Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 269 



riecy of daughters, but not one son among them. 

 Nature also in the male sex, especially those who have 

 been tenderly brought up, begin to decay at the age 

 of thirty; whereas the females rather enjoy a more 

 confirmed state of health and vigour. The cause of 

 this may, in a gresit measure, be owing to the climate; 

 food may also contribute to it i but the principal 

 cause, I make no doubt, is their early intemperance 

 and voluptuousness ; this debilitates the stomach, so 

 that the organs of digestion cannot perform their pro- 

 per office ; and accordingly many constantly eject 

 their victuals an hour or two after their meals. Whe- 

 ther this be owing to a custom now become natural, 

 or forced, the day they fail of such ejection, they are 

 sure to find themselves indisposed. But amidst all 

 their weaknesses and indispositions they live the ge- 

 neral time, and many even arrive at a very advanced 

 age. 



The only employment of persons of rank, who are 

 not ecclesiastics, is from time to time to visit their 

 escates or chácaras, where tliey reside during the time 

 of harvest ; but very few of them ever apply them- 

 seh^es to commerce, indolendy permitting that lu- 

 crative branch to be possessed entirely by the Chapi- 

 tones or Europeans, who travel about the country, 

 and pursue their intere:5t with great assiduity. Within 

 the city, however, some few Creoles and Mestizos 

 so far overcome their indolent dispositions as to keep 

 shops. 



The want of proper employments, together with 

 the sioth so natural to the inhabitants of this country, 

 and the great neglect of education in the common peo- 

 ple, are the natural parents of that fondness so remark- 

 able in these parts for bailie and entertainments ; and 

 these at Quito are both very trequent, and carried to 

 such a degree of licentiousness and audacity, as cannot 

 be thought of without detestation -, not to mention 

 the many tumults and, quarrels which thence derive 



their 



