BLLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 397 



than once obliged us to abandon our obfervatlons, being unable either to fee or breathe 

 for their multitudes *. 



Another terrible Inconvenience attending the houfes here, are the numbers of peri- 

 cotes, or rats ; every building being fo infefted with them, that, when night comes on, 

 they quit their holes, and make fuch a noife in running along the ceiling, and in clam- 

 bering up and down the fides of the rooms and canopies of the beds, as to difturb per- 

 fons not accuftomed to them. They are fo little afraid of the human fpecies, that, if a 

 candle be fet down without being in a lantern, they immediately carry it off; but, as 

 this might be attended with the mod melancholy confequences, care is taken, that their 

 impudence is feldom put to this trial, though they are remarkably vigilant in taking 

 advantage of the lead neglect. All thefe inconveniences, which feem infupportable to 

 ftrangers, and alone fufficient to render fuch a country uninhabited, little affed the 

 natives, as having been ufed to them from their infancy : they are more affected with 

 cold on the mountains, which the Europeans fcarce feel, or, at leall, think very mode- 

 rate, than with all thefe difagreeable particulars. 



The leaft troublefome feafon is the fummer, as then both the number and activity of 

 thefe vermin are diminiflied ; it being a miftake in fome authors to fay they abound 

 moft in that feafon. The heat is then abated, by the fetting in of the fouth-weil and 

 weft-fouth-weft breezes, called here chandui, as coming over a mountain of that name. 

 Thefe begin conftantly at noon, and continue to refrefh the earth till five or fix in the 

 following morning. The fky is always ferene and bright, the gentleft fhowers being 

 rarely known. Provifions are in greater plenty, and thofe produced in the country of 

 a very agreeable tafte, if ufed while frelh. Fruits are more common, efpecially melons 

 and water-melons, which are brought in large balzas f to the city. But the capital 

 advantage is the remarkable falubrity of the air in that feafon. 



During the winter, tertian fevers are very common, and are here particularly painful 

 and dangerous, owing partly to negle£l, and partly to an averfion to the ufe of the bark, 

 being prepoflelTed with a notion, that on account of its hot quality it can have no good 

 effed in that climate ; fo that, blinded with this prejudice, without ever confulting phy- 

 ficians, who would undeceive them, they fufFer the diftemper to prey upon them, till they 

 are often reduced to an irrecoverable ftate. The natives of the mountains, who are inured 

 to a cold air, cannot endure that of Guayaquil, it having a natural tendency to debilitate 

 them ; and by an intemperate ufe of its delicious fruits they throw themfelves into thofe 

 fevers, which are as common to them in one feafon as another. 



Befides this difeafe, which is the moft general, fmce the year 1 740 the black vomit 

 has alfo made its appearance, the galleons of the South Sea having, on account of the 

 war, touched here in order to fecure the treafure aniong the provinces of the Cordillera. 

 At that time great numbers died on board the fhips, together with many foreigners, 

 but very few of the natives. In faying that the galleons brought this diftemper to Guay- 

 aquil, I follow the general opinion, as it was before that epoclia unknown there. 



The natives are very fubjed to cataracts, and other diftempers of the eye, which often 

 caufe a total blindnefs. Though thefe diftempers are not general, yet they are much 

 more common than in other parts ; and I am inclined to think it proceeds from the 

 aqueous exhalations during the winter, when the whole country is overflowed with 

 water, and which,^from the chalky texture of the foil, muft be vifcid in the higheft 



*_Thi8 account is too hyperbolical. They are, however, troublefome enough, and almoft infupportable, 

 throu^out all South America, except in the plains and deferts. A. 



■f Called by the natives juiigadas : they are rafts made by pinning or tying feveral bodies of imall trees 

 together : the author defcribes them particularly in the next chapter. A. 



degrees j 



