are.

The devotion of the Indians to the memory of their king, who was strangled three hundred and fifty years ago, is very touching. When "the last of the Incas" fell, he left his people in perpetual mourning, and the women wear nothing but black to-day. It is a pathetic custom of the race not to show upon their costumes the slightest tint of color. Over a short black skirt they wear a sort of mantle, which resembles in its appearance, as wel as in its use, the manta that is worn by the ladies of Peru, and the mantilla of Spain. It is drawn over their foreheads and across their chins, and pinned between their shoulders. This sombre costume gives them a nun-like appearance, which is heightened by the stealthy, silent way in which they glide through the streets. The cloth is woven on their own native looms, of the wool of the llama and the vicuna, and is soft, fine fabric.

While the Indians are under the rule of the priests, and have accepted the Catholic religion, three hundred and fifty years of submission have not entirely divorced them from the ancient rites they practised under the pre-historic civilization. Several times a year they have feasts or celebrations to commemorate some event in the Inca history. They never laugh, and seldom smile; they have no songs and few amusements; their only semblance to music is a mournful chant which they give in unison at the feasts which are intended to keep alive the memories of the Incas. They cling to the traditions and the customs of their ancestors. They remember the ancient glory of their race, and look to its restoration as the Aztecs of Mexico look for the coming of Montezuma. They have religious relics which they guard with the most sacred care, and there are two great secrets which no tortures at the hands of the Spaniards have been able to wring from them. These are the art of tempering copper so as to give it as keen and enduring an edge as steel, and the burial place of the Incarial treasures.

The Spaniards are the aristocracy, poor, but proud-very proud. The mixed race furnishes the mechanics and arti

do the drudgery. A cook gets two dollars a month in a depreciated currency, but the employer is expected to board her entire family. A laborer gets four or six dollars a month and boards himself, except when he is fortunate enough to have a wife out at service. The Indians seldom marry, because they cannot afford to do so. The law compels them to pay the priest a fee of six dollars-more money than most of them can ever accumulate. When a Spaniard marries, the fee is paid by contributions from his relatives. The same exactions exist in every Spanish-American country, and are the cause of much involuntary immorality among the people. the Argentine Republic, the Congress has recently passed an act depriving the priests of the marriage fee, and requir them to perform the ceremony for nothing. The fees for burials and other religious services have also been reduced by law, and therefore the priests refuse to perform them. In Venezuela and other of the countries similar legislative enactments have been made, and the rite of civil marriage has been established, for which the fee is only fifty cents.

In

It is a peculiarity of the Indian that he will sell nothing at wholesale, nor will he trade anywhere but in the market-place, in the spot where he and his forefathers have sold "garden-truck" for three centuries. Although travelers on the highways meet armies of Indians bearing heavy burdens of vegetables and other supplies upon their backs, they can purchase nothing from them, as the native will not sell his goods until he gets to the place where he is in the habit of selling them. He will carry them ten miles, and dispose of them for less than he was offered at home. We met one day an old woman trudging along with a heavy basket of pineapples and other fruits, and tried to relieve her of part of her load, offering ten cents for pineapples which could be obtained for a quartillo (two and a half cents) in market. She was polite, but firm, and declined to sell anything until she got to town, although there was a weary, dusty journey of two leagues ahead of her. The guide explained that she was suspicious of the high price we offered, and

inferred that pineapples must be very scarce in market, or we would not be willing to pay so much on the road; but it is a common rule for them to refuse to

will not sell you five dozen for a dollar. This dogged adherence to custom cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition that their suspicions are excited

by an attempt to depart from it.

The capital and the productive regions of Ecuador are accessible from the sea-coast only by a mulepath, which for several months in the year (during the rainy season) is almost impassable. In the dry season it requires eight or nine days to traverse the distance, with no resting place where a traveler can find a decent bed or food. This path is the only means of communication between Quito and the outside world, except along the mountains southward into Bolivia and Peru, where the Incas

THE CITY OF QUITO. F

sell except at their regular stands. A gentleman who lives some distance from Quito told me that for the last four years he had been trying to get the Indians, who passed his house every morning with packs of alfalfa (the tropical clover), to sell him some at his gate, but they invariably refused to do so; consequently he was compelled to go into town to buy what was carried past his door. Nor will the natives sell at wholesale. They will give you a gourdful of potatoes for a penny as often

as you like, but will not sell their stock in a lump. They will let you have a dozen eggs for a real (ten cents), but

VOL. VIII-20

A STREET IN QUITO.

