Continuation of Esmeraldas, Fish caught in the River....Chautisa, method of taking....Preserving of....Method of catching Fish in the River....Of Cooking it....Yucas, Camotes, Yams....Palmettos....Tobacco....Cocoa....New variety of....Occupation of the EsmeraldeÑos....Origin of....Language....Dress....Manners and Character of....Religion....Re-ascend the Esmeraldas River, to the Embarcadero de Maldonado....Mouth of the River....City of Esmeraldas....Road to Atacames....Port of....Town of....Manzanillo....Rio Verdo....La Tola....Country Produce, Timber, and Wood....Coutchouc....Fruit....Palms....Animals....Mines....Conclusion.

In the Esmeraldas river and in many of the tributary streams there is a variety of delicate fish, as well as in the sea on the neighbouring coast. The most delicate in the rivers are the lisa, dama, sabalo, and sabalete; in the sea the lisa, corbina, chita, mero, and tollo; besides these there is a small fish resembling a shrimp, not half an inch long, which makes its annual appearance in February, or in the beginning of March; it is called chautisa, and is really a great delicacy when prepared by the natives. The numbers which ascend the rivers are so great, that on each side they appear to form a white path in the water, about two feet broad, and several miles in length. The women employ themselves in taking them, for which purpose they have a canoe; two of them hold a piece of flannel three yards long by the corners, and place it under the surface of the water, one end being a little elevated to prevent the chautisa from passing, and when a considerable quantity are collected the flannel is taken up and emptied into the canoe, after which the operation is repeated. In the course of two hours I have frequently seen from six to eight bushels taken in this manner by three women. They are preserved by using as much salt as is necessary to season them; they are then put into baskets lined with leaves, and a large stone is placed on the top to press them into a solid mass, like a cheese. After standing a day or two, the baskets are placed on a frame made of canes, which is elevated about a yard from the ground; they are then covered with plantain leaves, and a small fire of green cedar, sandal, or other aromatic wood is kindled underneath, for the purpose of smoking them. After remaining ten or twelve hours, the cakes are taken out of the baskets, and again exposed to the smoke till it has penetrated through them, when they are laid up for use. A small portion of the smoked chautisa is generally added to fish while cooking, to which it communicates a very delicate flavour: several dishes are also prepared with the chautisa mixed with yucas, yams, and other esculents.

For fishing at sea the natives generally use hooks, but they have both drag and cast nets made of pita, which are always dyed with annotta, achiote. In the rivers they use the common means practised for taking fish, besides which they sometimes make an enclosure of canes on the side of the river, having a trap door so suspended that it can be loosened by a person who hides himself at a short distance from the trap. The decoy consists of a bunch of ripe plantains, suspended so as just to catch the surface of the water: the fish, particularly the two most delicate kinds, the sabalo and sabalete, enter to eat the plantains, and when the watchman observes, either by the motion of the rope to which the fruit is fastened, or from the splashing heard in the water, that a quantity have entered the corral, he lets the trap door fall, and takes the fish with a small net. I have been present when two hundred fine fish have been caught in this way at one time.

The most curious method used for catching fish is that which is practised after night fall: a man takes his small canoe and places in the bow of it a large piece of lighted coutchouc, in order to attract the fish; he then places himself behind the light and strikes them with a small harpoon; and he is so very dexterous that he very rarely errs. The sight of two or three canoes on the water at night, having their large lights burning, and now and then reflected on the fisherman, or silvering the rippled stream, is very pleasing. Many times have I wandered along the margins of the river at Esmeraldas to witness this scene, when the silence of the night was uninterrupted, except by the lave of the waters gently splashing on the sandy shore.

When a large quantity of fish is taken which is intended for sale the natives preserve it with salt, but if it be destined for home consumption they usually smoke it, particularly the sabalo and lisa, which are very fat. One of the methods of cooking fish, and which is practised here, is exceedingly good, preferable, I think, to any other. After the fish is cleaned it is seasoned with a little salt, and the pods of green capsicum; it is then rolled up in a piece of plantain, or vijao leaf, and laid among the hot embers, or buried among the hot ashes; when sufficiently done it is eaten off the leaf, and is remarkably delicate, all the gravy and flavour of the fish having been preserved by the leaf; cooked in this manner it is called pandao.

