ULLOA S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



405 



Siegie8:ed, in a few years thefe vegetables will deftroy the cacao plantations, by robbing 

 the foil of all its nourifhment. 



The laft lieutenancy to be defcribed, is that of Daule. The principal town is of the 

 fame name, and waflied by the river, to which it owes its appellation. It contains 

 many fpacious houfes belonging to the inhabitants of Guayaquil. It is alfo the refidence 

 of a lieutenant and a parilb prieft, having under their infpedion the two towns of Santa 

 Lucia and Valfar, Here are a great number of plantations of tobacco and fugar-canes, 

 cacao, and cotton; together with large orchards of fruit-trees, and extenlive 

 corn-fields. 



The river Daule, which, like that of Baba, difcharges itfelf into Guayaquil river, is 

 very large, and on both a great trade is carried on with that city. By the former, it 

 receives the great plenty and variety of fummer fruits, and a coniiderable part of the 

 plantanes, which conflitute the bread ufed there during the whole year. Though great 

 quantities of tobacco grow in other parts of the jurifdi^on of Guayaquil, yet none 

 equals that of Daule. 



The bufinefs of grazing is followed in all thefe lieutenancies ; but more or lefs, in 

 proportion to their extent, the nature of the foil, and the conveniency of driving the 

 cattle to the mountains, beyond the reach of the inundations. 



CHAP. IX. — Defer tption nfthe River ofGuayaquU, and of the Yeffeh trading on it, 



THE river of Guayaquil being the channel of the commerce of that place, it will be 

 proper to give fome account of it, in order to affift the reader in forming an idea of the 

 trade carried on in that city. 



The diflance of the navigable part of this river, from the city to the cuftom-houfe at 

 Babahoyo, the place where the goods are landed, is, by thofe who have long frequented 

 it, commonly divided into reaches, of which there are twenty, its courfe being wholly 

 ferpentine -, but to Caracol, the landing-place in winter, there are twenty-four reaches, 

 the longeft of which are the three neareft the city 9 and thefe may be about two leagues 

 and a half in length, but the others doI above one. Whence it may be inferred, go. 

 an average, that the diftance, meafured on the furface of the river, between Guayaquil 

 and the cuftom-houfe of Babahoyo, is twenty-four leagues and a half, and to C;^acol 

 twenty-eight and a hal£ The time requiiite to perform this paflage is very different, 

 according to the feafon, Mid nature of the vefTei. During the winter, a chata generally 

 takes up eight days in going from Guayaquil to Caracol, being againfl: the current of 

 the river; whereas two days are fufficient to perform the paflage downwards. In 

 furaraer a light canoe goes up in three tides, and returns in little more than two ; the 

 fame may be fiud of other veflels, the palTage downwards bang always performed in 

 much lefs time than the other, on account of the natural current of the river, in the 

 reaches near the cuftom-houfe, where the Ilrongeft flood only ftops the water from 

 running downwards. 



The diftance from Guayaquil to Ifla Verde, iituated at the mouth of the river in 

 Puna bay, is by pilots computed at about fix leagues, and divided, like the other part, 

 into reaches ; and from Ifla Verde to Puna three leagues : fo that the whole diftance 

 from Caracol, the moft inland part up the river, to that of Puna, is thirty-feven 

 leagues and a half. Between Ifla Verde and Puna it widens fo prodigioufly, that the 

 horizon towards the north and fouth is bounded by the flcy, except m forae few parts 

 northwards, where 4he plantations of mangroves are perceived. 



The 



