chota, we find a
group of miserable huts, built of reeds, and inhabited
by a few sickly looking people, mostly mulattoes and
1,' At every step you meet with valleys, and in every valley torrents.
The communication between the two banks is formed by bridges made of
two trees, across which are thrown fascines covered with a slight layer of
earth. This rude work trembles and seems ready to sink; there is no
rail, and, by a singular coincidence, none of these bridges are more than
four feet wide. If one of the rotten supports of these aerial bridges were
to break under the horse's feet, the animal in its struggle would drag the
rider into the abyss below, where he would perish on the pointed rocks.
Yet such is the security arising from habit, that people pass over these frail
bridges by night as well as by day, and without even feeling the least alarm
at hearing the roaring of the waters below." - Travels in the Republic of
Colombia in the years 1822 and 1823, by G. Mollien. Translated from the
French.




326   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
negroes. They sell fruit, such as oranges, sugar and
water-melons, lemons, limas (sweet lemons), pineapples, plantains, papayas (pawpaws), etc. Dense avenues of aloes, pencos, and other cacti, are now before
us - we are in a tropical country again. The broad
leaves of the plantain-tree throw shade on our path;
the orange glows among the dark leaves; the aguacate tree rises to a majestic height; the chirimoya
looks temptingly down on the traveller. Swarms of
mosquitoes, which the natives call sancudos, and sandflies, try the extent of his patience, and his energies
seem to fade away under the influence of an enervating sun. Another bridge similar to the one we just
passed, leads us across the Chota Chiquito, an affluent
of the great river. We found another group of huts
on the other side, where we rested a few hours, and
partook of refreshments. At the first bridge we passed,
the road branches off to Tulcan, Pasto, and Popayan,
and soon leads you out of the hot valley to the high
table-lands again, and into districts much colder than
Latacunga, Machachi, or Quito. The Canton of Tulcan is an agricultural and stock-raising country. Cheese
is made in considerable quantities, and brought down
into the low valleys for sale. But let us, for the present, continue our journey along the right bank of the
Chota.
Our way leads us through a narrow and dense grove
of pencos and gigantic cacti, interspersed with mimosas
and guarangos, the protruding branches of which endanger our eyes and face. It would be the simplest
and easiest task in the world to cut these branches
away, and to make the road comfortably passable, but
who should do it? Every body's business is nobody's
business. The native is perfectly satisfied if he suc



SUGAR MILLS.                    327
ceeds in dodging these obstructions and impediments
without injury to his own person, and leaves those who
come after him to get along as well as they can. I
have often observed that many of the most dangerous
places on steep declivities or descents to river banks,
might be made passable by one man set to work for
about two hours or half a day, at an expense of much
less than a dollar; but it is in the character of the race
rather to risk their legs or necks than to trouble themselves about public works, from which no direct and
immediate profit can be derived.
Emerging from the grove of cacti and spines, we discover that the valley has suddenly widened. On our
right are the mountains, the sterility and baldness of
which surpass any thing I ever saw; but to our left
opens another and lower plain, teeming with fertility
and smiling with verdure.  Here grows the sugar-cane
in long and beautiful yellow-green fields, intersected
by parks of orange and aguacate trees, nogales and
willows; 1 and through the broad plantain leaves peeps
the coffee-tree, which in this part of the country is
always raised under the protection afforded by the
more rapid growth of the plantain. When the young
tree has safely grown up, the plantains around it are
cut down.
We stopped at a shed under which the negroes were
engaged at a sugar mill. These mills are set in motion
by a large wheel, propelled either by hydraulic or horse
power.2  The workmen employed are all negroes. The
1 The nogal is a species of walnut-tree (Juglains reqia). It is generally
planted in clover fields, attains a considerable height, and presents a very
fine appearance. In the plains of Tumbaco, Puembo, and Yaruqui, I saw a
great many of them.
2," The hydraulic works of this country, principally for purposes of irrigation and the supply of towns, although not conducted with much skill,




328    FOUR. YEARS A.MONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Indians have entirely disappeared from the valley.
The negroes, who have taken their places, are concer
tados, like the Indian farm laborers of whom I spoke
in the preceding chapter. They are slaves in fact,
although not slaves in name. Their services are secured by a purchase of the debts which they owe. As
long as they remain in debt, which state, thanks to the
skillful management of their masters, almost always
lasts till they discharge the great debt of nature, they
must either work or go to prison. Like the Indians,
they are ignorant of their legal rights. They are hardly
ever able to pay their debts, which, on the contrary,
continually increase, as their wages of one half real to
one real are insufficient to satisfy their wants.  When
slavery was abolished in Ecuador, the owners of the
negroes in the sugar districts immediately employed
them to work for wages, and managing to get them
into debt, secured their services as debtors. Thus it
may almost be said that they profited, instead of losing
by, the abolition of slavery.  They pocketed the compensation which the law provided for the slave owners,
and at the same time retained their slaves.  It is true
the blacks do not work so much now as when they
were bondmen, nor can their masters beat them as
unmercifully as they did before; but, on the other
hand, it must be considered that it is much cheaper
now to purchase a negro than it was then.  Now, by
paying a debt of fifty or seventy dollars which the poor
are really surprising from their extensiveness, considering the scanty population. In many places the water is conducted for miles, along the sides
of precipitous and arid mountains, its channel frequently cut in the solid
rockl, for the purpose of fertilizing a single plantation, and consequently at
the expense of its proprietor." - Notes on Colombia, taken in the years
1822-3, by an Officer qf the United States Army  The construction of such
stupendous works, is considerably facilitated by the great cheapness of
labor.




THE LOST INDIANS OF THE VALLEY.      329
fellow owes to somebody, his services may be secured,
while formerly it took, perhaps, ten times that amount
to purchase a slave.
The introduction of negro slaves into the valley of
the Chota was caused by a most remarkable event —
a mass emigration of the Indians of the valley. In
the year 1679 more than 11,000 Indians, tired of tyranny and oppression, left their habitations and took
refuge in the inaccessible recesses of the eastern Cordillera. The village of Pimampiro, situated on the
head-waters of the Chota, which until then was a thriving Indian settlement, was entirely abandoned by its
population. There is a legend that the retiring Indians took the church bell, and some say even the
curate, with them, and that the sounds of that bell are
still heard occasionally in the fastnesses of the eastern
Cordillera. What became of these emigrants has never
been definitely ascertained. They may have retired
to the tropical wilderness on the other side of the eastern range of the Andes, or they may have settled down
in some intermediate valley, or on some out-of-the-way
table-land. Numerous stories are afloat that some of
their descendants emerged from their unknown retreat,
and were seen on the road to Tusca or Tulcan in a
state of absolute nakedness and barbarity, but with
tools and weapons that bespoke their forner Spanish
connection. Whether these stories are true or not, I
am of course unable to say. The general belief is that
the emigrants did not go fat, but settled down in some
hidden valley a short distance from their ancient home
To this belief the legend is to be ascribed that the
sounds of their old church bell are still to be heard in
the mountain passes in the rear of Pimampiro. The




330   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
story has, no doubt, a romantic interest, reminding us
of the lost tribes of Israel.1
In this connection it may not be out of place to give
a short account of the abolition of slavery in Ecuador.
It was effected gradually. It was initiated by the old
republic of Colombia, of which Ecuador formed a part
up to the year 1830. By a law of the 21st of July,
1821, it was provided that the children of slaves, born
after its publication in the principal cities of the republic, should be free. They were to be maintained
and educated by the owners of their mothers, in consideration of which these owners were entitled to the
services of said children until they became eighteen
years of age. In the mean time, however, the parents
of such children could withdraw them from the custody
of their masters, by paying them a reasonable compensation for the expenses incurred on their account.
Provision was also made against the separation of slavechildren from their parents. Slaves could not be sold
out of the republic, nor exported for that purpose. The
importation of slaves was likewise prohibited. Travellers were not allowed to introduce more than one slave
as a body-servant, and if they failed to take him out of
the country on their departure, he was to be free.
Certain revenues were appropriated to the creation of
an emancipation fund in each district, to be administered by provincial "Juntas," who were to superintend
and direct the work of manumission. Out of this fund,
so many slaves were to be redeemed every year, by
compensation to the owners, as said fund would pay
for; the value of the slaves to be fixed by appraisement,
1 See Villavicencio's Geography of Ecuador, page 221; also, Father Velasco's History of the Kingdom of Quito, vol. iii., book 2, ~ 2, sec. 12 and
13; Quito edition, page 45.




EMANCIPATION.               331
and the most industrious and honest of their number
to be preferred. If there were no slaves in one district, the fund raised therein was to be applied to the
same purpose in another.             q
These were the provisions of the Colombian law
which, considering the importance of the subject, I
have given in full. Aside from a certain bungling
looseness with which almost all Spanish-American laws
are drawn, it contains some very sensible regulations,
and served to lay a solid foundation for the work of
emancipation, since completed by the three republics
which then constituted Colombia. It must be remarked,
however, that as the war of independence and the frequent revolutions which followed it, continually kept
the country in financial embarrassments, and compelled
the government to seize whatever funds it could lay
hands on, but little good resulted from the above mentioned appropriations to the cause of emancipation.
On the 25th of July, 1851, General Jos6 Maria Urbina, as "Jefe Supremo " (Supreme Chief) of Ecuador,
issued a decree declaring, " That the few slaves who
yet remain in bondage in this land of the free, are a
contradiction of the republican institutions which we
have achieved and adopted since 1820; an insult to
religion, morality, and civilization, and a reproach to
the Republic, its Legislators, and Governors." It then
provided, that until Congress should appropriate the
necessary funds to restore said slaves to freedom, the
profits derived from the government monopoly of selling gunpowder should be applied for that purpose, and
that as often as two hundred dollars were realized from
said branch of the revenue, in any of the provinces,
said sum should be applied to the redemption of the
oldest slave therein, the age to be estimated by pro



332   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
vincial Juntas who were intrusted with the execution
of the decree. It was also made their business to prepare correct lists of the names, ages, and occupations
of the slaves, and the names and residences of the
masters in their respective provinces, and to transmit
them to the central government. A supplemental decree regulating the manufacture and sale of gunpowder,
so as to make the revenue derived therefrom more productive, was issued on the 21st of February, 1852.
The- prime mover and principal author of this decree,
was President Urbina's Secretary of State, afterwards
Ecuadorian minister resident in Washington, the late
General Joseph Villamil, a native of Louisiana, of
French and Spanish descent, his father having been a
Spaniard and his mother a French lady. He emigrated
to South America in 1810, and took an active part in
her revolution against the mother country. In 1820
he was one of the leaders of the conspiracy which, by
a very skillful movement, effected the overthrow of
the Spanish power at Guayaquil, and thus destroyed
the communication by sea (by land no communication
w-as practicable) between the presidency of Quito
and the viceroyalty of Peru; an event which greatly
contributed to the subsequent liberation of Peru, Quito,
and New Granada.
These decrees, however, being only provisional and
insufficient, a law was enacted by the National Assembly in September, 1852, creating additional funds for
emancipation purposes, and making it the duty of slaveholders to report the number, names, ages, occupation,
etc., of their slaves to the authorities of their respective districts, who were to compile accurate lists from
the information thus received.  The slaves of such
owners as should neglect to make said report within a




ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.            333
specified time, were declared free without compensation to their masters. The slaves inscribed upon the
official registers were to be appraised by two experts,
one to be selected by the solicitor of the district, the
other by the master; the municipality to appoint an
umpire in cases of disagreement, and the appraisement
not to exceed the price originally paid by the masters.
Male slaves above the age of sixty-five, and female
slaves over sixty years, as well as cripples, were declared free without indemnity to the masters. The
latter, however, were obliged to provide for them during their natural lives, or as long as they might choose
to remain with them. All slaves born after the publication of the Colombian law above referred to, were to
be free without compensation to the owners; also the
slaves imported in contravention of said statute. Every
three months the funds appropriated for emancipation
purposes, were to be applied to the redemption of slaves,
beginning with the oldest in every district, the age to
be ascertained by experts. On the 6th of March, 1854,
slavery was to cease entirely, and if the emancipation
fiunds should not suffice to indemnify all the owners,
certificates were to be issued to them, to be redeemed
afterwards, out of the proceeds of the revenues appropriated for these purposes. In most cases, however,
the compensation stipulated by law, was paid only to
special favorites of the government; while to all others,
certificates were issued which, like all other certificates
or bonds of the domestic debt of Ecuador, are doomed
to eternal non-payment.
Thus was slavery abolished in Ecuador; and whatever just censure may be pronounced on the Spanish
race in America in other respects, it must be admitted,
that in doing justice and making reparation to hil



334   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
manity in the unfortunate negro race, it has set a
prompt and early example to the Anglo-Saxons of the
North. No sooner had the Spanish colonies declared
their independence, than they took the necessary steps
for putting an end to slavery; whereas we of the North
allowed the evil to encroach upon us, until the Gordian
knot could only be cut by the sword.
But let us continue our journey. For miles we now
kept close to the river. The path sometimes became
so narrow that it made the head swim to look into the
yawning abyss below. At some places our road was
hardly eighteen inches wide. At others, landslips,
which are continually taking place on the brittle
hill-side, had covered up the road completely, and
sand and pebbles were giving way under our horses'
feet, and hurled into the river below, as we hastily
passed over the treacherous debris. Near the place
where the Ambi joins the Chota, is the bridge of Santa
Rosa, which had fallen in a short time before my arrival, and was then in process of reconstruction.
A short distance fiom the bridge a valley opens on
the other side of the river, and discloses to our view
the village of Salinas. This village is situated in an
arid plain, which certainly would not have invited settlers, if it were not for the salt which is found there
in great abundance. The soil for miles around Salinas
contains salt. Even the water which the residents are
compelled to. drink is brackish. To extract the salt
from the soil is the principal business of the inhabitants.
It is done in a very simple and primitive manner.
Mounds of earth are piled up around the village, and
into these mounds a crude contrivance for distilling
water is placed. The salt thus gained, which is known
by the name of " sal de Xalinas," is exported in great




