south latitude, and 79° 6' west longitude. In 1693 great additions were made to it, on the other side of a branch of the river, which now divides the city into two parts, known by the names of the new and old towns, communicating with each other by a long bridge.

The houses are constructed mostly of wood or whitened earth. It has suffered repeatedly by conflagration, and was reduced to ashes in 1764; since which the government have forbid the inhabitants to thatch their houses with straw. The streets of the new town are straight, wide, and well paved. Arcades run along before all the houses, so that the people can walk protected from the rain and sun. It is now one of the handsomest towns of South America. has a handsome church, college, convents, and an hospital. There is also a treasury and revenue office, for the receipt of the Indian capitation-tax, the duties on imports and exports, and other taxes.

It

The number of inhabitants is 10,000. The women of Guayaquil are proverbially handsome, which causes many Europeans to marry and settle here.

The marshes in its neighbourhood, combined with the heat of the climate, render it very unhealthy.

Most of the inhabitants are engaged in commerce; the Spaniards and Creoles being the merchants, and the Creoles and castes the arti

sans and labourers. gradually increasing; and from the situation of its port, it will in all probability become a place of the first consequence, notwithstanding the insalubrity of its climate, and the dreadful tempests it is subject to in winter.

The trade of this town is

Guayaquil was named a royal dock-yard in 1767, and the abundance of excellent timber produced in its neighbourhood, renders it very fit for this purpose. The balsam tree, and several others yield excellent knees, and are celebrated for resisting worms and rot. Notwithstanding these advantages, the building of vessels is neglected, and the river and coasting trade is carried on in balsas, which receive the cargoes of the vessels arriving from Europe, Lima, or Panama.

These balsas or rafts are peculiar to the coast of the provinces of Cundinamarca. They are made of five, seven, or nine trunks of an exceedingly light tree called balsa. A little boy can carry a log of this wood twelve feet long, and a foot in diameter, with great ease. The rafts are made larger or smaller, according as they are wanted for fishing, for the coasting trade, or for the rivers; and they go from Guayaquil as far as Payta in Peru with safety. The logs of which they are made are sixty feet in length, and two or two and a half in diameter, so that a large one of nine logs, is between twenty and twenty-four feet in breadth. These logs are

fastened to each other by bejucos (a sort of parasite plant) or withies, and have cross logs lashed so firmly with these pliable plants, that they rarely give way, though the sea in their coasting voyages runs very high. The thickest log of the balsa is put, so as to project beyond the others, in the centre, and these being lashed in equal number on each side to this, the number of logs is always uneven. A large balsa will carry twenty-five tons, and that as free from wet as possible, for the sea never breaks over them, nor does the water rise between the logs, as the whole machine adapts itself to the motion of the waves. They work and ply to windward like a keeled vessel, and keep their course extremely well before the wind, by means of a contrivance peculiar to them, which consists of some planks erected vertically, three or four yards long, and a foot and a half in breadth at the stern, and forward between the main logs. By pushing down some of these, and raising others up more or less, the float sails large, tacks, bears up, or lies to; and what renders this more astonishing is, that the machine is the contrivance of Indians unversed in the mechanical arts. On many of these rafts the owners erect little huts for their own accommodation, and on some of them in the rivers they have small gardens, with beautiful flowers and vegetables.

The city is defended by three forts; two on the borders of the river, and the other inland,

to guard the entrance of a deep ravine which leads to it.

The island of Puna has a fort, or rather battery, on it, where all ships coming in and going out are brought to.

SECTION XLIV.

CUENÇA.

THE district of Cuença is the next of the Presidency of Quito that comes under our notice.

This district is subdivided into two departments, Cuença and Alausi: the former including ten villages; and the latter, which borders on Riobamba, having four.

The mines in this country are very numerous, but from want of capital, and other causes, are not worked.

Here they breed cattle; raise sugar, cotton, and grain; and manufacture a great quantity of cloth.

This district is famed for the many remains of Peruvian architecture it contains, the ruins of the fort of Cannar, before mentioned, being near the village of Atun-cannar, or Great Cannar; which village is also noted for its corn fields affording very rich harvests.

The unfortunate inhabitants of this district were inhumanly massacred by Atabalipa, on account of their siding with his brother Huascar it is stated, that he caused 60,000 to be slain after the victory he gained over that monarch.

The chief town is the city of CUENÇA, founded in 1537 by Gil Ramirez Davalos: it stands in 2° 53′ 49′′ south latitude, and 79° 14′ 40′′ west longitude, on a spacious plain, about half a league from the river Machangara. On the south side is another river called Matadero ; and about a quarter of a league distant are two others, named Yanuncay and Baños.

The climate of the city of Cuença is mild; the cold being little felt, and the heat very moderate. It is subject, however, to dreadful storms of rain, thunder and lightning, and in the department of Alausi, to earthquakes,-the whole of that part of the district being full of chasms and crevices, caused by these events. In this part, the air is also cold, on account of the neighbourhood of the snowy mountains.

The rivers are fordable in summer, but in winter can be crossed only by the bridges. The plain of Cuença is about six leagues long; and in it four rivers unite, and form a large

stream.

The streets are straight and broad. The houses are mostly of adobes, or unburnt bricks. The Indian suburbs consist of low mean huts