Indiffeeence of the People. 73 



dilatoriness ; tliey are indifferent. Xobody seems to want 

 to make money (though all are in sad need of it) ; nobody 

 is in a hurry; nobody is busy save the tailors, who mani- 

 fest a commendable diligence. Contempt for labor, a 

 Spanish inlieritance, and lack of energy, are traits which 

 stand out in alto relievo. 



One can form his own judgment of the spiritless people 

 from the single statement which we have from Dr. Jame- 

 son, that during the last forty years not ten Quitonians 

 have visited the grand crater of Pichincha, though it is 

 possible to ride horseback to its very edge. Plenty of gen- 

 tlemen by profession walk the streets and cathedral ter- 

 race, proud as a Roman senator under his toga, yet not 

 ashamed to beg a cup of coffee at the door of a more for- 

 tunate fellow-citizen. Society is in a constant struggle 

 between ostentation and w^ant. 



^N'ature has done more for Ecuador than for Ecuadori- 

 ans. She laid out this beautiful valley for an Elysian 

 field ; " de Quito al Cielo" (from Quito to Heaven) is not 

 an empty adage ; and it is painful to look upon tottering 

 walls and impassable roads, upon neglected fields and an 

 idle population — poor as poverty in the lap of boundless 

 natural wealth. The only really live man in the republic 

 is the president, Senor G. Garcia Moreno, a man of wide 

 views and great energy, standing in these respects head 

 and shoulders above his fellow-citizens. Quito and Quito 

 Yalley owe nearly all their improvements to this one man. 



It is easy to say what would be the industry of a people 

 who spend much of their time repeating traditions of treas- 

 m-es buried by the Incas, and stories of gold deposits in the 

 mountains. Of commerce there is scarcely enough to de- 

 serve the name. Quito is an ecclesiastical city, and is near- 

 ly supported by Guayaquil. Without capital, without en- 

 ergy, without business habits, Quitonians never embark 



