xxil 



ON THE PACIFIC COAST 329 



to southward of the cape, at the mouth of a small stream, the 

 houses stand mixed with Coco palms and Plantains, and steep 

 wooded declivities rise at the back. Yet on rounding the point 

 to northward, we come again to a half-open country at the village 

 of Manta and the town of Monte Cristo, a few miles inland; or, 

 as Funnell says of it, "the land hereabout is very barren, 

 producing only a few shrubby trees and some small bushes.'' 



A little farther northward, on the river Chones, there is real 

 forest, from which much timber is obtained for Guayaquil. The 

 Chones falls into the Bay of Caraques, which was an important 

 harbour in the early days of Spanish rule, but has now become 

 useless to navigators through the gradual accumulation of sand at 

 the mouth of the river. The northern extremity of this bay is 

 Cape Pasado, whereof Funnell says : " This Cape Passao is a high 

 round cape, with but few trees on it. It lies in the latitude of 

 o S' S. . . . within the cape the land is pretty high and moun- 

 tainous and very woody." 



From Cape Pasado to Cape San Francisco would seem to be 

 the real neutral ground, the heavy rains which prevail every year 

 from April to November along the coast of New Granada and 

 Mexico, up to latitude 23 30' N., reaching to southward in some 

 years as far as Cape Pasado, and in others stopping short at Cape 

 San Francisco. 



The coast we have been considering stretches out to westward, 

 and recedes from the western ridge of the Andes at least 150 miles ; 

 but if \ve return to Guayaquil and descend the gulf or estuary 

 along its left or eastern bank, we find that at a very few miles 

 inland the ground begins to swell, and rapidly rises to the lofty 

 ridges of the Andes, having the frigid paramo of A/uay to the 

 north. From these mountains descend several streams to the 

 gulf, and the atmosphere is highly charged with humidity, in con- 

 nence of which this coast is clad with lofty continuous forest. 

 At Tumbez, the southern entrance of the gulf, where the shore 

 again trends to westward and recedes from the Cordillera, the 

 intervening plain becomes wider, drier, and barer of vegetation as 

 we advance to southward, save where a broad \erdant band marks 

 the course of the ri\ ' r fumbez, whose sources lie m the paramo 

 of Saraguru and other highlands to northward of Loja. 



The coast continues to extend to westward until reaching Capi 

 I'.lanco and Pariha, the westernmost land in South America : then 

 turns southward, and in latitude 4 55' S. the river Chira enters 

 the bay of Payta, which, although a mere open roadstead, affords 

 the most secure and commiidimi-, anchorage of any porl alon^ the 

 whole coast of Peru. IJeyond Payta is the moulli of 1'iura and 

 the town of Sechura, which som< nines -ives its name to the \\hole 



, Roiiinl III, //',/ /</, 1 >y YV. l-'unndl, mate 1" < 'apt. I 1 