AN OCEAN OF MOUNTAINS.           335
quantities to New Granada 4nd Quito. In Quito, however, it is not used for culinary purposes.  These
mounds, by which the village is surrounded, and which
almost conceal its houses from our view, give it the
aspect of a town of the Orient, such as Bethlehem or
Nazareth. To the west and north of Salinas, the valley is covered with sugar plantations, but on account
of the higher elevation of that part of the country, the
cane does not prosper so well as in the lower valley of
the Chota, especially at Santa Lucia and Guajara.
Passing by the opposite valley of Salinas, or as it
ought to be more properly called, the valley of the
Ambi, the road leads us to the summit of a mountain
around which. the river takes a more northerly direction, and we see it before us for miles ahead, as it
breaks through the Cordillera in its precipitous course
to the Pacific. We are again surrounded by bald and
sterile mountains on all sides, and of all shapes and
heights.  If the waves of a tempestuous ocean had
suddenly been transformed into earth and remained
stationary, they could not present a more grotesque
and imposing appearance. In fact, we are now in the
midst of an ocean of mountains, the silent monuments
of the great geological revolutions of our globe. At
last the Cordillera recedes on our right, and sugar,
coffee, and cotton plantations, orchards, and clover
fields, relieve the monotony of the desert through
which we have passed. The sight of farm buildings
is particularly pleasing after having travelled for miles
without meeting with a human habitation. We now
enter the parish de la Concepcion, to which the great
haciendas of Guaquer, San Miguel, Santiaguillo, Cabuyal, Concepcion, La Loma, Chamanal, Santa Lucia,
and others belong. Each of these haciendas is sur



336  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
rounded by groups of houses and huts, in which negroes, arrieros, and other farm laborers live, and which
give them the appearance of a little village. La Concepcion, above all, with its plaza and parochial church,
produces this impression. The soil is very fertile, although it needs much irrigation. The water of the
river is useless for agricultural purposes, on account of
the height and steepness of its banks.  Springs and
mountain streams and artificial aqueducts have to be
resorted to. Some of the latter are very extensive.
The frequent landslides and settling of ridges and hills
often choke up springs, and otherwise interfere with
agricultural progress. At places near ravines the soil
cannot be relied upon with that certainty with which
our own farmers would look upon a tract of land. In
this connection I shall relate an incident which came
under my own immediate observation.
The day I arrived in the valley of the lower Chota,
I observed near Santiaguillo that from one of the curves
of a receding mountain range, deep fissures and clefts
ran down, which had furrowed the earth on both sides
of the road, and across the same. These clefts, as I
was informed by my guides, had opened recently. In
one of them a donkey had perished a few days before
my arrival. The water of the mountain streams which
formerly passed over the ground to join the Chota, now
lost itself in these fissures. A plantain chacra (small
plantation), which we passed, was considered in imminent danger, because it was at the foot of a hill which
the settling of the soil around it would certainly bring
down. Several months before, another hill had come
down in the same neighborhood. The governor of the
province and his son had observed fire or burning gases
at night, which seemed to issue from the soil. This




EARTHSLIPS.               337
phenomenon, however, is believed by the common people to indicate the presence of hidden treasures, and
many persons had dug for thenu in various parts of the
valley where the mysterious nocturnal fires had been
seen. But the fissures which I saw, and which we had
to pass, as they intersected the road continually, were
the precursors of another catastrophe. A few nights
after my arrival at the Governor's hacienda, our company, just before bed-time, were startled by a noise
which resembled the report of a heavy gun. - The
supposition of an earthslip instantly struck our minds.
We dispatched a man on horseback to the place where
the crevices had opened, but he returned greatly frightened, and reported that dense clouds of dust had compelled him to retreat. Next day I went to the spot,
and found that the hill had come down, burying the
plantain chacra, and completely blocking up the road,
so that the usual car as of sugar and rum had to take
another route for several days afterward, until the debris had been partially removed.
Such accidents are of common occurrence in the
highlands of Ecuador. Sometimes they take place in
consequence of earthquakes; sometimes they happen
without them. Not only are earthslips frequent, but
also the great mountains are said to change their shapes
continually on account of the tumbling down of ridges
or rocks, or the sinking in and dlisa)pearance of parts
of the peaks. During such great geological revolutions, not only hills and lakes, but even villages, have
disappeared. The unfortunate Indian village of Cacha,
near Riobamba, was swallowed up by a revolution of
the earth in 1640, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, in
consequence of which five thousand Indians lost their
lives and were never seen again. It is said that shortly
22




338   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
before the catastrophe the curate had been called away
from the village to administer the last sacraments to a
dying Indian in the neighborhood, and that when he
returned, the village and the lake near it were gone,
and the curate could not even recognize the place
where his house had been.
I established my head-quarters at Santiaguillo, an
hacienda belonging to the then governor of the province, which is celebrated for the comparative salubrity
of its climate. The mean temperature at midday was
830 Fahr. in the shade. Black mosquitoes and sand-flies
were very vexatious in daytime, but only in the open air.
In the houses there were none. The accommodations
on haciendas in this part of the country are generally
very poor. The owners are very friendly and hospitable, but their farm-houses are destitute of almost all
the commodities of civilized life. The buildings are
mostly dilapidated, either from natural decay or neglect, or in consequence of earthquakes. The construction of new buildings is a very slow work, continually
interrupted by long intervals of inactivity, as I have
already indicated. The furniture consists of a few
common chairs, tables, bedsteads, benches, and perhaps
sofas, in the style of the 17th or 18th century, from
which they have generally descended to the present
possessors. Such luxuries as wash-basins are but seldom to be found. The natives do not wash their faces
in the country; they do it seldom enough in town.
It must be borne in mind that the owners of haciendas
do not live on them like the farmers of North America.
They only visit them from time to time, and on such
ocasions, they " rough it" for a few days or weeks,
rather than incur unnecessary expenses.
There is a chapel at Santiaguillo in which mass is




A SERMON BY THE CURATE.                 339
said every Sunday by the curate of the parish, whose
residence is at La Concepcion, a great hacienda about
half an hour's ride fi-om Santiaguillo. Between the
first and second parts of the mass, his worship made a
speech to the congregation, in which he complained
that some of them had buried their dead on the hacienda without paying the perquisites of the curate. He
reminded them that the cemetery of the parish was at
La Concepcion; but that for their accommodation he
had allowed them to bury their dead at Santiaguillo,
but that he had not consented that this should be done
to his damage. If, therefore, they should continue to
inter on the hacienda without paying his fees, he would
revoke his permission, and compel them to take their
dead to La Concepcion, however inconvenient this
might prove to them. This was the only sermon
preached. During transubstantiation the congregation,
which chiefly consisted of negro farm laborers and their
wives, sang misericordia, Senor! to the tune of one of
their national airs. After the service the curate rode
away to say mass in some other part of his dominions.
Later in the day he returned to take part in the games
of dice or cards, with which Spanish-Americans generally beguile their time when business or pleasure has
taken them into the country.'
A great number of tolas of all sizes, chiefly in the
neighborhood of Santiaguillo, denote that this valley
1 "On going for a day's excursion from the capital, immediately on
reaching the place of destination they hurry into a room, cards and dice
are instantly produced, and the whole time until their departure for home
in the evening, with the exception of the dinner hour, is sacrificed to this
inveterate and pernicious habit of gambling, instead of diverting their
mind and expanding their intellect by rational conversation, or remarks on
surrounding objects or scenery." - Journal of a Residence and Travels in
Colombia during the Years 1823-24, by Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane:
London, 1825.




340   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
was formerly inhabited by Indian tribes, considerably
advanced in some of the arts of civilization. The
earthen vessels and crockery- ware found in these
graves, are greatly superior in style and workmanship
to those found in the tolas of Carranqui. The latter
are of but one color -a brownish red. Those of
Santiaguillo are of a light yellow color, most symmetrically embellished with red lines, triangles, and
flourishes. In one of the graves I found several pieces
of tasteful ornaments worked of shells, showing that
the Indians of this valley must have been in communication with the sea-coast. In the smaller graves one
skeleton is generally found, with a pair of bronze earrings, and one of the drinking vessels just described.
I wanted to buy a pair of those earrings from a woman
who, assisted by her children, had opened several of
the smaller tolas; but she insisted that the Incas
worked no metal but gold, and believing the earrings
to be gold, would not sell them at the liberal price
I had proposed to pay.
It is a poor compliment to the civilizing effect of
Spanish rule, to observe that the ancient Indians used
tasteful and handsome drinking vessels, and cooking
utensils with legs to stand over the fire, while their
"civilized " descendants have returned to the use of
the calabash, and while even the cooking pots of their
white superiors, on account of being pointed below,
cannot stand over the fire without being supported by
bricks or stones.
But the most remarkable antiquities I saw in this
part of the country, were two forts, if such was their
original destination, near the farm-house of Santiaguillo, and at a distance of about three or four squares
from each other.  They were both in the form of a




THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS.        341
regular circle, as regular as if a modern surveyor had
laid it out. The first consisted of an outer earth-wall
about ten or twelve feet high, and about three hundred
paces in circumference on the inside, and of a second
circular wall in the centre. The circumference of the
latter was about one hundred paces on its outside. In
the centre of the second circle there was an excavation
resembling a well or cistern; which, however, may have
been dug after the conquest by persons in search of
hidden treasures. The second fort was built entirely
after the same style, though of lesser dimensions. The
inner wall, however, had recently been taken down
and leveled by an individual who had hired the fort,
temple, or tambo, or whatever it may have been, for
the purpose of raising plantains within the inclosure
afforded by the outer wall. The walls of both works
were overgrown with green shrubs and arborescent
plants, which pleasantly contrasted with the sterility of
the surrounding country.
From  Santiaguillo I went to the haciendas of La
Loma, Chamanal, and Santa Lucia. The two latter
are nearly opposite Guajara, which in former times was
the great breeding-place for negro slaves. In the remotest parts of the country, such as Cuenca and' Loja,
Guajara negroes may be found. Guajara is on the left,
Chamanal and Santa Lucia are on the right river bank.
They are the last sugar-growing establishments in this
direction. There are several stock-breeding haciendas
beyond them; but after these the wilderness commences, penetrated only by the footpath to Peylon, on
the coast. From Guajara, two journeys can be made
on horseback in the direction of Peylon; then three
journeys must be made on foot to a place called La




S-l2  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Tola, where the river commences to be navigable for
canoes. The port of Peylon, and the road from the
coast to Ibarra, are graphically described by Gerstaecker the German traveller, in his " Eighteen
Months in South America." It would be a very easy
and cheap task to construct a mule path from Guajara
to La Tola. The distance from Ibarra to Peylon is
but twenty-one leagues, about one third of the distance from Quito to Guayaquil. The present footpath
presents less natural difficulties and obstacles than the
footpath to Esmeraldas. Traders who take cheese and
other inland productions to the coast, where they exchange them for gold-dust, travel over it continually.
A good road from Ibarra to Peylon, even if it were
only a mule path, would be of the most vital importance to the province of Imbabura, which it would
raise to the rank of the first and wealthiest of the interior. And yet so great are the indolence and indifference of the Spanish race, that such a road, although
continually talked of, has never been made, and will not
be made for many years to come. In 1862, a company
of land-owners of Imbabura, in concert with the English company of Peylon, proposed to build a road to
that place from Ibarra, and applied to the President
for the consent and support of the government. The
latter was then wasting the scanty means of the government on a few miles of wagon-road in the direction
of Guayaquil, an enterprise too gigantic ever to be
accomplished by a poor country like Ecuador, without
the aid of foreign capitalists. He had also commenced
to construct a mule path to Esmeraldas; but he began
the work before a thorough survey had been made.
Unforeseen natural impediments presented themselves,




MISTAKEN POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.  343
and the work had to be abandoned. Prejudiced in
favor of these two latter impracticable enterprises, the
President received the propositions of the Imbabura
company very ungraciously, and insisted on conditions
so unreasonable and oppressive, that the company desisted from a further prosecution of their plan. One
of the conditions was that the individual members of
the association should hypothecate their lands to the
government as security that the road should be finished. Other negotiations which had previously taken
place between the English company and the Ecuadorian
government were equally fruitless. The English company had been formed by certain holders of Ecuadorian
bonds, who had agreed to take waste lands in satisfaction of their claims. Different tracts had been assigned
to them on and near the Pacific coast, and on the headwaters of the Amazons on the eastern side of the Cordillera, but only of the Peylon lands has the company
been able to obtain the necessary title deeds. The
Ecuadorian government clings to these lands as if they
were worth any thing in their present wild and unpopulated condition. The rulers of this country have not
yet realized that a government does not need to be a
land-owner, and that not in waste lands and deserts,
but in a thriving and enterprising population, the
strength and prosperity of a nation consist. But let
us return to our subject.
Almost all the haciendas in Chota Bajo, formerly belonged to the Jesuits, until 1767, when they were confiscated and sold by the Spanish government. Sugar
and rum are the principal productions of the valley.
The rum is filled into hides. Two hides form a Botija,
which contains one hundred and sixty bottles, and just
makes up a mule load. The coffee which grows in the




344  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
valley is excellent, but it is not planted in sufficient
quantities.
While I was at Chamanal, the hospitable owner of
the hacienda gave me the spectacle of a negro dance,
which is called bundi, and is exceedingly interesting.
The negroes of the hacienda, men, women, and children, assembled in the hall, bringing with them two
characteristic musical instruments - the bomba and the
alfandoque. The former is intended for a drum. It is
a sort of barrel, over which a hide is spanned, and to
beat which no drumsticks but the fingers or fists are
used to make the singers keep time. The alfandoque
is a hollow cane or reed, into which a quantity of
buckshot, peas, or pebbles is put, whereupon the openings are closed with cotton or a bundle of rags. By
shaking this queer instrument a noise is produced similar to that made in theatres to imitate the sound of
falling rain. It is, however, shaken to the time of the
songs, and chimes in not at all unpleasantly. But the
main part of the orchestra consists of the voices of
the women and children, accompanied by the voice of
the player of the alfandoque.  Clapping their hands
continually, they sing a great variety of. songs, to
which the bomba  and alfandoque keep time.  In
musical talent and taste, these negroes are infinitely
superior to the Indians. Their melodies are neither so
monotonous nor so lifeless as those of the aborigines.
On the contrary, they are varied and fiery, and full of
exciting vigor. Their dance is not the slow, measured
step of the Indians, but is characterized by that wild
sweeping and dashing, and the extravagant gesticulation peculiar to the Ethiopian.  They dance various
dances, some of which are irresistibly comic. In this
they are of a higher inventive genius than the white




COMIC DANCES.               345
and cholo rabble, who cannot advance beyond the slow
and monotonous alza que te han visto. There was one
figure which was particularly funny. It was a pantomimic representation of toros (bull-fights).  The
step was that of the alza que te han visto, although
much quicker. The woman dancing attacks her male
partner, whom she tries to butt, as if she were a bull.
He, without falling out of time or losing the step,
dodges her. This is continued for several minutes,
when the parts are changed and the man attacks the
woman, who in her turn dodges him. Woe to the
partner who is not quick enough to avoid the butt; its
force may fell him to the ground. The dance is generally accompanied by the vehement and comic gestures peculiar to the negro race. The partners keep
on dancing without interruption, one pair at a time,
until somebody else steps in to relieve them; but the
change of performers does not interrupt the performance for a single moment, nor is there an intermission
of the song. Even the fellow who beats the bomba
never stops. When he is treated to a cup of rum,
some one of the company presents it to his lips, and he
swallows it while his hands continue to beat the drum.
Perspiration pours down his face, but he has no time
to wipe it off. With the agility of a monkey, he keeps
on beating his bomba as long as there is a pair not too
exhausted to keep up the dance. The male partner in
a dance must keep on as long as the lady does, or until
somebody steps in to relieve him. At Esmeraldas and
other places on the coast, it would be considered an
insult to withdraw from the dance without being relieved. The friends of the lady thus injured would
be but too apt to resent the offense on the spot. Rum,
as a matter of course, is not spared on such occasions,




