Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-23

and about 100000 people of mixed races or
crosses of the whites and negroes with the
Indians. The whites are the ruling class.
They are the government, the wealth, the
brains, the Ecuador that we know in bust
ness and in trade. The Indians are the
working population. They are thriftless
and seem to have little spirit or ambition.
Their highest idea of pleasure is plenty of
liquor, and the "Ecuadorian smile" Is
common as the drink of America They
live like dogs and work almost from birth
to death. They till the soil. carry the
freight on their backs u and down the
mountains, and are, in fact, often treated
more like cattle than the animals them
selves They submit to the whites and
accustomed to being advised by them. Only
the fewest of these Indians can read or
write and very few accumulate property
l don't think the native Ecuadorians will
ever be large consuming class. Their
wants are few. A suit or two of cotton
clothes, a little rice and meat, and a cane
hut in the lOwlands one of adobe brick
in the mountains suffice for them. 1t does
not cost much more. I am told, to raise
child to maturity among the Ecuadorian
Indians than 1t does on the banks of the
Ganges or the Nile. These civilized In -ians
are the descendants of those who were here
when the Spaniards conquered the country.
They were even then the slaves or sub
jects Of the Incas, and they seem to be one
of those races which. like the fellahin of
Egypt, are ever destined to be subject to
and work for a stronger race. These In
dams are, with few exceptions. Catholics
They are ruled by the priests, and large
part of their earnings goes to the church
1t was only lately that Protestant mission
aries have been permitted to come into
Ecuador. and the few here now are having
hard time. I met here at Guayaauil an
earnest young fellow from Denver. who
has recently come out to do missionary
work. He tells me the field is great one,
but that his reception by the people is far
from cordial. and that he has been warned
not to go to certain places to preach, or his
life would be in danger.
Our Trade With Ecuador.
I have spent some time in looking up the
chances here for American trade. There
are practically no statistics. and it is hard
to get at just what the trade of the cOun-
try amounts to. 1t probably ranges some
where between ten and fifteen million dol
lars a year. the imports being less than
the exports The bulk of the imports come
from Europe. and the articles we send
here are those which we can make more
Europeans. This is especially the case
with hare ware. The American hardware
has l fir.d, n better standing wherever l
have been than any other. The axes and
knives made at Hartford. Conn.,, are cele-
brated here. and the Germans and other
Europeans are initiating them almost to
the trademarks. They make a much
poorer and cheaper article. and sell chiefly
by their fraudulent imitation. The Amer
lean firearms command the highest prices
and they are also initiated. The gen
uine American revolvers. .3S-caiber, sell
ton Spanish-made revolvers sell for
$14 The most of the cottons used in Ec-
uador come from Great Britain. About
sl,W~.WU worth of English cottons con-