The Saint Paul globe., 1898-04-24

the mountains, and are, in fact, often
| treated more like; cattle than the ami
| mails themselves.
| They submit to the whites and are
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 a large con-
! suming class. Their wants are few. A
| suit or two of cotton clothes, little
rice and meat and cane hut in the
lowlandS or one of adobe brick in the
mountains suffice for them. 1t does not
| cost much more, 1 am told, to raise
| child to maturity among the Ecuador
| ian Indians than 1T does on the banks
Of the Ganges or the Nile. These civil
| lied Indians are the descendants of
| those who were here when the Span
| iardS conquered the country. They
were even then the slaves or subjects
| OF the Incas, and they seem to be one
| of those races which, like the fellahin
Of Egypt, are ever destined TO be sub
| ject to and work for a stronger race.
These Indians are, with few excep
| tions, Catholics. They are ruled by the
priests, and large part of their earn
| ings goes to the church. 1t was only
| lately that Protestant missionaries
have been permitted to come into Ecua-
| dor, and the few here now are having
d udlu tlIIie. L Il6C mere at GuayaQull
| an earnest young fellow from Denver,
| who has rencently come out to do mis-
| siOnary work. He tells me the field is
a 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.
| [ 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 country amounts to. 1t probab-
ly ranges somewhere between ten and
| fifteen million dollars year, the inn
| ports 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 cheaply and
of a better quality than the Europeans.
! This is especially the case with hare
ware. The American hardware has,
| find, a better standing wherever 1 have
| been than any other The axes and
knives made at Hartford, Conn.,, are
| celebrated here, and the Germans and
| other Europeans are initiating them al
| most to the trade marks. They make
a much poorer and cheaper article, and
sell chiefly by their fraudulent imita-
| ton. The American firearms command
| the highest prices, and they are also
| Initiated. Smith & Wesson revolvers,
| for instance, have been copied by the
| Spaniards and labeled in large letters:
Smith & Wesson cartridges are to be
used with this revolver"
When the South American customer
| who cannot read English is shown the
revolver he is told that 1t is Smith
| and Wesson, and the above words are
I shown him. He buys the gun, to find
| it useless, or that it bursts after few
shots. The genuine American revol-
vers, SS-caliber, sell for $50 in silver,
| while the imitation Spanish-made re-
, volvers sell for $14. The most Of the cot
| ton used in Ecuador comes from Great
Britain. About 81, ,00O,0 900 worth of Eng
| lish cottons are consumed here every
year, while we do not sell $50, 900 worth
If our cotton factors would study the
market and make the goods these peo-
pie want they could easily get this
trade, for our cottons ara hattAr than