The Saint Paul globe., 1898-04-24


Ecundor's Schools Where the
Children Study Out LOud-The
Indians and How They Sell HUI
man Heads-Our Trade With
Ecuador and How 1t Could BE In
creased.
Copyright. 1885, by Frank G. Carpenter.
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 2S-
Though the equator cuts Ecuador, the
bulk of its people have as fine climate
as these of any part of the globe. They
are sky dwellers. Nine-tenths Of them
live among the clouds. There are
dozens of towns here which are twice
as high as Denver, and there are cattle
ranches in the Andes at an altitude of
1900 feet. On about the latitude OF
the Congo, Quito has more temper
ate climate than that Of Washington
city. Here at Guayaquil the climate
is that of the tropics; in some of the
Andean valleys it is like an Ohio June
all the year around, and on many OF
the peaks the snow never melts.
Quito is the highest capital city en-
L
world. 1t is more than half a mile
higher up In the air than the City OF
Mexico, and more than thousand feet
higher than the Mount st. Bernard,
in the Abs, which is the highest point
in Europe where men live all the year
around. Quito is am told, going back
ward. 1t is represented as having
about 10000 people. 1t is a question
whether it has $4,000, and it had it's
greatest number over $50 years aSo,
before the country was discovered by
the Spaniards. Then it had several
hundred thousand people, who had
better civilization, on the average, than
the masses of Ecuador have today.
There was a town on the site Of Quito,
according to tradition, hundred years
before Christ was born, and it Is known
that city existed there in loco A. D.
Atahualpa, the Inca monarch who was
conquered and murdered by Pizarro,
had a palace at Quito, the roof Of
which, 1t Is said, was covered with
pure gold, and of the treasures which
were hidden by the Indians at this
time 1t is believed that vast quantities
were buried in Ecuador.
been able to make my way to the Ecua-
dorian capital. The route is flooded and
the mails are now fifteen days in COM
ing a distance of less than 300 miles.
The city lies over the Andes in val
ley between two ranges, and you ride
on mules about the preciptous slopes
of these great mountains to reach 1t.
In good weather the mules must wade
through the mud up to their bellies,
and in descending some of the decilivi-
ties they sit down and slide. There
are here, however, many people who
have lived in Quito, and my informa-
ton concerning the city will give you
an idea of the place as it is today.
Quito is about a mile square. 1t would
Just cover four 160-acre farms. The
streets are laid out at right angles, but
are very narrow and are such that the
man who introduced the first carriage
into the town had to get permit to
do so. Just back of the city is the ac-
tive volcano Mount Pichincha, and adj
about it on the sides of the valley, wall
ing it in as 1t We're, are some of the
highest peaks of the Andes.
Mount Pichincha is snow-capped and
Ats peak is so near Quito that the ice
used for making the ice cream of the
city comes from there. Mount Pichin-
cha has a crater half a mile deep, and
9. mile wide at the bottom. 1t is a
mile higher up in the air than Mount
Aetna, and its fires are such that it has
been said that Vesuvius would be q
portable furnace beside it, The top Of
this mountain can be reached by horses
in five hours ride from Quito Stand
ing on the slope of Mount Pichincha,
Quito lies in the valley below you. 1t
IS a city of white adobe two-story
houses covered with red tiles. The
houses look low and squatty and you
see among them a large number of con-
mOnaStpriPS and churches
one-fOurth Of the town is taken up
with church establishments, and there
are many priests and nuns to the
square as you will find in the city of
Rome. Quito has always been a great
supporter of Rome, and its contribu-
tfons to the Catholic church have been
so many that it has been called 1.-The
little mother of the pope"
Government of Ecuador.
Until lately the government of Ecua-
dor has been largely a union Of church
and state and today the priests have
great influence. Catholicism Is the only
religion of the country. and by Cath
oliciSm do not mean the liberal re-
1igion of Archbishops Ireland and Glib
bons. but the Spanish Catholicism,
which is as bad almost as that os tie
days of the inquisltion and of the mid
die ages. Ecuador is, you know, nomi-
nally a republic, but voters must be-
long to the church and must be able
TO read and write. Not more than one
tenth Of the people can do the latter,
SO the educated whites practically con-
troll the elections-I should rather say
that the officials control them, and that
there Is no such thing as a fair cleo
- tion in Ecuador. The land is one of re-
Volutions. The present president, Don
Alfaro, has been a revolutionist all his
life and has at last gotten into power.
He has had numbtr of narrow es-
capes, some of which Capt. Power, the
commander of one of the little Ecua-
dorian menof-war, has described to
hle.
Al one time when Power was with
Alfaro his boat was captured by the
eTemy and Alfaro escaped by swim
&ing to the shore on a barrel, and at
another time he lived for weeks in the
Wilds Of Ecuador and Columbia hunted
by the state troops. President Alfaro
has limited somewhat the power of the
priests, although 1 am told that he is
afraid of them. He is progressive in
his views and he is very desirous that
foreign capital should come to Ecuador
and develop it. The president lives at
Quito. He has a salary of 24,O0O sucres.
or about $4,000 a year. He has a cabi-
het, one Of the ministers of which rep
resents the church. In addition to the
president the government consists of
a congress, a system of courts and of
governors of the various provinces, who
are appointed by the president and NAV