346  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
and the excitement and enthusiasm increase from hour
to hour. The din caused by the shrill voices of the
women and children, the drumming, and clapping of
hands, and the noise of the alfandoque, together with
the occasional exclamations of the dancers and bystanders, completely drowned the words of their song.
I was unable to make out any of the verses, but my
companions told me that the songs were composed by
the negroes themselves, and in their own dialect.
Like the negroes of the United States, the negroes of
Spanish-America have a dialect and pronunciation of
their own. The same guttural voices, and almost unintelligible pronunciation, the same queer gesticulation
and shaking of the body, the same shrewd simplicity
and good humor, the same love of fun and merrymaking that characterize the negro in the rice swamps
and cotton-fields of Georgia and South Carolina, distinguish his race on the banks of the Chota, at Guajara,
and La Concepcion.
The wages paid to workmen in trapiches (sugar establishments), are one real a day; but the laborers are
not entitled to the suit of clothes which is given to Indian farm laborers once a year. In other respects their
situation and treatment are the same.
Insects such as beetles, cockroaches, mosquitoes,
etc., abound in the valley. Snakes, too, are found, but
not mnany, and it is generally believed that they are not
poisonous. Chills and fevers are frequent, although I
believe the valley is healthy, and that diseases are contracted only by exposure. The sterility and barrenness of the mountains continue as far as the eye can
reach. It is not until you travel two or three days in'
the direction of Peylon that the forests commence. In
the rear of the mountain range of Chamanal, is the




VIEW FROM MOJANDA.            347
Cordillera del Chiltason, in which mines were formerly
worked, of which vestiges are still to be found. But
at present, mining seems to be abandoned all over
Ecuador. Both capital and energy are wanting to
carry it on.
From the valley of the Chota I returned to Ibarra
and Otabalo. Having come from Quito by the Camino
Real (the Guaillabamba road), I carried out my original intention to return by way of the paramo, although
this latter road, when it rains, is one of the most terrible breaknecks in the country. It passes over the
mountain and paramo of Mojanda, a wild and dreary
scene. Otabalo lies at the foot of the mountain, and
the ascent is steep and slow. Shrubs and bushes, and
legions of wild-flowers surround you; an orchestra of
birds pour forth a rich succession of sweet notes; at
your feet expands a most interesting landscape: Lake
San Pablo, separated by an isolated hill chain from the
plains of Otabalo; Cotacachi, with Lake Cuicocha in
its lap, and Mount Imbabura with its trachytic crown,
give you a parting look of romantic sadness; the
plains of Hatuntaqui and Il)arra in the distance, and
mighty ranges of the' Cordillera on all sides; — it is a
view amply indemnifying you for the slowness and
difficulty of the ascent; a view from which I tore myself with regret, because the melancholy thought crept
over my soul that I should never see it again. I shall
return to home and friends, and to the scenes of active
life and enterprise; I shall leave for ever behind me
this remarkable country in the stillness of its indolent
decay, frowned upon by the grave majesty of its mountains; and the scenes through which I passed will be to
me, in years to come, but the " memory of a departed
dream." But it was a beautiful dream; and the hoary




348   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
crowns of those giants of the Cordillera, the highland
lakes and mountain streams, the Indian's humble hut
and the crumbling temples of a bygone age, the long
rows of aloes in the plains below, and the dreary grass
of the paramo on high, will forever live in my recollection, although my foot shall no longer tread the virgin soil of this hidden land, and the voice of the arriero,
scrambling up the craggy mountain passes, no longer
strikes my ear.  No scenery has ever made such a
lasting and intense impression on my mind as the
highlands of the Andes, and especially the province
of Imbabura.  I shall treasure it up as one of the
fondest reminiscences of my life, and I shall give it a
last lingering remembrance in the final hour of my
dying day.
The view I have described is soon lost sight of as
you enter the dreary region of the paramo, where
almost no vegetation greets you except the high and
dry grass which the natives call paja (straw). Numerous herds of cattle are found grazing in these elevated regions. The dreariness of the scene is enhanced
by a queer-looking ghastly bird, which the Indians call
" uruquingui," a species of hawk or buzzard, with a
long, yellow-red bill. The bird does not seem to mind
the approach of travellers. It stares at them until
they can almost strike it with their whips, when it
slowly prepares to fly away.
Crossing the heath near the summit of the mountain, Lake Mojanda is reached, the aspect of which
strikes awe and almost terror to the soul. It forms
one of the wildest, and at the same time one of the
most melancholy views I beheld in Ecuador. A lake
of an extension nearly equal to that of San Pablo,
almost on the summit of a mountain, surrounded on




THE PLAIN OF MALCHINGUI.          349
three sides by bleak, perpendicular rocks, with only a
dwarf vegetation on its shores and on the precipitous
crags by which it is hemmed in; the atmosphere cold
and chilling; the water clear and rippling; not a single
human habitation, not even a solitary Indian hut, to
be descried as far as the eye can reach - all is loneliness, wildness, and desert.
Passing the caldron in which the lake is situate,
another smaller valley opens before us, with Little
Mojanda in it. This latter hardly deserves the name
of a lake; it having the appearance of a gloomy pond
of stagnant water, surrounded by dreary hills overgrown with paramo grass. About half a league from
the lake the descent of the mountain range commences.
At its foot is the sandy plain of Malchingui, with the
village of the same name. For miles around we see
nothing but sandy plains, with sickly attempts at cultivation of peas, corn, and clover. The plain is suddenly
interrupted by the deep defile through which the river
Guaillabamba rushes on in the direction of the village
of Perucho. It takes more than an hour to descend
to the bridge.  Before reaching the latter, a gently
declining plain has to be passed, covered with fields of
sugar-cane, cayenne-pepper, corn, and clover. This
is the great hacienda of Alchipichi, noted for the benignity of its climate —warm without being hot, and
producing tropical fruits without the tropical inconveniences of insects and fevers. The cane raised at
Alchipichi cannot be compared to that of the Chota,
but the proximity of Quito makes it very profitable.
The scenery and vegetation of the Guaillabamba,
which we now pass, I have already described. After
a tedious ascent on the other side, other sandy plains of
a most melancholy character open before us. These




350   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
are the plains of San Antonio and Pomasqui. At the
latter place, in spite of the apparent aridity of the soil,
clover for horses grows exceedingly well. After leaving Pomasqui, the aspect of the country begins to improve, until we reach the village of Cotocollao, about
two leagues from the capital. Here green fields and
smiling cultivation surround us again, and nothing
seems to be wanting but an energetic population to
apply the great contrivances of modern genius to a
most promising soil, and the healthiest climate in the
world.




CHAPTER XVI.
HISTORICAL REVIEW.
Indian Traditions.- Difficulties of Estimating Ancient Indian Civilization.
- Scarcity of Materials.- Destruction of Indian Civilization by the
Spaniards. - The Religious Element of the Conquest. - Fray AMarcos de
Niza. - Persecution of the Indian Writer Collahuaso. -The Old Quitu
Nation. — Its Conquest by the Carans.- The Giants of Punta Santa
Helena. - The Ancient Kings or Scyris of Quito.- Romantic Legend
of Condorazo. - Invasion of the Peruvian Incas. - Cacha Duchicela,
the last of the Scyris. - His Heroic Resistance against the Inca Huaynacapac. - Battle of Hatuntaqui. - Death of the last of the Scyris. -
His Daughter Pacha. - Death of Huaynacapac. - War between his
Sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa. - Battle of Quipaypan. - Defeat and
Capture of Huascar. - Arrival of the Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro. - Capture and Execution of Atahuallpa. - Downfall of the Peruvian Empire. -Usurpation and Cruelty of Rumifiagui at Quito. -
Benalcazar's Expedition to Quito. - Genius of Rumifiagui. - Battle of
Tiocajas. - Evacuation and Destruction of Quito by Rumifiagui. - The
Virgins of the Sun. - Horrid Cruelty of the Spaniards. - Execution
of Rumifiagui. - Indian Slavery. - Encomiendas and Repartimientos.
- Spanish Colonization. -- The Blue Laws of Spanish America. - Protective Legislation. - Pedro de Puelles. - Revolution of the Colonists.
— Gonzalo Pizarro. —Battle of Quito.- Death of the Viceroy.Death of Gonzalo Pizarro. - Revolution and Execution of Hernandez
Giron. - The Cause of the Indians Abandoned. - Plan for a Continuation of this History.
I HAVE already said that the Indians of Quito have
lost their ancient traditions.   While  the  Indians of
Cuzco, and generally throughout the interior of Peru,
delight in the remembrance of the great Empire of
the Sun, and its many legends,l which they have pre1 See Markham's Cuzco and Lima; also: Travels in Peru and India, by
the same author; and Stephenson's Twenty Years' Residence in South Amersca. The latter work is now out of print.




352   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
served in spite of the prohibitions of the colonial despotism of Spain, those of Quito have retained nothing
beyond a general impression that there was a time once
when they were the masters and sole inhabitants of the
country. The precise period when they began to forget the traditions of their race, it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. In the seventeenth century, they
were still preserved.  In the record books of the
Municipality of Quito, I found the description of a
great celebration which began on the 26th of February, 1631, and lasted several days, in honor of the
birth of Charles II., the news of which had then arrived. On that occasion, the inevitable bull-fights
were varied by the addition of a grand Indian pantorime, representing the triumph of the Inca Huaynacapac over the Quijos, who had risen in rebellion against
him. In the eighteenth century, frequent sublevations of Indians took place, which, thougih attributable
to merely local causes, may have been promoted by
the memory and proper understanding of their ancient
independence, and the manner in which it was wrested
from them. At present, however, no vestige of such
knowledge remains. It is true they have dances and
ceremonies which are evidently of heathenish origin,
but the original signification of which they have forgotten.
It must forever be deplored, that among the Spanish
conquerors there were no men of discernment and
mental culture, who might have given us a clearer insight into the civilization and history of the Indians of
those times. What little we know of the reign of
Huaynacapac and his predecessors, and of the civil
wars between his two sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa,
is perhaps worse than hearsay. Garcilazo de la Vega,




SPANISH INDIFFERENCE TO INDIAN HISTORY. 353
the principal and most favored authority on Peruvian
antiquities and traditions, wrote his book from what, in
after years, he remembered to have heard in his early
youth from his mother, an Indian princess, and an old
uncle, who was one of the royal family. He had
left the land of his birth at the age of twenty, and not
until after long years of an adventurous life, which
must more or less have obliterated or confused his recollections, did he sit down to write his "(Comentarios
Reales." He was prejudiced, by his very descent from
the Cuzco line, against Atahuallpa and the Quito line;
and in his mind the superstitions of the new faith were
blended with the traditions of the old. The conquerors themselves were not even able to give a clear
account of their own doings: how much less can their
statements be relied on when they refer to a people
with whose language, idiosyncrasies, opinions, and customs they were entirely unacquainted. With few exceptions, the Spanish conquerors were the dregs of
ignorant and superstitious Spain. They were desperate men, who had nothing to lose and every thing to
gain. What did they care for the intellectual condition and historical traditions of a race which they had
come to enslave! To them, Indian civilization was an
abominable idolatry, which they considered themselves
bound not to study, but to extirpate. The principal,
and in many cases the only, question which they put
to the natives, was where they had hidden their gold.
Their chief inquiry was for mines. These questions
they enforced by a system of most cruel tortures,
which the pen shrinks from recording. The Indians,
on the other hand, were not likely to communicate to
their tormentors what to the philosophic investigation
of posterity would have been infinitely more interest23




354  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ing than apocryphal stories of buried treasures. Communicativeness is not a trait in the character of the
Ecuadorian Indians. They hardly ever return a direct answer. They are noted for their ability to keep
the secrets of their race. I was often struck by their
propensity to evade the simplest and most insignificant
questions; and it is not at all probable that those who,
like Rumifiagui and his captains, endured the most cruel
torments rather than disclose where their treasures
were hidden, should have volunteered information to
their conquerors on subjects which the latter cared but
little to know. It is but too well known that the Indians shunned the society of the Spaniards, to whose
presence in the country they owed all their misery and
sufferings. This antipathy was but the natural consequence of the treatment which they had received. I
frequently noticed that one may travel for miles with
an Indian guide or companion, without his volunteering information on any subject. It cannot be wondered at, under these circumstances, that every thing
relating to the Spanish conquest in America is involved in uncertainty.' The opportunities to collect
information, on subjects of incalculable interest for the
history of human civilization, were thrown away by
the ignorance, brutality, cupidity, and cruelty of the
Spanish conquerors. It is true, there were some men
among them who, restrained by the vows of holy
orders, cared less for amassing riches than for the protection and conversion of the poor natives, and the
acquisition of some knowledge concerning their customs, traditions, and form of government and society.
Among those men Frav Marcos de Niza, who accompanied Benalcazar on his expedition to Quito, deserves
to be honorably mentioned. From his writings, all the




SPANISH HISTORIANS.           355
materials with reference to the antiquities of Quito,
the history of the ancient Scyris, the conquest of their
land by the Incas, and afterward by the Spaniards,
are drawn. He is, in a measure, to Quito what Garcilazo de la Vega is to Cuzco. Unfortunately, I have
been unable to procure a copy of his works. I even
doubt whether they have ever been printed. Bravo
Saravio,1 who largely copied from them, availed himself of the original manuscripts.  From  this latter
author, and Chieza de Leon, Father Velasco compiled
his ancient history of Quito, to which I was frequently, although reluctantly, obliged to resort. But with all
due deference to the goodness and humanity of Father
Marcos de Niza, the question must suggest itself
whether a Spanish monk of the sixteenth century was
a proper person to collect, sift, and present those materials which are indispensable to what we now understand by studying and writing history. The Spanish
monks who accompanied the conquerors were certainly
not superior to the spirit of their age. They believed
the miracles of their own church, and they also believed the miracles of which the Indian  religions
boasted. The former, in their opinion, were wrought
by the saints and the Virgin; the latter by the Evil
One. When they set themselves to study the civilization of the conquered races, they did not begin their
task with the impartiality of one who sincerely seeks
for truth, but they allowed themselves to be guided by
two objects. The first was to trace the doings of the
Devil in the history and religions of the pagan Indians; the second was to discover in the Indian traditions of the past and their then civilization, evidences
of heavenly endeavors to impart to those benighted
1 Antiguidades Peruanas.




