Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-05-24
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suuct path which ne Is saad 70 nave to-
lowed.
This capital and the productive regions
of Ecuador are l60 miles from its only sea
port, Guayaquil, and are accessible only by
. mule path, which Is impossible for six
months In the year, during the rainy sea.
son, and in the dry season it requires eight
or nine days to traverse it, with no resting
places where man can find q decent bed
or food fit for human consumption. This is
the only means Of communication between
Quito and the outside world, except along
the mountains southwark into Bolivia and
Peru, where the Incas constructed besuti.
full highways, which the Spanisrds have per.
mitted to decay, until they are now praci
cally useless. They were so well built,
however, as to stand the wear and tear Of
three centuries, and the slightest attempt at
repair would have kept them in order.
Although the journey from Gnsysquil to
Quito takes nine days, Garcia Moreno, the
former President of Ecuador, once made it
in thirty-six hours. He heard of revolu-
ton, ard, springipg upon his horse, went to
the capital, had twenty-five conspirators
shot, and was back at Guaysquil in less than
week. Moreno was President for twelve
years, and was che of the fercest and most
cruel rulers South America has ever seen.
He shot men who would not take off their
hats to him in the streets, and had drank
en- priest impsled in the principal plaza of
Quito as warning to the clergy to observe
habits Of sobriety or conceal their intemper-
ance. There was nothing too brutal for
this man to 90, and nothing too sacred to
escape his grasp Yet he compelled Con-
gress to pass an act declaring that the re-
public Of Ecuador EXISTED wholly and
alone devoted to the service oSthe Holy
Chuch," and torbidding the importation Of
books and periodicals which did not receive
the sanction of the Jesuis. He divided his
army into four divisions, called respectively
the Division of the Blessed Virgin, the Di-
vision Of the Son Of God, the Division of the
Holy Ghost, and the DIVISION OF the Blood
and Body of Christ. He made the Sacred
Heart of Jesus" the national emblem, and
called his body guard the Holy Lsncers of
Santa Maria. He died in 1875 by assassin.
alton, and the country has been in state OF
political eruption ever since.
Although the road to Quito is over an al
most untrodden wilderness, it presents the
grandest scenic panorama in the world Di.
rectly beneath the equator, surrounding the
city whose origin is lost in the mist OF over
centuries, rise twenty volcanoes, presided BY
the princely Chimborazo, the lowest being l5,-
922 feet in height, and the highest reaching
an altitude of 22,5O0 feet. Three OF these
volcanoes are active, FIVE are dormant, and
twelve extinct Nowhere else on the earth S
surface is such cluster of peaks, such a
grand assemblsuge Of giants. Eighteen OF
the twenty are covered with perpetual snow
aid the SUBMITS OF eleven have never been
reached by living creature except the con-
dor, whose flight surpasses that Of any other
bird. At noon the vertical sun throws a
profession Of light upon the snow-crowned
SUBMITS, where they appear like group OF
pyramids cut in spotless marble.
Cotopaxi ia the loftiest of active volcanoes,
but it is slumbering now. The only evil
dence of action is the frequent rumblings
which can be heard for hundred miles, and
the cloud of smoke By day and the pillar Of
fire by night, which constantly arises from
a crater that is more than three thousand
feet beyond the reach of man. Mano have
atteu pied to scale it, but the walls are so
steep and the snow is so deep that ascent is
impossible, even with scaling ladders. On
the south side Of Cotopaxi is great rock,
more than 1000 feet high, called
the "Tnca's Head" Tradition says that
it was once the summit Of the volcano, aud
fell on the day when Athsupa was straugled
By the Spaniards. Those who heve seen
Vcsuvius can judge Of the grandeur OF
Cotopaxi, if they can imagine volcano
l5,OGO feet higher shooting forth its fire
from crest covered by 5000 feet OF snow,
with a voice that has been heard six hum
dred miles. And one can judge OF the
grandeur of the road to Quito if he can
image twenty of the highest mountains in
America three Of them active volcanoes,
standing along the road from Washington
to New York.
Here in these mountains, until the Span.
iards came in 1884, existed a civilization
that was old when Christ was crucihed; a
civilization whose arts were equal TO those
of Egypt; which had temples four times the
size of the Capitol at Washington, from a
single one of which the Spaniards drew out
1900 ounces of solid silver nails; whose
rulers had palaces from which the Span.
ards gathered 10000 ounces OF gold and
an unmeasured quantity of silver Here
was an empire stretching from the equator
TO the antarctic circle, walled in by the
grandest group OF mountains in the world,
whose people knew all the arts OF their time
but those of war, and were conquered by
2l3 men under the leadership Of Spanish