The yucas, camotes, and yams cultivated at Esmeraldas and in the neighbourhood are the finest I ever saw. It is not uncommon for one of these roots to weigh upwards of twenty pounds. At one place I saw a few plants of the yuca that had stood upwards of twenty years, the owner having frequently bared the bottom of the plants and taken the ripe roots, after which, throwing up the earth again and allowing a sufficient time for new roots to grow, a continual succession of this excellent nutritious food was procured.

The palmito supplies the place of many of our European vegetables, and is certainly far superior to the finest cabbage I ever ate. It is particularly white, tender, and delicate, and greatly resembles the sea kale. To procure them the top of a palm is cut down and opened, and the white core or leaves are taken out, which constitute what is often termed by travellers the cabbage, and the tree is known by the name of the cabbage tree. As there is an abundance of coco-nut palms in the neighbourhood, I one day had a tree cut down, and the palmetto taken out; it measured four feet nine inches long, and eighteen inches in circumference; when boiled it exceeded any vegetable I ever tasted; it was perfectly white, tender, and delicately flavoured.

Tobacco is cultivated here, and it is of an excellent quality: it is not preserved in the leaf, but twisted into a small roll, and made into parcels of about twenty ounces each, which sell from a quarter to half a dollar the bundle: it finds a very ready market at Quito. Owing to the expences of the administration of the royal rent or monopoly of tobacco at Quito, the president and officers of the revenue declared it a free trade. This news was welcomed by the natives with joy, and should the newly constituted authorities allow it to remain free from restrictions, its produce will be the source of great riches to the inhabitants of this part of the country.

MALE & FEMALE INDIANS OF THE MALABA TRIBE.

The small quantity of cocoa that is grown in the province of Esmeraldas is of the finest quality, and considered by many amantes del cacao to be equally as good as the royal bean of Socomusco. A letter from the governor of the mint at Mexico to Don Juan de Larrea was shewn to me at Quito, stating, that a sample of the Esmeraldas cocoa having been sent to him, the quality was so highly approved, that he and his friends should be willing to purchase any quantity at twenty-five dollars the arobo. At the same time the Guayaquil cocoa was selling at three and a half dollars, and the best Caracas at five. The bean of the Esmeraldas cocoa is very small compared with that of Guayaquil, not being above one-third of the size: it is of a bright orange colour, and very heavy from the large quantity of sebaceous matter which it contains. The chocolate made from it preserves the same golden appearance, and is extremely delicious. Another kind of cocoa is found here, called moracumba; it is never cultivated by the natives, growing wild in the woods: the tree is considerably larger than that of the theobroma cacao, and has a very different appearance; but the pods grow to the stem and large branches in the same manner, and have the same appearance as the other; the beans under the brown husk are composed of a white solid matter, almost like a lump of hard tallow. The natives take a quantity of these and pass a piece of slender cane through them, and roast them, when they have the delicate flavour of the cocoa. I have also seen them bruise the bean after it had been well dried, and use the substance instead of tallow in their lamps. This kind of cocoa, which I consider a new variety, will undoubtedly when more known be mixed with the dry cocoa of Guayaquil and other places, to which it will be a very great improvement.

The occupation of the male part of the inhabitants consists in hunting, fishing, and attending to their small plantations. Their maize is not of the best quality, the grain is hard, and scarcely repays the care of the planter, for cultivator I cannot call him. All the labour requisite is merely to search for a piece of land unshaded by trees, or to cut down a portion of these, plant the grain, observe when the young cobs begin to appear, protect the plantation against the depredation of the monkeys, agutis, and parrots, till the grain be ripe, and then to harvest it: this is generally done about eleven weeks after the seed is put into the ground. Four crops may be produced in one year, without either ploughing or harrowing or scarcely any other labour. It is thus that the bountiful hand of providence dispenses gifts in a country whose climate does not suit hard labour, a blessing which the inhabitants of colder regions do not enjoy. But they who choose may call the effects produced by these gifts "the habitual indolence of the people," without contrasting the sterility of the soil and climate of one country with the fertility of that of another.

