29a A VOYAGE TO Book V. 



excessively high, that the trouble and expense of car- 

 rying them n'om Guayaquil to other countries, where 

 there is a scarcity of them, renders it impossible to get 

 a living proñt. 



Goods, manufactured by the public, or wove by 

 private Indians, are, together with some kinds of pro"- 

 visions, sent to the jurisdiction of Barbacoas ; and this 

 is the- commerce in which the chapltones make the 

 first essay of their abilities for trade. These provi- 

 sions are exchanged for gold, found in that country, 

 and which is afterwards sent to Lima, where it bears 

 a greater price. Their stuffs also find a vent in the 

 governments of Popayan and Santa Fé ; and this 

 commerce is perpetually carried on; but the only 

 return in the tiempo muerto, or absence of the gal- 

 leons, is gold, which, like that from Barbacoas, is 

 sent to Lima. 



The coast of New Spain supplies this province with 

 indigo, of which there is a very large consumption at 

 the manufactories, blue being universally the colour 

 which this people affect in their apparels They also 

 import, by way of Guayaquil, iron and steel both 

 fromEuropeand the coast oí Guatemala; and though 

 it fetches so hi_^h a price, that a quintal of iron sells 

 for above a hundred dollars, and the same quantity of 

 steel for a hundred and fifty, there is a continual de- 

 mand in order to supply the peasants with the neces- 

 sary instruments of agriculture. 



The inland, or reciprocal commerce, consists in the 

 consumption of the products of one jurisdiction in 

 another j and is a constant incentive to indu?try among 

 the inhabitants of the viilngcs, and the lower class. 

 Those of the province of Chimbo purchase home- 

 made tucuyos and bags in those o'f Riobamba and Qui-, 

 to, in order to vend them at Guayaquil, bringing 

 thence, in return, salt, fish, and cotton; the latter of 

 which, being wove in the looms ofQifito, is again sent 

 to Guayaquil in stuffs. TheJnriíbdictionsoí'Riobambn, 



Alatisi 



