Ch.VI. south AMERICA, 161: 



tain of that name. Thefe begin confíantíy at noon, 

 and continue to refreih the earth till five or fix in the 

 following morning. The iky is always ferene and 

 bright, the gentleft ihowers being rarely known. Pro- 

 vifions are in greater plenty, and thoie produced in 

 the country o( a very agreeable tafl^e, if ufed while 

 frefh. Fruits are more common, efpecially melons and 

 water-melons, which are brought in large balzas * to 

 the city. But the capital advantage is the remarkable 

 Iklubrity of the air in that feafon. 



During the winter, tertian fevers are very com- 

 mon, and are here particularly painful and dangerous, 

 owing partly to negleét, and partly to an averfion to 

 the ufe of the bark, being prepoffefiTed with a notion, 

 that on account of its hot quality it can have no good 

 eíFeíl in that climate ; fo that, blinded with this pre- 

 judice, without ever confulting phyficians, who would 

 undeceive them, they fuifer the difiemper to prey 

 upon them, till they are often reduced to an irre- 

 coverable fiate. The natives of the mountains, who 

 are enured to a cold air, cannot endure that of Gua* 

 yaquil, it having a natural tendency to debilitate 

 them ; and by an intemperate ufe of its delicious fruits 

 they throw themlelves into thole fevers, which are as 

 common to them in one leafon as another. 



Besides this difcafe, which is the moit general, 

 fince the year 1740 the black vomit has alfo made 

 its appearance, the galleons of the South Sea having, 

 on account of the war, touched here in order to fe- 

 cure the treafure among the provinces of the Cordil- 

 lera. At that time great numbers died on board the 

 Ihips, together with many foreigners, but very few 

 of the natives. In faying that the galleons brought 



* Called by the natives jungadas : they are rafts made by pinning 

 or tying feveral bodies of fmall trees together ; the author defcribes 

 them particularly in the next chapter. A, 



Vol, L . M this 