The females at Esmeraldas are generally occupied in their household concerns; however they assist in the labour of the plantations, and usually accompany their husbands when fishing or hunting calls them far from their home: in the canoes the women usually take the paddles when proceeding down a stream; but they seldom or never use the pole, palanca, when ascending. Although they assist the men in what may be called their department, the reverse never happens, and a man would consider himself degraded should he add a piece of wood to the fire, assist in unlading a canoe of plantains, in distilling rum, or perform any office connected with household concerns. I have seen a man and his wife arrive at their dwelling with a cargo of plantains, camotes, &c.; the man would step ashore, carrying his lance, throw himself into a hammock, leave his wife to unload the canoe, and wonder at the same time that his dinner was not ready, yet he would not stir either hand or foot to hasten it.

The natives of Esmeraldas, Rio Verde, and Atacames, are all zambos, apparently a mixture of negroes and indians; indeed the oral tradition of their origin is, that a ship, having negroes on board, arrived on the coast, and that having landed, they murdered a great number of the male indians, kept their widows and daughters, and laid the foundation of the present race. If this were the case, and it is not very improbable, the whole of the surrounding country being peopled with indians, it produces a striking instance of the facility with which an apparently different tribe of human beings is produced, for the present Esmeraldenos are very different in their features, hair, colour, and shape, to the chino, or offspring of a negro and an indian; these are commonly short and lusty, of a very deep copper colour, thick hair, neither lank nor curled, small eyes, sharpish nose, and well-shaped mouth; whereas the Esmeraldenos are tall, and rather slender, of lightish black colour, different from that called copper colour, have soft curly hair, large eyes, nose rather flat, and thick lips, possessing more of the negro than of the indian, which may be partly accounted for by the male parents having been originally negroes; and the children, as I have already observed, preserve more of the colour of the father than of the mother.

The language of the Esmeraldenos is also entirely different from the Quichua, which is the general language of the indians; it is rather nasal and appears very scanty of words; for instance, a woman is called teona, a mare qual teona, a bitch shang teona, the word teona being added to the name of the male. It is, however, not unharmonious, and some of their native songs are not devoid of melody.

The dress of the men is generally a pair of pantaloons of blue cotton, dyed tocuyo, a white or blue shirt hanging loose on the outside of the pantaloons, and a large straw hat. The women wear a piece of blue cotton or woollen cloth wrapped round the waist, and reaching down to their knees, also a shirt, or more commonly a handkerchief, having two of the corners tied together at the back of the neck, while the handkerchief hangs down before; when at work, or in their houses, both men and women generally throw off the shirt. The children go about naked to the age of eight or ten years. The manner of nursing their infants appeared very strange; the child is placed on a piece of wood, in the shape of a coffin lid, hollowed a little like a tray, and covered with a piece of cotton cloth, on which the child is laid; it is then slightly covered with another cloth, and lashed down with a tape or a piece of cord; in this manner they carry them from place to place under their arms, on their heads, or in the bottom of their canoes, often placing a banana leaf over them as a precaution against the scorching heat of the sun; in their houses they have two loops of cord hanging from a cane nearly at the top of the roof; the child is within these loops, and the whole swings backward and forward and lulls it to sleep.

The natives are shy with strangers, and particularly the females; they are however very ingenuous, which to some people appears indecent; and well it may, since cunning and craftiness are too often the handmaids of a high degree of civilization. They appear particularly attached to truth and honesty; their yes and no bear the exact value of the words, and if at any time they are called upon to ratify them, or are induced to think that they are not believed, they leave in a very abrupt manner the person or the company. Their honesty is evinced by the exposure of what they possess, and by leaving it thus exposed when they go on their hunting and fishing parties. The houses, like those of the PunÁ, are not only without doors and windows, but without walls, and the only sign by which an inhabited house can be distinguished from an uninhabited one is, that the steps of the ladder in the latter are turned downwards, and no arguments whatever are sufficient to persuade an Esmeraldeno to enter a house when the ladder is thus placed.

