492 



ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



prieft, whofe ecclefiaftical jurifdidion comprehends fix towns, fome of them in largenefs 

 and number of inhabitants not inferior to the city. Thefe are, 



I. La Conception. IV. Motte. 



11. Loreto. V. Cota Pini. 



III. San Salvador. VI. Santa Rofa. 



The foregoing towns conflitute the chief part of this government ; but it alfo inchides 

 the towns of the miiSon of Sucumbios, the chief of which is San Miguel. At the 

 beginning of this century they were ten, but are now reduced to thefe five : 



I. San Diego de los Palmares. 

 II. San Francifco de los Curiquaxes. 



III. San Jofeph de los Abuccees. 



IV. San Chriftoval de los Yaguages. 



V. San Pedro de Alcantara de la Cocao, or Nariguera. 



The inhabitants of the two cities, and the villages in the dependencies, and thofe of 

 Baeza, are obliged to be conflantly upon their guard againft the infidel Indians, who 

 frequently commit depredations among their houfes and plantations. They compofe 

 different and numerous nations; and are fo difperfed all over the country, that 

 every village is under continual apprehenfions from thofe which live in its neighbour- 

 hood : and when an adion happens between the inhabitants and thofe Indians to the 

 advantage of the former, all they get by it is to return quietly to their dwellings with 

 a few prifoners, no booty being to be had from a people who live without any fettle- 

 ment ; and from mere favagenefs make no account of thofe things in which the bulk 

 of mankind place their happinefs. Their method in thefe incurfions is, after an 

 interval of apparent quiet and fubmiflion, to fteal up to the Spanifh fettlements at a 

 time when they have reafon to conclude that the inhabitants are off their guard ; and 

 if their intent be anfwered, they fall to pillaging and plundering ; and, having got 

 what is neareft at hand, retire with all fpeed. This perpetual danger may alfo be 

 reckoned among the caufes which have hitherto kept the government in fuch low cir- 

 cumftances. 



The temperature of all this country is hot and very moift. The rains are almoft 

 continual ; fo that the only difference betwixt it, Guayaquil, and Porto Bello, is, that 

 the fummer is not fo long : but the diftempers and inconveniencies of the climate are 

 the fame. The country is covered with thick woods ; and in thefe are fome trees of 

 a prodigious magnitude. In the fouth and weft part of the jurifdidlion of Quixos is 

 the canela or cinnamon-tree, which, as I have before obferved, being difcovered by 

 Gonzalo Diaz de Pineda, he, from them, called the country Canelos, which name^it 

 ftill retains. A great quantity of it is cut for the neceffary confumption, both in the 

 province of Quito and in Valles, The quality of this cinnamon does not come up to 

 that of the Eaft Indies ; but in every other particular very much refembles it ; the 

 fmell, its circumference, and thicknefs, being nearly the fame : the colour is fome- 

 thing browner, the great difference lying in the tafte, that of Quixos being more 

 pungent, and without the exquifite flavour of that of the Eaft Indies. The leaf is the 

 fame, and has all the delicate fmell of the bark ; but the flower and feed furpafs even 

 thofe of India j the former particularly is of an incomparable fragrancy, from the 



2 abundance 