356    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
nations some glimpses of the dogmas of the Church of
Rome. A vague notion that two of the Apostles must
have visited various parts of America haunted their
minds.l The traces of Catholic rites were eagerly sought
for in the religious ceremonies and edifices of the heathens; and when supposed resemblances were found,
they were attributed either to the visit of the apostles
St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, or to the eagerness
of Satan to copy the signs and rites of the church
against which he eternally militates.2 Relations in the
language of the Indians, which the missionaries could
have but imperfectly understood, or which they heard
through the medium of unlettered and unreliable interpreters, were either misunderstood, or, as the wish
is often father to the thought, consciously or unconsciously misinterpreted.   Ancient prophecies of the
victorious advent of foreign invaders, with long beards,
were profusely discovered. The superstition of the
converters fed on the superstition of the converted, instead of investigating the natural causes from which it
arose. So strong was this tendency, that it infected
not only the ecclesiastical, but also the lay historians
of those times.3 The belief in a continuous supernatural interference reigned supreme. Visions of
saints, fighting against legions of demons, were seen in
the air by the Spanish warriors during many a battle
with the Indians. The thatched roof of the Spanish
fort at Cuzco, which the Indians endeavored to set on
1 Velasco, Historia del Reino de Quito, vol. i., lib. 4, ~ 6.
2 See Herrera, dec. v., lib. iv., cap. 5; also, cap. 4. Garcilazo, listoria
General del Peru, lib. i., cap. 30; also, Solorzano, Politica Indiana, part i.,
book i., ch. 7, and authors there quoted.
8 As to the tendency of a change of religion to corrupt the early history
of an uncivilized country, and to obscure and adulterate its ancient traditions, see Buckle's History of Civilization in England, vol. i., ch. vi., pp.
218-222 (American edition), and the examples there cited.




CATHOLIC TRADITIONS.              857
fire as often as they returned to the attack, would not
burn because the Virgin stood on it putting out the
flames.' St. James, the apostle, mounted on a splendid
white steed, and armed with a sword of lightning,
charged the Indians in person, killing and wounding
them by hundreds.2  The Holy Virgin frustrated the.
night attacks of the natives, by appearing in a circle
of radiant light, and throwing dust in the eyes of the
besiegers of Cuzco.3 The lion and the tiger, let loose
on Pedro de Candia at Tumbez, crouched before him
in the dust, because he was armed with the holy cross.4
The demons, who had held familiar converse with
the Indians before the arrival of the Spaniards, were
struck dumb as soon as mass was said in Peru; and
only in the dead of night, and secretly, they dared to
speak to the principal sorcerers in whose service they
were.5 Not the terror of fire-arms, so dreadful to the
Indians, who believed the invaders to be masters of
thunder and lightning; not the fearful havoc caused
by those unknown four-legged monsters on which the
conquerors dashed over the battle-fields, with a speed
which their unfortunate adversaries could not comprehend; not the effect of iron and steel on the almost
naked bodies of the helpless natives; not the superiority of civilization, military skill, and discipline, brought
victory to the arms of Castile; but it was the direct
interference of the Virgin, the Apostles, and saints.
The subsequent policy of the Spanish government,
and its colonial officials, was not calculated to promote
the study and preservation of Indian traditions. In the
eighteenth century an Indian Cacique of Ibarra, Don
1 Garcilazo, Hist. Gen. del Peru, lib. ii., cap. 25.
2 Ibid. caps. 24 and 25.             3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. lib. i., caps. 11 and 12.
6 Ibid. lib. i., cap. 30. Gomara, Hist. Gen., cap. 34.




358   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
Jacinto Collahuaso, wrote a book called the " Civil Wars
of Huascar and Atahuallpa," which is said to have
contained many traditions that had escaped the attention of Fray Marcos de Niza. But the Corregidor of
Ibarra, indignant at the presumption of an Indian to
write a book, and on subjects which might prove dangerous to the tranquillity and submissiveness of the
aborigines, confiscated and publicly burned the work,
and imprisoned the author. Many years after this
persecution, Collahuaso, encouraged by his confessor,
a Dominican monk, re-wrote the most essential parts
of his narrative, and a written copy of this reproduction came into the possession of Father Velasco, who
was personally acquainted with the cacique. It does not
seem to have been printed, and manuscript copies of
it are no longer extant at Quito.
Considering all these circumstances, the extreme
scarcity of the materials, the paucity of authentic and
contemporaneous documents, and the ignorance of the
Spanish conquerors, of whom many, like Pizarro and
Almagro, could neither read nor write, while the more
learned among them were influenced by the prejudices and superstitions to which I have referred, it is
with feelings of great diffidence that I propose to give
a brief review of the early history of Quito. Of the
old Quitu nation which inhabited the highlands to the
north and south of the present capital, nothing is known
to tradition but the name of its last king, Quitu, after
whom his subjects were probably called. His domains
were invaded and conquered by the nation of the Caras,
or Carans, who had come by sea in balsas (rafts) from
parts unknown, and landing on the coast of Esmeraldas, followed the course of that river, ascending the
western cordillera of the Andes, until they reached
the table-lands of Pichincha.




THE  ANCIENT  GIANTS.                        359
According to ancient traditions, they were induced
to leave their settlements on the coast by the arrival
of a number of formidable giants, who had also come
in balsas, nobody knew whence, and, landing at Punta
Santa Elena, established themselves in the provinces of
the Carans.  When the Spaniards arrived in Peru,
a tradition that a race of giants had come to the country  many  centuries  before,  was  general.1   By  the
ignorant, in many parts of Ecuador, this fable is believed to the present day. It is also adopted by
Father Velasco, who makes a serious and elaborate
attempt to prove its historical truth. These giants are
said to have brought no women with them, and to have
become so wicked that they were at last destroyed
by fire from heaven. Certain ruins of a style entirely
different from the architecture of the Incas,.and wells
sunk deep through rocks, discovered in the neighborhood of Punta Santa Elena, are attributed to their
herculean  efforts.2   Bones  of uncommon  size, which
have also been discovered there, and which, according
1 Herrera, dec. iv.; lib. ii., chap. 7. Zarate, Hist. del Descubrimiento
y Conquista del Peru; Madrid, 1577, chap. v. Garcilazo de la Vega, Comentarios Reales, book ix., chap. 9. " At Punta Santa Elena, as well as at
Manta, large bones have been met with. In a paper of mine, read at the
Geological Society, on the fossil bones of the Mastodon in Chili, I have
adverted to the bones found at the above places. Stephenson saw a
grinder from this spot which weighed five pounds three ounces, the enamel
spotted like the female tortoise-shell." - Bollaert, Antiquarian, Ethnological,
and other Researches in New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Chili; London,
1860. Large fossil bones have also been, and are still being, found in the
neighborhood of Riobamba, in the province of Chimborazo. The same
story of a race of giants, who had infested the country long before the
arrival of the Spaniards, was also current in Mexico.  See Torqueniada,
Monarquia Indiana, vol. i., book i., chap. 13.
2 Villavicencio says, in his Geography of Ecuador, that two leagues north
of Monte Cristo, in the district of Manta, on the flat summit of a low
mountain, is a circle of thirty stone seats, with arms, and that in all probability they were used on solemn occasions by the chiefs of Cara. ere they
conquered Quito.




360      FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to Humboldt, are "enormous remains of unknown
cetaceous  animals,"  confirmed  the  common  belief in
this fabulous tradition; although it is evident that
instead of the bones being attributable to giants,
the giants must be attributed to the discovery of the
bones. It was an easy way for the credulous and the
unscientific to account for the existence of large fossils
which they could not otherwise explain.1 The giants
in question are said to have been anthropophagi, each
devouring about fifty victims a day, and so enormously
tall they were, that common mortals only reached up
to their knees. Whether the Carans were frightened
from   the  coast  by  those  apocryphal  monsters,  or
whether they left because of its unhealthy climate, the
fact seems to be that they easily reduced the Quitu
nation, to  which they were superior in  the rudiments
of civilization. The Carans are said to have constructed temples and other edifices, although their
architecture was inferior to that of the  Peruvian  Incas. Father Velasco's statement, that they knew how
to construct arches and vaulted roofs, seems to be without foundation, like so many assertions of the credulous
Padre. They knew how to cut precious stones, of
which the emerald2 was held in greatest esteem; a
1 In Europe, the discovery of such bones had given rise to similar legends. " The first application of the principles of comparative anatomy
to the study of fossil bones, was the work of a Frenchman, the celebrated
Daubenton. Hitherto, these bones had been the object of stupid wonder;
some saying that they were rained from heaven, others saying that they
were the gigantic limbs of the ancient patriarchs - men who were believed
to be tall because they were known to be old. Such idle conceits were forever destroyed by Daubenton, in a memoir he published in 1762." - Buckle,
Bistory of Cirilization in England, vol. i., p. 634 (American edition).
2,' I was surprised not to see emeralds at Guayaquil, when at the conquest they were so abundantly found in Equador. This gem cannot have
disappeared, but awaits intelligent searchers, particularly as we now know
its geological position.  Emeralds were obtained in considerable quantities from the river Tucamez; and the river Esmeraldas is said to be so




THE CARANS.                           361
large emerald was the chief ornament in the crown
of their king, or Scyri. Unacquainted with the Peruvian guipus,l they used to perpetuate the memory of
important events by a significant juxtaposition of small
pieces of wood, clay, and stones of various sizes,
colors, and forms. These were kept in their temples,
palaces, and  tombs.   How   they  buried  their  dead,
piling up mounds of earth over their bodies, has already been explained. Their religion consisted in a
worship of the sun and the moon, and their language
is said to have been similar to the Peruvian Quichua.
It is also said that they regulated their year by the solstices, and divided  it into  twelve months.2   Their fortresses were square earthworks, entirely different from
the pucards of the Incas. Their principal arms were
lances and clubs. They were very skillful in pottery,
and wore large earrings of bronze. Some of these
ornaments I saw as they were dug out of tolas, or
graves, in the province of Imbabura.
These Caras, or Carans, established the dynasty of
the Scyris at Quito, and extended their conquests
called from the ancient quarries of this stone. It is also mentioned that
the name of Esmeraldas was given to this part of the country, seeing that
it was so green with vegetation, by some of the conquerors who had been
on the desert coast of Peru. Stephenson (vol. ii., p. 406) says he did not
visit the mines, owing to the dread of the natives, who assured hirr. that
the place was enchanted, and guarded by a dragon which poured forth'
thunder and lightning. The locality of the emeralds may be arrived at by
the river Bichile, the Alcalde of which gave Stephenson three emeralds,
found in the sands at the mouth of that river. The mines were worked by
the Jesuits." - Bollaert, Antiquarian, Ethnol., and other Researches. See,
also, Herrera, dec. iv., lib. vii., cap. 9.
1 " The guippus was made of threads of different colors, which colors, the
knots, and the distances between the knots and between the threads,
afforded, first, a means of numeration, and afterward a species of hieroglyphic." - Helps, Spanish Conquest in America, vol. iii., p. 432 (American
edition).
2 Velasco, Hist. Antiq., b. i., ~ 2, p. 6.




362   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
to the north and south, until checked by the warlike
nation of the Puruhds, who inhabited the present district of Riobamba. The eleventh Scyri, who had no
male issue, gave his daughter Toa in marriage to Duchicela, son of Condorazo, the king of Puruha, with
whom he had agreed that in case either of the two
reigning fathers-in-law should die, the young couple,
superseding the surviving king, should succeed at once
to the throne of the two countries, which were thenceforward to remain united. Condorazo, who, when he
assented to this treaty had not anticipated the possibility of his surviving the Scyri, was so grieved by
having to surrender the crown to his own son, that he
retired into the fastnesses of a mountain, and was
never heard of again. That mountain has ever since
retained his name.
Duchicela was succeeded by his son Autachi, and
the united kingdoms prospered and flourished, until
in the reign of Hualcopo Duchicela, the thirteenth
Scyri, the Peruvian Incas commenced to extend their
conquests to the north. It is not within the scope of
this book to review the traditions concerning the origin
and history of the Incas. This has been done in many
other works to which I must refer the reader.1 It will
suffice to say that about the middle of the fifteenth
century the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, father of Huaynacapac, invaded the dominions of the Scyris, and after
many bloody battles and sieges, conquered the kingdom
of Puruh1 and returned in triumph to Cuzco.  Hual1 Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru; Markham, Cuzco and
Lima, London, 1856; Helps, Spanish Conquest in America; Ulloa, Voyage
to America (French and Spanish editions; in the English edition the history of the Incas has been omitted); M. C. Balboa, History of Peru, published in French by Ternaux Compans; Garcilazo de la Vega, Comentarios
Reales; Lorente, Historia Antigua del Peru, Lima, 1860, etc., etc., etc.




WARS OF THE INCAS AND SCYRIS.       363
copo survived his loss but a few years. He is said to
have died of grief, and was succeeded by his son Cacha,
the fifteenth and last of the Scyris.
Cacha Duchicela at once set out to recover his paternal dominions. Although of feeble health, he seems
to have been a man of great energy and intrepidity.
He fell upon the garrison which the Inca had left at
Mocha, put it to the sword, and reoccupied the kingdom of Puruha, where he was received with open
arms. He even carried his banners further south,
until checked by the Caliares, the inhabitants of what
is now the district of Cuenca, who had voluntarily
submitted to the Inca, and now detained the Scyri
until Huaynacapac, the greatest of the Inca dynasty,
came to their rescue. The latter first endeavored, by
negotiations and promises, to induce the Scyri peaceably to yield to Peruvian sway. His offers, however,
were indignantly rejected. The Inca now avoided a
decisive action until he had succeeded in winning over
secretly several of Cacha's principal generals. In the
plain of Tiocajas, celebrated afterward for the battles
between the Spaniards under Benalcazar, and the Indians under Ruminiagui, the two armies met at last.
The result remained doubtful for some time, until the
treason of his officers decided the day against Cacha
Duchicela. The poor king, sick and grief-worn, but
his spirit unbroken, was carried to Mocha, where he
announced his determination to die in the defense of
the place; but, to his utter amazement, his generals
advised him to accept the propositions which the Inca
had not neglected to repeat, and to surrender to the
invader, against whose forces, superior in arms, numbers, and discipline, resistance would be useless. The
caciques of Cayambi, Otabalo, and Caranqui, alone




364    FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
remained true, and advised their master to dismiss his
lukewarm servants, to evacuate Mocha, Llactacunga,
and Quito, and to retire to the faithful north, where
he could await the enemy in the great fortress of Hatuntaqui. Cacha acted upon their advice, and closely
followed by the victor, withdrew to what is now the
province of Imbabura. In the plain of Hatuntaqui he
made his last stand. There the doom of the Caran
dynasty was sealed. A terrible battle was fought,
which lasted for several days. Victory seemed to incline to the side of the heroic Scyri, when pierced by a
lance, he fell dead from his litter. Countless were the
numbers of the slain, and to the present day a great
many tolas commemorate the scene of the bloody
slaughter.s
On the very field of battle the faithful Caranquis
proclaimed Pacha, the daughter of the fallen king, as
their Scyri. Huaynacapac now regulated his conduct
by policy. He ordered the dead king to be buried
with all the honors due to royalty, and made offers of
marriage to young Pacha, by whom he was not refused.
Whether under the Peruvian law he could marry a
foreign princess, who was neither of the Inca family
nor a Virgin of the Sun; or whether he, being the
supreme law-giver, and indeed law itself, could do as
he thought proper; or whether, as the partisans of the
Cuzco line assert, he merely took her as a concubine,
I shall not stop to examine. The issue of the mar1 Of the collateral male descendants of the Scyri dynasty, several acquired some celebrity afterward. Cachulima, a brother of the unfortunate
Chalcuchima, who was burned by Pizarro, was one of the first native
lords who welcomed the Spaniards under Benalcazar. He was baptized,
receiving the name of Don Marcos Duchicela, and was allowed to retain
his lands and vassals. The last of the race was Dofia Maria Duchicela,
of Riobamba, who died at Quito in the year 1700, enjoying the reputation
of great piety. See Velasco, vol. ii., bk. 1, ~ 6.




