The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1903-03-19

p,,n,lo " V
been secured in advance Although the
charge announced is only ten cents for
the short row from ship to shore, with
ten cents additional for each piece of
luggage, it may be as many dollars for
the equally short row back again, about
which discreet silence is preserved
until you are quite at the mans mercy.
The only way is to make bargain in
the presence of the ships officers for
the round trip, it being distinctly I'M
derstood that not a cent will be paid
until you are safely back on deck.
At this point the Guayas river looks
much like the Mississippi in the neigh
borhood of New Orleans. You are sur
prised to find a regular water-market,
stretched all along the edge of the town,
where native boats laden with all man
ner of produce, are drawns up close,
while their owners stand on shore
shouting the merits of their respective
wares. All the city's provisions. raised
in outlying gardens and plantations,
are brought down the river on balsas
(rafts) and thus exposed for sale. In
this crowded water-market are hsh
whose like we have never seen before,
from snaky cells to enormous coW-paSs,
sold in slices: poultry III cane cages,
osly
and parrots: vegetables OF all descrlp-
tions: and tropical fruits perfumng the
air, in spite of the reeklng odors OF their
vendors and the vicinage. Most notice
able of all tile things for sale were the
| pineapples for which Ecuadoris partlc-
ularlv famous as producing the finest
| in the world-some of the great, pinklsh-
golden globes large as an ordinary wa
ter bucket, white as Snow inside and
sweet as honey.
A narrow-guage tramvia, or horse-car
line, runs from the landing to the out
skirts of the town; and upon its cars all
the products of the adjacent plantations
that are not brought in boats for the
citv's daily use are conveyed to the
dock and thence by lighters to ships IN
the harbor The passenger cars OF the
tramvia are square, box-ike affairs,
each with a queer little winding STAIR
way leading from the rear platform to
the roof, uponwhich two benches, placed
hack to back, extend from end to end
The outside fare is second-class IN
price, and therefore no Ecuadorlan
with any pretensions to social standing,
could be induced to avail himself OF It,.
However, those elevated, outside seats
are infinitely preferable to the stutfy in
terror. both for fresh air and ohserva-
tion. therefore we clambered to the top
and made our debut in the dusty streets
of Guayaquil amid motley collection
of clos pobres.'
By the way, the name OF town and
gulf is pronounced as if spelled Yah
keel accenting the final syllable; and
of the river as Vas, with the accent
on the first syllable; and both are called
in honor of the Inca cacique, Guayas. a
feudatory chief of the great Atahuallpa
The region was conquered under one OF
Pizarro's lieutenants in the year 1885
and the city received its name AND
charter from Carlos V. 1t has present
population of about forty thousand
The streets are comparatively straight
crossing at right angles, but mostly
yerv narrow, lined with d-plastered
, novels and Astounding with smells which
, beggar description. There is not the
, slightest attempt at sewerage in Quay
aouil. and enough filth lies loose about
, it's streets every day to breed a pestil
f ence that would depopulate one OF ou1
f Northern cities But though only two
: degrees removed from the equator ant
on a level with the sea, Guayaquil is
+ reckoned among the most salubrlous o.
, South American cities-barring occa
; sional brief epidemics of cholera, yellow
: fever and smallpox, as confidently ex
y pected as flies in summer time, and al
3 most as little feared.
That there is any degree OF healthful
y ness is largely due to the buzzards
those Industrious scavenger birds tina
+ blacken every roof and refuse heap
| and whose lives are protected by law
r and to the fact that the adjacen
gulf has a tide of twenty feet thu
b great flow of water in and out ever.
D day preventing impurities from collect
g ing. The temperature seldom rise
3. above 95 degrees, and always after
b P. M. it grows cool and pleasant as
9 June morning in New England, becaus