in their time constructed splendid highways, which the Spaniards permitted to decay, until they are now practically use

less. The roads were so well built, how ever, as to stand the wear and tear of three centuries, and the slightest attempt at repair would have kept them in order. Although the journey from Guayaquil takes eight or nine days, Garcia Moreno, a former President of Ecuador, once made it in thirty-six hours. He heard of a revolution, and springing upon his horse went to the capital, had twentytwo conspirators shot, and was back at Guayaquil in less than a week. Moreno was Dictator for twelve years, and was one of the fiercest and most cruel rulers South America has ever seen. He shot men who would not take off their hats to him in the streets; and had a drunken priest impaled in the principal plaza of Quito, as a warning to the clergy to observe habits of sobriety or conceal their intemperance. There was nothing too brutal for this man to do, and nothing too sacred to escape his grasp. Yet he compelled Congress to pass an act declaring that the Republic of Ecuador "existed wholly and alone for the service of the Holy Church, "and forbid the importation of books and periodicals which did not receive the sanction of the Jesuits. He divided his army into four divisions, called, respectively, "The Division of the Blessed Virgin," "The Division of the Son of God," "The Division of the Holy Ghost," and "The Division of the Body and Blood of Christ." He made the "Sacred Heart of Jesus" the national emblem, and called his body-guard "The Holy Lancers of Santa Maria." He died in 1875 by assassination, and the country has been in a state of political eruption ever since.

that it is dirtier and a little more dilapidated. There is not even an excuse for a hotel, and private hospitality is restricted by the poverty of the people. Few travelers ever go there-only those who are compelled-and the demand is not sufficient to justify the establishment of a hotel. One-fourth of the entire city is covered with convents, and every fourth person you meet is a priest, or a monk, or a nun. There are monks in gray, monks in blue, monks in white, monks in black, and orders that no one ever heard of before. There are all sorts of priests, and the jolly or grim old fellows one sees in Vibert's pictures are found on almost every corner in Quito.

If it were not for the climate, Quito would be in the midst of a perpetual pestilence; but notwithstanding the prevailing filthiness, there is very little sickness, and pulmonary diseases are unknown. Mountain fever, produced by cold and a torpid liver, is the commonest type of disease. The population

of the city, however, is gradually decreasing, and is said to be now about sixty thousand. There were

five hundred thousand people at Quito when the Spaniards came, and a hundred years ago the population was reckoned at double what it now is. Half the houses in the town are emp

ty, and to see a new family moving in would be a sensation. Most of the finest residences are locked and barred, and have remained so for years. The owners are usually political exiles, who are living elsewhere, and can neither sell nor rent their property. Political revolutions are so common, and the results are always so disastrous to the unsuccessful, that there is a constant stream of fugitives leaving the State.

Architecturally, Quito is not unlike other Spanish-American towns, except

a pilgrimage to Rome is as great an event as the Declaration of Independence; and so subordinate is the State to the Church that the latter selects the presidents, the congress, and the judges. A crucifix sits in the audience chamber of the president, and on the desk of the presiding officer of congress. All the schools are controlled by the bishops, and the children know more about the lives of the saints than about the geography of their own country. There is not even a good map of Ecuador.

The Spaniards are famous for their politeness, and in Ecuador, as in all parts of South America, courtesy is a part of their religion. The lowest, meanest man in Quito is politeness personified, but it is all surface. He will stab you or rob you as soon as your back is turned. The Ecuadorian gentleman will promise you

almost unknown. If a man gets a little cash he never invests it in public enterprises, but keeps it in a stocking for fear he may be swindled, and the fear is well founded. Only the Indians keep faith, and that exclusively among themselves. To steal from a Spaniard they consider not only proper, but justifiable. The Spaniards stole all they have from them. They never rob, swindle, nor betray one another, and are as faithful as death to their own race.

In support of this statement, it may be noted that there once was a revolutionary conspiracy among the Indians. An uprising was planned to take place simultaneously all over the republic. As the natives could neither read nor write, they were given bundles of sticks, each bundle containing the same number. Only one was to be burned each day, and the night

after the last was burned was to see the uprising. None betrayed the secret. Of the many thousands who were admitted to the conspiracy not one violated faith. Everything is done in the most primitive manner, as there is very little laborsaving machinery in the country. The agriculturists do not plough, but plant the seed by poking a hole in the ground with a stick. The wheat is threshed and the corn shelled by driving horses over them, and other labor is performed in a similar manner, the women working beside the men, and receiving equal wages. There is a river running through the centre of the city, which might furnish plenty of water power, but is utilized only by a few small flour-mills. There is but one steam-engine in the entire country, and that is in a sugar-mill, where a dozen or more hands are employed. Wages are exceedingly low, from ten to twenty-five cents per day, and skilled mechanics are unknown. There are a few rude shops where agricultural implements are manufactured in a primitive manner, but each family generally makes what is needed for its own use. The amount of

goods imported from abroad is exceedingly small, and as no records are kept at the custom-houses, it is impossible to discover what they are or what is paid for them. The only industry that has sprung up in recent years is that of beer making, and twelve breweries have been established, which supply the wants of the people. Beer is very rapidly replacing the native chica and aguardiente as the national beverage.

Although Quito for a long time was noted among the Spanish-American cities as a home of art and science, and once had three universities, the picture galleries have been robbed and destroyed by the revolutionists, and the education of the people is almost completely neglected. There is only one printing office in the entire republic outside of Guayaquil, which is owned by the government, and is used simply for the printing of official documents. The press and type were made in the United States. There is but one newspaper, the Official Gazette, which is published by the government, and is cir culated gratuitously among the officials of the republic as a means of convey.