Phoenix weekly herald., 1898-08-25
FROM ECUADOR.
Interesting Letter From The
American Legation in Onto.

| July 10. 1873.
My Dear Friend We are now most
| comfortably located at GuapUlo, a
country place. forty minutes dis
tance from Quito. Il presume about
| three miles)' where we have taken i
| furnished house of twelve rooms for
| three months. The Columbian minis
ter and family have rented Il house al
| most opposite to US and Will be here
| next week
| There is not 4 person in this town
| that can speak English. so we would
| be i'll a bad fix of we could not speak
| Spanish While we rented furnish
/ ell house" there We're number of
| ahings we could bring TO our comfort.
| sucn as our keroSine stove, our own
| beds, bed linen, silver and table ware.
| etc.. etc. This is historic Indian
| town. [ will not now give you thar
history. but you shall read it later
| We had arranged for eleven Indians
| and four mules to come in and move
| us out. Some of the Indians carried
| as much as $50 pounds. Among them
| were three women and one of them
had her baby to carry besides her load
| 1t would take them over one-half hour
in Il dog UrOt'' to go to Quito and an
| hour to return with a heavy load For
this, all they asked was twenty cents
each. and the same for each mule, or
| about eight cents of our money. I
paid them double. as it seemed almost
wicked to accept such service for so lit
tie pay While there is a fair road
from Quito here nearly one half of 1T
| is so steep that 4 carriage cannot come
over it The descent is quite steep.
We are SEQ feet lower than in Quito
and it is much warmer here. Because
it is warmer, is one of the principal
reasons why we came here. This
would sound strange to those who have
commiserated US because we are
roasting" at the equator. True it is
that we are within Il few minutes of
the equator vet we have never found
Il day too warm. We have never spent
an evening without our kerosene stove
lighted 1 presume there is not an
other house in Quito with fire, save
in the kitchen. We learned when
boy. in our ''primmers' that
&C stands for cat, etc.
I'D stands for dog. etc.
80 stands for Quito, where it is
never cold enough to wear an Overcoat
and never warm enough to go With
out 4 coat
All of which is not true. for plenty
of these people go without Il coat the
year round and without shoes and only
muslin drawers without any pants,
While 1 always find an overcote COM
Portable if / go out after Sundown.
July and August are said ITO be the
coldeSt months of the year, because
of more wind and less rain. so we are
glad TO get where it is warmer. The
''tierra calienta.' or ''hot lands where
they grow coffee. sugar. bananas. etc.
are in full view from our sitting room.
We expect to take many a ride there.
They are only 1.-TWO hours distant
They measure distance here by time
not mile. When we were getting
ready to come here we commenced to
look about 10 buy two horses. To our
surprise three separate friends offered
Us the free use of two horses each day
as long as we might want them. and
so pressing were the offers that we had
to settle il by taking one horse each
from two of them. while my clerk
(who now cares for the officel rides one
belonging to the third one. TO bring me
cahlegrams from the United States or
other messages. We have gone into |
QUITO quite Il number of times since |
We moved out. bIrt never fail TO meet |
or pass from fifty to one hundred per
sons coming or going. so you see the |
road is quite well travelled Nearly all i!
of these are laden with heavy burdens |
of some kind, mostly wood, alfalfa or !
fruit, for the market. or supplies for |
the distant home. Such loadsl Bur |
few people in the United States would |
want to carry them even 4 few rods. |
vet these people carry them rs much |
rs five to eight miles. \ strap around |
the load. then over the forehead and |
the carrier is off with the load on his |
hack. so heavy in many instances that |
he or she walks bent half double. The |
first hree days here seemed like n jul |
bilee. 1t was the fiesta of San Pablo. /
Saint PauD. Work was suspended |
Not only the bells but the bands sum
moned to church ut various hours dur
ing the day. When not there 'chicha
was in great demand. The man who
claims to be the head man" of the |
pueblo came around With what used to
be Il vinegar BOTTLE in Il castor. now |
badly demoralized with Il broken head
and wanted drop of ''chicha" and if
We had not any then little ''vina"
would do as well. The band did |
say? In Quito we have three or four
splendid bands of about fifty mem |
berS each. The one here cannot be de
Scribed on paper. In fact only seeing
aud hearing could give due apprecia-
ton. Owing to circumstances, for
which l cannot vouch. the number of
filuSlCi3IlS Ill iIllS Dsiilu Writes ITOIn dS
low as five to as high as ten We are
in full view of the front of the church. |
one block distant. so had the fun ben
eft of the fire crackers, sky rockets,
etc. set off both by day and night |
The last day of the fiesta they varied |
the exercise by what. 1 suppose might |
be called "catch the chicken" Two |
posts about fifteen feet long were
placed in the ground. about fifteen feet |
apart in front of the church. y rope |
was tied near the top of one of them |
and down across a pulley the same |
height ON the other and reaching to the !
ground. \ live chicken was tied by /
its feet to the rope in the center. Then |
commenced the fun The man at |
the end of The rope commenced to |
twir the chicken, letting it fall to al |
most within the grasp of the contest |
ants. when 4 sudden jerk would take |
it TO the upper part of an ellipSe and |
AT last some one was quick enough |
to catch the head and tear the chicken |
in two. His was the pleasure to put |
the blood upon anyone he cuold catch. |
Thus We're three chickens disposed of, |
two for San Pablo and one for the !
priest of the church. Somewhat of a |
variation from the order of church ser
vice in the United States, no doubt you |
are ready to say. This is only Il small |
part of what l could tell you. but can
not ueSpaSS longer on your time. The !
balance when see YOU.
Here we have not only Il superior |
clin,af but the choicest of water 1t |