THE GOVERNMENT OF THE INCAS.       365
riage was Atahuallpa, the last of the native rulers of
Peru.
Huaynacapac immediately set himself to introduce
Peruvian civilization in the conquered kingdom. He
erected temples and royal palaces at Latacunga,
Quito, Cayambi, and Caranqui; he built an admirable
bridge (rumiciacea), said to consist of a single block
of stone, across the Angasmayu; and he constructed
that wonderful road from Cuzco to the northern provinces of the empire, the few remnants of which excited
the admiration of Humboldt and other travellers.
Under him the Peruvian Empire reached its zenith,
and its civilization that height beyond which it could
hardly have passed. The form of the Inca government was an over-refined and centralized despotism,
which left nothing to individual energy or enterprise.
Every thing was regulated by law. From his birth
to his death man's actions were circumscribed by inflexible rules, from which there was no escape. The
subject had no free will, not even in the most insignificant concerns of daily or private life. What the
father was, the son had to be. Every one had to remain within his sphere and caste. Not even individual property was known. Provision was made for
every individual, and with that provision he had to be
satisfied. He could not enlarge it, nor need he apprehend its being lessened. The Inca was the supreme
ruler and the representative of the deity on earth.
His commands were obeyed blindly; his will was law.
He was served by an aristocracy of nobles and priests,
who were maintained by the labor of the common
people. He was both the head and the support of the
complicated edifice which, without him, fell to pieces.
The lives, the wills, and the energies of his subjects




366   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
were in his hands, and he disposed of them at pleasure.  Such a system  had no vitality or strength in
itself; it only existed by the credulity, veneration, and
servility of the masses. The first vigorous blow from
without, or a strong combination of unfavorable circumstances from within, must destroy it. It had to
fall from its own weight, because it had suffocated in
the people all those energies, capacities, and mental
resources, which enable healthy nations to retrieve
their misfortunes.
The battle of Hatuntaqui did not lead to an immediate pacification of the kingdom of Quito. The warlike Caranquis could not brook the foreign yoke, and
after contracting alliances with the barbarous tribes of
Pasto, they fell unexpectedly on the Inca's body-guard
of Orejones, causing great slaughter among them. But
their punishment was terrible. Huaynacapac followed
them into their country, defeated them in a decisive
battle on the shores of Lake Yaguarcocha, and ordered
all the male adults of the province to be put to the sword
without mercy. Thousands of the dead bodies were
thrown into the lake, the waters of which were reddened with the blood of so many victims. Hence its
name, " Yaguarcocha," which in Quichua means " sea
of blood." On its western shore there are still many
tolas (mounds), which are said to contain the remains
of those who perished on that fearful occasion.l
As prudent and highly politic as the conduct of
Huaynacapac is generally reputed to have been, so
1 Herrera, dec. v., lib. 3, cap. 16. This author does not mention
the Caranquis, but says that the war was sustained by the Otabalos,
and a tribe which he calls Cuiyapipos; but from the situation of lake Yaguarcocha, which is in the ancient dominions of the Caranquis, I believe
with Balboa and Velasco, that the Caranquis were the tribe that resisted
the progress of the Inca until they were exterminated.




HUASCAR AND ATAHUALLPA.                     367
imprudent and impolitic was the division of the Empire which he made on his deathbed, bequeathing his
paternal dominions to his first-born and undoubtedly
legitimate son, Huascar, and to Atahuallpa the kingdom of Quito. He might have foreseen the evil consequences of such a partition.l His death took place
about the  year 1525.  For five  or seven years  the
brothers lived in peace; 2 each in the full enjoyment
of his respective dominions. Into the probable causes
of their subsequent quarrel it would be useless to enter.
Some writers allege that it was brought about by a
boundary question, involving the title to the province
of Cailar.   Atahuallpa's subsequent cruelty  to  the
Carlares, who had sided with his brother, seems to favor
this supposition. In the first battle, fought near the
bridge of Tomebamba, Atahuallpa was signally defeated
and taken prisoner; but in the night, while his
brother's soldiers were reveling and rejoicing over
their triumph, the captive, with an instrument of silver
which a woman had secretly contrived to give him,
opened a hole in the wall of his prison, through which
he escaped and returned to Quito. There he told his
people that while in prison his father, the Sun, had
1 Herrera does not seem to believe in the last will of Huaynacapac, and
considers Atahuallpa a usurper. But the weight of authority is against
him. See Prescott, book iii., chap. 2, and authorities there quoted; also,
Gomara, Hist. Gen. And above all, Garcilazo de la Vega, who, himself a
scion and partisan of the Cuzco line, would certainly have preferred the
charge of usurpation against Atahuallpa, had it been warranted by the
facts. Garcilazo not only adopts the story of the division of the Empire,
but also adds that Huascar, who had come to Quito at the command of his
father, who desired to see him before his death, agreed to it, and promised
to abide by it faithfully. - Corn. Real, lib. ix., cap. 12. If the partition had
not been the express will of their father, the brothers would not have lived
In peace for five or seven years after the former's death, but their quarrels
would have commenced immediately.
2 Prescott says five. According to Jerez, Conq. del Peru, and Garcilazc.,
it was seven.




368   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
converted him into a snake to enable him to escape,
promising him at the same time that he would give
him a complete victory over his brother.1 He soon
found himself at the head of another army, commanded by his father's experienced generals, Chalcuchima, Quizquiz, and Ruminiagui; defeated Huascar's
army at Ambato, and penetrating into the country of
the Cahiares, revenged himself on them in the same
terrible manner in which his father, Huaynacapac, had
punished the Caranquis. He then descended to the
coast, but after a fruitless attempt to take the island
of Puna, on which occasion he was wounded, he returned to the interior, and established his head-quarters at the baths of Cajamarca, while his generals after
the battle of Quipaypan, in which Huascar was defeated and taken prisoner,2 extended their conquests to
Cuzco. Atahuallpa was now master of the whole
Peruvian empire, and assumed the royal diadem of the
Incas.
But his triumph was of short duration. The Spaniards, under Francisco Pizarro, had landed on the
coast of Tumbez. Their arduous march across the
Cordillera; their negotiations, while on the road, with
the unsuspecting monarch; their arrival at Cajamarca;
their treacherous invitation to Atahuallpa to visit Pizarro; their false pretenses of friendship and alliance;
the unwariness with which the Inca fell into the snare;
the unprovoked slaughter of thousands of unarmed
Indians by the Spanish cavalry, and the capture of the
1 Gomara, cap. 116; Zarate, lib. i., cap. 12; Herrera, dec. v., lib. 3, cap.
17.
2 According to Herrera, dec. v., lib. ii., cap. 12, Huascar was taken
after the capture of Atahuallpa by the Spaniards. Gomara says, " shortly
before or after." But according to Prescott, book iii., chap. 2, and authorities there quoted, he was taken prisoner a few months before the landing
of Pizarro.




TREACHERY OF THE SPANIARDS.        369
confiding king; the cupidity of the conquerors, and
the promise of Atahuallpa to buy his freedom by filling
the room in which he was imprisoned, as high as his
extended arms could reach, with gold; the expedition
of Hernando Pizarro to Pachacamac, and the journey
of Francisco's messengers to Cuzco; the immense
treasures of the Peruvian empire, and'the fulfillment
of Atalluallpa's promise; the heinous breach of faith
by the Spaniards, and the Inca's cruel execution; Pizarro's march to Cuzco, the burning of Chalcuchima,
and the desecration of the tombs of the Incas: all
these thrilling events are graphically described by the
classic pen of Prescott, and it would be presumption
on my part to attempt a repetition.
There is but one circumstance in the tragic fate of
Atahuallpa calculated to lessen our sympathy for the
victim. It is the murder of his brother Huascar.
Father Velasco, who has undoubtedly followed the
reasoning of Fray Marcos de Niza and Collahuaso,
pretends that Huascar was put to death by Chalcuchima, without express orders from the Inca; that the
general's instructions were to kill his prisoner in case
an attempt should be made to liberate him; and
fearing lest the Spaniards who kept Atahuallpa in
prison might be induced to put Huascar on the throne,
Chalcuchima committed the deed on his own responsibility. There is some probability in this plea, especially
when we consider that Huascar, while being transported to a safer prison, was met by the Spaniards,
Fernando de Soto and Pedro del Vasco, while on their
way to Cuzco, and implored them to save him, promising them twice as much gold as Atahuallpa had undertaken to give. The two Spaniards, however, excused
themselves with having no instructions to take charge
24




370   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
of him, and passed on to Cuzco. It is very probable,
therefore, that Chalcuchima apprehended danger to his
master from such a promise, and considered it his duty
to prevent, once and forever, an understanding between Huascar and Pizarro. On the other hand, when
we consider the blind obedience of the most powerful
nobles to the Inca, and the slavish awe in which they
held him, it is difficult to believe that Chalcuchima
should have ventured, without express orders from his
sovereign, to kill the king's brother, whom he had been
commanded to treat well.
The Peruvian Empire, shaken in its very foundations by the wars of iHuascar and Atahuallpa, and
without a people whose spirit and energy might have
been roused by the emergency, fell to pieces after the
death of its last ruler. The Yanaconas, a race of
slaves who had occupied the lowest social position
under the old system,1 sided with the Spaniards, from
whom they expected a favorable change of their situation. The Indian nobles, a herd without a shepherd,
and divided by civil dissensions, did not know what to
do, while those who resolved to resist the invaders
could not forget the jealousies of the Quito and Cuzco
lines, and other provincial considerations, which prevented them from making a united effort for the maintenance of their independence. The Curacas or caciques of the distant provinces who, upon seeing a
handful of foreigners annihilate the dreaded representative of the Sun, had lost their veneration and
awe for the Inca dynasty, returned to their original
independence, endeavoring to set up governments for
themselves in the districts over which they ruled. Of
these chiefs, Ruminiagui, whose name I have already
1 Herrera, dec. v., lib. 3, cap. 4.




USURPATION OF RUMIRAGUI.            371
mentioned, was the most talented, the most unscrupulous, and perhaps the most cruel. When Atahuallpa
prepared himself to make that fatal visit to Pizarro, from
which he never returned, he is said to have put Ruminiagui on the guard before the city, to assist his master in case some unforeseen event should make it
necessary.' Hearing the thunders of musketry, and
learning the great slaughter of his countrymen, it was
quite natural for the Indian chief, and the 5,000 men
he commanded, to be seized by the general panic and
seek safety in flight.  At some distance from  Cajamarca, he rallied his scattered forces, and without
making an effort to save his lord, returned to Quito.
On learning of the death of the Inca, he conceived
the plan of putting himself at the head of the ancient
empire of the Scyris, which he thought himself able to
defend against the insignificant number of the European invaders. To secure himself on the throne, he
seems to have cultivated popularity with the army,
and to have won over to his interests several influential members of the nobility. He also resolved to rid
himself of all possible legitimate competitors. Availing
himself of the opportunity which the funeral ceremonies
in honor of the murdered Atahuallpa presented, he
invited all the near and distant relatives of the latter
to a great banquet, intoxicated them on their national
beverage,2 and pretending that by their cowardice and
lukewarmness they had sacrificed his beloved king,
put them to the sword without mercy. The principal
victim was Atahuallpa's brother Illescas, of whose skin
the usurper is said to have made a drum. He is also
1 Wytfliet, Descriptionis Ptolomaicc Augmentum, Duaci, 1607, page 81;
Zarate, lib. ii., cap. 5.
2 Gomara, cap. 125; Zarate, lib. ii., cap. 8; Garcilazo de la Vega, Hist
Gen., lib. ii., cap. 3.




372   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
said to have killed several of the wives and concubines
of Atahuallpa, who were supposed to be with child;
and to have appropriated to himself the Virgins of the
Sun in the Quito convent, from whom none but the
Inca would have been allowed to select a consort.1
These and other unnecessary and revolting outrages
would almost seem incredible; but why should we believe barbarous savages to be incapable of that spirit of
fiendish cruelty which the Spaniards, who boasted of
Christianity and civilization, were continually displaying? If Ruminiagui was a monster and a tyrant, he
was fully equaled, if not surpassed, by the conquerors
of Quito, to whom I must now introduce my readers.
Sebastian de Benalcazar 2 was a Spanish nobleman,
who had come from Nicaragua, attracted by the fame
of the riches of Peru. He seems to have been a man
of some education, at least he knew how to read and
to write, arts which were unknown to the famous Pizarro and Almagro. After rendering valuable services
to Pizarro, the latter sent him to take charge of San
Miguel, which was then the only port of entry in
Peru, and consequently of the greatest importance.
But Benalcazar's spirit would not brook mere garrison
duty. His cupidity was excited by reports of the
great riches of Quito. That place had not yet been
occupied by the Spaniards. Huaynacapac had resided
there for more than thirty years, and built stately
palaces and temples, the treasures of which were supposed to equal those that had been found in the great
city of Cuzco. The most alluring rumors were afloat.
An immense quantity of gold was said to have been on
1 Velasco, vol. ii., lib. 4, ~ 1, sec. 8.
2 Herrera and Velasco spell his name Belalcazar, which is wrong. I
have seen his signature in one of the record books of the municipality of
Quito. It shows a firm and somewhat practiced hand, and is very legible.




