GUAYAQUIL. 201 



stretches to Panama, its western edge bordering the Pacific, 

 •while its eastern flank lies high upon the steep slope of 

 the Andes. Under the equator tree vegetation reaches an 

 elevation of about eleven thousand feet,* when it gives 

 place to the 2^(f^'((^^iOS, or grass-lands, Avhich extend up 

 to the line of perpetual snow, found ujDon the equatorial 

 Andes at 15,740 feet. 



Toward evening of the second day from Paita, we 

 entered the Gulf of Guyaquil, passing the island of Puna, 

 which aflbrded to Pizarro a temporary station, when seek- 

 ing an entrance to the kingdom of the Incas. It presents 

 a low coast-line, and is densely wooded. Upon the morn- 

 ing of the 19th, as we mounted to the deck, a novel scene 

 greeted us. During the night we had reached Guayaquil, 

 and were now quietly moored abreast the city. Crowded 

 along the shore were canoes, balsas, and floating craft of 

 every description, laden with an endless variety of tropi- 

 cal fruits, bananas, plantains, pine-apples, oranges, cocoa- 

 nuts, and mangoes, products of the fertile banks of the 

 Guayas. Heaped upon the shore were also piles of fruit, 

 surrounded by crowds of half-naked, vociferating Indians, 

 with gayly-clad Spaniards and negroes. Meek-looking 

 donkeys pushed their way through the crowd, and occa- 

 sionally an ungraceful mule-cart rolled along the street. 

 Though our eyes were naturally first arrested by this 

 motley market-scene, they were next cauglit by the archi- 

 tectural front of the buildings lining the Malecon — the 

 river street and principal one of the city. These were 

 two stories in height, the up2:)er furnished with inviting 



conquest. There is, however, ground for belief that it was so called by 

 the Spaniards on account of the vivid green of its forests, contrasted 

 with the sterile coast of Peru. 



* The polykpis, howewer, forms an exception to this ; groves of this 

 tree are found upon the slopes of Chimborazo at an elevation of 13,000 

 feet. 



