The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-10

enough to pave the streets and establish a
good fire department
A WIDE-AWAKE POLICE.
Guyaquil has a wide-awake police force.
I know this, for during my first few nights
here L heard the policemen every fifteen
minutes all night long yelling out that they
were awake. 1t is a police regulation that
every man on watch shall cry out or whis-
tie every quarter of an hour. The cry is:
Ell sentinel es alerto!' And the whistle is
combination more wonderful than any
thing except the cry of the Guyaquil frog,
whose hi-hi-hi is screamed out all night
long. The Ecuadorian police are soldiers.
They carry swords and guns and both
look and act in the fiercest manner. One
of them almost dropped his gun on my
foot the other day as I attempted to pass
him. He said, "Atras!' which 1 suppose
means back" AT least 1 backed and
walked around the other way. have since
learned that no one may pass between the
police and the wall, but must go outside
the policeman. / suppose if the policeman
has to fight he prefers to have the wall at
his back Another regulation is that all
people out after IL o'clock p. m must give
an account of themselves. The cry is, who
goes there?" and the answers must be
such that will satisfy the police they
will take you to jail l doubt, in fact,
whether there is a place in the world
where it is SO easy to break into Jail as
here. People are imprisoned for debt, and
1t is a common thing for a planter who
wants hands on his estate to go to the
jails and pay the debts Of such of the
prisoners will agree to transfer their
debts to him and work them out. He then
gives them small wages and takes out
perhaps 81 a week from each mans
salary until the debt is paid In the Jail
at Bodegas, a town further up the Guaya-
gull river, 1 talked with a Jamaica negro.
who told me he had been in prison for
months because he had failed to pay a
millionaire planter $16 which he had bor-
rowed. Said he: eff [ were free I could
work to get the money to pay my debt,
but they keep me here until some one buys
me out and then / must work for him or
he can put me in again.
THE LAND OF THE EQUATOR.
But before 1 go further let me tell you
something of Ecuador. The name means
equator. and Ecuador is the land of the
equator. 1t lies sandwched between Colon
bia and Brazil and Peru, on the west coast
of South America, in the shape of a great
fan, the handle of which extends into north
ern Brazil, and the scalloped rim of which
is washed by the Pacific ocean. 1t is one of
the least known countries of the world.
Parts of it have never been surveyed, and
to-day the different geographical estimates
of it's size range all the way from the big
ness Of California to that of Texas. The
coast is low, and rich tropical vegetation
extends from the ocean back for one hun
dred miles less to the foothills of the An
des. The Andes cross the country from
north TO south in two great parallel ridges,
upholding between them a series of beauti-
full valleys, i'll which about nine-tenths of
the people live. These valleys are from a
mile and half to two miles above the sea,
and give the interior a healthful climate,
which is more like that of New York city
than of the equator. Quito, the capital is
situated in one of the highest of these val
leys. 1t is almost two miles above the alti-
tude of Washington city. Here the weather
is that of May in Ohio all the year around.
East of the Andes the country is a tropical
wilderness. A great branch of the ANA
zon, the Maranon river flows along it's
southern boundaries, and steamers go up the
Amazon, enter the Maranon and bring you
within a comparatively short distance of
Quito. In fact, am told you
can come to within four days mule
travel of Quito by water via these
great rivers and the streams which flow into
them. Ecuador thus has almost every eli
mate known to man. Scores of it's Andean
peaks are ever covered with snow, and it
has mighty glaciers. Chimborazo. which on
clear days is visible here, is q 200 feet above
the sea, and the great valley Of Ecuador is
guarded by twenty-one peaks, ranging in
height from three to four miles, while there
are seventeen other peaks which are more
than two miles in height To-day in Guaya-
quill the air is filled with ashes They come
from one of Ecua1or's ten active volcanoes,
and every week or SO an earthquake makes
the ground tremble. The houses Of Guaya-
gull are built to Withstand the earthquakes.
They are of wooden timbers so joined and
spliced that they can sway with the trem-
bling of the earth and not break. The frame
work is then covered with bamboo laths
made by splitting the cane. Upon these
bamboos coating of plaster is spread
This makes the exterior of the houses look
as though the walls were backed with brick
and stone, where, in fact, they are actually
made up of good-sized fishing poles. Just
now a vast deal of building is going on
here, and the hammer of the carpenter nail
ing on these laths is always to be heard.
Much of the lumber used comes from Ore
SOn anu w dSIllIlStOI anu some from
Georgia.
MELONS GROW ON TREES.
The equatorial coast region, where 1 now
am, is full of vegetable wonders. This is
to-day the richest and most productive part
of Ecuador. In my six months sail up the
River Guyas to this city L passed vast ha-
ciendas covered with grass green as the
fields of Egypt in winter in which fat cat
tie, horses and mules stood up to their bel
lies and ate without having to bend down to
reach the grass. passed rich plantations
of sugar cane which here grows to the
height of ten feet, and which grows for
twenty-five years without replanting. I saw
vast cacao orchards loaded down with the
fruit from which our chocolate comes Tall
cocoanut palms bearing green balls of fruit
as big as your head swayed to and fro
high above the houses of the planters, and
strange fruits of so many kinds that can
not give you their names were offered to
again and again. The wharves of Qua
yaquil are lined with the Ecuadorian ma
tives who have brought fruit and other
things to sell, They have melons which
come from trees, known as the papoya
This fruit is of the size of a large musk
melon, and when opened its rich yellow
flesh seems much the same. There are
many trees here which bear fruits as bie