BENALCAZAR GOES TO QUITO.         373
the way to Cajamarca, to be added to the ransom of
Atahuallpa, when the news of his death reached the
carriers, and induced them to take it back to Quito.
That gold must still be intact. A splendid opportunity
here offered to an enterprising and dashing captain
like Benalcazar. At the same time, embassadors from
the Canlares, the old enemies of the Quito tribes,
arrived at his camp imploring his assistance against
Ruminiagui, who was about to invade their province.1
The temptation was too strong for Benalcazar; and
without orders or permission from Pizarro, he left San
Miguel at the head of about one hundred and fifty men,
for Quito. His second in command was the monster
Juan de Ampudia, whose memory deserves to be held
up to eternal execration. His chaplain was the good
Father Marcos de Niza, whom I have already mentioned.
If it had not been for his Indian allies, Benalcazar
would perhaps never have returned from this expedition. IHe had to encounter the genius of a chief who
was by nature a general. Rumifiagui was well aware
that he fought not only for his race, but for his own
life and ill-gotten possessions.  He knew  that the
promises and assurances of the Spaniards could not be
relied on, and consequently rejected the overtures of
Benalcazar.  His influence over his men, to judge
fiom the statements of those writers who have given us
detailed accounts of this expedition, must have been
very great. They had supported his usurpation, and
confided blindly in his leadership. He had skillfully
overcome their dread of the Spanish fire-arms, -and
knowing the terrible advantage which the invaders derived from their horses, he provided against it. On all
the roads and approaches by which the Spaniards could
1 Zarate, lib. ii.. cap 9.




374   FOUR YEARS AM ONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
advance, he prepared snares and traps to entangle and
destroy the horses. He dug deep holes and covered
them with reeds and sand, which would break in under
the weight of mounted men. He rammed sharp and
pointed sticks into the sand of the plains, so as to line
with them ditches skillfully hidden from the enemy's
view, and when the Spaniards approached he placed
his men behind those ditches, in order to allure the
cavalry to certain destructions   But, unfortunately,
what the Spaniards would not have seen, their native
allies discovered. The Canlares, who were always in
the advance, preparing the way for the horses, enabled
Benalcazar to avoid the most dangerous places. Herrera, who admits that the situation of the Spaniards
was not only most critical, but even desperate, recognizes a miracle in the escape of the cavalry, which he
ascribes to the direct interference of the Virgin Mary,
who " on such occasions often appeared to the defenders of the true faith, conferring innumerable benefits
on them, although by their deeds they might not have
deserved such heavenly favors." 2
Toward the latter part of the year 1533, Benalcazar descended into the plain of Tiocajas, where the
Indians made a desperate resistance.  For the first
time since the arrival of Pizarro in Peru, a battle was
fought which remained undecided.  The Indians succeeded in killing and wounding several Spaniards, and
in killing four horses, the heads of which were carried
about in triumph, to show to the natives that those
dreaded monsters were mortal like other creatures.3
1 Zarate, -ut supra. Hlerrera, dec. v., lib. iv., cap. 12.
2 Dec. v., lib. iv., cap. 12.
8 The death of a horse was an immense loss to the Spaniards, considering the distance from which horses had to be brought, the cost of transportation, and the incalculable superiority which they gave the conquerors
over the natives.




COTCOPAXI FRIGHTENS THE,NDIANS.    375
Rumninagui and his faithful partisan Zop.z)pangui, displayed the greatest valor, exposing theinselses col.tinually in the thickest of the fight, giving ordeels, and
encouraging the wavering.
The accounts which contemporary writers have
given of this campaign, are confused and contradictory.
It seems, however, that several battles were fought;
and that the Spaniards, although continually victorious,
were reduced to a most deplorable condition. Several
of them were killed, and a great many wounded; and
the loss of horses weighed heavily upon them, as one
mounted man was considered equal to a thousand Indians. Had it not been for an unforeseen event -
dreadful night-eruption of Cotopaxi, accompanied by
an earthquake and a formidable rain of ashes - Benalcazar would have been compelled to fall back for pro
visions and reinforcements.  But it was natural tha'
such a phenomenon, which at such a juncture would
have disheartened the ignorant and superstitious of
many a civilized nation, should produce a fatal effect
on the spirit and perseverance of the Indians. The
invisible powers seemed to have declared against them.
The elements were with those foreigners, who com
manded the thunder and lightning, and rode on mon.
sters which had never before been seen. In vain di(
the usurper endeavor to rally his men. The bands of
discipline were severed; and with the disordered remnants of his army he fled to Quito. When Benalcazai
looked over the battle-field on the following morning,
the Indian army was gone.
The pious Herrera tells us, in this connection, of an
oracle which had long before warned the Indians that
if a certain volcano at Latacunga should once explode,
foreigners from a distant land would invade and con



376   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
quer the country. This oracle, he explains, was a prediction of Satan, "who although not omniscient like
God, is well able to foresee the effects of certain causes
which are known to him; and as he knew that the
volcano would have to explode, and that the Spaniards
would also find their way to Peru, it was easy for him
to pass his calculation for a prophecy." 1
On his arrival at Quito, Ruminiagui at once took the
necessary measures to deprive the Spaniards of the
great object of all their toils and hardships. Whatever
treasures there were left, he sent out of the city; but
where he hid them is a secret to the present day. It
is possible that the treasures of Quito had already
gone to swell the ransom of Atahuallpa; it is possible
that the rumors of their immensity were fabrications
or exaggerations; but it is also possible, and even
highly probable, that the Indians sought to snatch from
the greedy grasp of the Spaniards the idol, for the possession of which so many innocent lives had been sacrificed. It was the last but most telling revenge of
the conquered.  Until the present day, traditions of
the great treasures hidden in the mountains by Rumiiagui, are eagerly repeated and believed at Quito,
giving probability to the story of Valverde, to which I
have referred in another chapter.
Another act of cruelty committed by Rumiiiagui,
whose valiant resistance seems to have inflamed the
ancient writers against him, ought now to be recorded,
although not strictly connected with the object of this
narrative. He is said to have entered the convent of the
Virgins of the Sun, and told them to be joyful as they
would soon become acquainted with men with long
beards, whom they might welcome as lovers. The poor,
1 Dec. v., lib. v., cap. 1.




MASSACRE OF THE VIRGINS OF THE SUN.  377
silly girls, not knowing what to answer, laughed, which
so enraged their lord that he put them all to the sword.1
Garcilazo de la Vega says that he ordered them to be
buried alive.2 Herrera, however, tells the story in
a different manner.8 According to him, Ruminiagui
commanded them to leave Quito, where nothing but
dishonor awaited them, and upon their refusing to
obey, ordered their massacre.  To me all these statements appear improbable; and I am inclined to believe
that, conscious of the impossibility of taking them along
and maintaining them on his rapid and difficult marches
over inhospitable mountains, he decreed their death to
prevent them from falling into the hands of the licentious Spaniards.
Having removed the gold and killed the Virgins of
the Sun, and thus placed two objects so eagerly coveted
by the invaders beyond their reach, Rumifiagui set
fire to the town, and evacuated it with all his troops
and followers. It would be difficult to describe the
rage, mortification, and despair of the Spaniards, on
finding smoking ruins instead of the treasures which
they had expected. The precious prize had slipped
away from under their grasp, and thousands of innocent
Indians were sacrificed to their disappointed cupidity.
But of this hereafter.
It is an unmistakable proof of the genius of Rumifiagui, that notwithstanding the losses he had sustained,
and the utter discouragement of his men after, as it
were, the invisible powers had declared against them,
he was again able to collect an army willing to be led
by him to another desperate effort. Knowing that
Benalcazar had sent out several detachments in differ.
1 Velasco.          2 Hist. del Peru, lib. ii., cap. 4.
8 Dec. v., lib. vi., cap. 5.




378   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
ent directions to capture him, and that Quito was left
almost without cavalry, and with very little infantry,
he resolved on a night attack, in order to surprise and
crush the little garrison. Reinforced by the tribes of
Chillo (a beautiful valley to the east of Quito, from
which it is separated by a low mountain range), and
at the head of about fifteen thousand men, he attacked
the fortifications which the Spaniards had hastily
thrown up. But the old enemies of Quito, the Canfares, had again frustrated his plan by giving timely
warning to the Spaniards, and Rumifiagui was repulsed
with great slaughter.1  His army was pursued and dispersed, and thus ended the last great effort to save the
independence of the ancient kingdom of Quito.
It was followed by a series of barbarities so monstrous and shocking, as to eclipse even the bloody deeds
of the Pizarros and Almagros. Learning from several
of the Indians who were put to the rack, that the treasures had been taken to Cayambi, Benalcazar immediately proceeded to the north, with a division of his
troops, but found only women and children, as the men
had either fled, or were in the army under Ruminiagui.
To set an example by which he hoped to compel the
male inhabitants of other villages to return to their
homes, he put these poor women and children to the
sword.2
Only a few gold and silver vessels were found, just
enough to gall and heighten the new disappointment
of the Spaniards.
In the mean time Juan de Ampudia had succeeded
in capturing Zopozopangui, the valiant aid of Ruminiagui. He was put to the rack, but revealing nothing
concerning the treasures, he was executed.3 Rumi1 Zarate; Gomara.        2 Herrera.
s Herrera, dec. v., lib. vii., cap. 14.




SPANISH  BARBARIANS.                       379
itagui, after a protracted defense in the mountains,
was abandoned by his followers, who had become tired
of the war, and betrayed by his own servants, he was
taken  by  Benalcazar.   His  end  was that of a hero.
He showed no sign of weakness. No confession could
be  extorted from  his silent lips; and  after  torturing
him in vain, Benalcazar ordered him to be executed.l
Chlambo, another Indian chief, was tortured and
burned alive without divulging any thing.2 Cozopangua, governor of Quito, Quimbalumba, governor of
Chillo, Razorazo, Rima, and other nobles, shared the
same fate.3 Albis, another cacique, was tortured by
having his feet burned at a slow fire, but revealed nothing.4 Others, to obtain momentary relief, referred to
1 Garcilazo de la Vega asserts, without any foundation, that Rumifiagui,
after evacuating Quito, retired into the impenetrable fastnesses of the eastern Cordillera, and was never heard of again. Father Velasco, and other
writers, repeat this statement. But Herrera, the royal historian who had
free access to official documents and reports, gives the details of Rumifiagui's capture and execution. His statement is corroborated by the records of the Quito Municipality, which I examined with great care. I
found an entry, dated June 25th, 1535, which recites that "the men under
Pedro de Puelles had captured the principal nobles of these provinces, because it was supposed and believed that they would know of the gold and
silver; these nobles were Oruminabi, Cozopangua, Quimbalumba, Razorazo, Rima, and others, their allies and friends; with whom every possible
experiment was made and great trouble had in watching them and going
with them to many places where the gold was supposed to be; but neither
they nor any of them would tell; wherefore, andfor the crimes which they
had committed, they were executed, so that now there are none left." It will
be seen that, in this document, the name Oruminabi is given. Herrera
spells it Yruminoabi. But evidently the same individual is meant, and the
discrepancy will be explained by the fact that, in the beginning, as long
as the conquerors were unacquainted with the Quichua language, all the
Indian names were misspelled.  Atahuallpa was frequently spelled Atabaliba, and Huaynacapac had been corrupted into Guayanacaba.
2 From a relation of Fray Marcos de Niza, published by Las Casas in
his Itistoria de las Crueldades de los Espaiioles Conquistadores de America, o Brevisima Relacion de la Destruccion de las Indias Occidentales.
Works of Las Casas, published in Spanish by Dr. Juan Antonio Llorente,
Paris, 1822, two volumes.
3 Quito Municipality Records.    4 Las Casas, ut supra, vol. i., 183.




380. FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
certain localities; but when the Spaniards went there
they found nothing, and the torturing of their victims
was resumed. Every nook and corner of the province
was searched, but only in the sepulchres  some little
gold was found, which could not compensate the conquerors for the hardships they had undergone, and the
perils they had braved. The common soldiers now
vented their rage on the Indians they met on their
fruitless expeditions. Hands, ears, and noses were cut
off, without any provocation on the part of those poor
creatures. Babes were snatched from the arms of their
mothers and flung into the air. In the valley of Machachi, which was studded with Indian villages, a number of natives were driven into three houses, and the
buildings set on fire. A little boy whom a priest,
Ocania, had rescued from the flames, was snatched
from  his hands by a soldier, and flung back into the
fire. Countless houses and villages were burned by
the enraged adventurers.2  If, on the approach of the
marauding Spaniards, the Indians remained at their
homes, they were tortured to make them disclose deposits of gold, of which they knew nothing.  If they
fled, they were chased with bloodhounds.3 These horrible animals, according to Palomino, were fed on the
corpses of the victims. No faith was kept with the
Indians. The caciques were invited to come to Quito
by promises of safety and friendship; but when they
made their appearance, and could not, or would not,
1 Velasco, vol. ii., lib. iv., ~ 6. Gomara, cap. 125. The latter author
says, that they found enough gold in the tombs to defray the expenses of
the expedition; a poor consolation for the greedy adventurers.
2 ", Asimismo vo vi quemar tantas casas d pueblos que no sabria decir
el numero seguro; eran muchos." - Fray Niza.
8 From a relation of Alonzo de Palomino, an eye-witness, quoted by
Velasco, ut supra.




IMPROVIDENCE OF THE SPANIARDS.              381
disclose the secret of the treasures, they were burned.1
Burning seems to have been the favorite mode of putting Indians to death.2
During Benalcazar's absence at Riobamba, whither
he had been compelled to go shortly after his entry into
Quito, by the news of the arrival of a rival adventurer
and interloper (Don Pedro de Alvarado, who was afterwards bought off by Pizarro and Almagro), the principal instigators of those cruelties were Juan de Ampudia, Benalcazar's lieutenant, and Alonzo Sanchez,
his second in command. While they were ravaging
the country, they made no provision for sowing and
planting, but plundered the public granaries established
by the Inca government.s The consequence of this
improvidence was a great famine, from which the Indians suffered fearfully the year afterward.4   It was
only relieved by another cruelty, - the carrying away
of thousands of Indians to accompany, as beasts of
burden, the Spaniards on their discovering expeditions north  and  south.   One  of these  expeditions,
headed by Benalcazar in person, proceeded to Guayaquil, and of the four thousand Indians he took along,
but a few returned to their homes.5 Juan de Ampudia went north, also taking a great number of
Indians with him. Many of them were carried along
in chains.6 He was followed by Benalcazar when he
1," Yten vi que llamaban a los caciques 6 principales Indios que viniesen
de paz seguramente 6 prometiendoles seguro; y en Ilegando, luego les quemaban." - Las Casas, vol. i., p. 185.
2 Helps' Spanish Conquest in America. This author supposes that the
Spaniards, following the example of the Inquisition, selected this mode of
putting Indians to death because they were pagans.
8 Las Casas, vol. i.. p. 202.
4 Quito Mllunicipality Records, July 26, 1535.
5 See chapter ii., page 32 of this work.
6 Las Casas, appendix to the work above mentioned.




