ALLIGATORS OF THE RIVER GUAYAS. 41 



management and kindly treatment, the supply of 

 efficient negro labour at moderate wages is consider- 

 able. Among other products of the soil, the tobacco 

 of the country about Guayaquil deserves to be better 

 known. Of the many varieties of the coarser kind 

 which are grown throughout Central and South 

 America, this appears to me the best, as it certainly 

 is the cheapest. The hawkers who came on board 

 sold at less than seven shillings a hundred cigars of 

 very fair quality, making, as I was told, a profit of 

 fifty per cent. 



It might be not unworthy of the notice of the great 

 steamboat companies to recommend to their agents 

 some little consideration for passengers who travel to 

 see the world. It commonly happens that on the 

 arrival of a steamer, after the first conference between 

 the agent and the captain, a time is fixed for departure 

 which has no relation to the hour really intended. 

 We were told this morning that the steamer was to 

 start at one p.m. The time was clearly too short for 

 an excursion to the neighbouring country, and the 

 inducement to spend a couple of hours in the streets 

 of such an unhealthy town was very trifling. Two 

 young Englishmen went up the river in a boat with 

 the hope of shooting alligators. These creatures 

 abound along the banks of the Guayas, basking in 

 the mud, and looking from a distance like the logs 

 that are floated down by the stream. Our sportsmen 

 had the usual measure of success, and no more. For 

 a bullet to pierce the dense covering that shields this 

 animal is a happy accident, but it suffices to disturb 

 the creature from his rest, and to induce him to crawl 



