The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-15

Guayaquil. Eeudor.
TT HE Guayas river is to South Amer
lea what the Columbia and the
Yukon are to our continent. 1t
is the biggest stream which flows into
the Pacific. and In the rainy season il
turns the lowlands from here to the
Andes into great swamp or lake.
Where the ships come in from the ocean
the river is 60 miles WIDE and as you
sail up to Guayaqul YOU seem to be
passing through a great inland sea
The water is as thick as pea soup and
of much the same color. The Andean
flood brings down patches of green and
great trees may be seen floating out to
the sea. In coming in you pass the Isl
and of Puma. where Pizarro first land
ed. and about SO miles farther up you
find yourself in front of this port.
The river is now a mile wide and 26
feet in depth, and it gives a good and
safe harbor for steamers. Just now it
has but little shipping on account of
the plague, but there are hundreds of
dug-o outs, canoes, RATS and cargo boats
in which the Indians bring their wares
from the interior to sell. The ocean
vessels anchor far out in the stream.
and are unloaded by lighters. The only
wharves of the city those for small
craft Nevertheless they extend for a
mile or two up and down the west bank
of the river, and are backed with great
warehouses and stores which are open
at the front so that you can see every
thing in them as you go along the
street.
From the ships deck Guayaquii is
imposing. II is a town of about 100000
people, and as the most of its houses
are of only about one or two stories it
covers a great deal of ground 1t has
wide streets and buildings that at first
sight seem to be of stone or of brick
covered with stucco. They are really of
wood, plastered over and painted, and
most of them have walls of bamboo
cane upon which mud has been spread
and smoothed down with trowel The
city has some public improvements 1t
has an electric street car line and cleo
trio lights. 1t has public squares. which
are beautifully kept and Its hospitals
are as good as can be found in South
America. It has a half dozen newspa-
pers, several high-priced hotels, and it
does an export and import business
amounting to s15,oOo0oO or $2o,oOO,oOo a
year. 1t is, in fact, the New York of
Ecuador, and if it could be made as
healthy as Panama it might be a great
resort for tourists and trade.
But before I go further let me tell
you something of this South American
repualic, which is to be brought to our
doors by the Panama canal. Hereto
fore the steamships from our Atlantic
coast have had to go more than 10000
miles around by the Strait of Magellan
to reach it. When the canal is open
New York will be nearer by ship to this
port than it is now to Great Britain.
Boston will be only little over g. week
from any part of Ecuador, and our gulf
ports will be still nearer. AS it is now,
Guayaquil is less than 500 miles from
Balboa, and the railroad that is build
ing from the Bay of Caraquez to Quito
viii bring the capital of Ecuador to
within three days of Panama. The con-
tract for that road has been let to
French company. The trains were in
operation last year over about 40 miles
of track and the road should be COM
pleted by the time of the opening Of the
great ditch at Panama.
The word Ecuador means equator,
and Ecuador is land of the equator.
That hottest line on the globe passes
through it and the whole of it lies In
the tropics The country is triangle
surrounded by Colombia, Brazil and
Peru. 1t lies on the west coast of South
America. in theshape of a fan whose
handle is in northern Brazil and whose
scalloped rim is washed by the Pacific
ocean.
Next to Colombia, Ecuador is the
nearest republic to us, and still it is one
of the least known. Parts of ii have
never been surveyed and today the es-
Inmates of it's size range from the big
ness of California to that of Texas.
The most authentic figures now place it
at 900 square miles, an area equal to
that of Ohio, Virginia and Indiana
combined.
The most of the country is taken up
by the Andes. The coast line is low
and a tropical vegetation extends from
the ocean to the foothills. The Andes
cross the country from north to south
them a series of beautiful valleys in
Which about nine-tenths of the natives
row live. These valleys are higher
above the sea than Mexico City. and
they have a climate more like that of
New York or Ohio than of the equator
Quito the capital, is situated in one of
the higest of these Andean valleys. 1t
is $500 feet above the sea, or almost
two miles above the altitude of Wash
inc Tn hot oft fha Wa hpT y
is like October, or our Indian summer
all the year round.
On the eastern side of the Andes the
land slopes from this temperate zone
to a tropical wilderness. 1t reaches
the tributaries of the Amazon, and
some of the streams of Ecuador flow
into that mighty river Indeed, it is
said that Quito is only four days by
mule from streams that flow into the
Amazon system. The government Is
row building a railroad from the plat
eau to one of the Amazon tributaries
and this road will open up a rich min
ing region with lands suited for sugar
cane, cacao and coffee.
Ecuador has some of the greatest
volcanoes on earth The great series
of valleys of which | have written, is
walled by q peaks ranging in height
from three to four miles, and there are
n other peaks which are more than
TWO miles in height. When | last vis-
tied Guayaquil the air was filled with
ashes that came from one of Ecuador's
IN active volcanoes For this reason