382   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
undertook the conquest of Popayan. On this occasion
he took about four thousand Indians with him, of whom
but twenty returned to Quito.1  Of those who remained, ten thousand were employed to rebuild the
town.2  It may  be inferred  from  the preceding
how they were treated.  Some preferred suicide to
the terrible tasks which they were compelled to perform.
Of the ancient buildings of Quito, no stone was left
upon the other, and deep excavations were made under
them to search for hidden treasures. Hence there is
no vestige left at Quito of its former civilization; not
a ruin, not a wall, not a stone to which the traditions
of the past might cling.  Where the palace of the
Inca stood is now the Convent de la Merced,3 and a
potato-field occupies the place of the ancient Temple
of the Sun.4  Such, then, was the conduct of the defenders of the "true faith," and the special favorites
of St. James and the Virgin Mary. I have abstained
from making a single statement which I could not support by reliable authority.
On the 28th of August, 1534, the Spanish village of
Quito was founded. The title of city, it received afterward. While in North America population always
precedes the organization of municipalities, while with
us there must be houses and settlers before officers are
elected and ordinances enacted, in Spanish-America
municipal organization always preceded population.
When a site was deemed convenient for a settlement,
a deed of foundation was executed, and a cabildo
1 From the relation of an eye-witness who accompanied Benalcazar on
this expedition. Las Casas, vol. i., p. 204.
2 Velasco.
3 This fact appears from the Municipality Records.
4 On Mount Panecillo.




FORMATION OF MTJNICIPALITIES.      383
(municipality) instituted before buildings were elected.
Whether the new settlement was to be a city or a
village was not left to its future development, but
prescribed by the military chieftain who ordered the
settlement to be made. San Francisco de Quito was
first intended for a village, while Santiago de Quito
(Riobamba) was made a town.  Yet, soon afterward,
San Francisco had to be made a city, while Santiago
was abandoned. Quito was named San Francisco in
honor of the Marquis Francisco de Pizarro. Its ancient Indian name was Quitu.1 The deed establishing
the settlement is like all those documents, drawn up
and acknowledged by a notary. It is executed by the
" magnificent Sefior Don Diego de Almagro, Marshal
of His Majesty in the Kingdoms of New Castile, Lieutenant-Governor, and  Lieutenant-Captain-General,"
etc., etc., in the name of the " most magnificent Seinor
Don Francisco de Piqarro, Governor Adelantado and
Captain-General," etc., whose superior authority is
most emphatically recognized. Among other things, it
says " that the province of Quito, having been conquered and pacified by him (Almagro), in the name
of His Majesty, and of the said Sefior Gobernador,
and it having pleased the Lord that most of the chiefs
and Indians are now peaceful, and under the yoke and
obedience of His Majesty; and in order to make them
come truly to peace, and to convert them to our Holy
Catholic Faith, by the good example and teachings of
the Spanish vassals of hIis Majesty, who are to live in
these parts, he founded in the name of His Majesty,
the town of Quito," etc., etc. The document winds
up with the characteristic declaration, that because the
" magnificent Lord Almagro " said he did not know
1 There are no " o's " or " e's " in the Quichua language.




384  FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
how to write, Blas de Atiencia signed for him, and at
his request.1
On the 6th of December, Sebastian Benalcazar,
Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General, ordered a
list to be taken of those who wished to be considered
permanent residents (vecinos) of Quito. This list contains but two hundred and five names, with Juan de
Ampudia and Diego de Tapia as Alcaldes. The next
and most important business of the conquerors, was to
proceed to a division of the spoils, consisting of lands
and Indians. These proceedings occupy a great deal
of space in the old municipality records, as complaints
were frequent, and petitions for increase or equalization
of the repartimientos came in continually.
From the materials I have been able to collect, I
conclude that the Indians at Quito were classified as
follows by the conquerors:  (1.) Indians depaz (of
peace); (2.) Indians of war (de guerra); (3.) Yanaconas; and (4.) Nicaragua Indians. The latter had
been brought to Quito by those adventurers who, like
Benalcazar, had come from Nicaragua, attracted by
the fame of the riches of Peru.  The Yanaconas I
have already mentioned. They had been slaves under
the Incas, and as slaves they had passed into the hands
of the Spaniards. Indians de guerra were prisoners
of war, whom it was considered rightful to enslave.
But to gratify their cupidity, the Spaniards made prisoners of Indians who had never fought nor even
dreamed of resistance. The slightest provocation on
the part of an Indian tribe, sufficed to declare war
against them, and to reduce them to slavery. These
Indians de guerra it was lawful to mark with the brand1 Deed of foundation, dated August 28, 1534.




ENSLAVING  THE INDIANS.                      385
ing iron.l In Quito, however, the Spaniards do not
seem to have long continued to call them Indios de
guerra, but following  the  ancient custom  of the country, called them  Yanaconas also.   The  Indians de paz
were apportioned among the conquerors in proportion
to their rank, merit, and infantry- or cavalry-service
(mounted men always being entitled to a larger share),
so as to give to each settler a certain number of laborers corresponding to the quantity of his arable lands,
mines, or other possessions. This proceeding of apportioning Indians among their new masters, was called'
" repartimiento."    It  will have  to  be  distinguished
from the subsequent signification of the term, when it
was made to express forced sales of a variety of articles
which the Indians were compelled to buy at prices
fixed by the sellers themselves, the corregidors. Of
this I have already spoken.
From   what we  have  seen, it will be clear that it
made very little difference in point of fact, whether
the Indians resisted or not. They were made slaves
in either case, with the difference only that if they had
resisted, they could be marked with the branding iron.
1 "However, in 1528, if not before, a great step was taken which
affected both slaves of ransom and slaves of war. This was that the
government should be responsible for the branding of slaves, and that it
should not be done by private persons. As this is a very important piece
of legislation, and is briefly expressed, it may be given in full:' By reason
of the disorder in making slaves, and selling free Indians that are not
slaves, it is commanded that whosoever shall possess Indians whom he
asserts to be slaves, shall present them before the authorities (la justicia)
in the place where the royal officers may be, and show the title or cause
why these men are slaves; and the authorities approving, the slaves shall
be inscribed by a scrivener and branded with an iron which only the
authorities shall keep, and no private person. The Indian who is found to
have been made a slave unjustly, let him be set at liberty, and notification
made by the public crier.' This document was executed at Madrid on the
19th of September, 1528, and is signed by Cobos, the Secretary of State."
Helps' Spanish Conquest, vol. iii.,p. 120 and 121 (American edition).
25




386   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
To justify the enslaving of harmless and peaceable
Indians, a fiction was resorted to. It was necessary to
convert them to the Catholic faith. This, of course,
the Spaniards had to do. A number of Indians were
therefore allotted, or to adopt the term then in use,
recommended (encomendados) to each principal conqueror, for the purpose of being instructed by him in
the Catholic religion. In return for this infinite blessing, they had to repay their instructors with their labor
and services. This is as short an explanation of the
original character of the system of encomiendas in
Peru, as the nature of the subject allows.1 It varied
in the different colonies according to circumstances too
numerous to mention. The documents by which the
Spanish Governors sometimes surrendered entire villages of freeborn Indians into perpetual slavery, were
generally drawn up in the following form: " To you,
A. B., I recommend by way of deposit    Indians
of the village of; and I do authorize you to use
them in your mines and on your farms, extracting gold,
and availing yourself of their services, on condition that
you take care to instruct them in the Christian doctrine and other things concerning our holy Catholic
faith; because, thereby, I exonerate the conscience of
His Majesty, the King our lord, and my own." 2
The authority to employ those Indians in the mines
and on the farms of their masters, was always made
use of to the very letter. The condition, however, to
instruct them in tile doctrines of Christianity, was but
poorly complied with.  The encomenderos (so the conquerors to whom Indians had thus been assigned were
called) worked their unfortunate Indians to death,
1 Solorzano, Politica Indiana, vol. i., lib. iii., cap. 1, ~~ 3 and 4.
2 Las Casas.




MORE SLAVES IN QUITO.            387
without troubling themselves whether they learned
any thing about Christianity or not.1 Las Casas gives
many instances of the recklessness of the Spaniards
in this respect.  He tells us of an encomendero who
confiscated the golden idols which his Indians had,
and afterward compelled them  to buy copper idols
from him, which he had seized in another village.
"What could these Indians learn from  the Spaniards?" exclaims the pious Las Casas, "the latter in
many instances being ignorant of the ten commandments, and unable to recite the Credo. The Indians
soon learn to content themselves with one wife, while
the Spaniards often keep a dozen concubines. The Indians are humble and docile; they do not rob or kill;
but the Spaniards are proud and vain, addicted to
profane swearing, and rob and kill with inhuman
cruelty."2
After this digression, which is equally applicable to
the early history of most of the Spanish-American
colonies, I must return to what exclusively belongs to
the history of Quito. Having apportioned lands and
Indians among themselves, the conquerors soon found
it necessary to secure the possession and augment the
number of their new  slaves.  Indians, who at the
time of Benalcazar's arrival at Riobamba were residents of the province of Quito, were therefore declared
to belong to the province, although they might have
left it afterward, and they were commanded to return.3  Pizarro was petitioned to send a branding iron
to Quito, with which to mark slaves, " in order that
the caciques and Indians who, in these provinces, had
1 Solorzano, Politica Indiana, vol. i., lib. iii., cap. 1, ~ 8.
a Ut.supra, vol. i., p. 269.
8 Quito Municipality Records, January 22, 1535.




388   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
given in their obedience to His Majesty the King,
might better remain in the same and become afraid to
revolt; " 1 and to send the rules and regulations for the
branding of slaves.
An ordinance was passed prohibiting the exportation
of Indians from the province without a license from
the captain, under the penalty of ten pesos of gold,2 or
one hundred lashes in case of non-payment.3 In the
preamble to this ordinance, it was stated that many
persons were in the  habit of exporting their Indian
slaves in chains, or with clogs (cepos) fastened to their
feet, which, to the honor of the municipality be it said,
was also prohibited.4   Fugitive slave laws, too, were
not wanting.  An Alguazil del Campo was appointed 5
to catch runaways. His fees were as follows: For an
Indian de repartimiento, four reals in gold; for a Yanacona, half a ducat; for a Nicaragua Indian, one peso,
and for a negro, two pesos of gold. The negroes did
not fail to come in for their share of legislation characteristic of the heroes of those times. A negro who
should run away from his master was to suffer castration for the first offense, and to lose his life for the
second.6 An Indian woman who had connection with
a negro, was to have her hair cut off and receive one
hundred lashes, while the negro was to suffer castration.7
Side by side with these and other barbarous provis1 Quito Municipality Records, October 9, 1536.
2 One peso of gold must have been equivalent to at least an ounce of
that metal.
8 Municipality Records, July 19, 1535.
4 Ibid., vol. i., page 73.                 5 May 22, 1538.
6 March 26, 1538.
7 " Que la India que se acostare con negro sea castigada con cien azotes
junta a la picota, f trasquilada 6 cortada del pelo, 6 qual negro se le corte
el miembro genital 6 compafiones." - January 26, 1551.




REGULATION OF PRICES.                    389
ions, we find that meddling- spirit of legislation which
interfered with every thing, regulated every thing, and
left nothing to individual judgment, energy, or enterprise. As none of the English authors who have written on the Spanish conquest in America, has paid any
attention to the social and domestic life of the conquerors, and the institutions they established after what
they  called  "pacifying"  the  country, I shall try to
present some of those enactments, which may, with
great propriety, be called the blue laws of SpanishAmerica.1
Immediately after the foundation of Quito, the Cabildo commenced to regulate all the affairs of daily life.
The charges of tavern-keepers were fixed by law,
without any reference to the fluctuations in the market
price  of provisions.2   Bakers  were  ordered to  give
thirty-five pounds of bread for one peso of gold, under
penalty of ten pesos.3 It was declared an offense to
charge more for a fanega of wheat than two pesos, or
one peso for the fanega of indian-corn. The shoemakers were commanded to make shoes at twopesos
two tomines the pair, and boots at four pesos. In 1537,
the prices of blacksmith work were regulated by law,
and the transgressors threatened with heavy penalties.4
1 In this connection I cannot refrain from acknowledging my great
obligations to Dr Pablo Herrera, formerly Minister for Foreign Affairs,
whose thorough knowledge of the antiquities of Quito, and the colonial
history of Ecuador, as well as the amiable kindness with which he placed
his manuscript notes, the result of long continued studies and profound
researches, at my disposal, enabled me to find my way through the Municipality Records, which, without this clew, it would have cost me too much
time and labor to examine. Dr. Herrera is the author of a very interesting work entitled Ensayo sobre la Hlistoria de la Literatura Ecuatoriana,
of which, however, but the first number has been published. It is to be
hoped that the author will not withhold the other parts of the work from
the public.
2 Herrera, dec. v., lib. x., cap. 11.
8 Municipality Records.                     4 Ibid.