It may with truth be asserted, that industry is certainly not a prominent feature in their habits; but where a sufficiency is easily procured, where luxury in food or clothing is unknown, where superiority is never contended for, and where nature appears not only to invite, but even to tempt her creatures to repose, why should they reject her offer. The excessive exercise taken in hunting and fishing is certainly a proof, that when exertion becomes necessary for the support of nature, it is resorted to with as much alacrity as in other countries, where labour is imposed either to support the pomp of superiority, or the whims of fashion.

In their persons and food the Esmeraldenos are particularly cleanly; they are abstemious at their meals, and not inclined to habitual intoxication. It is rare indeed to see them in this state, excepting during the time of their festivals. They have a curious practice when assembled at dinner: the men alone are seated, and the women hand to them in small tutumas the masato; they all immediately rise, each holding his cup; they then fill their mouths with the beverage, and turning round their heads over the right shoulder, they squirt the drink through their teeth, after which they resume their seats. This I was told was an offering to their departed friends. The cups being again filled, the same ceremony once more takes place, and is a propitiatory offering to the spirits of the air, a sort of supplication to protect their plantations and cattle against the ravages of the wild beasts and birds.

All the natives call themselves Christians, but they seldom conform to the ceremonies of the church, forming a very strong contrast to some others of the same denomination, who are really only Christians in the ceremonious part, and who are, I fear, more remote from loving God above all things, than those indians are from loving their neighbours as themselves. They are particularly superstitious. If a man be wounded by accident with his own lance, he will break the staff, and send the head to be again tempered by the blacksmith; if a hat fall into the water, its owner immediately exclaims, "my hat instead of myself," and never attempts to recover it; if the master of a house die, the remainder of the family abandons it for ever, nor will any other individual occupy it till the expiration of a year: but all these are harmless foibles, as innocent in their practice as in their effects.

Their number of diversions or entertainments is very small; after the occupations of the day they generally retire to rest; the Sunday is to the generality of them like any other day; but when they assemble at the annual feasts in the town singing and dancing are very common. The music which I heard among them, and the instruments which I saw in their houses were novel to me, and are perhaps unique, except the drum; this they make by fastening a piece of hog's skin over one end of a hollow piece of wood, the other end is left open; the chambo is a hollow tube about thirty inches long, and four in circumference, made of a soft kind of wood, and pierced with small pegs of chonta, projecting in the inside about half an inch; a quantity of small hard beans are put into it, and the two ends are closed. The instrument is played upon by holding it with both hands, one at each end, and shaking it, so that the music produced is sometimes like that which is intended to imitate rain on an English stage. The marimba is made by fastening two broad pieces of cane together at the extremities, each from six to ten feet long; a number of pieces of hollow cane are then suspended between these, from two feet long and five inches in diameter, to four inches long and two in diameter, resembling a gigantic pandean pipe; across the upper part of these canes very thin pieces of chonta are laid, which rest on the frame without touching the pipes, and these are slightly fastened with a cotton thread; the instrument is suspended from the roof of the house, and is generally played by two men, who stand on the opposite sides, each having two small sticks, with knobs made of coutchouc, with which they strike on the cross pieces of chonta, and different tunes are produced, according to the size of the pendant tube of cane over which the chonta is laid. Some marimbas are well made, and the diapason not very irregular; rude as the instrument is, I have often been pleased with the sound of it, especially when floating down a river, and my palanqueros have sung their native airs to the tune. This instrument, which is sometimes accompanied with a guitar, cheers the natives in their revels, and is not unfrequently employed to wake their souls to divine contemplation at high mass.

