Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-10
COMMERCE IN ECUADOR.
SOME QUEER MERCHANTS ANDsrRANGE
COMMODITIES.
Fannie b. Wards Description of Com
mercial Center in South
American Republic.

Fannie B. Wards Description of a Com
mercial Center in a South
American Republic.
GUAYAoUIL, Ecuador, 1890.
As this is the commercial center of the
Republican fact the only place within its
borders worth mentioning in connection
with trade-its merchants carry consider
able stocks of goods, some claiming half a
million dollars worth or more, with an an
nual trade of double that amount. Few
of them, however, are Ecuadorians. the
heaviest importers being Chinese. The
latter have driven so many native dealers
to the wall, and continue so persistently to
extend their monopolies that the Legis-
lature has lately passed law prohibiting
the further immigration of Cinnamon to
Ecuador
The Celestial, transplanted in this con.
genial soil, does by no means conine him
self to the com pany of his own eountrymen
and women, as in California and elsewhere,
but blossoms out as a leader of society, and
delights to share his wash-tub, opium-pipe
and marital attent ions with Representatives
of other nationalities. His several wives
are generally low-class Ecuadorians, in
whose veins circulates q regular ollapo-
drida of Indian, Spanish, negro, and may
be Anglo. Saxon blood and whose leather
colored skin is not bad match for his own
ence in s'looks" being in the eyes-those OF
native women being very large, and not set
in on the bias, as seems to be the fashion
of the Flowery Kingdom. The offspring
of this
PoLYGLoT PARENTAGE
Have not much to show in the way OF
beauty, but are hardly more progressing
than that strange cross between Creeks and
negroes one sometimes encounters in the
Indian Territory, who have kinky hair,
high cheek bones, reddish eyes and flat
noses.
The lower floors of the houses along the
principal streets are used for shops while
the merchants and their families, of what
ever nationality, live above them. During
business hours the entire front of each
house is removed-partly to allow freer
circulation of air, the heat being so exces.
sive, and also to show off the wares to bet.
ter advantage, for these ground floors have
no windows.
Ecuador's exports bear no proportion to
her real capabilities; and there is no ex-
cuse but laziness for the chronic bank.
ruptcy of the country. The shipments OF
cocoa, coffee, India-rubber, hides, chin
chona bark, nuts, vegetable ivory, orchilla-
weed, sarsaparilla, cancho, tamarlnds, etc.
amount to about 100000 per annum
The President asserts that Ecuador i'm.
ports fully S10,000,000 worth year; bu,
as the Government keeps no statistics of its
commerce one may be pardoned for doubt
ing the truth of his Excellency's state.
ment, which is based merely on the
amount of duties collected. 1t hardly
stands to reason that the most impoyer-
ished and backward country in all South
America could long continue to purchase
twice as much every year as she sells
Most of the imports come from England
The United States furnishes little but lard;
and all the -four comes from Chile.
Ecuador is famous for only two things
for making the best straw hats and raising
the finest pineapples in the world; the
credit for the latter being entirely due tc
Dame Nature, and for the former to the
native women who weave them. The well.
known panama hats" are all made in
Guayaquil and the Indian villages along
the coast, but none outside of Ecuador
| and this name comes from the fact that
| formerly Panama merchants controlled the
trade.
The best hats are made of Ioquilla fiber
| (Carludovica palmetto) AN aborescent
plant, which grows about FIVE feet high
and resembles the palm. Its yard-long
leaf is plated like fan and the stalk is
three-cornered. The leaf is cut while
young, the stiff, parallel veins removed
| and then it is whipped into shreds and i'm
mersed in boiling water. Afterwards is is
bleached in the sun.
Mocora fiber is also used, from tree
that grows like a cocoannut but more
rarely, because difficult to work, as its bark
is extremely hard and thorny. Its leaves
| are SO long that the straws will finish a
| hat without splicing. Pita fber-a species
of cacti-is also much employed.
THE BEST HATS
Are woven under water by women who
kneei beside stream and keep the straws
constantly submerged. 1t requires three
or four months to make good hat, and
when finished it will bring all the way
| from SIS to $3.50. But it will last life
time, can be rolled up and packed away in
a vest pocket, cleaned as often as required
and worn either side out, as the inner sur
face is as smooth and well-fnished as the
outer
A great many hammocks are also made
from pita fiber and dried grass. An enor-
nous quantity of cocoa is produced, though
but fraction of it is gathered, owing to
the scarcity of laborers The cocoa OF
Ecuador is second in quality only to that
of Venezuela, the latter being considered
the best in the world. Three or four kinds
are indigenous to this coast, and it is here
called cacoa, to distinguish it from the
erythorxylon cocoa, from which cocaine
is made-these all deserving their generic
title of 1Reobroma, meaning food for the
gods"
Perhaps the best grows in the vicinity
OF Esmeraldas, as it has the pleasantest
flavor and contains the largest amount of
oil; but it rots SO quickly that little of it
is exported, The cocoa de arriba" from
up the Rio Guayas is most desirable to ex-
port, as it keeps two or three years with
out damage. Next in order comes that
called cocoa de abajo," from near the
rivers mouth-from Santa Rosa, Balao,
Machala and other places below Guaya-
quill. A still richer nut is the mountain
cocoa, but that is never cultivated. 1t is
small, white and almost pure oil and
from it "cocoa butter" Is made-used by
the natives for burns. sores, cuts and GU
taneous diseases, and by women the world
ever for identifying the complexion.
THE COCOA TREE
Resembles our lilac in shape and size, and
yields three crops of fruit every year-in
March, June and September. Its flowers