390   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
It was declared unlawful 1 to leave the city without a
permit or order from the Lieutenant-Governor; offenders to be fined fifty pesos. Persons who were out
of Quito during the Christmas or Easter festivals, incurred a fine of ten pesos.2  Under penalty of death
and confiscation of property, it was ordained that nobody should barter or buy gold, silver, or pearls, from
an Indian, except in presence of the royal veedor
(superintendent), whose duty it was to see that the
transaction was not against the will of the Indian, and
that the king was not defrauded of his fifth.3 This
latter seems to have been the principal consideration, for
the conquerors' were certainly not overscrupulous with
regard to the consent of the Indians.  The sale and
exportation of horses and mares was likewise prohibited,4 under penalty of forfeiting the price obtained on
such sale. It was declared that the exportation of
horses might lead to troubles and insurrections among
the Indians.  The sale or barter of arms was also prohibited.
On the 16th of August, 1538, it appeared to the
Cabildo that " since the arrival at Quito of a certain
attorney, Bachiler Guevara (about a month before,
more or less), many suits had been stirred up whereby,
as there was no other attorney in the town, many persons might lose their legal rights."  He was, therefore, " forbidden to exercise his profession, or to give
advice or his opinion on any controversy or matter of
litigation," under the penalty of one hundred pesos
for the first offense, and a year's banishment from
Quito for the second offense.5 An individual who
1 Municipality Records, May 20, 1535.    2 Ibid. November 5, 1537.
8 Ibid. May 20, 1535.            4 Ibid. May 31, 1535.
5 " The world is so torn by differences of opinion that it is always very
interesting, and somewhat delightful, to find any one subject on which




BLUE LAWS.                         391
knew the art of smelting precious metals, was prohibited  from  leaving  the  town  until another should
have arrived competent to take his place.
After the  ringing  of the  night-bell (toque  de  la
queda) nobody was allowed to show himself in the
streets.1 If the transgressor should be found armed,
his arms were to be taken from him and confiscated.
If unarmed, he should for the first offense be put in
the stocks (en el cepo de los pies) for three days; for
the second offense for six days, and for the third he
should be banished the city for four months. (Even
as late as the commencement of this century, persons
were liable to be arrested for showing themselves after
the ringing of the night-bell in the streets of Quito.)
Nobody was allowed to have himself carried about in
a hammock by Indians, except in cases of sickness.
Fine, ten pesos of gold.2
On the 22d of January, 1535, it was ordained that,
considering the danger of conflagrations, on account of
the many Indian ranchos (huts) within the city limits,
every property-holder should, within eight days, destroy, or cause to be destroyed, all the ranchos on his
lot or lots  (solares), under penalty of forfeiting for
every offense the best Indian  woman in his possession,
there is singular unanimity. Now there was something wherein the
Spanish conquerors and colonists universally agreed. Biscayan, Estremaduran, Andalusian, Castilian -men who had various points of difference, and numberless provincial jealousies -concurred in one request.
As soon as any colony was in the least degree established in the New
World, the colonists, almost in their first communication with their sovereign, were sure to entreat him to prevent lawyers from coming out to
them." -Helps' Spanish Conquest, vol. iii., p. 24 (American edition).
These petitions were at first complied with. - Villaroel, Govierno Eclesiastico Pacificio y Union de los dos Cuchillos Pontiftco y Regio, vol. i., quest.
xi., art. i., n. 3 and 4. Solorzano, Politica Indiana, vol. ii., lib. v., cap. 3,
~ 1.
1 August 1, 1537.         2 M1unicipality Records, March 8, 1538.




392   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
whom the captain was thereupon to assign to whomsoever
else he might think proper.'
To judge from the wording of this ordinance, the
early settlers must have lived in a state quite the contrary of celibacy.  The existence of white women at
Quito can hardly be traced to an earlier period than
the year 1546, when the ancient historians mention
the compassion of the women for the Viceroy, Blasco
Nufiez Vela, on the day before he went out to fight
Gonzalo Pizarro.
On the 8th of June, 1537, it appeared to the Cabildo that some persons, "and their servants and Indians," were in the habit of diverting the watercourses which furnished the town with water. It was
therefore ordained that every person so offending
should, if he were a Spaniard, be fined thirty pesos;
if he were an Indian, his nose was to be cut off.2 The
height of kitchen walls was prescribed by law.8 Nobody was allowed to visit farms or Indian repartimientos in the country, without a license from the Lieutenant-General.4 A hammer was not to be sold for
more than one peso, etc., etc.
Notwithstanding all these protective provisions, the
first settlers of Quito remained poor, and poverty is
their constant complaint until long after the final
pacification of the country, following the civil wars.
On the 25th June, 1535, the municipality enacted
that, as the conquerors and first settlers of Quito had
gotten very little in return for all their trouble, and
that what they had obtained was divided among them,
any treasures that might afterwards be discovered
should belong to the actual inhabitants of Quito, withI Municipality Records, March 8, 1558.    2 ibid.
8 Ibid. January 3, 1537.       4 Ibid. November 5, 1537.




BARBARITY, INJUSTICE, AND MURDER.    393
out a right of participation in those who had left the
town to engage in other conquests. On the 9th October, 1536, when the Municipality requested Pizarro
for the branding iron, they again referred to their poverty. On the 4th April, 1537, the Cabildo, in addressing the Lieutenant-Governor, referred to the small
profits which the settlement had yielded; and the
Lieutenant-Governor replied, that four years had passed
without their having obtained gold, or other things of
value. The idea that the title and right of possession
to the treasures so eagerly coveted, were in the Indians, their legitimate owners, does not seem ever to
have entered the minds of the conquerors.
When Benalcazar quitted Quito, to undertake the
conquest of Popayan, he left Pedro de Puelles as
Lieutenant-Governor in his place. This Puelles seems
to have been a man after the heart of the Municipality.
In their petition to Pizarro, to which I have already
referred, they pray that he may be continued in his
office, for "by executing the suspicious caciques, and
by the killing which he ordered to be done among the
Ingas, he has made the natives fear him, and they now
hold him in great respect." 1 What a history of barbarity, injustice, and murder, these few lines contain!
Men put to death on the mere suspicion of desiring to
vindicate their natural rights! Por la matanza que en
los Ingas hizo hacer! By the killing which he ordered
to be done among the Indians, they learned to fear
him, and now hold him in great respect! And that
man must be retained as the first officer of a new city!
That quality is expressly referred to in order to recommend him to his superior! These are the men who
were to convert the heathens by their example, and to
1 October 9, 1536.




394   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
teach civilization to the Children of the Sun! Let us
drop the curtain on this horrible picture!
Benalcazar's successor in the government of Quito
was Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of Francisco, the
discoverer, while Benalcazar, to his great dissatisfaction, was indemnified with the government of Popayan.
Francisco Pizarro had undertaken the conquest of
Peru in partnership with Diego de Almagro. They
soon fell out, and made war on each other. Pizarro
was cunning and treacherous; Almagro frank and
unwary. The result was, that after they had, time and
again, renewed and sealed their friendship with solemn
oaths on the Eucharist, Pizarro captured and executed
Almagro. He was, in his turn, assassinated by the
friends of the latter, who proclaimed Almagro's son as
their governor. This young man, however, was defeated, taken prisoner, and executed by the royal commissioner, Vaca de Castro; and peace would have
been restored had it not been for the ordenanzas reales,
a code of laws prescribed by the crown, for the government of the Indies and the protection and personal
liberty of the Indians. And here we are struck by a
remarkable phenomenon. The Spanish colonists, whose
servile and abject loyalty to their king no act of tyranny
could have shaken, rose in rebellion against him because
he wanted the Indians to be free. They would not have
struck for freedom, but they struck for slavery. They
would not have risen against oppression, but they
rose for it. They would not have lifted an arm to
defend the rights of man, but they drew the sword for
the privilege of trampling upon them. To an irresponsible despotism, to arbitrary taxation, and to the
horrors of the Inquisition they submitted; but to laws
declaring the Indians to be freemen, they would not




COLONISTS STRIKE FOR SLAVERY.              395
submit. It was a revolution surpassed in iniquity only
by the rebellion of those who, in our own age, have
risen, not against a bad and despotic, but against a
good and popular government, and not to defend or
achieve liberty, but to preserve and perpetuate slavery.
Gonzalo Pizarro was proclaimed Protector of Peru,*
and placed at the head of the revolution. On the
plain to the north of Quito, he met and defeated the
scanty forces of the Viceroy, Blasco Nuniez Vela (January 18, 1546), who had come to enforce the ordenanzas. The Viceroy was slain, and Benalcazar, who
alone of all the great chieftains had sided with him, not
from motives of humanity and justice, but from motives of policy, was taken prisoner; but subsequently
released by Pizarro, and allowed to return to his government. The court of Spain thought it best to yield.
It would not have yielded a point of colonial liberty,
but it yielded the point of colonial slavery. The priest
La Gasca was sent out to pacify the country, and
brought with him the repeal of the detested ordinances.  Gonzalo Pizarro, who had now, but too late,
conceived the plan of establishing the independence of
Peru, and placing the crown on his own head, was
defeated, taken prisoner, and executed (1548). He
had lost almost all his supporters.1 As soon as the
point of Indian slavery in fact, though perhaps not in
1 When every body deserted Gonzalo Pizarro, his friend at Quito, Pedro
de Puelles, was about to do the same. But before he had time to carry
out the plan he had formed, he was assassinated in his bed by Rodrigo de
Salazar, another treacherous friend, who wanted to win the good opinion
of La Gasca by showing great zeal in the king's cause. Under the pretext to invite Puelles'to mass, he gained admission into his bedroom, and
there murdered him, with the assistance of his fellow conspirators. For
this meritorious deed the Cabildo elected him Lieutenant-Governor in
place of his victim. The early history of Peru is written in blood; and it




396   FOUR YEARS AMONG SPANISH-AMERICANS.
name, was conceded, the colonists returned to their
loyalty. Another effort was subsequently made by
the crown to ameliorate the condition of the Indians,
but it led to new convulsions and insurrections; and
although Hernandez Giron, another revolutionary
leader, was defeated and executed (1554), the cause
of the natives was doomed. Laws, it is true, were
continually enacted in their favor, but they were either
not executed at all, or in a spirit of willful misconstruction which turned good into evil, and instead of relieving, added to the misery of the Indians.  They were
given up to a system of oppression, injustice, lawlessness, cruelty, and degradation which is almost without
a parallel in the history of modern nations.
And here ends the first period of my history. I had
collected the materials for a detailed review of Spanish
colonial civilization, portions of which I have already
written, because I intended to add it to this volume.
I also intended to review the causes which led to the
War of Independence, that war itself, the men and
ideas it produced, and the bloody history of the republics which sprung from it. But I did not want to
delay the publication of this volume unnecessarily.
On the success with which it meets, my future labors
will depend. If it is well received, I shall endeavor to
carry out my original plan. If not, it will be an indication to me that either the public does not feel sufficient
interest in Spanish-American subjects at this time, or
that my manner of treating them has not proved satisfactory. I have done my best, however little it may
is remarkable that most of those who had heartlessly butchered the Indians, received their due by being murdered by their own accomplices in
oppression and cruelty.




CONCLUSION.               397
be. I have labored hard, and I am weak enough to
confess that a failure would be a severe disappointment
to me, leaving me no other compensation for years of
patient research and study, but the cold comfort of the
stoic: " Non sibi res, sed se submittere rebus."








APPENDIX.
VALVERDE S " GUIDE" TO THE INCA TREASURE BURIED
IN THE LLANGANATI MOUNTAINS.
THE following is Mr. Spruce's translation of the " Derrotero " of Valverde, referred to in Chapter V. of this work.
The introductory remark, or title (not in very choice Castilian), is that of the copyist.
(Guide or Route, which Valverde left in Spain, where
death overtook him, having gone from the mountains of
Llanganati, which he entered many times, and carried off a
great quantity of gold; and the king commanded the corregidors of Tacunga and Ambato to search for the treasure:
which order and guide are preserved in one of the offices of
Tacunga.)
"Placed in the town of Pillaro, ask for the farm of
Moya, and sleep (the first night) a good distance above it;
and ask there for the mountain of Guapa, from whose top,
if the day be fine, look to the east, so that thy back be
towards the town of Ambato, and from thence thou shalt
perceive the three Cerros Llanganati, in the form of a triangle, on whose declivity there is a lake, made by hand, into
which the ancients threw the gold they had prepared for the
ransom of the Inca when they heard of his death. From
the same Cerro Guapa thou mayest see also the forest, and
in it a clump of Sangurimas standing out of the said forest,
and another clump which they call Flechas (arrows), and
these clumps are the principal mark for the which thou
shalt aim, leaving them a little on the left hand. Go for



400                   APPENDIX.
ward from Guapa in the direction and with the signals indicated, and a good way ahead, having passed some cattlefarms, thou shalt come on a wide morass, over which thou
must cross, and coming out on the other side thou shalt see
on the left-hand, a short way off; a jucdl on a hill-side,
through which thou must pass. Having got through the
jucdl, thou wilt see two small lakes called "Los Anteojos "
(the spectacles) from having between them a point of land
like to a nose.
"From this place thou mayest again descry the Cerros
Llanganati, the same as thou sawest them from the top of
Guapa, and I warn thee to leave the said lakes on the left,
and that in front of the point or " nose" there is a plain,
which is the sleeping-place. There thou must leave thy
horses, for they can go no further. Following now on foot
in the same direction, thou shalt come on a great black lake,
the which leave on thy left hand, and beyond it seek to
descend along the hill-side in such a way that thou mayest
reach a ravine, down which comes a waterfall: and here
thou shalt find a bridge of three poles, or if it do not still
exist thou shalt put another in the most convenient place
and pass over it. And having gone on a little way in the
forest, seek out the hut which served to sleep in, or the remains of it. Having passed the night there, go on thy way
the following day through the forest in the same direction,
till thou reach another deep dry ravine, across which thou
must throw a bridge and pass over it slowly and cautiously,
for the ravine is very deep; that is, if thou succeed not in
finding the pass which exists. Go forward and look for the
signs of another sleeping-place, which, I assure thee, thou
canst not fail to see in the fragments of pottery and other
marks, because the Indians are continually passing along
there. Go on thy way, and thou shalt see a mountain which
is all of margasitas (pyrites), the which leave on the left
hand, and I warn thee that thou must go round it in this
fashion  6. On this side thou wilt find a pajonil (pasture)




APPENDIX.                  401
in a small plain which having crossed thou wilt come on a
canion between two hills, which is the way of the Inca.
From thence as thou goest along thou shalt see the entrance
of the socabon (tunnel), which is in the form of a churchporch. Having come through the caiion, and gone a good
distance beyond, thou wilt perceive a cascade which descends
from an offshoot of the Cerro Llanganati, and runs into a
quaking bog on the right hand; and without passing the
stream in the said bog there is much gold, so that putting in
thy hand what thou shalt gather at the bottom is grains of
gold. To ascend the mountain, leave the bog and go along
to the right, and pass above the cascade, going round the
offshoot of the mountain. And if by chance the mouth of
the socabon be closed with certain herbs which they call
"salvaje," remove them, and thou wilt find the entrance.
And on the left-hand side of the mountain thou mayest see
the' Guayra' (for thus the ancients called the furnace where
they founded metals), which is nailed with golden nails.
Andy to reach the third mountain, if thou canst not pass in
front of the socabon, it is the same thing to pass behind it,
for the water of the lake falls into it.
1" If thou lose thyself in the forest, seek the river, follow
it on the right bank; lower down take to the beach, and
thou wilt reach the canion in such sort that, although thou
seek to pass it, thou wilt not find where; climb, therefore,
the mountain on the right-hand, and in this manner thou
canst by no means miss thy way."
The foreign words contained in the foregoing "Derrotero" are explained in the pamphlet of Mr. Spruce, to
which I must refer the reader for particulars. MIr. Spruce
also gives a description of the localities enumerated in the
" Guide."  His explanations and suggestions may prove of
great value to some enterprising American who ventures to
explore the fastnesses of the Llanganati mountains, in
search of the treasure. The question is highly exciting, and
ought to be solved.
26