After having remained a short time at the town, or city, for this title has been conferred on it although it only contains (1809) ninety-three houses, I ascended the river again to the Embarcadero de Maldonado, for the purpose of observing the labour and the time it would require. Our canoe was fifteen feet long, and was manned with two palanqueros, who with light poles about ten feet long impelled the canoe forward, always keeping near the margin of the river; besides these I had with me my servant and two soldiers, my bed and some provisions. I observed that on an average the men worked nine hours in the twenty-four, and on the sixth day we arrived at the Embarcadero, having been only fifty hours on the passage; but the natives informed me that it generally took more time, the current not being so rapid at this period of the year as at others. The distance from the Embarcadero to Quito being eighteen Spanish leagues might with the greatest ease be travelled even on foot in two days. Thus in cases of emergency an express might be sent from the city to the coast in three days, or perhaps less, and one from the coast to the capital in five, even when the river is swollen; whereas from Quito to Guayaquil, or vice versa, it requires at least seven days in summer, and in winter it is often absolutely impossible to fix the time. From Esmeraldas to Quito goods might be conveyed in six or seven days, during the greater part of the year, while it requires eleven or twelve days from Guayaquil during the dry season, and during the rainy season it is impossible to carry them. I have been rather diffuse on this point, but I consider it one of great importance at present (1825), owing to the changes that have already taken place in this important part of the ex-colonies, not only so far as regards the communication between the coast and the capital, but because the locality and produce of the province of Esmeraldas constitute it one of those that most deserve the immediate attention of my speculative countrymen.

On my return I examined the mouth of the river Esmeraldas, and found it quite unfit for an anchorage, owing partly to its great depth in the channel, which is a hundred and forty fathoms, and to a bar that extends from the north shore, as well as to the rapidity of the current, which runs at the rate of four miles an hour, even when the waters are low. The mouth of the river is nine hundred and seventy yards wide; it is situated in 51' N. lat. and 79° 35' W. long. and may be discovered at the distance of six or seven leagues from the shore, by the colour of the muddy water which runs from it, and marks the surface water of the sea.

Two leagues from the mouth of the river stands the city of Esmeraldas; it is on a rising ground, and most delightfully situated, enjoying a much cooler temperature than what could possibly be expected in the vicinity of the equator. This is probably caused by the coldness of the waters of the river, which, as they flow, communicate a part of their coolness to the atmosphere, and keep up a perpetual current of fresh air. The town is entirely free from that great annoyance in most hot climates, the mosquitos; owing perhaps to the total absence of marshy land or swamps in its vicinity, and to the breezes, which, continually blowing, are so destructive to those insects.

A road through the woods leads from Esmeraldas to Atacames, a distance of five leagues. Atacames is a little town near the sea, having a small river of fresh water, which empties itself into the ocean on the south side. A projecting headland forms a convenient roadstead, which has good anchorage, and owing to the universal serenity of the weather the port may be considered a safe one. Two leagues to the northward of this place there is a high bluff headland, called Morro Grande, which with the Morro de Atacames forms the bay, the best anchorage in which is under the headland of Atacames. The landing on the beach close to the town is generally good, but when the contrary happens there is another and a better to the westward of Atacames.

The town is composed of about thirty houses, built like those of the PunÁ, having only an upper story. The inhabitants employ themselves in the cultivation of their chacras, scattered along the side of the small rivulet of Atacames, which is generally navigable for canoes about five leagues from the town. More attention has been paid here to the cultivation of cocoa than at Esmeraldas, and considerable profit has been derived from it. In 1805, an officer in the Spanish navy employed several of the natives to fell timber for the Lima market, one small cargo of which was exported, but through the interest of the Guayaquil merchants the law of puertos no abilitados, close ports, was enforced, and an end was put to the trade. The inhabitants of Atacames are of the same race with those of Esmeraldas; but they do not speak the same language—they make use of the Spanish, and consider themselves Spanish population.

Near the beach there are several very lofty coco-nut palms, and a great abundance of lime trees, whence any quantity of their fruit or acid might be obtained; but as the trees are intermixed with the manzanillo, the utmost precaution is necessary in order to prevent strangers from poisoning themselves with the fruit. The tree is very similar to a low bushy apple tree, and the fruit has the appearance of a small apple; but it is so extremely poisonous, that if a person inadvertently taste it, a universal swelling of the body and death are the inevitable consequences. The poisonous qualities of this tree are so great, that if any one incautiously avail himself of its shade, sickness ensues, and death would follow should he sleep under it in the evening. When the natives cannot obtain the poison from Maynas for their puas, they use the sap of the manzanillo, procured by making incisions in the bark of the tree; but the use of it is attended with considerable risk, and the poison is not so certain to kill the game; besides, the natives are averse to use game as food when killed by it.

