354 A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



and numerous nations ; and are so dispersed all over 

 the country, that every village is under continual ap- 

 prehensions from those which live in its neighbour- 

 hood : and when an action happens between the in- 

 habitants and those Indians to the advantage of the 

 former, all they get by it is to return quietly to their 

 dwclHngs Vvith a few prisoners, no booty being to be 

 had from a people who live without any settlement j 

 and from mere savageness make no account of those 

 things in which the bulk of mankind place their hap- 

 piness. Their method in these incursions is, after an 

 interval of apparent quiet and submission, to steal up 

 to the Spanish settlements at a time when they have 

 reason to conclude that the inhabitants are off their 

 guard; and if thca" intent be answered, they fall to 

 pillaging and plundering ; and, having got what is 

 nearest at, hand, retire v>'ith all speed. This perpetual 

 danger ujay also be reckoned among the causes which 

 have hitherto kept the government in such low cir- 

 cumstauccfi. 



1'h E temperature of all this country is hot and 

 very moist. Ihe rains arc almo=;t continual ; so that 

 the only difference hecwixt it, Guayaquil, and Porto 

 Bello, i:-, that the summer is not so long: but the 

 disteu)pers and inconveniencies of the climate are the 

 same. The country is covered with thick woods ; 

 au'l in these are some trees of a prodigious magni- 

 tude. In the south and west part of the jurisdiction ... 

 oí Quixos is the canela or cinnamon-tree, wdiich, as I ; 

 have before ob-ervcd», being discovered by Gonzalo i 

 Diaz de Pinedi!, he írouí them called the country 

 Canelos, wliich nan.c it siill retains. A great quan- '■ 

 tity of it is cut for the necessary consum[)t!on, bolii , 

 in the province of Quito and m Valles. The qiia.^ 

 bty of this cinnamon does not co^nc up to that of the,,,, 

 East Indies ; hut in every other particular very mucbw 

 resembles it ; the smell, ii.s circumference, and thick-^ | 

 ness, being uca:ly the saiiic : the colour >is son»ething. ' 



. browner,. 



