202 FKOM PANAMA TO BODEGAS. 



balconies, which, jutting over the sidewalk, rested upon 

 columns, forming a low arcade — a shady retreat from the 

 rays of a vertical sun. Constructed of split canes, and 

 plastered with mud, they surpass those of Paita by having 

 added a coating of whitewash, and in exchanging the 

 thatch for neat roofs of tile. 



Guayaquil is located upon the Gu.iyas Kiver, about 

 seventy miles from the sea. Almost all imports intended 

 for the table-lands of Ecuador pass through this port; 

 and into it the elevated plains of Quito pour almost all 

 their products intended for exportation. The city com- 

 prises a mixed Spanish, Indian, and negro population of 

 about twenty thousand. There is here, as, indeed, through- 

 out Spanish America, no prejudice of race or color ; all 

 barriers are thrown down, and the results of unrestrained 

 amalgamation are observable everywhere throughout so- 

 ciety. 



The climate of Guayaquil during the wet season is 

 exceedingly warm, and pestilential diseases prevail with 

 alarming fatality. The unheal thiness of the city is not 

 wholly the result of an unavoidable conjunction of natural 

 circumstances, as proximity to sluggish streams, long- 

 continued rains, and excessive heat, but of causes super- 

 added to these by the uncleanly habits of the people. An 

 American resident, sjjeaking of the sanitary state of the 

 city, remarked, " The location of Guayaquil is the most 

 liealthful in the world." We were led to believe that its 

 iinenviable reputation for fevers is largely referable to 

 causes which the observance of the most obvious sanitary 

 requirements would remove. Our advent to the city was 

 during the dry season, which lasts from June to Decem- 

 ber, during which portion of the year tlie climate is health- 

 ful and cool. The sky is generally obscured the early part 

 of the day; the heavy clouds which bang about the towei'- 

 ing summits of the Cordilleras rolling down during the 