From Atacames to the mouth of the Esmeraldas river, a distance of four leagues, goods might be conveyed and put on board canoes for their passage up to the town, or to the Embarcadero, where, if the importance of mercantile pursuits be duly considered by the government, facilities may be given at a small expence to the navigation of this river. The greater part of the south side is favourable to the formation of a road as far as the confluence of the river Blanco with that called Piti.

To the northward of the river Esmeraldas there are several small rivers which empty themselves into the sea; and at the embouchures of each there are a few houses. At the distance of seven leagues stands Rio Verde, consisting of about twenty houses and a small chapel. The river is navigable for canoes about eight leagues, is full of fish, and on its banks are many houses and plantations. Seven leagues from Rio Verde is the river Tola, and about two leagues from the mouth is the town of the same name, containing about a hundred houses and a parish church. Between the town and the sea there is a very extensive savana, on which are kept upwards of five hundred head of horned cattle.

When the road called de Malbucho was opened by the president of Quito in 1804, as a communication between the capital and the coast, this was intended to have been the port; but on examination it was found, that the mouth of the river was almost choked by a sand-bank, and a schooner sent down by the Viceroy of Peru to examine the port foundered on the bar. To the northward of La Tola there is a convenient harbour, called Limones, and another, at a short distance to the northward of this, is called Pianguapi, or San Pedro; all these communicate by an estuary, which receives its fresh water from the river Tola.

The country adjoining the line of coast reaching from Atacames to La Tola is entirely covered with wood of an excellent quality both for the cabinet-maker and the architect; for the former the principal varieties are the caobano, a species of mahogany, very large, and in great abundance; ebony, cascol, a hard wood, completely black, and very large; pusilde, of the colour and almost of the consistency of ivory; of this wood they make billiard balls: there is also red sandal wood, of a beautiful lively red colour, and very fragrant; the bark contains such an abundance of aromatic resin, that when heated by the sun it exudes and scents the air to the distance of five hundred yards from the tree. The natives use the resin dissolved in rum to cure wounds. Here too is the guayacan, of a green hue, with dark brown veins: this wood is remarkably hard, the tree is very lofty and straight, and on this account the natives generally choose it for the upright posts which support their houses: when kept continually wet for eight or ten months it petrifies, and it is a common thing for the natives to dig at the foot of an old post, and break off pieces of the petrified wood for flints.

For architectural purposes timber grows in great luxuriance, and to an extraordinary size. There is no doubt that ere long the dock-yard of Guayaquil and the Peruvian markets must be supplied with guachapeli, cedar, robles, a kind of oak, marias, balsams, laurels, and other trees from the woods of Esmeraldas, which as yet may be said to be untouched.

Besides the varieties just mentioned, there is an abundance of ceibos, balsas, and matapalos, which are of an enormous size, and supply timber for canoes and rafts. The matapalo, kill tree, is so called because it entwines itself with any other trees that are near it, and by depriving them of their sap, or preventing the circulation, destroys them. I have seen several of these trees, which three feet above the ground measured upwards of twenty-five feet in circumference. The wood is soft and light, and of no other use than that to which it is applied by the natives. A kind of gum exudes from the bark, or is drawn from it by making incisions, and in many parts of Peru and Colombia is used as an antidote for ruptures.

The coutchouc tree is quite common in almost all parts of the forests; it is large but not very lofty, and the wood is entirely useless; however, the tree produces what is of much greater value to the natives: the bark of the trunk is taken off and subjected to repeated washings; they beat it with small stones until the fibres are regularly extended, so that the whole is about one-eighth of an inch in thickness; it is then dried, and used as a bed, sometimes as a curtain, a shelter in the woods against the sun or rain, or as a sail for their canoes. Bark when thus prepared is called a damajagua. Some of them measure two and a half yards long and from one to two broad; the larger ones are sold for three or four dollars each.

