Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-06-20
In ECUADOR.
ENCHANTING TRAVEL IN TR0P.
TCAL SEAS.
Interesting Data Concerning Some
of the People and Lands ImIne-
diately Beneath the Sun.

On the west coast OF South America, says
| traveller writing to the Inter Ocean, is
found the perfection of sea-travel. AL
| though one floats under or rather over,
the equator, the atmosphere is cool, the
| breezes delicious, and the water as smooth
| as duck pond. The Pacific Navigation
Company is a British institution, founded
| by an American, William Wheelwright, of
New York, which has been sending vessels
| from Panama to Liverpool through the
Straits of Magellan, for over forty years,
and has not only a monopoly, but subsi-
dies from the British Government and the
various South American Governments
whose ports ii enters. 1t charges enormous
| rates for freight and passenger transporta,
| tion-the tariff from Panama to Valpa-
raise being $40 per ton for freight, and $297
per head for passengers for distance about
as great as from New York to Liverpool
| but the company gives its patrons the best
! the country affords, and until the Alaska
and Oregon were turned out to race across
! the ocean, had the finest and largest ships
afloat One set of vessels run from Pana-
ma to Valparaiso, where q change is made
to another set, which go through the
| Straits of Magellan. via Rio de Janeiro, to
! Liverpool.
Those which ply along the west coast
| from Panama southwark are built for fair
weather and tropical seas with open decks
and airy staterooms. through which the
| breezes bring refreshing GOODNESS. Such
vessels would not live long in the North
Atlantic nor in the Caribbean Sea, but find
! l,a xx-ha ? 40
wind is never strong enough TO ruffie the
fur on a cats back, as the sailors say, and
SAIL IN A PERPETUAL CALM.
The tripe to Chill, however, is long and
tlresome lasting twenty-five days. Less
than half the time is spent at sea, as there
are thirty-eight ports at which the vessels,
under the company's contracts, are obliged
to call.
The ports of Colombia are all block
AIDED now on account of the revolution,
so that Guayaquil, the commercial metrop-
oils of Ecuador, and next to Calloa PERU
and Valparaiso Chile the most important
place on the coast, is the first stopping
place, four days from Panama. Although
the westernmost city Of South America,
Guayaquil has about the same longitude as
Washington, and is only two degrees south
of the equator. 1t is sixty miles from the
sea- on a river which looks like the Missis-
sippi at New Orleans, and stretches along
the low banks for more than two miles.
Ones first impression. if he arrives at
night, is that the ship had anchored in front
OF South American Paris so brilliant are
the terraces of gas-lamps, rising one after
another as the town slopes up toward the
mountains, and when morning dawns the
deception is renewed, and one has picture
of Venice before him, with long lines of
white buildings, whose curtained balconies
look down upon gayly-clad men and
women, floating upon the river in quaint
looking, narrow gondolas and broad
bosoned RATS Unless he is warned in
time the traveller meets with Il sudden and
disgusting surprise upon discriminating, for
the gondOlas are nothing but " dug-outS,
bringing pineapples and bananas from up
the river the RATS are balsam logs dashed
together with vines, the houses are dilapi
dated skeletons of bamboo whitewashed,
which look as if they had been erected by
an architectural lunatic and would tumble
into the river with the first gust of wind.
The streets are dirty and have a TepulsiVe
smell, and
THE HALF-NAKED INDIANS
Which throng them are continually scratch
ing their bodies for fieas and their heads
the tropic sun in Guayaquil would breed
pestilence in New York or Chicago yet the
inhabitants say it is healthy city, where
yellow fever and cholera never comes IN
less some vessel brings it from Panama.
There is great deal Of business done in
Guayaquil and some of the merchants
carry stocks Of imported goods valued at
$500 600, with an annual trade of double
that amount. Il is the only town in
Ecuador worth speaking Of in COM
mercial point OF view, and its trades
men do the entire wholesale bust
ness of that Republic. The shipments Of
cocoa rubber, hides, ivory, nuts, and chin
chona (quinine) bark amounts to about
the President Of Ecuador told us,
amount annually to $l00O0,000. There is
no way to ascertain the truth of his Excel
lency's statements, as the Government
keeps no statistics Of its commerce, and he
admitted that IL was only an estimate based
upon the amount of duties collected but
one may be allowed to doubt that country
like Ecuador, the most backward, ignorant
and impoverished in all America, can pur-
chase for many years in succession twice as
much as it sells.
Founded in 1886 by one of the lieuten-
ants of Cortez, Guayaquil has been the
market for 500 miles OF coast ever since,
but now it is almost destitute OF native
capital, nearly all the merchants being for
eigners; mostly English and German, with
one or two from the United States. 1t is
the only place in Ecuador where modern
civilization exists. The rest OF the country
| is century behind the times. Since It's
| foundation Guayaquil has several tunes
| been burned, and often plundered by
o;o oil
| seems secure from all dangers except reyo-
| lutions, which are epidemic in Ecuador
| In fact, the country would feel queer with
out one. Earthquakes are frequent, but
THE ELASTIC BAMBOO HOUSES
| Only SILVER; they neverfal To the torch
of the revolutionist, however, they are like
| finder, and the blocks that have been
| burned over testify TO lis effectiveness as a
weapon of destruction.
Over the entrance to the houses are tin
signs, painted to represent the flag or the
country of which the dWeller within is q
| citizen, and upon them are painted warn
| ings to revolutionary hooters or lncen-
diaries, This is the property of a citizen
| of Great Britain" or This is the property
of citizen of Germany" or This IS the
property of a citizen of the United States,
| and the robber and torch-bearer are ex-
| pected to respect them as such, but they
| seldom do.
Outside of Quito and Guayaquil, there is
not railroad or stage coach in the entire
country, and until two years ago there was
not telegraph wire. Laborers get from 81
to SO month, and men are paid 81 % tor
carrying 100 pounds of merchandise on
their backs 2S5 miles There isn't wagon
in the republic outside of Guayaquil, and
not road over which a'wagon could pass.
The people have no amusements but cock
| fights and bull-fghts, no literature, no mail
routes except from GuaSaeuil to the capt.
tai Quito, and nothing is common among
the masses that was not in use by them 200
| years ago.
Although almost directly under the
equator, the temperature of Guayaquil sell
dom rises above 80, and after O'Clock in
the day it is always as cool as pleasant
summer morning in New England. A
cool breeze, called the chandny," blows
over the ice-capped mountains, and
brings health to city which would other