The coutchouc, jebe, as it is called by the natives, is procured from the tree by making incisions in the bark; the substance which exudes is at first perfectly white and of the consistency of cream; it is received in large calabashes, and allowed to remain a day,or two, in which time it becomes thicker; it is then poured on the leaves of the plantain or vijao, and again allowed to remain a day or two; it is afterwards made up into rolls about a yard long and three inches in diameter. These rolls constitute a considerable branch of commerce, and generally sell at Esmeraldas for two dollars the dozen; but in the mines on the coast of ChocÓ they sell for three times that sum. The coutchouc is used as a substitute for candles: a roll of it is generally cut length-ways into four parts, but before it is lighted the piece is rolled up in a green vijao leaf, to prevent it from melting or taking fire down the sides.

Oranges, limes, lemons, pine-apples, mameis, sapotes, nisperos, with all the fruits mentioned at Guayaquil grow here in abundance, and some of them to a state of great perfection. The madroÑo is a fruit peculiar to this country; it is similar in shape and colour to a small lemon; the pulp is white and of an agreeable sub-acid taste, enveloping three large seeds.

Many varieties of palms grow in the woods; the coco palm, the palmito or cabbage palm, the coroso palm, which grows to the height of eighteen or twenty feet. This tree has a trunk about three feet in circumference, and is covered with an immense number of long slender prickles: the stem to which the leaves are attached and the nuts are covered in the same manner. An agreeable beverage is made from this palm, by boiling the leaves and the stem to which the bunch of nuts is attached; it is at first sweet, but by fermentation it acquires a vinous taste. The nuts are eaten while green and tender, and have a taste resembling that of the green French olives; when ripe they have the appearance of ivory, and are used at Quito by the sculptors for small busts, statues, or images. The chonta palm is remarkably useful, the wood is extremely hard and elastic, and of it the natives make bows, sorvetanas, puas, and lances.

The animals which are found in the woods are the jaguar, three varieties of the cavia, four of monkeys, like those at Guayaquil, deer, tortoises, iguanas, snakes as at Guayaquil, with the addition of the dormilona, for whose bite the natives possess no antidote. Here is also the boa constrictor, called by the natives sobre cama; however this tribe is not numerous, and accidents seldom occur; the inhabitants generally take care to have poultry and hogs about their houses, because these animals are great enemies to the snakes. There are several varieties of ants and bees; of the latter are two, one called the moquingana, which form their nests by attaching them to the branches of the large trees; the honey is very palatable, and the natives employ themselves in purifying the wax, for which they find a good market at Quito; the other is the amonanas, which make their nests under ground. To find these nests, the natives, whenever they observe a number of the bees, besprinkle some of the plants with molasses, and follow them when laden with it on their return home; this generally leads to a discovery. Great quantities of wax are procured from the nests; it is of a deep orange colour, but with a little labour it is rendered very white.

The province of Esmeraldas derives its name from a mine of emeralds which is found at no great distance from the town; it may be approached by ascending the river Bichile, which enters the Esmeraldas river on the south side. I never visited it, owing to the superstitious dread of the natives, who assured me, that it was enchanted and guarded by an enormous dragon, which poured forth thunder and lightning on those who dared to ascend the river. The existence of an emerald mine was proved to me by the alcalde, who gave me three raw emeralds, which had been found by his sons on the sand at the mouth of the river Bichile. Gold mines exist in this province, there being scarcely a river in which gold is not found among the sand on its shores: however none of them are worked at present (1809).

The importance of this part of South America has induced me to be more particular in its description than might appear necessary for a tract of country almost uninhabited. Its capability of becoming of extensive utility to the mercantile world, of forming the principal entrance to the kingdom of Quito, and of vieing ere long with Guayaquil; its soil and climate; the ease with which indians, from the well populated provinces of Quito, might be procured for the formation of colonies; the extensive markets both along the coast and in the interior for its various productions, besides many branches well calculated for exportation, must forcibly attract the attention of all those who are inclined to speculate on the rising interests of the western parts of the new world.